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Objective: To demonstrate the clinical efficacy of a homemade Chinese herbal fumigation eye patch in the prevention and treatment of myopia in children and adolescents. Methods: In this retrospective study, participants were grouped according to different intervention methods. A primary school was selected, wherein 50 myopic students in each grade and a total of 300 from the 6 grades were selected as the observation group. According to the 1:1 matching principle, another 300 myopic students matched with the uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), gender, and class were selected as the control group. The observation group was treated with the Chinese herbal fumigation patch, once daily between 12:00 and 13:00, 10-15 min/time, for 30 consecutive days. The control group did not get any intervention measures. The UCVA, diopter (D), and axial length (AXL) of both groups were recorded on the 1st, 15th, and 30th day after enrollment. Results: Six hundred children and adolescents, including 324 males and 276 females with an average age of (8.8±2.3) years and UCVA of (4.51±0.37), were included, with none lost to follow up. No statistical significance was determined in pre-interventional TCM syndrome distribution, D and AXL between groups (all P > 0.05). Univariate analysis identified that the UCVA of the observation group changed with time (P < 0.05), presenting a linear trend (P < 0.05). In the control group, the changes in UCVA, D, and AXL over time were also statistically significant (all P < 0.05), and the reverse changes showed a linear trend with statistical significance (all P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis determined the presence of statistical inter-group differences in UCVA, D, and AXL (all P < 0.05), as well as an interaction between grouping and time. Conclusions: The homemade Chinese herbal fumigation eye patch can improve UCVA, delaying D deterioration and preventing eye axial lengthening among myopic children and adolescents, with clinical popularization value.

In this study, we constructed a Z-scheme photocatalyst BiOCl-Ag-AgBr for the first time, with the aim of simultaneously removing the heavy metal Cr6+ ions and organic pollutant phenol in waste water. It was found that Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were selectively deposited on the {001} facets of BiOCl nanosheets in the process of photoreduction, and the outer layer of Ag NPs was further transformed into AgBr in the presence of Fe3+ and Br−. Compared with BiOCl and BiOCl-Ag, the ternary structure BiOCl-Ag-AgBr displays obviously higher photocatalytic activity for both Cr6+ reduction and phenol degradation. There exists a synergetic effect between Cr6+ ions and phenol for enhancing the photocatalytic activity of photocatalysts, i.e., the presence of Cr6+ ions can promote the degradation of phenol, while the existence of phenol also accelerates the reduction of Cr6+. The radical trapping experiments confirmed that BiOCl-Ag-AgBr is a Z-scheme semiconductor and all of e−, O 2−, OH, and h+ take part in the reactions of Cr6+ reduction and phenol degradation. The superior photocatalytic activity of BiOCl-Ag-AgBr should be ascribed to both its excellent sunlight response and the effective separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers with high redox ability.

PurposeTo develop a risk stratification system that can predict axillary lymph node (LN) metastasis in invasive breast cancer based on the combination of shear wave elastography (SWE) and conventional ultrasound.Materials and MethodsA total of 619 participants pathologically diagnosed with invasive breast cancer underwent breast ultrasound examinations were recruited from a multicenter of 17 hospitals in China from August 2016 to August 2017. Conventional ultrasound and SWE features were compared between positive and negative LN metastasis groups. The regression equation, the weighting, and the counting methods were used to predict axillary LN metastasis. The sensitivity, specificity, and the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated.ResultsA significant difference was found in the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category, the “stiff rim” sign, minimum elastic modulusof the internal tumor and peritumor region of 3 mm between positive and negative LN groups (p < 0.05 for all). There was no significant difference in the diagnostic performance of the regression equation, the weighting, and the counting methods (p > 0.05 for all). Using the counting method, a 0–4 grade risk stratification system based on the four characteristics was established, which yielded an AUC of 0.656 (95% CI, 0.617–0.693, p < 0.001), a sensitivity of 54.60% (95% CI, 46.9%–62.1%), and a specificity of 68.99% (95% CI, 64.5%–73.3%) in predicting axillary LN metastasis.ConclusionA 0–4 grade risk stratification system was developed based on SWE characteristics and BI-RADS categories, and this system has the potential to predict axillary LN metastases in invasive breast cancer.

Uniform cubic Ag@AgCl and Ag@AgBr plasmonic photocatalysts with side length of 0.7 µm were synthesized by a facile green route, in which a controllable double-jet precipitation technique was employed to fabricate homogeneous cubic AgCl and AgBr grains while a photoreduction process was used to produce Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the surface of AgCl and AgBr grains. The synthesized samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The photocatalytic activities of Ag@AgCl and Ag@AgBr were compared using degradation of methyl orange (MO) dye and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) under visible-light irradiation. Ag@AgBr showed higher photocatalytic activity for MO degradation but weaker activity for 2,4-DCP decomposition. Possible degradation mechanisms are proposed to interpret these contrary paradoxical experimental results.

Although semiconductor photocatalysis has made great progresses as a promising solution to solve the problem of environmental pollution, the highly efficient decomposition of organic pollutants driven by sunlight is still a challenge. Herein, we successfully constructed a Z-scheme photocatalyst BiOCl-Au-CdS for the first time by stepwise deposition of Au and CdS. It was found that the Au nanoparticles (NPs) were selectively anchored on the {001} facets of BiOCl nanosheets in the process of photoreduction while CdS NPs were further in situ deposited on Au NPs via the strong S–Au interaction. Compared to BiOCl, BiOCl-Au, and BiOCl-CdS, the Z-scheme BiOCl-Au-CdS exhibited evidently higher sunlight-driven photocatalytic activity toward the degradations of anionic dye Methyl Orange, cationic dye Rhodamine B, colorless pollutant phenol, and antibiotic sulfadiazine. The radical trapping experiments indicated that ·OH, h+, and ·O2– are the main reactive species responsible for the degradations of organic pollutan...

Anatase TiO2 microcrystals containing ∼15% highly reactive {110} facets were successfully synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method, in which H2O2, HF, and Cl− ions showed a synergistic effect on the formation of {110} facets. Benefiting from the surface heterojunction structure, TiO2 microcrystals with {110} facets showed an enhanced photocatalytic activity for dye degradation.

Many transcription factors are involved in the progress of stress-inducible regulation. Transcription factors play an important role not only in stress tolerance but also in stress response. Some of the transcription factors and their target genes, whether in tolerance or in response, take part in the pathway metabolism. To explain the relationship between the transcription factor and target gene in Arabidopsis thaliana, gene regulation networks under salt and drought stresses were constructed. The regulation network showed that the transcription factor WRKY53 played a key role in the regulatory network through regulating ATWRKY18 and GBF3. The overlap of salt and drought stress regulation networks showed that degradation-related pathways were repressed, while alpha-linolenic acid and phenylpropanoid pathways were activated . Key words: Regulation network, Arabidopsis thaliana, stress, pathway.