Search

BackgroundSince the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been over 2 million deaths globally. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) may be the main cause of death. ObjectiveThis study aimed to describe the clinical features, outcomes, and ARDS characteristics of patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in Chongqing, China. MethodsThe epidemiology of COVID-19 from January 21, 2020, to March 15, 2020, in Chongqing, China, was analyzed retrospectively, and 75 ICU patients from two hospitals were included in this study. On day 1, 56 patients with ARDS were selected for subgroup analysis, and a modified Poisson regression was performed to identify predictors for the early improvement of ARDS (eiARDS). ResultsChongqing reported a 5.3% case fatality rate for the 75 ICU patients. The median age of these patients was 57 (IQR 25-75) years, and no bias was present in the sex ratio. A total of 93% (n=70) of patients developed ARDS during ICU stay, and more than half had moderate ARDS. However, most patients (n=41, 55%) underwent high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy, but not mechanical ventilation. Nearly one-third of patients with ARDS improved (arterial blood oxygen partial pressure/oxygen concentration >300 mm Hg) in 1 week, which was defined as eiARDS. Patients with eiARDS had a higher survival rate and a shorter length of ICU stay than those without eiARDS. Age (

Duyun compound green tea (DCGT) is a healthy beverage with lipid-lowering effect commonly consumed by local people, but its mechanism is not very clear. We evaluated the effect of DCGT treatment on bile acids (BA) metabolism of mice with high-fat diet (HFD) – induced hyperlipidaemia by biochemical indexes and metabolomics and preliminarily determined the potential biomarkers and metabolic pathways of hyperlipidaemia mice treated with DCGT as well as investigated its lipid-lowering mechanism. The results showed that DCGT treatment could reduce HFD – induced gain in weight and improve dyslipidaemia. In addition, a total of ten types of BA were detected, of which seven changed BA metabolites were observed in HFD group mice. After DCGT treatment, glycocholic acid, tauroursodeoxycholic acid and taurochenodeoxycholic acid were significantly down-regulated, while hyodeoxycholic acid, deoxycholic acid and chenodeoxycholic acid were markedly up-regulated. These results demonstrated that DCGT treatment was able to make the BA metabolites in the liver of hyperlipidaemia mice normal and alleviate hyperlipidaemia by regulating the metabolites such as glycocholic acid, tauroursodeoxycholic acid and taurochenodeoxycholic, as well as the BA metabolic pathway and cholesterol metabolic pathway involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste toner with high carbon content has the potential to become a carbon material, but its utilization is limited due to the low carbonization yield. In this work, a carbon-based solid acid was prepared by carbonization and sulfonation of waste toner with the aid of sulfuric acid. The characterization of its structure and the evaluation of its properties revealed that sulfuric acid played three roles in the process of carbon-based solid acid prepared from waste toner (WT-CSA). Specifically, this method not only solved the problem of low yield of carbon precursor (CP) obtained by carbonization of waste toner but also introduced thiophene sulfur into the aromatic carbon flakes during the carbonization process. Moreover, thiophene sulfur makes the sulfonation easier, thus increasing the density of –SO3H. In addition, the activity and cyclic stability of the catalyst were evaluated by cellulose hydrolysis. The results show that the catalyst exhibits excellent hydrolytic activity and hydrothermal stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]