Reliability of stored river water as an alternative for consumption in Ekpoma, Nigeria: a human health risk assessment

With looming global water-related issues, the monitoring of water quality for household and industrial consumption has become more pertinent. Rivers in nearby towns serve as primary water sources for Ekpoma town. 123 samples of stored river water were collected from 41 sampling locations and physical properties - pH, electrical conductivity (EC), salinity, temperature, and total dissolved solids (TDS) - were measured in situ using the Hanna edge® Multiparameter EC/TDS/Salinity Meter-HI2030. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) was used to detect and measure the concentration of potentially toxic metals (PTMs): Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn. The measured concentrations were compared to the WHO, US EPA, and NSDWQ regulatory standards, and a spatiotemporal health risk analysis was performed using HERisk software. Twenty-five percent of the tested samples contained PTM concentrations within the allowable regulatory limits. Spatiotemporal health risk analysis showed that 98.8% of the cumulative carcinogenic risks (CRcum) were entirely from Pb contamination via oral ingestion. PTM concentrations in the samples suggest the degradation of river water quality due to agricultural activities, crude oil exploration activities, and soil composition in the region. Best management practices (BMPs) and treatment processes for the removal of detected contaminants are recommended to improve water quality

A Photometric Redshift of z ~ 9.4 for GRB 090429B

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) serve as powerful probes of the early universe, with their luminous afterglows revealing the locations and physical properties of star-forming galaxies at the highest redshifts, and potentially locating first-generation (Population III) stars. Since GRB afterglows have intrinsically very simple spectra, they allow robust redshifts from low signal-to-noise spectroscopy, or photometry. Here we present a photometric redshift of z ~ 9.4 for the Swift detected GRB 090429B based on deep observations with Gemini-North, the Very Large Telescope, and the GRB Optical and Near-infrared Detector. Assuming a Small Magellanic Cloud dust law (which has been found in a majority of GRB sight lines), the 90% likelihood range for the redshift is 9.06 7. The non-detection of the host galaxy to deep limits (Y(AB) ~ 28, which would correspond roughly to 0.001L* at z = 1) in our late-time optical and infrared observations with the Hubble Space Telescope strongly supports the extreme-redshift origin of GRB 090429B, since we would expect to have detected any low-z galaxy, even if it were highly dusty. Finally, the energetics of GRB 090429B are comparable to those of other GRBs and suggest that its progenitor is not greatly different from those of lower redshift bursts

HIF1/2-exerted control over glycolytic gene expression is not functionally relevant for glycolysis in human leukemic stem/progenitor cells

Background Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF)1 and 2 are transcription factors that regulate the homeostatic response to low oxygen conditions. Since data related to the importance of HIF1 and 2 in hematopoietic stem and progenitors is conflicting, we investigated the chromatin binding profiles of HIF1 and HIF2 and linked that to transcriptional networks and the cellular metabolic state. Methods Genome-wide ChIPseq and ChIP-PCR experiments were performed to identify HIF1 and HIF2 binding sites in human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells and healthy CD34(+) hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Transcriptome studies were performed to identify gene expression changes induced by hypoxia or by overexpression of oxygen-insensitive HIF1 and HIF2 mutants. Metabolism studies were performed by 1D-NMR, and glucose consumption and lactate production levels were determined by spectrophotometric enzyme assays. CRISPR-CAS9-mediated HIF1, HIF2, and ARNT(-/-) lines were generated to study the functional consequences upon loss of HIF signaling, in vitro and in vivo upon transplantation of knockout lines in xenograft mice. Results Genome-wide ChIP-seq and transcriptome studies revealed that overlapping HIF1- and HIF2-controlled loci were highly enriched for various processes including metabolism, particularly glucose metabolism, but also for chromatin organization, cellular response to stress and G protein-coupled receptor signaling. ChIP-qPCR validation studies confirmed that glycolysis-related genes but not genes related to the TCA cycle or glutaminolysis were controlled by both HIF1 and HIF2 in leukemic cell lines and primary AMLs, while in healthy human CD34(+) cells these loci were predominantly controlled by HIF1 and not HIF2. However, and in contrast to our initial hypotheses, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of HIF signaling did not affect growth, internal metabolite concentrations, glucose consumption or lactate production under hypoxia, not even in vivo upon transplantation of knockout cells into xenograft mice. Conclusion These data indicate that, while HIFs exert control over glycolysis but not OxPHOS gene expression in human leukemic cells, this is not critically important for their metabolic state. In contrast, inhibition of BCR-ABL did impact on glucose consumption and lactate production regardless of the presence of HIFs. These data indicate that oncogene-mediated control over glycolysis can occur independently of hypoxic signaling modules.</p

The short term debt vs. long term debt puzzle: a model for the optimal mix

This paper argues that the existing finance literature is inadequate with respect to its coverage of capital structure of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular it is argued that the cost of equity (being both conceptually ill defined and empirically non quantifiable) is not applicable to the capital structure decisions for a large proportion of SMEs and the optimal capital structure depends only on the mix of short and long term debt. The paper then presents a model, developed by practitioners for optimising the debt mix and demonstrates its practical application using an Italian firm's debt structure as a case study

How Substitutional Point Defects in Two-Dimensional WS2_2 Induce Charge Localization, Spin-Orbit Splitting, and Strain

Control of impurity concentrations in semiconducting materials is essential to device technology. Because of their intrinsic confinement, the properties of two-dimensional semiconductors such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are more sensitive to defects than traditional bulk materials. The technological adoption of TMDs is dependent on the mitigation of deleterious defects and guided incorporation of functional foreign atoms. The first step towards impurity control is the identification of defects and assessment of their electronic properties. Here, we present a comprehensive study of point defects in monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS$_2$) grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, CO-tip noncontact atomic force microscopy, Kelvin probe force spectroscopy, density functional theory, and tight-binding calculations. We observe four different substitutional defects: chromium (Cr$_{\text{W}}$) and molybdenum (Mo$_{\text{W}}$) at a tungsten site, oxygen at sulfur sites in both bottom and top layers (O$_{\text{S}}$ top/bottom), as well as two negatively charged defects (CDs). Their electronic fingerprints unambiguously corroborate the defect assignment and reveal the presence or absence of in-gap defect states. The important role of charge localization, spin-orbit coupling, and strain for the formation of deep defect states observed at substitutional defects in WS$_2$ as reported here will guide future efforts of targeted defect engineering and doping of TMDs

A Reverse Shock in GRB 130427A

We present extensive radio and millimeter observations of the unusually bright GRB 130427A at z = 0.340, spanning 0.67 to 12 d after the burst. Taken in conjunction with detailed multi-band UV, optical, NIR, and X-ray observations we find that the broad-band afterglow emission is composed of distinct reverse shock and forward shock contributions. The reverse shock emission dominates in the radio/millimeter and at . 0.1 d in the UV/optical/NIR, while the forward shock emission dominates in the X-rays and at & 0.1 d in the UV/optical/NIR. We further find that the optical and X-ray data require a Wind circumburst environment, pointing to a massive star progenitor. Using the combined forward and reverse shock emission we find that the parameters of the burst are an isotropic kinetic energy of EK,iso ≈ 2×1053 erg, a mass loss rate of M˙ ≈ 3×10−8 M⊙ yr−1 (for a wind velocity of 1,000 km s−1), and a Lorentz factor at the deceleration time of Γ(200s) ≈ 130. Due to the low density and large isotropic energy, the absence of a jet break to ≈ 15 d places only a weak constraint on the opening angle, θj & 2.5◦ , and therefore a total energy of Eγ + EK & 1.2×1051 erg, similar to other GRBs. The reverse shock emission is detectable in this burst due to the low circumburst density, which leads to a slow cooling shock. We speculate that this is a required property for the detectability of reverse shocks in the radio and millimeter bands. Following on GRB 130427A as a benchmark event, observations of future GRBs with the exquisite sensitivity of VLA and ALMA, coupled with detailed modeling of the reverse and forward shock contributions will test this hypothesis.Astronom