Identification of groundwater nitrate sources in an urban aquifer (Alborz Province, Iran) using a multi-parameter approach.

High concentrations of NŌ in water resources are detrimental to both human health and aquatic ecosystems. Identification of NŌ sources and biogeochemical processes is a crucial step in managing and controlling NŌ pollution. In this study, land use, hydrochemical data, dual stable isotopic ratios and Bayesian Stable Isotope Mixing Models (BSIMM) were integrated to identify NŌ sources and estimate their proportional contributions to the contamination of the Karaj Urban Aquifer (Iran).

Determining nitrate pollution sources in the Kabul Plain aquifer (Afghanistan) using stable isotopes and Bayesian stable isotope mixing model.

The Kabul urban aquifer (Afghanistan), which is the main source of drinking water for Kabul city's inhabitants, is highly vulnerable to anthropogenic pollution. In this study, the geochemistry of major ions (including reactive nitrogen species such as NO, NO-, and NH) and stable isotope ratios (δN-NO, δO-NO, δO-HO, and δH-HO) of surface and groundwater samples from the Kabul Plain were analyzed over two sampling periods (dry and wet seasons). A Bayesian stable isotope mixing model (BSIMM) was also employed to trace potential nitrate sources, transformation processes, and proportional contributions of nitrate sources in the Kabul aquifer.

Application of text mining to develop AOP-based mucus hypersecretion genesets and confirmation with in vitro and clinical samples.

Mucus hypersecretion contributes to lung function impairment observed in COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a tobacco smoking-related disease. A detailed mucus hypersecretion adverse outcome pathway (AOP) has been constructed from literature reviews, experimental and clinical data, mapping key events (KEs) across biological organisational hierarchy leading to an adverse outcome. AOPs can guide the development of biomarkers that are potentially predictive of diseases and support the assessment frameworks of nicotine products including electronic cigarettes.

Feeding dicyandiamide (DCD) to cattle: An effective method to reduce NO emissions from urine patches in a heavy-textured soil under temperate climatic conditions.

Nitrate (NO) leaching and nitrous oxide (NO) emission from urine patches in grazed pastures are key sources of water and air pollution, respectively. Broadcast spraying of the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) has been shown to reduce these losses, but it is expensive. As an alternative, it had been demonstrated that feeding DCD to cattle (after manual mixing with supplementary feeds) was a practical, effective and cheaper method to deliver high DCD rates within urine patches.

In vitro RNA-seq-based toxicogenomics assessment shows reduced biological effect of tobacco heating products when compared to cigarette smoke.

The battery of regulatory tests used to evaluate the risk of novel tobacco products such as heated tobacco products (THPs) presents some limitations including a bias towards the apical endpoint tested, and limited information on the mode of action. This is driving a paradigm shift to more holistic systems biology approaches. In this study, we used RNA-sequencing to compare the transcriptomic perturbations following acute exposure of a 3D airway tissue to the aerosols from two commercial THPs and a reference 3R4F cigarette.