Human health risks of heavy metal(loid)s mediated through crop ingestion in a coal mining area in Eastern China.

The heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) in soils can be accumulated by crops grown, which is accompanied by crop ingestion into the human body and then causes harm to human health. Hence, the health risks posed by HMs in three crops for different populations were assessed using Health risk assessment (HRA) model coupled with Monte Carlo simulation. Results revealed that Zn had the highest concentration among three crops; while Ni was the main polluting element in maize and soybean, and As in rice. Non-carcinogenic risk for all populations through rice ingestion was at an "unacceptable" level, and teenagers suffered higher risk than adults and children. All populations through ingestion of three crops might suffer Carcinogenic risk, with the similar order of Total carcinogenic risk (TCR): TCRAdults > TCRTeenagers > TCRChildren. As and Ni were identified as priority control HMs in this study area due to their high contribution rates to health risks. According to the HRA results, the human health risk was associated with crop varieties, HM species, and age groups. Our findings suggest that only limiting the Maximum allowable intake rate is not sufficient to prevent health risks caused by crop HMs, thus more risk precautions are needed.

Escitalopram versus other antidepressive agents for major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Escitalopram is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and one of the most commonly prescribed newer antidepressants (ADs) worldwide. We aimed to explore the efficacy, acceptability and tolerability of escitalopram in comparison with other ADs in the acute-phase treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). METHODS: Medline/PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and Clinical Trials.gov were searched from inception to July 10, 2023. Trial databases of drug-approving agencies were hand-searched for published, unpublished and ongoing controlled trials. All randomized controlled trials comparing escitalopram against any other antidepressant for patients with MDD. Responders and remitters to treatment were calculated on an intention-to-treat basis. For dichotomous data, risk ratios (RRs) were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Continuous data were analyzed using standardized mean differences (with 95% CI) using the random effects model. RESULTS: A total of 30 studies were included in this meta­analysis, among which sixteen trials compared escitalopram with another SSRI and 14 compared escitalopram with a newer AD. Escitalopram was shown to be significantly more effective than citalopram in achieving acute response (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.50-0.87). Escitalopram was also more effective than citalopram in terms of remission (RR 0.53, 95% CI 0.30-0.93). CONCLUSIONS: Escitalopram was superior to other ADs for the acute phase treatment of MDD in terms of efficacy, acceptability and tolerability. However, no significant difference was found between escitalopram and other ADs in early response or follow-up response to treatment of MDD.

Uptake, accumulation, and degradation of dibutyl phthalate by three wetland plants.

The uptake and degradation mechanisms of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) by three wetland plants, namely Lythrum salicaria, Thalia dealbata, and Canna indica, were studied using hydroponics. The results revealed that exposure to DBP at 0.5 mg/L had no significant effect on the growth of L. salicaria and C. indica but inhibited the growth of T. dealbata. After 28 days, DBP concentrations in the roots of L. salicaria, T. dealbata, and C. indica were 8.74, 5.67, and 5.46 mg/kg, respectively, compared to 2.03-3.95 mg/kg in stems and leaves. Mono-n-butyl phthalate concentrations in L. salicaria tissues were significantly higher than those in the other two plants at 23.1, 15.0, and 13.6 mg/kg in roots, stems, and leaves, respectively. The roots of L. salicaria also had the highest concentration of phthalic acid, reaching 2.45 mg/kg. Carboxylesterase, polyphenol oxidase, and superoxide dismutase may be the primary enzymes involved in DBP degradation in wetland plants. The activities of these three enzymes exhibited significant changes in plant tissues. The findings suggest L. salicaria as a potent plant for phytoremediation and use in constructed wetlands for the treatment of DBP-contaminated wastewater.

In vitro Antitumor Properties of Fucoidan-Coated, Doxorubicin-Loaded, Mesoporous Polydopamine Nanoparticles.

Chemotherapy is a common method for tumor treatment. However, the non-specific distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs causes the death of normal cells. Nanocarriers, particularly mesoporous carriers, can be modified to achieve targeted and controlled drug release. In this study, mesoporous polydopamine (MPDA) was used as a carrier for the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX). To enhance the release efficiency of DOX in the tumor microenvironment, which contains high concentrations of glutathione (GSH), we used N,N-bis(acryloyl)cysteamine as a cross-linking agent to encapsulate the surface of MPDA with fucoidan (FU), producing MPDA-DOX@FU-SS. MPDA-DOX@FU-SS was characterized via transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and its antitumor efficacy in vitro was investigated. The optimal conditions for the preparation of MPDA were identified as pH 12 and 20 °C, and the optimal MPDA-to-FU ratio was 2:1. The DOX release rate reached 47.77% in an in vitro solution containing 10 mM GSH at pH 5.2. When combined with photothermal therapy, MPDA-DOX@FU-SS significantly inhibited the growth of HCT-116 cells. In conclusion, MPDA-DOX@FU-SS may serve as a novel, highly effective tumor suppressor that can achieve targeted drug release in the tumor microenvironment.

Scutellarin inhibits hypoxia-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in bladder cancer cells.

Scutellarin, an active component of flavonoid, displays a variety of physiological actions and has been applied for the treatment of diverse diseases including hypertension and cerebral infarction as well as cerebral thrombosis. In recent time, Scutellarin has been demonstrated to possess the anticancer activity. But the biological significance of Scutellarin in bladder cancer (BC) remains to be elucidated. In the current study, we explored the specific effect of Scutellarin on BC progression. We found that Scutellarin inhibited hypoxia-induced BC cell migration and invasion in vitro as well as suppressed hypoxia-induced BC metastasis in vivo. Moreover, Scutellarin significantly reversed hypoxia-promoted epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in BC cells and the PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways were implicated in the suppressive effect. Taken together, we suggested the potential value of Scutellarin as a novel anticancer agent for BC treatment.

[Preparation and Synchronized Release Behavior on Porosity Osmotic Pump Tablets of Total Glucosides of Paeony].

Objective: To prepare porosity osmotic pump tablets of total glucosides of paeony( TGP),and to study the behavior on synchronous release of its main components. Methods: Taking the accumulative release of TGP as indexes, through single-factor test and orthogonal design to investigate the optimal formulation porosity osmotic pump tablets of TGP. The main components, paeoniflorin, albiflorin and benzoylpaeoniflorin were employed to study synchronous release of the optimal formulation. Results: The membrane weight, and the content of PEG 400,and diethyl phthalate( DEP) were the main factors influencing the behavior of TGP release. The accumulated release of the prepared osmotic pump release tablets achieved about 90%. Three main components achieved the desired zero-order release profile and had a synchronized release behavior. Conclusion: The prepared porosity osmotic pump tablets of TGP can achieve the behavior of synchronized release of multi-components with good reproducibility.

[Comparison of bioavailability of two kinds of solid dispersion from 10-hydroxycamptothecin in SD rats in vivo].

To improve the bioavailability of 10-hydroxycamptothecin, 10-hydroxycamptothecin solid dispersion(HCPT-SD) and 10-hydroxycamptothecin-phospholipid complex-solid dispersion(HCPT-PC-SD) were prepared, and their solubility and dissolution rate were evaluated in this study. SD rates were administered intragastrically with HCPT-SD or HCPT-PC-SD respectively, then their blood samples were collected at different time intervals. The concentration of HCPT in blood was detected by HPLC method with camptothecin as internal standard, and then its pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated and obtained. The results showed that the Cmax, AUC0-t and AUC0-∞ of both kinds of solid dispersion of HCPT were significantly increased than those of crude drug. The AUC0-t of HCPT-SD was increased by 176.87%, and AUC0-t of HCPT-PC-SD was increased by 254.31% as compared with crude drug. Therefore, the two kinds of solid dispersion of HCPT could significantly enhance the bioavailability of HCPT in SD rates, and the effect of HCPT-PC-SD was more obvious.

[Study and Evaluation on Preparation of Monolithic Osmotic Pump Tablet of Resveratrol].

OBJECTIVE: To prepare monolithic osmotic pump tablet of resveratrol. METHODS: Inclusion technology was adopted to enhance its solubility. The optimal formulation of resveratrol inclusion complex osmotic pump tablets was selected by the single-factor method and orthogonal design. The release in vitro of the optimized formulation was also fitted to different models. RESULTS: The tablets with optimized formulation achieved the desired zero-order release profile in 12 h (r = 0.9963) with the cumulative release over 90%. CONCLUSION: Resveratrol can be prepared into monolithic osmotic pump tablets based on the intermediate of inclusion technology, which have obvious characteristic of zero release.

[Protective effect of polysaccharides extracts from corn silk against cyclophosphamide induced host damages in mice bearing H22 tumors].

OBJECTIVE: To study the protective effect of polysaccharides from corn silk (PCS) against cyclophosphamide (CTX) induced host damages in mice bearing H22 tumors. METHODS: The ascitic and solid tumor bearing mice model were established to investigate the anti-tumor effects of different dose of PCS (100, 200 and 300 mg/kg). The effects of PCS alone and with combination of CTX on tumor weight, survival time, thymus and spleen index, white blood cell, nucleated cell of marrow, serum ALT and AST level were tested. RESULTS: The high-dose PCS (300 mg/kg) had significant inhibitory effects on tumor. After combination with CTX, the tumor inhibitory ratio was enhanced to 68.71%, the survival time of tumor-burdened ascites tumor mice was significantly prolonged to 72.07% compared with CTX group. The Q value of combination group was 0.997. Thymus and spleen index, white blood cell, nucleated cell of marrow decreased by CTX were ameliorated significantly. The level of ALT and AST increased by CTX were reduced by combination with PCS. CONCLUSION: PCS has a potent inhibitory effect on the growth of implanted H22 tumors in mice and has a synergetic effect and an attenuated toxic effect in combination with CTX.

High-Performance Reconfigurable Pipeline Implementation for FPGA-Based SmartNIC.

As the key module of programmable switches or the SmartNIC card, the packet processing pipeline undertakes the task of packet forwarding and processing. However, the current pipeline for the FPGA-based SmartNIC is inflexible, and the related reconfigurable commercial device designs are closed-source. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a high-performance reconfigurable pipeline design, which has fully reconfigurable match-action units, supporting various network functions by its flexible reconfiguration. The fields of the match key and the size of the match table can be reconfigured without recompiling the HDL code or modifying the hardware. The processing rules and action instructions for the pipeline can be dynamically installed by the configuration module at runtime. We implement our design on the Xilinx Alveo U200 board with a Virtex UltraScale+ XCU200-2FSGD2104E FPGA and show that the designed pipeline supports fast reconfiguration to implement new network functions and that the throughput of the designed pipeline reaches 100 Gbps with low latency.

SASEGAN-TCN: Speech enhancement algorithm based on self-attention generative adversarial network and temporal convolutional network.

Traditional unsupervised speech enhancement models often have problems such as non-aggregation of input feature information, which will introduce additional noise during training, thereby reducing the quality of the speech signal. In order to solve the above problems, this paper analyzed the impact of problems such as non-aggregation of input speech feature information on its performance. Moreover, this article introduced a temporal convolutional neural network and proposed a SASEGAN-TCN speech enhancement model, which captured local features information and aggregated global feature information to improve model effect and training stability. The simulation experiment results showed that the model can achieve 2.1636 and 92.78% in perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) score and short-time objective intelligibility (STOI) on the Valentini dataset, and can accordingly reach 1.8077 and 83.54% on the THCHS30 dataset. In addition, this article used the enhanced speech data for the acoustic model to verify the recognition accuracy. The speech recognition error rate was reduced by 17.4%, which was a significant improvement compared to the baseline model experimental results.

Improving prediction of soil heavy metal(loid) concentration by developing a combined Co-kriging and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model.

The study of heavy metal(loid) (HM) contamination in soil using extensive data obtained from published literature is an economical and convenient method. However, the uneven distribution of these data in time and space limits their direct applicability. Therefore, based on the concentration data obtained from the published literature (2000-2020), we investigated the relationship between soil HM accumulation and various anthropogenic activities, developed a hybrid model to predict soil HM concentrations, and then evaluated their ecological risks. The results demonstrated that various anthropogenic activities were the main cause of soil HM accumulation using Geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. The hybrid Co-kriging + GTWR model, which incorporates two of the most influential auxiliary variables, can improve the accuracy and reliability of predicting HM concentrations. The predicted concentrations of eight HMs all exceeded the background values for soil environment in China. The results of the ecological risk assessment revealed that five HMs accounted for more than 90% of the area at the "High risk" level (RQ ≥ 1), with the descending order of Ni (100%) = Cu (100%) > As (98.73%) > Zn (95.50%) > Pb (94.90%). This study provides a novel approach to environmental pollution research using the published data.

Impact of economic development on soil trace metal(loid)s pollution: A case study of China.

Recently, intensive anthropogenic activities, while promoting economic growth, have also exacerbated soil trace metal(loid) (TM) pollution. To explore the impact of economic development on soil TM pollution, a time-weighted method was introduced to calculate the average concentrations of eight TMs in Chinese topsoil from 2001 to 2020, and panel data on TMs and economic factors of 31 provinces were used for regression analysis. The results revealed that the average concentrations of soil TMs all exceeded their respective soil background values. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution of soil TMs was characterized by obvious regional heterogeneity, with economically developed areas being heavily polluted and having high ecological risks. In addition, the results derived from panel data models showed that the relationship between soil TM pollution and economic development in China presented a continuous growth curve, but with an N-shaped pattern in eastern China, a U-shaped pattern in central China, and a positive linearity in western China. Four control variables were also introduced to evaluate their impact on TM pollution, and the results indicated that the proportion of secondary industry and the road area per capita were the major influencing factors. Ultimately, the inflection point estimation results suggested that the soil TM pollution level will increase in eastern China, central China and western China with ongoing economic growth. Our findings contribute to the current understanding of the relationship between soil TM pollution and anthropogenic activities, and provide a scientific basis for adjusting and planning industrial development and layout according to the characteristics of soil TM pollution.

A retrospective analysis of simultaneous bilateral uniportal thoracoscopic surgeries for multiple primary bilateral pulmonary nodules.

BACKGROUND: There are no standard treatment options for bilateral multiple pulmonary nodules requiring resection. This study aimed to summarize the experience of simultaneous bilateral uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for the treatment of bilateral multiple primary pulmonary nodules. METHODS: The clinical data of 65 cases of simultaneous bilateral uniportal thoracoscopic surgery for bilateral multiple primary pulmonary nodules treated were retrospectively analyzed. These cases were treated within The Ninth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital between January 2018 and November 2020. Parameters related to the surgery, perioperative aspects, surgical techniques, pathology results, and postoperative complications were examined. RESULTS: All surgeries were conducted through uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, with no instances of intraoperative conversion to thoracotomy. Fifty-three patients further underwent CT-guided Hookwire localization for the localization of pulmonary nodules. A total of 189 nodules were resected using multiple surgical procedures, with a malignancy rate of 86.2%. The average operation time was 226 ± 77.4 min, the average thoracic drainage duration was 3.1 ± 1.5 days, the average 24 h pleural drainage was 385.9 ± 157.4 mL, the average postoperative hospital stay was 8.6 ± 2.4 days, and the average blood loss was 77.2 ± 33.8 mL. Post-surgery, all patients were transferred to the ward safely within 12 h. 15.38% of patients have prolonged drainage time, and 12.31% of patients experience complications such as lung infection, arrhythmia, and venous thrombosis. CONCLUSION: The selected cases undergoing simultaneous bilateral uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for the management of bilateral multiple primary pulmonary nodules demonstrated favorable outcomes. Our observations indicate the safety and feasibility of this procedure, providing an individualized and precise treatment approach for affected patients.

Determination of soil environmental criteria for high-risk trace metals in urban park soils using improved CLEA model.

The trace metals (TMs) accumulated in urban park soils can pose potential threats to human health, making the management of soil quality based on health risks critically important. Based on the human health risk assessment (HHRA) model coupled with Monte Carlo Simulation, this study improved the contaminated land exposure assessment (CLEA) model. Combined with local parameters, the Soil Environmental Criteria (SEC) for high-risk trace metals (TMs) in urban park soils were calculated. Results indicated that all the mean TCR (Total carcinogenic risk) values of seven TMs exceeded the risk threshold of 1E-06, suggesting a higher likelihood of carcinogenic risks for all populations. As and Cr presented the highest potential carcinogenic risks, and were identified as high-risk TMs in the study area. The traditional CLEA model was enhanced by incorporating region-specific data, optimizing exposure parameter calculations, and addressing parameter sensitivity and uncertainty. Using the improved CLEA model, the SEC values for high-risk TMs were calculated, revealing that the SEC values gradually increased from ages 1 to 18, while significantly decreased for individuals over 80 years old. This study effectively addresses issues of parameter uncertainty and sensitivity in the CLEA model, offering new insights for the development of soil environmental quality standards.

QGWFQS: A Queue-Group-Based Weight Fair Queueing Scheduler on FPGA.

Weight Fair Queuing is an ideal scheduling algorithm to guarantee the bandwidth of different queues according to their configured Weights when the switching nodes of the network are congested. Many of the switching nodes based on FPGA in the current network support four physical ports or hundreds of virtual ports. Massive logic and storage resources would be consumed if each port implemented a WFQ scheduler. This paper proposes a Queue-Group-Based WFQ Scheduler (QGWFQS), which can support WFQ scheduling across multiple ports through the reuse of tag calculation and encoding circuits. We also propose a novel finish tag calculation algorithm to accommodate the variation in the link rate of each port. The remainder of integer division is also taken into account, which makes the bandwidth allocation fairer. Experimental results show that the proposed scheduler supports up to 512 ports, with 32 queues allocated on each individual port. The scheduler has the capability to operate at 200 MHz and the total scheduling capacity reaches 200 Mpps.

Biodegradable polymer everolimus-eluting stents versus contemporary drug-eluting stents: a systematic review and meta­analysis.

In spite of similar efficacy and safety in pilot studies, compared with the contemporary durable polymer drug-eluting stent (DP-DES), the bioabsorbable polymer drug-eluting stent (BP-DES) may be more superior in promoting blood vessel healing. We sought to compare the safety and efficacy of everolimus-eluting BP-DES (BP-EES) with contemporary DP-DES through a meta-analysis. We performed this meta-analysis to provide further evidence of the safety and efficacy of BP-EES. Medline, Embase and the Cochrane library databases were searched for randomized controlled trials comparing clinical efficacy and safety of BP-EES versus contemporary DP-DES. Fifteen RCTs with a total of 15,572 patients were selected. The rate of MACE was 9.4% in patients receiving BP-EES and 7.3% receiving DP-EES (RR 1.13, 95% CI 0.99-1.29, p = 0.05; I2 = 46%). TLF and MI were also similar in both groups. Based on the available data, this review demonstrates that BP-EES displays a clinically comparable efficacy and safety profile to that of contemporary DP-DES at years of follow-up in patients undergoing PCI.

Intracervical Foley catheter plus intravaginal misoprostol compared to intravaginal misoprostol-only for cervical ripening: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

To compare the combination of intracervical Foley catheter and intravaginal misoprostol administration versus intravaginal misoprostol administration-only for cervical ripening. The Medline, EMBASE, ClinicalTrials.gov, PROSPERO, Scopus, and Cochrane Collaboration databases were searched systematically. Randomized controlled trials that included patients with a singleton viable fetus who underwent induction of labor that required cervical ripening with an unfavorable cervix (Bishop ≤ 6) were eligible for inclusion. Primary outcomes was time to delivery and rate of cesarean delivery. Thirteen trials with 2978 subjects met the inclusion criteria. There was no difference in the incidence of cesarean delivery between the two groups (RR, 0.90; 95 % CI, 0.72-1.14; I2 = 69 %). The combination group resulted in comparable time to delivery (MD -2.50 h; 95 % CI 0.38, -5.38; I2 = 97 %), shorter time to vaginal delivery (MD -3.49 h; 95 % CI -4.89, -2.09; I2 = 81 %), lower risk of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission (RR 0.72, 95 % CI 0.58-0.90, I2 = 0 %), meconium-stained fluid (RR 0.48, 95 % CI 0.31-0.73, I2 = 28 %), and tachysystole with fetal heart trace changes (RR 0.49, 95 % CI 0.27-0.86, I2 = 43 %), compared with intravaginal misoprostol-only group. There was no statistical difference in rates of terbutaline use, endometritis or chorioamnionitis between the two groups. The combination of intravaginal misoprostol with intracervical Foley catheter for cervical ripening is not associated with shorter time to delivery. However, the combination group shows significant difference in shorter time to vaginal delivery, NICU admission, meconium-stained fluid, and tachysystole with fetal heart trace changes.

New insights into health risk assessment on soil trace metal(loid)s: Model improvement and parameter optimization.

Trace metal(loid)s (TMs) in soils may pose potential health risks to humans. Due to model uncertainty and variability of exposure parameters, the traditional health risk assessment (HRA) model may lead to inaccurate risk assessment results. Therefore, this study developed an improved HRA model to assess health risks by combining two-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation (2-D MCS) with a Logistic Chaotic sequence based on published data from 2000 to 2021. The results showed children and adult females were the high-risks populations for Non-carcinogenic risk and Carcinogenic risk, respectively. Meanwhile, children's Ingestion rate (IngR < 160.233 mg/day) and adult females' Skin adherence factor (0.026 mg/(cm2•d) < AF < 0.263 mg/(cm2•d)) were used as recommended exposure to make the health risk within acceptable range. Additionally, when performing risk assessment using actual exposure parameters, priority control TMs were identified, with As being the priority control TM for Southwest China and Inner Mongolia, whereas Cr and Pb for Tibet and Yunnan, respectively. Compared to health risk assessment, improved models increased risk assessment accuracy and provided recommended exposure parameter for high-risk populations. This study will provide new insights for soil-related health risk assessment.

Human activities contributing to the accumulation of high-risk trace metal(loid)s in soils of China's five major urban agglomerations.

Rapid urbanization has accelerated the accumulation of trace metal(loid)s (TMs) in soils, but the relationship between this accumulation and human activities remains largely unknown. Therefore, based on 775 published literatures (2001-2020), this study aimed to identify the influence of human activities on TM accumulation. Results showed that all soil TM concentrations were higher than their corresponding Chinese soil background values. The pollution risk assessment indicated that the soil TMs in the study area were at moderate levels, and the value of Pollution load index was 2.10. According to the assessment of health risks, the non-carcinogenic risks for adults were at the "Negligible risk" level; while the carcinogenic risk was not negligible for all populations, with children being more susceptible than adults. Meanwhile, six high-risk TMs were identified based on the grading of Contaminating factors (CF ≥ 3) and contribution to health risk (≥ 75%), including four high pollution risk TMs (Cd, Hg, Cu, and Pb) and two high health risk TMs (Cr and As) . In addition, in accordance with the results of the Random forest model, the accumulation of soil high-risk TMs was closely related to influencing factors associated with human activities. The accumulation of Hg and Cr among five major urban agglomerations had the same influencing factors (the number of industrial companies and the amount of industrial wastewater discharge for Hg; the amount of pesticide application and highway mileage for Cr). However, there were significant differences in the factors influencing the accumulation of the other four high-risk TMs (including Cd, As, Cu and Pb), due to the different characteristics of each urban agglomeration. Our results provide new insights into the relationship between human activities and soil TM accumulation.