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CMAJ Open 2022 Apr-Jun;10(2):E450-E459. Epub 2022 May 24.

Divisions of Urogynecology and Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery (Lee, Kung, Gagnon, Liu), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto; Division of Microbiology (Kozak), Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto; Sunnybrook Research Institute (Alavi, Mbareche, Perruzza, Jarvi, Salvant), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto; Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine (Murphy), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sinai Health System; Temerty Faculty of Medicine (Perruzza, Jarvi); Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine (Ladhani), Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Divisions of Orthopaedic Surgery and Trauma Surgery (Yee, Jenkinson), Department of Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Background: The exposure risks to front-line health care workers caring for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection undergoing surgery or obstetric delivery are unclear, and an understanding of sample types that may harbour virus is important for evaluating risk. We sought to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA from patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection undergoing surgery or obstetric delivery was present in the peritoneal cavity of male and female patients, in the female reproductive tract, in the environment of the surgery or delivery suite (surgical instruments or equipment used, air or floors), and inside the masks of the attending health care workers.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from November 2020 to May 2021 at 2 tertiary academic Toronto hospitals, during urgent surgeries or obstetric deliveries for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Read More

CMAJ 2022 May;194(20):E693-E700

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (C. Chen, Benmarhnia), University of California San Diego, La Jolla, Calif.; Public Health Ontario (Wang, Kwong, Kim, H. Chen); ICES Central (Kwong, H. Chen); Dalla Lana School of Public Health (Kwong, Kim, H. Chen), and Department of Family and Community Medicine (Kwong), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering (van Donkelaar, Martin), Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo.; College of Public Health and Human Studies (Hystad), Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.; Ontario Ministry of the Environment (Su), Conservation and Parks, Toronto, Ont.; Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau (Lavigne, H. Chen), Health Canada, Ottawa, Ont.; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Occupational Health (Kirby-McGregor, Kaufman), McGill University, Montréal, Que.

Background: The tremendous global health burden related to COVID-19 means that identifying determinants of COVID-19 severity is important for prevention and intervention. We aimed to explore long-term exposure to ambient air pollution as a potential contributor to COVID-19 severity, given its known impact on the respiratory system.

Methods: We used a cohort of all people with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, aged 20 years and older and not residing in a long-term care facility in Ontario, Canada, during 2020. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 21:156130. Epub 2022 May 21.

Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence, Department of Geography & Geospatial Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA.

Wildfire outbreaks can lead to extreme biomass burning (BB) emissions of both oxidized (e.g., nitrogen oxides; NO = NO+NO) and reduced form (e. Read More

Chemosphere 2022 May 21:135036. Epub 2022 May 21.

Biofuels Institute, School of Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, 212013, Jiangsu Province, China. Electronic address:

The soil microbial fuel cell (SMFC) is a new device that was originally designed to generate electricity from organic matter in soil using microorganisms. Currently, SMFC based biosensors are emerging as a new and promising research direction for real-time and rapid monitoring of soil quality or soil pollution. Compared to conventional biosensors, SMFC based biosensors exhibit advantages such as low-cost, simple design, in-situ, and long-term self-powering monitoring, which makes it become attractive devices for in-situ long-term soil quality or soil pollution monitoring. Read More

Chemosphere 2022 May 21:135047. Epub 2022 May 21.

CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), Nagpur, India. Electronic address:

Globally, exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM) pollution claims ∼9 million lives, yearly, and a quarter of this deaths occurs in India. Regulation of PM pollution in India is based on compliance with its National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of 40 μg/m, which is eight times the revised global air quality guideline (AQG) of 5 μg/m. But, whether the NAAQS provides adequate protection against the hazardous components in PM is still not clear. Read More

Environ Res 2022 May 21:113503. Epub 2022 May 21.

German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Munich, Germany; Institute for Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Diabetes Center at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Munich, Germany; Forschergruppe Diabetes, Chair of Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes, Faculty of Medicine, Technical University Munich at Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Munich, Germany.

Objective: Incidence of early-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been increasing worldwide. Only few studies examined the relationship between geographical environmental variation and T1D incidence or its presymptomatic stage of islet autoimmunity. Our study aimed to investigate the effect of long-term environmental exposures during pregnancy and early life on childhood islet autoimmunity. Read More

Environ Res 2022 May 21:113473. Epub 2022 May 21.

Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jiangsu, Road 172, Nanjing, 210009, China. Electronic address:

Little is known about the impact of socio-economic and environmental factors on the associations between PM exposure and health risk for elementary students. We estimated the space variability of effects of PM on daily illness-related absence rate for 2278 elementary schools from 97 counties across Jiangsu Province with data collected in the 2016-17 academic year. We evaluated the effects at school- and county-scales and examined the role of socio-economic and environmental factors with generalized addictive models (GAM). Read More

J Phys Condens Matter 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Physics, NRCN, POB 9001, Beer Sheva, 84190, ISRAEL.

Oxidation of cerium metal is a complex process which is strongly affected by the presence of water vapor in the oxidative atmosphere. Here, we explore, by means of IR reflection-absorption (IRRAS) and Raman scattering spectroscopies, thin oxide films, formed on cerium metal during oxidation, under dry vs. ambient (humid) air conditions (~0. Read More

Biosens Bioelectron 2022 May 19;211:114383. Epub 2022 May 19.

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control Technology for Environment and Food Safety, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Tianjin, 300050, PR China. Electronic address:

Deoxynivalenol (DON), as a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium, showed great harm to human body, crops and animals, so it is urgent to establish an efficient, sensitive and selective method for the detection of DON. Here, a novel bionic magnetic SERS aptasensor based on "dual antennae" nano-silver was designed. β[email protected] was modified 4-MBA and the aptamers respectively with chemical bond and host-guest interaction, which was reflected in the "dual antennae" characteristics of identifying target and SERS signal label. Read More

Hear Res 2022 May 11;420:108517. Epub 2022 May 11.

Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, 3970 Reservoir Road, Washington DC 20057, USA.

Tinnitus is a highly prevalent, largely untreatable auditory disorder, characterized by the perception of phantom sound often in the form of incessant ringing or hissing. Despite longstanding research with animal models, its underlying pathophysiological causes remain poorly understood. Given recent data characterizing tinnitus as a disorder with a strong neurocognitive component, progress in the field might be hastened by testing a wider spectrum of animal models, including nonhuman primates, and by developing alternative measurement techniques of tinnitus, especially in animals. Read More

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc 2022 May 18;279:121404. Epub 2022 May 18.

Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, 3 Noakowskiego Str., 00-664 Warsaw, Poland.

Heat-treated succinite modified under air, oxygen or inert gas atmosphere to improve its colour and clarity, was studied with Fourier-Transform Infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and referenced to variously altered untreated samples. For treated amber, the macroscopic observations revealed diagnostic features such as (1) the presence of discoidal " sun sparkles" inside the crumbs; (2) unusual colours (e.g. Read More

ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, CBI, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, 10 rue Vauquelin, F-75005 Paris, France.

Numerous techniques for mammalian cell culture have been developed to mimic the complex in vivo three-dimensional structure of tissues and organs. Among them, the sole use of proteins to create a matrix where cells are embedded already gives rise to self-organized multicellular assemblies. Loading cells in a controlled extracellular matrix along with cell culture and monitoring through a strategy that is compatible with pipetting tools would be beneficial for high throughput screening applications or simply for a standardized method. Read More

PLoS One 2022 24;17(5):e0263883. Epub 2022 May 24.

School of Economics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

The environment is crucial in economic development. However, the impact of the environment on cities, especially, on urban innovation still needs more attention. Based on city-level and PM2. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Science, Atatürk University, Erzurum 25240, Turkey.

Among transition metal oxides, MoO is a promising material due to its layered structure and different oxidation states, making it suitable for different device applications. One of the methods used to grow MoO is radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS), which is the most compatible method in industry. However, obtaining nanostructures by RFMS for metal oxides is challenging because of compact morphology film formation. Read More

JAMA Netw Open 2022 May 2;5(5):e2213540. Epub 2022 May 2.

Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Importance: Prior studies on the association between fine particulate matter with diameters 2.5 μm or smaller (PM2.5) and probability of death have not applied multilevel analysis disaggregating data for US census tract, states, and counties, nor tested its interaction by socioeconomic status (SES). Read More

ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.

Silk fibroin (SF) is an attractive material for composing bioinks suitable for three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting. However, the low viscosity of SF solutions obtained through common dissolution methods limits 3D-bioprinting applications without the addition of thickeners or partial gelation beforehand. Here, we report a method of 3D bioprinting low-viscosity SF solutions without additives. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Ambiental, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.

More stringent standards for engines and fuels are progressively implemented as alternatives to reduce on-road vehicle emissions. While electric vehicles appear as a perfect alternative since their engines do not emit pollutants, wear and dust resuspension (W&R) and indirect emissions associated with electricity production remain significant sources of pollution. This work compares well-to-wheel emissions (WTW) and abatement strategies for various types of passenger vehicles in Bogotá and Santiago for different pollutants (CO, PM, SO, and NOx) and greenhouse gases like CO equivalent (CO-Eq). Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China.

The micro and nano bubble (MNB) technology, due to its promising features and advantages, has become increasingly popular in agriculture. MNB-treated water positively impacts plant growth, especially when it is treated with a combination of gas-like carbon dioxide (CO), injected through the MNB generator. Therefore, this study used MNB water with CO that are small bubbles of nanometer and micrometer diameters having several unique physical properties that make them useful for water treatments. Read More

Ambio 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia.

Savanna fire management is a topic of global debate, with early dry season burning promoted as a large-scale emissions reduction opportunity. To date, discussions have centred on carbon abatement efficacy, biodiversity and cultural benefits and/or risks. Here we use a case study of Darwin, Australia to highlight smoke pollution as another critical consideration. Read More

Wien Klin Wochenschr 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Department of Environmental Health, ZPH, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, 1090, Vienna, Austria.

Background: Data reporting the number of births given by women resident in Vienna for each week between 1999 and 2019, and the duration (in weeks) of their pregnancies, were used to estimate the week of conception. When preliminary examinations detected cyclical patterns for births and conceptions, a series of Poisson regressions for births and conceptions were performed to assess whether these cycles could be associated with lunar or solar phases.

Methods: To that end 2 sine-cosine functions, 1 with a wavelength of 1 year (365. Read More

Cureus 2022 Apr 21;14(4):e24334. Epub 2022 Apr 21.

Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute Of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, IND.

Metastases presenting in the form of cystic lung disease are a very rare occurrence. Even rarer is the association of such metastases with primary pancreatic carcinoma. Here we have described the case of a 60-year-old man who presented with a six-month history of worsening shortness of breath and dry cough associated with loss of weight and appetite. Read More

Clin Infect Dis 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Background: Comparing humoral responses in SARS-CoV-2 vaccinees, those with SARS-CoV-2 infection, or combinations of vaccine/infection ('hybrid immunity'), may clarify predictors of vaccine immunogenicity.

Methods: We studied 2660 U.S. Read More

J Appl Physiol (1985) 2022 May 19. Epub 2022 May 19.

Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States.

Mice are a valuable model for elegant studies of complex, systems-dependent diseases, including pulmonary diseases. Current tools to assess lung function in mice are either terminal or lack accuracy. We set out to develop a low-cost, accurate, head-out variable-pressure plethysmography system to allow for repeated, non-terminal measurements of lung function in mice. Read More

Am J Mens Health 2022 May-Jun;16(3):15579883221096549

The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.

Due to the problematic degradation properties of plastics, the decomposition of plastic results in the formation of numerous microplastics (MPs), less than 5 mm in diameter. These MPs enter the soil and the ocean, eventually passing through the air, water, or food chain back to the human body and harming human health. In the last 80 years, male semen analysis parameters have shown a significant decline for unknown reasons, speculated to be caused by pollutants. Read More

Environ Sci Technol 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Gaseous oxidized mercury (Hg) monitoring is one of the largest challenges in the mercury research field, where existing methods cannot simultaneously satisfy the measurement requirements of both accuracy and time precision, especially in high-particulate environments. Here, we verified that dual-stage cation exchange membrane (CEM) sampler is incapable of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg) uptake even if particulate matter is trapped on CEM, whereas the Hg capture efficiency of the sampler is more than 90%. We then developed a Cation Exchange Membrane-Coupled Speciated Atmospheric Mercury Monitoring System (CSAMS) by coupling the dual-stage CEM sampler with the commercial Tekran 2537/1130/1135 system and configuring a new sampling and analysis procedure, so as to improve the monitoring accuracy of Hg and ensure the simultaneous measurement of Hg, Hg, and Hg in 2 h time resolution. Read More

Mil Med 2022 May 24. Epub 2022 May 24.

Department of Orthopaedics, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD 20889, USA.

Introduction: Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) have been suggested for use in measuring treatment effectiveness. To minimize patient burden, two approaches have been proposed: An orthopedic-specific Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE) or computer adaptive testing methods such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). The goal of this work was to examine the constructs measured by the SANE and PROMIS system in a military orthopedic population undergoing knee surgery. Read More

HardwareX 2021 Oct 21;10:e00233. Epub 2021 Sep 21.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.

An open-source, low noise, low cost, and tunable transimpedance amplifier is presented. The compact circuit board requires few parts and costs less than $65 USD. The transimpedance amplifier is intended for low-light detection and operation with commercial photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Read More

HardwareX 2021 Oct 12;10:e00237. Epub 2021 Oct 12.

Department of Microbiology, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Paul Erlich Strasse, 67665 Kaiserslautern, Germany.

The handling of oxygen sensitive samples and growth of obligate anaerobic organisms requires the stringent exclusion of oxygen, which is omnipresent in our normal atmospheric environment. Anaerobic workstations (aka. Glove boxes) enable the handling of oxygen sensitive samples during complex procedures, or the long-term incubation of anaerobic organisms. Read More

HardwareX 2021 Oct 19;10:e00225. Epub 2021 Aug 19.

Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

The use of electronic cigarettes (ECs) has become widespread despite many unknowns around their long-term health impact. ECs work by vapourising a liquid, known as an e-liquid, typically consisting of propylene glycol, glycerol, flavourings and nicotine. The chemical constituents and resultant impact on cells and tissue are dependent on several factors, including the flavourings used, the vaping topography/use pattern, and the device used. Read More

HardwareX 2021 Oct 16;10:e00240. Epub 2021 Oct 16.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.

This article describes the development of a compact, relatively low-cost, high compliance voltage laser driver that can provide the constant optical laser output required for a range of applications. The system contains an integrated, high-precision temperature controller that can be implemented with butterfly-style lasers containing an internal thermoelectric cooler. The laser parameters can be controlled manually or via an onboard microcontroller. Read More