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Herein we present a facile approach for the preparation of a novel hierarchically porous carbon, in which seaweeds serve as carbon source and KOH as activator. The fabricated KOH-activated seaweed carbon (K-SC) displays strong affinity towards tetracycline with maximum uptake quantity of 853.3 mg/g, significantly higher than other tetracycline adsorbents. The superior adsorption capacity ascribes to large specific surface area (2614 m2/g) and hierarchically porous structure of K-SC, along with strong π- π interactions between tetracycline and K-SC. In addition, the as-prepared K-SC exhibits fast adsorption kinetics, capable of removing 99% of tetracycline in 30 min. Meanwhile, the exhausted K-SC can be regenerated for four cycling adsorption without an obvious degradation in capacities. More importantly, pH and ionic strengths barely affect the adsorption performance of K-SC, implying electrostatic interactions hardly play any role in tetracycline adsorption process. Furthermore, the K-SC packed fixed-bed column (0.1 g of adsorbents) can continually treat 2780 mL solution spiked with 5.0 mg/g tetracycline before reaching the breakthrough point. All in all, the fabricated K-SC equips with high adsorption capacity, fast adsorption rate, glorious anti-interference capability and good reusability, which make it hold great feasibilities for treating tetracycline contamination in real applications.

Nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries were widely used due to their various advantages, but its further application and development have been seriously hindered by the low electrochemical discharge capacity of conventional hydrogen storage alloy electrode. The hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film electrode for Ni-MH battery has been proven to have a dramatic electrochemical capacity. We prepared a-Si:H thin films by a two-step process of rf-sputtering followed by hydrogenation, and investigated the effect of hydrogenation on the structure and electrochemical properties of which as an anode. The maximum discharge capacity of a-Si:H thin film electrode after hydrogenation increases from initial 180 mAh·g−1to 1827 mAh·g−1, which is over tenfold that of as-deposited hydrogen-less a-Si thin film electrode. Then, the preliminary relationships between hydrogen content and electrochemical performance of a-Si:H thin film electrode were analyzed, and several negative factors of electrochemical performance for a-Si:H thin film electrode were proposed.

The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy and safety of fosfomycin combinational therapy with other antibiotics for the treatment of infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP). This retrospective cohort study examined 104 cases of sepsis caused by CRKP occurring between January 2012 and November 2014 in Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital. Three categories of patient outcome were assessed: Survival/mortality, duration of intensive care unit stays and duration of medical ventilation. Univariate ordinal analyses were adopted to evaluate the correlations between outcome and treatment. A total of 104 patients with physician-diagnosed CRKP were involved in the study. The overall mortality rate was 25.0%. The majority of the infections (84; 80.8%) were hospital acquired. Critical infections received more than one active antibiotic as therapy. Patients treated with fosfomycin combinational therapy were less likely to fail therapy (OR: 4.71, 95% CI: 1.03-21.65, P=0.034) and tended to have a shorter duration of mechanical ventilation. Gender (OR: 4.35, 95% CI: 1.08-3.60, P=0.037), history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR: 9.35, 95% CI: 0.06-0.19, P=0.007) and peripheral catheter use (OR: 3.00, 95% CI: 0.07-0.19, P=0.002) are risk factors for clinical outcome. Therefore, the use of fosfomycin combinational therapy for treatment of infection due to CRKP appears to be associated with improved survival rate.

In the design of novel dye sensitizers with good performance in dye sensitized solar cells, it is significantly important to understand how to tune the electronic structures and related properties of dye sensitizers by their terminal groups. Based upon the DFT and TDDFT calculated results of push–pull porphyrin sensitizers, named as YD20, YD21, YD22, 2Flu–ZnP–COOH, and 2Flu–ZnP–CN–COOH, the role of terminal groups in the modification of their electronic structures and related properties are investigated. It is found that the molecular orientation of adsorption and the driving force for electron injection can be changed by the substitution of electron-pull moiety. The data of electronic structures support that the pushing-electron capability of triphenylamino with two methoxyl substitutes is similar to that of the phenylamino group, but it is stronger than that of bis(3,3-dimethylfluorenyl) amine group. The pulling-electron capability of cyanoacrylic acid is stronger than that of carboxyl acid group. The analysis of molecular orbitals and transition configurations indicates that the triphenylamino with two methoxyl substitutes, phenylamino moieties, and bis(3,3-dimethylfluorenyl) amine groups are major chromophores for effective charge transfer excitation.

Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles below 2 nm loaded on In2O3 nanooctahedra were prepared with the assistance of polymer ligands, and applied as efficient difunctional counter electrode (CE) materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Owing to the excellent light scattering performance of regular nanooctahedra, the light harvesting efficiency was significantly increased, resulting in the noticeable 19.5% enhancement of energy conversion efficiency.

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated kidney injuries and Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activity and the therapeutic effects of tempol in crush syndrome (CS) model rats. Methods: Male Wister rats were randomly divided into sham operation group (SOG), CS groups (CS6G, CS12G and CS24G) and tempol treatment group (TG, a ROS scavenger). CS model rats were established by crushing the hind limbs of rats with 15 kg pressure for 6 hours, and inferior caval vein blood and kidney samples were harvested at 6, 12, 24 hours after removing crush pressure. In TG, 100 mg/kg tempol was intraperitoneally injected into CS model rats after withdraw of crush pressure. In SOG, rats were fixed on the board without any crush pressure. The activation of c-jun was determined by western blotting. Serological parameters and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) in kidney tissues were determined by standard methods. Results: Acute kidney injury reached the peak at 12 hours after the crush pressure. Compared with SOG, the content of phosphorylated c-jun was significantly higher in CSG and TG (p < 0.05), and the content of phosphorylated c-jun in the CSG was significantly higher than that in TG (p < 0.05). Interestingly, the changes of the MDA content in the kidney tissues of the 3 groups were similar to the changes of phosphorylated c-jun content. Conclusion: ROS-mediated phosphorylation of c-jun may play important roles in the acute kidney injury of CS rats. Tempol can inhibit the phosphorylation of c-jun and alleviate the acute kidney injury.

This paper firstly reviews the current state of knowledge on the effects from rain when radio waves through the atmosphere briefly. Then we describes some work being carried out by ITU to characterize rainfall attenuation in particular, and put forward an optimized model in which we lead in area overlap factor and the height relationship between base station and mobile station, to simplify the ITU model , the simulation was given by MATLAB. Finally we got results confirming the veracity of the optimized model.

Dye sensitizers can significantly affect power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Porphyrin-based dyes are promising sensitizers due to their performances in DSSCs. Here, based upon a N-fused carbazole-zinc porphyrin-free-base porphyrin triad containing an ethynyl-linkage (coded as DTBC), the novel porphyrin dyes named DTBC-MP and DTBC-TP were designed by varying the porphyrin-free-base units in the π conjugation of DTBC in order to study the effect of porphyrin-free-base in the modification of electronic structures and related properties. The calculated results indicate that, the extension of the conjugate bridge with the porphyrin-free-base unit results in elevation of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energies, decrease of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies, reduction of the HOMO-LUMO gap, red-shift of the absorption bands, and enhancement of the absorbance. The free energy changes demonstrate that introducing more porphyrin-free-base units in the conjugate bridge induces a faster rate of electron injection. The transition properties and molecular orbital characters suggest that the different transition properties might lead to a different electron injection mechanism. In terms of electronic structure, absorption spectra, light harvesting capability, and free energy changes, the designed DTBC-TP is a promising candidate dye sensitizer for DSSCs.

The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy and safety of fosfomycin combinational therapy with other antibiotics for the treatment of infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP). This retrospective cohort study examined 104 cases of sepsis caused by CRKP occurring between January 2012 and November 2014 in Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital. Three categories of patient outcome were assessed: Survival/mortality, duration of intensive care unit stays and duration of medical ventilation. Univariate ordinal analyses were adopted to evaluate the correlations between outcome and treatment. A total of 104 patients with physician-diagnosed CRKP were involved in the study. The overall mortality rate was 25.0%. The majority of the infections (84; 80.8%) were hospital acquired. Critical infections received more than one active antibiotic as therapy. Patients treated with fosfomycin combinational therapy were less likely to fail therapy (OR: 4.71, 95% CI: 1.03–21.65, P=0.034) and tended to have a shorter duration of mechanical ventilation. Gender (OR: 4.35, 95% CI: 1.08–3.60, P=0.037), history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR: 9.35, 95% CI: 0.06–0.19, P=0.007) and peripheral catheter use (OR: 3.00, 95% CI: 0.07–0.19, P=0.002) are risk factors for clinical outcome. Therefore, the use of fosfomycin combinational therapy for treatment of infection due to CRKP appears to be associated with improved survival rate.

Although transurethral resection of the prostate remains the gold standard surgical treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, transurethral plasmakinetic resection of the prostate has become a popular alternative. This study investigated the effects of plasmakinetic resection of the prostate on erectile function.A total of 400 patients that underwent plasmakinetic resection of the prostate or transurethral resection of the prostate were prospectively enrolled in this study. Of these, 384 patients met the inclusion criteria. One experienced surgeon carried out all the procedures. The International Prostate Symptom Score, International Index of Erectile Function-5, maximum flow rate and ultrasound postvoid residual volume were determined, and evaluated preoperatively and at 12 months postoperatively. Prostate-specific antigen, age and prostate volume of each patient were recorded.The median International Index of Erectile Function-5 score of plasmakinetic resection of the prostate patients significantly increased from 8.0 (interquartile range 7.0-9.0) preoperatively to 21.0 (19.0-22.0) at 12 months postoperatively (P0.05). The score of plasmakinetic resection of the prostate patients was significantly higher than that of the transurethral resection of the prostate group (P0.05); however, the International Prostate Symptom Score of the plasmakinetic resection of the prostate group was not significantly different from that of the transurethral resection of the prostate group (P0.05).A significant improvement in erectile function can be observed at 12 months in patients undergoing plasmakinetic resection of the prostate. Despite these encouraging findings, the effects of plasma kinetic resection of the prostate on erectile function remain to be further studied.

The screening for insecticidal principles from several Chinese medicinal herbs showed that the ethanol extract of Aconitum episcopale roots possessed significant feeding deterrence against the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum . From the ethanol extract, six feeding deterrents were isolated by bioassay-guided fractionation. The compounds were identified as chasmanine, crassicauline A, karacoline, sachaconitine, talatisamine, and yunaconitine from their spectroscopic data. Chasmanine, talatisamine, karacoline, and sachaconitine exhibited feeding deterrent activity against T. castaneum adults, with EC(50) values of 297.0, 342.8, 395.3, and 427.8 ppm, respectively. Yunaconitine and crassicauline A also possessed feeding deterrent activity against T. castaneum adults, with EC(50) values of 653.4 and 1134.5 ppm, respectively.

The adsorption of α-cyanoacrylic acid (CAA) on anatase TiO2 (101) and (001) surfaces, including adsorption energies, structures, and electronic properties, have been studied by means of density functional theory calculations in connection with ultrasoft pseudopotential and generalized gradient approximation based upon slab models. The most stable structure of CAA on anatase TiO2 (101) surface is the dissociated bidentate configuration where the cyano N and carbonyl O bond with two adjacent surface Ti atoms along [010] direction and the dissociated H binds to the surface bridging O which connects the surface Ti bonded with carbonyl O. While for the adsorption of CAA on (001) surface, the most stable structure is the bidentate configuration through the dissociation of hydroxyl in carboxyl moiety. The O atoms of carboxyl bond with two neighbor surface Ti along [100] direction, and the H from dissociated hydroxyl interacts with surface bridging O, generating OH species. The adsorption energies are estimated to be 1.02 and 3.25 eV for (101) and (001) surfaces, respectively. The analysis of density of states not only suggests the bonds between CAA and TiO2 surfaces are formed but also indicates that CAA adsorptions on TiO2 (101) and (001) surfaces provide feasible mode for photo-induced electron injection through the interface between TiO2 and CAA. This is resulted from that, compared with the contribution of CAA orbitals in valence bands, the conduction bands which are mainly composed of Ti 3d orbitals have remarkable reduction of the component of CAA orbitals.

The title compound, C23H21Cl2NO, was prepared by condensation of 1,2,3,4-tetra­hydro­naphthalen-1-amine with (3,5-dichloro-2-hydroxy­phen­yl)(phen­yl)methanone. There is an intra­molecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bond and mol­ecules are linked via N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds, forming centrosymmetric dimers in the crystal structure.

Using a standard reductive perturbation theory, a modified variable coefficients Korteweg–de Vries (MKdV) equation governing the three-dimensional dust acoustic solitary waves is derived in inhomogeneous dusty plasmas comprising negatively charged dust grains of equal radii, Boltzmann distributed electrons and ions. The incorporation of the combined effects of adiabatic dust charge fluctuation, the external magnetic field and the inhomogeneity caused by nonuniform equilibrium values of particle density, charging variable and particle potential on the waves leads to a significant modification of the nature of dust acoustic solitary waves and excites both dust acoustic solitary holes (solitons with a density dip) and positive solitons (solitons with a density hump).