Facilitating mitigation of agricultural non-point source pollution and improving soil nutrient conditions: The role of low temperature co-pyrolysis biochar in nitrogen and phosphorus distribution.

The current study generated co-pyrolysis biochar by pyrolyzing rice straw and pig manure at 300 °C and subsequently applying it in a field. Co-pyrolysis biochar demonstrated superior efficiency in mitigating agricultural non-point source pollution compared to biochar derived from individual sources. Furthermore, it displayed notable capabilities in retaining and releasing nutrients, resulting in increased soil levels of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and organic matter during the maturation stage of rice. Moreover, co-pyrolysis biochar influences soil microbial communities, potentially impacting nutrient cycling. During the rice maturation stage, the soil treated with co-pyrolysis biochar exhibited significant increases in available nutrients and rice yield compared to the control (p < 0.05). These findings emphasize the potential of co-pyrolysis biochar for in-situ nutrient retention and enhanced soil nutrient utilization. To summarize, the co-pyrolysis of agricultural waste materials presents a promising approach to waste management, contributing to controlling non-point source pollution, improving soil fertility, and promoting crop production.

In-situ retention of nitrogen, phosphorus in agricultural drainage and soil nutrients by biochar at different temperatures and the effects on soil microbial response.

This study conducted a two-year experiment to investigate the impacts of biochar with various temperatures (350 °C, 500 °C, and 650 °C), on the reduction of pollutants in agricultural runoff and the enhancement of soil fertility. The results showed that the biochar significantly reduced the concentrations of total nitrogen and total phosphorus in farmland runoff. Moreover, higher-temperature biochar demonstrated greater efficacy in decreasing pollutants in farmland drainage. Treatment with RB650 resulted in a reduction of the total nitrogen and total phosphorus output load by 29.31-30.67 % and 21.92-25.21 %, respectively, compared to RB350. Furthermore, biochar exhibited substantial enhancements in soil fertility. This was supported by heightened soil organic matter content, increased availability of nutrients, and a noteworthy (P < 0.05) upsurge in pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus content observed in the second year following the application of biochar. Biochar has the potential to enhance soil enzyme activity and affect microbial community composition, thereby facilitating nutrient cycling. The findings illustrated the regenerative and recyclable characteristics of biochar's adsorption activity throughout crop growth. This process enables sustained improvement in soil nutrient retention capacity and fertility. Thus, it emphasizes the potential of biochar as an in-situ model for nutrient retention and recycling, offering an effective approach to mitigate agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution and enhance soil fertility.

Performance, mechanism and stability of nitrogen-doped sewage sludge based activated carbon supported magnetite in anaerobic degradation of coal gasification wastewater.

In current study, the UASB reactor was enhanced by nitrogen-doped sewage sludge based activated carbon supported Fe3O4 (Fe3O4/N-SBAC) for coal gasification wastewater treatment. The results showed that COD removal efficiency was increased to 64.4% with Fe3O4/N-SBAC assistance and the corresponding methane production rate achieved up to 1093.6 mL/d. Fe3O4/N-SBAC promoted microbial growth and enzymatic activity, leading to high extracellular polymeric substances and coenzyme F420 concentrations. Fe3O4/N-SBAC also facilitated the sludge granulation process with high particle size, substantial interspecific signal molecules and low diffusible signal factor. Microbial community analysis revealed that Fe3O4/N-SBAC might support direct interspecies electron transfer process, in which the enriched Geobacter was likely to communicate with Methanothrix via electrical connection, improving anaerobic degradation of coal gasification wastewater. Total phenols shock and pH impact revealed that reactor stability was enhanced in the Fe3O4/N-SBAC-supplemented system.

Chinese Medicine Treatment on Graft-Versus-Host Disease after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is the most common complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and also an important factor affecting the survival and quality of life in patients after transplantation. Currently, immunosuppressive therapy is commonly used for GVHD, but the curative effect is not ideal. How to effectively prevent and treat GVHD is one of the difficulties to be solved urgently in the field of transplantation. In this paper, we summarize the latest progress in pathogenesis, prevention and treatment of GVHD with Chinese medicine (CM). We hope it will provide ideas and methods for exploring the mechanism and establishing a new comprehensive therapy for GVHD with CM.

Panaxdiol Saponins Component Promotes Hematopoiesis and Modulates T Lymphocyte Dysregulation in Aplastic Anemia Model Mice.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potential efficacy of panaxadiol saponins component (PDS-C) in the treatment of aplastic anemia (AA) model mice. METHODS: Totally 70 mice were divided into 7 groups as follows: normal, model, low-, medium-, high-dose PDS-C (20, 40, 80 mg/kg, namely L-, M-, H-PDS-C), cyclosporine (40 mg/kg), and andriol (25 mg/kg) groups, respectively. An immune-mediated AA mouse model was established in BALB/c mice by exposing to 5.0 Gy total body irradiation at 1.0 Gy/min, and injecting with lymphocytes from DBA mice. On day 4 after establishment of AA model, all drugs were intragastrically administered daily for 15 days, respectively, while the mice in the normal and model groups were administered with saline solution. After treatment, the peripheral blood counts, bone marrow pathological examination, colony forming assay of bone marrow culture, T lymphocyte subpopulation analysis, as well as T-bet, GATA-3 and FoxP3 proteins were detected by flow cytometry and Western blot. RESULTS: The peripheral blood of white blood cell (WBC), platelet, neutrophil counts and hemoglobin (Hb) concentration were significantly decreased in the model group compared with the normal group (all P<0.01). In response to 3 dose PDS-C treatment, the WBC, platelet, neutrophil counts were significantly increased at a dose-dependent manner compared with the model group (all P<0.01). The myelosuppression status of AA was significantly reduced in M-, H-PDS-C groups, and hematopoietic cell quantity of bone marrow was more abundant than the model group. The colony numbers of myeloid, erythroid and megakaryocytic progenitor cells in the model group were less than those of the normal mice in bone marrow culture, while, PDS-C therapy enhanced proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells by significantly increasing colony numbers (all P<0.01). Furthermore, PDS-C therapy increased peripheral blood CD3+ and CD3+CD4+ cells and reduced CD3+CD8+ cells (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Meanwhile, PDS-C treatment at medium- and high doses groups also increased CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ cells, downregulated T-bet protein expression, and upregulated GATA-3 and FoxP3 protein expressions in spleen cells (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: PDS-C possesses dual activities, promoting proliferation hematopoietic progenitor cells and modulating T lymphocyte immune functions in the treatment of AA model mice.

New insights into enhanced anaerobic degradation of Fischer-Tropsch wastewater with the assistance of magnetite.

In this study, magnetite (Fe3O4), as the typical conductive material, was supplemented in anaerobic sequential batch reactor (ASBR) with the attempt to enhance pollutants removal and methane production during Fischer-Tropsch wastewater treatment. The results showed that COD removal efficiency and cumulative methane production with the addition of optimum magnetite dosage (0.4 g) were as high as 84.3 ±â€¯2.0% and 7.46 ±â€¯0.24 L, which were higher than other test groups (0, 0.2 and 0.6 g). Furthermore, the combination of high-throughput 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and metagenomic analysis in this study further confirmed that the Geobacter and Methanosaeta species were specially enriched in bacterial and archaeal community at the optimum magnetite dosage, suggesting that magnetite-mediated direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) between Geobacter and Methanosaeta species was likely a crucial reason to promote syntrophic metabolism of propionic acid and butyric acid, and further enhance final methanogenesis.

Effects of panaxadiol saponins component as a new Chinese patent medicine on proliferation, differentiation and corresponding gene expression profile of megakaryocytes.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of panaxadiol saponins component (PDS-C) isolated from total saponins of panax ginseng on proliferation, differentiation and corresponding gene expression profile of megakaryocytes. METHODS: Bone marrow culture of colony forming assay of megakaryocytic progenitor cells (CFU-MK) was observed for the promoting proliferation mediated by PDS-C, and differentiation of megakaryocytic blasts caused by PDS-C was analyzed with flow cytometry in CHRF-288 and Meg-01 cells, as well as proliferation, differentiation-related genes expression profile and protein expression levels were detected by human gene expression microarray and western blot. RESULTS: In response to PDS-C 10, 20 and 50 mg/L, CFU-MK from 10 human bone marrow samples was increased by 28.9%±2.7%, 41.0%±3.2% and 40.5%±2.6% over untreated control, respectively (P <0.01, each). Flow cytometry analysis showed that PDS-C treated CHRF-288 cells and Meg-01 cells significantly increased in CD42b, CD41, TSP and CD36 positive ratio, respectively. PDS-C induced 29 genes up-regulated more than two-fold commonly in both cells detected by human expression microarray representing 4000 known genes. The protein expression levels of ZNF91, c-Fos, BTF3a, GATA-1, RGS2, NDRG2 and RUNX1 were increased with western blot in correspond to microarray results. CONCLUSION: PDS-C as an effective component for hematopoiesis, play the role to enhance proliferation and differentiation of megakaryocytes, also up-regulated expression of proliferation, differentiation-related genes and proteins in vitro.

Treatment of severe aplastic anemia by immunosuppressor anti-lymphocyte globulin/anti-thymus globulin as the chief medicine in combination with Chinese drugs.

OBJECTIVE: To study the therapeutic effect of combined therapy with Chinese drugs and immuno-suppressors, mainly anti-lymphocyte globulin/anti-thymus globulin (ALG/ATG), for the treatment of severe aplastic anemia (SAA), the efficacy associated factors and adverse effects as well. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 65 patients with SAA treated by combined therapy which was supplemented with cyclosporin A, androgen, hematopoietic growth factor, etc. RESULTS: Of the 57 patients followed-up, 26 (45.6%) were basically cured, 15 (26.3%) remitted, and 8 (14.0%) improved markedly, the total effective rate being 85.9%. By separately comparing with a single item of clinical data, it was shown that the therapeutic effectiveness was correlated, to a certain extent, with age, illness duration, neutrophil count, and bone marrow proliferation in patients before treatment, as well as with infection that occurred in the follow-up period. It was obviously higher in patients with peripheral neutrophil count > 0.5 x 10 10(9)/L (P<0.05). Various degrees of serum sickness-like reactions occurred in the treatment of 36 patients, including fever in 36 (63.2%), skin rash in 8 (14.0%), and musculoskeletal pain in 5 (8.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The therapeutic effect of combined therapy with Chinese drugs and ALG/ATG in treating SAA could be affirmed, showing some superiority as compared with Western medicine alone. The patients' age, duration of illness, neutrophil count, and bone marrow proliferation before treatment, and degree of infection that occurred could affect the therapeutic efficacy to a certain extent. Adverse reactions resulting from the combined therapy are less, showing the toxicity reducing and effect enhancing action of Chinese drugs.