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Endovascular mechanical thrombectomy (EMT) is an effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke and identifying the precise thrombus size remains key to a successful EMT. However, no imaging modality has been able to provide this information simultaneously and efficiently in an emergency setting. The present study introduces a novel technique named dual-channel bolus contrast injection (Dc-BCI) for determining thrombus size and location during EMT. In the in vitro study, the Dc-BCI demonstrated an accurate projection of the thrombus size, as the actual thrombus diameter (R 2 = 0.92, p < 0.01) and length (R 2 = 0.94, p < 0.01) exhibited a high degree of correlation with that of obtained from Dc-BCI. Consequently, between February 2023 and August 2024, 87 patients diagnosed with acute cerebral large vessel occlusions were enrolled in the study and received EMT for the treatment of acute cerebral large vessel occlusions. The Dc-BCI was successfully performed in all patients to measure the diameter and length of the thrombus. These information were used to select an appropriate stent-retriever for EMT. The restoration of blood flow was achieved in 84 patients (96.6%) to an mTICI score of 2b/3. Additionally, a low incidence of postoperative complications was observed (e.g., subarachnoid hemorrhage 8% and cerebral hemorrhage 5.7%). In conclusion, it can be posited that the Dc-BCI has the potential to enhance the outcomes of EMT, as it is capable of revealing the thrombus size information, which optimizes the interaction between the stent retriever and the thrombus, while simultaneously reducing the risk of vascular injury that is associated with the prolonged use of the stent retriever., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Jiang, Liu, Zhou, Shu, Dong, Xu and Wan.) more...

Fe-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show high activity toward the activation of peroxodisulfate (PDS) for the removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in wastewater treatment. However, there is a phenomenon of Fe ion dissolution in the Fe-based MOFs' active PDS system, and the reasons and influencing factors that cause Fe ion dissolution are poorly understood. In this study, we synthesized four types of Fe-based MOFs and confirmed their crystal structure through characterization. All types of Fe-based MOFs were found to activate PDS and form sulfate radicals (SO 4 - ), which effectively remove OMPs in wastewater. During the process of Fe-based MOFs activating PDS for CIP removal, activated species, oxidant reagent, and pH negatively impact the stability performance of the MOFs' structure. The coordination bond between Fe atom and O atom can be attacked by water molecules, free radicals, and H + , causing damage to the crystal structure of MOFs. Additionally, Fe (II)-MOFs exhibit the best stability performance, due to the enhanced bond energy of the coordination bond in MOFs by the F ligands. This study summarizes the influencing factors of Fe-based MOFs' damage during PDS activation processes, providing new insights for the future development of Fe-based MOFs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Geng, Chi, Zhao, Wan and Sun.) more...

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) shows high effectiveness in the catalyzed removal of contaminants in wastewater treatment. However, the uncontrolled interfacial electron transfer behavior and formation of surface iron oxide (FeOx) layer led to severe electron wasting and occasionally form highly toxic intermediates. Here, we constructed magnetic mesoporous SiO 2 shell on surface of nZVI to stimulate a magnetic spatial confinement effect and regulate the electron transfer pattern. Therein, Fe atom facilely spread out from the nZVI core, orderly release electron to surface adsorbed H 2 O molecule, which is efficiently transformed into active hydrogen (H*). Meanwhile, in-situ Raman revealed that Fe atoms were involved in the formation of penetrable γ-FeOOH rather than FeOx layer, enabling the continuous inward diffusion of H 2 O and outward diffusion of H* . Employing the catalyzed removal of halogenated phenols as demo reaction, the presence of magnetic mesoporous SiO 2 shell utilized the reaction between electrons and H 2 O to switch the reaction pathway from the reduction/oxidation hybrid process to hydrodehalogantion, and increased the conversion of halogenated phenols-to-phenols by 5.53 times. This study shows the forehand of improving the decontamination performance of nZVI through sophisticated designed surface coating, as well as fine regulating the environmental behavior of magnetic material via micro-magnetic field., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) more...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease. Although great progress has been made in its diagnosis and treatment in recent years, its mortality rate is still very significant. The pathophysiology and pathogenesis of PAH are complex and involve endothelial dysfunction, chronic inflammation, smooth muscle cell proliferation, pulmonary arteriole occlusion, antiapoptosis and pulmonary vascular remodeling. These factors will accelerate the progression of the disease, leading to poor prognosis. Therefore, accurate etiological diagnosis, treatment and prognosis judgment are particularly important. Here, we systematically review the pathophysiology, diagnosis, genetics, prognosis and treatment of PAH., (© 2022. The Author(s).) more...

Background: At present, COVID-19 is a global pandemic and is seriously harmful to humans. In this retrospective study, the aim was to investigate the interaction between CVD and COVID-19., Methods: A total of 180 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Yichang Central People's Hospital from 29 January to 17 March 2020 were initially included. The medical history, clinical manifestations at the time of admission, laboratory test results, hospitalization time and complications were recorded. According to the medical history, the patients were assigned to the nonsevere group with non-CVD ( n  = 90), the nonsevere group with CVD ( n  = 22), the severe group with non-CVD ( n  = 40) and the severe group with CVD ( n  = 28)., Results: In the severe group, compared with non-CVD patients, CVD patients had a significantly higher incidence of fever ( P  < 0.05). However, compared with the nonsevere group, the severe group had significantly higher proportions of patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, CHD and HF (all P  < 0.05). Among the patients with nonsevere COVID-19, the WBC count and the levels of IL-6, CRP, D-dimer, NT-proBNP, and FBG were significantly higher and the Hb level was significantly lower in the CVD patients than in the non-CVD patients (all P  < 0.05). However, among the patients with severe COVID-19, only the level of NT-proBNP was significantly higher in CVD patients than in non-CVD patients ( P  < 0.05). In addition, the WBC count and the levels of IL-6, CRP, D-dimer, CKMB, ALT, AST, SCR, NT-proBNP, and FBG were significantly higher and the Hb level was significantly lower in the severe group than in the nonsevere group (all P  < 0.05). However, among the patients with severe COVID-19, the incidences of acute myocardial injury, acute kidney injury, arrhythmia, and sudden death were significantly higher in the CVD group than in the non-CVD group (all P  < 0.05). The same results were found in the comparison of the nonsevere group with the severe group. Among the patients with nonsevere COVID-19, those without CVD had a mean hospitalization duration of 25.25 (SD 7.61) days, while those with CVD had a mean hospitalization duration of 28.77 (SD 6.11) days; the difference was significant ( P  < 0.05). The same results were found in the comparison of the severe group., Conclusions: CVD affects the severity of COVID-19. COVID-19 also increases the risk of severe CVD., (© 2021 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.) more...

Background: At present, COVID-19 is a global pandemic and is seriously harmful to humans. In this retrospective study, the aim was to investigate the interaction between CVD and COVID-19., Methods: A total of 180 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Yichang Central People's Hospital from 29 January to 17 March 2020 were initially included. The medical history, clinical manifestations at the time of admission, laboratory test results, hospitalization time and complications were recorded. According to the medical history, the patients were assigned to the nonsevere group with non-CVD (n=90), the nonsevere group with CVD (n=22), the severe group with non-CVD (n=40) and the severe group with CVD (n=28)., Results: In the severe group, compared with non-CVD patients, CVD patients had a significantly higher incidence of fever (P<0.05). However, compared with the nonsevere group, the severe group had significantly higher proportions of patients with hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, CHD and HF (all P<0.05). Among the patients with nonsevere COVID-19, the WBC count and the levels of IL-6, CRP, D-dimer, NT-proBNP, and FBG were significantly higher and the Hb level was significantly lower in the CVD patients than in the non-CVD patients (all P<0.05). However, among the patients with severe COVID-19, only the level of NT-proBNP was significantly higher in CVD patients than in non-CVD patients (P<0.05). In addition, the WBC count and the levels of IL-6, CRP, D-dimer, CKMB, ALT, AST, SCR, NT-proBNP, and FBG were significantly higher and the Hb level was significantly lower in the severe group than in the nonsevere group (all P<0.05). However, among the patients with severe COVID-19, the incidences of acute myocardial injury, acute kidney injury, arrhythmia, and sudden death were significantly higher in the CVD group than in the non-CVD group (all P<0.05). The same results were found in the comparison of the nonsevere group with the severe group. Among the patients with nonsevere COVID-19, those without CVD had a mean hospitalization duration of 25.25 (SD 7.61) days, while those with CVD had a mean hospitalization duration of 28.77 (SD 6.11) days; the difference was significant (P<0.05). The same results were found in the comparison of the severe group., Conclusions: CVD affects the severity of COVID-19. COVID-19 also increases the risk of severe CVD., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.) more...

Based on ITS sequences, the molecular identification of Cordyceps cicadae and Tolypocladium dujiaolongae was carried out, and high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) fingerprint combined with chemical pattern recognition method was established to differentiate C. cicadae from its adulterant T. dujiaolongae. The genomic DNA from 10 batches of C. cicadae and five batches of T. dujiaolongae was extracted, and ITS sequences were amplified by PCR and sequenced. The stable differential sites of these two species were compared and the phylogenetic tree was constructed via MEGA 7.0. HPLC was used to establish the fingerprints of C. cicadae and T. dujiaolongae, and similarity evaluation, cluster analysis(CA), principal component analysis(PCA), and partial least squares discriminant analysis(PLS-DA) were applied to investigate the chemical pattern recognition. The result showed that the sources of these two species were different, and there were 115 stable differential sites in ITS sequences of C. cicadae and T. dujiao-longae. The phylogenetic tree could distinguish them effectively. HPLC fingerprints of 18 batches of C. cicadae and 5 batches of T. dujiaolongae were established. The results of CA, PCA, and PLS-DA were consistent, which could distinguish them well, indicating that there were great differences in chemical components between C. cicadae and T. dujiaolongae. The results of PLS-DA showed that six components such as uridine, guanosine, adenosine, and N~6-(2-hydroxyethyl) adenosine were the main differential markers of the two species. ITS sequences and HPLC fingerprint combined with the chemical pattern recognition method can serve as the identification and differentiation methods for C. cicadae and T. dujiaolongae. more...

COVID-19 vaccines from multiple manufacturers are needed to cope with the problem of insufficient supply. We did two single-center, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1 and phase 2 trials to assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of a recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (Sf9 cells) in healthy population aged 18 years or older in China. Eligible participants were enrolled, the ratio of candidate vaccine and placebo within each dose group was 3:1 (phase 1) or 5:1 (phase 2). From August 28, 2020, 168 participants were sequentially enrolled and randomly assigned to receive the low dose vaccine, high dose vaccine or placebo with the schedule of 0, 28 days or 0, 14, 28 days in phase 1 trial. From November 18, 2020, 960 participants were randomly assigned to receive the low dose vaccine, high dose vaccine or placebo with the schedule of 0, 21 days or 0, 14, 28 days in phase 2 trial. The most common solicited injection site adverse reaction within 7 days in both trials was pain. The most common solicited systematic adverse reactions within 7 days were fatigue, cough, sore throat, fever and headache. ELISA antibodies and neutralising antibodies increased at 14 days, and peaked at 28 days (phase 1) or 30 days (phase 2) after the last dose vaccination. The GMTs of neutralising antibody against live SARS-CoV-2 at 28 days or 30 days after the last dose vaccination were highest in the adult high dose group (0, 14, 28 days), with 102.9 (95% CI 61.9-171.2) and 102.6 (95% CI 75.2-140.1) in phase 1 and phase 2 trials, respectively. Specific T-cell response peaked at 14 days after the last dose vaccination in phase 1 trial. This vaccine is safe, and induced significant immune responses after three doses of vaccination., (© 2021. The Author(s).) more...

During wastewater treatment using a traditional biological denitrification process, the excessive concentration of nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 - -N) in the effluent is the primary cause of excessive total nitrogen (TN) generation. By using an external carbon source to increase the carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), the denitrification process can be strengthened, which effectively addresses this problem. Using an integrated denitrification reactor developed based on the two-stage denitrification process principle with the addition of polybutylene succinate (PBS) in the second stage, the denitrification process was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope before and after characterization of PBS materials. Moreover, amplicon sequencing was used for in-depth exploration of changes in the microbial community structure in the second denitrification pool before and after the addition of PBS. The data of a continuous 120-day experiment showed that the COD removal rate dropped from 95.7% to 90.8%, the TN removal rate increased from 51.8% to 80%, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria phylum rose from 36.1% to 46.1%, and the relative abundance of Thermomonas rose from 6.47% to 13.48%. The results show that after the addition of PBS, PBS can not only provide carbon source for denitrification, but its surface can also serve as a carrier for microbial growth and attachment, play a good role in filming, and increase the abundance of denitrifying bacteria and strengthen denitrification. During the nitrification process, denitrification performance was significantly enhanced, effectively improving the TN removal rate of the system. more...

Rubi Fructus is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine. The origin of Rubi Fructus is the dried fruit of Rubus chingii, a plant of the family Rosaceae, according to the 2015 edition of Chinese pharmacopoeia. There are some differences in the plant origin of Rubi Fructus in ancient herbal literature, to trace back its sources, we conducted a textual research on its origin, producing areas, quality evaluation, processing and concocting, properties, tastes and efficacy etc. based on the records of ancient herbal literatures and combined with plant morphology and related investigation. RESULTS:: showed that the variety of Rubi Fructus was more complex among ancient herbal literature, including R. coreanus, R. hirsutus, R. corchorifolius, R. foliolosus and other mixed varieties. Most scholars believe that the R. chingii has not been recorded in ancient herbal literature, while R. chingii was recorded as early as the Ming Dynasty in Compendium of materia medica through our textual research. Ancient Chinese herbs recorded that Rubi Fructus was mostly produced in Hubei, Shandong, Shanxi and Jiangsu provinces, while R. chingii mainly produced in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and other provinces nowadays. Also, it was recorded that Rubi Fructus harvested in wheat field during May were the best. Besides, R. chingii with big, full, grain integrate, firm, yellow and green color, sour taste and impurity free possess the best quality in the contemporary. The ancient records of processing and concocting, properties, tastes and efficacy were basically the same as modern ones.These results provide the basis for the correct utilization and further development of Rubi Fructus. more...

In this study, HPLC-ESI-MS and HPLC methods were established to explore the differences in the main chemical components and content of Mori Cortex with(mulberry root bark) and without(Mori Cortex) the phellem layer from both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The HPLC-ESI-MS method was used for quality analysis in positive and negative ion modes, and 33 compounds were identified in mulberry root bark, 22 compounds in Mori Cortex, and 26 compounds in phellem layer; mulberry root bark and Mori Cortex shared 22 components, and mulberry root bark has 11 unique compounds; Mori Cortex and its phellem layer shared 15 components, while Mori Cortex has 7 unique compounds. HPLC method was used to simultaneously determine 7 major constituents, including mulberroside A, chlorogenic acid, dihydromorin, oxyresveratrol, moracin O, kuwanon G, and kuwanon H, and the developed method showed good linearity(r&gt;0.998 9) within the concentration range and the recoveries varied from 99.88% to 103.0%, and the RSD was 1.7%-2.9%. The HPLC results showed that the contents of the 7 compounds have great differences in 13 batches samples, compared with mulberry root bark, the contents of mulberroside A, chlorogenic acid, dihydromorin and moracin O of Mori Cortex were increased, while the contents of oxyresveratrol, kuwanon G and kuwanon H were decreased after peeling process. These results can provide a basis for the rationality and quality control of Mori Cortex required to remove the phellem layer. more...

Background: Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is the change in cerebral blood flow in response to a vaso-active stimulus, and may assist the treatment strategy of ischemic stroke. However, previous studies reported that a therapeutic strategy for stroke mainly depends on the degree of vascular stenosis with steady-state vascular parameters (e.g., cerebral blood flow and CVR). Hence, measurement of CVR by multimodal imaging techniques may improve the treatment of ischemic stroke., Methods/design: This is a prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial that aimed to examine the capability of multimodal imaging techniques for the evaluation of CVR to improve treatment of patients with ischemic stroke. A total of 66 eligible patients will be recruited from Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine. The patients will be categorized based on CVR into two subgroups as follows: CVR > 10% group and CVR < 10% group. The patients will be randomly assigned to medical management, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting, and intracranial and extra-cranial bypass groups in a 1:1:1 ratio. The primary endpoint is all adverse events and ipsilateral stroke recurrence at 6, 12, and 24 months after management. The secondary outcomes include the CVR, the National Institute of Health stroke scale and the Modified Rankin Scale at 6, 12, and 24 months., Discussion: Measurement of cerebrovascular reserve by multimodal image is recommended by most recent studies to guide the treatment of ischemic stroke, and thus its efficacy and evaluation accuracy need to be established in randomized controlled settings. This prospective, parallel, randomized, controlled registry study, together with other ongoing studies, should present more evidence for optimal individualized accurate treatment of ischemic stroke., Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ID: ChiCTR-IOR-16009635; Registered on 16 October 2016. All items are from the World Health Organization Trial Registration Data Set and registration in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR-IOR-16009635. more...

Since anaerobic wastewater treatment is a nonlinear and complex biochemical process, reasonable monitoring and control are needed to keep it operating stably and efficiently. In this paper, a least-square support-vector machine (LS-SVM) was employed to construct models for the prediction of effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD) in an anaerobic wastewater treatment system. The result revealed that the performance of the steady-state model based on LS-SVM for predicting effluent COD was acceptable, with the maximum relative error (RE) of 11.45%, the mean average percentage error (MAPE) of 0.79% and the root mean square error (RMSE) of 3.08 when training, and the performance fell slightly when testing. Even though, the correlation coefficient value (R) between the predicted value and the actual value of 0.9752 could be achieved, which means this model can predict the variation of effluent COD in general. The dynamic-state models under three kinds of shock loads, which were concentration, hydraulic, and bicarbonate buffer absent, showed good forecasting performance, the correlation coefficient values (R) all excelled 0.99. Among these three shocks, the dynamic LS-SVM model under bicarbonate buffer absent shock achieved the optimal performance and followed by the dynamic-state model under hydraulic shock. This paper provides a meaningful reference to improve the monitoring level of the anaerobic wastewater treatment process. more...

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) has been regarded as an efficient process to treat nitrogen-containing wastewater. However, the treatment process is not fully understood in terms of reaction mechanisms, process simulation, and control. In this paper, a multi-objective control strategy mixed soft-sensing model (MCSSM) is developed to systematically design the operating variations for multi-objective control by integrating the developed model, a least square support vector machine optimized with principal component analysis (PCA-LSSVM) and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). The results revealed that the PCA-LSSVM model is a feasible and efficient tool for predicting the effluent ammonia nitrogen concentration ([Formula: see text]) and the total nitrogen removal concentration (C TN, rem ) with determination coefficients (R 2 ) were 0.997 for [Formula: see text] and 0.989 for C TN, rem , and gives us the reasonable solutions in influent by using NSGA-II. To achieve a better removal effect, the influent pH should be kept between 7.50 and 7.52, the COD/TN ratio is suggested to maintain at 0.15 and the NH 4 + -N/NO 2 - -N ratio is suggested to maintain at 0.61. The developed MCSSM approach and its general modeling framework have a high potential of applicability and guidance to bioprocess in wastewater treatment, and numerical models can be structured for predicting and optimization and experiments can be conducted for data acquisition and model establishment. more...

Aims: Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been reported to prevent neuronal damage and contributes to the functional recovery in animal brain injury models and human ischemic disease as well. We aimed to investigate a potential therapeutic effect of NGF gene treatment in ischemic stroke and to estimate the functional recovery both at the cellular and cognitive levels in an ischemia rat model., Methods: After microinjection of pseudolentivirus-delivered β-NGF into an established ischemic stroke model in rats (tMCAO), we estimated neuronal cell apoptosis with TUNEL labeling and neurogenesis by cell proliferation marker Ki67 staining in both ischemic core and penumbra of striatum. Furthermore, we used behavioral functional tests, Morris water maze performance, to evaluate cognitive functional recovery in vivo and propose a potential underlying mechanism., Results: We found that pseudolentivirus-mediated delivery of β-NGF gene into the brain induced high expression in striatum of the infarct core area after ischemia in rats. The β-NGF overexpression in the striatal infarction core after ischemia not only improved neuronal survival by reducing cell apoptosis and increasing cell proliferation, but also rescued cognitive functional impairment through upregulation of GAP-43 protein expression in tMCAO rat model of ischemia., Conclusion: This study demonstrates a potential β-NGF gene therapy by utilization of pseudolentivirus in ischemia and indicates future applications of NGF gene treatment in ischemic patients., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.) more...

Huntington's disease (HD) is a late-onset fatal neurodegenerative disease, characterized by progressive movement disorders, psychiatric symptoms, and cognitive impairment. The cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) triplet expansion encoding glutamine present in the protein huntingtin (Htt), produces widespread neuronal and glial pathology. Mutant huntingtin (mHtt) nuclear aggregates are the primary cause of cortical and striatal neuron degeneration, neuronal inflammation, apoptosis and eventual cell loss. The precise mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration in HD remain poorly understood and HD patients have no current cure. Potassium channels are widely expressed in most cell types. In neurons, they play a crucial role in setting the resting membrane potential, mediating the rapid repolarization phase of the action potential and controlling sub-threshold oscillations of membrane potentials. In glial cells, their major contributions are maintaining the resting membrane potential and buffering extracellular K + . Thus, potassium channels have an essential function in both physiological and pathological brain conditions. This review summarizes recent progress on potassium channels involved in the pathology of HD by using different HD mouse models. Exploring the dysfunction of potassium channels in the brain illustrates new approaches for targeting this channel for the treatment of HD., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.) more...

Using Cu-MOF (HKUST-1) as a template, copper oxide was prepared by heat treatment under different temperatures in this study. The effect of treatment temperature on the composition and morphology of the products were studied. The catalytic abilities of the copper oxide products were tested through a series of experiments of activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade RhB under different conditions. The results of XRD, SEM, and XPS show that the product is gradually transformed from a Cu 2 O/CuO mixture into pure CuO with the increase of heat treatment temperature. The original octahedron structure of HKUST-1 was collapsed. Under neutral pH conditions, when the dosage of PMS and CuO-650 was 1.00 mmol·L -1 and 0.20 g·L -1 , respectively, the total degradation of RhB (concentration of 0.10 mmol·L -1 ) could be completed within 90 min. In addition, CuO-650 also has many advantages, such as it can be applied within a wide range of pH values. In addition, the copper ion dissolution rate was low (1.309 mg·L -1 at pH=3 and 0.987 mg·L -1 at pH=7), and it has great recyclability and stability. These characteristics further proved that CuO-650 can be used as a promising catalyst for PMS activation. more...

MIL-88A@MIP was fabricated for the first time in this experiment with a metal-organic framework of MIL-88A as the precursor based on the molecular imprinting method. It was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and N 2 adsorption. The catalytic performance of MIL-88A@MIP was tested to activate persulfate (PS) to generate SO 4 -· for the degradation of dibutyl phthalate (DBP), which was used as a target pollutant. Compared with the precursor MIL-88A, the catalytic activity of MIL-88A@MIP was improved effectively through targeted modification, and the DBP removal rate increased 80.4% after reacting for 480 min. An experiment determining the influencing factors showed that the optimum activation condition of the catalyst was PS:DBP=600:1, MIL-88A@MIP dosage of 0.5 g·L -1 ,and pH=3.26. Furthermore, MIL-88A@MIP shows a high capability of removing different phthalic acid ester (PAE) contaminants that reflect its targeting selectivity. more...

Atherosclerosis is a chronic disease of the arterial wall and a leading cause of death worldwide. Though the pathophysiology of atherosclerotic lesion formation has been studied, we still lack evidence of the global changes in the artery during atherosclerosis. In this report, we induced atherosclerosis in rats and conducted GeneChip analysis on carotid arteries with or without plaque formation. We found that molecular pathways underlying plaque formation in atherosclerosis were related to immune response, angiogenesis, cell proliferation, apoptosis and hypoxic microenvironments, suggesting that the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis is varied. In addition, we showed that three lncRNAs, GAS5, SNHG6 and Zfas1, were significantly increased in the plaque of atherosclerosis patients compared to normal people. A complex interaction of mRNA and lncRNA was identified in atherosclerosis. Our results provide a global transcriptomic network of atherosclerosis development in rats and possible targets that could lead to new clinical applications in the future., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) more...

Hydrotalcite-like composite synthesized by co-precipitation method was used as an adsorbent to remove the sulfate ions in aqueous solution. XRD, FT-IR , SEM and EDS elemental analysis were used to clarify the structure and composition of the hydrotalcite- like composite. The influences of time, initial pH value and coexisting ions on adsorption performance were investigated. The result showed the material was the composite of zinc aluminum nitrate hydrotalcite-like compounds and zinc aluminum phenylalanine hydrotalcite-like compounds. Hydrotalcite-like composite had a good performance in adsorption of sulfate ions, and the maximum adsorption capacity was 52.75 mg · g⁻¹. The data fitted pseudo-second order kinetic model best, which indicated that chemical adsorption was the rate-limiting step. Freundlich isotherm was more suitable to describe the adsorption process, and this meant the adsorption of sulfate ions by hydrotalcite-like composite was multilayered adsorption. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption process was endothermic and spontaneous at room temperature. Hydrotalcite-like composite adsorbed sulfate ions mainly through ion exchange, electrostatic force and physical adsorption. The experimental results showed that the hydrotalcite-like composite had potential for sulfate ion removal in the aqueous solution. more...

The demand for greater accuracy of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has driven the development of more advanced verification systems for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). The purpose of this study is to investigate setup discrepancies measured between an orthogonal X-ray guidance system (XGS-10) and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) of Varian in the IMRT of patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). The setup errors measured by XGS-10 and CBCT at the treatment unit with respect to the planning CTs were recorded for 30 patients with NPC. The differences in residual setup errors between XGS-10 system and CBCT were computed and quantitatively analyzed. The time of image acquisition and image registration was recorded. The radiation doses delivered by CBCT and XGS-10 were measured using PTW0.6CC ionization chambers and a water phantom. The differences between setup errors measured by the XGS-10 system and CBCT were generally <1.5 mm for translations, indicating a reasonably good agreement between the two systems for patients with NPC in the translation directions of A-P (P = 0.856), L-R (P = 0.856) and S-I (P = 0.765). Moreover, compared with CBCT, XGS-10 took much shorter image acquisition and registration time (P <0.001) and delivered only a small fraction of extra radiation dose to the patients (P <0.001). These results indicate that XGS-10 offers high localization accuracy similar to CBCT and additional benefits including prompt imaging process, low imaging radiation exposure, real time monitoring, which therefore represents a potential attractive alternative to CBCT for clinical use., (Copyright © 2015 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.) more...

Background: Aberrant brain functional and structural changes are considered to be one of the important mechanisms underlying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, it remains unclear whether inter-hemispheric connection is changed. The current study aimed to identify the inter-hemispheric functional and anatomical connectivity changes in patients who consequently develop PTSD using the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) analysis and diffusion tractography techniques., Methods: Resting-state fMRI and DTI data were acquired on victims who had experienced traffic accidents within 2 days after the traumatic event. The diagnosis was made using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale at 1 or 6 months later. Fifteen trauma-exposed victims met the criteria for diagnosis of PTSD and 14 trauma-exposed victims who did not develop PTSD at 6 months after trauma were selected as the control group., Results: Compared with the victims without PTSD, the victims with PTSD exhibited an abnormal homotopic pattern with decreased VMHC in the superior/middle frontal gyrus before diagnosis. The regions showing abnormal functional connectivity were then chosen as regions of interest for an analysis of DTI tractography. Decreased fractional anisotropy values in the genu of the corpus callosum were found in the victims with PTSD. Greater WM disruptions within 2 days predicted greater symptom severity at diagnosis., Limitations: The study was lack of comparison with controls who did not experience a traumatic event., Conclusion: Our results suggest that the inter-hemispheric functional and structural connectivity is impaired in PTSD within 2 days, which may be the potential marker showing predisposition towards developing PTSD., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) more...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) treatment is a long-term process and requires repeated medicine administration, which, however, can cause high expense, infection, and hemorrhage to patients. To investigate how a long-term expression of nerve growth factor (Ngf) gene affects the injured hippocampus function post-TBI, in this study, a pseudo lentivirus carrying the β-Ngf fusion gene, with green fluorescence protein (GFP) gene, was constructed to show the gene expression and its ability of protecting cells from oxidative damage in vitro. Then, the pseudo lentivirus-carried β-Ngf fusion gene was directly injected into the injured brain to evaluate its influence on the injured hippocampus function post-TBI in vivo. We found that the expression of the pseudo lentivirus-delivered β-Ngf fusion gene lasted more than four-week after the cell transduction and the encoded β-NGF fusion protein could induce the neuron-like PC12 cell differentiation. Moreover, the hippocampal injection of the pseudo lentivirus-carried β-Ngf fusion gene sped the injured cognitive function recovery of the rat subjected to TBI. Together, our findings indicate that the long-term expression of the β-Ngf fusion gene, delivered by the pseudo lentivirus, can promote the neurite outgrowth of the neuron-like cells and protect the cells from the oxidative damage in vitro, and that the direct and single dose hippocampal injection of the pseudo lentivirus-carried β-Ngf fusion gene is able to rescue the hippocampus function after the TBI in the rat., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.) more...

Microbial enzymes during solid-state fermentation (SSF), which play important roles in the food, chemical, pharmaceutical and environmental fields, remain relatively unknown. In this work, the microbial communities and enzymes in SSF of Pu-erh tea, a well-known traditional Chinese tea, were investigated by integrated metagenomics/metaproteomics approach. The dominant bacteria and fungi were identified as Proteobacteria (48.42%) and Aspergillus (94.98%), through pyrosequencing-based analyses of the bacterial 16S and fungal 18S rRNA genes, respectively. In total, 335 proteins with at least two unique peptides were identified and classified into 28 Biological Processes and 35 Molecular Function categories using a metaproteomics analysis. The integration of metagenomics and metaproteomics data demonstrated that Aspergillus was dominant fungus and major host of identified proteins (50.45%). Enzymes involved in the degradation of the plant cell wall were identified and associated with the soft-rotting of tea leaves. Peroxiredoxins, catalase and peroxidases were associated with the oxidation of catechins. In conclusion, this work greatly advances our understanding of the SSF of Pu-erh tea and provides a powerful tool for studying SSF mechanisms, especially in relation to the microbial communities present. more...

This research described the heterogeneous reactions of persulfate with different particle sizes of zero-valent iron (including 1 mm-ZVI,150 μm-ZVI,50 nm-ZVI) for degradation of acid orange 7(AO7) , and studied the kinetics and intermediate products of AO7 under these systems. The results demonstrated that these three types of ZVI were efficient in promoting the degradation of AO7, the degradation efficiencies of AO7 were 43% , 97% , and 100% within 90 min respectively, in the 1 mm-ZVI,150 μm-ZVI and 50 nm- ZVI systems, respectively. With the results of kinetic fitting models, the pseudo first-order kinetics exhibited better fitting results in the 1 mm-ZVI,150 μm-ZVI systems, while the second-order kinetics exhibited better fitting results in the 50 nm-ZVI system. And the different ZVI types exhibited difference on the AO7 degradation rate constant, which ranged as 50 nm-ZVI > 150 μm-ZVI > 1 mm-ZVI. The iron corrosion products coating on the ZVI after reaction were composed of α-Fe2 O3 and some Fe3O4 in the 1 mm-ZVI system while that consisted of Fe3O4 and α-Fe2O3, FeOOH respectively, in thel50 μm-ZVI and 50 nm-ZVI systems,. Which were identified by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and Raman spectroscopy. Some intermediate products, including 2-naphthalenol, 2-methylphenol, 4-ethyl- 3-methyl-phenol, isoindole- 1,3-dione and phthalic acid et al. were identified by GC/MS measurement. Both UV-vis absorbance spectra and GC/MS determination indicated that there was difference in degradation paths of AO7 between the three systems. more...

Symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion with hemodynamic impairment remains a dismal disease when untreated. In this prospective, single-center, controlled study, we investigated the feasibility, safety, and long-term outcome of stenting by endovascular recanalization for patients with chronic ICA occlusion. Forty patients with symptomatic chronically occluded ICA were assigned to receive endovascular recanalization (group A, n = 18) or conservative management (group B, n = 22). The primary end point was 100% complete recanalization of the primary occlusion at 60 minutes, and secondary end points were improvement in neurologic function and cognitive function. Patients in the 2 groups were comparable in demographic and baseline characteristics. Successful recanalization was achieved in 88.9% (16 of 18) of patients with the restoration of Thrombolysis in Myocardial Ischemia/Thrombolysis in Cerebral Ischemia 2 or 3 flow. There was no procedural or new cerebral ischemic event. Improvement in brain perfusion was observed in 12 (12 of 18, 75%) patients on single-photon emission computed tomography. Improvement in neurologic function defined as a reduction of ≥4 points on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at 6 months was observed in group A (baseline, 6.83 ± 3.01 vs 6 months, 2.61 ± 1.20; P < .01) and group B (baseline, 6.05 ± 2.75 vs 6 months, 4.77 ± 1.69; P < .05). A significant difference in NIHSS scores was noted between group A and B at 1, 3, and 6 months (P < .05 or .001). Improvement in cognitive function defined as an increase of ≥8 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was observed in group A at 3 and 6 months (baseline, 14.67 ± 3.56 vs 3 months, 24.17 ± 3.55 and 6 months, 24.72 ± 2.85; P < .01). Significant improvement in MoCA was also observed in group B (P < .01). Furthermore, a significant difference in MoCA scores was noted between group A and B at 1, 3, and 6 months (P < .05 or .001). Endovascular recanalization is feasible and safe for patients with symptomatic chronic carotid artery occlusion. Successful carotid artery stenting can improve neurological function and global cognitive function than nonrevascularization. more...

PPP2R2C encodes a gamma isoform of the subunit B55 subfamily, which is a regulatory subunit of Protein phosphatase type 2A (PP2A). Our study shows that PPP2R2C is downregulated in glioma cells and human brain cancer patient samples. Overexpression of PPP2R2C inhibited cancer cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo through the suppression of the activity of S6K in the mTOR pathway. Moreover, exogenous expression of PPP2R2C promoted the formation of a complex with the PP2A-C subunit to further enhance the binding of PP2A-C with S6K. Our results suggest that PPP2R2C is a potential tumor suppressor gene in human brain cancers. This study will provide novel insight into the development of therapeutic strategies in the treatment of human brain tumors., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.) more...

According to the water characteristics of industrial rainfall runoff in the catchment of Tongsha Reservoir, Dongguan City, a subsurface-flow constructed wetland (SSFCW) was used to treat simulated rainfall and the spatial variation of removal efficiency of contaminants in the wetland bed was analyzed. The longitudinal and vertical variation of removal efficiency of COD, NH4(+) -N, TN, TP and phenanthrene were examined. Enzyme activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and nitrate reductase (NR) along the wetland bed were analyzed as well, meanwhile, four biogeochemical indexes of the wetland system, including DO, pH, ORP and water temperature, were monitored and their influences on the removal efficiency of contaminants and enzyme activity were analyzed. Results showed that DO, pH, ORP, water temperature all presented a decreasing tendency along the wetland bed, and the removal of COD, TP and phenanthrene occurred mainly in the front quarter of the wetland system; in the vertical direction, DO and ORP in the upper wetland bed were significantly higher than those in the ground floor, suggesting that the horizontal subsurface system was in an anaerobic or anoxic condition. The removal rates of COD, TP, TN, NH4(+) -N and phenanthrene were 1.17-1.36, 2.04-2.11, 1.40-1.92, 1.37-2.30, and 1.07-1.36 times higher than those at the bottom, respectively. Therefore, the vertical variation of purification efficiency was more significant than the longitudinal variation. A significant positive correlation was determined between the enzyme activity of NR and the NO3(-) -N concentration, but the longitudinal variation in the enzyme activity of NR and PPO was not obvious. more...

A test was conducted to examine the degradation effect and reductive dechlorination pathway of 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol (2,4,6-TCP) in the presence of different electron donors, such as glucose, sodium lactate, sodium pyruvate and sodium acetate. The results showed that, compared with the effect of glucose, sodium lactate, sodium pyruvate and sodium acetate enhanced the dechlorination of 2, 4, 6-TCP effectively, among which sodium lactate could serve as a kind of hydrogen release compound, and the electrons required for reductive dechlorination were released in a sustained way. Substrate metabolism dehydrogenase activity was improved by the external electron donor; after reaction for 240 h, the activity of dehydrogenase was increased in the four electron donor systems, by 21.49%, 25.78%, 136.85% and 139.3%, respectively. The main reductive dechlorination products of 2,4,6-TCP included 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) and phenol; when sodium acetate was used as the electron donor, 4-CP was the main degradation product, and the transformation ratio from 2,4,6-TCP to 4-CP was more than 22%. more...

Background: Although Saccular intracranial aneurysm (sIA) is the most common type abnormality of all intracranial aneurysms, the biological mechanisms of sIA are not fully understood., Methods: We downloaded microarray datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database which includes 11 ruptured intracranial aneurysm samples and 8 unruptured intracranial aneurysm samples. Significant Analysis of Microarray (SAM) was employed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms., Results: We found 2129 genes differentially expressed in rupture sIA, of which 1062 genes up-regulated and 1057 genes down-regulated. Functional analysis demonstrated these genes were significantly associated with inflammatory response, wounding response and defense response. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) analysis revealed that these genes may play important roles in the pathogenesis of sIAs. Results suggested that four transcription factors (TFs) could cooperated with each other, together with several microRNAs play roles in the pathonegensis of ruptured sIAs., Conclusions: All of above results indicate the existence of DEGs between ruptured and unruptured sIAs, which regulating the pathogenesis of ruptured sIAs. TFs and microRNAs may also play key roles in ruptured sIAs. This research hints a new thought to the therapy of ruptured sIAs. more...

Magnetite (Fe(3) O(4) ) nanoparticles with the surface hydroxyl groups were achieved by a polyol process. Using 2-(4-chlorosulfonylphenyl) ethyltrichlorosilane (CTCS) as initiator, 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) as monomer, poly(2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC)-grafted Fe(3) O(4) nanoparticles (MNP) were successfully prepared via the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) method. The successful grafting of PMPC on the Fe(3) O(4) nanoparticles surface was ascertained from the FTIR analysis. The modified nanoparticles (MNP-CTCS-PMPC) showed a good biocompatibility in the cytotoxicity test in vitro. Performance testing of MNP-CTCS-PMPC was performed through magnetic resonance analysis (MR), and its r(2) /r(1) value was 24.1. These results indicated that the modified Fe(3) O(4) nanoparticles would be a potential MRI contrast reagent., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.) more...

This study used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether functional connectivity is altered in people developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following recent trauma. Sixty-two participants who had experienced recent acute traumatic events underwent a 7.3 min resting fMRI scan within 2 days post accident. Of these, 22 participants were diagnosed with PTSD within 1 to 6 months. Nineteen age- and sex-matched subjects without PTSD were selected as the trauma-exposed control group. Posterior cingulate cortex connectivity was determined from 17 PTSD patients and 15 control subjects by investigating synchronic low-frequency fMRI signal fluctuations using a temporal correlation method. To assess the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and PCC connectivity, the contrast image representing areas correlated with the PCC was correlated with the 17 PTSD subjects' Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) scores at diagnosis. Compared with the control group, PTSD patients exhibited decreased functional connectivity in the right lingual and right middle temporal gyri, and left lingual/posterior cingulate cortex. The left inferior temporal gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus/insula, left medial frontal lobe/anterior cingulate cortex, and right medial frontal gyrus also showed increased connectivity within two days post accident. A negative correlation was found between PCC connectivity and CAPS scores in the left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). These results suggest that patients who develop PTSD exhibit different resting-state patterns of neuronal activity following recent trauma. Abnormal FC of mPFC may be a major risk factor predisposing patients to the development of PTSD., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) more...

The influences of pH and complexing agents on degradation of reactive brilliant blue KN-R by ferrous activated persulfate were investigated, and finally the complexed and the uncomplexed system were compared. Because the lower the pH the more quickly will be the dissociation of S2O8(2-) to the SO4(-*) and the ORP of the dominant radical SO4(-*) in the acidic condition is higher than the dominant radical *OH in the alkaline condition, KN-R degradation rates in acidic condition are far outweigh in the neutral and alkaline conditions. When pH value was 3, the residual rate of KN-R was 17.0% within 3 hours by EDTA system with the lowest PS consumption rate 32.3%, so EDTA was the best complexing agent choice in acidic condition. When pH value was 7, the residual rates of KN-R were 11.3%, 12.4% within 3 days by EDTA, citric acid system with the PS residual rates 28.9%, 28.0% respectively, so EDTA, citric acid were the better choices in the neutral condition. When pH value was 10, glucose acid, citric acid, EDTA and tartaric acid systems all had the similar KN-R degradation rates and PS residual rates, so all could acted as the complexing agents, when the system contained trace amounts of ferrous, the addition of complexing agent would greatly improve the degradation rate of pollutant, from original 52.5% to 79.3% of 3 d, so PS is suitable for in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO). more...

According to water characteristics of industrial rain runoff in a catchment of Tongsha reservoir, Dongguan city, an improved baffled constructed wetland (BCW) was used for purification experiment study of simulated and on-the-spot rain runoff. The purification effects of simulated rain runoff were compared in different operated phases of BCW. Meanwhile, the variation of the pollutants (COD, SS, TN, TP, NH4(+) -N, Pb, Zn, Cu) along the BCW and their removal mechanism were analyzed and discussed, respectively. In the simulated experiment, the effluent water quality of BCW system met the needs of Environmental Quality Standard for Surface Water( GB 3838-2002) III, besides TN met IV, and most of the pollutants were removed in the front of the BCW. In the purification study of on-the-spot rain runoff, removal rate of COD, SS, TN, TP and NH4(+) -N were 90.9%, 97.0%, 83.4%, 92.2% and 90.0%, respectively; removal rate of Pb, Zn and Cu were 98.4%, 94.1% and 93.6%, respectively. The effluent met the grade III. Results showed that there was remarkable treatment performance of industrial catchment rain runoff when BCW system was used, which also can withstand strong shock load. Moreover, a modest variation of temperature affected the removal of pollutants in the BCW insignificantly. more...

An adaptive network based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model was employed to predict effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD(eff)) and ammonia nitrogen (NH(4)(+) (eff)) from an anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A(2)/O) process, and meanwhile a self-adapted fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm was used to identify the model's architecture and optimize fuzzy rules. When constructing the model or predicting, the on-line monitoring parameters, namely hydraulic retention time (HRT), influent pH (pH), dissolved oxygen in the aerobic reactor (DO) and mixed-liquid return ratio (r), were adopted as the input variables. Compared with the artificial neural network (ANN) model whose weight vector was optimized by a real-code genetic algorithm (GA), the ANFIS presented better estimate performance. When predicting, the mean absolute percentage errors (MAPEs) of 1.8458% and 2.8984% for COD(eff) and NH(4)(+) (eff) could be achieved using ANFIS; the root mean square errors (RMSEs) for COD(eff) and NH(4)(+) (eff) were 1.6317 and 0.1291, respectively; the correlation coefficient (R) values of 0.9928 and 0.9951 for COD(eff) and NH(4)(+) (eff) could also be achieved. The results indicated that reasonable monitoring A(2)/O process performance, just using on-line monitoring parameters, has been achieved through the ANFIS. more...

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between resting-state functional connectivity and the severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in 15 people who developed PTSD following recent trauma. Fifteen participants who experienced acute traumatic events underwent a 7.3-min resting functional magnetic resonance imaging scan within 2 days post-event. All the patients were diagnosed with PTSD within 1 to 6 months after trauma. Brain areas in which activity was correlated with that of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) were assessed. To assess the relationship between the severity of PTSD symptoms and PCC connectivity, contrast images representing areas positively correlated with the PCC were correlated with the subject's Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale scores (CAPS) when they were diagnosed. Furthermore, the PCC, medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral amygdala were selected to assess the correlation of the strength of functional connectivity with the CAPS. Resting state connectivity with the PCC was negatively correlated with CAPS scores in the left superior temporal gyrus and right hippocampus/amygdala. Furthermore, the strength of connectivity between the PCC and bilateral amygdala, and even between the bilateral amygdala could predict the severity of PTSD symptoms later. These results suggest that early altered resting-state functional connectivity of the PCC with the left superior temporal gyrus, right hippocampus and amygdala could predict the severity of the disease and may be a major risk factor that predisposes patients to develop PTSD. more...

Effects of temperatures, PS concentrations and ZVI dosages on AO7 decomposition were investigated in sole heat and ZVI activating systems. The degradation results of two systems were compared for selecting a better activating way for AO7 degradation and finally the two activating ways were combined for getting the optimal AO7 degradation efficiency. The degradation of AO7 by Heat/PS systems followed pseudo first-order kinetics. The reaction rates increased with increasing reaction temperatures (elevated from room temperature to 90 degrees C) and also increased when initial PS concentrations varied from 1 to 12 mmol x L(-1). For ZVI activating systems (ZVI/PS systems), the degradation rate of AO7 was the highest when ZVI dose was 0.2 g, and it reached to 95.6% within 90 min. Comparing ZVI/PS systems with Heat/PS systems, the results showed that the ZVI activation was a more effective way to activate PS than the heat activation for AO7 degradation. AO7 degradation processes by ZVI/heat/PS systems were two-stage pseudo first-order kinetic processes, and the combining of two activating ways significantly increased the reaction rates. By the addition of ZVI to the Heat/PS system, the apparent activation energy E(a) of AO7 degradation reduced from the original 130.26 kJ x mol(-1) to 27.70 kJ x mol(-1). more...

To understand the toxicity of phenol to anaerobic granular sludge, the changes of specific methanogenic activity (SMA), extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) constituents and coenzyme F420 concentration of anaerobic granular sludge at various phenol concentrations were investigated. Meanwhile, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry was used to analyze the structure of EPS. The results show that the phenol has little effect on anaerobic granular sludge when the concentration of phenol is less than 100 mg/L. When the phenol concentration increases from 100 mg/L to 400 mg/L, the special methanogenic activity (SMA) decreases from 173.4 mL/(g x d) to 57.6 mL/(g x d), coenzyme F420 concentration decreases from 0.14 micromol/g to 0.08 micromol/g, and EPS concentration, which is represented by TOC, decreases from 33.1 mg/g to 15.0 mg/g, when the SMA and the concentration of coenzyme F420 and EPS in the blank test are 259.6 mL/(g x d), 0.154 micromol/g and 38.5 mg/g respectively. The analysis of molecular structure of EPS with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry shows that it has big effect on molecular structure of EPS when the phenol concentration is 800 mg/L. more...

From January 2000 to January 2009, 15 patients presented with large solid hemangioblastomas of the posterior fossa; eight of these patients were also diagnosed with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease. Diagnostic imaging showed large vascular lesions. All 15 patients underwent surgery through a suboccipital ipsilateral, modified far-lateral, suboccipital midline or suboccipital supracerebellar approach. Preoperative embolization was attempted in seven patients. Complete removal of the tumor was performed in all patients. An overall neurological improvement was observed in 11 of the 15 patients, corresponding to 61.5%. During follow-up, six patients, all with VHL disease, developed recurrence. Two patients died of renal cell carcinoma after 1 year. Our favorable outcomes suggest that surgical resection is the optimal treatment for patients with large solid hemangioblastomas of the posterior fossa. With improved microsurgical techniques and a better understanding of the vascular pattern of this type of tumor, total microsurgical removal can be performed with low mortality., (2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.) more...

A laboratory-scale anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (AAO) wastewater treatment system was employed to investigate the effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and sludge retention time (SRT) on the removal and fate of di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP). HRT had no significant effect on DNBP removal between 12 and 30 h. However, longer HRT increased DnBP accumulation in the system and DnBP retention in the waste sludge. When SRT was increased from 15 to 25 d, DnBP removal efficiency stayed above 95%. Compared to the removal of only 90% at SRT of 10d, longer SRT enhanced DnBP degradation efficiency. The optimal HRT and SRT for both nutrients and DnBP removal were 18 h and 15 d. At these retention times, about 72.66% of DnBP was degraded by the activated sludge process, 2.44% was released in the effluent, 24.44% was accumulated in the system, and 0.5% remained in the waste sludge. The anaerobic, anoxic and oxic reactors were responsible for 17.14%, 15.02% and 63.46% of the overall DnBP removal, respectively. Meanwhile a removal degradation model was formulated, and kinetic parameters were evaluated with batch experiments under anaerobic, anoxic, oxic conditions. The model can well forecast the effluent quality of anaerobic/anoxic/oxic reactors of the AAO process., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.) more...

Radiation-induced acute intestinal symptoms (RIAISs) are the most relevant complication of abdominal or pelvic radiation. Considering the negative impact of RIAIS on patients' daily activities, the preventive effects of berberine on RIAIS in patients were investigated. Thirty-six patients with seminoma or lymphomas were randomized to receive berberine oral (n = 18) or not (n = 18). Forty-two patients with cervical cancer were randomized to a trial group (n = 21) and control group (n = 21). Radiotherapy used a parallel opposed anterior and posterior. 300-mg berberine was administered orally three times daily in trial groups. Eight patients with RIAIS were treated with 300-mg berberine three times daily from the third to the fifth week. Toxicities, such as fatigue, anorexia/nausea, etc., were graded weekly according to CTC version 2.0. Patients with abdominal/pelvic radiation in the control group showed grade 1 fatigue, anorexia/nausea, colitis, vomiting, proctitis, weight loss, diarrhea and grade 2 anorexia/nausea, fatigue. Only grade 1 colitis, anorexia/nausea, and fatigue were seen in patients of abdominal radiation treated with berberine. Grade 1 fatigue, colitis, anorexia/nausea, and proctitis occurred in patients of pelvic radiotherapy treated with berberine. Pretreatment with berberine significantly decreased the incidence and severity of RIAIS in patients with abdominal/pelvic radiotherapy when compared with the patients of the control group (P < 0.05). RIAIS were reduced in patients with abdominal radiotherapy/pelvic radiation after receiving berberine treatment. Berberine significantly reduced the incidence and severity of RIAIS and postponed the occurrence of RIAIS in patients with abdominal or whole pelvic radiation. more...

In this paper a software sensor based on a fuzzy neural network approach was proposed for real-time estimation of nutrient concentrations. In order to improve the network performance, fuzzy subtractive clustering was used to identify model architecture, extract and optimize fuzzy rule of the model. A split network structure was applied separately for anaerobic and aerobic conditions was employed with dynamic modeling methods such as autoregressive with exogenous inputs and multi-way principal component analysis (MPCA). The proposed methodology was applied to a bench-scale anoxic/oxic process for biological nitrogen removal. The simulative results indicate that the learning ability and generalization of the model performed well and also worked well for normal batch operations corresponding to three data points inside the confidence limit determined by MPCA. Real-time estimation of NO(3)(-), NH(4)(+) and PO(4)(3-) concentration based on fuzzy neural network analysis were successfully carried out with the simple on-line information regarding the anoxic/oxic system., (Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.) more...

Objective: To explore the effect on the iso-center and OAR and PDD of the MV class X-ray coming from the linac when we use the glass mirror to replace an imported one., Method: Data collected by using a film and 3D water phantom OAR and PDD measuring methods based on the different conditions. Comparison and analysis of the effect levels for different thickness and material mirrors are made., Result: The PDD max error of the 4 mm general glass mirror is 6%.When the 8MV X-ray 720 Gy irradiation is given, the light field appears a dual cross lines and has darker brightness. The PDD max error of the 1.5 mm quartz glass mirror is less than 1%. When it accepts the equal radiation dose, the light field iso-center and OAR and field brightness are agreed well with clinical demands., Conclusion: Our practice shows that the 4 mm general glass mirror can't suffer the MV class X-ray irradiation but the thin quartz glass mirror can. So the thin quartz glass mirror can be used for the linac. more...

Aim: To determine whether glioma cells can be specifically and efficiently targeted by superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPIO)-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-chlorotoxin (SPIOFC) that is detectable by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical imaging., Methods: SPIOFC was synthesized by conjugating SPIO with FITC and chlorotoxin. Glioma cells (human U251-MG and rat C6) were cultured with SPIOFC and SPIOF (SPIO-FITC), respectively. Neural cells were treated with SPIOFC as the control for SPIOFC-targeted glioma cells. The internalization of SPIOFC by glioma cells was assessed by MRI and was quantified using inductively-coupled plasma emission spectroscopy. The optical imaging ability of SPIOFC was evaluated by confocal laser scanning microscopy., Results: Iron per cell of U251 (72.5+/-1.8 pg) and C6 (74.9+/-2.2 pg) cells cultured with SPIOFC were significantly more than those of U251 (6.6+/-1.0 pg) and C6 (7.1+/-0.8 pg) cells incubated with SPIOF. The T2 signal intensity of U251 and C6 cells cultured with SPIOFC (233.6+/-25.9 and 211.4+/-17.2, respectively) were substantially lower than those of U251 and C6 cells incubated with SPIOF (2275.3+/-268.6 and 2342.7+/-222.4, respectively). Moreover, there were significant differences in iron per cell and T2 signal intensity between SPIOFC-treated neural cells (1.3+/-0.3; 2533.6+/-199.2) and SPIOFC-treated glioma cells. SPIOFC internalized by glioma cells exhibited green fluorescence by confocal laser scanning microscopy., Conclusion: SPIOFC is suitable for the specific and efficient targeting of glioma cells. MRI and optical imaging in conjunction with SPIOFC can differentiate glioma cells from normal brain tissue cells. more...

In order to develop recombinant porcine Interferon-gamma (rPoIFN-gamma) to prevent porcine viral infection, PoIFN-gamma cDNA lacking the signal peptide was expressed in Pichia pastoris GS115 strain, and the effect of rPoIFN-gamma on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) was investigated. The PoIFN-gamma gene was inserted into integrative vector pHIL-S1, and the recombinant GS115 strain (pHIL-S1/PoIFN-gamma) was constructed by homologues recombinant. The rPoIFN-gamma protein was 18 kD with an expressing yield of 18% was assayed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot, respectively. The anti-viral activity of rPoIFN-gamma was in the range of 450-540 u/mL. In addition, the effect of rPoIFN-gamma ant-PRRSV was determined using CPE50 method. The results indicated that high concentration of rPoIFN-gamma could inhibit PRRSV on Marc-145 cell line. The rPoIFN-gamma is a potential drug for prevention and treatment of various kinds of viral pig diseases. more...