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In this paper, one supermolecular compound, namely, p-[C20H18N2O4][Mo8O26]0.5·H2O (1) has been synthesized from 1,4-bis[4-nitrile-pyridine)-N-methylene]phenyldibromide (L1) and (NH4)6Mo7- O24·4H2O by hydrothermal method. The structure has been confirmed through single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses and further characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra. The adsorption property of compound 1 has bee studied, Thus it’s much important to enrich the types of chemicals.

LianhuaQingwen capsule, prepared from an herbal combination, is officially recommended as treatment for COVID-19 in China. Of the serial pharmacokinetic investigations we designed to facilitate identifying LianhuaQingwen compounds that are likely to be therapeutically important, the current investigation focused on the component Glycyrrhiza uralensis roots (Gancao). Besides its function in COVID-19 treatment, Gancao is able to induce pseudoaldosteronism by inhibiting renal 11β-HSD2. Systemic and colon-luminal exposure to Gancao compounds were characterized in volunteers receiving LianhuaQingwen and by in vitro metabolism studies. Access of Gancao compounds to 11β-HSD2 was characterized using human/rat, in vitro transport, and plasma protein binding studies, while 11β-HSD2 inhibition was assessed using human kidney microsomes. LianhuaQingwen contained a total of 41 Gancao constituents (0.01–8.56 μmol/day). Although glycyrrhizin ( 1 ), licorice saponin G2 ( 2 ), and liquiritin/liquiritin apioside ( 21 / 22 ) were the major Gancao constituents in LianhuaQingwen, their poor intestinal absorption and access to colonic microbiota resulted in significant levels of their respective deglycosylated metabolites glycyrrhetic acid ( 8 ), 24-hydroxyglycyrrhetic acid ( M2 D ; a new Gancao metabolite), and liquiritigenin ( 27 ) in human plasma and feces after dosing. These circulating metabolites were glucuronized/sulfated in the liver and then excreted into bile. Hepatic oxidation of 8 also yielded M2 D . Circulating 8 and M2 D , having good membrane permeability, could access (via passive tubular reabsorption) and inhibit renal 11β-HSD2. Collectively, 1 and 2 were metabolically activated to the pseudoaldosterogenic compounds 8 and M2 D . This investigation, together with such investigations of other components, has implications for precisely defining therapeutic benefit of LianhuaQingwen and conditions for its safe use.

To explore a new approach for fabricating the load bearing implants with the combination of bioactivity, biocompatibility, and mechanical properties, mechanically mixed hydroxyapatite (HA) and titanium (Ti) powders containing 30, 50, and 70 wt% Ti were sprayed onto a 316L stainless steel substrate using a warm spray (WS) process. The microstructures, phase compositions, chemical structures, and mechanical properties of WS HATi composite coatings were comprehensively investigated and compared to those of WS HA coating. Experimental results indicate that the cross-sectional microstructures of WS HATi composite coatings present typical lamellar structures composed of curved stripes formed by well-deformed and oxidized Ti splats and limited deformed HA splats, and are significantly influenced by the Ti content in the original powders. Phase constitutions of the composite coatings mainly consist of HA, Ti, TiO2, and TiO. Chemical structures of HA in the composite coatings deposited using powders with Ti content less than 30% are similar to the structures in the original powder. The microhardness, elastic modulus, and bond strength of the coatings increased from 0.32 ± 0.15 GPa to 1.41 ± 0.31 GPa, from 1.37 ± 0.28 GPa to 23.28 ± 3.45 GPa, and from 17.3 ± 2.2 MPa to 34.8 ± 3.2 MPa, respectively. The abrasive wear weight loss of the coatings on Al2O3 abrasive paper decreased from 2.9 mg to 1 mg, as the addition of Ti particles in original powders increased from 0 to 70%.

Utilization of iron carbon agglomerates (ICA) is considered to be an innovative technology to realize low carbon blast furnace (BF) ironmaking. The preparation of ICA with utilization of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and coal tar pitch (CTP) as binders was proposed in this study. The influence mechanisms of binder addition on the metallurgical properties of ICA were revealed. The results show that adding PVA is beneficial to improving the compressive strength of briquettes due to the chemical adsorption between the binder and the material particles. However, with the increase of PVA addition ratio from 0 to 1.0 pct, the compressive strength of ICA decreases from 2854 N to 2601 N. Meanwhile, the addition of PVA has no effect on the carbon crystallites structure of ICA and the reactivity of ICA present few changes, which are all at about 60 pct with the increase of PVA addition ratio from 0 to 1.0 pct. In addition, as the addition of CTP increases from 0 to 7 pct, the microstructure of ICA becomes dense and less porous, which can improve the compressive strength of ICA from 1639 to 3168 N. Although the reactivity of ICA is slightly reduced from 65.6 to 58.1 pct due to the development of carbon crystallites structure, it is still much higher than that of conventional metallurgical coke (30 to 35 pct). Meanwhile, the post-reaction strength is improved from 11.9 to 19.6 pct. However, as the addition amount of CTP exceeds 7 pct, the beneficial effects of CTP addition are attenuated. CTP is more suitable to be the binder of ICA, and the appropriate ratio of CTP is 7 pct.

The growing contamination of arsenic and plastics has severely effects on the soil fauna health, including shifts of gut microbiota community. A few studies have focused on effects of microplastics and metal(loid) in soil and fauna gut microbiome. However, the environmental effect of nanoplastics and arsenic on the earthworm gut microbiota, especially on arsenic biotransformation in the gut, remain largely unknown. Here, a microcosm study was performed to explore the effects of nanoplastics and arsenic on the microbiota characteristics in earthworm Metaphire vulgaris gut using Illumina high throughput sequencing, and to investigate changes in the gut microbiota-mediated arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs) by using high-throughput quantitative PCR. Our results demonstrated that the concentration of arsenic in the earthworm body tissues after exposure to arsenic and nanoplastics was significantly lower from that with arsenic alone exposure. Moreover, the clearly different bacterial community was observed in the soil compared with the earthworm gut, which was dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes at phylum level. Arsenic exposure significantly disturbed bacterial community structure in the earthworm gut, but exposure to nanoplastics did not induce gut microbiota changes. More interestingly, nanoplastics can relieve adverse effect of arsenic on the gut microbiota possibly by adsorbing arsenic. In addition, a total of 16 ABGs were detected, and predominant genes involved in arsenic reduction and transport process were observed in the earthworm guts. In short, this study provides a new picture of the effects of nanoplastics and arsenic on the gut microbiota and arsenic biotransformation in soil fauna gut.

Yawei Dou,1 Wei Tian,1 Hongtao Wang,1 Shanshan Lv2 1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shaanxi Province People’s Hospital, Xi’an, 710068, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Xijing Hospital of Airforce Medical University, Xi’an, 710032, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Shanshan LvDepartment of Cardiovascular Surgery, Xijing Hospital of Airforce Medical University, No. 169, Changle West Road, Xi’an, 710032, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-29-84775313Email lvshanshan202012@163.comBackground: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) participate in the tumorigenesis of various cancers. CircRNA hsa_circ_0001944 (circ_0001944), derived from the TCONS_l2_00030860 gene, has been uncovered to be upregulated in NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). Nevertheless, the influence of circ_0001944 on glycolysis and tumor growth in NSCLC is unclear.Methods: Expression trend of circ_0001944 in NSCLC tissues and cells were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Loss-of-function experiments were performed to assess the influence of circ_0001944 knockdown on proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis of NSCLC cells. Protein levels were assessed by Western blotting. The regulatory mechanism of circ_0001944 was analyzed by bioinformatics analysis, dual-luciferase reporter assay, and/or RNA pull-down assay. The tumorigenicity of circ_0001944 was confirmed by xenograft assay.Results: Circ_0001944 was highly expressed in NSCLC, and NSCLC patients with high expression of circ_0001944 had a worse prognosis. Circ_0001944 silencing decreased xenograft tumor growth in vivo and repressed proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis of NSCLC cells in vitro. Circ_0001944 was verified as a decoy for microRNA (miR)-142-5p, which targeted NFAT5 (nuclear factor of activated T cells 5). MiR-142-5p was downregulated while NFAT5 was upregulated in NSCLC. Both miR-142-5p inhibition and NFAT5 overexpression offset the suppressive impact of circ_0001944 silencing on proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis of NSCLC cells. Circ_0001944 adsorbed miR-142-5p to elevate NFAT5 expression in NSCLC cells.Conclusion: Circ_0001944 promotes proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis of NSCLC cells by upregulating NFAT5 through adsorbing miR-142-5p, offering a novel mechanism for understanding the advancement of NSCLC.Keywords: NSCLC, circ_0001944, miR-142-5p, NFAT5, glycolysis

The widespread occurrence of tire particles (TPs) in soils has attracted considerable attention due to their potential threats. The assemblage of bacteria and associated antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) on TPs is yet largely unknown, especially under the stress of soil pollutants. In the present study, TPs were incubated in soils with or without the stress of heavy metal (Cu2+) or/and antibiotic (tetracycline), and bacterial community and ARG profile on TPs and in soils were explored using high-throughput sequencing and high-throughput quantitative PCR. Results indicated that bacterial community structure on TPs was significantly different from the surrounding soils, with a lower diversity, and significantly shifted by heavy metal and antibiotic exposure. Additionally, a diverse set of ARGs were detected on TPs, and their abundances were significantly increased under the stress of heavy metal and antibiotic, revealing a strong synergistic effect. Moreover, a good fit was observed for the correlation between bacterial community and ARG profile on TPs. Taken together, this study, for the first time, demonstrates that TPs can provide a novel niche for soil bacteria and soil resistome, and heavy metal and antibiotic exposure may potentially increase the abundance of ARGs on TPs, threatening soil ecosystems and human health.

The soil protistan community makes important contributions to the ecological functions of soil. However, our knowledge of the effects of pollutants, especially plastic particles, on the soil protistan community is still very limited compared to our knowledge on other soil microbes, such as bacterial and fungi. In this study, we revealed the effects of combined and single pollution caused by arsenic (As) and microplastics/nanoplastics (MPs/NPs) on bacterial, fungal and protistan communities. Our results revealed that combined pollution through As and MPs/NPs distinctly affected the composition and structure of the soil protistan communities (P 0.05), but in the case of bacteria, only some families were altered, and there was no impact on fungi. Changes of soil protistan communities might be mainly due to As pollution, and MPs/NPs exposure increased this detrimental effect. Further, As + MPs exposure greatly increased the abundance of soil protistan parasites, and As + NPs exposure caused an evident decrease in the abundance of soil protistan consumers (P 0.05). These findings indicate that combined pollution by As and MPs/NPs can affect the ecological functions of soil by altering soil protistan communities. These results will help enhance our understanding of the impact of plastic particles on soil ecosystems.

Microplastic (MP) pollution is widespread in various ecosystems and is colonized by microbes that form biofilms with compositions and functions. However, compared with aquatic environments, the soil environment has been poorly studied in terms of the taxonomic composition of microbial communities and the factors influencing the community structure of microbes in the plastisphere. In the present study, a microcosm experiment was conducted to investigate the plastisphere bacterial communities of MP (polyvinyl chloride, PVC) in soils with different pH (4.62, 6.5, and 7.46) and arsenic (As) contents (13 and 74 mg kg−1). Bacterial communities in the plastisphere were dominated by Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, with distinct compositions and structures compared with soil bacterial communities. Soil pH and As content significantly affected the plastisphere bacterial communities. Constrained analysis of principal coordinates and a structural equation model demonstrated that soil pH had a stronger influence on the dissimilarity and diversity of bacterial communities than did soil As content. Soil pH affected As speciation in soil and on MP. The concentration of dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) was significantly higher on MP than that in soil, indicating that As methylation occurred on MP. These results suggest that environmental fluctuations govern plastisphere bacterial communities with cascading effects on biogeochemical cycling of As in the soil ecosystems.

Oral bioavailability of arsenic (As) determines levels of As exposure via ingestion of As-contaminated soil, however, the role of gut microbiota in As bioavailability has not evaluated in vivo although some in vitro studies have investigated this. Here, we made a comparison in As relative bioavailability (RBA) estimates for a contaminated soil (3913 mg As kg−1) using a mouse model with and without penicillin perturbing gut microbiota and metabolites. Compared to soil exposure alone (2% w/w soil in diets), addition of penicillin (100 or 1000 mg kg−1) reduced probiotic Lactobacillus and sulfate-reducing bacteria Desulfovibrio, enriched penicillin-resistant Enterobacter and Bacteroides, and decreased amino acid concentrations in ileum. With perturbed gut microbiota and metabolic profile, penicillin and soil co-exposed mice accumulated 2.81–3.81-fold less As in kidneys, excreted 1.02–1.35-fold less As in urine, and showed lower As-RBA (25.7–29.0%) compared to mice receiving diets amended with soil alone (56 ± 9.63%). One mechanism accounted for this is the decreased concentrations of amino acids arising from the gut microbiota shift which resulted in elevated iron (Fe) and As co-precipitation, leading to reduced As solubilization in the intestine. Another mechanism was conversion of bioavailable inorganic As to less bioavailable monomethylarsonic acid (MMAV) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMAV) by the antibiotic perturbed microflora. Based on in vivo mouse model, we demonstrated the important role of gut microbiota and gut metabolites in participating soil As solubilization and speciation transformation then affecting As oral bioavailability. Results are useful to better understand the role of gut bacteria in affecting As metabolism and the health risks of As-contaminated soils Refereed/Peer-reviewed

In situ Ti(C,N)-TiB 2 -Co cermets were produced by reactive hot-pressing from a Co-Ti-C-BN system. The reaction process and densification behavior were investigated through the comparative researches on the phase transition sequence, microstructure evolution pattern and shrinkage rate of powder compacts during sintering process. The results show that Ti(C,N) is synthesized via the dissolution of C into TiN unit cell, while TiB 2 is formed through the combination of B and TiB as well as the reaction of Ti and B atoms in liquid. The viscose flow and dissolution-precipitation mechanisms are responsible for the densification in the reaction stage, while the plastic flow method contribute to the elimination of closed micropores in the solid state sintering stage. An external pressure can promote the densification, and Ti(C,N)-based cermet sintered at 34 MPa pressure exhibits the maximum relative density and mechanical properties.

In this study, corn straw derived biochars were prepared at different temperatures of 300, 500, 700C, respectively, and the characteristics of corn straw biochars were investigated. Additionally, the adsorption behaviors of vanadium (III, IV, V) on biochars were systematically studied by batch experiments. The absorbents were characterized by ion-exchange capacity (IEC), X-ray Diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption, and FTIR. The yield of biochar decreases with the increase of pyrolysis temperature. The more ash content is retained, the more alkaline biochar is. The specific area of biochars increased with the rising pyrolysis temperature. With the increase of temperature, the structure became porous and the content of surface functional group elements remained low. Although the content of zinc in biochar is relatively high, the leaching toxicity of biochar does not exceed the Chinese standard. The adsorption capacity of biochars for vanadium (V) decreased under high temperature (700C). In the contrast, The adsorption capacities of biochars for vanadium (IV) and vanadium (III) improved under high temperature. The adsorption mechanisms for vanadium (V), vanadium (IV) and vanadium (III) were surface complexation, which can be proved by FTIR analysis.

To slow down the corrosion rate and increase the bioactivity of magnesium alloys, biodegradable hydroxyapatite/magnesium (HA/Mg) composite coating was deposited onto AZ91D alloy substrate by high-velocity suspension flame spray technique using nano-sized HA and micron-sized Mg powders. Microstructures and phase constitutions of HA/Mg composite coating were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Corrosion resistance of composite coating was also evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in Hanks’ balanced salt solution (HBSS). The result shows that the HA/Mg composite coating mainly consisted of Mg and HA in addition to a few of MgO phases. The coating showed a rough surface morphology with homogeneous elemental distribution and a lamellar structure in cross section as well as well-bonded coating/substrate interface. Mg particles presented superior deposition during spraying due to their higher melting degree compared to HA particles. AZ91D alloy substrate was significantly protected from corrosion in HBSS by the HA/Mg composite coating with Mg dissolution on surfaces of the composite coating. This strategy can offer a new route to fabricate HA/Mg composite coatings on other metal substrates for use in biodegradable implant fields.

Red mud, the waste generated during alumina production, contains iron and other valuable metals. To recover the iron efficiently from red mud, a three-factor five-level central composite design in response surface methodology was used to study the effects of process parameters, such as FC/O (the molar ratio of fixed carbon in coal to reducible oxygen of iron oxide in red mud), reduction temperature, reduction time, and their interaction on the iron recovery rate and total iron content in magnetic product obtained from the process of direct reduction–magnetic separation. The relevant assessment model was established. The model could predict the changing rules of iron recovery rate and total iron content in the magnetic product affected by the process parameters. The results show that the iron recovery rate is significantly influenced by three factors and reduction temperature plays the most important role. The iron recovery rate and total iron content in magnetic product could be up to 98.37 and 82.52%, respectively, under the numerically optimal process parameters condition of reduction temperature of 1400 °C, FC/O of 0.80 and reduction time of 100 min obtained by the assessment model. The predicted values are in good agreement with the experimental values.

The biotransformation of arsenic mediated by microorganisms plays an important role in the arsenic biogeochemical cycle. However, the fate and biotransformation of arsenic in different soil fauna gut microbiota are largely unknown. Herein the effects of arsenic contamination on five types of soil fauna were compared by examining variations in arsenic bioaccumulation, gut microbiota, and arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs). Significant difference was observed in the arsenic bioaccumulation across several fauna body tissues, and Metaphire californica had the highest arsenic bioaccumulation, with a value of 107 ± 1.41 mg kg−1. Arsenic exposure significantly altered overall patterns of ABGs; however, dominant genes involved in arsenic redox and other genes involved in arsenic methylation and demethylation were not significantly changed across animals. Except for M. californica, the abundance of ABGs in other animal guts firstly increased and then decreased with increasing arsenic concentrations. In addition, exposure of soil fauna to arsenic led to shifts in the unique gut-associated bacterial community, but the magnitude of these changes varied significantly across ecological groups of soil fauna. A good correlation between the gut bacterial communities and ABG profiles was observed, suggesting that gut microbiota plays important roles in the biotransformation of arsenic. Overall, these results provide a universal profiling of a microbial community capable of arsenic biotransformation in different fauna guts. Considering the global distribution of soil fauna in the terrestrial ecosystem, this finding broadens our understanding of the hidden role of soil fauna in the arsenic bioaccumulation and biogeochemical cycle.

Diabetic osteoporosis (DOP) is one of the complications of diabetes, with high morbidity, and high disability rate. Here, we established a diabetic rat model and administered lycopene to observe its effect on DOP. Our results showed that ten weeks lycopene treatment lowered blood glucose, improved diabetic induced polydipsia, overeating and body weight loss. Lycopene treatment also enhanced bone mineral density, restored bone mechanical and bone Micro-CT parameters of diabetic rats. Subsequently, lycopene decreased serum inflammatory cytokines levels and increased serum anti-oxidant indicators levels. Moreover, lycopene reduced the number of bone marrow adipocytes, and osteoclasts numbers of diabetic rats. The serum bone turnover markers levels were down-regulated after lycopene treatment. Meanwhile, the bone and serum OPG, RUNX 2 expression levels were up-regulated by lycopene in diabetic rats, and the OPG/RANKL ratio was also up-regulated. This study showed that lycopene could ameliorate diabetic induced bone loss via anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidation, and increasing OPG/RANKL ratio in diabetic rats. Lycopene could be used for nutritional intervention in patients with diabetic osteoporosis.

Novel approachs to functionalize carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CMWCNTs) array with poly- l -histidine (PLH) on a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 4-aminothiophenol (4ATP) were developed for the first time. With help of π–π interaction and chelation of the side imidazole groups in poly- l -histidine, the array showed efficient electron transfer and mild biocompatibility. By immobilizing glucose oxidase (GOx) to AuNPs electrodeposited on the array, a high-powered glucose biosensor with excellent electrocatalytic performance was fabricated and applied for glucose determination in human serum samples. The prepared biosensor exhibited highly sensitive response to glucose under the operating voltage of 600 mV with sensitivity of 96.04 μA mM−1 cm−2, linear range of 0.005–6.5 mM, lowest detection limit (LOD) of 0.7 μΜ (S/N = 3) and Michaelis constant (KM) of 3.92 mM. Compared with other glucose sensors previously reported, this work showed higher sensitivity, lower detection limit and wider linear range. Furthermore, the developed array may provide a promising platform for various biosensors fabrication.

Combinations of metal(loid) contamination and antibiotics are considered to increase the abundance of resistance genes in the environment, whereas the combined effect of metal(loid)s and antibiotics on microbial communities and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the gut of soil fauna remains unknown. We investigated herein the alteration of ARGs and the gut microbial communities after the earthworm Metaphire sieboldi was exposed to arsenate and/or sulfamethoxazole using high-throughput quantitative PCR and Illumina sequencing analysis. Arsenic accumulation in the body tissues of arsenic-exposed earthworms exerted a significant inhibition on growth and survival. The synergistic interactions of arsenic and sulfamethoxazole increased significantly the incidence of ARGs and mobile genetic elements in the earthworm gut microbiota. In addition, co-exposure to arsenic and sulfamethoxazole altered the structure of the gut microbial communities, and the changes correlated with ARG profiles of the gut microbiota. Our results indicate that the gut of soil fauna is a neglected hotspot of antibiotic resistance.

Arsenic biotransformation mediated by gut microbiota can affect arsenic bioavailability and microbial community. Arsenic species, arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs), and the composition of gut microbial community were characterized after the earthworm Metaphire sieboldi was cultured in soils spiked with different arsenic concentrations. Arsenite (As(III)) was the major component in the earthworm gut, whereas arsenate (As(V)) was predominant in the soil. A total of 16 ABGs were quantified by high-throughput quantitative polymerase chain reaction (HT-qPCR). Genes involved in arsenic redox and efflux were predominant in all samples, and the abundance of ABGs involved in arsenic methylation and demethylation in the gut was very low. These results reveal that the earthworm gut can be a reservoir of microbes with the capability of reducing As(V) and extruding As(III) but with little methylation of arsenic. Moreover, gut microbial communities were dominated by Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria at the phylum level and were considerably different from those in the surrounding soil. Our work demonstrates that exposure to As(V) disturbs the gut microbiota of earthworms and provides some insights into arsenic biotransformation in the earthworm gut.

Ubiquitous contamination of microplastics and arsenic in soil ecosystems can induce many health issues to nontarget soil organisms, and will also cause many potential threats to the gut bacterial communities of soil fauna. However, the changes in the gut bacterial communities of soil fauna after exposure to both microplastics and arsenic remain unknown. In this study, the toxicity and effects on the gut microbiota of earthworm Metaphire californica caused by the combined exposure of microplastics and arsenic were examined by using arsenic species analysis and high throughput sequencing of gut microbiota. Results showed that total arsenic and arsenic species in the earthworm gut and body tissues after exposure to combination of microplastics with arsenate (As(V)) were significantly different from that treated with As(V) alone. Microplastics lessened the accumulation of total arsenic and the transformation rate of As(V) to arsenite (As(III)). Microplastics alleviated the effect of arsenic on the gut microbiota possibly via adsorbing/binding As(V) and lowering arsenic bioavailability, thus prevented the reduction of As(V) and accumulation of total arsenic in the gut which resulted in a lower toxicity on the earthworm. The study broadens our understanding of the ecotoxicity of microplastics with other pollutants on the soil animals and on their gut microbiota.

The effect of sinter basicity on softening-melting behaviors of mixed burden made from chromium-bearing vanadium-titanium magnetite (Cr-V-Ti magnetite) was investigated and the function mechanism was simultaneously analyzed. The results show that with increasing sinter basicity from 1.71 to 2.36, the softening interval tends to increase from 149.3 °C to 181.7 °C while the melting interval tends to decrease from 178.0 °C to 136.7 °C. The location of cohesive zone moves downwards firstly and then ascends slightly, but the cohesive zone becomes thinner. The softening-melting characteristic value becomes small, which indicates that the permeability of burden column is improved. The dripping ratio of mixed burden tends to increase firstly and then decrease, which comes to the highest value of 74.50% when the sinter basicity is 2.13. The content and the recovery of V and Cr in dripping iron are all increased. The generation amount of components with high melting point in slag becomes little with the increase of sinter basicity, which could improve the permeability of mixed burden. Taking softening-melting behaviors of mixed burden and recovery of valuable elements into account, the proper sinter basicity is no less than 2.13 for smelting mixed burden made from Cr-V-Ti magnetite in blast furnace.

An innovative process of blast furnace (BF) operation involving charging with low-titanium vanadium–titanium magnetite carbon composite hot briquette (LVTM-CCB) was proposed for utilizing LVTM and conserving energy. In this study, the effect of LVTM-CCB charging ratio on the softening, melting, and dripping behaviors of the mixed burden was explored systemically, and the migration of valuable elements V and Cr was extensively investigated. The results show that with increasing LVTM-CCB charging ratio, the softening interval T40 − T4 increases from 146.1°C to 266.1°C, and the melting interval TD − TS first decreases from 137.2°C to 129.5°C and then increases from 129.5°C to 133.2°C. Moreover, the cohesive zone becomes narrower and then wider, and its location shifts slightly downward. In addition, the recovery ratios of V and Cr in dripped iron first increase and then decrease, reaching maximum values of 14.552% and 28.163%, respectively, when the charging ratio is 25%. A proper LVTM-CCB charging ratio would improve the softening–melting behavior of the mixed burden; however, Ti(C,N) would be generated rapidly in slag when the charging ratio exceeds 25%, which is not favorable for BF operation. When considering the comprehensive softening–melting behavior of the mixed burden and the recovery ratios of V and Cr, the recommended LVTM-CCB charging ratio is 20%.

A series of phosphorus (P) modified graphitic carbon nitride (P–C3N4) were facilely prepared by direct thermolysis of melamine and hexachlorotriphosphazene. Based on the results of XPS and 31P NMR analyses, it is deduced that there is replacement of C atoms located at the bay and edge terminal positions by P atoms. The P–C3N4 materials are easy-to-handle, stable, and metal-free. They function well as a catalyst for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates through carbon dioxide (CO2) cycloaddition to epoxides under mild conditions without the need of a solvent. This is the first time that an acid-base bifunctional P–C3N4 was prepared and used as catalyst for cycloaddition reactions. It was observed that the catalytic activity of P–C3N4 increases with the rise of P content as a result of the enrichment of acid sites. The excellent performance of Bu4NBr/P–C3N4-2 is attributed to the synergetic effect of acid sites and halide anions for ring opening of epoxide as well as to basic sites for adsorption and activation of CO2. A possible multi-synergetic mechanism is proposed for the cycloaddition reaction over P–C3N4. Moreover, P–C3N4 can be easily separated and reused for at least five times without showing significant loss of activity.

The influence of magnesium to phosphate weight ratios (M/P ratio), borax content, water to cement ratio (w/c ratio), fly ash, slag on magnesium phosphate cement of drying shrinkage is examined.The results show that the drying shrinkage of magnesium phosphate cementcan be affected at some extent by M/P ratio, w/c ratio,boraxcontent. Both the former two factors and the effects are significant.It was found that the drying shrinkage of magnesium phosphate cement decrease with the increase of M/P ratio,borax content, w/c ratio. If the 10%, 15% offly ashinstead of magnesium phosphate cement was added, drying shrinkage rate decreases with increases of dosage fly ash. When the 15% of magnesium phosphate cement is replaced by fly ash, the shrinkage rate of hydration 20d reachs11.2×10-5. When the 10% of magnesium phosphate cementis replaced by slag, the drying shrinkage rate reducedto 87.6%.comparing to the bench mark ,the drying shrinkage rate of 20d is only 2.78×10-5.

Antibiotic residues could promote the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environments, and biodegradation represent a major route for antibiotic removal. Previous studies have showed that earthworm could enhance the degradation of certain organic contaminants, however, its effectiveness in ciprofloxacin removal and ARG reduction in soil remains unclear. In the present study, high-performance liquid chromatography, 16S rRNA gene sequencing and high-throughput quantitative PCR were employed to explore the effects of earthworm addition on ciprofloxacin removal and ARG abundance in ciprofloxacin-amended soil. Ciprofloxacin removal was significantly higher in earthworm cast as compare to control soil, and ARG abundance in earthworm cast was significantly lower than that of control soil. Procrustes analysis together with Mantel test showed that the ARG profiles were strongly associated with bacterial communities, indicating that the lower abundance of ARGs in cast samples could be attributed to changes in bacterial community compositions by earthworm activity. Flavobacterium and Turicibacter were enriched in cast samples, which were negatively correlated with ciprofloxacin concentration (p 0.05), implying their potential roles in ciprofloxacin removal. These results suggested that earthworm gut is a hotspot for ciprofloxacin removal, and could be an option for mitigation of antibiotic pollution in soil.

Increasing biochar is applied to the metal(loid) contaminated soil. However, effects of biochar on the soil-plant-earthworm-bacteria ecosystem, especially on the gut microbes of soil animals, remain largely unknown and require further research. Here, sewage sludge biochar (SSBC) and rice straw biochar (RSBC) were used in metal(loid) contaminated soils to investigate the available metal(loid) change in soils and the impact on the metal(loid) bioaccumulation in the plant and earthworm. Moreover, effects of biochar amendments on the gut bacteria of earthworms were determined by using high throughput sequencing. Our results showed that RSBC amendments had a significant suppression on the availability of cadmium, but significantly increased arsenic availability in soils (P

Strained silicon (&epsilon, Si) is a promising material that could extend Moore&rsquo, s law by enhancing electron mobility. A &epsilon, Si material is usually composed of multiscale, multilayer heterostructures, where the strained-silicon film or strap is tens-of-nanometers thick, and its buffer layers are of the micrometer scale. The structural properties determine the electrical performance and reliability of &epsilon, Si-based devices. Inhomogeneous residual stress is induced during the preparation, which induces &epsilon, Si structure failure. In this work, biaxial strained-silicon films that contain graded and relaxed germanium-silicon buffer layers were prepared on monocrystalline silicon wafers through reduced-pressure chemical-vapor epitaxy. The layer components and thicknesses were measured using energy-dispersive spectroscopy and scanning-electron microscopy. Crystal and lattice characters were observed by using high-resolution transmission-electron microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The residual stress distribution along cross-sections of the &epsilon, Si multilayer structures was examined by using micro-Raman mapping. The experimental results showed that, with a gradual increase in germanium concentration, the increasing residual stress was suppressed owing to dislocation networks and dislocation loops inside the buffer layers, which favored the practical application.

The present study aimed to examine the influence of neomangiferin on murine calvarial inflammatory osteolysis induced by ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) particles. Eight-week-old male C57BL/J6 mice served as an inflammatory osteolysis model, in which UHMWPE particles were implanted into the calvarial subperiosteal space. The mice were randomly distributed into four groups and treated with different interventions; namely, a sham group [phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) injection and no UHMWPE particles], model group (PBS injection and implantation of UHMWPE particles), low-dose neomangiferin group (UHMWPE particles +2.5 mg/kg neomangiferin), and high-dose neomangiferin group (UHMWPE particles +5 mg/kg neomangiferin). Following 3 weeks of feeding according to the above regimens, celiac artery blood samples were collected for an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL), osteoclast-related receptor (OSCAR), cross-linked C-telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX-1); osteoprotegerin (OPG), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-1β. Subsequently, the mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation following ether-inhalation anesthesia, and the skull was separated for osteolysis analysis by micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Following hematoxylin and eosin staining, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining was performed to observe the dissolution and destruction of the skull. The micro-CT results suggested that neomangiferin significantly inhibited the murine calvarial osteolysis and bone resorption induced by UHMWPE particles. In addition, the ELISA results showed that neomangiferin decreased the expression levels of osteoclast markers RANKL, OSCAR, CTX-1, TNF-α and IL-1β. By contrast, the levels of OPG increased with the neomangiferin dose. Histopathological examination revealed that the TRAP-positive cell count was significantly reduced in the neomangiferin-treated animals compared with that in the positive control group, and the degree of bone resorption was also markedly reduced. Neomangiferin was found to have significant anti-inflammatory effects and to inhibit osteoclastogenesis. Therefore, it has the potential to prevent the aseptic loosening of a prosthesis following artificial joint replacement.

The effect of sinter with different MgO contents on the softening–melting behavior of mixed burden made from chromium- bearing vanadium–titanium magnetite was investigated. The results show that with increasing MgO content in the sinter, the softening interval and melting interval increased and the location of the cohesive zone shifted downward slightly and became moderately thicker. The softening–melting characteristic value was less pronounced when the MgO content in the sinter was 2.98wt%–3.40wt%. Increasing MgO content in the sinter reduced the content and recovery of V and Cr in the dripped iron. In addition, greater MgO contents in the sinter resulted in the generation of greater amounts of high-melting-point components, which adversely affected the permeability of the mixed burden. When the softening–melting behavior of the mixed burden and the recovery of valuable elements were taken into account, proper MgO contents in the sinter and slag ranged from 2.98wt% to 3.40wt% and from 11.46wt% to 12.72wt%, respectively, for the smelting of burden made from chromium-bearing vanadium–titanium magnetite in a blast furnace.

A new 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) mediated synthesis of malonates from 3-halopropynoates, alcohols, and water is presented. This method proceeds under mild and metal-free conditions, and represents a new straightforward access to 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds.

In the present study, two new phenolic compounds 1 and 11, a pair of lignan isomers 12 and 13 with their absolute configurations established for the first time, were isolated from the ethanol extract of the roots of Rhodiola crenulata, together with 13 known phenolic compounds, and their structures were elucidated via NMR, HRESIMS, UV, IR and CD analyses. All the isolated compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antioxidant activities using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assays. Ten of them exhibited significant antioxidant activities compared to ascorbic acid. Furthermore, the inducibilities of the isolated compounds to IFN-γ production were also assessed. Compounds 1, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15 could moderately stimulate IFN-γ expression.

With the rapid development of industry in China, China has become the largest producer of refined copper as well as the largest consumer of copper in the world. In order to provide the support for decreasing the environmental impact of the copper pyrometallurgy of China, the life cycle assessment methodology was carried out in this study to identify and analyze the typical processes’ environmental load of refined copper production from ‘cradle-to-gate’ perspective. The results showed that the most serious environmental impact of copper pyrometallurgy was abiotic depletion potential and human toxicity. The abiotic depletion potential mainly comes from the copper ore mining, for this reason, increasing the use of renewable copper is an effective means to alleviate environmental load of our country copper pyrometallurgy industry. Meanwhile, reducing the direct and indirect discharge of poisonous and harmful elements (e.g. heavy metals) from the copper ore mining stage and the copper smelting process could decrease the human health damage efficiently.

Reducing vehicle pollutant emissions and fuel consumption is becoming more and more important challenges, while lean-burning are a promising development. However, lean-burning may leads to other problems including combustion instability and incomplete combustion. Recently, laser ignition system has become an attractive field of research in order to replace the conventional spark plug ignition systems in the internal combustion engines to solve problem above. Moreover, methane was regarded as very promising fuel. Therefore, the objective of this article is to review the ignition and combustion characteristics of methane-air mixtures by laser-induced ignition.

The capacity of 10%, 30%, and 50% ammonium dihydrogen phosphate were replaced with an equal amount of three phosphate (potassium dihydrogen phosphate, sodium dihydrogen phosphate, disodium hydrogen phosphate) respectively. Magnesium phosphate cement was made by phosphate of replaced, which strength, setting time, fluidity, hydration temperature, and the hydration products was researched. The results show that: MPC was made that replaced with the equal amount of three kind of phosphate, which has good mechanical properties. Setting time and fluidity change along with the replacment. Three kind of phosphate replace ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, which change the hydration process of MPC. When ammonium dihydrogen phosphate was replaced by an equal amount of disodium hydrogen phosphate, the temperature of hydration is only 69.4 °C. XRD showed that the diffraction peaks of composite’s magnesium phosphate cement increases.

Blast furnace operation with hot burden charging was numerically simulated to preliminarily analyze its advantages and disadvantages. Multi-fluid blast furnace model was utilized to simulate hot burden charging operations under the conditions that the charging temperatures of pellet and coke were supposed separately or simultaneously as 800 °C. The results showed that, with hot burden charging, the furnace top temperature significantly increased in comparison to the conventional operation with cold burden charging. However, in-furnace temperature decreased, which decelerated the reduction rate of ferrous burdens. The concentrations of reducing gases were decreased in the furnace. The height of cohesive zone shifted downwards. When the charging temperatures of pellet and coke were simultaneously 800 °C (PC800), coke rate, fuel rate and carbon emission rate were decreased by 13.4, 22.1 and 19.25 kg · t−1, respectively. The ratio of ore to coke, solid burden charging rate and hot metal productivity were increased by 4.79%, 7.55 kg · s−1 and 38%, respectively. Heat taken away by top gas and energy consumption per ton hot metal were increased by 68.97% and 6.40%, respectively. Generaly speaking, hot burden charging was adverse to energy utilization of blast furnace.

The membrane protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor U (PTPRU) has been shown to function as a negative regulator of adhesion and proliferation in certain cancer cell types, primarily through its dephosphorylation of beta-catenin and inhibition of subsequent downstream signaling. In the present study, we set out to characterize the role of PTPRU in glioma and found that, while the expression of full-length PTPRU protein is low in these tumors, a number of non-full-length PTPRU isoforms are highly expressed. Among these isoforms, one in particular is localized to the nucleus, and its expression is increased in glioma tissues in a manner that positively correlates with malignancy grade. Short hairpin RNA knockdown of endogenous PTPRU in human and rat glioma cell lines suppressed proliferation, survival, invasion, migration, adhesion and vasculogenic tube formation in vitro, as well as intracranial tumor progression in vivo. In addition, knocking down PTPRU reduced tyrosine phosphorylation (pY) and transcriptional activity of beta-catenin, and we were able to specifically rescue the cell migration defect by expressing a LEF1-beta-catenin fusion protein in PTPRU-depleted cells. PTPRU knockdown also led to increased tyrosine pY of the E3 ubiquitin ligase c-Cbl and to the destabilization of several focal adhesion proteins. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that endogenous PTPRU promote glioma progression through their effect on beta-catenin and focal adhesion signaling.

It is well established that arsenic (As) pollution has a severe threat to food security and soil non-target organisms, however, its influences on soil fauna gut microbiota are poorly understood. The gut microbiota of soil fauna play an important role in host health and nutrient cycling. Here, we used dietary exposure to investigate the effects of As on the mortality and gut microbiota of two model soil collembolans (Folsomia candida and Onychiurus yodai) and determine the accumulation of As in collembolan body tissues. The results showed that, although As exposure did not induce the mortality of the two species, dose dependence of As accumulation was indeed detected in their body tissues. Oral As exposure (500 μg g−1 yeast) significantly altered the community structure (P 0.6). Higher As bioaccumulation factor was also found in O. yodai body tissues compared to the F. candida. These results indicate that collembolan gut microbiota present a species-specific response to As and may be a more sensitive indicator than the mortality of collembolan.

This paper constructed a new type of solar photovoltaic and solar heat coupling water source heat pump heating system, the composition of the system structure and operation mode is introduced, with the result of the experiment, parameters were analyzed, and successfully solves the solar panel and battery temperature is high, the problem of low efficiency, the system is a kind of close to zero energy consumption, pollution-free and efficient energy utilization system. Is suitable for the application of the climate condition in qinhuangdao.

Source water polluted by algae, ammonium and organic matter has been studied for many years. Sudden pollution incidents of source water have been reported across the whole country. Seasonal variability of rainfall across China has resulted in floods or droughts, thus incurred the high concentration of algae, ammonium and organic matter, causing severe challenges to the conventional water purification facilities. However, the conventional water treatment process is often unavailable to keep the safety of source water for drinking when sudden pollution occurs. Meanwhile, byproducts are often to be found over the whole treatment process, it is high time that researchers took effective measures to deal with this problem. In the present work, an overview of the recent research dealing with source water suddenly polluted by algae, ammonium and organic matter is presented.

Coke oven gas (COG) injection is considered as one of feasible measures to reduce carbon emission of BF. The effects of COG injection on the reduction of iron-bearing burdens were numerically simulated by means of multi-fluid BF model , which revealed that with increasing COG injection rate, solid temperature gradually decrease, in-furnace H2 concentration increases, the reduction of magnetite and wustite by H2 is evidently accelerated, the reaction rate of wustite by H2 reduction is enhanced and the reduction degree of mixed burdens is strengthened. Under this hydrogen-enriched condition, metallurgical properties of iron-bearing burdens were experimentally investigated. The GB/T13242-91 test results showed that with increasing COG injection rate, the reduction swelling index of oxidized pellets decreases while the reduction ratio of pellets increases. The softening-melting tests suggested that softening interval of mixed burdens increases from 163.6 to 228.3 °C while melting interval decreases from 147.3 to 92.4 °C. The cohesive zone moves downwards and becomes narrow. The permeability of mixed burdens is improved. In terms of metallurgical properties of iron-bearing burdens, COG injection benefits to improve BF performance.

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an oligomer, in which the phosphate backbone has been replaced by a pseudopeptide backbone that is meant to mimic DNA. Peptide nucleic acids are of the utmost importance in the biomedical field because of their ability to hybridize with neutral nucleic acids and their special chemical and biological properties. In recent years, PNAs have emerged in nanobiotechnology for cancer diagnosis and therapy due to their high affinity and sequence selectivity toward corresponding DNA and RNA. In this review, we summarize the recent progresses that have been made in cancer detection and therapy with PNA biotechnology. In addition, we emphasize nanoparticle PNA-based strategies for the efficient delivery of drugs in anticancer therapies.

Objective: To investigate the protective effects of parecoxib from oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in rat astrocytes in vitro. Methods: All experiments included 4 groups: (1) negative control (NC) group, without any treatment; (2) H2O2 treatment group, 100 μmol/L H2O2 treatment for 24 h; (3) and (4) parecoxib pretreatment groups, 80 and 160 μmol/L parecoxib treatment for 24 h, respectively, and then treated with 100 μmol/L H2O2. Several indices were investigated, and the expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were quantified. Results: Compared to the NC group, exposure to H2O2 resulted in significant morphological changes, which could be reversed by pretreatment of parecoxib. In addition, H2O2 treatment led to loss of viability (P=0.026) and increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels (P

A new 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) mediated synthesis of malonates from 3-halopropynoates, alcohols, and water is presented. This method proceeds under mild and metal-free conditions, and represents a new straightforward access to 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds.

We have previously shown that a Calixarene derivative was an excellent agent for protein immobilization on a solid phase. We further characterized the recognition mechanism between the ‘host’ Calixarene derivative and ‘guest’ molecules in this study. The rate of complex formation of Calixcrown with amino acids informed that Calixcrown had the strongest interaction with Arg among the tested amino acids. In order to confirm that Arg is an effective residue in immobilization of protein on Calixcrown-coated glass, several human recombinant superoxide dismutase tagged with different numbers of Arg or Lys were generated. The recombinant protein tagged with longer Arg was immobilized better than the ones tagged with shorter Arg or Lys. We also tested if Calixcrown can immobilize oligoDNA as efficiently as it does protein. Calixcrown most strongly captured homo-dGTP oligoDNA among the four homo-oligoDNAs. When Calixcrown chip was applied to detect single nucleotide polymorphism, it differentiated one base pair mismatch of the double helix oligoDNA. Thus, Calixarene derivative linker molecule can be used as an efficient immobilization agent for both protein and oligoDNA with the right orientation on a solid phase.

New thiol modified mesoporous adsorbent with different pore sizes was synthesized by hydrothermal, with triblock copolymers pluronic (F127) and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTMABr) functioned as the mixing template, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene (TMB) functioned as pore-expanding agent. Adsorption performance of different pore sized mesoporous adsorbents was studied by treatment of Heavy metal Cu2+. Results showed that the optimum dosage was molar ratio of 1.5 between TMB and surfactant, and under that condition, the BET pore size was 6.554 nm and BET pore volume was 0.6134cm3/g. The adsorption of Cu2+ on mesoporous adsorbents fitted well to Redlich-Peterson isotherm equation, which indicated chemisorption was dominant in the process of heavy metal adsorption on the mesoporous adsorption and monomolecular layer adsorption took advantage. According to Langmuir equation, QL was 0.6210 mmol/g, and that demonstrated pore-expanding treatment could not only enlarge pore volume and diameter, but also effectively increase the contact area with heavy metals. Pore-expanded functionalized mesoporous silica could act as the optimal adsorbents for heavy metal adsorption.

Reducing the adverse impacts to environment is a more and more important subject in electrolytic manganese industry. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been a hot tool to measure the type and size of environmental impact. This paper firstly applied LCA on two different processes of producing electrolytic manganese. One process is the resourceful utilization system of high sulfur coal and low grade pyrolusite (the novel process for short)in which high sulfur coal is burned to generate power and emission SO2, then the SO2 is absorbed as reducing agent to leach the pyrolusite with 30% MnO2 grade. The other process is prevalent interiorly, called traditional process where the power is supplied by standard coal combustion, and sulfur acid leaches the manganese ore with 18% Mn grade. Life cycle software converts the original data to nine different kinds of indexes that are able to indicate types and sizes of environmental impacts. Results show that: among nine environmental impacts, the proportion of abiotic depletion potential (ADP) is biggest in both processes, but the value of the novel process is 23.25% smaller pointing the process saves more resource. All the values of other important impacts including GWP, Waste Solids, AP and RI of the novel process are less than those in traditional process. Especially, the value of acidification (AP) in novel process was -2.10×10-8 < 0, which means the novel process could control the acidification. In addition, through the composite index, using high sulfur coal in the novel process hasn’t bring any more serious impact than using standard coal. Therefore, LCA has provided rational evidence to prove that resourceful utilization system of high sulfur coal and low grade pyrolusite is more efficient and environmentally friendly and pointed which environmental impacts and life cycle links need improving . This paper could provide a reference for further environmental impact assessment of electrolytic manganese industry and an objective basis for decision-making.

The influence of water binder ratio, content of borax and fly ash on the fluidity and strength of phosphate concrete were investigated. Results showed that the slump and slump flow of phosphate concrete improved with content of water and borax increasing. But the strength decreased, especially early strength. While the mixing amount of borax was less than 1.5% of the magnesium phosphate cement, the influence on later strength was relatively less. The fluidity decreased significantly and the cohesiveness and water retention improved while the content of fly ash was between 10% and 30%.The compressive strength increased while the content of fly ash was 10%.The better curing methods was curing in the natural conditions, the compressive increased with the age prolonged.