Application of Rice-Straw Biochar and Microorganisms in Nonylphenol Remediation: Adsorption-Biodegradation Coupling Relationship and Mechanism

Biochar adsorption presents a potential remediation method for the control of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) pollution in the environment. It has been found that HOCs bound on biochar become less bioavailable, so speculations have been proposed that HOCs will persist for longer half-life periods in biochar-amended soil/sediment. To investigate how biochar application affects coupled adsorption-biodegradation, nonylphenol was selected as the target contaminant, and biochar derived from rice straw was applied as the adsorbent. The results showed that there was an optimal dosage of biochar in the presence of both adsorption and biodegradation for a given nonylphenol concentration, thus allowing the transformation of nonylphenol to be optimized. Approximately 47.6% of the nonylphenol was biodegraded in two days when 0.005 g biochar was added to 50 mg/L of nonylphenol, which was 125% higher than the relative quantity biodegraded without biochar, though the resistant desorption component of nonylphenol reached 87.1%. All adsorptive forms of nonylphenol (f _rap, f _slow, f _r) decreased gradually during the biodegradation experiment, and the resistant desorption fraction of nonylphenol (f _r) on biochar could also be biodegraded. It was concluded that an appropriate amount of biochar could stimulate biodegradation, not only illustrating that the dosage of biochar had an enormous influence on the half-life periods of HOCs but also alleviating concerns that enhanced HOCs binding by biochar may cause secondary pollution in biochar-modified environment.     

Expression of human prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in a mouse tumor cell line reduces tumorigenicity and elicits PSA-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

 Human prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has a highly restricted tissue distribution. Its expression is essentially limited to the epithelial cells of the prostate gland. Moreover, it continues to be synthesized by prostate carcinoma cells. This makes PSA an attractive candidate for use as a target antigen in the immunotherapy of prostate cancer. As a first step in characterizing the specific immune response to PSA and its potential use as a tumor-rejection antigen, we have incorporated PSA into a well-established mouse tumor model. Line 1, a mouse lung carcinoma, and P815, a mouse mastocytoma, have been transfected with the cDNA for human PSA. Immunization with a PSA-expressing tumor cell line demonstrated a memory response to PSA which protected against subsequent challenge with PSA-expressing, but not wild-type, tumors. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes could be isolated from PSA-expressing tumors grown in naive hosts and were specifically cytotoxic against a syngeneic cell line that expressed PSA. Immunization with tumor cells resulted in the generation of primary and memory cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific for PSA. The isolation of PSA-specific CTL clones from immunized animals further demonstrated that PSA can serve as a target antigen for antitumor CTL. The immunogenicity studies carried out in this mouse tumor model provide a rationale for the design of methods to elicit PSA-specific cell-mediated immunity in humans. Received: 4 April 1996 / Accepted: 31 May 1996     

The Effects of Mobile Phone Radiofrequency Radiation on Cochlear Stria Marginal Cells in Sprague–Dawley Rats

To investigate the possible mechanisms for biological effects of 1,800 MHz mobile radiofrequency radiation (RFR), the radiation-specific absorption rate was applied at 2 and 4 W/kg, and the exposure mode was 5 min on and 10 min off (conversation mode). Exposure time was 24 h short-term exposure. Following exposure, to detect cell DNA damage, cell apoptosis, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, the Comet assay test, flow cytometry, DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride) staining, and a fluorescent probe were used, respectively. Our experiments revealed that mobile phone RFR did not cause DNA damage in marginal cells, and the rate of cell apoptosis did not increase (P > 0.05). However, the production of ROS in the 4 W/kg exposure group was greater than that in the control group (P < 0.05). In conclusion, these results suggest that mobile phone energy was insufficient to cause cell DNA damage and cell apoptosis following short-term exposure, but the cumulative effect of mobile phone radiation still requires further confirmation. Activation of the ROS system plays a significant role in the biological effects of RFR. Bioelectromagnetics. © 2020 The Authors. Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Corrigendum of Zhao et al. (2020): a revised infrageneric classification of Lepisorus (Polypodiaceae)

Here, we publish Lepisorus sect. Paragramma (Blume) C.F. Zhao, R. Wei & X.C. Zhang as a combinatio nova to replace the section name in Zhao et al. (2020), which was published as a status nova and turned out to be an invalid name, because we cited an incorrect basionym. A revised infrageneric classification of Lepisorus also is proposed.     

Digest: Developmental life history and adaptive radiation in salamanders*

What determines the rate at which species adapt to new climatic conditions? Weaver et al. found that the evolution of short larval periods promotes climatic niche evolution in salamanders in the genus Desmognathus.