Anthropogenic activities affecting metal transfer and health risk in plastic-shed soil-vegetable-human system via changing soil pH and metal contents.

Accumulation and concomitant risk of metals in plastic-shed soil (PSS)-vegetable system around industrial areas have attracted growing public concern recently, while limited studies have focused on human bioaccessible metals in various plastic-shed vegetables and health risk calculated using bioaccessible metals. Previous studies showed that intensive farming and industrial activities could prominently affect metal migration from PSS to vegetables via altering PSS pH, total and bioavailable metal contents. In contrast, whether changes in PSS pH and metal contents control bioaccessible metals in vegetables and health risk is still unknown. For PSS management and sustainable plastic-shed vegetable production in the areas with rapid industrialization, 41 PSS and 32 plastic-shed vegetable samples were sampled from the industrial areas of Yangtze River Delta, China to systematically clarify the specific connections among anthropogenic activities, soil pH and metal contents, and metal transfer and health risk in PSS-vegetable-human system. The results indicated that Cr and Cd contents in 15.6% and 9.38% of vegetable samples exceeded the allowable limits in China. Tolerable cancer risk existed and was mainly induced by bioaccessible Cr in vegetables. Decreased PSS pH mainly caused by heavy use of nitrogen fertilizers increased bioavailable Ni, Cd, Zn, Pb, and Cu in PSS and subsequently enhanced their total and bioaccessible contents in vegetables. Prominent Cr accumulation in PSS induced by industrial wastewater irrigation exacerbated Cr uptake by vegetables, which increased bioaccessible Cr in vegetables and contributed greatly to cancer risk. To reduce transfer and health risk especially of Cd and Cr in the food chain, some appropriate measures related to source control and remediation should be proposed for preventing and mitigating PSS acidification and Cr accumulation.

Impacts of Cetylpyridinium Chloride on the Survival, Development, Behavior, and Oxidative Stress of Early-Life-Stage Zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) is a widely used surfactant that has been detected in various water ecosystems. However, knowledge on the toxicity of CPC to fish remains scarce. Here, we examined the survival, development, behavior, and oxidative stress in the early life stages of zebrafish exposed to CPC (0, 4, 40, 400, and 1200 µg/L) until 120 h post-fertilization (hpf). Results showed that CPC induced significant mortality at 400 and 1200 µg/L, with a 120 h-EC50 value of 175.9 µg/L. CPC significantly decreased the heart rate of embryos (48 hpf; 4-400 µg/L) and larvae (72 hpf; 40 and 400 µg/L). At 120 hpf, CPC exhibited a dual effect on the locomotion activity (decreased at 400 µg/L and increased at 4 and 40 µg/L) and elevated the reactive oxygen species, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione levels in zebrafish larvae at 400 µg/L. In addition, a correlation analysis revealed that CPC-induced oxidative stress might play a critical role in mediating the cardiac and behavioral toxicity of CPC to zebrafish larvae. Our findings suggest that CPC may disturb the fish's development, behavior, and oxidative status at environmentally relevant concentrations, which should not be ignored when assessing its potential risks to aquatic ecosystems.

DeepEdge: A Novel Appliance Identification Edge Platform for Data Gathering, Capturing and Labeling.

With the development of the Internet of Things for smart grid, the requirement for appliance monitoring has become an important topic. The first and most important step in appliance monitoring is to identify the type of appliance. Most of the existing appliance identification platforms are cloud based, thus they consume large computing resources and memory. Therefore, it is necessary to explore an edge identification platform with a low cost. In this work, a novel appliance identification edge platform for data gathering, capturing and labeling is proposed. Experiments show that this platform can achieve an average appliance identification accuracy of 98.5% and improve the accuracy of non-intrusive load disaggregation algorithms.

[Detection and clinical significance of phospholipase A2 in semen of male infertile patients].

OBJECTIVES: To explore the clinical application of anti-human seminal plasma phospholipase A2 (PLA2) monoclonal antibody (McAb) for male infertility. METHODS: Enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA), immunocytochemistry(ICC), as well as flow cytometry (FCM) analysis were established using two strains anti-human seminal plasma PLA2 McAb prepared by our laboratory to detect the PLA2 content in human seminal plasma and the anterior head region of spermatozoa, respectively. Then the PLA2 content in male infertile patients were compared with that in normal control with fertility. The seminal routine analysis was performed by computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA). RESULTS: The PLA2 content of infertile groups were (31.13 +/- 14.49) ng/ml in azoospermic patients, (17.71 +/- 12.45) ng/ml in oligospermic patients and (16.46 +/- 11.31) ng/ml in patients with normal sperm density, which were all higher than that of normal controls [(8.09 +/- 3.15) ng/ml, P < 0.01]; There was significantly negative correlation between PLA2 content in seminal plasma and sperm density(r = -0.602, P < 0.05), while there was insignificant correlation between PLA2 and sperm motility or percentage of motility. The PLA2 content in the anterior head region of spermatozoon of male infertile groups was significantly lower than that of normal controls by ICC and FCM(P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: PLA2 in human seminal plasma is closely related to male fertility, and the PLA2 deficiency in the head of spermatozoa may be one of the reasons causing male infertility. The methods detecting PLA2 content in seminal plasma and the head of spermatozoa can provide powerful evidences for exploring the mechanism of male infertility.

[Construction and identification for cell strain of anti-human seminal plasma phospholipase A2 monoclonal antibody].

OBJECTIVES: To establish and evaluate the anti-human seminal plasma phospholipase A2 (PLA2) monoclonal antibody (McAb). METHODS: After having been separated and purified from human seminal plasma by PEG precipitation, Sephacryl S-300 column chromatography, DEAE-Sephadex A-25 column chromatography and HA column chromatography, PLA2 was regarded as an antigen to immune BALB/C mouse to produce anti-human seminal plasma PLA2 McAb. The PLA2 McAb sensitivity and specificity were performed by ELISA technique and Western-blot analysis, respectively. RESULTS: The molecular weight of PLA2 depurated with 245 fold purification from human seminal plasma was about 34,900, while the sensitivity and typing of its McAb were 1:5(6)-1:5(8) and IgM (kappa) with a satisfied Western-Blot results. CONCLUSIONS: The PLA2, which had not been reported in international and domestic papers, may be a new type of PLA2. The establish of its McAb will provide significant tools for the research of the relationship between PLA2 in human seminal plasma and male fertility.