Sea-level rise and its possible impacts given a 'beyond 4°C world' in the twenty-first century

The range of future climate-induced sea-level rise remains highly uncertain with continued concern that large increases in the twenty-first century cannot be ruled out. The biggest source of uncertainty is the response of the large ice sheets of Greenland and west Antarctica. Based on our analysis, a pragmatic estimate of sea-level rise by 2100, for a temperature rise of 4°C or more over the same time frame, is between 0.5 m and 2 m--the probability of rises at the high end is judged to be very low, but of unquantifiable probability. However, if realized, an indicative analysis shows that the impact potential is severe, with the real risk of the forced displacement of up to 187 million people over the century (up to 2.4% of global population). This is potentially avoidable by widespread upgrade of protection, albeit rather costly with up to 0.02 per cent of global domestic product needed, and much higher in certain nations. The likelihood of protection being successfully implemented varies between regions, and is lowest in small islands, Africa and parts of Asia, and hence these regions are the most likely to see coastal abandonment. To respond to these challenges, a multi-track approach is required, which would also be appropriate if a temperature rise of less than 4°C was expected. Firstly, we should monitor sea level to detect any significant accelerations in the rate of rise in a timely manner. Secondly, we need to improve our understanding of the climate-induced processes that could contribute to rapid sea-level rise, especially the role of the two major ice sheets, to produce better models that quantify the likely future rise more precisely. Finally, responses need to be carefully considered via a combination of climate mitigation to reduce the rise and adaptation for the residual rise in sea level. In particular, long-term strategic adaptation plans for the full range of possible sea-level rise (and other change) need to be widely developed.     

Excitonic Mechanism of Local Phase Transformations by Optical Pumping

Transformations of cooperative electronic states by impacts of optical pumping and/or electrostatic doping is a new mainstream in physics of correlated systems. Here we present a semi-phenomenological modeling of spatio-temporal effects in a system where the light absorption goes through a channel creating the excitons—intra-molecular ones or bound electron–hole pairs—and finally the condensate of optical excitons feeds and stimulates phase transformations. Interacting with a near-critical order parameter and deformations, the excitons are subject to self-trapping. That locally enhances their density which can surpass a critical value to trigger the phase transformation, even if the mean density is below the required threshold. The model can be used e.g. as a simplified version of optically induced neutral-ionic transitions in organic chain compounds.     

CO2-efflux measurements for evaluating source zone natural attenuation rates in a petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated aquifer

In order to gain regulatory approval for source zone natural attenuation (SZNA) at hydrocarbon-contaminated sites, knowledge regarding the extent of the contamination, its tendency to spread, and its longevity is required. However, reliable quantification of biodegradation rates, an important component of SZNA, remains a challenge. If the rate of CO(2) gas generation associated with contaminant degradation can be determined, it may be used as a proxy for the overall rate of subsurface biodegradation. Here, the CO(2)-efflux at the ground surface is measured using a dynamic closed chamber (DCC) method to evaluate whether this technique can be used to assess the areal extent of the contaminant source zone and the depth-integrated rate of contaminant mineralization. To this end, a field test was conducted at the Bemidji, MN, crude oil spill site. Results indicate that at the Bemidji site the CO(2)-efflux method is able to both delineate the source zone and distinguish between the rates of natural soil respiration and contaminant mineralization. The average CO(2)-efflux associated with contaminant degradation in the source zone is estimated at 2.6 μmol m(-2) s(-1), corresponding to a total petroleum hydrocarbon mineralization rate (expressed as C(10)H(22)) of 3.3 g m(-2) day(-1).     

Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases as Potential Targets for Thrombosis Prevention

As integral parts of pathological arterial thrombi, platelets are the targets of pharmacological regimens designed to treat and prevent thrombosis. A detailed understanding of platelet biology and function is thus key to design treatments that prevent thrombotic cardiovascular disease without significant disruption of the haemostatic balance. Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) are a group of lipid kinases critical to various aspects of platelet biology. There are eight PI3K isoforms, grouped into three classes. Our understanding of PI3K biology has recently progressed with the targeting of specific isoforms emerging as an attractive therapeutic strategy in various human diseases, including for thrombosis. This review will focus on the role of PI3K subtypes in platelet function and subsequent thrombus formation. Understanding the mechanisms by which platelet function is regulated by the various PI3Ks edges us closer toward targeting specific PI3K isoforms for anti-thrombotic therapy.     

Effect of Sample Transportation on the Proteome of Human Circulating Blood Extracellular Vesicles

Circulating extracellular vesicles (cEV) are released by many kinds of cells and play an important role in cellular communication, signaling, inflammation modulation, coagulation, and tumor growth. cEV are of growing interest, not only as biomarkers, but also as potential treatment targets. However, very little is known about the effect of transporting biological samples from the clinical ward to the diagnostic laboratory, notably on the protein composition. Pneumatic tube systems (PTS) and human carriers (C) are both routinely used for transport, subjecting the samples to different ranges of mechanical forces. We therefore investigated qualitatively and quantitatively the effect of transport by C and PTS on the human cEV proteome and particle size distribution. We found that samples transported by PTS were subjected to intense, irregular, and multidirectional shocks, while those that were transported by C mostly underwent oscillations at a ground frequency of approximately 4 Hz. PTS resulted in the broadening of nanoparticle size distribution in platelet-free (PFP) but not in platelet-poor plasma (PPP). Cell-type specific cEV-associated protein abundances remained largely unaffected by the transport type. Since residual material of lymphocytes, monocytes, and platelets seemed to dominate cEV proteomes in PPP, it was concluded that PFP should be preferred for any further analyses. Differential expression showed that the impact of the transport method on cEV-associated protein composition was heterogeneous and likely donor-specific. Correlation analysis was nonetheless able to detect that vibration dose, shocks, and imparted energy were associated with different terms depending on the transport, namely in C with cytoskeleton-regulated cell organization activity, and in PTS with a release of extracellular vesicles, mainly from organelle origin, and specifically from mitochondrial structures. Feature selection algorithm identified proteins which, when considered together with the correlated protein-protein interaction network, could be viewed as surrogates of network clusters.     

Oxidative Stress in Malaria: Potential Benefits of Antioxidant Therapy

Malaria is an infectious disease and a serious public health problem in the world, with 3.3 billion people in endemic areas in 100 countries and about 200 million new cases each year, resulting in almost 1 million deaths in 2018. Although studies look for strategies to eradicate malaria, it is necessary to know more about its pathophysiology to understand the underlying mechanisms involved, particularly the redox balance, to guarantee success in combating this disease. In this review, we addressed the involvement of oxidative stress in malaria and the potential benefits of antioxidant supplementation as an adjuvant antimalarial therapy.     

Computer-Aided Diagnosis for Tuberculosis Classification with Water Strider Optimization Algorithm

Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) models exploit artificial intelligence (AI) for chest X-ray (CXR) examination to identify the presence of tuberculosis (TB) and can improve the feasibility and performance of CXR for TB screening and triage. At the same time, CXR interpretation is a time-consuming and subjective process. Furthermore, high resemblance among the radiological patterns of TB and other lung diseases can result in misdiagnosis. Therefore, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) models using machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) can be designed for screening TB accurately. With this motivation, this article develops a Water Strider Optimization with Deep Transfer Learning Enabled Tuberculosis Classification (WSODTL-TBC) model on Chest X-rays (CXR). The presented WSODTL-TBC model aims to detect and classify TB on CXR images. Primarily, the WSODTL-TBC model undergoes image filtering techniques to discard the noise content and U-Net-based image segmentation. Besides, a pre-trained residual network with a two-dimensional convolutional neural network (2D-CNN) model is applied to extract feature vectors. In addition, the WSO algorithm with long short-term memory (LSTM) model was employed for identifying and classifying TB, where the WSO algorithm is applied as a hyperparameter optimizer of the LSTM methodology, showing the novelty of the work. The performance validation of the presented WSODTL-TBC model is carried out on the benchmark dataset, and the outcomes were investigated in many aspects. The experimental development pointed out the betterment of the WSODTL-TBC model over existing algorithms.     

Site-Selective Aryl Diazonium Installation onto Protein Surfaces at Neutral pH using a Maleimide-Functionalized Triazabutadiene

Aryl diazonium cations are versatile bioconjugation reagents due to their reactivity towards electron-rich aryl residues and secondary amines, but historically their usage has been hampered by both their short lifespan in aqueous solution and the harsh conditions required to generate them in situ. Triazabutadienes address many of these issues as they are stable enough to endure multiple-step chemical syntheses and can persist for several hours in aqueous solution, yet upon UV-exposure rapidly release aryl diazonium cations under biologically-relevant conditions. This paper describes the synthesis of a novel maleimide-functionalized triazabutadiene suitable for site-selectively installing aryl diazonium cations into proteins at neutral pH; we show reaction with this molecule and a surface-cysteine of a thiol disulfide oxidoreductase. Through photoactivation of the site-selectively installed triazabutadiene motifs, we generate aryl diazonium functionality, which we further derivatize via azo-bond formation to electron-rich aryl species, showcasing the potential utility of this strategy for the generation of photoswitches or protein-drug conjugates.     

Embedded nanoFeCu for sewage treatment: Laboratory-scale and pilot studies

Bimetallic nanoparticles have been widely studied for wastewater treatment, but the study of nanoFeCu for sewage treatment is minimal. In the previous work, ammonia was removed by nanoFeCu via an oxidation reaction, and nitrogen gas was released. However, the performance and reusability of nanoFeCu in treating industrial wastewater have not been reported elsewhere. This study revealed the performance of nanoFeCu for sewage treatment on both laboratory-scale and pilot-scale for the first time. A varied mass of embedded nanoFeCu (eFeCu4) was exposed to sewage water, and the quality of the effluent was measured in terms of ammonia, biological oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. Fe²⁺ and Cu²⁺ concentrations were measured to determine the stability of eFeCu4 in nine reuse cycles. Results showed that the laboratory-scale experiment removed 20%–30% ammonia from sewage. A similar removal rate was reported in all nine cycles of reuse, which confirmed the usability and reliability of eFeCu4. In the pilot-scale study, ammonia was removed from ~22.3 to ~4.8 mg/L, while BOD and COD were reduced from ~204 to ~56 mg/L and ~71 to ~39.7 mg/L, respectively. The treated effluent quality complies with the effluent discharge standard of Malaysia, and it is also comparable with the effluent quality at sewage treatment plants in Malaysia and overseas. In conclusion, nanoFeCu could be an alternative method for sewage treatment due to its stability and pollutant removal performance. A sustainability and cost-effectiveness study should be conducted to determine the feasibility of a full-scale application.