With the rapid development of graphene synthesis and functionalization approaches, graphene and its related derivatives have shown great potential in many applications in material science, including biomedical applications. Several in vitro and in vivo studies clearly showed no definitive risks, while others have indicated that graphene might become health hazards. In this study, we explore the biocompatibility of graphene-related materials with chicken embryo red blood cells (RBC). The hemolysis assay was employed to evaluate the in vitro blood compatibility of reduced graphene, graphene oxide, and reduced graphene oxide, because these materials have recently been used for biomedical applications, including injectable graphene-related particles. This study investigated structural damage, ROS production and hemolysis of chicken embryo red blood cells. Different forms of graphene, when incubated with chicken embryo RBC, were harmful to cell structure and induced hemolysis. 相似文献
The ubiquitous β-Proteobacterium Gallionella ferruginea is known as stalk-forming, microaerophilic iron(II) oxidizer, which rapidly produces iron oxyhydroxide precipitates. Uranium and neptunium sorption on the resulting intermixes of G. ferruginea cells, stalks, extracellular exudates, and precipitated iron oxyhydroxides (BIOS) was compared to sorption to abiotically formed iron oxides and oxyhydroxides. The results show a high sorption capacity of BIOS towards radionuclides at circumneutral pH values with an apparent bulk distribution coefficient (Kd) of 1.23 × 104 L kg?1 for uranium and 3.07 × 105 L kg?1 for neptunium. The spectroscopic approach by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and ATR FT-IR spectroscopy, which was applied on BIOS samples, showed the formation of inner-sphere complexes. The structural data obtained at the uranium LIII-edge and the neptunium LIII-edge indicate the formation of bidentate edge-sharing surface complexes, which are known as the main sorption species on abiotic ferrihydrite. Since the rate of iron precipitation in G. ferruginea-dominated systems is 60 times faster than in abiotic systems, more ferrihydrite will be available for immobilization processes of heavy metals and radionuclides in contaminated environments and even in the far-field of high-level nuclear waste repositories.
Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Chemometric tools are powerful strategies to efficiently optimize many processes. These tools were employed to optimize a fast-solid phase... 相似文献
The aim of this study was to determine the origin (human, bovine or porcine) and the concentration of the fecal sources of contamination in waters from Santa Lucía basin and Uruguay River in Uruguay by using host-specific viral markers (adenoviruses and polyomaviruses) as microbial source tracking (MST). Between June 2015 and May 2016, monthly collections of surface water samples were performed in six sites in Santa Lucía basin and four sites in Uruguay River (n = 120 samples). Viral concentration was carried out using an absorption-elution method. Detection and quantification of human and porcine adenovirus (HAdV and PAdV, respectively) and human and bovine polyomavirus (HPyV and BoPyV, respectively) were performed by quantitative PCR (qPCR). To evaluate the infectivity of circulating HAdV, an integrated cell culture-qPCR (ICC-qPCR) was used. A logistic regression analysis was carried out to estimate the influence of environmental variables on the virus presence in surface waters. Overall, HAdV was the prevalent (18%; 21/120) followed by BoPyV (11%; 13/120) and HPyV (3%; 3/120), whereas PAdV was not detected in this study. The mean concentration ranged from 1.5 × 104 genomic copies/L (gc/L) for HAdV to 1.8 × 102 gc/L for HPyV. Infective HAdVs were observed in two out of ten analyzed samples. A significant effect of environmental temperature (p = 0.001) and river (p = 0.012) on the presence of human viruses was found. These results suggest that fecal contamination could affect the water quality of these rivers, showing deficiencies in the procedure of sewage discharge from regional cities, livestock and dairy farms.
Organic acids released from plant roots can form complexes with cadmium (Cd) in the soil solution and influence metal bioavailability not only due to the nature and concentration of the complexes but also due to their lability. The lability of a complex influences its ability to buffer changes in the concentration of free ions (Cd); it depends on the association (, m mol s) and dissociation (, s) rate constants. A resin exchange method was used to estimate and (m mol s), which is the conditional estimate of depending on the calcium (Ca) concentration in solution. The constants were estimated for oxalate, citrate, and malate, three low-molecular-weight organic acids commonly exuded by plant roots and expected to strongly influence Cd uptake by plants. For all three organic acids, the and estimates were around 2.5 10 m mol s and 1.3 × 10 s, respectively. Based on the literature, these values indicate that the Cd- low-molecular-weight organic acids complexes formed between Cd and low-molecular-weight organic acids may be less labile than complexes formed with soil soluble organic matter but more labile than those formed with aminopolycarboxylic chelates. 相似文献
We adopt viability theory to assess the sustainability of the world’s forests while taking into account some of the competing
economic, social, and environmental uses of these forests, namely, timber production, poverty alleviation through agriculture,
and air quality as well as the negative externalities that these uses create. We provide insights on the different trade-offs
faced to achieve sustainability and draw some policy implications as to what is the path leading to sustainability in the
long run. 相似文献
This article discusses an approach for identification and evaluation of short-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction
options in firms. The approach is based on lessons learnt from a project using Participatory Integrated Assessment (PIA) and
builds on the idea that effective public climate policy for firms requires options that have support from stakeholders and
are practically feasible. Scenarios are used to provide a link with short-term policy developments and a model assists to
communicate quantitative effects of options to participating stakeholders. Our approach can be seen as a first step towards
a framework that meets the need for more systematic approaches to PIAs identifying effective public policies for short-term
GHG emission reduction options in firms. In order to identify effective options for non-carbon dioxide GHG emission reductions,
our approach has been applied to Dutch dairy farms, after which it has been refined. The case study suggests that our approach
can provide balance between practical, context specific issues and scientific-theoretical aspects, thereby avoiding common
pitfalls of participatory research projects to focus too much on either theory or practical issues.
Quantitative meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials investigating the specific therapeutic efficacy of homeopathic remedies
yielded statistically significant differences compared to placebo. Since the remedies used contained mostly only very low
concentrations of pharmacologically active compounds, these effects cannot be accounted for within the framework of current
pharmacology. Theories to explain clinical effects of homeopathic remedies are partially based upon changes in diluent structure.
To investigate the latter, we measured for the first time high-field (600/500 MHz) 1H T1 and T2 nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation times of H2O in homeopathic preparations with concurrent contamination control by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
Homeopathic preparations of quartz (10c–30c, n = 21, corresponding to iterative dilutions of 100−10–100−30), sulfur (13x–30x, n = 18, 10−13–10−30), and copper sulfate (11c–30c, n = 20, 100−11–100−30) were compared to n = 10 independent controls each (analogously agitated dilution medium) in randomized and blinded experiments. In none of the
samples, the concentration of any element analyzed by ICP-MS exceeded 10 ppb. In the first measurement series (600 MHz), there
was a significant increase in T1 for all samples as a function of time, and there were no significant differences between homeopathic potencies and controls.
In the second measurement series (500 MHz) 1 year after preparation, we observed statistically significant increased T1 relaxation times for homeopathic sulfur preparations compared to controls. Fifteen out of 18 correlations between sample
triplicates were higher for controls than for homeopathic preparations. No conclusive explanation for these phenomena can
be given at present. Possible hypotheses involve differential leaching from the measurement vessel walls or a change in water
molecule dynamics, i.e., in rotational correlation time and/or diffusion. Homeopathic preparations thus may exhibit specific
physicochemical properties that need to be determined in detail in future investigations.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 相似文献
Honeybees learn odor cues quickly and efficiently when visiting rewarding flowers. Memorization of these cues facilitates
the localization and recognition of food sources during foraging flights. Bees can also use information gained inside the
hive during social interactions with successful foragers. An important information cue that can be learned during these interactions
is food odor. However, little is known about how floral odors learned in the hive affect later decisions of foragers in the
field. We studied the effect of food scent on foraging preferences when this learning is acquired directly inside the hive.
By using in-hive feeders that were removed 24 h before the test, we showed that foragers use the odor information acquired
during a 3-day stimulation period with a scented solution during a food-choice situation outside the nest. This bias in food
preference is maintained even 24 h after the replacement of all the hive combs. Thus, without being previously collected outside
by foragers, food odors learned within the hive can be used during short-range foraging flights. Moreover, correct landings
at a dual-choice device after replacing the storing combs suggests that long-term memories formed within the colony can be
retrieved while bees search for food in the field. 相似文献