Urban air pollution in cities, among the world\'s most critical problems, has escalated to such an extent that it threatens human health in many urban centers and causes the death of millions every year. Trace metals are significant among the components of air pollution. Trace metals can endure long without undergoing biodegradation and bioaccumulation in living organisms. Moreover, their concentration in the air increases gradually. Therefore, monitoring metal concentration is extremely important for reliable indicators of environmental pollution. Biomonitoring is an effective method for describing metal concentrations in urban areas. Chromium, manganese, and zinc, selected within the present study, have various adverse effects on plants in high concentrations. Their identification is highly critical for monitoring the pollution level in their regions. This study aimed to determine the Cr, Mn, and Zn concentration changes according to organ, and age in Elaeagnus angustifolia L., Platanus orientalis L., Koelreuteria paniculata Laxm, Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle, and Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) Manetti ex Carr is 30 years old. The accumulation of metals in the outer bark can be found as follows Zn > Mn > Cr in all species, although Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle and Platanus orientalis L. can be suitable for biomonitoring tools because concentrations change significantly depending on the airborne metal.

Long-term trends of artificial radionuclides, from 2003 to 2018, in two abundant species of macrophytes, shining pondweed, Potamogeton lucens, and water moss, Fontinalis antipyretica, have been analyzed to estimate the indicative reliability of these two species as biomonitors of radioactive contamination in a river system and to quantify the decrease in the content of artificial radionuclides in the Yenisei River. Time-dependent trends of artificial radionuclides in the biomass of these species were similar, resulting in estimates of effective half-lives for 54Mn, 58Co, 60Co, 65Zn, 137Cs, and 152Eu similar for both species. Concentrations of artificial radionuclides in biomass of shining pondweed and water moss correlated with annual discharges of the radionuclides to the Yenisei at different levels of significance, and the strongest (R2 > 0.7) positive correlation (p < 0.05) was obtained for 60Co, 65Zn, and 152Eu. Concentrations of 60Co, 137Cs, and 152Eu in water moss were 2-7.5 times higher than in shining pondweed, and considerable percentages of those isotopes were recorded in extracellular particulate matter, which was largely represented by epiphytic diatoms. Higher concentrations of artificial radionuclides in the biomass of water moss can be considered as an advantage of water moss as a monitor of radioactive contamination of the Yenisei, while shining pondweed is more useful for estimation of annual deposits of radionuclides in vegetation of the Yenisei and spatial transfer of radionuclides downstream of the discharge site. Despite differences in concentrations of artificial radionuclides, both species can be considered as reliable indicators of radioactive contamination of the river on a long-term scale.

Feather analysis has been widely used as a biomonitoring tool to assess metal contamination in birds, as their sampling is a non-destructive and ethically preferable technique. However, for feathers to be useful as a biomonitor of heavy metals, exogenous contamination has to be efficiently removed. Although much effort has been put into this, no washing procedure has yet proven able to ensure the total removal of the surface-associated metals. The purpose of this study was to propose an efficient washing procedure of feather samples prior to metal analysis, on the basis of comparison of various washing schemes designed according to previous analytical trials, and of the verification of the efficacy of the optimal scheme in cleaning intentionally contaminated feathers. Our investigation showed that dilute nitric acid alone or in combination with a detergent (Extran) or acetone under mild agitation of the samples performed better that any other cleaning scheme applied. Thus, a multi-step procedure including the sequential use of all three reagents was tested against feather samples contaminated by adsorbed or particulate metal species. The procedure was able to completely eliminate the external metal loads in all cases except for the partial removal of severe contamination with adsorbed Cd.

The bioaccumulation and biotransformation of arsenic (As) were studied in six representative marine sponges from the French Mediterranean and Irish Atlantic coasts. Methodologies were carefully optimized in one of the species on Haliclona fulva sponges for two critical steps: the sample mineralization for total As analysis by ICP-MS and the extraction of As species for HPLC-ICP-MS analysis. During the optimization, extractions performed with 0.6 mol L-1 H3PO4 were shown to be the most efficient. Extraction recovery of 81% was obtained which represents the best results obtained until now in sponge samples. Total As analyses and As speciation were performed on certified reference materials and allow confirming the measurement quality both during the sample preparation and analysis. Additionally, this study represents an environmental survey demonstrating a high variability of total As concentrations among the different species, probably related to different physiological or microbial features. As speciation results showed the predominance of arsenobetaine (AsB) regardless of the sponge species, as well as the occurrence of low amounts of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), arsenate (As(+V)), and unknown As species in some samples. The process responsible for As transformation in sponges is most likely related to sponges metabolism itself or the action of symbiont organisms. AsB is supposed to be implied in the protection against osmolytic stress. This study demonstrates the ability of sponges to accumulate and bio-transform As, proving that sponges are relevant bio-monitors for As contamination in the marine environment, and potential tools in environmental bio-remediation.

UNASSIGNED: Continuous rhythm monitoring is valuable for adequate atrial fibrillation (AF) management in the clinical setting. Subcutaneous leadless implantable cardiac monitors (ICMs) yield an improved AF detection, overcoming the intrinsic limitations of the currently available external recording systems, thus resulting in a more accurate patient treatment. The study purpose was to assess the detection performance of a novel three-vector ICM device equipped with a dedicated AF algorithm.
UNASSIGNED: Sixty-six patients (86.4% males; mean age 60.4 ± 9.4 years) at risk to present AF episodes, having undergone the novel ICM implant (BioMonitor, Biotronik SE&Co. KG, Berlin, Germany), were enrolled. External 48-h ECG Holter was performed 4 weeks after the device implantation. The automatic ICM AF classification was compared with the manual Holter arrhythmia recordings. Of the overall study population, 63/66 (95.5%) had analysable Holter data, 39/63 (62%) showed at least one true AF episode. All these patients had at least one AF episode stored in the ICM. On Holter monitoring, 24/63 (38%) patients did not show AF episodes, in 16 of them (16/24, 67%), the ICM confirmed the absence of AF. The AF detection sensitivity and positive predictive value for episodes\' analysis were 95.4 and 76.3%, respectively.
UNASSIGNED: Continuous monitoring using this novel device, equipped with a dedicated detection algorithm, yields an accurate and reliable detection of AF episodes. The ICM is a promising tool for tailoring individual AF patient management. Further long-term prospective studies are necessary to confirm these encouraging results.

BACKGROUND: Despite research demonstrating the overall safety of Conducted Electrical Weapons (CEWs), commonly known by the brand name TASER(®), concerns remain regarding cardiac safety. The addition of cardiac biomonitoring capability to a CEW could prove useful and even lifesaving in the rare event of a medical crisis by detecting and analyzing cardiac rhythms during the period immediately after CEW discharge.
OBJECTIVE: To combine an electrocardiogram (ECG) device with a CEW to detect and store ECG signals while still allowing the CEW to perform its primary function of delivering an incapacitating electrical discharge.
METHODS: This work was performed in three phases. In Phase 1 standard law enforcement issue CEW cartridges were modified to demonstrate transmission of ECG signals. In Phase 2, a miniaturized ECG recorder was combined with a standard issue CEW and tested. In Phase 3, a prototype CEW with on-board cardiac biomonitoring was tested on human volunteers to assess its ability to perform its primary function of electrical incapacitation.
RESULTS: Bench testing demonstrated that slightly modified CEW cartridge wires transmitted simulated ECG signals produced by an ECG rhythm generator and from a human volunteer. Ultimately, a modified CEW incorporating ECG monitoring successfully delivered incapacitating current to human volunteers and successfully recorded ECG signals from subcutaneous CEW probes after firing.
CONCLUSIONS: An ECG recording device was successfully incorporated into a standard issue CEW without impeding the functioning of the device. This serves as proof-of-concept that safety measures such as cardiac biomonitoring can be incorporated into CEWs and possibly other law enforcement devices.