Photocatalytic Degradation of Oxytetracycline by Ternary Mixed Catalyst and Toxicity Assessment Using Boar Sperm.

Response surface methodology was adopted to obtain ternary mixed catalysts of TiO2-loaded ZSM-5 zeolite and graphene. Oxytetracycline was used as challenged toxicant to evaluate the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the composites. The optimal weight ratio of graphene, TiO2, and ZSM-5 was 1:8:1. The composites were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared, N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, and transmission electron microscope with an energy-dispersive spectroscopy system, etc. Synthesized samples showed high stability and strong visible-light absorption efficiency. The optimal operating conditions of oxytetracycline photocatalytic degradation were achieved over a wide range of pH and temperature. With 0.1 g/L of optimal ternary mixed composite, the photocatalytic degradation of oxytetracycline was nearly reached completion within 150 min at all treatment temperatures at pH 7. Toxicity of degraded oxytetracycline solution was assayed by a boar sperm quality model using fluorescent staining and flow cytometry. During 180 min of photocatalytic treatment, the degraded oxytetracycline solution showed increasing biotoxicity and changed the morphology and function of boar sperm, despite not killing them.

Long noncoding RNA derived from CD244 signaling epigenetically controls CD8+ T-cell immune responses in tuberculosis infection.

Molecular mechanisms for T-cell immune responses modulated by T cell-inhibitory molecules during tuberculosis (TB) infection remain unclear. Here, we show that active human TB infection up-regulates CD244 and CD244 signaling-associated molecules in CD8(+) T cells and that blockade of CD244 signaling enhances production of IFN-γ and TNF-α. CD244 expression/signaling in TB correlates with high levels of a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA)-BC050410 [named as lncRNA-AS-GSTT1(1-72) or lncRNA-CD244] in the CD244(+)CD8(+) T-cell subpopulation. CD244 signaling drives lncRNA-CD244 expression via sustaining a permissive chromatin state in the lncRNA-CD244 locus. By recruiting polycomb protein enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) to infg/tnfa promoters, lncRNA-CD244 mediates H3K27 trimethylation at infg/tnfa loci toward repressive chromatin states and inhibits IFN-γ/TNF-α expression in CD8(+) T cells. Such inhibition can be reversed by knock down of lncRNA-CD244. Interestingly, adoptive transfer of lncRNA-CD244-depressed CD8(+) T cells to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-infected mice reduced MTB infection and TB pathology compared with lncRNA-CD244-expressed controls. Thus, this work uncovers previously unidentified mechanisms in which T cell-inhibitory signaling and lncRNAs regulate T-cell responses and host defense against TB infection.

The degradation of antibiotic amoxicillin in the Fenton-activated sludge combined system.

The present study investigated the removal efficiency of amoxicillin by the Fenton process, individual activated sludge process and Fenton-activated sludge combined system. For the antibiotic at 1 g L(-1), the optimal conditions of the Fenton process included: 4 mL FeSO4·7H2O solution (20.43 g  L(-1)), 6 mL H2O2 solution (3%) and 40°C. Under the optimal conditions, the removal rate of amoxicillin achieved up to 80% in 70 min. In addition, the impact of amoxicillin on microorganism limited the removal capacity of the activated sludge process. When the concentration of amoxicillin was less than 350 mg L(-1), 69.04-88.79% of the antibiotic was removed. However, the antibiotic could not be treated by the activated sludge when the concentration increased up to 650 mg L(-1). On the other hand, ifamoxicillin was pretreated partly by the Fenton process it was then degraded completely by the same activated sludge. Thus, the combined system included two steps: 80% amoxicillin was degraded in step I and was removed completely in the cheaper biological treatment (step II). Our result showed that compared with the individual activated sludge process, the Fenton process improved the removal capacity of the subsequent activated sludge process in the combined system.

Electro-dewatering performance of sewage sludge under interrupted pulsating voltage: A comparison between square shape and half-sine shape waveform.

Electro-dewatering of sewage sludge with pulsating voltage was conducted under the two different wave shapes (square wave (SQW) and half-sine wave (HSW)) to investigate the influence of wave shape and duty cycle on sludge dewatering performance. The results indicated that, under the same average voltage, the moisture content of dewatered sludge with HSW was 10.3%-35.4% lower than that with SQW, suggesting the better dewatering performance of HSW. The optimal dewatering performance was achieved at duty cycle of 80% for SQW and 60% for SHW. The chemical oxygen demand of filtrate from HSW could be 13% higher than that from SQW, indicating the higher capacity of HSW in breaking sludge cells/floc structure. The applied voltage during electrochemical treatment promoted the hydrolysis of protein in filtrate, and the main components in the electro-dewatered filtrate were fulvic acid- and humic acid-like substances. The specific energy consumption for sludge electro-dewatering were 0.015-0.269 kWh/(kg removed water), and it was almost in linear relationship with duty cycle. By overall considering the energy consumption and electro-dewatering performance, the condition of 60% duty cycle with HSW was obviously better than other conditions, which provides a meaningful guidance for future application of sludge electro-dewatering technology with pulsating voltage.

Effect of soil management systems on the rhizosphere bacterial community structure of tobacco: Continuous cropping vs. paddy-upland rotation.

Rhizosphere bacteria play important role in soil nutrient cycling and plant growth, and their richness and diversity are influenced by soil management systems. However, the specific changes in tobacco rhizosphere bacterial community structure in continuous and tobacco-rice rotation cropping systems remain uninvestigated. In this study, soil properties and the composition of the rhizosphere bacterial community in tobacco monocropping and tobacco-rice rotation cropping systems were analyzed. Moreover, the comparison of rhizosphere bacterial community structure between tobacco continuous and tobacco-rice rotation cropping systems was performed via high-throughput sequencing. The changes in the composition of the rhizosphere bacterial community were investigated at different tobacco growth stages. The results showed that continuous tobacco cropping increased the soil soluble organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), and the content of other nutrients (e.g., available phosphorus and available potassium) compared to tobacco-rice rotation cropping. However, monocropping decreased bacterial alpha-diversity and altered the community composition when compared to the rotation cropping system. At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Bacteroidetes increased in the continuous cropping soil, while that of Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria decreased. At the genera level, the average abundance of the dominant genus Bacillus varied from 12.96% in continuous cropping libraries to 6.33% in the rotation cropping libraries (p < 0.05). Additionally, several other taxa, such as o_Acidobacteriales and Candidatus_Solibacter decreased from 7.63 to 6.62% (p < 0.05) and 4.52 to 2.91% (p < 0.05), respectively. However, the relative abundance of f_Gemmatimonadaceae and c_Subgroup_6 showed an increase of 1.46% (p < 0.05) and 1.63% (p < 0.05) in the tobacco-rice rotation cropping system, respectively. The results of NMDS indicated that the rhizobacteria community structure differed in the two cropping systems. In tobacco, the rhizosphere bacterial community structure showed no significant changes in the prosperous long-term stage and topping stage, but the composition changed significantly in the mature stage.

Initial knowledge of medical professionalism among Chinese medical students.

BACKGROUND: Initial knowledge of professionalism among medical students is particularly important for designing effective professionalism curricula and for studying the change in the knowledge of professionalism. AIM: The study examined first-semester medical students' initial knowledge of important attributes of good doctors. METHODS: Mixed methods were used to examine initial knowledge among first-semester students from a Chinese medical college. We used an open-ended survey to identify attributes of good doctors and grounded theory analysis to find emergent themes. We also used a close-ended survey to solicit students' responses to 50 attributes of good doctors and explorative and confirmatory factor analysis to examine underlying factors. RESULTS: 973 students completed the open-ended survey while 1730 students completed the close-ended survey. Through grounded theory analysis, 24 subthemes and three themes that include Ethics, Skill, and Person, emerged from the data. Explorative and confirmatory factor analysis showed convergent results: 24 valid items and three factors that include Ethics, Skill, and Person were identified. CONCLUSION: The initial knowledge of medical professionalism among first-semester students involves approximately 24 important attributes within three major dimensions of Ethics, Skill, and Person, with an overwhelming emphasis on Ethics. It is neither sophisticated nor comprehensive, compared with specialists' professional knowledge.

The critical role of oxidative debris in the adsorption and desorption of Pb(II) to graphene oxides under alkaline groundwater conditions.

The application of graphene oxide (GO) and its derivatives as adsorbents to remove heavy metal contaminants from industrial wastewaters has attracted increasing attention worldwide. Here, we investigated the role of oxidative debris (OD) on GO surfaces in the adsorption of Pb(II) under natural conditions. OD attached to GO surfaces can be removed under alkaline conditions, and plays a critical role in the adsorption of Pb(II) by GO. Specifically, the maximum adsorption capacity of Pb(II) on GO decreased from 926.50 to 357.64 mg·g-1 after OD removal. Under simulated natural alkaline groundwater conditions, some adsorbed Pb(II) was released with OD that was stripped from spent GO adsorbents (i.e., GO-Pb(II)). Further, batch experiments indicated that 1.30-1.43% of adsorbed Pb(II) could stably disperse in water as dissolved PbCO3 and OD-Pb(II) complexes, at a pH of ~8.3. The stripping and dissociation of OD under alkaline conditions promoted the mobility of Pb(II) on GO adsorbents. This study enhances our understanding of heavy metal transport in natural alkaline groundwater environments that contain GO particles.

mRNA profiling reveals the potential mechanism of TIPE2 in attenuating cognitive deficits in APP/PS1 mice.

Chronic brain neuritis is important for the pathogenesis and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Overexpression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα)-inducible protein 8-like 2 (TIPE2), a novel immunoregulatory protein, reverses cognitive dysfunction in APP/PS1 mice. However, the mRNA profile changes in TIPE2 overexpression APP/PS1 mice and the molecular mechanism of cognitive attenuation remain unknown. In this study, after the Y-maze testing the spatial learning of the APP/PS1 mice and the TIPE2 overexpression APP/PS1 mice, high-throughput sequencing was performed on hippocampus tissues for analysis of mRNA profiles. A total of 183 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected, of which 36 were down-regulated and 147 were up-regulated. Then, the mRNA profiles of the APP/PS1 mice and the wild-type mice were analyzed. A total of 196 DEGs were detected, of which 105 were down-regulated and 91 were up-regulated in the APP/PS1 mice. A comprehensive comparison of the mouse mRNAs showed that 20 genes were differentially expressed in both groups, among which, 19 genes showed an altered expression in the APP/PS1 mice, and the expression was recovered in TIPE2 overexpression APP/PS1 mice. We selected seven genes from these 19 genes, including Ttr, Lepr, Angptl2, Otx2, Clic6, Clo4a3 and Wfdc, for high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that, compared to the wild-type mice, these 7 genes were significantly down-regulated in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice. The expressions of a selected list of DEGs between APP/PS1 mice and APP/PS1 + OE mice were validated by quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR), and the results were consistent with the sequencing analysis. Taken together, increased adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated TIPE2 overexpression in the hippocampus of APP/PS1 mice reversed cognitive dysfunction. Transcriptional sequencing and bioinformatics analysis indicate that the attenuation of cognitive deficits was attributed to the recovery of certain genes.

Effect of targeted CXCL5 silencing on biological function of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell line AMC-HN-8 and its regulation analysis / 中国生物制品学杂志

@#Objective To investigate the effects of targeted silencing of CXCL5 on the related biological functions of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma(LSCC)cell line AMC-HN-8,and analyze the regulation through TCGA database.Methods RNA-seq data related to LSCC were obtained from TCGA database,and the expression differences of CXCL5 gene in LSCC and the adjacent tissues were analyzed. Total 60 samples of LSCC and the adjacent tissues from January 2019 to December 2020 were selected from the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University,and the expression of CXCL5 protein in LSCC tissues was detected by immunohistochemical staining. Human LSCC cell line AMC-HN-8 was cultured and the mRNA transcription level of CXCL5 in AMC-HN-8 cells was detected by qPCR. Two groups of SiRNA with high knock-down efficiency were screened,CCK8 assay was used to detect the cell proliferation,Transwell test was used to measure the cell invasion and migration,and flow cytometry was used to detect the cell cycle and apoptosis. The correlation between CXCL5and tumor immune invasion level of LSCC was analyzed by ssGSEA,and CXCL5 co-expression gene network was constructed and analyzed for GO and KEGG enrichment.Results Compared with the adjacent tissues and the cells in control group,the expression of CXCL5 in LSCC tissues and cells increased,which was consistent with the analysis of TCGA database;Inhibition of CXCL5 expression in AMC-HN-8 cells inhibited the proliferation,invasion and migration of tumor cells,and promoted the apoptosis through inhibiting the cell cycle in G1 phase;The immune cell scores in DC,neutrophils,NK and TH17 cells were different.Conclusion CXCL5gene is highly expressed in LSCC tissues,which might be one of the targets of LSCC targeted therapy.

Fate of adsorbed Pb(II) on graphene oxide under variable redox potential controlled by electrochemical method.

Lead removal using graphene oxide (GO) and GO based adsorbents has attracted increasing attention worldwide, whereas the potential release of previously adsorbed Pb(II) from GO surfaces induced by exposure to variable redox conditions is presently underappreciated. The current study revealed that reduction of GO to r-GO (the reduced form) was coupled with a decrease of oxygen-containing groups (OCGs) under reductive potential, and the maximum adsorption capacity of GO for Pb(II) decreased from 931.66 to 714.78 mg g-1 after electrochemical reduction. The release of adsorbed Pb(II) from GO-Pb(II) increased gradually when the potential dropped from 0 to -600 mV. The content of released Pb(II) decreased when the potential reached -700 mV because of the reduction of Pb(II) to insoluble Pb(0). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis demonstrated that there are three reductive potentials, e.g. -760, -400, and -120 mV, related to the reduction of OCGs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that the reducing sequence of three OCGs, namely C-O, CO and OCO groups, depended on the applied potential. This application of an electrochemical method to investigate adsorbed Pb(II) from spent GO absorbent provides valuable information about heavy metal transportation in environments containing GO under varying redox conditions.

Release and transport of Pb(II) adsorbed on graphene oxide under alkaline conditions in a saturated sand column.

The use of graphene oxide (GO) adsorbents to remove Pb(II) from wastewater has attracted lots of attention, but the release of Pb(II) from Pb-laden GO in alkaline groundwater requires further investigation. The current research demonstrated that oxidative debris (OD) could be stripped gradually from the surfaces of GO in 0.01-1.0 M NaHCO3 solutions although the stripping kinetic process was very slow. Accompanied with OD detachment from GO, 5.47%-23.45% adsorbed Pb(II) on spent GO (i.e. GO-Pb(II)) was released in the form of an OD-Pb(II) complex under 0.01-1.0 M NaHCO3 conditions. OD-Pb(II) could disperse steadily in water even at pH > 7.0. The deposition and detachment of the OD in the quartz sand media were markedly affected by the ion strength of the solution, and the greater mobility of OD than GO improved the transport of OD-Pb(II) through a saturated sand column. Our results provide valuable information about the characteristics and mechanism of transport of adsorbed heavy metals on GO nanomaterials in the aqueous environment and the possible environmental risks when spent GO-based heavy mental adsorbents are discharged into natural groundwater systems.

[Adsorption and Photocatalytic Removal of Chromium on High-index TiO2 Facet].

Chromium (Cr) contamination caused by industrial manufacturing poses a severe challenge in the environment. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has potential application in Cr removal due to its adsorption and photocatalytic performance. High-index TiO2 with exposed {201} facet was synthesized using the solvothermal method and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, and XPS. The adsorption of Cr(Ⅲ/Ⅵ) and photocatalytic reduction of Cr(Ⅵ) on TiO2{201} was examined for the removal from water. The synthesized TiO2{201} was constructed by a dandelion-like hierarchical structure. The adsorption isotherms of Cr(Ⅲ) and Cr(Ⅵ) on TiO2{201} conformed to the Langmuir model, with maximum adsorption capacities of 22.7 mg·g-1 and 13.2 mg·g-1, respectively. The best fitted results from the Freundlich model show that the adsorption of Cr(Ⅲ) and Cr(Ⅵ) on TiO2{201} were favorable with the parameter of 1/n less than 0.5. The results of photocatalytic reduction show that TiO2{201} can reduce Cr(Ⅵ) to Cr(Ⅲ) under UV irradiation, and Cr(Ⅲ) was further precipitated on the surface of TiO2 in the form of Cr(OH)3 and Cr2O3, which was evidenced by XPS characterization. To explore the mechanism of photocatalytic reduction of Cr(Ⅵ), the effect of scavengers for photogenerated holes (EDTA-2Na) and electrons (KBrO3) on Cr(Ⅵ) reduction was studied, and the results suggested that photogenerated electrons were the main reductant.

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Actinidia Melanandra (Actinidiaceae).

The whole chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of Actinidia melanandra has been characterized from Illumina pair-end sequencing. The complete cp genome was 156,124 bp in length, containing a large single-copy region (LSC) of 88,006 bp and a small single-copy region (SSC) of 20,332 bp, which were separated by a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 23,893 bp. The genome contained 131 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes, 39 tRNA genes, and 8 ribosomal RNA genes (4 rRNA species). Most genes occur as a single copy, while 17 gene species are duplicated. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that A. melanandra is closely related to the species of A. deliciosa and A. chinensis.

Randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioural therapy for depressive and anxiety symptoms in Chinese women with breast cancer.

Depressive and anxiety symptoms are frequently observed in breast cancer survivors. To date, few randomized controlled trials have been conducted on the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depressive and anxiety symptoms in Chinese population. This study aims to verify the efficacy of CBT in Chinese breast cancer survivors. Women (n = 392) with breast cancer were randomly assigned to 3 groups: CBT (n = 98), self-care management (SCM, n = 98), and usual care (UC, n = 196) using the proportion 1:1:2. Women in the CBT and SCM groups received a series of nine sessions for 12 weeks, while women in the UC group received their usual medical care only. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) score at baseline, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 24 weeks. A significant intergroup difference was found in the HAMD and HAMA scores. Women in the CBT group showed significantly less depressive and anxiety symptoms compared with women in the SCM and UC groups over time. In conclusion, this study supports the efficacy of CBT for depressive and anxiety symptoms in Chinese breast cancer survivors.

Multilayer Hybrid Deep-Learning Method for Waste Classification and Recycling.

This study proposes a multilayer hybrid deep-learning system (MHS) to automatically sort waste disposed of by individuals in the urban public area. This system deploys a high-resolution camera to capture waste image and sensors to detect other useful feature information. The MHS uses a CNN-based algorithm to extract image features and a multilayer perceptrons (MLP) method to consolidate image features and other feature information to classify wastes as recyclable or the others. The MHS is trained and validated against the manually labelled items, achieving overall classification accuracy higher than 90% under two different testing scenarios, which significantly outperforms a reference CNN-based method relying on image-only inputs.

Hyperspectral sensing data analysis based on quasiconformal mapping-based multiple kernels learning machine.

Hyperspectral remote sensing has a strong ability of object information expression, so it provides better support for object classification. Many methods are proposed for the hyperspectral data classification. The spectrum classification is a classical nonlinear problem, and a kernel-based machine is feasible to classify the spectrum data. In the nonlinear kernel-based space, the spectrum data are more discriminative. The kernel functions determine the data distribution in the feature space. In this paper, we propose the quasiconformal multiple kernels-based machine learning for the hyperspectral data classification. In the framework, the structure of hyperspectral data is adaptively adjusted for classification. The multiple kernels extract the multiple features of hyperspectral data for classification. Multiple features-based machine learning exhibits a great potential on the classification of hyperspectral data. Two public datasets, India Pines dataset and Pavia University dataset, are used to test the proposed algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed quasiconformal multiple kernels-based hyperspectral data classification method can show competitive performance.

[Determination of mercury in battery by microwave digestion cold atomic absorption spectrometry].

In this paper, a method of microwave digestion followed by cold atomic absorption spectrometry (CAAS) for the determination of mercury in battery was developed. Microwave digestion conditions and operational conditions of CAAS were optimized. The digestive solution was a mixture of hydrochloric acid-sulfuric acid (4:1, volume ratio) and the digestive time was 3 min at a microwave power of 1.0 MPa. The reaction medium was 0.5 mol x L(-1) sulfuric acid at room temperature. The characteristic concentration was 0.25 microg x L(-1). Five battery samples were determined, the recoveries were from 99.9% to 113%, and the relative standard deviations were from 4.85% to 11.9% (n = 6). The analytical results were satisfactory. The method is fast, simple, accurate and solvent-saving.