Health risk of residents dwelling around e-waste recycling zones has been a global concern, but has not been adequately examined. The present study was intended to evaluate the potential health risk of residents through inhalation exposure to size-fractionated particle-bound heavy metals in a typical e waste recycling zone, South China. Anthropogenic metals (Zn, Se, Pb, Sb, As, and Cd) were predominantly enriched in fine particles (D-P < 1.8 mu m), whereas the crustal elements,(Ti, Fe, and Co) tended to accumulate in coarse particles (D-p > 1.8 mu m). Although the daily inhalation intakes of the target metals were significantly lower than those through food consumption and ingestion of house dust, the hazard quotients of total metals for adults (95% CI: 1.0-5.5) and children (95% CI: 3.0-17) were greater than 1. Moreover, the incremental lifetime cancer risks of five carcinogenic metals (Cr, Co, Ni, As, and Cd) for adults and children were 1.3 x 10(-3) (95% CI: 4.1 x 10(-4)-3.0 x 10(-3)) and 3.9 x 10(-3) (95% CI: 1.3 x 10(-3)-8.6 x 10(-3)), respectively, substantially higher than the acceptable cancer risk range of 10(-6)-10(-4). All these findings suggested that health risks were high for local residents dwelling around the e-waste recycling zone through inhalation exposure to particle-bound heavy metals, for both adults and children. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
This paper intends to learn from international experiences in order to facilitating China's ongoing regional university transformation with an ultimate goal to enhance the role of university in regional economic development and innovation. In so doing, this paper compares major models of universities of applied sciences (UAS) around the world from the perspective of the Triple Helix Model with an emphasis on the nature of university-industry relation implied by each model, and then exploring their relevance for China's UASs transformation. It is concluded that the Finnish model is the most relevant to China. By comparing the Finnish and Chinese practices, a number of recommendations are solicited to Chinese policy-makers.
BACKGROUND: The increasing use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in consumer products is concerning. We examined the potential toxic effects when inhaled in Brown-Norway (BN) rats with a pre-inflammatory state compared to Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. METHODS: We determined the effect of AgNPs generated from a spark generator (mass concentration: 600-800 mug/mm(3); mean diameter: 13-16 nm; total lung doses: 8 [Low] and 26-28 [High] mug) inhaled by the nasal route in both rat strains. Rats were sacrificed at day 1 and day 7 after exposure and measurement of lung function. RESULTS: In both strains, there was an increase in neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid at 24 h at the high dose, with concomitant eosinophilia in BN rats. While BAL inflammatory cells were mostly normalised by Day 7, lung inflammation scores remained increased although not the tissue eosinophil scores. Total protein levels were elevated at both lung doses in both strains. There was an increase in BAL IL-1beta, KC, IL-17, CCL2 and CCL3 levels in both strains at Day 1, mostly at high dose. Phospholipid levels were increased at the high dose in SD rats at Day 1 and 7, while in BN rats, this was only seen at Day 1; surfactant protein D levels decreased at day 7 at the high dose in SD rats, but was increased at Day 1 at the low dose in BN rats. There was a transient increase in central airway resistance and in tissue elastance in BN rats at Day 1 but not in SD rats. Positive silver-staining was seen particularly in lung tissue macrophages in a dose and time-dependent response in both strains, maximal by day 7. Lung silver levels were relatively higher in BN rat and present at day 7 in both strains. CONCLUSIONS: Presence of cellular inflammation and increasing silver-positive macrophages in lungs at day 7, associated with significant levels of lung silver indicate that lung toxicity is persistent even with the absence of airway luminal inflammation at that time-point. The higher levels and persistence of lung silver in BN rats may be due to the pre-existing inflammatory state of the lungs.
Agricultural soils account for more than 50% of nitrogen leaching (L-N) to groundwater in China. When excess levels of nitrogen accumulate in groundwater, it poses a risk of adverse health effects. Despite this recognition, estimation of L-N from cropland soils in a broad spatial scale is still quite uncertain in China. The uncertainty of L-N primarily stems from the shape of nitrogen leaching response to fertilizer additions (N-rate) and the role of environmental conditions. On the basis of 453 site-years at 51 sites across China, we explored the nonlinearity and variability of the response of L-N to N-rate and developed an empirical statistical model to determine how environmental factors regulate the rate of N leaching (LR). The result shows that L-N-N-rate relationship is convex for most crop types, and varies by local hydro-climates and soil organic carbon. Variability of air temperature explains a half (similar to 52%) of the spatial variation of LR. The results of model calibration and validation indicate that incorporating this empirical knowledge into a predictive model could accurately capture the variation in leaching and produce a reasonable upscaling from site to country. The fertilizer-induced L-N in 2008 for China's cropland were 0.88 +/- 0.23 TgN (1 sigma), significantly lower than the linear or uniform model, as assumed by Food and Agriculture Organization and MITERRA-EUROPE models. These results also imply that future policy to reduce N leaching from cropland needs to consider environmental variability rather than solely attempt to reduce N-rate. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.