Relationship between atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

This study aimed to explore the potential correlation between atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We enrolled 6540 patients with T2DM who were receiving chronic disease management for hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia in Chengyang District of Qingdao. Among them, 730 had ASCVD (ASCVD group), which 5810 did not (N-ASCVD group). The results showed significantly higher levels of age, blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), systolic blood pressure, ASCVD family history, female proportion, and DR incidence in the N-ASCVD group. Additionally, the glomerular filtration rate was significantly lower in the ASCVD group. Logistic regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between DR and ASCVD risk. DR was further categorized into 2 subtypes, nonproliferative DR (NPDR) and proliferative DR (PDR), based on e lesion severity. Interestingly, only the PDR was associated with ASCVD. Even after accounting for traditional ASCVD risk factors such as age, sex, and family history, PDR remained associated with ASCVD, with a staggering 718% increase in the risk for patients with PDR. Therefore, there is a strong association between ASCVD and DR in individuals with T2DM, with PDR particularly exhibiting an independent and positive correlation with increased ASCVD risk.

High efficiency removal of NO using waste calcium carbide slag by facile KOH modification.

Waste calcium carbide slags (CS), which are widely applied to desulfurisation, are not typically used in denitration. Herein, to well achieve waste control by waste, a facile and high-efficiency denitration strategy is developed using KOH to modify the calcium carbide slags (KCS). Various KCS samples were investigated using a series of physical and chemical characterisations. The performance test results showed that the KOH concentration and reaction temperature are the main factors affecting the denitration efficiency of KCS, and CS modified with 1.5 mol/L KOH (KCS-1.5) can achieve 100% denitration efficiency at 300°C. Such excellent removal efficiency is due to the catalytic oxidation of the oxygen-containing functional groups derived from the KCS. Further studies showed that KOH treatment significantly increased the concentration of oxygen vacancies, nitro compounds, and basic sites of CS. This study provides a novel strategy for the resource utilisation of waste CS in the future.

Enhanced Free-Radical Generation on MoS2 /Pt by Light and Water Vapor Co-Activation for Selective CO Detection with High Sensitivity.

Semiconductor-based gas sensors hold great promise for effective carbon monoxide (CO) detection. However, boosting sensor response and selectivity remains a key priority in moist conditions. In this study, a composite material, Pt quantum dots decorated MoS2 nanosheets (MoS2 /Pt), is developed as a highly sensitive material for CO detection when facilitated with visible light. The MoS2 /Pt sensor shows a significantly improved response (87.4%) with impressive response/recovery kinetics (20 s/17 s), long-term stability (60 days), and good selectivity to CO at high humidity (≈60%). It is confirmed both experimentally and theoretically that the MoS2 /Pt surface lowers the activation energy to convert CO to CO2 via the free radicals induced by the synergy of photochemical effects and water vapor. As a result, the MoS2 /Pt surface promotes both CO response and selectivity, providing fundamental clues to improve room-temperature semiconductor-based sensors for gas detection under extreme conditions.

Surface-Modified In2O3 for High-Throughput Screening of Volatile Gas Sensors in Diesel and Gasoline.

In this paper, with the help of the method of composite materials science, parallel synthesis and high-throughput screening were used to prepare gas sensors with different molar ratios of rare earths and precious metals modified In2O3, which could be used to monitor and warn the early leakage of gasoline and diesel. Through high-throughput screening, it is found that the effect of rare earth metal modification on gas sensitivity improvement is better than other metals, especially 0.5 mol% Gd modified In2O3 (Gd0.5In) gas sensor has a high response to 100 ppm gasoline (Ra/Rg = 6.1) and diesel (Ra/Rg = 5) volatiles at 250 °C. Compared with the existing literature, the sensor has low detection concentration and suitable stability. This is mainly due to the alteration of surface chemisorption oxygen caused by the catalysis and modification of rare earth itself.

Removal of SO2 from flue gas using blast furnace dust as an adsorbent.

To control the SO2 emission and achieve the target of "waste controlled by waste", a novel desulfurization method with blast furnace dust slurry was proposed. The effects of reaction temperature, oxygen concentration, and solid-liquid ratio on SO2 removal efficiency were investigated. The optimal conditions were reaction temperature of 35 ℃, oxygen concentration of 10 vol.%, and solid-liquid ratio of 0.5 g/300 mL. Under the optimal conditions, the desulfurization efficiency reached 100% for 4 h. Response surface methodology (RSM) results showed that oxygen concentration significantly influenced the SO2 removal efficiency. Finally, the possible desulfurization mechanism of blast furnace dust was proposed based on the EDX, XRD, SEM-EDS, ICP, and IC. The blast furnace dust (main components are CaZn8(SO4)2(OH)12Cl2·(H2O)9, Mn6.927Si6O15·(OH)8, ZnO, Fe2O3) reacted with H+ to form Zn2+, Fe3+, and Mn2+ which shows a key effect on the SO2 liquid catalytic oxidation. This study provides a promising, feasible, and low-cost desulfurization technology by reusing blast furnace dust.

Green synthesis of a novel functionalized chitosan adsorbent for Cu(II) adsorption from aqueous solution.

Pollution generated by heavy metals has become a global environmental issue with much public concern. Herein, a functionalized chitosan-based adsorbent (CS-PAR) was synthesized via a simple one-step method for the adsorption of copper ions in solutions. A series of characterization methods have shown that CS-PAR was successfully synthesized. The experimental results showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of CS-PAR for Cu(II) ions was 170.23 mg/g. The adsorption process of Cu(II) on CS-PAR conformed to Langmuir and pseudo second-order models and belonged to a single-layer chemical adsorption process on the surface of a homogeneous medium. The adsorption mechanism of the adsorbent to Cu(II) ions was the complexation between the N-containing functional groups existing on the surface of the adsorbent and Cu(II). These results also showed that the adsorbent was an efficient material for removing heavy metal copper in wastewater and had very important practical significance.

Removal of SO2 and NOx from flue gas using mud-phosphorus slurry.

In this study, the mud-phosphorus slurry was used to simultaneously remove SO2 and NOx. The technology proposed new avenues for the purification and utilization of remove SO2 and NOx in flue gas. The effects of reaction temperature, solid-liquid ratio, and oxygen content on the efficiency of desulfurization and denitrification were studied experimentally. Results show that the parameters were solid-liquid ratio of 5.0 g/40 mL, T = 60 °C, φ (O2) = 20%, Q = 300 mL/min under the best experimental conditions. The maximum amount of ozone generated was 563.8 mg/m3. The reaction time with desulfurization rate ≥ 99% was 340 min; the reaction time with denitrification rate ≥ 99% was 160 min. Response surface analysis method was used to perform a three-factor three-level response surface experiment. Results show that the oxygen content had a highly significant effect on the desulfurization and denitrification efficiency, and the relationship between the desulfurization and denitrification efficiency was oxygen content > mud-phosphorus slurry liquid-solid ratio > reaction temperature. The process is simple, the solid waste is used to treat the flue gas, and the removal effect is good, which is convenient for popularization.

Optimization of Process Parameters for Preparing Metallic Matrix Diamond Tool Bits by Microwave Pressureless Sintering Using Response Surface Methodology.

The process of preparing metallic matrix diamond tool bits by microwave pressureless sintering (MPS) was exclusively studied in this paper. The effects of the sintering temperature, the cold pressure, and the holding time on the mechanical properties of the bit were determined by using the response surface methodology (RSM) with Box-Behnken Design (BBD). In addition, with RSM, the second-order polynomial equation of mechanical properties was obtained. The solutions were well matched with the experimental values. This indicates that major variations in mechanical properties of the sintered sample could be predicted by the models, which shows that the applied model is accurate. Conventional pressureless sintering (CPS) experiments were also conducted to make a comparison. The experimental results showed that the MPS can enhance the mechanical properties of sintered samples. A possible MPS mechanism is proposed in this work after analyzing all the experimental results.

Fabrication of Cu Based Metallic Binder for Diamond Tools by Microwave Pressureless Sintering.

Microwave pressureless sintering (MPS) method is successfully applied in the fabrication of Cu based metallic matrix for diamond tools. The main purpose of this work is to obtain better mechanical properties when the metal binder of the diamond tools was prepared by the MPS method. The orthogonal experimental method is adopted to design the sintering process parameters. The optimized experimental conditions are suggested as 880 °C of sintering temperature, 375 MPa of cold pressure, and 35 min of withholding time. The contrastive investigation of the MPS and conventional pressureless sintering (CPS) are performed under optimized conditions. The microstructures information are obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and the necessary mechanical properties, such as relative density, hardness, and flexural strength are tested. Experimental results show that the MPS method, compared with CPS, can significantly improve the mechanical properties of the metallic matrix. The factors of relative density, hardness, and flexural strength increase 1.25%, 3.86%, and 6.28%, respectively. The possible sintering mechanism of the MPS method is also discussed. This work may provide a reference for the fabrication of metal-based diamond tools by microwave heating method.

Facile Synthesis of Heterostructured WS2/Bi2MoO6 as High-Performance Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalysts.

In this paper, novel WS2/Bi2MoO6 heterostructured photocatalysts were successfully fabricated via a facile solvothermal growth method using pre-exfoliated layered WS2 nanoslices as a substrate. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of the as-prepared WS2/Bi2MoO6 samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM (HRTEM), and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). Results confirmed the existence of an excellent nanojunction interface between layered WS2 nanoslices and Bi2MoO6 nanoflakes. Under visible light (>420 nm), the WS2/Bi2MoO6 composites exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with pure Bi2MoO6 toward the decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB). Meanwhile, the active species trapping experiments indicated that holes (h+) were the main active species during the photocatalytic reaction. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the effective light harvesting, fast photogenerated electron-hole pairs separation, and excellent charge carrier transport of the WS2/Bi2MoO6 heterostructures. Moreover, the prepared WS2/Bi2MoO6 composites also show good structural and activity stability in repeatability experiments.

Novel Diamond Films Synthesis Strategy: Methanol and Argon Atmosphere by Microwave Plasma CVD Method Without Hydrogen.

Diamond thin films are grown on silicon substrates by only using methanol and argon mixtures in microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) reactor. It is worth mentioning that the novel strategy makes the synthesis reaction works smoothly without hydrogen atmosphere, and the substrates temperature is only 500 °C. The evidence of surface morphology and thickness under different time is obtained by characterizing the samples using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). X-ray diffractometer (XRD) spectrum reveals that the preferential orientation of (111) plane sample is obtained. The Raman spectra indicate that the dominant component of all the samples is a diamond. Moreover, the diamond phase content of the targeted films was quantitatively analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) method, and the surface roughness of diamond films was investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM). Meanwhile, the possible synthesis mechanism of the diamond films in methanol- and argon-mixed atmosphere was discussed.