Effects of temperature, relative humidity and soil organic carbon content on soil-air partitioning coefficients of volatile PFAS.

Soil-air partitioning coefficient (K) values are often used to assess the environmental fate of organic contaminants in soil. Till now, sufficient K values have not yet been measured for many compounds of interest, including some emerging pollutants such as volatile PFAS. Moreover, the effects of environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity and soil organic carbon content on K of volatile PFAS are also unclear.

The soil-air interfacial migration process of volatile PFAS at the contaminated sites: Evidence from stable carbon isotopes with CSIA.

Volatile per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are prone to transport among various environmental media, with the soil-air interfacial migration process being an important pathway that significantly influences their environmental fate. To assess the migration and transformations of target volatile PFAS at contaminated site using compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA), it is necessary to understand the isotopic fractionation that occurs during their transfer from soil to air. We have established methods for pre-treatment and GC/CSIA analysis methods of target volatile PFAS in soil and air samples and ensured the accuracy of carbon isotope analysis.

The α3β4 nAChR tissue distribution identified by fluorescent α-conotoxin [D11A]LvIA.

α3β4, a vital subtype of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), is widely distributed in the brain, ganglia, and adrenal glands, associated with addiction and neurological diseases. However, the lack of specific imaging tools for α3β4 nAChRs has hindered the investigation of their tissue distribution and functions. [D11A]LvIA, a peptide derived from marine cone snails, demonstrates high affinity and potency for α3β4 nAChRs, making it a valuable pharmacological tool for studying this receptor subtype.

Single Amino Acid Substitution in Loop1 Switches the Selectivity of α-Conotoxin RegIIA towards the α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor.

α-Conotoxins are disulfide-rich peptides obtained from the venom of cone snails, which are considered potential molecular probes and drug leads for nAChR-related disorders. However, low specificity towards different nAChR subtypes restricts the further application of many α-conotoxins. In this work, a series of loop1 amino acid-substituted mutants of α-conotoxin RegIIA were synthesized, whose potency and selectivity were evaluated by an electrophysiological approach.

A case report on congenital hypothyroidism and alpha thalassemia in children with anemia and muscle damage as the main manifestation.

Rationale: This study reports the first case of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) and alpha thalassemia in a child in China, with anemia and muscle damage as the main manifestations. Analyzing and studying this case is of great significance in reducing missed and misdiagnosed CH and will provide a clinical strategy for treating these patients.

Patient Concerns: Child, female, 2 years and 7 months old, the child appeared dispirited, had poor appetite, shallow complexion, reduced activities with anemia, elevated muscle enzymes, height, and growth retardation.

Fluorescent α-Conotoxin [Q1G, ΔR14]LvIB Identifies the Distribution of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor in the Rat Brain.

nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are mainly distributed in the central nervous system (CNS), including the hippocampus, striatum, and cortex of the brain. The nAChR has high Ca permeability and can be quickly activated and desensitized, and is closely related to Alzheimer's disease (AD), epilepsy, schizophrenia, lung cancer, Parkinson's disease (PD), inflammation, and other diseases. α-conotoxins from marine cone snail venom are typically short, disulfide-rich neuropeptides targeting nAChRs and can distinguish various subtypes, providing vital pharmacological tools for the functional research of nAChRs.

Aspartic acid mutagenesis of αO-Conotoxin GeXIVA isomers reveals arginine residues crucial for inhibition of the α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.

The two most active disulfide bond isomers of the analgesic αO-conotoxin GeXIVA, namely GeXIVA[1, 2] and GeXIVA[1, 4], were subjected to Asp-scanning mutagenesis to determine the key amino acid residues for activity at the rat α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). These studies revealed the key role of arginine residues for the activity of GeXIVA isomers towards the α9α10 nAChR. Based on these results, additional analogues with 2-4 mutations were designed and tested.

A novel electrolytic gas lift reactor for efficient microbial electrosynthesis of acetate from carbon dioxide.

The low current density impedes the practical application of microbial electrosynthesis for CO fixation. Engineering the reactor design is an effective way to increase the current density, especially for H-mediated microbial electrosynthesis reactors. The electrolytic bubble column microbial electrosynthesis reactor has shown great potential for scaling up, but the mixing and gas mass transfer still need to be enhanced to further increase the current density.

Synthesis, Activity, and Application of Fluorescent Analogs of [D1G, Δ14Q]LvIC Targeting α6β4 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor.

α6β4* nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) (* represents the possible presence of additional subunits) is mainly distributed in the central and peripheral nervous system and is associated with neurological diseases, such as neuropathic pain; however, the ability to explore its function and distribution is limited due to the lack of pharmacological tools. As one of the analogs of α-conotoxin (α-CTx) LvIC from , [D1G, Δ14Q]LvIC (Lv) selectively and potently blocks α6/α3β4 nAChR (α6/α3 represents a chimera). Here, we synthesized three fluorescent analogs of Lv by connecting fluorescent molecules 6-carboxytetramethylrhodamine succinimidyl ester (6-TAMRA-SE, R), Cy3 NHS ester (Cy3, C) and BODIPY-FL NHS ester (BDP, B) to the N-terminus of the peptide and obtained Lv-R, Lv-C, and Lv-B, respectively.

Comparison of in-situ and ex-situ electrolytic H supply for microbial methane production from CO.

Both in-situ and ex-situ electrolytic H supply have been used for biomethane production from CO. However, the pros and cons of them have not been systematically compared. The present study makes this comparison using a 20 L continuous stirred-tank reactor equipped with external and internal electrolyzers.

Skin-like cryogel electronics from suppressed-freezing tuned polymer amorphization.

The sole situation of semi-crystalline structure induced single performance remarkably limits the green cryogels in the application of soft devices due to uncontrolled freezing field. Here, a facile strategy for achieving multifunctionality of cryogels is proposed using total amorphization of polymer. Through precisely lowering the freezing point of precursor solutions with an antifreezing salt, the suppressed growth of ice is achieved, creating an unusually weak and homogenous aggregation of polymer chains upon freezing, thereby realizing the tunable amorphization of polymer and the coexistence of free and hydrogen bonding hydroxyl groups.

Molecular Determinants of Species Specificity of α-Conotoxin TxIB towards Rat and Human α6/α3β4 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors.

Conotoxins are widely distributed and important for studying ligand-gated ion channels. TxIB, a conotoxin consisting of 16 amino acids derived from , is a unique selective ligand that blocks rat α6/α3β2β3 nAChR (IC = 28 nM) without affecting other rat subtypes. However, when the activity of TxIB against human nAChRs was examined, it was unexpectedly found that TxIB had a significant blocking effect on not only human α6/α3β2β3 nAChR but also human α6/α3β4 nAChR, with an IC of 537 nM.

Loop2 Size Modification Reveals Significant Impacts on the Potency of α-Conotoxin TxID.

α4/6-conotoxin TxID, which was identified from , simultaneously blocks rat (r) α3β4 and rα6/α3β4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) with IC values of 3.6 nM and 33.9 nM, respectively.

Effects of a novel Cd passivation approach on soil Cd availability, plant uptake, and microbial activity in weakly alkaline soils.

Heavy metal pollution, including that caused by cadmium (Cd), is a matter of increasing concern. Although in situ passivation remediation has been widely used to treat heavy metal-polluted soils, most studies have focused on acidic soils, while studies on alkaline soil conditions are scarce. In this study, the effects of biochar (BC), phosphate rock powder (PRP), and humic acid (HA) on Cd adsorption were examined alone and in combination to choose an appropriate Cd passivation approach for weakly alkaline soils.

Discovery, Characterization, and Engineering of LvIC, an α4/4-Conotoxin That Selectively Blocks Rat α6/α3β4 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors.

α6β4 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are expressed in the central and peripheral nervous systems, but their functions are not fully understood, largely because of a lack of specific ligands. Here, we characterized a novel α-conotoxin, LvIC, and designed a series of analogues to probe structure-activity relationships at the α6β4 nAChR. The potency and selectivity of these conotoxins were tested using two-electrode voltage-clamp recording on nAChR subtypes expressed in oocytes.

Peptides from the Sea Anemone with Modified Inhibitor Cystine Knot (ICK) Fold Inhibit Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) play an important role in the functioning of the central and peripheral nervous systems, and other organs of living creatures. There are several subtypes of nAChRs, and almost all of them are considered as pharmacological targets in different pathological states. The crude venom of the sea anemone showed the ability to interact with nAChRs.

Event-Triggered Adaptive Neural Network Tracking Control for Uncertain Systems With Unknown Input Saturation Based on Command Filters.

This brief presents a modified event-triggered command filter backstepping tracking control scheme for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown input saturation based on the adaptive neural network (NN) technique. First, the virtual control functions are reconstructed to address the uncertainties in subsystems by using command filters. A piecewise continuous function is employed to deal with the unknown input saturation problem.

Effective utilization of weak alkaline soils with Cd-contamination by wheat and rape intercropping.

Recently, there has been increasing concern about the health hazards of heavy metal-polluted farmlands. Recent findings suggest that intercropping could be effective remediation strategy for agricultural soils without affecting crop biomass yield. However, there are concerns on the heavy metal accumulation in plant organs in phytoremediation, emphasizing the need to develop an effective intercropping remediation model.

Event-Triggered Adaptive Fuzzy Neural Network Output Feedback Control for Constrained Stochastic Nonlinear Systems.

This article investigates the problem of command-filtered event-triggered adaptive fuzzy neural network (FNN) output feedback control for stochastic nonlinear systems (SNSs) with time-varying asymmetric constraints and input saturation. By constructing quartic asymmetric time-varying barrier Lyapunov functions (TVBLFs), all the state variables are not to transgress the prescribed dynamic constraints. The command-filtered backstepping method and the error compensation mechanism are combined to eliminate the issue of "computational explosion" and compensate the filtering errors.

Treatment of cadmium and zinc-contaminated water systems using modified biochar: Contaminant uptake, adsorption ability, and mechanism.

Cd and Zn contamination in water occurs frequently that threatens water supply, human health, and food production. MnFeB, a novel absorbent biochar modified using KMnO and hematite, was prepared and used for the treatment of Cd and Znsolutions. MnFeB exhibits a rough surface structure, large specific surface area, higher total pore volume, massive functional groups, and abundant iron oxide, all of which contribute to higher Cd and Zn adsorption capacity.

A novel phytoremediation technology for polluted cadmium soil: Salix integra treated with spermidine and activated carbon.

A variety of plants have been used as phytoremediation materials to remove Cd from polluted soil. However, the disadvantages of using plants for decontamination include low biomass, low uptake, and inefficiency. We conducted experiments to determine the effects of spermidine and activated carbon treatments of Salix integra on Cd removal.

Adaptive Neural Finite-Time Control of Non-Strict Feedback Nonlinear Systems With Non-Symmetrical Dead-Zone.

The control design method for a class of non-strict feedback nonlinear systems is studied in this brief considering uncertain nonlinearities and unknown non-symmetrical input dead-zone. Combining with the finite-time command filtered backstepping (FCFB) technique, a novel finite-time adaptive control approach is proposed in which a neural network-based methodology is adopted to cope with the uncertain nonlinearities in the non-strict feedback form. The input dead-zone model is transformed into a simple linear system with unknown gain and bounded disturbance which is estimated by an adaptive factor.

A Fault Diagnosis System for a Pipeline Robot Based on Sound Signal Recognition.

Timely and accurate identification of fault types at the early stage of minor faults is significant for cutting off fault evolution. In order to have a clear understanding of the pipeline robot's own situation in the pipeline, this paper proposes a fault diagnosis system for pipeline robots based on sound signal recognition. This can effectively reduce the probability of serious faults such as shutdown and loss of control in the pipeline without affecting the safe operation of the pipeline robot, which is a key issue to improve the reliability of the pipeline robot.

Biochar Alleviates Phytotoxicity by Minimizing Bioavailability and Oxidative Stress in Foxtail Millet ( L.) Cultivated in Cd- and Zn-Contaminated Soil.

Soil contamination with multiple heavy metals is a global environmental issue that poses a serious threat to public health and ecological safety. Biochar passivation is an efficient and economical technology to prevent heavy metal contamination of Cd; however, its effects on compound-contaminated and weakly alkaline soil remain unclear. Further, the mechanisms mediating the immobilization effects of biochar have not been evaluated.