Potential toxicity of amphenicol antibiotic: binding of chloramphenicol to human serum albumin

Antibiotics are widely used in daily life but their abuse has posed a potential threat to human health. To evaluate the toxicity of chloramphenicol (CAP) at the protein level, the interaction between CAP and human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated by fluorescence, Ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) absorption, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and molecular docking methods. Fluorescence data revealed that the fluorescence quenching of HSA by CAP was the result of the formation of CAP–HSA complex, and the binding constant was determined to be 3.196?×?10⁴ L mol^?1 at 310 K. The thermodynamic determination indicated that the interaction was driven by enthalpy change and entropy change together, where the multiple hydrogen bonds (CAP and the residues Arg 222 and His 242 of HSA) and van der Waals forces were the dominant binding force. The site marker competition revealed that CAP bound into sub-domain IIA of HSA. The binding of CAP induced the drastic reduction in α-helix conformation and the significant enhancement in β-sheet conformation of HSA. Molecular docking study further confirmed the binding mode obtained by experimental study. This work provides a new quantitative evaluation method for antibiotics to cause the protein damage.     

微波活化过硫酸钾深度处理印染废水

为了深度处理印染废水生化出水,使其达到工业回用要求,利用微波活化过硫酸钾产生具有强氧化性的硫酸根自由基·SO-4,降解印染废水生化出水中的有机污染物。考察了硫酸亚铁的投加量,过硫酸钾的浓度及pH的影响,并通过对比实验讨论了微波活化作用效果。结果表明,过硫酸钾微波组合能够有效地去除生化出水中的TOC和色度。对于某印染废水生化出水,处理效果在pH=10时最好,当过硫酸钾浓度为14 g/L时,TOC去除率达57.60%,脱色率为98.28%。研究结果表明,过硫酸钾微波组合对于印染废水的深度处理效果良好,有较好的应用前景。     

Seasonal variation and spatial distribution of atmospheric mercury and its gas-particulate partition in the vicinity of a semiconductor manufacturing complex

This study investigated the tempospatial variation of atmospheric mercury and its gas-particulate partition in the vicinity of a semiconductor manufacturing complex, where a plenty of flat-monitor manufacturing plants using elemental mercury as a light-initiating medium to produce backlight fluorescence tubes and may fugitively emit mercury-containing air pollutants to the atmosphere. Atmospheric mercury speciation, concentration, and the partition of total gaseous mercury (TGM) and particulate mercury (Hg_p) were measured at four sites surrounding the semiconductor manufacturing intensive district/complex. One-year field measurement showed that the seasonal averaged concentrations of TGM and Hg_p were in the range of 3.30–6.89 and 0.06–0.14 ng/m³, respectively, whereas the highest 24-h TGM and Hg_p concentrations were 10.33 and 0.26 ng/m³, respectively. Atmospheric mercury apportioned as 92.59–99.01 % TGM and 0.99–7.41 % Hg_p. As a whole, the highest and lowest concentrations of TGM were observed in the winter and summer sampling periods, respectively, whereas the concentration of Hg_p did not vary much seasonally. The highest TGM concentrations were always observed at the downwind sites, indicating that the semiconductor manufacturing complex was a hot spot of mercury emission source, which caused severe atmospheric mercury contamination over the investigation region.     

Manganese concentrations in maternal–infant blood and birth weight

Manganese (Mn) is an essential mineral nutrient in mammals. The physiological role of Mn in animal models is well documented, but little is known about the adverse effects of Mn deficiency or overexposure in humans, including pregnancy outcomes such as birth weight. We examined the relationship of the maternal and cord blood Mn levels with birth weight in a cohort of 172 mother–infant pairs born in Shanghai, China. Non-linear spline and quadratic regression models were used to test the hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped association between the Mn levels and birth weight. The median (range) levels of Mn in the maternal and cord blood were 5.38 (2.34–30.37) μg/dL and 7.66 (2.57–34.23) μg/dL, respectively. An inverted U-shaped relationship was observed between maternal Mn and birth weight after adjusting for potential confounders. The birth weight increased with Mn levels up to 4.18 μg/dL, and a slight reduction in weight was observed at higher levels. The cord blood Mn levels were not found to be associated with birth weight. Both lower and higher Mn exposures are associated with lower birth weight, which may influence important developmental parameters; the association of higher Mn levels with lower weight was weak and imprecise.     

Soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics in the first year following herbicide and scalping in a revegetation trial in south-east Queensland,Australia

During revegetation, the maintenance of soil carbon (C) pools and nitrogen (N) availability is considered essential for soil fertility and this study aimed to evaluate contrasting methods of site preparation (herbicide and scalping) with respect to the effects on soil organic matter (SOM) during the critical early establishment phase. Soil total C (TC), total N (TN), hot-water extractable organic C (HWEOC), hot-water extractable total N (HWETN), microbial biomass C and N (MBC and MBN), total inorganic N (TIN) and potentially mineralizable N (PMN) were measured over 53 weeks. MBC and MBN were the only variables affected by herbicide application. Scalping caused an immediate reduction in all variables, and the values remained low without any sign of recovery for the period of the study. The impact of scalping on HWETN and TIN lasted 22 weeks and stabilised afterwards. MBC and MBN were affected by both herbicide and scalping after initial treatment application and remained lower than control during the period of the study but did not decrease over time. While scalping had an inevitable impact on all soil properties that were measured, that impact did not worsen over time, and actually improved plant growth (unpublished data) while reducing site establishment costs. Therefore, it provides a useful alternative for weed control in revegetation projects where it is applied only once at site establishment and where SOM would be expected to recover as canopy closure is obtained and nutrient cycling through litterfall commences.     

Effect of temperature and particle size on the thermal desorption of PCBs from contaminated soil

Thermal desorption is widely used for remediation of soil contaminated with volatiles, such as solvents and distillates. In this study, a soil contaminated with semivolatile polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was sampled at an interim storage point for waste PCB transformers and heated to temperatures from 300 to 600 °C in a flow of nitrogen to investigate the effect of temperature and particle size on thermal desorption. Two size fractions were tested: coarse soil of 420–841 μm and fine soil with particles <250 μm. A PCB removal efficiency of 98.0 % was attained after 1 h of thermal treatment at 600 °C. The residual amount of PCBs in this soil decreased with rising thermal treatment temperature while the amount transferred to the gas phase increased up to 550 °C; at 600 °C, destruction of PCBs became more obvious. At low temperature, the thermally treated soil still had a similar PCB homologue distribution as raw soil, indicating thermal desorption as a main mechanism in removal. Dechlorination and decomposition increasingly occurred at high temperature, since shifts in average chlorination level were observed, from 3.34 in the raw soil to 2.75 in soil treated at 600 °C. Fine soil particles showed higher removal efficiency and destruction efficiency than coarse particles, suggesting that desorption from coarse particles is influenced by mass transfer.     

Some technical issues in managing PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were important industrial chemicals featuring high thermal and chemical stability and low flammability. They were widely used as dielectric and thermal fluid in closed electro-technical applications (transformers, capacitors…) and also in numerous dispersive uses, ranking from auto-copying paper to sealant or coatings. During the 1960s, severe environmental consequences started becoming apparent. The stability of PCBs contributed to their persistence in the environment, their lipophilic character to bio-magnification. Fish-eating species seemed threatened in their existence. In Japan and in Taiwan, thousands of people consumed PCB-contaminated oil. The production of PCBs stopped completely during the 1980s. Usage could continue in closed applications only. In this paper, particular attention is given to two issues: the cleaning of PCB electric transformers and the potential impact of PCB-containing building materials. Other contributions will cover the management and treatment of PCB-contaminated soil, sludge or fly ash. The complete survey is being prepared by request of the Knowledge Center for Engineers and Professionals.     

Planning of methane emission control from hoggery using an inexact two-stage optimization model

This study aims to develop an inexact two-stage optimization model to gather manure distributed over the southwest Taiwan and convert it into bioenergy. In the method, local optimization of each hauling zone is performed first using a gray mixed-integer programming model. Then, the hauling zones are prioritized by its performance on four gray scenarios. Although the biogas yield and the manure generation rate are ambiguous, one can easily evaluate his opportunity and risk by gray interval, which is a group of values within the lower and upper bounds. The analyses reveal that the biogas yield dominates the profit in this project, and it leads to the failure of the project when the biogas yield is below the level of 0.2 m³ kg^?1. With the goal of reducing 45% of methane emissions from pig farms, seven hauling zones are required to be developed. The farmers living in these zones from the project get carbon credits ranging from 478 to 3269 ton CO_2eq per year, and the investors own the carbon credits in the range of 3264–11820 ton CO_2eq per year. Through the carbon trading, both the investors and pig farmers are able to make profits by trading their carbon credits.

Implications:Biogas recovered from hoggery can be used as a bioenergy source and mitigate the atmospheric greenhouse effect and global warming. This research develops an inexact two-stage optimization model to evaluate the potential of gathering manure for biogas and converting it into bioenergy. The analyses reveal that the biogas yield dominates the profit in this project, and it leads to the failure of the project when the biogas yield is below the level of 0.2 m³ kg^?1. This study has provided a useful reference for the management of biogas production and carbon trading from hoggery for bioenergy.     

Estimating and comparing greenhouse gas emissions with their uncertainties using different methods: A case study for an energy supply utility

Energy supply utilities release significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. It is essential to accurately estimate GHG emissions with their uncertainties, for reducing GHG emissions and mitigating climate change. GHG emissions can be calculated by an activity-based method (i.e., fuel consumption) and continuous emission measurement (CEM). In this study, GHG emissions such as CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O are estimated for a heat generation utility, which uses bituminous coal as fuel, by applying both the activity-based method and CEM. CO₂ emissions by the activity-based method are 12–19% less than that by the CEM, while N₂O and CH₄ emissions by the activity-based method are two orders of magnitude and 60% less than those by the CEM, respectively. Comparing GHG emissions (as CO₂ equivalent) from both methods, total GHG emissions by the activity-based methods are 12–27% lower than that by the CEM, as CO₂ and N₂O emissions are lower than those by the CEM. Results from uncertainty estimation show that uncertainties in the GHG emissions by the activity-based methods range from 3.4% to about 20%, from 67% to 900%, and from about 70% to about 200% for CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄, respectively, while uncertainties in the GHG emissions by the CEM range from 4% to 4.5%. For the activity-based methods, an uncertainty in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) default net calorific value (NCV) is the major uncertainty contributor to CO₂ emissions, while an uncertainty in the IPCC default emission factor is the major uncertainty contributor to CH₄ and N₂O emissions. For the CEM, an uncertainty in volumetric flow measurement, especially for the distribution of the volumetric flow rate in a stack, is the major uncertainty contributor to all GHG emissions, while uncertainties in concentration measurements contribute a little to uncertainties in the GHG emissions.

Implications:Energy supply utilities contribute a significant portion of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is important to accurately estimate GHG emissions with their uncertainties for reducing GHG emissions and mitigating climate change. GHG emissions can be estimated by an activity-based method and by continuous emission measurement (CEM), yet little study has been done to calculate GHG emissions with uncertainty analysis. This study estimates GHG emissions and their uncertainties, and also identifies major uncertainty contributors for each method.     

Effects of water-emulsified fuel on a diesel engine generator’s thermal efficiency and exhaust

Water-emulsified diesel has proven itself as a technically sufficient improvement fuel to improve diesel engine fuel combustion emissions and engine performance. However, it has seldom been used in light-duty diesel engines. Therefore, this paper focuses on an investigation into the thermal efficiency and pollution emission analysis of a light-duty diesel engine generator fueled with different water content emulsified diesel fuels (WD, including WD-0, WD-5, WD-10, and WD-15). In this study, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide were analyzed by a vehicle emission gas analyzer, and the particle size and number concentration were measured by an electrical low-pressure impactor. In addition, engine loading and fuel consumption were also measured to calculate the thermal efficiency. Measurement results suggested that water-emulsified diesel was useful to improve the thermal efficiency and the exhaust emission of a diesel engine. Obviously, the thermal efficiency was increased about 1.2 to 19.9%. In addition, water-emulsified diesel leads to a significant reduction of nitric oxide emission (less by about 18.3 to 45.4%). However, the particle number concentration emission might be increased if the loading of the generator becomes lower than or equal to 1800 W. In addition, exhaust particle size distributions were shifted toward larger particles at high loading. The consequence of this research proposed that the water-emulsified diesel was useful to improve the engine performance and some of exhaust emissions, especially the NO emission reduction.

Implications:The accumulated test results provide a good basis to resolve the corresponding pollutants emitted from a light-duty diesel engine generator. By measuring and analyzing transforms of exhaust pollutant from this engine generator, the effects of water-emulsified diesel fuel and loading on emission characteristics might be more clear. Understanding reduction of pollutant emissions during the use of water-emulsified diesel helps improve the effectiveness of the testing program. The analyzed consequences provide useful information to the government for setting policies to curb pollutant emissions from a light-duty diesel engine generator more effectively.