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Iron tailings constitute a significant type of industrial solid waste. The use of iron tailings to wholly or partly substitute natural gravel in a cement-stabilized base is an effective technique for high-quality and large-scale use. This study replaced natural gravel with iron tailings of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% to develop a cement-stabilized iron tailing base (IT-CSG). Additionally, the drying shrinkage, temperature shrinkage, fatigue properties, and unconfined compressive strength of IT-CSG were investigated. The results reveal that owing to the large porosity of iron tailings and adsorption of more water, the internal water content of the IT-CSG mixture increases with an increase in iron tailings content. Consequently, the cumulative water loss rate of IT-CSG increases, and the drying shrinkage strain increases. The average temperature shrinkage coefficient of IT-CSG gradually increases as the iron tailing content increases owing to the larger porosity and space for temperature shrinkage deformation in the IT-CSG. Therefore, the fatigue equation of IT-CSG is established, indicating that fatigue life decreases slightly with an increase in iron tailing content. Notably, the fatigue life of IT-CSG positively correlates with cement dosage. Furthermore, the unconfined compressive strength of IT-CSG gradually decreases as the iron tailing content increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-domain sequential recommendation aims to predict the next item based on a sequence of recorded user behaviours in multiple domains. We propose a novel Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation approach with Graph-Collaborative Filtering (CsrGCF) to alleviate the sparsity issue of user-interaction data. Specifically, we design time-aware and relation-aware graph attention mechanisms with collaborative filtering to exploit high-order behaviour patterns of users for promising results in both domains. Time-aware Graph Attention mechanism (TGAT) is designed to learn the inter-domain sequence-level representation of items. Relationship-aware Graph Attention mechanism (RGAT) is proposed to learn collaborative items' and users' feature representations. Moreover, to simultaneously improve the recommendation performance in the two domains, a Cross-domain Feature Bidirectional Transfer module (CFBT) is proposed, transferring user's common sharing features in both domains and retaining user's domain-specific features in a specific domain. Finally, cross-domain and sequential information jointly recommend the next items that users like. We conduct extensive experiments on two real-world datasets that show that CsrGCF outperforms several state-of-the-art baselines in terms of Recall and MRR. These demonstrate the necessity of exploiting high-order behaviour patterns of users for a cross-domain sequential recommendation. Meanwhile, retaining domain-specific features is an important step in the process of cross-domain feature bidirectional transferring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of initial total phosphorus (TP) concentration, current density, conductivity and initial pH value on the removal rate of TP and energy consumption, as well as the behaviour and mechanism of phosphorus removal, were investigated by sinusoidal alternating current coagulation (SACC). The flocs produced by SACC were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FTIR and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy. The thermodynamic and kinetic behaviours of phosphorus removal by iron sol adsorption were also studied in detail. In a self-made SACC reactor equipped with five sets of parallel iron electrodes spacing 10 mm, the removal rate of TP reached 90.9% for a pH 7.0 wastewater with 5 mg dm−3 TP (κ = 800 μS cm−1) after being treated for 60 min by applying 2.12 mA cm−2 sinusoidal alternating current. Compared with direct current coagulation (DCC), SACC exhibits a higher removal efficiency of phosphorus due to the stronger adsorption of the produced flocs. It was found that the adsorption in the SACC process follows pseudo-second-order kinetic with the involvement of the intra-particle model. The adsorption of iron sol to phosphorus was an endothermic and spontaneous process, and its adsorption behaviour can be characterized with Langmuir and Redlich–Peterson isothermal adsorption models. SACC may be employed for the treatment of more complex wastewater combined with biological and/or electrochemical techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical and broad-spectrum benzimidazole, mebendazole (MBZ) has long been used in human and veterinary medicine to treat parasitic infestations, and is widely employed in the aquaculture of Japanese pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes). However, there have been no studies examining the pharmacokinetic characteristics of MBZ in Japanese pufferfish. Furthermore, the presence of MBZ and its metabolites in animal-derived raw food represents a notable safety concern. Here, we investigated the metabolism of MBZ using a UPLC-Q-TOF system. Additionally, we evaluated the pharmacokinetics of MBZ and two metabolites, 2-amino-5(6)-benzoylbenzimidazole (MBZ-NH2) and 5-hydroxymebendazole (MBZ-OH), in Japanese pufferfish following intramuscular injection of 20 mg/kg MBZ. We detected three metabolites of MBZ (M1–M3), among which, 2-amino-5(6)-(a-hydroxybenzyl) benzimidazole (M3) was detected in an aquatic animal for the first time. The plasma dispositions of MBZ, MBZ-NH2, and MBZ-OH were characterized by low plasma clearance, medium distribution volume, and long terminal half-life. Moreover, these compounds were widely distributed in the muscle, from which they were rapidly cleared. The pharmacokinetics and metabolism of mebendazole in Japanese pufferfish are described for the first time in this study. Our findings provide a basis for the rational application of MBZ in Japanese pufferfish farming and contribute to our understanding of the metabolism of MBZ in cultured fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. A comprehensive method for the simultaneous characterization of xenobiotic compound inhibition of nine major CYP enzymes in human liver microsomes was established by using 16 CYP-catalyzed reactions of 14 probe substrates with three cocktail incubation sets and a single LC/MS/MS analysis. 2. The three cocktail subgroups were developed to minimize the effects of organic solvents, polyunsaturated fatty acids and mutual substrate interactions: Group I was composed of tolbutamide (CYP2C9),S-mephenytoin (CYP2C19), testosterone (CYP3A4), dextromethorphan (CYP2D6); Group II was composed of nifedipine (CYP3A4), midazolam (CYP3A4), coumarin (CYP2A6), bupropion (CYP2B6), diclofenac (CYP2C9); Group III was composed of phenacetin (CYP1A2), chlorzoxazone (CYP2E1), omeprazole (CYP2C19 and CYP3A4), paclitaxel (CYP2C8), (+)-bufuralol (CYP2D6). In the case of CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4, multiple probe substrates were used due to the phenomenon of multiple substrate-binding pockets and substrate-dependent inhibition. All probe metabolites were simultaneously analyzed with a polarity switching mode in a single LC/MS/MS run. 3. This method was validated against the single probe substrate assay using 12 well-characterized CYP inhibitors and two new entities (GT0918, MDV3100). The IC50values of each inhibitor in the cocktail agreed well with that of the individual probe drug as well as with values reported in previous literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusions: The long-term quality of life of adolescents with chronic rhinosinusitis improved significantly after functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS), and endoscopic sinus surgery showed certain benefits for adolescent patients. The selection of appropriate patients may further improve the surgical outcomes and quality of life. Objective: To analyze the long-term quality of life in adolescents (12-18 years) with chronic rhinosinusitis after endoscopic sinus surgery, and to evaluate the value of endoscopic sinus surgery in adolescent patients. Methods: From 2003 to 2008, 729 adolescents with chronic sinusitis underwent endoscopic sinus surgery in our department; 270 of these patients were included in the study. Their quality of life was assessed before and within 3-8 years after the surgery using the SNOT-20 scale and was compared with that of healthy individuals of the same age. Results: The SNOT-20-based assessment showed that the overall quality of life differed significantly before and after surgery ( p = 0.000) and that some symptoms (dizziness, sense of facial oppression, sleep difficulty, embarrassment, and fatigue) had no significant differences before and after surgery ( p > 0.05). Preoperative and postoperative symptoms (dizziness, sense of facial oppression, sleep difficulty, embarrassment, and fatigue) showed no significant differences between the healthy population and treated patients ( p > 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myripnois dioica (Asteraceae) is a dioecious shrub endemic to North China. In this study, its complete chloroplast genome sequence was assembled and characterized using Illumina paired-end sequencing technology. The whole genome was 153,793 bp in length, containing a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 25,049 bp, a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,683 bp, and a large single-copy (LSC) region of 85,012 bp. The genome encoded 134 genes including 89 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the genome was 37.6%. Phylogenetic analysis based on maximum likelihood method indicated Myripnois dioica was close to the taxa in the genus Ligularia. Our results would benefit the conservation genetics and phylogenetic studies of this endemic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]