Seasonal variations of PAHs content and distribution patterns in a mixed land use area: A case study in NE Italy with the transplanted lichen Pseudevernia furfuracea

The seasonal differences of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) content in lichen transplants were investigated in an area of ca. 40 square kilometers in NE Italy characterized by different land use. Two sets of samples of the epiphytic lichen Pseudevernia furfuracea were collected in a pristine area of the Carnic Alps and transplanted to 40 exposure sites for a period of two months, respectively in late winter and in summer. Results revealed a pronounced difference between the two seasons in terms of PAH content and distribution patterns. After the summer exposure the PAH concentrations in the transplants were more than one order of magnitude lower than after the winter exposure (ranging from 48.22 to 272.73 ng g 121 dw and from 289.73 to 1575.85 ng g 121 dw in the summer and winter samples respectively). Also the main emission sources changed, mostly due to the drastic reduction in the emissions by wood burning for domestic heating and to the different meteorological conditions. In summer PAHs degradation was enhanced by intense UV radiation, high temperatures, and presence of ozone. The implications of these findings for the biomonitoring of PAHs pollution are addressed

Aerosol Particle Sources Affecting the Swedish Air Quality at Urban and Rural Level.

During the last decades anthropogenic aerosol particles have attracted much attention due to their adverse health effects and their influence of climate change, and in Sweden, there are mainly three aerosol sources that affect the air quality; domestic wood combustion, traffic, and long distance transport, which includes new particle formation. This work concerns the characterization of these sources and an estimate of how much they contribute to the aerosol particle number (ToN) and mass concentrations (PM) in Swedish cities and at background locations. The aims have been achieved with the help of extensive measurement campaigns, characterizing emissions from the sources and with measurements and modelling at receptor points, where people are exposed to the particle pollution. The most important outcomes of these studies show that, in urban areas both traffic and domestic wood combustion are very important sources of high levels of ToN and PM. It is especially during cold days in northern Sweden that domestic wood combustion is an important source of particles. Both trucks and personal cars are contributing significantly to the particle emissions of ToN and PM. However, exhaust particles mainly affect ToN, whereas most of the PM2.5 and PM10 (total particle mass below 2.5 and 10 ?m diameter respectively) emissions come from road dust generated by the moving vehicles. At locations in large cities, in southern Scandinavia further away from the traffic (urban background), the long distance transported fraction is beginning to dominate contributions to PM10, and it has both natural and anthropogenic sources. The exhaust emissions from traffic can on the other hand make a significant contribution to increased levels of ToN even at distances about 50 km away from the urban area. New particle formation, which is observed more than 1/3 of the days in southern Sweden, can both come from clean as well as more polluted air masses. However, the formation in polluted air has half the impact on ToN that cleaner air has

Efficient separation of precious metals from computer waste printed circuit boards by hydrocyclone and dilution-gravity methods

To fulfill the different aspects of green chemistry and to achieve full use of the secondary resources (waste printed circuit boards (WPCB)), the necessity of developing green methods for recovery of precious metals (Au, Pd, and Ag) is highly demanded. In this study, a novel environment-friendly physical separation approach; the combination of crushing, grinding, sieving as pretreatment steps alongside hydrocyclone and the dilution-gravity method (DGM) as the main final steps; is proposed. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) characterization methods were utilized to understand the effects of different separation steps applied in this research. The size and shape of grinded materials and the ones produced after hydrocyclone and DGM were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the sieving step separated the highest gold fraction in the finer classification (<75 μm) while placed the copper (70 wt.%) into the coarser contents. The overflow to underflow outlet diameter ratio and inlet pressure was evaluated to determine the separation efficiency of a hydrocyclone effect of parameters. In the best-case scenario at 3 bar hydrocyclone operation pressure where the overflow to underflow outlet diameter (Do/Du) was 6.5, the highest metal fraction (87 wt.%) was achieved in the sink of the DGM. In this case, the total separation efficiency of gold, palladium, silver, and copper was 75%, 78%, 64%, 72%, respectively. Thus, this study demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing the sieving as mentioned above classification pretreatment steps followed by hydrocyclone and DGM methods as promising approaches for recovering precious metals from WPCBs that contain annually almost 50 million tons of e-waste

A Method for Efficient Calculation of Diffusion and Reactions of Lipophilic Compounds in Complex Cell Geometry

A general description of effects of toxic compounds in mammalian cells is facing several problems. Firstly, most toxic compounds are hydrophobic and partition phenomena strongly influence their behaviour. Secondly, cells display considerable heterogeneity regarding the presence, activity and distribution of enzymes participating in the metabolism of foreign compounds i.e. bioactivation/biotransformation. Thirdly, cellular architecture varies greatly. Taken together, complexity at several levels has to be addressed to arrive at efficient in silico modelling based on physicochemical properties, metabolic preferences and cell characteristics. In order to understand the cellular behaviour of toxic foreign compounds we have developed a mathematical model that addresses these issues. In order to make the system numerically treatable, methods motivated by homogenization techniques have been applied. These tools reduce the complexity of mathematical models of cell dynamics considerably thus allowing to solve efficiently the partial differential equations in the model numerically on a personal computer. Compared to a compartment model with well-stirred compartments, our model affords a more realistic representation. Numerical results concerning metabolism and chemical solvolysis of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon carcinogen show good agreement with results from measurements in V79 cell culture. The model can easily be extended and refined to include more reactants, and/or more complex reaction chains, enzyme distribution etc, and is therefore suitable for modelling cellular metabolism involving membrane partitioning also at higher levels of complexity

Diurnal variations of ambient particulate wood burning emissions and their contribution to the concentration of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Seiffen, Germany

Residential wood burning is becoming an increasingly important cause of air quality problems since it has become a popular source of alternative energy to fossil fuel. In order to characterize the contribution of residential wood burning to local particle pollution, a field campaign was organized at the village of Seiffen (Saxony, Germany). During this campaign, an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) was deployed in parallel to a PM<sub>1</sub> high volume filter sampler. The AMS mass spectra were analyzed using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) to obtain detailed information about the organic aerosol (OA). Biomass-burning organic aerosol (BBOA), Hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA), and Oxygenated Organic Aerosol (OOA) were identified and represented 20%, 17% and 62% of total OA, respectively. Additionally, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) were measured by the AMS with an average concentration of 10 ng m<sup>−3</sup> and short term events of extremely high PAH concentration (up to 500 ng m<sup>−3</sup>) compared to the mean PAH value were observed during the whole measurement period. A comparison with the results from PM<sub>1</sub> filter samples showed that the BBOA factor and the AMS PAH are good indicators of the total concentration of the different monosaccharide anhydrides and PAH measured on the filter samples. Based on its low correlation with CO and the low car traffic, the HOA factor was considered to be related to residential heating using liquid fuel. An influence of the time of the week (week vs. weekend) on the diurnal profiles of the different OA components was observed. The weekdays were characterized by two maxima; a first one early in the morning and a stronger one in the evening. During the weekend days, the different OA components principally reached only one maximum in the afternoon. Finally, the PAH emitted directly from residential wood combustion was estimated to represent 1.5% of the total mass of the BBOA factor and around 62% of the total PAH concentration measured at Seiffen. This result highlights the important contribution of residential wood combustion to air quality and PAH emissions at the sampling place, which might have a significant impact on human health. Moreover, it also emphasizes the need for a better time resolution of the chemical characterization of toxic particulate compounds in order to provide more information on variations of the different sources through the days as well as to better estimate the real human exposure

Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia in the development and progression of cancer

Experimental, epidemiological and clinical evidence implicates insulin resistance and its accompanying hyperinsulinaemia in the development of cancer, but the relative importance of these disturbances in cancer remains unclear. There are, however, theoretical mechanisms by which hyperinsulinaemia could amplify such growth-promoting effects as insulin may have, as well as the growth-promoting effects of other, more potent, growth factors. Hyperinsulinaemia may also induce other changes, particularly in the IGF (insulin-like growth factor) system, that could promote cell proliferation and survival. Several factors can independently modify both cancer risk and insulin resistance, including subclinical inflammation and obesity. The possibility that some of the effects of hyperinsulinaemia might then augment pro-carcinogenic changes associated with disturbances in these factors emphasizes how, rather than being a single causative factor, insulin resistance may be most usefully viewed as one strand in a network of interacting disturbances that promote the development and progression of cancer

The circRNA-microRNA code: emerging implications for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) comprise an emerging new class of endogenous RNAs expressed abundantly by the eukaryotic transcriptome. They are characterized by a covalently closed loop structure, resulting in RNA molecules that are more stable than linear RNAs. A growing number of studies indicate that circRNAs play critical roles in human diseases and show great potential as biomarkers and therapeutic targets. The molecular events determined by circRNA activity, the circRNA code, involve other types of noncoding RNA molecules, primarily microRNAs, long noncoding RNAs, and RNA-binding proteins. Herein, we mainly focus on the circRNA-microRNA code, showing how this relationship impacts the regulation of gene expression in cancer. The emerging roles for circRNAs in oncogenic pathways highlight new perspectives for the detailed molecular dissection of cancer pathogenesis and, at the same time, offer new opportunities to design innovative therapeutic strategies. Here, we review recent research advancements in understanding the biogenesis, molecular functions, and significance of circRNAs in cancer diagnosis and treatment