Characterization of lead-recycling facility emissions at various workplaces: Major insights for sanitary risks assessment

Most available studies on lead smelter emissions deal with the environmental impact of outdoor particles, but only a few focus on air quality at workplaces. The objective of this study is to physically and chemically characterize the Pb-rich particles emitted at different workplaces in a lead recycling plant. A multiscale characterization was conducted from bulk analysis to the level of individual particles, to assess the particles properties in relation with Pb speciation and availability. Process PM from various origins were sampled and then compared; namely Furnace and Refining PM respectively present in the smelter and at refinery workplaces, Emissions PM present in channeled emissions. These particles first differed by their morphology and size distribution, with finer particles found in emissions. Differences observed in chemical composition could be explained by the industrial processes. All PM contained the same major phases (Pb, PbS, PbO, PbSO4 and PbO·PbSO4) but differed on the nature and amount of minor phases. Due to high content in PM, Pb concentrations in the CaCl2 extractant reached relatively high values (40mgL−1). However, the ratios (soluble/total) of CaCl2 exchangeable Pb were relatively low (<0.02%) in comparison with Cd (up to 18%). These results highlight the interest to assess the soluble fractions of all metals (minor and major) and discuss both total metal concentrations and ratios for risk evaluations. In most cases metal extractability increased with decreasing size of particles, in particular, lead exchangeability was highest for channeled emissions. Such type of study could help in the choice of targeted sanitary protection procedures and for further toxicological investigations. In the present context, particular attention is given to Emissions and Furnace PM. Moreover, exposure to other metals than Pb should be considered

2016 Ruby Yearbook

A digitized copy of the 2016 Ruby, the Ursinus College yearbook.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ruby/1120/thumbnail.jp

Use of Direct Thaw Insemination to Establish Pregnancies with Frozen–Thawed Semen from a Standard Jack

Pregnancy rates reported after artificial insemination with frozen–thawed jack spermatozoa have been relatively low compared with those attained in other species. Cholesterol is known to influence post-thaw fertility of both jack and stallion semen, and altering the amount of cholesterol in the freezing extender may help improve the fertility of frozen–thawed jack semen samples. In this study, we report clinical work that was performed using semen samples collected from a single jack. Samples were extended in EZ Mixin OF and then slowly cooled to 5°C. Extended semen samples were centrifuged at 400 × g for 10 minutes and the supernatant was discarded. Spermatozoa were resuspended in freezing medium to a final concentration of 400 × 106 cells/mL and were later frozen in liquid nitrogen vapor. Freezing extender treatments containing 2% ethylene glycol included the following: (1) 20% egg yolk (EY), (2) 5% EY, and (3) 20% EY + 60 mM hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). For this study, a total of 28 mares aged 2 to 18 years was used over five breeding seasons (82 total cycles). Mares were administered human chorionic gonadotropin to induce ovulation when the dominant follicle was ≥35 mm in diameter. They were inseminated within 6 hours before ovulation and again within 6 hours after ovulation. Pregnancy rates obtained were as follows: (1) 6.25% (one of 15 matings) for 20% EY, (2) 46.5% (20 of 43 matings) for 5% EY, and (3) 58.5% (14 of 24 matings) for 20% EY + 60 mM β-CD. These data suggest that binding of cholesterol with β-CD enhances post-thaw fertility of jack semen samples. We conclude that acceptable pregnancy rates could be achieved with frozen–thawed jack semen samples cryopreserved in 5% EY or 20% EY + 60 mM β-CD using direct post-thaw insemination

1958 Heights Yearbook

Contains images and information about Assumption College students, faculty, athletic teams, and other student clubs or activities.https://digitalcommons.assumption.edu/heights/1001/thumbnail.jp

Learning Phrase Representations using RNN Encoder-Decoder for Statistical Machine Translation

In this paper, we propose a novel neural network model called RNN Encoder-Decoder that consists of two recurrent neural networks (RNN). One RNN encodes a sequence of symbols into a fixed-length vector representation, and the other decodes the representation into another sequence of symbols. The encoder and decoder of the proposed model are jointly trained to maximize the conditional probability of a target sequence given a source sequence. The performance of a statistical machine translation system is empirically found to improve by using the conditional probabilities of phrase pairs computed by the RNN Encoder-Decoder as an additional feature in the existing log-linear model. Qualitatively, we show that the proposed model learns a semantically and syntactically meaningful representation of linguistic phrases.Comment: EMNLP 201

BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with self-reported empathy

Empathy is an important driver of human social behaviors and presents genetic roots that have been studied in neuroimaging using the intermediate phenotype approach. Notably, the Val66Met polymorphism of the Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene has been identified as a potential target in neuroimaging studies based on its influence on emotion perception and social cognition, but its impact on self-reported empathy has never been documented. Using a neurogenetic approach, we investigated the association between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and self-reported empathy (Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index; IRI) in a sample of 110 young adults. Our results indicate that the BDNF genotype is significantly associated with the linear combination of the four facets of the IRI, one of the most widely used self-reported empathy questionnaire. Crucially, the effect of BDNF Val66Met goes beyond the variance explained by two polymorphisms of the oxytocin transporter gene previously associated with empathy and its neural underpinnings (OXTR rs53576 and rs2254298). These results represent the first evidence suggesting a link between the BDNF gene and self-reported empathy and warrant further studies of this polymorphism due to its potential clinical significance

DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER MOVEMENT ACROSS LAKE SUPERIOR’S TERRESTRIAL-STREAM-COASTAL INTERFACE

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) represents a carbon pool that can be easily translocated between ecosystems with the movement of water. This study examines the controls on DOM quantity and character delivered to Lake Superior primarily during the snowmelt period. We employed long-term stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) data to determine quantity as well as absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy to analyze DOM structure. Our results indicate that an increasing trend in DOC concentrations, likely driven by decreases in acidity of precipitation, combined with slightly less annual runoff have resulted in relatively constant fluxes of DOM to Lake Superior. Additionally, our study displayed optical changes in DOM translocated from surface litter to deeper mineral soils that changed throughout the progression of snowmelt on different geomorphic aspects, but these changes did not reflect simultaneous pulses of snowmelt at the watershed scale. To aid in future monitoring of DOM translocated to Lake Superior via snowmelt, we developed a relationship between absorbance and dissolved organic carbon concentrations (DOC) for coastal Lake Superior and make recommendations for satellite retrievals of DOM absorbance as a proxy for DOC concentrations