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Plastic sports-fields are commonly used in communities, schools and other public places nowadays, which can offer positive benefits to fitness and sports. Plastic sports-fields are usually made of petroleum-based materials. Under high-temperature weather, various potentially harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be released to the ambient air, which pose a potential health risk to people who are on the plastic sports-field or living near the plastic sports-field. In our previous work, an analytical tool for onsite investigation of air pollutants was developed by drone-based solid-phase microextraction (drone-SPME) coupled with portable gas chromatographymass spectrometry (PGC-MS). In this work, the drome-SPME-PGC-MS method was further used to analyze the air pollutants in the plastic sports-field. The volatile air pollutants such as benzothiazole and benzene were identified by NIST standard spectra and standard substances. The results showed that benzothiazole was released from the ground material of plastic sports-fields, while benzene was mainly released from the paint that was painted at the fence of plastic sports-fields. Analytical performances, such as sensitivity, reproducibility, and quantitation were investigated using drone-SPME-PGC-MS. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of benzene (1.0 μg/L) and benzothiazole (1.0 μg/L) were 13.2% and 11.4% (n=6), respectively, indicating the high reliability of drone-SPME for air sampling. The limits of detection (LODs) of benzene and benzothiazole were 0.036 μg/L and 0.088 μg/L (S/N=3), respectively, showing good sensitivity for air analysis. The different concentrations of benzene and benzothiazole in a glass container were detected using this method, showing good linear responses (benzene: 0.044-2.20 μg/L, R2=0.992 9; benzothiazoles: 0.10-2.10 μg/L, R2=0.993 7). Moreover, benzene and benzothiazole in the air at different plastic sportsfields were quantitative detected by established drone-SPME-PGC-MS. Furthermore, the releases and distributions of benzothiazole and benzene at different temperatures (33, 12 ℃) and different heights (0.5-40 m) were investigated, showing that these air pollutants were mainly distributed at the ground layer (≤ 5 m) and were mainly released at high-temperature conditions (33 ℃). Overall, the drone-SPME-PGC-MS is a promising analytical method for the onsite investigation of air pollutants at the plastic sports-fields.

Aim: This study explores the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in treating cerebral palsy (CP) in Sprague–Dawley (SD) pups, specifically CP animal models, and its molecular mechanisms. Methods: Gait analysis and Y‐maze were used to detect the improvement of motor ability and cognitive function of CP rats after EA treatment. Transcription sequencing was used to determine the key pathway for EA to improve the symptoms of CP. PPAR agonists were used to verify the causal relationship between the pathway and the improvement of CP phenotype. Results: The motor ability and cognitive function of CP pups were improved after EA treatment. The results of transcriptome sequencing suggest that the improvement of CP phenotype may be caused by the activation of PPAR pathway. PPAR pathway is widely activated in the epithelium of CP pups treated with EA, which is verified by qPCR. Rosiglitazone (Ros), a PPAR agonist, can improve CP phenotype while activating PPAR pathway, which proves the causal relationship between PPAR pathway activation and CP phenotype improvement. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated behavioral improvements and enhanced cognitive functions in CP models after EA treatment by activating PPAR pathway, suggesting new perspectives for CP rehabilitation, and providing theoretical support for acupuncture treatment of CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To explore the clinical characteristics of 2 668 inpatients in emergency ward, and to provide reference for emergency management. Methods Total of 2 668 patients hospitalized in the emergency department of xuanwu hospital from January 2015 to June 2018 were selected and the study data were retrospectively collected, including gender, age, comorbidities involvement system, hospitalization cost, length of hospital stay, and self-care ability score before hospitalization and before discharge. Results 1)The average age of male patients was younger than that of females (67.2±17.1 vs 70.7±17.2 years old)(P＜0.01). 2)2 408(90.25%) patients admitted to the hospital with more than 3 kinds of co-morbidities, and the co-morbidities involved mainly in respiratory, circulation, and endocrine systems. 3)The immediate living ability score was significantly lower than that before discharge (69.42±25.09 vs 78.12±26.13) (P＜0.001). 4)Barthel score was negatively correlated with length of stay, cost of hospitalization, decreased albumin, and anemia. Conclusions The types of diseases in the emergency ward are complicated, involving multiple disciplines and specialties, and the critical condition is variabl. Comprehensive and comprehensive evaluation is necessary in the process of clinical diagnosis, treatment and nursing care to improve the clinical outcomes of patients.

A dual‐resonant, semi‐circular sector patch antenna is properly incorporated to a planar self‐balanced magnetic dipole antenna and lead to a novel triple‐resonant, dual‐band planar antenna which has characteristics of wide E‐plane beam width and stable gain at both bands in this work. Design approach with a group of approximate closed‐form formulas is proposed to initially calculate value of the main parameters of the antenna. In the numerical and experimental verifications, it is demonstrated that the antenna operates at 2.4–2.48 and 4.75–5.95 GHz for reflection coefficient smaller than −10 dB. The antenna exhibits unique characteristics of wide E‐plane half‐power beamwidths of 91°/115°, and stable in‐band average gain of about 4–5 dBi at both bands owing to the nearly complementary frequency dispersive characteristic of the radiation pattern in both principal‐cut planes. As seen, the antenna can cover wide wireless communication spectra, which makes it promising to get applications in future developments of multi‐functional WLAN/RFID antennas, C2C communication antennas, and light‐weight, compact UAV antennas without bulky reflectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Aim: Previous studies have found significant differences in clinical characteristics between pediatric and adult moyamoya disease (MMD) patients, but few studies have focused on the factors underlying these differences. We aimed to investigate the differences in leptomeningeal collateral (LMC) status between pediatric and adult MMD patients and to analyze the effects of LMCs on clinical characteristics and therapeutic prognosis. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 214 MMD patients from January 2014 to January 2016. Clinical characteristics and LMC status were compared between the pediatric and adult patients. LMC status was graded as good or poor depending on the retrograde flow from the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) on digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Results: A total of 83 pediatric and 131 adult (1:1.6) MMD patients were analyzed. Pediatric patients were more likely to experience a transient ischemic attack (81%), whereas adult patients were more likely to experience infarction (51%). Regarding the different MMD stages (the early, medium, and advanced stages corresponded to Suzuki stages 1‐2, 3‐4, and 5‐6, respectively), the prevalence of good LMC status was higher for pediatric patients than for adult patients in the early stage (P = 0.047) and the medium stage (P = 0.001), but there were no differences between these patient groups in the advanced stage (P = 0.547). Worse postoperative angiographic outcomes (P = 0.017) were found in adult patients than in pediatric patients in the medium stage. Poor LMC status had strong correlations with infarction (P < 0.001 and P = 0.017) and poor postoperative outcomes (P = 0.003 and P = 0.043) in both pediatric and adult patients. Conclusions: Pediatric MMD patients have greater patency and a greater ability to establish good LMC status than adult patients, and poor LMC status has a strong correlation with severe clinical symptoms and poor postoperative outcomes. LMC status may be an important factor in the differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis between pediatric and adult MMD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high cost, low abundance and poor durability of precious metal catalysts greatly hinder the practical applications of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) for bioremediation and bioelectricity generation. It is imperative to develop highly efficient and robust noble metal‐free catalysts for the high power density of MFCs. In this work, we present a scalable and cost‐effective strategy to synthesize Co9S8 nanoparticles coupled with nitrogen‐doped hollow carbon sphere (NHCS), which subtly constructs synergistic interface structures that expose plentiful active sites and afford high conductive channel for charge transfer. The as‐obtained porous Co9S8/NHCS exhibits excellent catalytic activity, and superior stability as well as methanol tolerance during oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process in both alkaline and neutral environment. The MFC device equipped with Co9S8/NHCS as air‐cathode achieves a remarkable power density of 704±22 mW m−2 and outstanding chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate of 96.28 %±0.50 %, which is even superior to the performance of commercial Pt/C catalyst. The favorable results provide a new concept to design and explore porous noble metal‐free electrocatalysts for clean and sustainable energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a high-efficienct, low-cost and stable non-noble-metal-based bifunctional electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as oxygen electrode material in the rechargeable zinc–air battery is crucial in renewable energy conversion technologies. In this work, nitrogen-doped hollow carbon sphere (NHCS) decorated with various nickel selenide (NixSe) nanoparticles had been designed and successfully prepared. Among them, the Ni0.85Se–NHCS with the highest percentage of Ni3+ could serve as a new efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst toward ORR/OER (with an onset potential of 0.850 V for ORR and a potential of 1.583 V at 10 mA·cm−2 for OER) in an alkaline medium. Furthermore, the assembled Zn–air battery coupled with Ni0.85Se–NHCS electrode has excellent discharging–charging performance and long lifetime. This work provides a valuable understanding on transition metal non-oxide electrocatalysts and expands the applications of selenide-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen reaction plays a vital role in energy storage such as zinc-air battery and microbial fuel cell (MFC). Thus, it is necessary to search and develop non-precious metal electrocatalysts with remarkable activity. In this work, copper is cleverly doped into the octahedral sites of Co 9 S 8 to strengthen the Co Co bond and then combined with nitrogen-doped hollow carbon spheres to achieve high catalytic activity and durability for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER). The prepared Cu-Co 9 S 8 -NHCS-1 exhibits the potential gap of 0.788 V between E j=10 of OER and E 1/2 of ORR. Moreover, the zinc-air battery with Cu-Co 9 S 8 -NHCS-1 cathode possesses a power density of 91.0 mW cm-2 and long-term stability over 120 h. The MFC using Cu-Co 9 S 8 -NHCS-1 cathode exhibits a power density of 924 ± 18 mW m-2, higher than that of 862 ± 20 mW m-2 with Pt/C. These results indicate that the Cu-Co 9 S 8 -NHCS-1 is an excellent bifunctional electrocatalyst for ORR and OER, and has promising applications in energy conversion. • Hybrid pentlandite structure of Cu dopped Co9S8 was coupled with NHCS. • Copper was doped into the octahedral sites of Co9S8 to strengthen the Co-Co bond. • Cu-Co9S8-NHCS-1 exhibited superior bifunctional electrocatalytic activity. • Cu-Co9S8-NHCS-1 performed well in both zinc-air battery and MFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two Schiff base ligands 2-((ethylamino)methyl)-6-methoxyphenol (HL 1) and (E)-2-(((2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)imino)methyl)-6-methoxyphenol (HL 2) with bi-nucleating or tri-nucleating mode have been successfully prepared via an one step organic condensation reaction, which were further applied in the synthesis of three new Cu(II) and Ni(II)-based coordination complexes [Cu(L 1) 2 ](EtOH) (1), [Ni(L 1) 2 ](EtOH) (2) and [Cu(L 2)(HL 2)(SCN)](MeOH) 2 (3). Furthermore, a hand grinding technique has been used to decrease the particle diameter of complexes 1 – 3 , thus forming nano-complexes. In biological activity research, we revealed the important function of nanoparticle 1 in the treatment of breast cancer. Mitochondria is critical in generating intracellular energy, and play a vital role in regulating cells life and death. Therefore, the apoptosis of MCF7 breast cancer cells after treated with nanoparticles was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI method. The results showed that nanoparticles 1 could significantly raise apoptotic cells number, but not nanoparticles 2–3. Moreover, we assessed the mitochondrial membrane potential and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in MCF7 cancer cells, finally we draw this conclusion, nanoparticle 1 could damage the mitochondrial membrane, leading increased ROS level, and cause the apoptotic cell death. • Three new Cu(II) and Ni(II)-based coordination complexes were synthesized. • A hand grinding technique has been used to get nano-complexes. • We revealed the important function of nanoparticle 1 in the treatment of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]