Recovery from Mercury Contamination in the Second Songhua River, China

Mercury pollution in the Second Songhua River (SSR) was serious in the last century due to effluent from a chemical corporation. Effects of riverine self-purification on mercury removal were studied by comparing monitoring data of mercury concentrations varieties in water, sediment, and fish in the past, about 30 years. The present work suggested that a river of such a size like the SSR possessed the potential ability to recover from mercury pollution under the condition that mercury sources were cut off, though it needs a very long time, which might be several decades or even a century of years. During the 30 years with no effluent containing mercury input, total mercury (T-Hg) of water and sediment in some typical segments, mostly near the past effluent outlet, had decreased radically but still higher than the background values, though the decrease amplitudes were over 90% compared with that in 1975. T-Hg had decreased by more than 90% in most fishes, but some were still not suitable for consumption. Methylmercury concentrations (MeHg) of water, sediment, and fish were higher or close to the background levels in 2004. In the coming decades, the purification processes in the SSR would be steady and slow for a long period

Targeting histone deacetyalses in the treatment of B- and T-cell malignancies

HDAC inhibitors (HDACI) are now emerging as one of the most promising new classes of drugs for the treatment of select forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). They are particularly active in T-cell lymphomas, possibly hodgkin’s lymphoma and indolent B cell lymphomas. Presently, two of these agents, vorinostat and romidepsin, have been approved in the US for the treatment of relapsed and refractory cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCL). Initially, these agents were developed with the idea that they affected transcriptional activation and thus gene expression, by modulating chromatin condensation and decondensation. It is now clear that their effects go beyond chromatin and by affecting the acetylation status of histones and other intra-cellular proteins, they modify gene expression and cellular function via multiple pathways. Gene expression profiles and functional genetic analysis has led to further understanding of the various molecular pathways that are affected by these agents including cell cycle regulation, pathways of cellular proliferation, apoptosis and angiogenesis all important in lymphomagenesis. There is also increasing data to support the effects of these agents on T cell receptor and immune function which may explain the high level of activity of these agents in T cell lymphomas and hodgkin’s lymphoma. There is ample evidence of epigenetic dysregulation in lymphomas which may underlie the mechanisms of action of these agents but how these agents work is still not clear. Current HDAC inhibitors can be divided into at least four classes based on their chemical structure. At present several of these HDAC inhibitors are in clinical trials both as single agents and in combination with chemotherapy or other biological agents. They are easy to administer and are generally well tolerated with minimal side effects. Different dosing levels and schedules and the use of isospecific HDAC inhibitors are some of the strategies that are being employed to increase the therapeutic effect of these agents in the treatment of lymphomas. There may also be class differences that translate into specific activity against different lymphoma. HDAC inhibitors will likely be incorporated into combinations of targeted therapies both in the upfront and relapsed setting for lymphomas

Management experiences of primary angiosarcoma of breast: a retrospective study from single institute in the People’s Republic of China

Qun-Chao Hu,1–3,* Xin Mei,1,2,* Yan Feng,1,2 Jin-Li Ma,1,2 Zhao-Zhi Yang,1,2 Zhi-Min Shao,2,4 Xiao-Li Yu,1,2 Xiao-Mao Guo1,2 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, 2Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, 3Department of Radiation Oncology, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Suzhou, 4Department of Breast Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Primary angiosarcoma of breast (PAOB) is a rare and highly aggressive malignancy. There is no general agreement on optimal treatments or prognostic factors for this orphan disease. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic features and management experiences of PAOB.Methods: We performed a retrospective review of medical and pathologic records of 17 consecutive patients diagnosed with PAOB between January 2000 and February 2014 at FuDan University Shanghai Cancer Center. We evaluated the clinical characteristics, multimodality treatments, and associated clinical outcomes.Results: A total of 16 patients were included in this retrospective study (median age at PAOB presentation 33.5 years, range: 19–56 years). Palpable tumor with or without breast skin ecchymosis presented as the most common initial symptom. All patients underwent surgery with curative intent. Median disease-free survival and overall survival (OS) were 9 months and 13.6 months, respectively. One-year and 3-year disease-free survival rates were 43.8% and 6.3%, with OS rates of 93.8% and 78.1%, respectively. High histologic grade indicated poorer OS by univariate analysis (P=0.01). However, neither adjuvant chemotherapy nor radiotherapy contributed to clinical outcomes in our series.Conclusion: PAOB is considered as an infrequent breast neoplasm with aggressive characteristics. Histologic grade and early metastasis (within 12 months after diagnosis) are associated with poor prognosis. Regardless of grade, additional benefit was not observed with adjuvant therapy. Keywords: primary angiosarcoma, breast neoplasm, histologic grade, adjuvant therap

The project for intercomparison of land-surface parameterization schemes (PILPS) phase 2(c) Red-Arkansas River basin experiment: 2. Spatial and temporal analysis of energy fluxes

The energy components of sixteen Soil-Vegetation Atmospheric Transfer (SVAT) schemes were analyzed and intercompared using 10 years of surface meteorological and radiative forcing data from the Red-Arkansas River basin in the Southern Great Plains of the United States. Comparisons of simulated surface energy fluxes among models showed that the net radiation and surface temperature generally had the best agreement among the schemes. On an average (annual and monthly) basis, the estimated latent heat fluxes agreed (to within approximate estimation errors) with the latent heat fluxes derived from a radiosonde-based atmospheric budget method for slightly more than half of the schemes. The sensible heat fluxes had larger differences among the schemes than did the latent heat fluxes, and the model-simulated ground heat fluxes had large variations among the schemes. The spatial patterns of the model-computed net radiation and surface temperature were generally similar among the schemes, and appear reasonable and consistent with observations of related variables, such as surface air temperature. The spatial mean patterns of latent and sensible heat fluxes were less similar than for net radiation, and the spatial patterns of the ground heat flux vary greatly among the 16 schemes. Generally, there is less similarity among the models in the temporal (interannual) variability of surface fluxes and temperature than there is in the mean fields, even for schemes with similar mean fields

The project for intercomparison of land-surface parameterization schemes (PILPS) phase 2(c) Red-Arkansas River basin experiment: 2. Spatial and temporal analysis of energy fluxes

The energy components of sixteen Soil-Vegetation Atmospheric Transfer (SVAT) schemes were analyzed and intercompared using 10 years of surface meteorological and radiative forcing data from the Red-Arkansas River basin in the Southern Great Plains of the United States. Comparisons of simulated surface energy fluxes among models showed that the net radiation and surface temperature generally had the best agreement among the schemes. On an average (annual and monthly) basis, the estimated latent heat fluxes agreed (to within approximate estimation errors) with the latent heat fluxes derived from a radiosonde-based atmospheric budget method for slightly more than half of the schemes. The sensible heat fluxes had larger differences among the schemes than did the latent heat fluxes, and the model-simulated ground heat fluxes had large variations among the schemes. The spatial patterns of the model-computed net radiation and surface temperature were generally similar among the schemes, and appear reasonable and consistent with observations of related variables, such as surface air temperature. The spatial mean patterns of latent and sensible heat fluxes were less similar than for net radiation, and the spatial patterns of the ground heat flux vary greatly among the 16 schemes. Generally, there is less similarity among the models in the temporal (interannual) variability of surface fluxes and temperature than there is in the mean fields, even for schemes with similar mean fields

The project for intercomparison of land-surface parameterization schemes (PILPS) phase 2(c) Red-Arkansas River basin experiment: 3. Spatial and temporal analysis of water fluxes

The water-balance components of 16 Soil-Vegetation Atmospheric Transfer (SVAT) schemes were evaluated by comparing predicted and observed streamflow, predicted evapotranspiration and evapotranspiration inferred from an atmospheric moisture budget analysis, and soil moisture storage changes for a seven-year period (1980-1986) using data from the Red-Arkansas River basins of the Southern Great Plains of the USA. The evaluations support the following suggestions: (a) The mean annual runoff of all models follows, at least generally, the strong climatic East-West gradient of precipitation, although most models predict too much runoff in the dry part of the basin. (b) The mean monthly storage change tends to be underestimated, even though all models capture reasonably well the seasonality of the evapotranspiration. (c) The wide range of conceptualizations used for generation of surface and subsurface runoff strongly affect runoff generation on seasonal, and shorter, time scales. Model responses to summer precipitation ranged from almost no summer runoff (one model) to the (more common) situation of persistent overprediction of summer runoff, especially in the driest part of the basin. (d) All models tended to underpredict evapotranspiration in summer and overpredict in winter. (e) Model-derived mean seasonal cycles of changes in soil moisture storage are qualitatively similar to those inferred from observations, but most models do not predict the decrease in April soil moisture storage and the increase in October that is inferred from observations

The project for intercomparison of land-surface parameterization schemes (PILPS) phase 2(c) Red-Arkansas River basin experiment: 1. Experiment description and summary intercomparisons

Sixteen land-surface schemes participating in the project for the Intercomparison of Land-surface Schemes (PILPS) Phase 2(c) were run using 10 years (1979-1988) of forcing data for the Red-Arkansas River basins in the Southern Great Plains region of the United States. Forcing data (precipitation, incoming radiation and surface meteorology) and land-surface characteristics (soil and vegetation parameters) were provided to each of the participating schemes. Two groups of runs are presented. (1) Calibration-validation runs, using data from six small catchments distributed across the modeling domain. These runs were designed to test the ability of the schemes to transfer information about model parameters to other catchments and to the computational grid boxes. (2) Base-runs, using data for 1979-1988, designed to evaluate the ability of the schemes to reproduce measured energy and water fluxes over multiple seasonal cycles across a climatically diverse, continental-scale basin. All schemes completed the base-runs but five schemes chose not to calibrate. Observational data (from 1980-1986) including daily river flows and monthly basin total evaporation estimated through an atmospheric budget analysis, were used to evaluate model performance. In general, the results are consistent with earlier PILPS experiments in terms of differences among models in predicted water and energy fluxes. The mean annual net radiation varied between 80 and 105 W m-2 (excluding one model). The mean annual Bowen ratio varied from 0.52 to 1.73 (also excluding one model) as compared to the data-estimated value of 0.92. The run-off ratios varied from a low of 0.02 to a high of 0.41, as compared to an observed value of 0.15. In general, those schemes that did not calibrate performed worse, not only on the validation catchments, but also at the scale of the entire modeling domain. This suggests that further PILPS experiments on the value of calibration need to be carried out