Found 2533 publications. Showing page 41 of 254:
2021
2021
DNA damage and repair activity are often assessed in blood samples from humans in different types of molecular epidemiology studies. However, it is not always feasible to analyse the s#38les on the day of collection without any type of storage. For instance, certain studies use repeated sampling of cells from the same subject or samples from different subjects collected at different time-points, and it is desirable to analyse all these samples in the same comet assay experiment. In addition, flawless comet assay analyses on frozen samples opens up for the possibility of using this technique on biobank material. In this article we discuss the use of cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), buffy coat (BC) and whole blood (WB) for analysis of DNA damage and repair using the comet assay. The published literature and the authors’ experiences indicate that various types of blood samples can be cryopreserved with only minor effect on the basal level of DNA damage. There is evidence to suggest that WB and PBMCs can be cryopreserved for several years without much effect on the level of DNA damage. However, care should be taken when cryopreserving WB and BCs. It is possible to use either fresh or frozen samples of blood cells, but results from fresh and frozen cells should not be used in the same dataset. The article outlines detailed protocols for the cryopreservation of PBMCs, BCs and WB samples.
Oxford University Press
2021
The long-term time trends of atmospheric pollutants at eight Arctic monitoring stations are reported. The work was conducted under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) of the Arctic Council. The monitoring stations were: Alert, Canada; Zeppelin, Svalbard; Stórhöfði, Iceland; Pallas, Finland; Andøya, Norway; Villum Research Station, Greenland; Tiksi and Amderma, Russia. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as α- and γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), α-endosulfan, chlordane, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) showed declining trends in air at all stations. However, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), one of the initial twelve POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention in 2004, showed either increasing or non-changing trends at the stations. Many POPs demonstrated seasonality but the patterns were not consistent among the chemicals and stations. Some chemicals showed winter minimum and summer maximum concentrations at one station but not another, and vice versa. The ratios of chlordane isomers and DDT species showed that they were aged residues. Time trends of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) were showing decreasing concentrations at Alert, Zeppelin and Andøya. The Chemicals of Emerging Arctic Concern (CEAC) were either showing stable or increasing trends. These include methoxychlor, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol, and C9-C11 perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs). We have demonstrated the importance of monitoring CEAC before they are being regulated because model calculations to predict their transport mechanisms and fate cannot be made due to the lack of emission inventories. We should maintain long-term monitoring programmes with consistent data quality in order to evaluate the effectiveness of chemical control efforts taken by countries worldwide.
Elsevier
2021
American Meteorological Society
2021
Implementing Citizen Science in Primary Schools: Engaging Young Children in Monitoring Air Pollution
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
Instead of a flag valid/non-valid usually proposed in the quality control (QC) processes of air quality (AQ), we proposed a method that predicts the p-value of each observation as a value between 0 and 1. We based our error predictions on three approaches: the one proposed by the Working Group on Guidance for the Demonstration of Equivalence (European Commission (2010)), the one proposed by Wager (Journal of Machine Learning Research, 15, 1625–1651 (2014)) and the one proposed by Lu (Journal of Machine Learning Research, 22, 1–41 (2021)). Total Error framework enables to differentiate the different errors: input, output, structural modeling and remnant. We thus theoretically described a one-site AQ prediction based on a multi-site network using Random Forest for regression in a Total Error framework. We demonstrated the methodology with a dataset of hourly nitrogen dioxide measured by a network of monitoring stations located in Oslo, Norway and implemented the error predictions for the three approaches. The results indicate that a simple one-site AQ prediction based on a multi-site network using Random Forest for regression provides moderate metrics for fixed stations. According to the diagnostic based on predictive qq-plot and among the three approaches used in this study, the approach proposed by Lu provides better error predictions. Furthermore, ensuring a high precision of the error prediction requires efforts on getting accurate input, output and prediction model and limiting our lack of knowledge about the “true” AQ phenomena. We put effort in quantifying each type of error involved in the error prediction to assess the error prediction model and further improving it in terms of performance and precision.
MDPI
2021
2021
2021
Ftalater er organiske stoffer som hovedsakelig brukes til å gjøre plast mykere, særlig i PVC. Produksjonen av disse forbindelsene er ikke regulert på globalt nivå. Vi undersøkte nivåer av 12 ftalater i fett/spekk fra blåhval, finnhval, grønlandshval og isbjørn fra norsk Arktis. I tillegg målte vi nivåer av nedbrytningsprodukter av ftalater i plasma fra isbjørn. Bis(2-etylhexyl) ftalat (DEHP) var den eneste ftalat-forbindelsen som ble kvantifisert i prøvene. DEHP var til stede i de fleste hvalprøvene og nivåene i blå- og finnhvalspekk var lik nivåer av kjente miljøgifter som PCBer og organiske plantevernmidler. Nedbrytningsprodukter av ftalater ble funnet i lave konsentrasjoner i noen få isbjørnprøver. I tillegg undersøkte vi ftalaters potensial til å forstyrre finnhvalenes kjernereseptorer. Kjernereseptorer er proteiner som regulerer gener. De studerte reseptorene er viktige for å regulere blant annet metabolisme, stressresponser og energibalanse. Vi fant at DEHP både kan øke og hemme aktiviteten til skjoldbruskkjertelhormonreseptor, men da i høyere konsentrasjoner enn det som ble målt i spekk-/fettprøvene. Siden de studerte finnhvalreseptorene er helt eller nesten like de som finnes hos mange andre arter inkludert blåhval, vågehval, spekkhoggere, hvithval, isbjørn og mennesker, er resultatene også relevante for disse artene. Dette studiet bidrar til å øke kunnskapen om plastrelaterte stoffer og deres potensial til å forstyrre hormonsystemet hos marine pattedyr fra norsk Arktis.
Elsevier
2021