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Purpose: To compare a novel vacuum suction ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy (VS-URS) with traditional ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy (T-URS) for impacted upper ureteral stones and to better define the potential benefits of VS-URS., Methods: Between May 2019 and March 2021, 158 patients with impacted upper ureteral stones underwent ureteroscopic holmium-YAG laser lithotripsy. Of these, 76 underwent VS-URS and 82 underwent T-URS. In VS-URS procedures, the vacuum suction device is composed of a 5F ureteral catheter and a tee joint. The ureteral catheter is linked to the vacuum aspirator by the sidearm of the tee joint, and a 200 μm fiber is inserted through the tee joint and the ureteral catheter into the stone site for lithotripsy., Results: When compared to the T-URS group, the VS-URS group had a shorter mean operation time (38.18 ± 6.37 min vs. 46.65 ± 5.66 min; P = 0.000), lower fever rate (3.9% vs. 14.6%; P < 0.022), less stone retropulsion (5.3% vs. 18.3%; P = 0.012), lower extra management rate (6.58% vs. 21.95%; P = 0.006), and a higher stone-free rate of the first postoperative day (88.2% vs. 72.0%; P = 0.011). There were no significant differences in stone-free rates 1 month after surgery between groups (94.7% vs. 92.7%; P = 0.748)., Conclusions: VS-URS is an effective modality for impacted upper ureteral stones, and has a shorter operating time, lower fever rate, less stone retropulsion, and a higher primary stone-free rate compared with T-URS., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: This study aimed to describe a novel double-sheath vacuum suction minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) to overcome the deficiencies of the conventional procedure., Patients and Methods: Between March 2019 and December 2019, 65 patients (37 males and 28 females) with a mean age of 41 years (range 23-69) underwent mini-PCNL with double-sheath vacuum suction. It consisted of an F20 Y-shaped sheath as an outer sheath and an F16 Y-shaped sheath as an inner sheath, in which the inner sheath was longer than the outer sheath. The oblique arm of the outer sheath and the inner sheath was connected to the perfusion inflow and the vacuum suction, respectively. A 550-μm holmium-YAG laser was introduced for stone fragmentation through the working channel of the mini-nephroscope, which was no longer connected to the perfusion fluid., Results: All procedures were successful. Mean operation time was 50.2 min (range 39-83). Mean hemoglobin decrease was 5.2 g/L (range 1.0-15.5), and no patient needed a blood transfusion. One patient (1.5%) with low fever (<38°C) at day 1 had returned to normal at day 2 without administration of antibiotics. There were no Clavien grade 2-4 complications. Mean postoperative hospital stay was 2.4 days (range 2-6). The initial stone-free rate of PCNL was 81.53% (53 of 65 patients). One month after surgery, the final stone-free rate increased to 90.77% (59/65 patients)., Conclusions: The double-sheath vacuum suction mini-PCNL is a safe and effective modality for large renal stones, which might increase the efficiency of stone extraction with low intrapelvic pressure., (© 2021 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Purpose: To compare double-sheath vacuum suction minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy (DS-mini-PCNL) with vacuum-assisted mini-PCNL (VS-mini-PCNL) and to better define the potential benefits of DS-mini-PCNL., Methods: Between July 2019 and May 2020, 117 patients with large radiopaque renal stones underwent mini-PCNL. Of these, 63 underwent DS-mini-PCNL and 54 underwent VS-mini-PCNL. For VS-mini-PCNL, a F20 Y-shaped sheath was used and the oblique arm of the sheath was connected to the vacuum suction. For DS-mini-PCNL, the oblique arm of a F20 Y-shaped sheath (the outer sheath) and a F16 Y-shaped sheath (the inner sheath) was connected to the perfusion inflow and the vacuum suction, respectively. A 550-μm holmium-YAG laser was used for stone fragmentation., Results: Compared with VS-mini-PCNL group, DS-mini-PCNL group had significantly shorter operative time (35.78 ± 7.77 min vs. 44.56 ± 13.19 min; P = 0.000) and significantly lower fever rate (1.6% vs. 11.1%; P = 0.048). It was not significantly different between the two groups despite the higher initial stone-free rate seen for DS-mini-PCNL group relative to VS-mini-PCNL group (87.7% vs. 81.5%, P = 0.346). Auxiliary procedure rates were 4.8% (three patients) in DS-mini-PCNL group and 16.7% (nine patients) in VS-mini-PCNL group, with a significant difference (P = 0.034). The difference in the final stone-free rate between the two groups was rendered insignificant (93.8% vs. 89.1%, P = 0.510)., Conclusions: DS-mini-PCNL is a safe and effective modality for large renal stones, which could increase the efficiency of stone extraction and decrease infectious complications compared with VS-mini-PCNL., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Enantioselective total syntheses of 12 amicoumacin-type natural products are accomplished with a palladium(II)-catalyzed C-H alkylation as the key step to furnish the 3,4-dihydroisocoumarin scaffold. The target chemicals are assembled in a convergent protocol by merging 3,4-dihydroisocoumarin derived amine part with categories of acid segments that are efficiently prepared by chemoselective catalytic oxidation of chiral 1,2-dihydroxyethylfuran-2(5H)-ones. Afterward, the cytotoxicity of amicoumacins on five cancer cell lines and one normal cell line is investigated.

Phenol, o-cresol, p-cresol, catechol and resorcinol are five phenolic compounds with extremely similar structure. Their fluorescence spectra are hard to be analyzed because of the serious spectral overlaps between any two of the five phenolic components in the mixture system. In this experiment, multi-dimensional partial least-squares (N-PLS), unfolded partial least-squares (U-PLS) with residual bilinearization (RBL) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) are employed to analyze the three-way fluorescence spectra aiming to achieve quantitative results. Meanwhile, a contrast of these three methods is given. The experiment results show that N-PLS/RBL and U-PLS/RBL algorithms are superior to PARARFAC in terms of analysis of highly overlapping three-way fluorescence spectra for concentration determination., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Consistent evidence have demonstrated that patients with primary aldosteronism (PA) have higher risk of cardiovascular events to patients with essential hypertension (EH). Whether the long-term risk of mortality for PA patients is higher than EH patients is unclear. We aim to compare the long-term mortality of patients with PA to patients with EH. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for eligible studies from inception to 14 Nov 2018. We combined the relative risks (RR) of each included study by random-effect model. The amount of between study heterogeneity was measured by the I 2 statistic. Results: We totally included six studies with cohort design, including 3,039 PA and 45,495 EH patients. The pooled RRs for patients with PA were 1.97 (95%CI: 1.33, 2.91; P = 0.0007) for a follow-up of 3 years, 0.96 (95%CI: 0.75, 1.23; P = 0.76) for 5 years, 0.86 (95%CI: 0.51, 1.46) for 7.5 years, and 0.95 (95%CI: 0.61, 1.48; P = 0.58) for 10 years. For patients with aldosterone-producing adenomas (APA), evidence of lower risk of long-term mortality was observed. Our sensitivity analysis suggested our results were stable. Conclusions: Current evidence supported a higher risk of mortality for patients with primary aldosteronism at 3 years compared to patients with essential hypertension, however this risk no longer sustains as the follow-up time increased to 5 or more years. Patients with aldosterone-producing adenomas may have lower long-term mortality rate than patients with essential hypertension due to the better recovery of adrenalectomy., (Copyright © 2020 Meng, Dai, Huang, Xu, Zhang, Zheng and Liu.)

In December 2019, a new type viral pneumonia cases occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province; and then named "2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)" by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 12 January 2020. For it is a never been experienced respiratory disease before and with infection ability widely and quickly, it attracted the world's attention but without treatment and control manual. For the request from frontline clinicians and public health professionals of 2019-nCoV infected pneumonia management, an evidence-based guideline urgently needs to be developed. Therefore, we drafted this guideline according to the rapid advice guidelines methodology and general rules of WHO guideline development; we also added the first-hand management data of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. This guideline includes the guideline methodology, epidemiological characteristics, disease screening and population prevention, diagnosis, treatment and control (including traditional Chinese Medicine), nosocomial infection prevention and control, and disease nursing of the 2019-nCoV. Moreover, we also provide a whole process of a successful treatment case of the severe 2019-nCoV infected pneumonia and experience and lessons of hospital rescue for 2019-nCoV infections. This rapid advice guideline is suitable for the first frontline doctors and nurses, managers of hospitals and healthcare sections, community residents, public health persons, relevant researchers, and all person who are interested in the 2019-nCoV.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe a novel negative-pressure laser lithotripsy device to overcome the deficiencies of the conventional procedure., Patients and Methods: Between August 2018 and March 2019, 78 patients with a single ureteral stone underwent retrograde ureteroscopy with a Wolf 8F/9.8F rigid ureteroscope and a 200-μm holmium-YAG laser. The mean stone size was 11.8 mm, measured for the maximum length. The negative-pressure laser lithotripsy device consists of an F5 ureter catheter and a T joint. The closed tip of an F5 ureter catheter is cut off, and it is then inserted within one opening of the T joint. The 200-μm laser fiber is introduced into the ureteral catheter through the other opening of the T joint. The third opening of the T joint is connected to the negative-pressure pipe. The valve end of the Foley catheter is used for sealing the cap. Continuous suction and active irrigation throughout the lithotripsy could maintain adequate visibility., Results: All ureteroscopic procedures were successful. The negative-pressure device showed good stone retention capabilities, with no observed stone migration. We did not observe any major complications. The stone-free rate was 97.44% (76/78), demonstrated on plain radiography of the kidney-ureter-bladder on the first postoperative day. The stone-free rate after 1 month was 100%., Conclusions: The negative-pressure ureteroscopic lithotripsy is easy and safe management for the ureteral stones. It might reduce the risk of stone fragment retropulsion, improve surgical vision, shorten the operative time, and decrease the renal pelvic pressure., (© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

A versatile protocol for the direct thiolation of an inert sp 2 C-H bond is presented via a catalytic amount of copper catalysis, by switching related Brønsted bases and regulating the reaction time, and the corresponding mono- and dithiolation products can be obtained selectively in moderate to good yields. The reaction exhibits a relatively broad substrate scope and a good functional group tolerance, even with different heterocyclic amides and alkyl thiols.

Here, we present an unprecedented pathway to α-sulfenylated carbonyl compounds from commercially available thiols and universally employed TEMPO and its analogues, which act as C3 synthons through skeletal rearrangement under simple and metal-free conditions. Mechanism studies suggest that this reaction involves a consecutive radical oxidation and cation coupling process. TEMPO analogues and thiols serve as oxidants and reductive reagents, respectively, along the radical process, while in the coupling process, the former ones afford C3 synthons to couple with related sulfur sources.

The structures of bacterial cells are analyzed in this paper. The scattering components of individual cell were divided into two parts including external structure and internal structure. The interpretation model of bacteria about scattering light is established. The model is used to analyze the scattering light of Escherichia coli in the region of 400~900 nm. The average size of external structure and the internal structure can be obtained, and the ratio of the two parts is also obtained. According to the relationship of the optical density of single cell and the overall measurement, the concentration of bacterial can be obtained quickly. The maximum difference in all the concentrations of the bacteria repeated measurements is 1.83%; compared with the plate culture method, the measurement results were in the same order of magnitude, with relative error of 3.43%. The scattering light of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae are analyzed in different growth stages, the curves of the concentration and the size of the two species bacteria over time are obtained. The results can provide a quick way for the study of bacterial growth and technical support for rapid detection of bacteria in the water.

The mixed samples of nylon film enrichment of Cr, Pb and Cd three elements and glass fiber membrane filter were as the research object. With the method of superposition of membrane filter, the XRF spectra were measured under different thin film samples thicknesses. According the changes of characteristic XRF of Cr, Pb and Cd elements in the mixed sample and Ca, As and Sr elements in glass fiber membranes, the effects of sample thickness on thin film method XRF spectrum measurement were studied. The study results showed that the effects of thin film sample thickness on the fluorescent properties of elements with characteristic spectral lines in different energy ranges were different. The energy of characteristic spectral lines was greater, the loss of element characteristic X-ray fluorescence when it passed through membrane and reached detector was less. But matrix effect caused by thin film sample thickness increase was stronger with the energy of characteristic spectral lines greater. The background fluorescent intensity in corresponding characteristic spectral line location was greater. So the impact of matrix effect caused by sample thickness increase on thin film method XRF spectrum measurement sensitivity was greater. For elements with low energy characteristic spectral lines (energy≤7 keV), the way of increasing thin film sample thickness in order to increase the mass-thickness concentration of component measured, can not effectively improve the sensitivity of thin film method XRF spectrum measurement. And thin film samples thickness within 0.96 mm is conductive to the measurement and analysis of XRF spectrum. For element with higher energy characteristic spectra lines(energy＞7 keV), the sensitivity of XRF spectrum measurement can be appropriately increased by the way of increase thin film sample thickness in order to increase the mass-thickness concentration of component measured. And thin film samples thickness within 0.96～2.24 mm is more conductive to the measurement and analysis of XRF spectrum. The study provides an important theoretical basis for thin sample preparation and enrichment technology of thin film method X-ray fluorescence spectrum analysis the atmosphere and water heavy metal.

Extensive use of pesticides has a significant impact on the environment. Carbaryl, whose residues stay in the surface water, is one of the most widely used broad spectrum insecticides in agriculture. It is important to understand carbaryl spectral characteristics and detection methods. The characteristic of excitation-emission three-dimensional spectra of carbaryl is studied. By changing the concentration of methanol in methanol-water binary solvent, the impact of methanol-water mixture on three-dimensional fluorescence spectra of carbaryl is discussed. The results show that the characteristic excitation-emission spectra of carbaryl is single peak, the range of the excitation wavelength and emission wavelength are: 244~304 and 300~350 nm respectively, the maximum excitation/emission peak located at 280 and 335 nm. With increasing the content of methanol in methanol-water binary solvent mixture, there is no obviously spectra shift of three dimensional fluorescence spectra of carbaryl. However, the intensity of fluorescence is nonlinear dependent on the content of methanol, mainly due to the specific properties of binary mixed solvent.

The fast chlorophyll fluorescence induction curve contains rich information of photosynthesis. It can reflect various information of vegetation, such as, the survival status, the pathological condition and the physiology trends under the stress state. Through the acquisition of algae fluorescence and induced optical signal, the fast phase of chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics curve was fitted. Based on least square fitting method, we introduced adaptive minimum error approaching method for fast multivariate nonlinear regression fitting toward chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics curve. We realized Fo (fixedfluorescent), Fm (maximum fluorescence yield), σPSII (PSII functional absorption cross section) details parameters inversion and the photosynthetic parameters inversion of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. And we also studied physiological variation of Chlorella pyrenoidosa under the stress of Cu(2+).

(1) In this paper type 316 stainless steel metal plate as the research object, the selection of sample detecting position was studied when thin film method X-ray fluorescence measurement was conducted. The study showed that the optimal location for the sample detection was sample distance X-ray tube and detector baseline 1cm with the baseline into a 16°angle. (2) Heavy metal pollutants of Pb, Cd and Cr in industrial ambient air as the main analysis object, when thin film method X-ray fluorescence conducted with lead plate protection, X-rays will penetrate the membrane and continuely stimulate the protective lead plate. Therefore there is lead spectral line interference in the filter membrane background spectrum, which will affect the detection of lead element in real samples. Studies show that when a layer of isolating material was applied between the thin sample and the protective lead plate, the interference of lead line can effectively be avoided. (3) Several rigid insulating material of type 316 stainless steel, brass, aluminum, red copper and PTEE as lead inner material were selected and studied. The study results showed that compared with X-ray fluorescence spectra of other lead inner materials, the X-ray fluorescence spectrum of red copper contained the least element spectral lines. There were not Cr, Cd and Pb spectrum peaks in the X-ray fluorescence spectrum of red copper. And the target timber scattering spectrum intensity in the high energy part was weaker compared to other X-ray fluorescence spectrum. The above analysis shows that red copper has the minimal disturbance to the actual measurement of heavy metals Cr, Cd and Pb. At the same time, red copper as lead inner materials can effectively avoid the interference of lead spectrum line in lead plate. So red copper is the best lead plate inner materials in thin film method X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy measurement. This study provides an important theoretical basis for the assembling and setting'up air and water weight metal X-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

The present paper firstly denoises the signal with morphological method, selecting sine-shaped structure element, using the morphological difference in waveform between the three-dimensional fluorescence and noise signal, then singular value decomposition is applied to the denoised data, and finally the chemical rank is determinated jointing eigenvalues and eigenvectors form singular value decomposition. This paper principally discusses the theory basis of morphological filtering method, firstly simulated data is analysed by morphological filtering method to confirm the necessity and effectiveness of proposed method, then the feasibility and practicability of the proposed method is verified by the determination of components number of phenols mixture three-dimensional fluorescence spectra compared with traditional Monte Carlo method. The experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is able to estimate the chemical rank correctly.

Chlorophyll concentration and photosynthesis activity fluorescence parameters of Chlorella pyrenoidosa stressed by different concentrations of Cd2+ were measured based on algal growth inhibition tests and photosynthetic activity inhibition tests. The relationship between the algal photosynthetic activity inhibition rate and 96 h inhibition rate of specific growth rate at different Cd2+ stress times was studied by sigmoidal curve fitting and one-way ANOVA analysis. The result shows that S function relevance exists between the algal photosynthetic activity inhibition rates for 48 h, 53 h, 72 h, 77 h and 96 h respectively and 96 h inhibition rate of specific growth rate (R2 > 0.95). Consequently, EC10 (10% effective concentration) after 48 h and 53 h inhibition in photosynthetic activity inhibition tests could be used to represented EC50 (50% effective concentration) in 96 h algal growth inhibition tests for evaluating the Cd2+ toxicity. Dose-response relationships between the algal photosynthetic activity inhibition rates after 48 h and 53 h inhibition and Cd2+ toxic equivalency quantity were further analyzed. The method provided a rapid and viable new thought to monitoring single Cd2+ toxicity in lab and early warn integrated toxicity of pollution in water.

The present paper primarily tests and verifies the effect of NMF in blind source separation of three-dimensional simulative fluorescence spectra, and then four different computational algorithms (multiplicative iterative; alternating least square; second order method; projected gradient algorithm) were used in three practical phenolic compounds (cresol, phenol, thymol) overlapping fluorescence spectra to find out which nonnegatively constrained algorithms is the most efficient for fluorescence spectra unmixing. The experiments demonstrate that four ways have the normalized residuals below 0.06%, and alternating least square (ALS) is the best at both convergence behavior and robustness.

According to the phytoplankton fluorescence induction characteristics under different light conditions, chlorophyll fluorescence as a probe for analysis of phytoplankton photosynthesis was studied. The present paper proposed a in-situ measurement method based on the chlorophyll fluorescence values Ft and Fm to get phytoplankton photosynthesis activity, Chlorella vulgaris, microcystis aeruginosa and Cyclotella meneghiniana Kiits were selected as experimental subjects, a comparison test was done between self-developed in-situ measurement system and Water PAM in lab, and the results showed that coefficients between the two methods were 0.9778, 0.8786 and 0.7953. This work provides a rapid and in-situ measurement method for phytoplankton photosynthesis activity.

Spectrofluorometry of chlorella pyrenoidosa was studied by three dimensional excitation-emission (3DEEM) fluorescence spectroscopy and synchronous scan fluorescence spectroscopy with Delta gamma = 20 nm in the stress of Hg+, Cd2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+. The conclusion from two kinds of Spectrofluorometry was the same: after 96h stress by heavy metals, the maximum fluorescence values reduced obviously, chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-b in the photosynthetic system were seriously damaged by heavy metal. Further analysis of the correlations between heavy metal concentration and fluorescence quenching efficiency I0/I can conclude that the toxicity of heavy metal and the fluorescence quenching efficiency I0/I were positively correlated, and they all increased with the heavy metal concentration and stress time. For one kind of heavy metals, synchronous scan fluorometry is a sensitive method for its toxicity assessment. Compared to 3DEEM fluorescence spectroscopy, synchronous scan fluorescence spectroscopy is less time consuming and of higher selectivity. It is suitable to assess the toxicity of pollutions in water.

The analysis of multi-component three-dimensional fluorescence overlapping spectra is always very difficult. In view of the advantage of differential spectra and based on the calculation principle of two-dimensional differential spectra, the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra with both excitation and emission spectra is fully utilized. Firstly, the excitation differential spectra and emission differential spectra are respectively computed after unfolding the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra. Then the excitation differential spectra and emission differential spectra of the single component are obtained by analyzing the multicomponent differential spectra using independent component analysis. In this process, the use of cubic spline increases the data points of excitation spectra, and the roughness penalty smoothing reduces the noise of emission spectra which is beneficial for the computation of differential spectra. The similarity indices between the standard spectra and recovered spectra show that independent component analysis based on differential spectra is more suitable for the component recognition of three-dimensional fluorescence overlapping spectra.

Mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) with particle size 3 nm have been successfully synthesized in aqueous medium by hydrothermal synthesis method. And the effects of different metal ions on MPA capped CdTe QDs fluorescence were studied using fluorescence spectrometry. The results demonstrated that at the same concentration level, Ag(+) could strongly quench CdTe QDs fluorescence, and the other metal ions had little effect on CdTe QDs fluorescence except Cu(2+). On the basis of this fact, a rapid, simple, highly sensitive and selective method based on fluorescence quenching principle for Ag(+) detection in aqueous solution was proposed. Under optimal conditions, the quenched fluorescence intensity (F(0)-F) increased linearly with the concentration of Ag(+) ranging from 4 × 10(-7) to 32 × 10(-7)mol L(-1). The limit of detection for Ag(+) was 4.106 × 10(-8)mol L(-1). The obtained plot of F(0)/F versus [Ag(+)] was an upward curvature, concave towards the y-axis, rather than a straight line. The modified form of the Stern-Volmer equation was third order in Ag(+) concentration. According to the modified Stern-Volmer equation, it can be inferred that dynamic quenching and static quenching simultaneously occurred when Ag(+) interacted with MPA capped CdTe QDs. At the same time other factors might also influence the quenching process. Based on this study, hydrothermal synthesized MPA capped CdTe QDs with particle size 3 nm may be used as a novel fluorescence probe to quantificationally and selectively detect Ag(+)., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy was applied to characterize the mineral oil in ethanol. In the paper, a simple way of treating the first-order Rayleigh, Raman and second-order Rayleigh scatter is used involving subtracting an EEM of a solvent blank, and removing and replacing the values with zeros. The corrected results showed that the characteristic three-dimensional fluorescence spectra of mineral oil were as follows: there was one mainly peak in the fluorescence spectrum of the kerosene, and the peak was identified at excitation/emission wavelengths (Ex/Em) of 270/290 nm; there were two intense fluorescence peaks in the fluorescence spectrum of 0 # diesel, located at (Ex/Em) of 240/344 nm and 270/362 nm respectively; there were several fluorescence peaks in the fluorescence spectrum of lubricating oil, with the two intense peaks located at (Ex/Em) of 240/348 nm and 258/358 nm respectively. Furthermore, the relation between the relative fluorescence intensity and the concentration of mineral oil was studied, and the sensitivity and the limitation of detection of the method were also analyzed. The results of this study show that the method of three-dimensional fluorescence can be used to detect the low concentration of oil.

The fluorescence intensity information was collected by scanning its fluorescence spectra at different excitation wavelengths. Based on its high sensitivity and selectivity, excitation-emission fluorescence can be widely used for detection of pollutants in the environment. The characterizations of the three phenolic compounds were investigated by this method, and the fluorescence peaks of phenol, m-cresol and thymol were confirmed at 272/300 nm, 274/300 nm and 276/304 nm when the excitation and emission wavelength were set in the range of 240-360 nm and 260-500 nm respectively. The excitation and emission spectra of the three phenolic compounds are very similar because of their analogical structure. The intensity of the spectrum has a good linear relationship with the concentration when the solution concentration is between 0.02 and 1.0 mg x L(-1), and the limits of detection can reach at 1 microg x L(-1). Results show that the three compounds can be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by excitation-emission fluorescence.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as a universal concern in the monitoring of priority pollutants have low content in the water environment and are interfered with the coexistence of humic acid. The spectra of humic acid and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons overlap seriously, so it was difficult to use the conventional methods for rapid quantitative detection. As a model compound of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Phenanthrene (PHE) was chosen in the experiment. The fluorescence spectra of PHE and humic acid (HA) were investigated by three dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix. The method combined excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectra with parallel factor analysis and was applied to determine PHE and HA directly. The excitation wavelength changed from 240 to 360 nm at an interval of 5 nm. The emission wavelength varied from 260 to 575 nm at an interval of 5 nm. The satisfactory results show that this experiment can be easily performed without paying out time-consuming and complicated procedures.

According to the high fluorescence quantum yields of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the fluorescence spectra of phenanthrene were investigated by three dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (3DEEM). The results show that the three-dimensional fluorescence spectra of phenanthrene in aqueous solution mainly have two fluorescence peaks. On the basis of three-dimensional fluorescence spectrometry analysis of phenanthrene, the excitation wavelength of 255 nm and emission wavelength of 273 nm were chosen for the quantitative analysis of phenanthrene. The linear range for the determination of phenanthrene was 5.0-250.0 mg x mL(-1), its detection limit was 3. 88 ng x mL(-1), and its relative standard deviation was 4.23% (n=5). It was a good precision. It has been tested satisfactorily for the determination of artificial sample in tap water. The recoveries are in the range of 90%-105%. The method provided basis for the rapid monitoring of trace PAHs in water.

Bacterivory by heterotrophic nanoflagellates and ciliates has been widely studied in aquatic environments, but data on the grazing of amoebae, are still scarce. From the water samples of Dianchi Lake (Kunming, Yunnan Province, China), we isolated an amoeba, designated as Naegleria sp. strain W2, which had potent grazing effects on some kind of cyanobacteria. The food selection mechanism and the digestion process of the amoeba were investigated in batch experiments. Predation experiments showed that filamentous cyanobacteria (e.g., Anabaena, Cylindrospermum, Gloeotrichia, and Phormidium) were readily consumed, with clearance rates ranging from 0.332 to 0.513 nL amoeba(-1) h(-1). The tight threads (Oscilltoria) and aggregates (Aphanizomenon) could not be ingested; however, their sonicated fragments were observed inside food vacuoles, suggesting that their morphologies prevent them from being ingested. Live video microscopy noted that unicellular Chroococcaceae (e.g., Synechococcus, Aphanocapsa, and Microcystis) were excreted after ingestion, indicating that food selection takes place inside food vacuoles. To determine whether the tastes or the toxins prevented them from being digested, heat-killed cells were retested for predation. Digestion rates and ingestion rates of the amoebae for filamentous cyanobacteria were estimated from food vacuole content volume. Through a "cold-chase" method, we found that the food vacuole contents declined exponentially in diluted amoebae cells, and digestion rates were relatively constant, averaging about 1.5% food vacuole content min(-1) at 28 degrees Celsius. Ingestion strongly depended on the satiation status of the amoebae, starved amoebae fed at higher rates compared with satiated amoebae. Our results suggest that the food selection and food processing mechanisms of the amoeba are similar to those of interception feeding flagellates; however, filamentous cyanobacteria cannot obtain a refuge under the grazing pressure of phagotrophic amoebae, which may widen our knowledge on the grazing of protists.

The constant-volume combustion energy, DeltacU (DNTF, s, 298.15K) and kinetic behavior of the exothermic decomposition reaction of the title compound (DNTF) are determined by a precise rotating bomb calorimeter and DSC, respectively. Its standard enthalpy of combustion, DeltacHmtheta (DNTF, s, 298.15K), standard enthalpy of formation, DeltacHmtheta (DNTF, s, 298.15K) and kinetic parameters of the major exothermic decomposition reaction in a temperature-programmed mode [the apparent activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A)] are calculated. The values of DeltacU (DNTF, s, 298.15K), DeltacHmtheta (DNTF, s, 298.15K), and DeltacHmtheta (DNTF, s, 298.15K) of DNTF are -9733.96 +/- 8.59 Jg(-1), -3018.29 +/- 2.68 kJ mol(-1), and 657.23 +/- 2.70 kJ mol(-1), respectively. The kinetic model function in integral form and the value of E(a) and A of the major exothermic decomposition reaction of DNTF are 1-(1-alpha)1/3, 177.03 kJ mol(-1) and 10(13.68)s(-1), respectively. The critical temperature of thermal explosion of DNTF is 240.6 degrees C.

Survival and cold hardiness declined gradually when cold-hardened Fredrick winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was maintained at -6 degrees C for several weeks. Moisture content of crown and root tissue did not change significantly during this period. Uptake of O(2) and accumulation of (86)Rb by root tissue declined abruptly upon exposure to -6 degrees C, whereas a concomitant negative effect of freezing on these metabolic processes was not observed in crown tissue. Electron spin resonance spectroscopic analysis of microsomal membrane preparations from crown tissue revealed no evidence of gross changes in the physical properties of the bulk lipids even when seedlings were killed. The results provide biochemical evidence that seedling damage due to prolonged exposure to a mild freezing stress is due to disruption of key metabolic process in the root while cells within the crown remain viable.