Design and Implementation of an Event-Driven Smart Sensor Node for Wireless Monitoring Systems.

In this paper, an event-driven wireless sensor node is proposed and demonstrated. The primary design objective is to devise a wireless sensor node with miniaturization, integration, and high-accuracy recognition ability. The proposed wireless sensor node integrates two vibration-threshold-triggered energy harvesters that sense and power a threshold voltage control circuit for power management, a microcontroller unit (MCU) for system control, a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN) environment data analysis and vibration events distribution, and a radio frequency (RF) digital baseband transmitter with IEEE 802.15.4-/.6 protocols. The dimensions of the wireless sensor node are 4 × 2 × 1 cm3. Finally, the proposed wireless sensor node was fabricated and tested. The alarming time for detecting the vibration event is less than 6 s. The measured recognition accuracy of three events (knock, shake, and heat) is over 97.5%. The experimental results showed that the proposed integrated wireless sensor node is very suitable for wireless environmental monitoring systems.

The impact of propranolol on the growth and development of children with proliferative infantile hemangioma during treatment.

Oral propranolol has not been shown to impact physical development, such as weight and height. The impact of children's intellectual development has received relatively little attention from researchers. The effects of propranolol on the growth and development of children with proliferative infantile hemangiomas during treatment were analyzed retrospectively. The children with infantile hemangioma treated with oral propranolol in the Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Fuzhou Children's Hospital of Fujian Province, from February 2017 to May 2022 were analyzed. A uniform therapeutic regimen was applied, including assessment, treatment, and follow-up. The assessment included physical development and intellectual development indices. The physical development indices were height and weight. Neuropsychological assessment uses developmental quotient (DQ) to assess intelligence development. The DQs on months 3, 6, and 9 posttreatment were compared to the pretreatment. Wilcoxon rank sum test of paired samples was used for height and weight. The developmental quotient was determined by paired t test. P < .05 indicated significant difference. A total of 51 patients were enrolled. All children completed the treatment successfully, without severe adverse drug reactions leading to treatment discontinuation. There was no significant difference in height and weight before and after treatment (P > .05). No significant difference was detected in DQ 3 months posttreatment and pretreatment (P = .19), while it decreased at 6 and 9 months posttreatment (P < .05). Oral propranolol does not have an impact on physical development (height and weight). No short-term effect was found on intellectual development, but a decrease was noted over 6 months, which needs to be investigated further.

Duplication of SOX3 in an SRY-negative 46,XX male with prostatic utricle: case report and literature review.

BACKGROUND: 46,XX male disorders of sex development are rare. Approximately 80% of cases of testicular tissue differentiation may be due to translocation of SRY to the X chromosome or an autosome. SRY-negative 46,XX males show overexpression of pro-testis genes, such as SOX9 and SOX3, or failure of pro-ovarian genes, such as WNT4 and RSPO1, which induces testis differentiation, however, almost all testicles exhibit dysgenesis. Following inadequate exposure to androgens during the embryo stage, remnants of the Mullerian duct and incomplete closure of the urogenital sinus lead to enlargement of prostatic utricles. This condition is associated with proximal hypospadias and disorders of sex development. Many cases are asymptomatic, but show increased rates of postoperative complications and surgical failure. CASE PRESENTATION: A 5-year-old Chinese boy with scrotal hypospadias and bilateral cryptorchidism with prostatic utricles was presented. Gonadal histology showed ovo-testicular tissue on the right side and testicular tissue on the left side; all testicular tissue exhibited dysgenesis. Furthermore, chromosome karyotype analysis revealed 46,XX and, the presence of SRY was ruled out by polymerase chain reaction analysis. Whole-genome analysis showed the boy has a 1.4-Mb duplication in the Xq27.1q27.2 region (arr[hg19]Xq27.1q27.2:139585794-140996652) involving SOX3. No SOX3 duplication was observed in the parents, who had a normal phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: We report the first case of an SRY-negative 46 XX male with prostatic utricle caused by SOX3 duplication. SOX3 duplication may cause sex reversal, and all 46,XX SRY-negative males should be screened for SOX3 mutations. Gonadal biopsy is recommended to evaluate ovarian and testicular tissue development. Testicular dysgenesis and low exposure to male hormones during fetal development can lead to enlarged prostatic utricles. Thus endoscopic examination should be performed preoperatively to detect prostatic utricles in SRY-negative 46,XX males to determine the surgical plan and reduce postoperative complications.

Marine urease with higher thermostability, pH and salinity tolerance from marine sponge-derived Penicillium steckii S4-4.

Urease has a broad range of applications, however, the current studies on urease mainly focus on terrestrial plants or microbes. Thus, it is quite necessary to determine if marine-derived ureases have different characteristics from terrestrial origins since the finding of ureases with superior performance is of industrial interest. In this study, the marine urease produced by Penicillium steckii S4-4 derived from marine sponge Siphonochalina sp. was investigated. This marine urease exhibited a maximum specific activity of 1542.2 U mg protein-1. The molecular weight of the enzyme was 183 kDa and a single subunit of 47 kDa was detected, indicating that it was a tetramer. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the urease was arranged as GPVLKKTKAAAV with greatest similarity to that from marine algae Ectocarpus siliculosus. This urease exhibited a K m of 7.3 mmol L-1 and a V max of 1.8 mmol urea min-1 mg protein-1. The optimum temperature, pH and salinity are 55 â„ƒ, 8.5 and 10%, respectively. This urease was stable and more than 80% of its maximum specific activity was detected after incubating at 25-60 â„ƒ for 30 min, pH 5.5-10.0 or 0-25% salinity for 6 h. Compared with the terrestrial urease from Jack bean, this marine urease shows higher thermostability, alkaline preference and salinity tolerance, which extends the potential application fields of urease to a great extent.

Heavy metal adsorption using structurally preorganized adsorbent.

Heavy metal pollution is an essential environmental issue in the world. The current methods present limitations for the removal of low concentration divalent heavy metals from wastewater, such as high cost, unsatisfactory adsorption capacity, and poor reusability. Herein, we designed and prepared a novel chelating adsorbent. The adsorbent was prepared using chloromethyl polystyrene microsphere as a framework material modified by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) with two types of functional groups and six binding sites in one coordination unit. Each coordination unit of the adsorbent prepared provides two negative charges of two carboxyl groups to balance the two positive charges of the divalent heavy metal ion, and forms coordination bonds through its two nitrogen atoms and two amidic carbonyl groups. This synergistic adsorption effect produced by electrostatic interaction and chelation significantly improves the adsorption capacity. The adsorption of some environmental heavy metals was tested, and high adsorption capacity for Pb(ii) was obtained. The saturated adsorption capacity for Pb(ii) was as high as 352.1 mg g-1, and the effluent concentration of the column experiment was less than 0.20 ppm. Simultaneously, the presence of the amide group shows good anti-interference to alkali metals and alkali soil metals. The result is of considerable significance to the actual wastewater treatment.

Comparative Genomics Provides Insights Into the Marine Adaptation in Sponge-Derived Kocuriaflava S43.

Sponge-derived actinomycetes represent a significant component of marine actinomycetes. Members of the genus Kocuria are distributed in various habitats such as soil, rhizosphere, clinical specimens, marine sediments, and sponges, however, to date, little is known about the mechanism of their environmental adaptation. Kocuria flava S43 was isolated from a coastal sponge. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that it was closely related to the terrestrial airborne K. flava HO-9041. In this study, to gain insights into the marine adaptation in K. flava S43 we sequenced the draft genome for K. flava S43 by third generation sequencing (TGS) and compared it with those of K. flava HO-9041 and some other Kocuria relatives. Comparative genomics and phylogenetic analyses revealed that K. flava S43 might adapt to the marine environment mainly by increasing the number of the genes linked to potassium homeostasis, resistance to heavy metals and phosphate metabolism, and acquiring the genes associated with electron transport and the genes encoding ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter, aquaporin, and thiol/disulfide interchange protein. Notably, gene acquisition was probably a primary mechanism of environmental adaptation in K. flava S43. Furthermore, this study also indicated that the Kocuria isolates from various marine and hyperosmotic environments possessed common genetic basis for environmental adaptation.

Linking groundwater dissolved organic matter to sedimentary organic matter from a fluvio-lacustrine aquifer at Jianghan Plain, China by EEM-PARAFAC and hydrochemical analyses.

The sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater are important to groundwater chemistry and quality. This study examined similarities in the nature of DOM and investigated the link between groundwater DOM (GDOM) and sedimentary organic matter (SOM) from a lacustrine-alluvial aquifer at Jianghan Plain. Sediment, groundwater and surface water samples were employed for SOM extraction, optical and/or chemical characterization, and subsequent fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (EEM) and parallel factor analyses (PARAFAC). Spectroscopic properties of bulk DOM pools showed that indices indicative of GDOM (e.g., biological source properties, humification level, aromaticity and molecule mobility) varied within the ranges of those of two extracted end-members of SOM: humic-like materials and microbe-associated materials. The coexistence of PARAFAC compositions and the sustaining internal relationship between GDOM and extracted SOM indicate a similar source. The results from principal component analyses with selected spectroscopic indices showed that GDOM exhibited a transition trend regarding its nature: from refractory high-humification DOM to intermediate humification DOM and then to microbe-associated DOM, with decreasing molecular weight. Correlations of spectroscopic indices with physicochemical parameters of the groundwater suggested that GDOM was released from SOM and was modified by microbial diagenetic processes. The current study demonstrated the associations of GDOM with SOM from a spectroscopic viewpoint and provided new evidence supporting SOM as the source of GDOM.

Multivariate analysis of the heterogeneous geochemical processes controlling arsenic enrichment in a shallow groundwater system.

The effects of various geochemical processes on arsenic enrichment in a high-arsenic aquifer at Jianghan Plain in Central China were investigated using multivariate models developed from combined adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and multiple linear regression (MLR). The results indicated that the optimum variable group for the AFNIS model consisted of bicarbonate, ammonium, phosphorus, iron, manganese, fluorescence index, pH, and siderite saturation. These data suggest that reductive dissolution of iron/manganese oxides, phosphate-competitive adsorption, pH-dependent desorption, and siderite precipitation could integrally affect arsenic concentration. Analysis of the MLR models indicated that reductive dissolution of iron(III) was primarily responsible for arsenic mobilization in groundwaters with low arsenic concentration. By contrast, for groundwaters with high arsenic concentration (i.e., > 170 µg/L), reductive dissolution of iron oxides approached a dynamic equilibrium. The desorption effects from phosphate-competitive adsorption and the increase in pH exhibited arsenic enrichment superior to that caused by iron(III) reductive dissolution as the groundwater chemistry evolved. The inhibition effect of siderite precipitation on arsenic mobilization was expected to exist in groundwater that was highly saturated with siderite. The results suggest an evolutionary dominance of specific geochemical process over other factors controlling arsenic concentration, which presented a heterogeneous distribution in aquifers. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of the Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, to view the supplemental file.