Subtle magnesium liberation of self-fabricated functional filler actuates highly efficient phosphorus removal from source-separated urine by SBBR.

Domestic wastewater source-separated treatment has attracted wide attention due to the efficiency improvement of sewage treatment systems, energy saving, resource reuse, and the construction and operation cost saving of pipeline networks. Nonetheless, the excess source-separated urine still demands further harmless treatment. Sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR), a new type of composite biofilm reactor developed by filling different fillers into the sequential batch reactor (SBR) reactor, has higher pollutant removal performance and simpler operation and maintenance. However, the phosphorus removal ability of the SBBR filling with conventional fillers is still limited and needs further improvement. In this study, we developed two new fillers, the self-fabricated filler A and B (SFA/SFB), and compared their source-separated urine treatment performance. Long-term treatment experimental results demonstrated that the SBBR systems with different fillers had good removal performance on the COD and TN in the influent, and the removal rate increased with the increasing HRT. However, only the SBBR system with the SFA showed excellent PO43--P and TP removal performance, with the removal rates being 83.7 ± 11.9% and 77.3 ± 13.7% when the HRT was 1 d. Microbial community analysis results indicated that no special bacteria with strong phosphorus removal ability were present on the surface of the SFA. Adsorption experimental results suggested that the SFA had better adsorption performance for phosphorus than the SFB, but it could not always have stronger phosphorus adsorption and removal performance during long-term operation due to the adsorption saturation. Through a series of characterizations such as SEM, XRD, and BET, it was found that the SFA had a looser structure due to the use of different binder and production processes, and the magnesium in the SFA gradually released and reacted with PO43- and NH4+ in the source-separated urine to form dittmarite and struvite, thus achieving efficient phosphorus removal. This study provides a feasible manner for the efficient treatment of source-separated urine using the SBBR system with self-fabricated fillers.

Correction: Qi, W., et al. (+)-Usnic Acid Induces ROS-dependent Apoptosis via Inhibition of Mitochondria Respiratory Chain Complexes and Nrf2 Expression in Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21, 876.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [1]:[...].

"We make choices we think are going to save us": Debate and stance identification for online breast cancer CAM discussions.

Patients discuss complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in online health communities. Sometimes, patients' conflicting opinions toward CAM-related issues trigger debates in the community. The objectives of this paper are to identify such debates, identify controversial CAM therapies in a popular online breast cancer community, as well as patients' stances towards them. To scale our analysis, we trained a set of classifiers. We first constructed a supervised classifier based on a long short-term memory neural network (LSTM) stacked over a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect automatically CAM-related debates from a popular breast cancer forum. Members' stances in these debates were also identified by a CNN-based classifier. Finally, posts automatically flagged as debates by the classifier were analyzed to explore which specific CAM therapies trigger debates more often than others. Our methods are able to detect CAM debates with F score of 77%, and identify stances with F score of 70%. The debate classifier identified about 1/6 of all CAM-related posts as debate. About 60% of CAM-related debate posts represent the supportive stance toward CAM usage. Qualitative analysis shows that some specific therapies, such as Gerson therapy and usage of laetrile, trigger debates frequently among members of the breast cancer community. This study demonstrates that neural networks can effectively locate debates on usage and effectiveness of controversial CAM therapies, and can help make sense of patients' opinions on such issues under dispute. As to CAM for breast cancer, perceptions of their effectiveness vary among patients. Many of the specific therapies trigger debates frequently and are worth more exploration in future work.

A new kinetic model of ultrasound-assisted extraction of polysaccharides from Chinese chive.

Chinese chive, a famous green vegetable, is widely cultivated in the Asia. In the present study, we found that ultrasound caused the degradation of Chinese chive polysaccharides (CCP) in the process of extraction. Since lacking the consideration of polysaccharide degradation, the traditional kinetic models can not reflect the real extraction process of CCP. Therefore, a modified kinetic model was thus established by introducing a parameter of degradation coefficient based on the Fick's second law, suggesting the diffusion and degradation of CCP is highly dependent on the ultrasonic power, extraction temperature and solid-liquid ratio. According to this modified model, the maximum CCP yield was obtained under an optimal extraction condition including extraction temperature 37°C, ultrasonic power 458 w, extraction time 30min and solid-liquid ratio 1:32. The objective polysaccharides responding to ultrasound were shown to be four different fractions, contributing to the increased diffusion and degradation of CCP by ultrasound treatment.

[A comparative research on quality of Vitmin C Yinqiao tablets from different manufacturers].

OBJECTIVE: To study the different manufacturers Vitmin C (Vc) Yinqiao tablets, and the quality of the analysis of the problem, to provide a theoretical basis for the correct evaluation of the quality of medicines and improving the standard drugs. METHOD: 11 manufacturers of 18 batches of samples for determination of the weight of the core tablets, powder samples were observed with microscope, determination of Vc, and the establishment of the Vc Yinqiao tablets HPLC method for determination of chlorogenic acid and arctigenin, chlorogenic acid and arctigenin in the samples were measured and compared. RESULT: There is a big difference of microscope and various measured results in different manufacturers products. CONCLUSION: Because different manufacturers to produce the same, there are big differences in the quality of the products.