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E or pyriminobac-methyl (EPM), a pyrimidine benzoic acid esters herbicide, has a high potential as weedicide; nevertheless, its environmental behaviors are still not well understood. In this study, we systematically investigated, for the first time, the adsorption–desorption, degradation, and leaching behaviors of EPM in agricultural soils from five exemplar sites in China (Phaeozems – S1 ; Anthrosol – S2 ; Ferralsol – S3 ; Alisol – S4 ; Plinthosol – S5) through laboratory simulation experiments. Our results show that the EPM adsorption–desorption results were well fitted by the Freundlich model (R2>0.9999). In the analyzed soils, the Freundlich adsorption (i.e., Kf ads) and desorption (i.e., Kf des) coefficients of EPM varied between 0.85 and 32.22 mg 1-1/n L 1/n kg -1 and 0.78–5.02 mg 1-1/n L 1/n kg -1 , respectively. The mobility of EPM in soils S1 – S5 was categorized as immobile, slightly immobile, highly mobile, slightly mobile, and slightly mobile, respectively. Moreover, the degradation of EPM reflected first-order kinetics, where its half-life ranged between 37.46 and 66.00 d, depending on the environmental conditions, and abiotic degradation was predominant in the degradation of this compound. Overall, the high leaching ability and desorption capacity of EPM were accompanied by a low adsorption capacity, and there were no significant relationships between pH and the leaching rate of EPM in the five types of soils. In contrast, the organic matter content, cation exchange capacity, and soil clay content were the main components responsible for the observed leaching rates. We found that EPM degrades easily, has a high adsorption affinity, and a low mobility in S1 , which results in a low contamination risk for groundwater systems. On the contrary, this compound degrades slowly in S2 , S3 , S4 , and S5 , due to a low adsorption affinity and moderate mobility, which results in a high contamination risk for groundwater systems. Therefore, our results may serve as a reference for evaluating the risks involved in the increasingly wide application of this compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A poly ionic liquid, poly(1-vinyl imidazole)-p-xylylene dichloride (PVIm-PXDC), was synthesized and used for fuel oil denitrogenation. The structure of PVIm-PXDC was characterized and the denitrogenation performance was investigated. Results indicate that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir model are appropriate to describe the adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics, respectively. The adsorption ability of PVIm-PXDC for different nitrogen compounds follows the order of indole > pyrrole > quinoline > pyridine. The equilibrium adsorption amount decreased about 10% for all the nitrogen compounds after six regeneration cycles and the denitrogenation and regeneration processes have no influence on the structure of PVIm-PXDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, prostatic artery embolization (PAE) has gradually become a hot topic in the treatment of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the best embolization material for PAE. This study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of the temperature-sensitive liquid embolic agent (TempSLE) combined with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) microspheres and simple PVA microspheres for PAE in treating lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) caused by BPH., Methods: The clinical data of 39 patients with LUTS caused by BPH were included in this study, including 21 cases of PVA microspheres group and 18 cases of PVA microspheres + TempSLE group. The changes in various subjective and objective indexes were compared between the two groups before PAE, 1 and 3 months after operation., Results: Three months after operation, the improvement in prostate volume (PV), post-void residual volume (PVR), peak urinary flow rate (Q max ), international prostate symptom score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL) and total prostate-specific antigen (T-PSA) in both groups were significantly improved compared with those before operation (P<0.05). And the above clinical improvement indicators at the 3-month mark demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P<0.05). Compared with the PVA microspheres group, the prostate necrosis rate of the PVA microspheres + TempSLE was higher at 1 and 3 months after operation (P<0.05). Moreover, the PVA microspheres + TempSLE group had no significant complications, with the exception of a single case of transient gross hematuria during the perioperative period., Conclusions: The combination of PVA microspheres and TempSLE for PAE appears to be safe and effective in the treatment of symptomatic BPH patients, with a higher degree of damage to hyperplastic prostate tissue compared to simple PVA microspheres embolization., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://tau.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tau-24-215/coif). J.L. reports that this study was funded by the Fujian Province Natural Science Fund Project (Nos. 2021J02053, 2023J011159, and 2022J01996), the Special Research Foundation of Fujian Provincial Department of Finance (Nos. 2020-822, 2021-848, 2021-917, and 2022-840), National Famous and Old Chinese Medicine Experts (Xuemei Zhang, Xiaohua Yan) Inheritance Studio Construction Project, and the Fujian Province Medical Innovation Foundation (Nos. 2022CXA001, 2021CXB001, and 2022CXB002). The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 AME Publishing Company. All rights reserved.)

Owing to the symbiotic relationship between the microbiota and the human body, the microbiome is considered a "second human genome". Microorganisms are inextricably associated with human diseases and can affect the host phenotype. In the present study, 25 female patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD5) undergoing hemodialysis in our hospital and 25 healthy subjects were recruited. The structure of the oral microbiota of the study participants was analyzed using the MiSeq PE300 sequencing platform and high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing. The microbiota was compared between the groups using QIIME and the stats package in R. In total, 1,336 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained, and the relative frequencies of 450 OTUs differed significantly between the two groups (P < 0.05), indicating that the samples were rich in OTUs. A comparison of β-diversity indicated a significant difference in the microbial community structure between the two groups (P < 0.05). These results indicated that the biological diversity of the oral microbiota was highly correlated with CKD5. In this experiment, 189 genera, with significant differences in abundance between the groups (P < 0.05), were found. Furthermore, differences in the structure of the oral microbiota were observed between the groups at the phylum, class, order, family, and genus levels. Collectively, an imbalance in the oral microbiota may accelerate the progression of CKD and cause additional complications., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2023.)