Effect of Cinobufacini plus platinum-based chemotherapy regimen on the immune function of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis.

Background: Cinobufacini is a Chinese medicinal preparation extracted from the traditional Chinese medicine toad skin and is commonly used clinically as an adjuvant treatment for malignant tumours. Purpose: To systematically evaluate the effects of Cinobufacini combined with a first-line platinum-based chemotherapy regimen in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), especially in terms of immune function. Materials and methods: Eight electronic databases were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating Cinobufacini in conjunction with platinum-based chemotherapy for NSCLC (stage III-IV) published from 2012 to the present. GRADE Pro GDT was used to assess RCT quality and meta-analysis was performed mainly using Review Manager version 5.4, with the assistance of Stata version 16.0 (StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA), and trial sequential analysis software. Results: A total of 35 studies were included. Meta-analysis revealed that the combination therapy group exhibited a better disease control rate (DCR) [OR = 2.63, 95%CI (2.15, 3.21), P < 0.00001], with a higher one-year [OR = 2.41,95% CI (1.75,3.33), P < 0.00001], and two-year [OR = 2.28, 95% CI (1.56,3.33), P < 0.00001] survival rate, plus lower leukocyte toxicity [OR = 0.40, 95%CI (0.33,0.49), P < 0.00001]. For immune function, the combination of chemotherapy with Cinobufacini effectively increased the proportion of CD3+ [SMD = 1.15, 95% CI (0.89,1.42), P < 0.00001], CD4+ [SMD = 1.60, 95%CI (1.26,1.94), P < 0.00001] and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio [SMD = 2.15, 95% CI (1.45,2.86), P < 0.00001] in peripheral blood. Conclusion: The addition of Cinobufacini to platinum-based chemotherapies for advanced NSCLC significantly improved clinical efficacy, enhanced immune function, and reduced chemotherapeutic toxicity, irrespective of administration and treatment duration.

Prospects for humic acids treatment and recovery in wastewater: A review.

Clean water shortages require the reuse of wastewater. The presence of organic substances such as humic acids in wastewater makes the water treatment process more difficult. Humic acids can significantly affect the removal of heavy metals and other such toxins. Humic acids is formed by the decomposition and transformation of animal and plant remains by microorganisms, and naturally exists in soil and water. It is necessary to degrade and remove humic acids from wastewater. As it seriously human health, effective technologies for removing humic acids from wastewater have attracted great interest over the past decades. This study compared existing techniques for removing humic acids from wastewater, as well as their limitations. Physicochemical treatments including filtration and oxidation are basic and key approaches to removing humic acids. Biological treatments including enzyme and fungi-mediated humic acids degradation are economically feasible but require some scalability. In conclusion, the integrated treatment processes are more significant options for the effective removal of humic acids from wastewater. In addition, humic acids have rich utilization values. It can improve the soil, increase crop yields, and promote the removal of pollutants.

Enhanced nutrient removal from stormwater runoff by a compact on-site treatment system.

Efficient and space-saving technologies for on-site treatment of stormwater runoff are required to control water pollution in the urban surface. The intermittent nature of stormwater runoff and extremely limited land available greatly hindered the application of current wastewater treatment technologies, and thus synchronous removal of multiple contaminants (especially for nutrient) efficiently was failed by current processes. In this study, a new compact CFFA treatment system, consisting of coagulation, flocculation, filtration and ammonium ion exchange units, was constructed for on-site treatment of stormwater runoff based on batch test optimization and pilot-scale test verification. The coagulation process effectively aggregated particles and precipitated phosphorus by dosing Al2(SO4)3, while flocculation using anionic polyacrylamide further enlarged particle size for efficient micromesh filtration. The dynamic micromesh filtration obtained turbidity and phosphorus removal efficiencies comparable to 30 min gravity settling with greatly smaller footprint. Ion exchange by zeolite showed higher exchange capacity owing to lower initial ammonium nitrogen concentration in the stormwater runoff. The pilot-scale experiments with treatment capacity of 1 L/s showed that the CFFA treatment system achieved synchronous removal of particles (97.2%), nitrogen (79.7%), phosphorus (95.0%) and organic matters (83.3%) efficiently within short hydraulic retention time of 0.35 h, yielding effluent with chemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, total phosphorus and total nitrogen of 38.7, 7.80, 0.22 and 2.80 mg/L, respectively. The CFFA treatment system had the highest pollutant removal loads compared to reported runoff treatment processes in literatures, and was well suited to on-site treatment of stormwater runoff with high space utilization efficiency.

Population sequencing enhances understanding of tea plant evolution.

Tea is an economically important plant characterized by a large genome, high heterozygosity, and high species diversity. In this study, we assemble a 3.26-Gb high-quality chromosome-scale genome for the 'Longjing 43' cultivar of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. Genomic resequencing of 139 tea accessions from around the world is used to investigate the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of tea accessions. We find that hybridization has increased the heterozygosity and wide-ranging gene flow among tea populations with the spread of tea cultivation. Population genetic and transcriptomic analyses reveal that during domestication, selection for disease resistance and flavor in C. sinensis var. sinensis populations has been stronger than that in C. sinensis var. assamica populations. This study provides resources for marker-assisted breeding of tea and sets the foundation for further research on tea genetics and evolution.

Comparison of foliar silicon and selenium on cadmium absorption, compartmentation, translocation and the antioxidant system in Chinese flowering cabbage.

Silicon (Si) and selenium (Se) are beneficial for many higher plants when grown on stress conditions. However, the mechanisms underlying the differential effects between foliar Si and Se in alleviation of plant toxicity exposed to cadmium (Cd) stress are remained unclear. In this study, we investigated the discrepant mechanisms of foliar Si and Se on Cd absorption and compartmentation by roots, its translocation in xylem, and the antioxidant system within Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis var. utilis) under low and high Cd stress. Results showed that plant growth was significantly enhanced by foliar additions of Si or/and Se according to an increased plant tissue biomass at high Cd exposure. In addition, the foliar coupled addition of Si and Se showed little effects on the concentrations of Si or Se in plant tissues in comparison with the single addition of foliar Si or Se respectively. The foliar Si alone or combined with Se markedly reduced the Cd concentrations in plant shoots under two Cd treatments. This might be explained by the lower Cd concentrations in symplast and apoplast and the higher Cd concentrations in cell walls of plant roots, and the lower Cd concentrations in xylem sap. However, no great changes in these values were observed under the treatments of foliar Se alone. Moreover, the foliar additions of Si or/and Se all increased the antioxidant enzyme activities of SOD, CAT and APX in plant tissues, especially at high Cd dosage. No significant differences in the increasing degrees of these three antioxidant enzymes were found between the foliar Si and Se treatments. However, only the foliar Se alone or combined with Si markedly promoted the antioxidant enzyme activities of GR and DHAR in plant tissues. Our findings demonstrate that the alleviation of Cd toxicity by foliar Si maybe mainly responsible for inhibition of Cd absorption and its translocation to plant shoots, reinforcing its compartmentation into root cell walls, whilst enhancing the antioxidant enzyme system may be employed by foliar Se.

Optimization of a full-scale Unitank wastewater treatment plant for biological phosphorus removal.

The Unitank process combines the advantages of traditional continuous-flow activated sludge processes and sequencing batch reactors, and has been extensively employed in many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China. Biological phosphorus removal (BPR) of a full-scale Unitank WWTP was optimized by increasing anaerobic time from 80 to 120 min in an operation cycle of 360 min and reducing solid retention time (SRT) from 21.3 to 13.1 d. The BPR efficiency of the full-scale Unitank system increased from 63.8% (SRT of 21.3 d) to 83.2% for a SRT of 13.1 d. When the anaerobic time increased from 80 to 120 min, the net anaerobic phosphorus release amount increased from 0.25 to 1.06 mg L(-1), and sludge phosphorus content rose from 13.8 to 15.0 mgP x (gSS)(-1). During half an operation cycle, the average specific phosphorus release rate increased from 0.097mgP x (gVSS x h)(-1) in 0-40 min to 0.825 mgP x (gVSS x h)(-1) in 40-60 min. Reducing SRT and increasing anaerobic time account for 84.6% and 15.4% in the total increment of phosphorus removal of 1.15 mgL(-1).

Role of dissolved organic matters (DOM) in membrane fouling of membrane bioreactors for municipal wastewater treatment.

Two membrane bioreactors (MBRs) with different operation conditions were employed to investigate the role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in membrane fouling. DOM characteristics and their correlations with membrane fouling in the MBR systems were studied by using three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence technology, gel filtration chromatography (GFC) analysis, and column chromatographic method for DOM fractionation, etc. The three-dimensional EEM fluorescence spectroscopy analysis indicated that the fluorescence intensity of protein-like peaks in DOM samples collected from the MBR zones showed positive correlations with membrane fouling. The fluorescence spectra of membrane foulants also exhibited two protein-like peaks, confirming that proteins played an important role in membrane fouling. The DOM samples collected from MBR zones were fractionated into four components, i.e., hydrophobic (HPO), transphilic (TPI), charged hydrophilic (HPI-C) and neutral hydrophilic fractions (HPI-N). It was found that HPI-N was the most abundant fraction in all the samples, accounting for 42.0-48.9% of the total DOM. Test results also showed that HPI-N had the highest fouling potential, which could be attributed to the high molecular weight (MW) distribution and the high membrane rejection rate of macromolecules.

Simultaneous nitrogen and phosphor removal in an aerobic submerged membrane bioreactor.

Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) effect and phosphor removal were investigated in a one-staged aerobic submerged membrane bioreactor on pilot-scale with mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) 19-20 g/L. The effects of DO concentration, sludge floc size distribution on SND were studied. Test results suggested that SND was successfully performed in the membrane bioreactor (MBR) and about 70% total nitrogen removal efficiency was achieved when DO concentration was set to 0.2-0.3 mg/L. The main mechanisms governing SND were the suitable sludge floc size and the low DO concentration which was caused by low oxygen transfer rate with such a high MLSS concentration in the MBR. In the meantime, phosphor removal was also studied with polymer ferric sulfate (PFS) addition and 14 mg/L dosage of PFS was proper for the MBR to remove phosphor. PFS addition also benefited the MBR operation owing to its reduction of extracellular polymer substances (EPS) of mixed liquor.