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Non-ferrous metal smelting enterprises produce hundreds of thousands of tons of arsenic sulfide sludge (ASS) each year in China. Most of the ASS are stored at the companies without enough preventive measures. During the storage and natural drying process, arsenic sulfide is easily oxidized, thereby causing secondary pollution and increasing environmental risks. In this paper, experiments of simulated storage were used to study the release characteristics of heavy metals. During the simulated storage, the release concentrations of As, Pb, and Cd increased rapidly at first and then slowly. Although the total amount of arsenic released was the largest, the release ratio was in the order of Cd > Pb > As. The effects of different atmospheres and conditions on the release of arsenic and heavy metals were explored. The more the H2SO4 in the sludge, the higher the release concentration, and the addition of an appropriate amount of Ca(OH)2 is beneficial for reducing the release of heavy metals. Finally, SEM, XRD and TG-DTG techniques were carried out to confirm that the release of heavy metals was caused by the oxidation process resulting from the residual H2SO4 in the ASS and the air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The present study aimed to reflect the current situation of social participation in rural areas of China, willingness to participate in social activities, association between health-related quality of life and social participation, and factors related to social participation. Methods A total of 2644 rural adults aged 60 years and older were randomly selected and surveyed with a self-rating questionnaire. We used the unified definition of social participation in our study. The Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey was used to measure health-related quality of life. Results The overall engagement of social activities was 26%. Those who participated in social activities were more likely to have high scores of health-related quality of life. Older men with a high educational level (OR 1.59, 95% CI 1.01-2.29) living alone or with a spouse (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.08-2.12), high objective social support (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00-1.17) and high support utilization (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.07-1.21) were inclined to engage in social participation. Older women with high individual income (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.25-2.43), single marital status (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.11-2.10), normal weight (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.10-3.34), overweight (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.24-4.19), living alone or with a spouse (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.20-2.00), objective social support (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.04-1.18) and subjective social support (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.10-1.20) were more willing to engage in social participation. Conclusions Engagement in social activities is relatively low in rural areas, and associations of willingness and health-related quality of life with social participation were found. Policy-makers and government workers should make appropriate types of encouragement policies around social participation for older adults in rural areas. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2017; 17: 1593-1602. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (PACs) such as nitrated-PAHs (NPAHs), oxygenated-PAHs (OPAHs) and methyl-PAHs (MPAHs) have attracted significant concern due to derivatives have greater potential to be more toxic at low environmental concentrations compared to their PPAHs, particularly in petrochemical industrial region and its surrounding areas surface soils in China. Hence, this article provides an insight into the fate, sources, impacts, and relevance to the external environment of PAH-derivatives based on important emissions source. Moreover, prospective health risk due to their exposure has also been discussed. In this study, the concentration (10 -3  ng/g) of Ʃ18PPAHs, Ʃ11MPAHs, Ʃ12NPAHs, and Ʃ4OPAHs in the park were 9.67 ± 1.40, 3.24 ± 0.54, 0.03 ± 0.02 and 0.19 ± 0.65, respectively, which were 4.47, 3.89, 2.04 and 1.17 times than of them surrounding the region. A decreasing trend of the low molecular weight (2-4Rings) contribution to the total amount of PAHs, while the fraction of high molecular weight (5-6Rings) species showed the opposite trend. According to the principal component analysis (PCA) and diagnostic ratios indicated PAHs in the soil samples have mixed sources from industrial activities, solid fuel combustion, and heavy traffic. Despite the high concentrations of MPAHs and OPAHs, the toxicity equivalency quotients (TEQs) of them were not calculated due to the lack of toxic equivalent factors (TEF), thus current studies on PAH and derivatives could have underestimated their exposure risks. The quality and sustainable management of soils are crucial for human health and sustainable development, while there is lack of public awareness of the severe issue of soil pollution. It is recommended to conduct more intensive monitoring and regional assessments in the future., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Background: The Cangshan National Nature Reserve of Dali City was adopted as the research object to clarify the vertical distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and vegetation types at different elevations in western Yunnan., Methods: The contents of SOC, light fraction organic carbon (LFOC), heavy fraction organic carbon (HFOC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) in the 0-30 cm soil layer at different elevations (2,400, 2,600, 2,800, 3,000, 3,200, 3,400, and 3,600 m) were determined, and the above-ground vegetation types at different elevations were investigated., Results: Results showed that the SOC content was the highest in 0-20 cm surface soil and gradually decreased with the deepening of the soil layer. It increased then decreased with the increase in elevation, and it peaked at 3,000 m. The LFOC content was between 1.28 and 7.3515 g kg -1 . It exhibited a decreasing trend and little change in profile distribution. The HFOC content ranged between 12.9727 and 23.3708 g kg -1 ; it increased then decreased with the increase in profile depth. The WSOC content was between 235.5783 and 392.3925 mg kg -1 , and the response sensitivity to elevation change was weak. With the increase in elevation, WSOC/SOC and LFOC/SOC showed a similar trend, whereas HFOC presented an opposite trend. This observation indicates that the active organic carbon content at 3,600 m was lower than that at 2,400 m, and the middle elevation was conducive to the storage of active organic carbon. Meanwhile, the physical and chemical properties of soil affected the distribution of organic carbon to a certain extent. The vegetation type survey showed that the above-ground dominant species within 2,400-2,800 m were Pinus yunnanensis and Pinus armandii . Many evergreen and mixed coniferous broadleaf forests were distributed from 3,000 m to 3,200 m. Species of Abies delavayi were mainly distributed from 3,400 m to 3,600 m. This research serves as a reference for the study of forest soil carbon stability in high-elevation areas and plays an important role in formulating reasonable land use management policies, protecting forest soil, reducing organic carbon loss, and investigating the carbon sequestration stability of forest ecosystems., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests., (©2024 Yang et al.)

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and includes cancers arising from the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx. Genome-wide association studies have found several genetic variants related to the risk of SCCHN; however, they could only explain a small fraction of the heritability. Thus, more susceptibility loci associated with SCCHN need to be identified., Methods: An association study was conducted by genotyping 555 patients with SCCHN and 1367 controls in a Chinese population. Single-variant association analysis was conducted on 63 373 SNPs, and the promising variants were then confirmed by a two-stage validation with 1875 SCCHN cases and 4637 controls. Bioinformatics analysis and functional assays were applied to uncover the potential pathogenic mechanism of the promising variants and genes associated with SCCHN., Results: We first identified three novel genetic variants significantly associated with the risk of SCCHN (p=7.45×10 -7 for rs2517611 at 6p22.1, p=1.76×10 -9 for rs2524182 at 6p21.33 and p=2.17×10 -10 for rs3131018 at 6p21.33). Further analysis and biochemical assays showed that rs3094187, which was in a region in high linkage disequilibrium with rs3131018, could modify TCF19 expression by regulating the binding affinity of the transcription factor SREBF1 to the promoter of TCF19 . In addition, experiments revealed that the inhibition of TCF19 may affect several important pathways involved in tumourigenesis and attenuate the cell proliferation and migration of SCCHN., Conclusion: These findings offer important evidence that functional genetic variants could contribute to development of SCCHN and that TCF19 may function as a putative susceptibility gene for SCCHN., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Lead smelting slag (LSS) has been identified as general industrial solid waste, which is produced from the pyrometallurgical treatment of the Shuikoushan process for primary lead production in China. The LSS-based geopolymer was synthesized after high-energy ball milling. The effect of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) on the synthesis parameters of the geopolymer was optimized. Under the best parameters of the geopolymer (modulus of water glass was 1-1.5, dosage of water glass (W(SiO 2 +Na 2 O)) was 5% and water-to-binder ratio was 0.2), the UCS reached 76.09 MPa after curing for 28 days. The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) leaching concentration of Zn from LSS fell from 167.16 to 93.99 mg/L after alkali-activation, which was below the limit allowed. Meanwhile, C-S-H and the geopolymer of the hydration products were identified from the geopolymer. In addition, the behavior of iron was also discussed. Then, the hydration process characteristics of the LSS-based geopolymer were proposed. The obtained results showed that Ca 2+ and Fe 2+ occupied the site of the network as modifiers in the glass phase and then dissociated from the glass network after the water glass activation. At the same time, C-S-H, the geopolymer and Fe(OH) 2 gel were produced, and then the Fe(OH) 2 was easily oxidized to Fe(OH) 3 under the air curing conditions. Consequently, the conclusion was drawn that LSS was an implementable raw material for geopolymer production.

Background: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the discrimination performance of the 2014 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk-prediction model for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)., Methods: We searched the PubMed, Embase and Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang, and China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc) databases for English and Chinese articles validating the risk model. The model's discrimination performance with cutoff points of 4% and 6% based on extracted information was calculated. The extracted C statistic and calculated area under the curve (AUC) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of all studies were weighted and summarized. Heterogeneity was quantified through I 2 statistics; sensitivity analysis and publication bias were assessed with Egger's test., Results: We included 13 studies validating the model's usefulness. We concluded that the model has excellent specificity, although it has poor sensitivity when setting a recommended cutoff value of 6% for identifying high-risk patients with HCM. In addition, there was moderate discrimination value (global C statistic = 0.75, 95% CI, 0.67-0.83; cutoff point of ≥ 4%; AUC = 0.69, 95% CI, 0.62-0.75; cutoff point of ≥ 6%; AUC = 0.65, 95% CI, 0.59-0.72). Subgroup analysis by region showed slightly weaker predictive ability for North America. There was no significant publication bias (all P > 0.05); sensitivity analysis did not change the results significantly., Conclusions: The 2014 ESC HCM SCD risk-prediction model has excellent specificity and poor sensitivity and has moderate discrimination performance. In addition, it may have lower prediction value for North America compared with other regions., (Copyright © 2019 Canadian Cardiovascular Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Long axis strain (LAS) is a parameter derived from standard cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. However, the prognostic value of biventricular LAS in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is unknown., Methods: Patients with HCM (n = 384) and healthy volunteers (n = 150) were included in the study. Left ventricular (LV)-LAS was defined as the percentage change in the length measured from the epicardial border of the LV apex to the midpoint of a line connecting the mitral annulus at end-systole and end-diastole. Right ventricular (RV)-LAS represented the percentage change of length between epicardial border of the LV apex to the midpoint of a line connecting the tricuspid annulus at end-systole and end-diastole. The primary endpoint was a combination of all-cause death and sudden cardiac death aborted by appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator discharge and cardiopulmonary resuscitation after syncope. The secondary endpoint was a combination of the primary endpoint and hospitalization for congestive heart failure., Results: Twenty-nine patients (7.6%) achieved the primary endpoint, and the secondary endpoint occurred in 66 (17.2%) patients. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, RV-LAS was an independent prognostic factor for the primary (hazard ratio (HR), 1.13) and secondary (HR, 1.11) endpoints. In the subgroup of patients with a normal RV ejection fraction (EF) (>45.0%, n = 345), impaired RV-LAS was associated with adverse outcomes and might add incremental prognostic value to RVEF and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (p < 0.01)., Conclusions: RV-LAS is an independent predictor of adverse prognosis in HCM in addition to RVEF and TAPSE., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Unintentionally produced persistent organic pollutants (UPOPs) include polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs), pentachlorobenzene (PeCBz), and hexachlorobenzene (HxCBz). With the booming of municipal waste incinerators (MWIs) in China, the emission of UPOPs has generated great concern. As an alternative technology of dioxin control, catalytic decomposition has not been used in China, mainly due to the absence of national demonstration projects. Also, the simultaneous removal of various UPOPs has not been well investigated.In this study, a pilot-scale selective catalytic oxidative (SCO) system using a self-developed honeycomb catalyst was built and tested in a typical municipal waste incinerator (MWI) of China. The original concentration of PCDD/Fs in flue gas after the treatment of activated carbon injection (ACI) still exceeded the national emission standard (0.1 ng I-TEQ/Nm 3 ), while the concentrations of PeCBz and HxCBz were one order of magnitude higher than that of PCDD/Fs. For the testing temperature varying from 300 to 200 °C, the removal efficiency of PCDD/Fs range from 39 to 95 %, followed by dl-PCBs with the range of 56-89 %. PeCBz and HxCBz were also removed, though their removal efficiencies were lower than those of PCDD/Fs and dl-PCBs. Both temperature and degree of chlorination influence the removal efficiencies.