512 research outputs found

    Seasonal and spatial variations of heavy metalsin surface sediments collected from the BaoxiangRiver in the Dianchi Watershed, China

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    To explore potential ecological hazards due to heavy metals in the Dianchi Lake Watershed, a three-stage European Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) sequential extraction procedure was applied to examine the spatial distributions and relative speciation ratios of Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Cr in Baoxiang River sediments during wet and dry seasons. The metal species have similar spatial variations during different seasons. In the upstream reaches of the Baoxiang River, heavy metals reside primarily in the non-extractable residual fraction (72&ndash;90%). In the midstream, the residual fraction (35&ndash;89%) remains dominant, but the extractable fraction increases, featuring especially notable increases in the reducible fraction (5&ndash;40%). Downstream, the Cu, Ni, Pb, and Cr residual fractions remain high (46&ndash;80%) and the extractable fractions increase rapidly; the Zn extractable fraction is quite high (65.5%). Anthropogenic sources drive changes in heavy metal speciation. Changes in the river environment, such as pH and oxidation-reduction potential, also affect speciation. The reducible fraction of heavy metals in Baoxiang River sediments is most sensitive to pH. Potential ecological risk assessments for these five elements indicate that risks from Zn and Pb are mild to moderate in the middle and lower reaches of the river.<br style="line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-size-adjust: auto;" /

    Lack of evidence of hepatitis in patients with oral lichen planus in China: a case control study

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    Background: China has been one of the countries with high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) liver disease. And lichen planus is an extrahepatic manifestation of patients with chronic HCV infection. This case-control study was conducted to investigate the relationship between oral lichen planus (OLP) and HBV/HCV infection in China. Material and Methods: A total of 776 patients, including 150 patients with OLP (Group OLP), 429 inpatients from the Trauma Ward of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department (Group A), 110 patients with other oral mucosal diseases, but without a reported association with HCV infection (Group B) and 87 patients with oral lichenoid lesion (Group OLL), were compared with their seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody (HCVAb), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and the parameters of liver functions. Moreover, the clinical characteristics of OLP were also observed, such as gender, age, chief complaint, course of the disease, clinical type, sites involved and so on. Results: The positive rates of HCVAb and HBsAg in OLP patients were 0.7% and 4%, respectively. Neither HCVAb nor HBsAg was associated with OLP as demonstrated by both the univariate and the multivariate analyses. The clinical features and liver functions of OLP patients with negative or positive HBsAg were nearly the same. Conclusions: Our findings verify that there is no association between OLP and hepatitis and there is no need to run a screening test for HCV or HBV in OLP patients in Chin

    Target Identification : A Challenging Step in Forward Chemical Genetics

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    Investigation of the genetic functions in complex biological systems is a challenging step in recent year. Hence, several valuable and interesting research projects have been developed with novel ideas to find out the unknown functions of genes or proteins. To validate the applicability of their novel ideas, various approaches are built up. To date, the most promising and commonly used approach for discovering the target proteins from biological system using small molecule is well known a forward chemical genetics which is considered to be more convenient than the classical genetics. Although, the forward chemical genetics consists of the three basic components, the target identification is the most challenging step to chemical biology researchers. Hence, the diverse target identification methods have been developed and adopted to disclose the small molecule bound protein. Herein, in this review, we briefly described the first two parts chemical toolbox and screening, and then the target identifications in forward chemical genetics are thoroughly described along with the illustrative real example case study. In the tabular form, the different biological active small molecules which are the successful examples of target identifications are accounted in this research review.22Yothe
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