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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are associated with metastasis. However, the low rate of detection of CTCs in peripheral vein blood (PVB) limits their clinical application. In this study, we observed higher positive rates of CTC in first drainage vein blood (FDVB) relative to peripheral venous blood (

A novel strategy to support sub-1 nm Pt nanoclusters on N and P co-doped carbon nanotubes was developed. The prepared Pt/NP-CNTs showed highly efficient HER activity and durability in acidic electrolytes, outperforming those of commercial Pt/C.

In this work, heterogeneous catalytic ozonation for the treatment of bio-treated saccharin sodium production wastewater (BSSW) was comprehensively investigated with pilot- and full-scale systems, with special emphasis on the effects of Cu

F-box/WD repeat-containing protein 7 (FBXW7) is the substrate recognition component of SCF (SKP1-CUL1-F-box protein) E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase complex which mediates the ubiquitination and subsequent proteasomal degradation of target proteins. FBXW7 recognizes and binds phosphor-degrons within target proteins and capture them to SCF complex for ubiquitination. Know FBXW7 substrates include cyclin-E, DISC1, JUN, MYC, NFE2L1, NOTCH2, MCL1, RICTOR, and NOTCH1 released notch intracellular domain (NICD). FBXW7 is frequently mutated in cancer, results in loss of substrate recognition and binding. R465C is a one of the major FBXW7 mutations and is found in over 70,000 cancer patients worldwide. From a high-throughput screen, we discovered compounds that selectively bind to FBXW7 R465C mutant. PROTACs against various protein targets have been made with these mutant specific ligands. Some of these PROTACs could induce targeted protein degradation in cells carrying FBXW7 R465C mutant but not wild-type FBXW7. Targeted protein degradation with these PROTACs could represent a novel therapeutic approach against FBXW7 R465C mutant cancer. Citation Format: Zhaofu Wang, Lynette Zhang, Zhen Chang, Mengxi Zhao, Guobin Li, Fang Qin, Shichao Ma, Yunfeng Li, Zhongguo Zhang, Xinghao Wang, Ying Kong, Shidi Lou, Sheng Chen, Lanzhen Liu, Shuaijie Xu, Hailong Zhang. Discovery of cancer-specific E3 ligase ligands for targeted protein degradation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4962.

The lateral transport of heavy metals can expand the scope of original contamination, and an accurate prediction of heavy metal migration is necessary to control heavy metal transport. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the migration of soil pollutants in the runoff-soil-groundwater system, whereas research on the lateral migration of heavy metals in surface soil driven by rainfall is relatively scarce. Therefore, in this study we analyzed the horizontal migration of water-soluble heavy metals with surface runoff and non-water-soluble heavy metals with sediment particles, investigated the main factors affecting the processes of runoff and sediment transport and the main factors affecting the mobility of heavy metals in soils, summarized the existing methods for the simulation of heavy metal transportation. The construction of a lateral migration model based on the migration mechanism of soil heavy metals, the hydrological model, and the application of the lateral migration model should be the focus of future research. This study provides a theoretical basis for establishing a model of the lateral migration of soil heavy metals and is of great significance for the prevention and control of the risks related to the lateral migration of soil heavy metals.

Low pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) has been increasingly used in advanced treatment of pulp and paper wastewater (PPWW) for the purpose of water reuse. However, membrane fouling is a major problem encountered by full-scale RO systems due to the organic and inorganic contents of the feedwater. Electrocoagulation (EC) as an effective treatment for foulants removal can be applied in pre-filtration. Therefore, the LPRO membrane fouling mechanism and the membrane fouling control performance by EC treatment were investigated in this study. EC pretreatment could reduce the membrane fouling and improve the membrane flux by 31%, by effectively removing and/or decomposing the organic pollutants in PPWW. Fluorescent spectrometry analyses of the feedwater and the permeate revealed that humic acid-like and fulvic acid-like organics in PPWW were the major foulants for the LPRO membranes. Fourier transformation infrared spectrometry results confirmed that the organic foulants contained benzoic rings and carboxylic groups, which were typical for organic substances. EC effectively removed organic pollutants containing functional groups such as carboxylic acid COH out-of-plane bending, olefin (trans), and NH

A hybrid process of enhanced coagulation at a high dosage of polyaluminum chloride and flat-sheet cross-flow ultrafiltration was used for the advanced treatment of the effluent from a biological treatment process of deinking wastewater in a paper mill. The experimental results obtained by a small-scale continuous laboratory experimental device showed that the absorption resistance was significantly lower than the membrane intrinsic resistance, the concentration polarization resistance, the pore blocking resistance, and the cake layer resistance and so it can be ignored. With increasing polyaluminum chloride dosage from 0 to 2,000 mgL-1, the total membrane filtration resistance decreased and the membrane flux increased, but the concentration polarization resistance increased. With the increase in cross flow velocity, the total membrane filtration resistance, the pore blocking resistance, the layer resistance, and the concentration polarization resistance all decreased, and consequently, the membrane flux increased. With regard to the concentration polarization resistance, the cross flow velocity had a more significant effect than the trans-membrane pressure. But the trans-membrane pressure had a more significant effect on the layer resistance, the pore blocking resistance, and the total membrane filtration resistance than the cross flow velocity. The filtration resistance at the polyaluminium chloride dosage of the pore blocking resistance > the layer resistance > the concentration polarization resistance> the absorption resistance. But it was the membrane intrinsic resistance > the concentration polarization resistance > the pore blocking resistance > the layer resistance > the absorption resistance at the dosage of ≥1,000 mgL-1. The results are helpful for the membrane fouling control and can promote the application of flat-sheet cross-flow membrane process, resultantly improving the reclaim and reuse of deinking wastewater, and reducing the emission of contaminants in deinking wastewater.

To minimize the effect of the internal concentration polarization (ICP) in the substrates of the forward osmosis (FO) membranes, higher overall porosity and interconnected pore network was engineered into the substrates by erosion of the three-dimensional layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with “sand rose” morphology. As expected, the substrates showed high porosity and macropore structure in the pore-wall after erosion of the LDH nanoparticles by HCl washing, which potentially promoted connectivity of the finger-like pores in the substrates. Therefore, the promising water flux for as-obtained FO membrane prepared from the typical interfacial polymerization was observed. The obtained TFN7.5-HCl membranes displayed the highest water flux up to 47.2 L m−2 h−1 at PRO mode (1 M NaCl as draw solution and DI-water as feed solution) and the water permeability coefficient reaching 7.29 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 at RO mode (DI-water as feed solution, ΔP = 5 bar). These values were much higher than that of the commercial FO membranes. Counterintuitively, the obtained TFN7.5-HCl membrane disentangled successfully the dilemma of permeability–selectivity, e.g. improved selectivity between water and NaCl was achieved. Thus, it is believed that the designation strategy provides a simple and promising method to fabricate the enabled high-performance FO membranes.

Separation and treatment of human urine from domestic wastewater have been recognized as a sustainable alternative to conventional urban sanitation system, but the unique water quality of source-separated urine, such as high nutrient, insufficient alkalinity and low COD/nitrogen ratio, poses challenges to the biological nitrogen removal process. It was hypothesized that a physicochemical pre-treatment should be adopted to not only reduce nitrogen load but adjust water quality suitable for biological treatment. In this study, a vacuum thermal stripping process coupled to acid absorption was used as a pre-treatment to recover ammonia from hydrolyzed urine in the form of ammonium sulphate. The maximal ammonia mass transfer coefficient of 17.6 mm/h was obtained under 60 °C and 21.3 kPa 80% of the nitrogen in hydrolyzed urine was recovered in 3 h batch stripping experiments without pH adjustment, corresponding to a nitrogen recovery loading rate of 36 kg N/m3⋅d. The majority of organic matters were retained in urine solutions, thus COD/N and alkalinity/NH4+ N ratios were elevated to 4.75 and 4.37, respectively. Phosphorus recovery could be simultaneously obtained in stripping process by adding MgCl2. The remaining nitrogen was effectively removed via short-cut nitrification and denitrification in an anoxic/oxic membrane bioreactor. More than 95% of overall nutrient recovery/removal from urine was achieved with a minimal consumption of external resources. The economic assessment of the technique showed that the recovery/removal of nutrients from 1 m3 of urine can make a profit of € 0.26.

In this work, both Electrocoagulation (EC) and Fered-Fenton (FF) technologies were used to treat reverse osmosis concentrates (ROC) from petrochemical production. The toxicity reduction capacity and mechanism were comparatively assessed during these two treatments. The results showed that FF exhibited higher capacity to reduce toxicity than EC in the 30 min treatment, which could be attributed to the removal of organic pollutants and heavy metals. The results showed that the ROC contained organics with molecular weight of 1200 g mol−1 and 220 g mol−1, which mainly consisted of the soluble microbial by-product-like and humic acid-like substances. The removal of these organics directly led to the noticeable toxicity reduction. Alkanes, haloalkanes, ketones, PAHs, and other four organic pollutants were the dominant species in the ROC, and the removal of small molecular weight organic pollutants played an essential role in reducing toxicity. FF exhibited stronger capacity to remove PAHs, BTEXS and haloalkanes, and the removal efficiencies for the PAHs were in the following order: 5-ring > 4-ring > 3-ring > 2-ring. The promotion of heavy metals removal appeared to be favorable for decreasing toxicity in ROC. This study illustrated the mechanism of the toxicity reduction and the characteristics of pollutants removal during FF and EC treatments, and provided valuable guidance for petrochemical manufacturing to the toxicity reduction and operation of wastewater treatment facilities.

Source separation and treatment of human urine have been recognized as a resource-efficient alternative to conventional urban drainage, not only reducing nutrient loads on municipal wastewater treatment plants, but recovering valuable resources from waste streams. In this work, on-site phosphorus (P) recovery from real urine was carried out by using the brine from a reverse osmosis process as the flush water for urine-diverting toilets and a P precipitant, while nitrogen (N) was removed via short-cut nitrification-denitrification (SCND) in a membrane bioreactor (MBR). More than 90% of P was recovered by mixing the urine with reverse osmosis brine (1:1, v/v) under the condition of pH > 9.0. The recovered precipitates contained 10–15% of P and can potentially be reused for phosphate fertilizer production. Stable SCND was achieved in a MBR, and 45% of N was removed with the organic compounds in urine as the electron donor for denitrification. Methanol addition significantly elevated denitrification, which in turn replenished the alkalinity required for nitrification. More than 99% of P, 90% of organics and 90% of N were removed in the combined precipitation and MBR process. Nitrosomonas was observed to be the predominant ammonium-oxidizing bacteria, while nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were absent in the microbial communities as revealed by fluorescence in situ hybridization and pyrosequencing technique. High concentrations of free ammonia and nitrite acids, as well as low dissolved oxygen, are the prevailing factors to inhibit the growth of NOB, which allows for stable operation of SCND in the MBR.

The role of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the electrocoagulation (EC) treatment for removing toxic organic matters in wet-spun acrylic fibers (WAFs) manufacturing effluents was investigated. The addition of H2O2 in the EC resulted in electro-Fenton (EF) treatment, which improved the removal of organic pollutants. Biodegradability of the EF-treated effluents was significantly improved over the EF treatment and reached 0.18. In addition, evaluation of the toxicity of the treated effluents using luminous bacteria revealed that the EF treatment resulted in the greater removal of toxic compounds than the EC treatment, with 80.9% decline in the EC50.

In the present work, β-cyclodextrin was grafted to the surface of ZSM-5 via 2,3-epoxypropyl trimethylammonium chloride (ETMAC) and epichlorohydrin (EPI) as the bridging agent by ion exchange and sequential grafting. The mixed matrix membranes were prepared using polyurethane (PU) and ZSM-5 before and after modification. Modified ZSM-5 and corresponding MMM were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). These membranes were applied for the removal of phenol from aqueous solution in pervaporation process. The results showed that modified ZSM-5 dispersed homogeneously in polymer. The flux and pervaporation separation index of PU increased greatly with a limited decrease in selectivity by the addition of modified ZSM-5. The increased feed temperature enhanced both the flux and separation factor of PU and modified PU membranes.

Polyurethane (PU) is a kind of promising pervaporation membrane material and silica-rich zeolite is a potential modifier to PU, but the pristine zeolite particles suffer from the bad dispersion in the polymer. This work presents a new route to modify zeolite (ZSM-5) particles via bridging with isocyanate to prepare a membrane for the recovery of phenol from the water. Zeolite ZSM-5 particles were successfully grafted by TDI, β-cyclodextrin, and oleyl alcohol, consecutively. The corresponding zeolites filled PU membranes were prepared and characterized by FTIR, TGA and SEM techniques. The effects of the grafted structures on the pervaporation performances of the zeolites/PU membranes were investigated in the recovery of phenol from the water. The results showed that the modified ZSM-5 particles had a good dispersion in PU, while the pristine ones demonstrated an obvious sedimentation. The modified zeolite/polyurethane membranes achieved better comprehensive separation performance than the neat PU and pristine ZSM-5 modified PU membranes. Depending on the good affinity of the β-cyclodextrin to phenol, ZSM-5 particles grafted by toluene diisocyanate and β-cyclodextrin (ZSM-TC) showed the optimal separation performance with the flux of 46.03 kg μm m−2 h−1 and the separation factor of 15.64 for the 0.3 wt% aqueous phenol solution at 80 °C. With the increase in the zeolite loading from 5 to 25%, ZSM-5/PU membrane showed the decreased separation factor and flux comparing to the neat PU. However, ZSM-TC/PU membrane showed higher flux and better selectivity than the neat PU and pristine ZSM-5 filled PU membranes.

In this study, biologically treated, paper-making wastewater (PMWW) containing toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was employed as the feedwater to investigate the effectiveness and mechanisms of integrated electrocoagulation (EC) and membrane filtration for the control of PAH pollution incurred by industrial wastewater discharge. The results showed that the integrated treatment was capable of removing more than 90% of polyaromatic hydrocarbon compounds (PAHs) and total organic carbon (TOC) from the wastewater. Specifically, the EC pretreatment contributed to approximately 40% TOC removal and 75% PAH removal via the combined effects of coagulation and oxidation, thereby significantly lowering the contaminant loading of the LPRO treatment. Among the PAHs removed by the EC, 3-ring and 4-ring compounds, including acenaphthene, anthracene, phenanthrene, fluorene and fluoranthene were effectively removed. However, EC-induced degradation of humic-like and fulvic-like substances produced 2-ring PAH compounds, including naphthalene and dimethylnaphthalene, that did not exist in the PMWW. Very importantly, the LPRO treatment efficiently rejected residual PAH compounds in the EC effluent, including those formed by EC treatment, through the solution-diffusion process. Overall, the quality of the final effluent meets the requirements for industrial water reuse; this exhibits the potential value of EC–LPRO for PAH pollution control.

Phosphorus (P) recovery from waste streams has recently been recognized as a key step in the sustainable supply of this indispensable and non-renewable resource. The feasibility of using brine from a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane unit treating cooling water as a precipitant for P recovery from source separated urine was evaluated in the present study. P removal efficiency, process parameters and precipitate properties were investigated in batch and continuous flow experiments. More than 90% of P removal was obtained from both undiluted fresh and hydrolyzed urines by mixing with RO brine (1:1, v/v) at a pH over 9.0. Around 2.58 and 1.24 Kg of precipitates could be recovered from 1 m3 hydrolyzed and fresh urine, respectively, and the precipitated solids contain 8.1–19.0% of P, 10.3–15.2% of Ca, 3.7–5.0% of Mg and 0.1–3.5% of ammonium nitrogen. Satisfactory P removal performance was also achieved in a continuous flow precipitation reactor with a hydraulic retention time of 3–6 h. RO brine could be considered as urinal and toilet flush water despite of a marginally higher precipitation tendency than tap water. This study provides a widely available, low - cost and efficient precipitant for P recovery in urban areas, which will make P recovery from urine more economically attractive.

the wear and fracture of steel ring are the key factors leading to the failure of metal belt. In order to improve the wear resistance and extended service life of steel rings, the micro-texture method is used to improve the surface performance of steel rings. In this study, on the base of establishing the mechanical model of CVT metal belt, the stress characteristics of non-texture steel ring and micro-texture steel ring are analyzed by finite element method, the micro-texture steel ring samples are processed by laser method, and the influence law of typical texture characteristic parameters on the tribology performance of steel ring is analyzed by friction and wear test. The simulation and test results show that the reasonable micro-structure characteristics can improve the wear resistance of steel ring surface, and also can improve the stress concentration problem on steel ring and metal element.

Phosphorus (P) recovery from wastewater has been recognized as a critical technology for solving the sustainable supply of this indispensable and non - renewable natural resource. In this study, the cost - free magnesium and calcium sources of using the cooling water system effluent (CWSE) in two thermal power plants were proposed (Z - CWSE and G - CWSE) and the P recovery performance from source - separated urine was investigated. About 90% P recovery efficiency was achieved from the hydrolyzed urine when Z - CWSE and G - CWSE were added at the Ca: Mg: P molar ratios of 3.1 : 4.0: 1 and 3.6 : 3.4: 1, respectively. More than 95% P recovery performance was obtained from the fresh urine as the initial pH of the CWSE - FU mixtures was adjusted to over 9.5 and 10.0, respectively. The precipitates obtained contain 10.84–17.04% Ca, 6.22–9.58% P, 0.75–3.76% Mg and 0.13–0.23% N. XRD analysis confirmed the presence of struvite in the precipitates. The reuse of precipitates is secure due to extremely low contents of heavy metals. The feasibility of using CWSEs as the flushing water in urinals and toilets was assessed. Besides, we proposed CWSEs could be invoked as precipitants in various wastewaters as long as it contains considerable phosphate, e.g. P concentration more than 100 mg/L and 50 mg/L for Z - CWSE and G - CWSE, respectively.