Climate change and air pollution are closely interlinked since carbon dioxide and air pollutants are co-emitted from fossil fuel combustion. Net Zero (NZ) policies aiming to reduce carbon emissions will likely bring co-benefits in air quality and associated health. However, it is unknown whether regional NZ policies alone will be sufficient to reduce air pollutant levels to meet the latest 2021 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSecond generation antipsychotic drugs including aripiprazole, olanzapine and risperidone are prescribed increasingly (mostly off-label) to treat various mental disorders in children and adolescents. Early treatment with antipsychotics during this period may have long-lasting behavioural impacts, but to date there have been only limited investigations. Maternal infection could be implicated in the aetiology of various mental disorders including schizophrenia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe short- and long-term impacts of air pollution on human health are well documented and include cardiovascular, neurological, immune system and developmental damage. Additionally, the irritant qualities of air pollutants can cause respiratory and cardiovascular distress. This can be heightened during exercise and especially so for those with respiratory conditions such as asthma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrban air pollution can have negative short- and long-term impacts on health, including cardiovascular, neurological, immune system and developmental damage. The irritant qualities of pollutants such as ozone (O), nitrogen dioxide (NO) and particulate matter (PM) can cause respiratory and cardiovascular distress, which can be heightened during physical activity and particularly so for those with respiratory conditions such as asthma. Previously, research has only examined marathon run outcomes or running under laboratory settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGas chromatography (GC) and vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy (VUV) are powerful and complementary techniques for the analysis of small molecules in forensics. Most notably, flame ionization detection (FID) is commonly used with GC to identify and quantify volatile compounds. An FID's price point and ease of use makes it an attractive approach for routine laboratories that are in high demand for forensics analysis, but with the contingency that an FID relies on retention time for identification and quantification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVolatile nitrosamines (VNAs) are established teratogens and carcinogens in animals and classified as probable (group 2A) and possible (group 2B) carcinogens in humans by the IARC. High levels of VNAs have been detected in tobacco products and in both mainstream and sidestream smoke. VNA exposure may lead to lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVolatile nitrosamines (VNAs) are a group of compounds classified as probable (group 2A) and possible (group 2B) carcinogens in humans. Along with certain foods and contaminated drinking water, VNAs are detected at high levels in tobacco products and in both mainstream and sidestream smoke. Our laboratory monitors six urinary VNAs-N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA), N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), N-nitrosopiperidine (NPIP), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR), and N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR)-using isotope dilution GC-MS/MS (QQQ) for large population studies such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA sensitive and selective method was developed and validated to detect six volatile nitrosamines (N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosomethylethylamine, N-nitrosodiethylamine, N-nitrosopiperidine, N-nitrosopyrrolidine and N-nitrosomorpholine) in human urine. This method uses a liquid-liquid extraction cartridge followed by analysis with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS-MS) and quantification based on isotopic dilution. This is the first GC-MS-MS method reported for measuring volatile nitrosamines in human urine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLarge-scale nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tube cleaning is currently a bottleneck in high-throughput NMR ligand affinity screens. Expensive alternatives include discarding the NMR tubes after a single use (~US $2-$8/tube), using commercial NMR tube cleaners (~$15,000), and abandoning NMR tubes for flow probe technology (~$75,000). Instead, we describe a relatively inexpensive (~$400) and easily constructed apparatus that can clean 180 NMR tubes per hour while using a modest amount of solvent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcosystems are supported by organic carbon from two distinct sources. Endogenous carbon is produced by photosynthesis within an ecosystem by autotrophic organisms. Exogenous carbon is produced elsewhere and transported into ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutism is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting cognitive, language, and social functioning. Although language and social communication abnormalities are characteristic, prior structural imaging studies have not examined language-related cortex in autistic and control subjects. Subjects included 16 boys with autism (aged 7-11 years), with nonverbal IQ greater than 80, and 15 age- and handedness-matched controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF Individual foraging specializations are an important source of intraspecific variability in feeding strategies, but little is known about what ecological factors affect their intensity or development. We evaluated stomach contents in marked individual largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and tested the hypothesis that diet specialization is most pronounced during periods with high conspecific densities. We collected diet data over 10 years from an unexploited population of largemouth bass that displayed a greater than threefold variation in density.
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