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The adsorptive removal of antibiotics from aqueous solutions is recognized as the most suitable approach due to its easy operation, low cost, nontoxic properties, and high efficiency. However, the conventional regeneration of saturated adsorbents is an expensive and time-consuming process in practical wastewater treatment. Herein, a scalable adsorbent of magnetic Fe3O4@chitosan carbon microbeads (MCM) was successfully prepared by embedding Fe3O4 nanoparticles into chitosan hydrogel via an alkali gelation-thermal cracking process. The application of MCM composites for the adsorptive removal of doxycycline (DC) was evaluated using a fixed-bed column. The results showed that pH, initial concentration, flow rate, and bed depth are found to be important factors to control the adsorption capacity of DC. The Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models showed a good agreement with the experimental data and could be applied for the prediction of the fixed-bed column properties and breakthrough curves. More importantly, the saturated fixed bed can be easily recycled by H2O2 which shows excellent reusability for the removal of doxycycline. Thus, the combination of the adsorption advantage of chitosan carbon with catalytic properties of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles might provide a new tool for addressing water treatment challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the role of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain proteins (NODs) in aseptic joint loosening mediated by wear particles, totally 32 cases of tissues from hip were collected, including 7 cases of periprosthetic tissues from aseptic joint loosening (group A), 8 cases from femoral neck fracture (group B), 13 cases from femoral head ischemic necrosis (group C), and 4 cases from purulent infection (group D). Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of NOD1 and NOD2 in macrophages of various tissues. In vitro, titanium particles stimulated mouse RAW264.7 macrophages were used for the detection of NOD1, NOD2 and related inflammatory cytokines expression. The results of immunohistochemistry show that the expression of NOD1 and NOD2 in macrophages of group A is significantly higher than those in other groups (P<0.05). The mRNA expression of NOD2 and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-α) in macrophages stimulated by titanium particles sn mtro reaches a peak at 1 h, which is significantly higher than that of the control group. However, NOD1 mRNA expression has no significant difference (P>0.05). But the expression of NOD1, NOD2 and TNF-α in the macrophages stimulated by titanium particles increases after 24 h. NOD1 and NOD2 may be involved in the process of aseptic joint loosening mediated by macrophages which are activated by wear debris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoporosis is a metabolic osteopathy syndrome, and the incidence of osteoporosis increases significantly with age. Currently, bone quantitative ultrasound (QUS) has been considered as a potential method for screening and diagnosing osteoporosis. However, its diagnostic accuracy is quite low. By contrast, deep learning based methods have shown the great power for extracting the most discriminative features from complex data. To improve the osteoporosis diagnostic accuracy and take advantages of QUS, we devise a deep learning method based on ultrasound radio frequency (RF) signal. Specifically, we construct a multi-channel convolutional neural network (MCNN) combined with a sliding window scheme, which can enhance the number of data as well. By using speed of sound (SOS), the quantitative experimental results of our preliminary study indicate that our proposed osteoporosis diagnosis method outperforms the conventional ultrasound methods, which may assist the clinician for osteoporosis screening.

Background: Recent studies have suggested association between the ABO blood group and inflammation, which was a crucial pathological process of primary knee osteoarthritis. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the ABO blood group and primary knee osteoarthritis ​and the severity of primary knee osteoarthritis evaluated by the Kellgren/Lawrence score, as well as the histopathologic association in a subgroup of patients., Methods: We performed a retrospective review of patients with primary knee osteoarthritis that served as the case group ​and a random sampling of healthy blood donors that served as the control group. The severity of knee osteoarthritis at the first outpatient visit was evaluated by the Kellgren/Lawrence scoring system. Further study was performed to investigate the expression of blood group antigens in synovial tissue of the knee in both cases and controls., Results: A total of 1126 cases and 30299 controls were involved. The proportion of AB blood group was higher in the case group than in the control group (9.7% vs. 7.8%), and logistic regression revealed that the AB blood group was a risk factor of primary knee osteoarthritis (P ​= ​0.025 and 0.048 for univariate and multivariate analysis, respectively), independent of age (P ​= ​0.973) and sex (P ​= ​0.520). Patients of the blood group AB had a higher Kellgren/Lawrence score (P ​= ​0.017). The immunohistochemical study indicated association between Le Y antigen and primary knee osteoarthritis (P ​= ​0.029)., Conclusions: This study suggested that the blood group AB was associated with primary knee osteoarthritis, as well as its radiological severity. Further study indicated that Le Y antigen, which was related to the blood group, was associated with primary knee osteoarthritis., Translational Potential of This Article: This study revealed that blood group AB and Le Y antigen was associated with primary knee osteoarthritis, which shed new light on the nature of osteoarthritis, and the development of novel therapy for osteoarthritis., (© 2019 The Authors.)

Background: Polylactic acid polymer interference screws are commonly used in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions, especially in proximal tibia fixation. However, several concerns have been raised, including the acid products during its degradation in vivo . In recent years, biodegradable magnesium (Mg)-based implants have become attractive because of their favourable mechanical properties, which are more similar to those of natural bone when compared with other degradable materials, such as polymers, apart from their alkaline nature during degradation., Methods: We developed a pure Mg interference screw for ACL reconstruction. In the present study, 24 fresh cadaver knees were used to compare the mechanical properties of pure Mg interference screws and polylactic acid polymer interference screws for ACL reconstruction via their application on the proximal tibia tested using specific robotics., Results: Results showed that the pure Mg interference screw group showed similar mechanical stability to the polylactic acid polymer interference screw group, implying comparable postoperative fixation effects., Conclusion: As there are no commercially available Mg-based interference screws for ACL reconstruction clinically and the in vivo degradation of pure Mg promotes bone formation, our cadaveric study supports its clinical tests for ACL reconstruction.