The immunotoxic effects of a herbicide, 3,4-dichloropropionanilide, on murine macrophage cytokine production.

Propanil (3,4-dichloropropionanilide) is a herbicide that is used for post-emergence control of weeds on rice, wheat, and potato production in the United States. The first hypothesis of our study is: propanil significantly inhibits cytokine production by macrophages which may contribute to its overall immunotoxicity. We demonstrate that i.p. propanil exposure significantly inhibited IL-6, TNF-{dollar}\\alpha{dollar} and IL-1{dollar}\\beta{dollar} production by macrophages. Acute oral exposure with propanil demonstrates that both 3 and 7 day post-exposure cytokine production by macrophages was reduced. However, only 7 day post-exposure with the primary metabolite of propanil, 3,4-dichloroaniline (DCA), resulted in the inhibition of cytokine production. Therefore, we conclude that the immediate inhibitory effects (3 day post-exposure) on cytokine production are due to the direct toxicity of propanil, while the delayed inhibitory effects (7 day post-exposure) are caused by the further breakdown of DCA. The in vitro propanil or DCA exposure confirms this conclusion by showing that it took 10 times the concentration of DCA than that of propanil to inhibit cytokine production at a similar degree. Since IL-6, TNF-{dollar}\\alpha{dollar} and IL-1{dollar}\\beta{dollar} are important multifunctional proinflammatory cytokines involved in generating both humoral and cell-mediated immune response, the reduction of all three cytokines by propanil treatment may contribute to the previously demonstrated overall immunotoxicity of propanil. The second hypothesis of our study is: propanil affects macrophage cytokine production at the level of pre-transcription. Northern blot analysis shows that propanil reduces IL-6 and TNF-{dollar}\\alpha{dollar} production at the message level. Coincident reductions in protein and message levels point to a pre-translational target for propanil. The mRNA stability studies demonstrate that the degradation rates for IL-6 and TNF-{dollar}\\alpha{dollar} mRNA were not affected. However, the release of intracellular Ca{dollar}\\sp{lcub}2+{rcub}{dollar} in LPS-activated macrophages was completely abrogated by propanil. Moreover, the level of inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP{dollar}\\sb3{dollar}) was increased in propanil-treated macrophages. Structural comparison of propanil and IP{dollar}\\sb3{dollar} molecules using Alchemy{dollar}\\sp{lcub}\\rm TM{rcub}{dollar} computer program demonstrates sufficient similarities between the two molecules. Thus, we conclude that the action of IP{dollar}\\sb3{dollar} is blocked by propanil leading to the abrogation of intracellular Ca{dollar}\\sp{lcub}2+{rcub}{dollar} influx, as a result, the LPS-induced cytokine production is inhibited. The proposed model of propanil\u27s action may account for the broad immunotoxicity of propanil, since IP{dollar}\\sb3{dollar} is a common signal used by many different types of cells in response to various extracellular stimuli. Taken together, our findings provide an explanation for the propanil-induced overall immunotoxicity at the cellular level, and a mechanism for propanil\u27s action at the molecular level

Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Nanostructured Metal Oxide

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Altruism in nursing from 2012 to 2022: A scoping review

BackgroundBeing a nurse with non-altruistic orientation exists and altruism decline is being challenged as never before, which would be a disaster for medicine if left unnoticed.PurposeTo describe the meaning of altruism and altruistic behaviors in nursing, and to discuss dilemmas we face today.MethodCochrane, PROSPERO, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Scopus, Embase, ProQuest, and CNKI were searched for original research published in English or Chinese from 2012 to February 2022.ResultsBy screening 13 studies came from 12 different countries described altruism and altruistic behavior together were included in. Altruism has been described as value, vocation, or professionalism in nursing which can reflect nurses' compassion, level of expertise, and quality of care. Altruistic nursing care, body donation, financial endowment, volunteering, sharing, benefiting patients maximum, and helping colleagues represented most of the altruistic behaviors in nursing. There is a vacant that not any assessment tool designed for measuring altruism in nurse groups. Interventions from curriculums in class and support of organizations with psychological methods could be helpful to improve the nurses' level of altruism.ConclusionAltruism and altruistic behaviors in the past decades were described. A new concept of altruism in nursing was proposed based on the original meaning and the current changes, and interventions for promoting altruism and some of the dilemmas faced today were synthesized

Vertical deformation monitoring of the suspension bridge tower using GNSS: a case study of the Forth Road Bridge in the UK

The vertical deformation monitoring of a suspension bridge tower is of paramount importance to maintain the operational safety since nearly all forces are eventually transferred as the vertical stress on the tower. This paper analyses the components affecting the vertical deformation and attempts to reveal its deformation mechanism. Firstly, we designed a strategy for high-precision GNSS data processing aiming at facilitating deformation extraction and analysis. Then, 33 months of vertical deformation time series of the southern tower of the Forth Road Bridge (FRB) in the UK were processed, and the accurate subsidence and the parameters of seasonal signals were estimated based on a classic function model that has been widely studied to analyse GNSS coordinate time series. We found that the subsidence rate is about 4.7 mm/year, with 0.1 mm uncertainty. Meanwhile, a 15-month meteorological dataset was utilised with a thermal expansion model (TEM) to explain the effects of seasonal signals on tower deformation. The amplitude of the annual signals correlated quite well that obtained by the TEM, with the consistency reaching 98.9%, demonstrating that the thermal effect contributes significantly to the annual signals. The amplitude of daily signals displays poor consistency with the ambient temperature data. However, the phase variation tendencies between the daily signals of the vertical deformation and the ambient temperature are highly consistent after February 2016. Finally, the potential contribution of the North Atlantic Drift (NAD) to the characteristics of annual and daily signals is discussed because of the special geographical location of the FRB. Meanwhile, this paper emphasizes the importance of collecting more detailed meteorological and other loading data for the investigation of the vertical deformation mechanism of the bridge towers over time with the support of GNSS