scholarly journals Assessment of concentration and distribution of total mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA

Author(s):  
Marcia R. Silva ◽  
Alice Lecus ◽  
Chad Haehle ◽  
David Garman ◽  
Shelby Brunner

AbstractUnder the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the lower Green Bay and Fox River estuary have been labeled as areas of concern due to the contamination of mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from industrialization. These pollutants pose substantial health and environmental hazards for the Green Bay region. The PCBs reported in this region, including Aroclor 1242, are known to trigger carcinogenic responses in animals and mercury targets the central nervous system and vital organs. Furthermore, these compounds are extremely difficult to remove from the environment once introduced. Extensive remedial actions have been implemented including dredging sediments in the Lower Fox River from DePere to Green Bay. The purpose of this study is to assess the concentration and distribution of Aroclor 1242 and total mercury in the Green Bay region sediments and pore waters and to assess the impact of interventions and the natural rates of change previously found.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Pennisi ◽  
Giuseppe Lanza ◽  
Luca Falzone ◽  
Francesco Fisicaro ◽  
Raffaele Ferri ◽  
...  

Increasing evidence suggests that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) can also invade the central nervous system (CNS). However, findings available on its neurological manifestations and their pathogenic mechanisms have not yet been systematically addressed. A literature search on neurological complications reported in patients with COVID-19 until June 2020 produced a total of 23 studies. Overall, these papers report that patients may exhibit a wide range of neurological manifestations, including encephalopathy, encephalitis, seizures, cerebrovascular events, acute polyneuropathy, headache, hypogeusia, and hyposmia, as well as some non-specific symptoms. Whether these features can be an indirect and unspecific consequence of the pulmonary disease or a generalized inflammatory state on the CNS remains to be determined; also, they may rather reflect direct SARS-CoV-2-related neuronal damage. Hematogenous versus transsynaptic propagation, the role of the angiotensin II converting enzyme receptor-2, the spread across the blood-brain barrier, the impact of the hyperimmune response (the so-called “cytokine storm”), and the possibility of virus persistence within some CNS resident cells are still debated. The different levels and severity of neurotropism and neurovirulence in patients with COVID-19 might be explained by a combination of viral and host factors and by their interaction.


1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane R. Achman ◽  
Keri C. Hornbuckle ◽  
Steven J. Eisenreich

Author(s):  
Paulo Roberto Arruda Zantut ◽  
Mariana Matera Veras ◽  
Sarah Gomes Menezes Benevenutto ◽  
Angélica Mendonça Vaz Safatle ◽  
Ricardo Augusto Pecora ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Prenatal exposure to Cannabis is a worldwide growing problem. Although retina is part of the central nervous system, the impact of maternal Cannabis use on the retinal development and its postnatal consequences remains unknown. As the prenatal period is potentially sensitive in the normal development of the retina, we hypothesized that recreational use of Cannabis during pregnancy may alter retina structure in the offspring. To test this, we developed a murine model that mimics human exposure in terms of dose and use. Methods Pregnant BalbC mice were exposed daily for 5 min to Cannabis smoke (0.2 g of Cannabis) or filtered air, from gestational day 5 to 18 (N = 10/group). After weaning period, pups were separated and examined weekly. On days 60, 120, 200, and 360 after birth, 10 pups from each group were randomly selected for Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) analysis of the retina. All retina layers were measured and inner, outer, and total retina thickness were calculated. Other 37 mice from both groups were sacrificed on days 20, 60, and 360 for retinal stereology (total volume of the retina and volume fraction of each retinal layer) and light microscopy. Means and standard deviations were calculated and MANOVA was performed. Results The retina of animals which mother was exposed to Cannabis during gestation was 17% thinner on day 120 (young adult) than controls (P = 0.003) due to 21% thinning of the outer retina (P = 0.001). The offspring of mice from the exposed group presented thickening of the IS/OS in comparison to controls on day 200 (P < 0.001). In the volumetric analyzes by retinal stereology, the exposed mice presented transitory increase of the IS/OS total volume and volume fraction on day 60 (young adult) compared to controls (P = 0.008 and P = 0.035, respectively). On light microscopy, exposed mice presented thickening of the IS/OS on day 360 (adult) compared to controls (P = 0.03). Conclusion Gestational exposure to Cannabis smoke may cause structural changes in the retina of the offspring that return to normal on mice adulthood. These experimental evidences suggest that children and young adults whose mothers smoked Cannabis during pregnancy may require earlier and more frequent clinical care than the non-exposed population.


2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 1311-1316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia E. Ganey ◽  
John F. Quensen ◽  
Mahmoud A. Mousa ◽  
Stephen A. Boyd ◽  
Margaret A. Wagner ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 681-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Ataíde Peres da Silva ◽  
Guilherme Sciascia do Olival ◽  
Lívia Palma Stievano ◽  
Vania Balardin Toller ◽  
Sergio Semeraro Jordy ◽  
...  

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). These patients suffer from various comorbidities, including sexual dysfunction (SD). The lesions of MS may affect regions of the CNS along the pathway of sexual response. The Multiple Sclerosis Intimacy and Sexuality Questionnaire-19 (MSISQ-19) is a scale that assesses sexual dysfunction. Adapt and validate the MSISQ-19 to Brazilian patients with MS. 204 individuals were evaluated, 134 patients with MS and 70 healthy persons for the control group. It was determined reproducibility, validity, internal consistency and sensitivity of the MSISQ-19-BR. Among patients with MS, 54.3% of male and 71.7% of female presented some kind of SD. In the control group the results were 12.5% and 19.5%, respectively. The MSISQ-19-BR is reproducible, reliable and valid for the Brazilian population and may be used as a tool for assessing the impact of sexual dysfunction in patients with MS.


Author(s):  
M. S. Chafi ◽  
V. Dirisala ◽  
G. Karami ◽  
M. Ziejewski

In the central nervous system, the subarachnoid space is the interval between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater. It is filled with a clear, watery liquid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The CSF buffers the brain against mechanical shocks and creates buoyancy to protect it from the forces of gravity. The relative motion of the brain due to a simultaneous loading is caused because the skull and brain have different densities and the CSF surrounds the brain. The impact experiments are usually carried out on cadavers with no CSF included because of the autolysis. Even in the cadaveric head impact experiments by Hardy et al. [1], where the specimens are repressurized using artificial CSF, this is not known how far this can replicate the real functionality of CSF. With such motivation, a special interest lies on how to model this feature in a finite element (FE) modeling of the human head because it is questionable if one uses in vivo CSF properties (i.e. bulk modulus of 2.19 GPa) to validate a FE human head against cadaveric experimental data.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 2587-2599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiaan Mestdagh ◽  
Leila Bagaço ◽  
Ulrike Braeckman ◽  
Tom Ysebaert ◽  
Bart De Smet ◽  
...  

Abstract. Human activities, among which dredging and land use change in river basins, are altering estuarine ecosystems. These activities may result in changes in sedimentary processes, affecting biodiversity of sediment macrofauna. As macrofauna controls sediment chemistry and fluxes of energy and matter between water column and sediment, changes in the structure of macrobenthic communities could affect the functioning of an entire ecosystem. We assessed the impact of sediment deposition on intertidal macrobenthic communities and on rates of an important ecosystem function, i.e. sediment community oxygen consumption (SCOC). An experiment was performed with undisturbed sediment samples from the Scheldt river estuary (SW Netherlands). The samples were subjected to four sedimentation regimes: one control and three with a deposited sediment layer of 1, 2 or 5 cm. Oxygen consumption was measured during incubation at ambient temperature. Luminophores applied at the surface, and a seawater–bromide mixture, served as tracers for bioturbation and bio-irrigation, respectively. After incubation, the macrofauna was extracted, identified, and counted and then classified into functional groups based on motility and sediment reworking capacity. Total macrofaunal densities dropped already under the thinnest deposits. The most affected fauna were surficial and low-motility animals, occurring at high densities in the control. Their mortality resulted in a drop in SCOC, which decreased steadily with increasing deposit thickness, while bio-irrigation and bioturbation activity showed increases in the lower sediment deposition regimes but decreases in the more extreme treatments. The initial increased activity likely counteracted the effects of the drop in low-motility, surficial fauna densities, resulting in a steady rather than sudden fall in oxygen consumption. We conclude that the functional identity in terms of motility and sediment reworking can be crucial in our understanding of the regulation of ecosystem functioning and the impact of habitat alterations such as sediment deposition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1222
Author(s):  
Yutao Chi ◽  
Zengrui Rong

Disastrous storm surges and waves caused by typhoons are major marine dynamic disasters affecting the east China coast and the Changjiang River Estuary, especially when they occur coincidentally. In this study, a high-resolution wave–current coupled model consisting of ADCIRC (Advanced Circulation) and SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore) was established and validated. The model shows reasonable skills in reproducing the surge levels and waves. The storm surges and associated waves are then simulated for 98 typhoons affecting the Changjiang River Estuary over the past 32 years (1987–2018). Two different wind fields, the ERA reanalysis and the ERA-based synthetic wind with a theoretical typhoon model, were adopted to discern the potential uncertainties associated with winds. Model results forced by the ERA reanalysis show comparative skills with the synthetic winds, but differences may be relatively large in specific stations. The extreme surge levels with a 50-year return period are then presented based on the coupled model results and the Gumbel distribution model. Higher risk is presented in Hangzhou Bay and the nearshore region along the coast of Zhejiang. Comparative runs with and without wave effects were conducted to discern the impact of waves on the extreme surge levels. The wave setup contributes to 2–12.5% of the 50-year extreme surge level. Furthermore, the joint exceedance probabilities of high surge levels and high wave height were evaluated with the Gumbel–logistic statistic model. Given the same joint return period, the nearshore region along the coast of Zhejiang is more vulnerable with high surges and large waves than the Changjiang River Estuary with large waves and moderate surges.


2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-257
Author(s):  
Nurlan K. Smagulov ◽  
A. A. Adilbekova

The work is dedicated to methodological problems of the mathematical assessment of the impact of meteorological factors on the adaptive function of the teachers of the High School Institutions. Objects of research. Male teachers of the High School Institution, aged of from 24 to 49 years. Meteorological data were evaluated during the investigation of anthropometric indices of height and weight, individual-typological features and the physiological assessment of the central nervous system, cardiovascular system of the High School teachers. Statistical analysis was performed with the use of Statistica 6.0 package and special statistical software. Paired correlation coefficients obtained as a result of calculation were used to estimate the proportion of the influence of input factors (arguments) on the output factors (functions). A mathematical analysis has allowed to reveal leading meteorological factors that cause a certain level of functional exhaustion during the investigated period. The use of a non-linear correlation analysis allowed to enhance significantly the ability for analytical processing of the results, increase of the effectiveness and the possibility of interpreting the interaction of factors in achieving optimal adaptation of teachers in the working process and to identify the role of meteorological factors in this process. Knowledge of leading factors and the percentage of their contribution to the functional state allowed to give the more accurate assessment of stress to the organism in specific circumstances. The ultimate aim of the mathematical analysis should be not only to find the critical value defined the priority factor characterizing the degree of of information load, but the critical combination of all priority factors causing disruption and the beginning of “start-up” adaptation process in the system “dose-effect. “


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