Revealing microcystin-LR ecotoxicity to earthworm (Eisenia fetida) at the intestinal cell level.

Potential adverse effects of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) on soil invertebrates have not been studied. Here we investigated the mechanism of MC-LR toxicity to earthworm (Eisenia fetida) intestine at the individual level and at the cellular level. The results showed an inverse relationship between the bodyweight and survival rate of earthworms over exposure time- and MC-LR doses in soil. Dose-dependent intestinal lesions and disturbances of enzymatic activities (e.g., cellulase, Na+/K+-ATPase, and AChE) were observed, which resulted in intestinal dysfunction. Excessive reactive oxygen species generation led to DNA damage and lipid peroxidation of intestinal cells. The oxidative damage to DNA prolonged cell cycle arrest at the G2/M-phase transition in mitosis, thus stimulating and accelerating apoptosis in earthworm intestine. MC-LR target earthworm intestine tissue. MC-LR at low concentrations can damage earthworm intestine regardless of exposure routes (oral or contact). High toxicity of MC-LR to earthworms delineates its ecological risks to terrestrial ecosystems.

Metabolic benefits of rivaroxaban in non-valvular atrial fibrillation patients after radiofrequency catheter ablation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Rivaroxaban is a new oral anticoagulant for stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), which has less drug-food interaction than warfarin. We conducted this prospective randomized study to evaluate the metabolic benefits as well as the safety and efficacy with rivaroxaban versus warfarin in patients with NVAF following radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA). METHODS: From April to July 2014, 60 patients with NVAF undergoing RFCA were prospectively enrolled in our study. Following RFCA, all patients were randomly assigned to receive rivaroxaban (Group R, n=30) or warfarin (Group W, n=30). Metabolic indices including serum total protein, albumin, globulin, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) as well as bleeding, stroke, and systemic thromboembolism events were evaluated and compared during follow-up after 15, 30, 60, and 90 d of RFCA procedure. RESULTS: Serum total protein, albumin, globulin, and HDL levels were all significantly elevated at each follow-up stage in Group R when compared to the baseline (P<0.05 respectively). In Group W, the metabolic indices decreased at first and then had an increasing trend. There were no deaths or thromboembolic complications in each group. The prevalence of total bleeding complications was similar between Group R and Group W (11/30, 36.7% vs. 10/30, 33.3%, P=0.79). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with NVAF receiving rivaroxaban after RFCA procedures appear to benefit from a metabolic perspective compared with warfarin, providing practical clinical reference for the choice of the anticoagulant. Rivaroxaban seems to be as safe and effective in preventing thromboembolic events as warfarin for these patients.

[In-Flight Radiometric Calibration for ZY-3 Satellite Multispectral Sensor by Modified Reflectance-Based Method].

Through integrating multi-spectral sensor characteristics of ZY-3 satellite, a modified reflectance-based method is proposed and used to achieve ZY-3 satellite multispectral sensor in-flight radiometric calibration. This method chooses level 1A image as data source and establishes geometric model to get an accurate observation geometric parameters at calibration site according to the information provided in image auxiliary documentation, which can reduce the influences on the calibration accuracy from image resampling and observation geometry errors. We use two-point and multi-points methods to calculate the absolute radiometric calibration coefficients of ZY-3 satellite multispectral sensor based on the large campaign at Dongying city, Shan Dong province. Compared with ZY-3 official calibration coefficients, multi-points method has higher accuracy than two-point method. Through analyzing the dispersion between each calibration point and the fitting line, we find that the residual error of water calibration site is larger than others, which of green band is approximately 67.39%. Treating water calibration site as an error, we filter it out using 95.4% confidence level as standard and recalculate the calibration coefficients with multi-points method. The final calibration coefficients show that the relative differences of the first three bands are less than 2% and the last band is less than 5%, which manifests that the proposed radiometric calibration method can obtain accurate and reliable calibration coefficients and is useful for other similar satellites in future.