Activity

5 years. However, no difference was found in the influence of socio-emotional competence on cool and hot executive function. Possible explanations for these associations between socio-emotional competence and executive function are discussed.To illustrate methods for assessing environmental exposures associated with lung cancer risk, we investigated anthropogenic based air pollutant data in a major metropolitan area using United States-Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) (1987-2017), and PM2.5 (1998-2016) and NO2 (1996-2012) concentrations from NASA satellite data. We studied chemicals reported according to the following five exposome features (1) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) cancer grouping; (2) priority EPA polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); (3) component of diesel exhaust; (4) status as a volatile organic compound (VOC); and (5) evidence of lung carcinogenesis. Published articles from PubChem were tallied for occurrences of 10 key characteristics of cancer-causing agents on those chemicals. Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) codes with higher exposures were identified in two ways (1) combined mean exposure from all features, and (2) hazard index derived through a multi-step multi-criteria decision analysis (MMCDA) process. VOCs, IARC Group 1 carcinogens consisted 82.3% and 11.5% of the reported TRI emissions, respectively. ZIP codes along major highways tended to have greater exposure. The MMCDA approach yielded hazard indices based on imputed toxicity, occurrence, and persistence for risk assessment. Despite many studies describing environmental exposures and lung cancer risk, this study develops a method to integrate these exposures into population-based exposure estimates that could be incorporated into future lung cancer screening trials and benefit public health surveillance of lung cancer incidence. Our methodology may be applied to probe other hazardous exposures for other cancers.An automatic calibration framework of water quality parameters for surface runoff during modeling with InfoWorks ICM was constructed. The framework is based on a genetic algorithm (GA) and fully considers the calibration sequence for multiple water pollutants, namely, total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorous (TP). Meanwhile, four different objective functions including the Nash-Sutcliff efficiency coefficient (NSE), coefficient of determination (R2), percentage error in the peak (PEP), and percentage bias (PBIAS) were selected as fitness evaluators for the GA. The framework was applied successfully to a specific area of Fuzhou in China, and the multi-objective results were compared with the single-objective results. The comprehensive indexes of TSS, COD, TN, and TP by multi-objective calibration were lower than that of the single-objective calibration in both scenarios. Compared with single-objective calibration, the iterations to reach the optimal value were shortened 9, 5, 13, and 15 iterations by multi-objective calibration. Therefore, the findings showed that the multi-objective function GA was more balanced and more efficient than the single-objective function GA. Then, the uncertainty of the model was evaluated by using the samples generated by automatic calibration, which provided a reliable basis for the subsequent application of the model. This framework can be applied to other programs through adjustments of the number and weight of objective functions according to the specific situation, which will make the modeling more efficient and accurate.Regional estimates of VOC fluxes focus largely on emissions from the canopy and omit potential contributions from the forest floor including soil, litter and understorey vegetation. selleck compound Here, we measured monoterpene emissions every 2 months over 2 years from logged tropical forest and oil palm plantation floor in Malaysian Borneo using static flux chambers. The main emitted monoterpenes were α-pinene, β-pinene and d-limonene. The amount of litter present was the strongest indicator for higher monoterpene fluxes. Mean α-pinene fluxes were around 2.5-3.5 μg C m-2 h-1 from the forest floor with occasional fluxes exceeding 100 μg C m-2 h-1. Fluxes from the oil palm plantation, where hardly any litter was present, were lower (on average 0.5-2.9 μg C m-2 h-1) and only higher when litter was present. All other measured monoterpenes were emitted at lower rates. No seasonal trends could be identified for all monoterpenes and mean fluxes from both forest and plantation floor were ~ 100 times smaller than canopy emission rates reported in the literature. Occasional spikes of higher emissions from the forest floor, however, warrant further investigation in terms of underlying processes and their contribution to regional scale atmospheric fluxes.Cut flowers and floral waste (CFW) is a major concern in the present era. This study emphasizes the reuse of cut flowers as a neat bioadsorbent and activated carbon (AC). The biomass from the cut flowers was utilized as a neat bioadsorbent for the removal of the antibiotic levofloxacin and lead ions from water. The results revealed that the neat bioadsorbent was able to remove 60% levofloxacin and 45% of lead ions. Upon chemical activation of the CFW (using KOH), almost all levofloxacin and more than 99% of lead ions were removed. Physical activation (using CO2) gave a material that removed 90% of levofloxacin and 85% of lead ions. The adsorption of levofloxacin and lead ions on all the adsorbents followed Langmuir isotherms and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The results have been further explained via the prediction of interaction energies between the adsorbates and adsorbents using COSMO-RS simulation.The air purification in intensive care units (ICU) involving the removal of smog and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), disinfection, and sterilization are closely linked to important health issues. The environmental photocatalysis technology that could decompose gaseous pollutants into small molecular inorganic substances provides the potential solution. In a chamber of 30-m3 simulated ICU, photocatalytic purifier with ZnSn(OH)6 nanoparticles photocatalyst is set up to treat 10 VOCs with concentration below 2 ppm. Compared with regular purifiers of plasma and activated carbon, the present photocatalytic purifier can completely eliminate 10 varieties of low-concentration irritating VOCs without CO production. The continuous tests show that loading of 600 g ZnSn(OH)6 has capacity to treat large volumes of VOCs and remains high removal efficiencies up to 600-h operation. The results suggest that the photocatalytic purifier could be potentially applied for the treatment of contaminated indoor air particularly ICU.