Physiological tolerance of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) and changes of rhizospheric bacterial communities in response to Cd and Pb in the contaminated soil.

Woody plants possess great potential for phytoremediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil. A pot trial was conducted to study growth, physiological response, and Cd and Pb uptake and distribution in black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.), as well as the rhizosphere bacterial communities in Cd and Pb co-contaminated soil. The results showed that R. pseudoacacia L. had strong physiological regulation ability in response to Cd and Pb stress in contaminated soil. The total chlorophyll, malondialdehyde (MDA), soluble protein, and sulfhydryl contents, as well as antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase) activities in R. pseudoacacia L. leaves under the 40 mg·kg-1 Cd and 1000 mg·kg-1 Pb co-contaminated soil were slightly altered. Cd uptake in R. pseudoacacia L. roots and stems increased, while the Pb content in the shoots of R. pseudoacacia L. under the combined Cd and Pb treatments decreased in relative to that in the single Pb treatments. The bacterial α-diversity indices (e.g., Sobs, Shannon, Simpson, Ace, and Chao) of R. pseudoacacia L. rhizosphere soil under Cd and Pb stress were changed slightly relative to the CK treatment. However, Cd and Pb stress could significantly (p < 0.05) alter the rhizosphere soil microbial communities. According to heat map and LEfSe (Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size) analysis, Bacillus, Sphingomonas, Terrabacter, Roseiflexaceae, Paenibacillus, and Myxococcaceae at the genus level were notably (p < 0.05) accumulated in the Cd- and/or Pb-contaminated soil. Furthermore, the MDA content was notably (p < 0.05) negatively correlated with the relative abundances of Isosphaeraceae, Gaiellales, and Gemmatimonas. The total biomass of R. pseudoacacia L. was positively (p < 0.05) correlated with the relative abundances of Xanthobacteraceae and Vicinamibacreraceae. Network analysis showed that Cd and Pb combined stress might enhance the modularization of bacterial networks in the R. pseudoacacia L. rhizosphere soil. Thus, the assembly of the soil bacterial communities in R. pseudoacacia L. rhizosphere may improve the tolerance of plants in response to Cd and/or Pb stress.

Condition optimization of iron-air fuel cell to treat phosphate-containing wastewater regarding sustainable development.

Increasing use of phosphorus products and excessive exploitation of phosphorus resources become two major problems in perspective of phosphorus sustainable development. Phosphorus recovery is the shortcut to solve this dilemma. Combining electrochemistry, an iron-air fuel cell was adopted to recover phosphate and electricity from phosphate-containing wastewater in our previous studies. The present study focused on investigating the effects of catholyte/anolyte conductivity, external resistance, and anolyte pH on the performance of iron-air fuel cell, and obtaining the optimized conditions. Furthermore, the electrochemical methods of phosphate recovery were compared and assessed, and it is concluded that iron-air fuel cell has great potential for energy recovery. The phosphate removal efficiencies and vivianite yield roughly positively correlated with the catholyte conductivity and the anolyte pH, but negatively correlated with the external resistance and the anolyte conductivity. The electricity generation roughly positively correlated with the catholyte conductivity and anolyte conductivity, but showed limitations in the test range of anolyte pH and external resistance. To pursue high phosphate removal efficiencies and vivianite yield, the catholyte conductivity, external resistance, anolyte pH and anolyte conductivity were suggested to be 35 g-NaCl/L, 10 Ω, 8 and 0 g-NaCl/L. While if electricity generation was the primary goal, these parameters should be 35 g-NaCl/L, 220 Ω, 5 and 70 g-NaCl/L. The optimized conditions will help to improve the phosphate removal efficiency, vivianite yield and electricity generation, and to promote the development of iron-air fuel cell technology.

An iron-air fuel cell system towards concurrent phosphorus removal and resource recovery in the form of vivianite and energy generation in wastewater treatment: A sustainable technology regarding phosphorus.

Phosphorous (P) recovery from industrial wastewaters solves both P deficiency and P pollution problems. A sequencing batch iron-air fuel cell was set up to recover P from synthetic wastewater containing 0.6 g-P/L Na2HPO4. In the cell, ferrous iron goes into the liquor from iron-anode to precipitate soluble P and form vivianite. Electrons travel from iron-anode to air-cathode through external circuit thus to generate energy. During 3 months' continuous operation, the P removal efficiency stably achieved at around 97.6%, and the average output voltage of cell was 404 mV. After long time operation, performance degradation of iron-air fuel cell was observed due to the electrode passivation caused by the accumulation of P precipitate on the iron-anode surface. The precipitate layer on the iron-anode impeded, but it did not block the mass transfer of ferrous iron to the anode liquor. The cell still worked with 25% decrease of output voltage, 86% decrease of current density, 87% decrease of power density and 9 times increase of internal resistance. Further analyses by XRD, FITR and Mössbauer illustrated that vivianite was the main component in both precipitates on the iron-anode surface and at the bottom of anode chamber with respective content of 66% and 30%. Vivianite on the iron-anode surface was a preferable choice due to higher content for P recovery. The iron-air fuel cell system could be a feasible option for achieving the multiple goals of P pollution control, resource recovery as vivianite, and energy generation, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of wastewater treatment.

Quantitative susceptibility-weighted imaging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis with 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate alterations in phase-shift values in the gray matter of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI). METHODS: Twenty patients with definite or probable ALS and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled. SWI was performed using a 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Phase-shift values were measured in corrected phase images using regions of interest, which were placed on the bilateral precentral gyrus, frontal cortex, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, and putamen. RESULTS: Phase-shift values of the precentral gyrus were significantly lower in ALS patients (-0.176 ± 0.050) than in the control group (-0.119 ± 0.016) on SWI. The average phase-shift values of the frontal cortex, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, and putamen in ALS patients (-0.089 ± 0.023, -0.065 ± 0.016, -0.336 ± 0.191, and -0.227 ± 0.101, respectively) were not significantly different from those in the healthy controls (-0.885 ± 0.015, -0.079 ± 0.018, -0.329 ± 0.136, and -0.229 ± 0.083, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with healthy controls, ALS patients had a lower phase-shift value in the precentral gyrus, which may be related to abnormal iron overload. Thus, SWI is a potential method for identifying ALS patients.

[In vivo anti-tumor activity of tumor-targeting pH-sensitive lipoprotein-mimic nanocarrier with paclitaxel loaded].

Paclitaxel( PTX) is used as a broad spectrum anti-tumor medicine. However,serious drawbacks restrict clinical application of PTX. In this study,we prepared tumor-targeting and pH-sensitive lipoprotein-mimic nanocarrier containing paclitaxel( BSALC/DOPE-PTX) to study the effective antitumor activity. The in vivo targeting ability of the nanocarrier in tumor bearing nude mice was evaluated by using a Kodak in vivo imaging system FX PRO. The in vivo anti-tumor activity was evaluated in MDA-MB-231 tumor bearing mice,and representative sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin( H&E),and examined by light microscopy. The results showed that DiR-loaded FA-BSA-LC/DOPE selectively targeted tumor,and had a relatively long residence in the tumor tissue. According to the in vivo anti-tumor activity study,FA-BSA-LC/DOPE-PTX exhibited an outstanding tumor inhibition effect with a tumor growth inhibition rate of 79.3%,and tumor tissue sections stained by hematoxylin and eosin( HE) showed severe necrosis areas and many dead cells with condensed nuclei in the FA-BSA-LC/DOPE-PTX group. Therefore,FA-BSA-LC/DOPE-PTX is a biocompatible,tumor-targeting and pH-sensitive lipoprotein-mimic nanocarrier,with a very marked anti-tumor activity in tumor-bearing mice in vivo.

Metformin inhibits Aß25-35 -induced apoptotic cell death in SH-SY5Y cells.

Metformin, a first-line drug for type-2 diabetes, plays a potentially protective role in preventing Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its underlying mechanism is unclear. In this study, Aß25-35 -treated SH-SY5Y cells were used as a cell model of AD to investigate the neuroprotective effect of metformin, as well as its underlying mechanisms. We found that metformin decreased the cell apoptosis rate and death, ratio of Bcl-2/Bax, and expression of NR2A and NR2B, and increased the expression of LC3 in Aß25-35 -treated SH-SY5Y cells. Metformin also reduced intracellular and extracellular Glu concentrations, as well as the intracellular concentration of Ca2+ and ROS in Aß25-35 -treated SH-SY5Y cells. These findings suggest that metformin inhibits Aß25-35 -treated SH-SY5Y cell death by inhibiting apoptosis, decreasing intracellular Ca2+ and ROS by reducing neurotoxicity of excitatory amino acids, and by possibly reversing autophagy disorder via regulating autophagy process.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Internal Diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

To evaluate the applicability and clinical applications of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Internal Diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine, so as to provide the basis for the revision of the guidelines. This study was completed by the research and promotion base for traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) standard. The methods of applicability evaluation and application evaluation were used in the study. The questionnaires were filled out to evaluate applicability of the guideline, including doctor's familiarity with the guideline,the quality of the guideline, applicable conditions and clinical applications. The prospective case study analysis method was used to evaluate application of the guideline, including evaluation of clinical application compliance and application results(such as clinical effects, safety and economy). There were two parts in the guideline, which were TCM guideline and Western medicine guideline. The results of applicability evaluation showed that there were no obvious differences between TCM guideline and Western medicine guideline in doctor's familiarity with guideline(85.43%, 84.57%) and the use of the guideline(52.10%, 54.47%); the guidelines with good quality, and higher scores in the scope of application and the use of the term rationality(91.94%, 93.35%); the rationality scores of relevant contents in syndrome differentiation and treatment were more than 75%; the applicable conditions were better, and the safety score was the the highest. The comprehensive applicability evaluation showed that the proportion of the application of TCM guideline and Western medicine guideline were 77.73%, 75.46%, respectively. The results of application evaluation showed that there was high degree coincidence between the guideline with its clinical application; except for "other treatment" and "recuperation and prevention" in TCM, other items got high scores which were more than 90%; in the evaluation of application effects, safety of the guideline was best, economy of the guideline was better, and clincal effect was good. The comprehensive application evaluation showed that 75%~80% doctors were satisfied with the guideline. The Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Internal Diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine has been widely used in clinical practice, which is of high quality, high degree of clinical application,good safety and economy. But there were some disadvantages of the guideline such as lack of evidence-based medicine and innovation, which is need to be improved constantly in the guideline revision.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

Clinical application evaluation research of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine intends to evaluate the quality level and clinical application of the guideline. A questionnaire and prospective case survey methods were used to evaluate the applicability evaluation based on the clinician questionnaire and the application evaluation based on clinical case observation. The applicability evaluation, familiarity and utilization rate of doctors' guidelines were 85.06%, 62.76%; Sort by technical grade, intermediate grade doctors have a higher familiarity rate and utilization rate, while the junior grade doctor's is lower; Guide quality level of applicability evaluation, other items' rational percentage are better than 96% except the items of health preserving and prevention and other treatment is relatively low; Items' applicable percentage of applicability evaluation are more than 91% except the item of guide simplicity. Comprehensive applicability evaluation, The percentage of the guideline applicable to clinical practice accounted for 94.94%. The consistency rate of syndrome differentiation and clinical application is more than 96% in addition to prescription medication, other treatments and health preserving and prevention of the guidelines apply consistency of application evaluation. The percentage of good treatment effect accounted for 92.96% of application effect evaluation. The safety percentage is 99.89% and economy is 97.45%. The research shows that of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Pediatrics in Traditional Chinese Medicine quality level is good and is basically applicable to pediatric clinical practice which can be used as a standardized recommendation of pediatric common diseases' treatment specification. A small part of the guidelines are not applicable and need to be further consummated. Health preserving and prevention and other treatment of the guideline need to be revised.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Otolaryngology in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

This study is to assess the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Otolaryngology in Traditional Chinese Medicine in clinical application and provide evidence for further guideline revision. The assessment was divided into applicability assessment and practicability assessment. The applicability assessment based on questionnaire survey and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners were asked to independently fill the Questionnaire for Applicability Assessment on the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The practicability assessment was based on prospective case investigation and analysis method and the TCM practitioners-in-charge filled the Case Investigation Questionnaire for Practicability Assessment on the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The data were analyzed in descriptive statistics. 151 questionnaires were investigated for applicability assessment and 1 016 patients were included for practicability assessment. The results showed that 88.74% of them were familiar with the guidelines and 45.70% used them. The guidelines quality and related items were similar in applicability assessment and practicability assessment, and scored highly as more than 85.00% except the "recuperating and prevention". The results suggested that the quality of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Otolaryngology in Traditional Chinese Medicine was high and could better guide the clinical practice. The "recuperating and prevention" part should be improved and the evidence data should be included in future guideline revision, so that the clinical utilization rate could be increased.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Coloproctology in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

To provide reference for revising the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Coloproctology in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) through clinical research. 9 TCM hospitals worldwide have conducted a survey and questionnaires for 7 CPGs have been received. 263 cases clinical doctors accepted the applicability survey of guidelines. 89.35% is more familiar to the guidelines and 36.12% have been used the guidelines. In syndrome differentiation and treatment related contents, diagnostic point, treatment and syndrome differentiation are higher, accounted for 96.96%, 88.59%, 96.20%, respectively. Rationality of prevention is lower, accounted for 65.02%.88.21% clinical doctors believe that the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Coloproctology in Traditional Chinese Medicine is applicable. The application of the guidelines is evaluated by prospective observation of 1 309 cases. The higher consistency between guidelines and clinical practice is Western medicine disease diagnosis and traditional Chinese medicine disease diagnosis, accounted for 98.70%, 90.76%, respectively. The lower is rationality of prevention, accounted for 49.27%. The safety and economy of the guidelines are better, accounted for 97.02%, 95.11%, respectively. The comprehensive evaluation results showed that the overall treatment effect and technical level, satisfaction degree, applicability in clinical practice which were 7-9 points is 81.52%, 80.60%, 79.30%.The complex evaluation of diagnosis and treatment of common diseases of coloproctology in TCM guidelines is good, and suitable for clinical application with increase the content of rationality of prevention.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

This study aims to evaluate the adaptability and applicability of Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The assessment methods included adaptability assessment and applicability assessment. The adaptability assessment was based on the questionnaire survey to evaluate the familiarity, utilization, quality, and clinical application of the Guidelines; applicability assessment was based on the prospective observation of 853 clinical cases to investigate the applicability and effect of the Guidelines, including effectiveness, economy and safety. Statistical analysis for basic description, construction of different comparison groups for cross or hierarchical statistical test, multi-factor analysis, and confounding factors were used in the study. Adaptability assessment results showed that 63.03% of TCM doctors considered guidelines as good or very good applicability and 4.24% of TCM doctors considered guidelines with very poor applicability in clinical practice. For the applicability evaluation, TCM doctors considered that the "overall efficacy and technology level", "satisfactory degree" and "adaptability in clinical practice" of the guideline were 85.46%, 80.43% and 69.40% respectively. The results showed that guideline was well known among TCM doctors, especially junior TCM doctors. Adaptability and applicability of Guidelines were totally good but the quality and adaptability of the intervention schemes were still week, so the quality of Guidelines should be improved by revision.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Gynecology in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

To evaluate the clinical applicability and application of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Gynecology in Traditional Chinese Medicine, 11 diseases from Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Gynecology in Traditional Chinese Medicine were evaluated by methods of questionnaire and prospective case study at 16 construction units for traditional Chinese medicine standards research and extension. Results showed that 361 clinical doctors accepted the applicability survey of guidelines, and 87.26% of them were more familiar to the guideline and 25.21% of them used the guideline. In syndrome differentiation and treatment related contents, rationality of prescription medication and syndrome classification was higher, accounted for 91.69% and 86.98% respectively, but the rationality of recuperation prevention was lower, accounted for 44.6%. 75.62% clinical doctors believed that the Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Gynecology in Traditional Chinese Medicine was applicable. The application of the guidelines is evaluated by prospective observation of 2 935 cases. The higher compliance between the guideline and clinical practice was present in TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) disease diagnosis and WM (western medicine) disease diagnosis, accounted for 98.30% and 94.11% respectively. The lower compliance was present in recuperation prevention, accounted for 59.39%. The safety and economy of the guideline was higher, accounting for 95.64%, 94.75%, respectively. The comprehensive evaluation results showed that the rate of the overall treatment effect with technical level, satisfaction degree or applicability in clinical practice which were 7-9 points is 77.38%, 74.00%, 76.90% respectively. This guideline has a high clinical compliance and can be used as a standard for common diseases of gynecology, but there are also some conditions with poor applicability, which does not conform to the actual situation, and needs to be further revised.

[Clinical application evaluation of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Dermatology in Traditional Chinese Medicine].

To assess the quality and application effect of Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Diseases of Dermatology in Traditional Chinese Medicine(Guidelines) through the applicability and applicability evaluation respectively. The questionnaire survey was adopted to evaluate the applicability of the Guidelines, including the utilization, quality, and clinical application conditions. The results showed that the familiarity rate and utilization rate of the Guidelines were 85.37%, 48.78%, respectively. The data showed that the familiarity and the utilization rates were different in the working staff with different professional titles. The evaluation level was the lowest given by the staff with junior professional title (70.97%, 29.03%) in comparison. The assessment showed the overall quality of the Guideline was good and slightly low level for the rationality scores of the other therapeutic methods as well as for the recuperation and prevention (80.49%, 85.37%), which was in line with the clinical compliance of the Guideline. The perspective observation of clinical cases was used for the applicability evaluation, including clinical compliance of the Guideline, effect evaluation, and comprehensive assessment, et al. The results showed that the safety score was the highest, followed by the economic issue and efficacy. For the comprehensive evaluation of the applicability, complete applicability accounted for 29.27%, and the general applicability accounted for 87.80%. It was showed in the three index scores of the applicability evaluation that the accumulative score 7-9 scores were 75.65%, 73.89%, 71.12%. Through the applicability and applicability evaluation, the Guideline was satisfactory in the overall quality, high in the safety of clinical application and good in efficacy and economic issues. There are some limits on the development method and technical issues in the Guideline, which is required to be supplemented in the revision. Additionally, the strategy study on the promotion of the Guideline should be enhanced so as to expedite the recognition and utilization of the Guideline.

17-[16,17-Dihydroxycyclooctatinyl]-hexaketide ester from Streptomyces sp. SR107.

A new hexaketide acid esterified by the 17-hydroxyl group of 16,17-dihydroxycyclooctatin, namely 17-[16,17-dihydroxycyclooctatinyl]-hexaketide ester (1), a member of the group of rare bacterial diterpenes with a fused 5-8-5 ring system was isolated from strain Streptomyces sp. SR107. The structure was determined on the basis of its spectral data (1H NMR, 13C NMR, 1H-1H COSY, HSQC, HMBC, NOESY, IR and HR-ESI-MS). The antibacterial activity was also evaluated in this paper.

Feasibility analysis of the value of Q method in the classification and understanding of expert experience.

The Q method, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, refers to the qualitative analysis of Q-sorts based on quantitative techniques. It is used to research individual subjective experience, analyzing consensus and divergence to identify and categorize subjects' viewpoints. The sorting process is completely performed by the subjects, independent of study researchers. The Q method in medical research has been applied in many fields, including nursing care, clinical studies, doctor and patient's perceptions, health evaluation and decision making. The authors used the Q method to research Chinese medicine (CM) group decision making, exploring its practical feasibility in this important field. Four primary domains are addressed: (1) integration of expert opinion; (2) expert classification; (3) ascertaining the entire viewpoint orientation of a certain type of expert; and (4) comparison of expert opinion using an additional perspective. The essence of the Q method caters to the CM thinking model and should be introduced into CM and explored more deeply.

[Preliminary research on application of Q method in studying experiences of Chinese medicine famous veteran doctors].

As the stands, one-sidedness of subjective understanding and subjective bias is surely existed in the study of Chinese medicine (CM) doctors' experiences, so to find appropriate methods for inheriting the real experiences of experts is needed. Since CM thinking presents as a system integral way of intention thinking and a mental process of subject, to study CM experts' experiences in virtue of Q method, a psychological research method for the subjective sense, must be feasible. The application of Q method was inspected in this article, it was considered to be capable of sorting the experts, integrating the opinions of experts and comparing their opinions from multi-pointviews. A test investigation was carried out by applying Q method to analyze the CM measures, getting from some chosen gynecology specialists, for regain pregnancy in women underwent spontaneous abortion, for exploring the applicative value of Q method in the co-cognizance formation of experts' experiences.

Immune reconstitution of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic infectious disease, which the patients are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV damages the human's immune function and causes CD4 cell decline in the number and function. Immune reconstitution is an important treatment to AIDS. Bone marrow transplantation, adoptive immune cell therapy and cytokines infusion can all assist the immune reconstitution; highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can effectively control the virus replication and benefit the immune reconstitution. HAART combined with immunotherapy is an important method of immune reconstitution in AIDS patients. Chinese medicine is playing a more and more important role in immune reconstitution. Immune reconstitution has always been effective in the whole treatment of AIDS.

[Effects of Shengqi Jiangtang Granule on rat model of insulin resistance and its mechanism].

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of Shengqi Jiangtang Granule (SJG) on rat model of insulin resistance (IR) and explore the mechanism. METHODS: IR model was induced by high fat diet and peritoneal injection of streptozotocin in Wistar rats. Model rats were randomly divided into the model group, the low, medium and high dose SJG groups treated with corresponding dose of SJG, and thc RGL group with rosiglitazone (RGL). A normal control group was also set up. Blood glucose (BG), protein expression of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and protein kinase C (PKC) in aortic tissue were detected. RESULTS: BG decreased in the high and medium dose SJG groups and the RGL group after treatment, and the lowest level was shown in the high dose SJG group. Compared with that in the normal group, the expressions of ET-1 and PKC obviously increased in the model group (P<0.05), which was lowered in the RGL group and the high and medium dose SJG groups after treatment in a dosage-depending manner, showing significant difference to those in the model group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: SJG can lower blood glucose and inhibit ET-1 and PKC expressions to improve vascular endothelial function, thus to promote insulin sensitiveness and alleviate IR.