Persistent organic pollutants can be traced in air, water, soil and biota in industrialized and non industrialized regions. Although the production of these chemicals has been banned since 1980's when their toxicity was proven, their use, trade and disposal as well as persistence due to previous use, continues to contaminate the environment and threaten human health. Recent studies on the immun...

We performed a quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of epicuticular hydrocarbon variation in 1650 F(2) males from crosses of Baja California and mainland Mexico populations of Drosophila mojavensis cultured on two major host cacti. Principal component (PC) analysis revealed five PCs that accounted for 82% of the total epicuticular hydrocarbon variation. Courtship trials with mainland females...

Skin is the outermost part of the body and is, thus, inevitably exposed to UV rays and environmental pollutants. Oxidative stress by these hazardous factors accelerates skin aging and induces skin inflammation and carcinogenesis. Aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AHRs) are chemical sensors that are abundantly expressed in epidermal keratinocytes and mediate the production of reactive oxygen species. ...

Diablo (or SMAC) is a protein released from mitochondria following apoptotic stimuli and inhibits the actions of Inhibitors of Apoptosis (IAP) proteins. IAPs regulate the activity of caspases and NFkB, the primary executioners of apoptosis and of inflammation, respectively. Thus, Diablo is important for the regulation of cellular responses to damage. In Northern Europe, statutory governmental m...

results multilayer perceptron (mlp) artificial neural network (ann) model with a 1-6-1 structure was chosen which explained 97% and 95% of kd and koc variances, respectively. the only input data was soil organic carbon content. conclusions based on this study, the ann method is a promising alternative for conventional methods in modeling and estimating sorption coefficients in relation to soil ...

BACKGROUND Previous epidemiologic studies have considered the effects of individual air pollutants on birth outcomes, whereas a multiple-pollutant approach is more relevant to public health policy. OBJECTIVES The present study compared the observed effect sizes of prenatal fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) (a component of PM2.5) exposures on birth outc...

due to the location of a domestic, industrial and agricultural zone near the caspian sea, this water body has long been under pressure and environmental threat. as a result of development of oil production activities in caspian region, such as oil exploration and extraction, a large volume of oil related pollutants is released annually into this important water body. considering the fact that h...

This research article intends to discuss on the role and effects of dispersing solution combustion derived magnesia nanoflakes (~17 nm) within biodiesel-diesel blends pure diesel termed as nanofuels, in order investigate functional pollutant emissions a single-cylinder, electrically loaded, water-cooled engine. The fuels focussed this study are blend palm oil biodiesel regular dispersed with 50...

2-Ethyhexyl nitrate (2-EHN) is a major additive of fuel that is used to increase the cetane number of diesel. Because of its wide use and possible accidental release, 2-EHN is a potential pollutant of the environment. In this study, Mycobacterium austroafricanum IFP 2173 was selected from among several strains as the best 2-EHN degrader. The 2-EHN biodegradation rate was increased in biphasic c...

Many technological implementations in the field of nanotechnology have involved carbon nanomaterials, including fullerenes such as the buckminsterfullerene, C60. The unprecedented properties of such organic nanomaterials (in particular their large surface area) gained extensive attention for their potential use as organic pollutant sorbents. Sorption interactions can be very hazardous and usefu...