Analysis of soil pollution characteristics and influencing factors based on ten electroplating enterprises.

The electroplating industry encompasses various processes and plating types that contribute to environmental pollution, which has led to growing public concern. To investigate related soil pollution in China, the study selected 10 sites with diverse industrial characteristics distributed across China and collected 1052 soil samples to determine the presence of industrial priority pollutants (PP) based on production process and pollutant toxicity. The factors influencing site pollution as well as proposed pollution prevention and control approaches were then evaluated. The results indicate the presence of significant pollution in the electroplating industry, with ten constituents surpassing the risk screening values (RSV). The identified PP consist of Cr(VI), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), total chromium (Cr), and petroleum hydrocarbons (C10-C40). PP contamination was primarily observed in production areas, liquid storage facilities, and solid zones. The vertical distribution of metal pollutants decreased with soil depth, whereas the reverse was true for petroleum hydrocarbons (C10-C40). Increase in site production time was strongly correlated with soil pollution, but strengthening anti-seepage measures in key areas can effectively reduce the soil exceedance standard ratio. This study serves as a foundation for conceptualizing site repair technology in the electroplating industry and offers a reference and methodology for pollution and source control in this and related sectors.

The anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the ethyl acetate extract of Viburnum taitoense Hayata.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Viburnum taitoense Hayata has been used as folk medicine by the minority people in Southwestern China for a long history, especially in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The minority in Guangxi including Zhuang, Miao and Yao people use the ethanol extract of V. taitoense Hayata to treat the fracture, kill the pain of rheumatism because of its definite therapeutic effects. AIM OF THE STUDY: So far, the scientific investigation of V. taitoense Hayata is done very little. Here, we first prepared the ethyl acetate extract of V. taitoense (EEVt), secondly measured the contents of phenols, flavonoids, and terpenoids in EEVt, and thirdly, the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of EEVt were investigated by invitro model of RAW 264.7 cells and invivo models of inflammation and pain in rats and mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The contents of phenols, flavonoids, and terpenoids in EEVt were determined by UV spectrophotometry, respectively. The anti-inflammatory effect of EEVt (5, 25, 50, 100, and 200 µg/mL) in vitro was tested by determining its inhibitory effect on the nitric oxide production of RAW264.7 cells activated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of EEVt in vivo were investigated in the following experimental rats and mice models: carrageenan-induced paw edema, corton-oil-induced ear edema, acetic acid writhing test, and formalin pain test. RESULTS: The contents of total phenolic, total flavonoids, and total triterpenoids in V. taitoense were measured to be 3.46 ± 0.04%, 2.38 ± 0.04%, and 14.96 ± 0.17%, respectively. In vitro test showed that EEVt at different tested dosages (5, 25, 50, 100, and 200 µg/mL) had no significant toxicity to RAW264.7 macrophages. At dosages of 37.5 and 75 µg/mL of EEVt significant inhibitory (p < 0.001) on the productions of nitric oxide (NO). High dosage (200 µg/mL) of EEVt displayed highly significant inhibitory (p < 0.001) on the productions of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-1ß, and TNF-α from the LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. EEVt showed obvious anti-inflammatory activity at different time points after carrageenan injection (p < 0.05) in vivo test, and its anti-inflammatory activity reached the strongest 4 h. Similarly, through the ear swelling test, EEVt (200 mg/kg) showed significant (p < 0.05) anti-inflammatory activity. Besides, formalin and acetic acid writhing experiments also showed that EEVt has significant (p < 0.05) analgesic activity. CONCLUSION: EEVt was confirmed to be definite anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, and the phytochemicals of EEVt was disclosed to be rich in triterpenoids, which was worthy to be further investigated.

[Study of EST-SSR marker system of Cordyceps].

OBJECTIVE: To establish the EST-SSR marker system for Cordyceps by using ESTs of C. bassiana and C. militaris. METHOD: The ESTs of Cordyceps were downloaded from the public database of NCBI, and the redundant ESTs with low quality were removed. The EST-SSR primers were designed by Sequece Seiner 1. 2. And the primers were screened through PAGE-Electrophoresis. RESULT: The 4 556 non-redundant ESTs which from C. bassiana with total length of 2 953 173 bp were selected. 718 EST-SSRs distributed in 616 ESTs were totally screened out, accounting for 15.8% of the non-redundant ESTs. It was discovered that the average distance of EST-SSSR was 1/4 096 bp in EST-SSRs distribution of C. bassiana. Trinucleotide repeats were the most abundant types with 419 repeated sequences. Regarding to C. militaris, totally 1 363 non-redundant ESTs were acquired, from which 1 117 EST-SSRs were screened, and rate of SSR sites in ESTs was 81.95%. The leading motif of SSR was nucleotide A. The 50 pairs of EST-SSR primers were designed according to the ESTs of C. bassiana, and preliminary test showed the 34 pairs of primers amplified clear fragments,accounting for 68% of all primers. Furthermore, the 39 of the 40 pairs of primers from the ESTs of C. militaris were found to be amplified as the clear fragments, accounting for 97.5%. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that different anamorph of Cordyceps spieces were divided into four branches. CONCLUSION: The EST-SSR of Cordyceps had comparably higher utility value. The EST-SSR markers developed from ESTs of C. bassiana and C. militaris had well transferability in Cordyceps. And it was suggested that the EST-SSR markers should be an easy and effective way to assay molecular genetic structure of Cordyceps.

[Analysis of urinary storage symptoms following transurethral resection of the prostate].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), especially those in the urinary storage phase, following transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), and to improve the postoperative management and patients' quality of life after TURP. METHODS: A total of 86 patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) underwent TURP, and were interviewed on urinary symptoms at 1, 3, 7, 15 and 30 days after removal of the catheter. The patients were divided into two groups according to whether they had preoperative detrusor instability and/or compliance of the bladder (Group A) or not (Group B), and observed for the changes in IPSS scores and urinary storage symptoms after removal of the catheter. RESULTS: Complete follow-ups were achieved in 71 cases, 28 with detrusor instability and/or compliance of the bladder and the other 43 without. Their IPSS scores on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 15th and 30th day after removal of the catheter were 8.1 +/- 2.5, 7.2 +/- 3.1, 6.3 +/- 3.8, 5.3 +/- 4.2 and 2.4 +/- 3.4, respectively, with statistically significant differences between the 7th and the 1st as well as the 30th and the 15th day (P < 0.05), but not between the 1st and the3rd nor the 15th and the 7th day (P > 0.05). On the 1st day, the cardinal symptoms in the urinary storage phase were urinary frequency, urgency and incontinence; the scores on IPSS and urinary storage symptoms were 10.4 +/- 3.3 and 9.3 +/- 3.8 in Group A and 6.2 +/- 2.8 and 5.2 +/- 2.7 in Group B, with significant differences between the two groups (P < 0.05). After treatment with tolterodine and alpha-adrenoreceptor inhibitor, neither IPSS scores nor the scores on urinary storage symptoms showed any significant differences between Groups A and B on the 15th and 30th day (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The lower urinary tract symptoms following TURP, especially those in the urinary storage phase, are correlated with preoperative bladder function, and getting improved gradually after surgery.

[The impact of Yishenqinghuo recipe on alveolar bone reconstruction of rats with experimental periodontitis].

PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of Yishenqinghuo recipe on alveolar bone reconstruction of rats with experimental periodontitis. METHODS: 12-months old Spague-Dawley rats were selected for the study. All rats were randomly divided into 4 groups. Group A: control group (with no periodontitis model, fed with the same dosage of saline as Group D); Group B: model group (with periodontitis model, fed with the same dosage of saline as Group D); Group C: high-dosage group (with periodontitis model, fed with doubling dosage of medicine as Group D); Group D: equivalent-dosage group (with periodontitis model, fed with clinical equivalent effective dosage of medicine). After being gavaged with medicine/saline for 3 months, the alveolar bone were collected to make undecalcified histological slices and evaluate the changes of alveolar bone histomorphometric parameters. All the results were analyzed by ANOVA, with the use of SAS 6.04 software package. RESULTS: Compared with group B, the formation of osteoid were increased and had less free ending trabecular in group C and D. The percent age of trabecular area (%Tb.Ar) and node-terminus ratio (NTR) of alveolar bone for this 4 groups were 75.24+/-3.82/1.49+/-0.12, 45.78+/-6.70/0.48+/-0.08, 73.33+/-4.20/1.33+/-0.06 and 67.69+/-2.83/1.26+/-0.10,respectively. This two parameters of group B were much lower than that in other three groups (P<0.01). At the same time, the NTR in group D was significantly lower than that in group A (P<0.01). The osteoid area (Os.Ar) of different groups were (88.44+/-7.52) microm(2), (145.37+/-13.91) microm(2), (211.10+/-22.96) microm(2) and (201.22+/-24.75) microm(2) (transformation variables), respectively. The Os.Ar of group A was lowest, and that in group B was lower than group C and D, there were significant differences(P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: From this study, we conclude that Yishenqinghuo recipe is in favor of enhancing alveolar bone quantity, improving bone structure and reconstructing bone loss of rats with experimental periodontitis. Supported by National Key Technologies R&D Program (Grant No.2004BA726) and Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No.03ZR14081).