An advanced treatment process for 3-high wastewater discharged from crude oil storage tanks.

The wastewater discharged from crude oil storage tanks (WCOST) contains high concentrations of salt and metal iron ions, and high chemical oxygen demand (COD). It belongs to "3-high" wastewater, which is difficult for purification. In this study, WCOST treatments were comparatively investigated via an advanced pretreatment and the traditional coagulation-microfiltration (CMF) processes. After WCOST was purified through the conventional CMF process, fouling occurred in the microfiltration (MF) membrane, which is rather harmful to the following reverse osmosis (RO) membrane unit, and the effluent featured high COD and UV254 values. The analysis confirmed that the MF fouling was due to the oxidation of ferrous ions, and the high COD and UV254 values were mainly attributable to the organic compounds with small molecular sizes, including aromatic-like and fulvic-like compounds. After the pretreatment of the advanced process consisting of aeration, manganese sand filtration, and activated carbon adsorption in combination with CMF process, the removal efficiencies of organic matter and total iron ions reached 97.3% and 99.8%, respectively. All the water indexes of the effluent, after treatment by the advanced multi-unit process, meet well the corresponding standard. The advanced pretreatment process reported herein displayed a great potential for alleviating the MF membrane fouling and enhanced the lifetime of the RO membrane system in the 3-high WCOST treatment.

Analysis of the Effect of Surgical Treatment for the Patients with Hirayama Disease from the Perspective of Cervical Spine Sagittal Alignment.

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to analyze the surgical effect of cervical spine sagittal alignment for patients with Hirayama disease (HD). METHODS: Forty-four subjects were retrospectively analyzed for the parameters of cervical spine sagittal alignment. The case group consisted of 23 patients with HD, whereas the control group consisted of 21 healthy adolescent subjects. Pre- and postoperative cervical spine sagittal parameters of the patients with HD were collected; the cervical sagittal parameters of the healthy adolescent subjects were also collected. Sagittal alignment parameters were compared between the patients with HD and the healthy adolescent subjects, and between the pre- and postoperative parameters for the patients with HD. RESULTS: Forty-four subjects completed the follow-up, with the average follow-up period being 18.0 months. No significant differences were detected between the HD and control groups for clinical parameters (P > 0.05). The preoperative HD group had smaller values compared with the control group in the sagittal parameters of C2-7 cervical lordosis (CL) angle, T1 slope, thoracic inlet angle (TIA), and cervical tilt angle (P < 0.05). For the patients with HD, the preoperative values were smaller compared with the postoperative HD values for the parameters of C2-7 CL angle, T1 slope, and cervical tilt angle (P < 0.05). We found no significant differences between the postoperative patients with HD and the healthy subjects, including C2-7 CL angle, C2-7 sagittal vertical axis, T1 slope, TIA, neck tilt angle, cervical tilt angle, and cranial tilt angle (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with HD have sagittal imbalance of the cervical spine compared with age-matched healthy adolescent subjects, and surgical treatment could correct the sagittal imbalance.

EGCG decreases the expression of HIF-1α and VEGF and cell growth in MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on the expression of HIF-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and cell growth in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. METHODS: MCF-7 human breast cancer cells were pretreated with different concentrations of EGCG (25, 50, 100 mg/L) for 48 h. The growth and proliferation of cells were analyzed by trypan blue staining in the pretreated MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, mRNA expression of HIF-1α and VEGF was detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis in the pretreated MCF-7 cells. Protein expression of HIF-1α was detected by Western blot, and the secreted protein level of VEGF in the supernatant of the culture medium was analyzed by enzyme linked immuno- sorbent assay (ELISA) in the MCF-7 cells pretreated with different concentrations of EGCG. RESULTS: Cell growth decreased dramatically in MCF-7 cells treated with different concentrations of EGCG, compared with untreated (control) cells. Moreover, protein expression of HIF-1α and VEGF declined in a dose-dependent manner in MCF-7 cells pretreated with increasing concentrations of EGCG. CONCLUSIONS: EGCG inhibits cell growth and proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, possibly by inhibiting the protein expression of HIF-1α and VEGF.

Construction and identification of the recombinant lentiviral expression vector targeting human BAX inhibitor-1 gene.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to construct a recombinant lentiviral expression vector targeting human BAX inhibitor- 1(BI-1) gene and observe its expression in NIH3T3 cells. METHODS: Human BI-1 gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and then cloned into the vector pLCMV- IG using DNA recombinant technique. After the inserted sequences in the recombinant plasmids were identified by PCR, and double digesting and DNA sequencing analysis, the recombinant lentivirus was packaged and administered into NIH3T3 cells. The BI-1 mRNA and protein expression were examined by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting. RESULTS: PCR double digesting analysis and DNA sequencing confirmed that the BI-1 DNA sequences were successfully inserted into the lentiviral vectors. After transfection with the recombinant lentivirus, BI-1 expression in NIH3T3 cells was significantly increased at both mRNA and protein levels. CONCLUSION: The lentiviral vector expressing BI-1 has been successfully constructed, which allowed for the subsequent analysis of the role of BI-1 in cell growth and transduction.