Global climate forcing of aerosols embodied in international trade

International trade separates regions consuming goods and services from regions where goods and related aerosol pollution are produced. Yet the role of trade in aerosol climate forcing attributed to different regions has never been quantified. Here, we contrast the direct radiative forcing of aerosols related to regions’ consumption of goods and services against the forcing due to emissions produced in each region. Aerosols assessed include black carbon, primary organic aerosol, and secondary inorganic aerosols, including sulfate, nitrate and ammonium. We find that global aerosol radiative forcing due to emissions produced in East Asia is much stronger than the forcing related to goods and services ultimately consumed in that region because of its large net export of emissions-intensive goods. The opposite is true for net importers such as Western Europe and North America: global radiative forcing related to consumption is much greater than the forcing due to emissions produced in these regions. Overall, trade is associated with a shift of radiative forcing from net importing to net exporting regions. Compared to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, the short atmospheric lifetimes of aerosols cause large localized differences between consumption- and production-related radiative forcing. International efforts to reduce emissions in the exporting countries will help alleviate trade-related climate and health impacts of aerosols while lowering global emissions

Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade

Millions of people die every year from diseases caused by exposure to outdoor air pollution1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Some studies have estimated premature mortality related to local sources of air pollution6, 7, but local air quality can also be affected by atmospheric transport of pollution from distant sources8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. International trade is contributing to the globalization of emission and pollution as a result of the production of goods (and their associated emissions) in one region for consumption in another region14, 19, 20, 21, 22. The effects of international trade on air pollutant emissions23, air quality14 and health24 have been investigated regionally, but a combined, global assessment of the health impacts related to international trade and the transport of atmospheric air pollution is lacking. Here we combine four global models to estimate premature mortality caused by fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution as a result of atmospheric transport and the production and consumption of goods and services in different world regions. We find that, of the 3.45 million premature deaths related to PM2.5 pollution in 2007 worldwide, about 12 per cent (411,100 deaths) were related to air pollutants emitted in a region of the world other than that in which the death occurred, and about 22 per cent (762,400 deaths) were associated with goods and services produced in one region for consumption in another. For example, PM2.5 pollution produced in China in 2007 is linked to more than 64,800 premature deaths in regions other than China, including more than 3,100 premature deaths in western Europe and the USA; on the other hand, consumption in western Europe and the USA is linked to more than 108,600 premature deaths in China. Our results reveal that the transboundary health impacts of PM2.5 pollution associated with international trade are greater than those associated with long-distance atmospheric pollutant transport

An Effective Cationic Human Serum Albumin-Based Gene-Delivery Carrier Containing the Nuclear Localization Signal

Considerable effort has been devoted to the development of gene carriers over the years. However, toxicity, immunogenicity, and low transfection efficiency are still major barriers. How to overcome these obstacles has become a burning question in gene delivery. In the present study, a simple cationic human serum albumin (CHSA)-based gene-delivery system containing nuclear localization signals (NLSs) was constructed to conquer the limitations. CHSA/NLS/plasmid DNA (pDNA) complexes were prepared and characterized by Hoechst 33258 intercalation, gel retardation assay, morphological analysis, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, particle size, and zeta potential measurements. Results showed that CHSA/NLS/pDNA complexes were able to condense and protect pDNA with high encapsulation efficiency. The complexes displayed a nutritional effect on cells at a low concentration and there was no significant cytotoxicity or immunogenicity. In addition, CHSA/NLS/pDNA complexes exhibited excellent cellular uptake rates and the mechanism was mainly the clathrin or macropinocytosis-dependent endocytosis pathway. Furthermore, CHSA/NLS/pDNA significantly enhanced gene expression efficiency in vitro. More importantly, CHSA/NLS/pDNA complexes showed a desired antitumor effect in vivo, exhibiting the highest inhibition rate (57.3%) and significant upregulation in p53 protein. All these results confirm that CHSA/NLS/pDNA complexes have a bright future as a safe and effective delivery system for gene therapy

Clean air actions in China, PM2.5 exposure, and household medical expenditures: A quasi-experimental study.

BackgroundExposure to air pollution, a leading contributor to the global burden of disease, can cause economic losses. Driven by clean air policies, the air quality in China, one of the most polluted countries, has improved rapidly since 2013. This has enabled a unique, quasi-experiment to assess the economic impact of air pollution empirically.Methods and findingsUsing a series of nation-scale longitudinal surveys in 2011, 2013, and 2015, we first examined the questionnaire-based medical expenditure changes before and after the policy intervention for air pollution. Using a state-of-the-art estimator of the historical concentration of particulate matters with diameter less than 2.5 μm (particulate matter (PM)2.5), we further quantified the association between household medical expenditure and PM2.5 using mixed-effect models of the repeated measurements from 26,511 households in 126 cities. Regression models suggest a robust linear association between reduced PM2.5 and saved medical expenditures, since the association did not vary significantly across models with different covariate adjustments, subregions, or subpopulations. Each 10 μg/m3 reduction in PM2.5 was associated with a saving of 251.6 (95% CI: 30.8, 472.3; p-value = 0.026) Yuan in per capita annual medical expenditure. However, due to limitations in data quality (e.g., self-reported expenditures), and imperfect control for unmeasured confounders or impact from concurrent healthcare reform in China, the causality underlying our findings should be further confirmed or refuted.ConclusionIn this study, we observed that compared with the PM2.5 reduction in 2013, the PM2.5 reduction in 2017 was associated with a saving of 552 (95% CI: 68, 1036) Yuan / (person × year), or approximately 736 billion Yuan (equivalent to 111 billion US dollar) per year nationally, which is equivalent to approximately 1% of the national gross domestic product of China

Near-Earth Remote Sensing Images Used to Determine the Phenological Characteristics of the Canopy of <i>Populus tomentosa</i> B301 under Three Methods of Irrigation

Due to global warming, changes in plant phenology such as an early leaf spreading period in spring, a late abscission period in autumn, and growing season extension are commonly seen. Here, near-earth remote sensing images were used to monitor the canopy phenology of Populus tomentosa B301 in planted forests under full drip irrigation, full furrow irrigation, and no irrigation (rain fed). Experiments were conducted to collect phenological data across a growing season. Continuous canopy images were used to calculate different vegetation indices; the key phenological period was determined via the double logistic model and the curvature method. The effects of irrigation methods and precipitation in the rainy season on tree growth changes and key phenological periods were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The green chromatic coordinate (GCC) conformed to the vegetation index of the tree species canopy phenological study. (2) During the phenological period throughout the year, the GCC reaching peak time (MOE) of the canopy phenology of Populus tomentosa B301 was the same in the three methods, while the time of shedding at the end of the growing season without irrigation (preset point 1) was 8 days longer than with full drip irrigation (preset point 3), and 7 days faster than with full furrow irrigation (preset point 5). (3) In the preliminary rainy season, different irrigation volumes induced different growth changes and phenological periods of the trees, resulting in different data of vegetation indicators under different growth conditions. (4) During the rainy season, the precipitation had different effects on cultivating P. tomentosa B301 using the three methods, that is, high precipitation could increase the growth rate of the fully irrigated area, otherwise the growth rate of this tree species was increased in full drip irrigation areas. Precipitation was lower and irregular, and the growth rate of this species was faster than the other two irrigation methods in the non-irrigated area, which was more adaptable to external environmental changes. The internal growth mechanism of the phenological changes in different areas of the planted forests was influenced by the different cultivation methods. Moreover, the collected phenological data provide a basis for the study of plant phenology with large data sets and deepens our understanding of the phenology of planted forests in response to climate change

Micro-Raman Analysis of Sperm Cells on Glass Slide: Potential Label-Free Assessment of Sperm DNA toward Clinical Applications

Routine assessment of sperm DNA integrity involves the time-consuming and complex process of staining sperm chromatin. Here, we report a Raman spectroscopy method combined with extended multiplicative signal correction (EMSC) for the extraction of characteristic fingerprints of DNA-intact and DNA-damaged sperm cells directly on glass slides. Raman results of sperm cell DNA integrity on glass substrates were validated one-to-one with clinical sperm cell staining. Although the overall Raman spectral pattern showed considerable similarity between DNA-damaged and DNA-intact sperm cells, differences in specific Raman spectral responses were observed. We then employed and compared multivariate statistical analysis based on principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) and partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and the classifications were validated by leave-one-out-cross-validation (LOOCV) and k-fold cross-validation methods. In comparison, the PLS-DA model showed relatively better results in terms of diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and the classification rate between the sperm DNA damaged group and the DNA intact group. Our results demonstrate the potential of Raman based label-free DNA assessment of sperm cell on glass substrates as a simple method toward clinical applications

The maternal ITPK1 gene polymorphism is associated with neural tube defects in a high-risk Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological surveys and animal studies have revealed that inositol metabolism is associated with NTDs, but the mechanisms are not clear. Inositol 1,3,4-trisphosphate 5/6-kinase (ITPK1) is a pivotal regulatory enzyme in inositol metabolic pathway. The objective was to assess the potential impact of the maternal ITPK1 genotypes on the inositol parameter and on the NTD risk in a NTD high-risk area in China. METHODOLOGY/RESULTS: A case-control study of pregnant women affected with NTDs (n = 200) and controls (n = 320) was carried out. 13 tag SNPs of ITPK1 were selected and genotyped by the Sequenom MassArray system. We found that 4 tag SNPs were statistically significant in spina bifida group (P<0.05). MACH was used to impute the un-genotyped SNPs in ITPK1 locus and showed that 3 meaningful SNPs in the non-coding regions were significant. We also predicted the binding capacity of transcription factors in the positive SNPs using the bioinformatics method and found that only rs3783903 was located in the conserved sequence of activator protein-1 (AP-1). To further study the association between biochemical values and genotypes, maternal plasma inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) levels were also assessed using LC-MS. The maternal plasma IP6 concentrations in the spina bifida subgroup were 7.1% lower than control (136.67 vs. 147.05 ng mL(-1), P<0.05), and significantly lower in rs3783903 GG genotype than others (P<0.05). EMSA showed a different allelic binding capacity of AP-1 in rs3783903, which was affected by an A→G exchange. The RT-PCR suggested the ITPK1 expression was decreased significantly in mutant-type of rs3783903 compared with wild-type in the 60 healthy pregnancies (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results suggested that the maternal rs3783903 of ITPK1 might be associated with spina bifida, and the allele G of rs3783903 might affect the binding of AP-1 and the decrease of maternal plasma IP6 concentration in this Chinese population