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The 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS), the largest in the national history, has negatively impacted the entire environment and ecosystem along the west coast of South Korea. Although many studies have reported the damages and impacts from the HSOS, quantitative assessment evaluating the recovery time and status have not been documented. Here, we first address the recovery timeline of the HSOS, by comprehensive analyses of 10-years accumulated data in quantitative manner. Concentrations of residual oils in seawater, sediments, and oysters rapidly dropped to backgrounds in 16, 75, and 33 months, respectively. Also, damaged benthic communities of intertidal and subtidal areas were fully recovered only after ~6 years. The present results collectively indicated unexpectedly fast recovery of the damaged environment and ecosystem from such a huge oil spill. The high tidal mixing (~9 m tidal height) and intensive human cleanup (~1.2 million volunteers) at the initial cleanup period might have contributed to rapid recovery; cf. 4–5 times faster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. However, potential risk to human health remains unclear. Thus, it is warranted to conduct more in depth epidemiological studies to address chronic health effects associated with the cleanup volunteers as well as the local residents who have been living nearby the oil spill impacted sites. Keywords: Oil spill, Recovery, Benthic community, Human health, Crude oil, Sediments

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are recognized as one emerging group of environmental contaminants, capturing worldwide attention. These chemicals, closely connected to anthropogenic activities, are mainly transported through aquatic environments and reach coastal areas, eventually entering ocean offshore. Thus, this study concentrated on the 30 PPCPs in coastal waters of the Yellow and Bohai seas (77 sites), a fast-growing area with intensive anthropogenic activities. In general, the total concentrations of PPCPs in Chinese coastal waters (0.880–1194 ng L−1) greatly varied and were relatively greater than those (9.91–442 ng L−1) in Korean coastal waters. Sulfamethoxazole, sulfamethazine, oxytetracycline, ofloxacin, roxithromycin, anhydro-erythromycin, and caffeine were the seven predominant PPCPs in the coastal waters of study area. Further, we established the Predicted PPCPs Contamination Indicator (PPCI) to address potential anthropogenic activities being associated with site-specific PPCPs contamination. Three anthropogenic factors to PPCPs contamination were proven as the most influential, including (1) quantity of wastewater discharge, (2) gross product of meat, poultry, eggs and milk, and (3) gross aquatic product. The relatively high PPCI values appeared in Tianjin, Dalian, Tangshan, Yantai, and Qingdao in China and Gyeonggi and Jeonbuk in South Korea, which exhibited fairly good consistency with the corresponding PPCPs concentrations. A mini-review of the global PPCPs distributions revealed that seven priority PPCPs found in this study distributed widely in Asia rather than Europe, North America, and Australia. In general, global PPCPs contamination also reflected site- and region-specific distributions, suggesting varying usages and sources cross the region and/or country. Finally, the risk assessment suggested that ofloxacin and anhydro-erythromycin, with 36.4% and 23.4% sites higher than medium risks respectively, posed relatively high risks to sensitive algal species, Microcystis aeruginosa and Selenastrum capricornutum. Overall, the ecological risks of exposure of PPCPs in the Yellow and Bohai seas were higher compared to other regions of the world, thus the bilateral management of PPCPs between China and South Korea needs an immediate attention. Keywords: PPCPs, Coastal area, Spatial distribution, Anthropogenic activity, Ecological risk assessment

Several studies have investigated the use of invasive and non-invasive stimulation methods to enhance nerve regeneration, and varying degrees of effectiveness have been reported. However, due to the use of different parameters in these studies, a fair comparison between the effectiveness of invasive and non-invasive stimulation methods is not possible. The present study compared the effectiveness of invasive and non-invasive stimulation using similar parameters. Eighteen Sprague Dawley rats were classified into three groups: the iES group stimulated with fully implantable device, the tES group stimulated with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), and the injury group (no stimulation). The iES and tES groups received stimulation for 6 weeks starting immediately after the injury. Motor function was evaluated using the sciatic functional index (SFI) every week. The SFI values increased over time in all groups; faster and superior functional recovery was observed in the iES group than in the tES group. Histological evaluation of the nerve sections and gastrocnemius muscle sections were performed every other week. The axon diameter and muscle fiber area in the iES group were larger, and the g-ratio in the iES group was closer to 0.6 than those in the tES group. To assess the cause of the difference in efficiency, a 3D rat anatomical model was used to simulate the induced electric fields in each group. A significantly higher concentration and intensity around the sciatic nerve was observed in the iES group than in the tES group. Vector field distribution showed that the field was orthogonal to the sciatic nerve spread in the tES group, whereas it was parallel in the iES group; this suggested that the tES group was less effective in nerve stimulation. The results indicated that even though rats in the TENS group showed better recovery than those in the injury group, it cannot replace direct stimulation yet because rats stimulated with the invasive method showed faster recovery and superior outcomes. This was likely attributable to the greater concentration and parallel distribution of electric field with respect to target nerve.

This study investigated the pollution caused by unregulated chemical substances in Korean residential environments. A TA tube was used for indoor air collection, and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry was used for the analysis of chemical substances. According to the results of this study, 13 substances out of the 16 analyzed chemicals were detected and, among them, the concentrations of phenol, α-pinene, and limonene within the indoor air were high. The average concentration of phenol was 32.7 µg/m3. α-pinene and limonene were detected, of which the highest concentrations were as 598.2 µg/m3 and 652.5 µg/m3, respectively. The maximum concentrations of these three substances exceeded the levels of the lowest concentration of interest. Notably, α-pinene and limonene were released from the wood itself. Wood has been widely used indoors as a natural building material and as furniture. Therefore, it was considered that this was the reason for the high the concentrations of the two substances in indoor air. However, we do not argue that the usage of wood should be reduced because of the results obtained in this study. Instead, we sµggest that it is important to reduce the emissions of α-pinene and limonene throµgh the processing of the wood, extending its drying period, and determining the most appropriate time of use.

Several Cissus species have been used and reported to possess medicinal benefits. However, the anti-inflammatory mechanisms of Cissus subtetragona have not been described. In this study, we examined the potential anti-inflammatory effects of C. subtetragona ethanol extract (Cs-EE) in vitro and in vivo, and investigated its molecular mechanism as well as its flavonoid content. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophage-like RAW264.7 cells and primary macrophages as well as LPS-induced acute lung injury (ALI) and HCl/EtOH-induced acute gastritis mouse models were utilized. Luciferase assays, immunoblotting analyses, overexpression strategies, and cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) were performed to identify the molecular mechanisms and targets of Cs-EE. Cs-EE concentration-dependently reduced the secretion of NO and PGE2, inhibited the expression of inflammation-related cytokines in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells, and decreased NF-κB- and AP-1-luciferase activity. Subsequently, we determined that Cs-EE decreased the phosphorylation events of NF-κB and AP-1 pathways. Cs-EE treatment also significantly ameliorated the inflammatory symptoms of HCl/EtOH-induced acute gastritis and LPS-induced ALI mouse models. Overexpression of HA-Src and HA-TAK1 along with CETSA experiments validated that inhibited inflammatory responses are the outcome of attenuation of Src and TAK1 activation. Taken together, these findings suggest that Cs-EE could be utilized as an anti-inflammatory remedy especially targeting against gastritis and acute lung injury by attenuating the activities of Src and TAK1.

Cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) cause a range of impairments in coordination, such as a spectrum of walking impairments ranging from mild gait imbalance to complete loss of mobility. Patients with CVA need personalized approaches tailored to their degree of walking impairment for effective rehabilitation. This paper aims to evaluate the validity of using various machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) classification models (support vector machine, Decision Tree, Perceptron, Light Gradient Boosting Machine, AutoGluon, SuperTML, and TabNet) for automated classification of walking assistant devices for CVA patients. We reviewed a total of 383 CVA patients’ (1623 observations) prescription data for eight different walking assistant devices from five hospitals. Among the classification models, the advanced tree-based classification models (LightGBM and tree models in AutoGluon) achieved classification results of over 90% accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score. In particular, AutoGluon not only presented the highest predictive performance (almost 92% in accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score, and 86.8% in balanced accuracy) but also demonstrated that the classification performances of the tree-based models were higher than that of the other models on its leaderboard. Therefore, we believe that tree-based classification models have potential as practical diagnosis tools for medical rehabilitation.

Carbon-doped TiZrN nanocomposite coatings were investigated for phase formation and wear behavior. They were prepared by laser carburization using carbon paste, and the thermal energy of the pulsed laser was limited to the range of 20 to 50%. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that the ratio of carbide (TiC, ZrC) increased as the thermal energy of the laser increased. The sp2/sp3 ratio increased by approximately 16% when the laser thermal energy was raised from 30 to 40%, and the formation of amorphous carbon was confirmed in the carbon-doped TiZrN coatings. As a result of microstructural analysis, the carbon-doped TiZrN nanocomposite was formed by an increase of hybrid bonds in expanded localized carbon clusters. Wear resistance was evaluated using a ball-on-disc tester, which showed that the friction coefficient decreased from 0.74 to 0.11 and the wear rate decreased from 7.63 × 10−6 mm3 (Nm)−1 to 1.26 × 10−6 mm3 (Nm)−1. In particular, the friction coefficient and wear rate improved by 71 and 66%, respectively, owing to the formation of carbon-doped TiZrN nanocomposite with amorphous carbon while the thermal energy was increased from 30 to 40%.

This paper presents a modified power factor correction (PFC) ON/OFF control and three-dimensional (3D) printed circuit board (PCB) design for a high-efficiency and high-power density onboard charger (OBC). By alternately operating one of two boost modules of the PFC stage at a 50% or less load condition, the proposed PFC control can reduce the load-independent power loss of the PFC stage, such as core loss and capacitor charging loss of switches. It enables OBCs to have high efficiency across a wide output power range and better thermal performance. The 3D-PCB design decouples a trade-off relationship of the PCB trace design and heat spreader design, increasing the power density of OBCs. A 3.3 kW prototype composed of an interleaved totem-pole bridgeless boost PFC converter and full-bridge (FB) LLC converter has been built and tested to verify the proposed PFC control and 3D-PCB effectiveness design. The prototype has 95.7% full power efficiency (98.2% PFC stage efficiency) and 52 W/in3 power density.

Conversion of low-grade waste heat into electricity is an important energy harvesting strategy. Here, the authors fabricate carbon nanotube aerogel-based thermo-electrochemical cells, which are potentially low-cost and relatively high-efficiency materials for this application.

Pyrimidine is a privileged scaffold in many synthetic compounds exhibiting diverse pharmacological activities, and is used for therapeutic applications in a broad spectrum of human diseases. In this study, we prepared a small set of pyrimidine libraries based on the structure of two hit compounds that were identified through the screening of an in-house library in order to identify an inhibitor of anoctamin 1 (ANO1). ANO1 is amplified in various types of human malignant tumors, such as head and neck, parathyroid, and gastrointestinal stromal tumors, as well as in breast, lung, and prostate cancers. After initial screening and further structure optimization, we identified Aa3 as a dose-dependent ANO1 blocker. This compound exhibited more potent anti-cancer activity in the NCI-H460 cell line, expressing high levels of ANO1 compared with that in A549 cells that express low levels of ANO1. Our results open a new direction for the development of small-molecule ANO1 blockers composed of a pyrimidine scaffold and a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic moiety, with drug-like properties.

Global air pollution regulations are becoming stricter for large diesel engines powering automobiles and ships. In the automotive sector, Euro 4 regulations came into force in January 2013 in accordance with European Union (EU) emission standards for heavy-duty diesel engines and are based on steady-state testing. In the marine sector, the International Maritime Organization(IMO) Maritime Environment Protection Committee(MEPC) is a group of experts who discuss all problems related to the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships, such as efforts to reduce ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce the harmful emissions from marine diesel engines, a wet-type exhaust gas cleaning system was developed in this study. As a test, seawater, electrolyzed water, and sodium hydroxide were sequentially injected into the exhaust gas. SO2 was reduced by 98.7–99.6% with seawater injection, NOx by 43.2–48.9% with electrolyzed water injection, and CO2 by 28.0–33.3% with sodium hydroxide injection.

A concise and scalable synthetic route for optically pure (4S) and (4R)-5-(3′,4′-dihydroxyphenyl)-γ-valerolactones (DHPVs), catechin metabolites, has been developed via the efficient construction of a γ-valerolactone moiety from hexenol. Noticeably, the different skin wrinkle-reducing activities of each metabolite were revealed via our unique syntheses of DHPVs in an enantiomerically pure form.

Development of fluorescence-based sensory materials for metal elements is currently in the mainstream of research due to the simplicity and usability of fluorescence as a method of detection. Herein, we report a novel “bis”-quinoline-based acyl hydrazone—named bQH that could be synthesized by a facile, low-cost method through simple condensation of hydrazide with an aldehyde. This acyl hydrazone showed emissive properties through Zn selective binding, especially in its solid-state, as shown by experiments such as UV−Vis, photoluminescence (PL), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and inductively-coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopies (ICP-OES), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping. The binding modes in which bQH coordinates to Zn2+ was proved to consist of two modes, 1:1 and 1:2 (bQH:Zn2+), where the binding mode was controlled by the Zn2+ ion content. Under the 1:1 binding mode, bQH-Zn2+ complexes formed a polymeric array through the metallo-supramolecular assembly. The resulting bQH-Zn2+ complex maintained its fluorescence in solid-state and exhibited excellent fluorescence intensity as compared to the previously reported quinoline-based acyl hydrazone derivative (mQH).

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an emerging optical approach that measures the optical path length of a transparent specimen noninvasively. Therefore, it is suitable for studying unstained biological tissues and cells with high sensitivity and resolution. This capability of QPI has fueled itself to grow rapidly as an active field of study for the past two decades. With this trend, QPI has experienced some breakthroughs in methods and applications in the past year. We briefly review some of these breakthroughs in method, including QPI through silicon marker-free phase nanoscopy and white-light diffraction tomography. Furthermore, some of the applications, such as quantitative phase measurement of cell growth and real-time blood testing, are introduced to show the importance and applicability of the field.

Aberrant activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) has been documented in various malignancies including triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs). The STAT3 transcription factor can regulate the different important hallmarks of tumor cells, and thus, targeting it can be a potential strategy for treating TNBC, for which only limited therapeutic options are available. In this study, we analyzed the possible effect of (-)-galiellalactone and its novel analogues, SG-1709 and SG-1721, and determined whether these agents exerted their antineoplastic effects by suppressing the STAT3 signaling pathway in TNBC cells. The two analogues, SG-1709 and SG-1721, inhibited both constitutive as well as inducible STAT3 phosphorylation at tyrosine 705 more effectively than (-)-galiellalactone, which indicates that the analogues are more potent STAT3 blockers. Moreover, SG-1721 not only inhibited nuclear translocation and DNA binding of STAT3 but also induced apoptosis, and decreased expression of diverse oncogenic proteins. Interestingly, SG-1721 also exhibited an enhanced apoptotic effect when combined with radiotherapy. Furthermore, in vivo administration of SG-1721 significantly attenuated breast xenograft tumor growth via decreasing levels of p-STAT3. Therefore, SG-1721 may be a promising candidate for further application as a pharmacological agent that can target STAT3 protein in treating TNBC.

Adaptive fear responses to external threats rely upon efficient relay of computations underlying contextual encoding to subcortical circuits. Brain-wide analysis of highly coactivated ensembles following contextual fear discrimination identified the dorsolateral septum (DLS) as a relay of the dentate gyrus-CA3 circuit. Retrograde monosynaptic tracing and electrophysiological whole-cell recordings demonstrated that DLS somatostatin-expressing interneurons (SST-INs) receive direct CA3 inputs. Longitudinal in vivo calcium imaging of DLS SST-INs in awake, behaving mice identified a stable population of footshock-responsive SST-INs during contextual conditioning whose activity tracked and predicted non-freezing epochs during subsequent recall in the training context but not in a similar, neutral context or open field. Optogenetic attenuation or stimulation of DLS SST-INs bidirectionally modulated conditioned fear responses and recruited proximal and distal subcortical targets. Together, these observations suggest a role for a potentially hard-wired DLS SST-IN subpopulation as arbiters of mobility that calibrate context-appropriate behavioral fear responses.