Effects of Steaming Treatment on the Effective Components and Efficacy in Vitro of Ginseng Flowers.

The effective composition, antioxidant, enzyme inhibition and bile binding ability of Ginseng flowers after different steaming times were studied. The results showed that different steaming times affected the effective components of ginseng flower, the content of polysaccharide and total saponins reached the highest when steaming for 5 times, the total flavonoids and phenol increased with the times of steaming. Steaming treatment significantly induced the ability of antioxidant and inhibition of α-amylase; but reduced the inhibition of α-glucosidase and cholate binding ability. Steaming treatment improved the effective content of ginseng flower and facilitate the production of low polar saponins; steaming changes the composition of ginsenoside.

Fe(II) and Pyridinic N complex sites synergy to activate PMS for specific generation of 1O2 to degrade antibiotics with high efficiency.

In this study, specific generation of 1O2 was achieved by activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) using N-doped porous carbon with Fe nanoparticles (NPC-Fe), synthesized by carbonizing MIL-88B(Fe) metal-organic frameworks modified with ionic liquid. Fe(II) in the catalyst was found to react with PMS to form •O2-, and Pyridinic N promoted the conversion of •O2- to 1O2. Consequently, the NPC-Fe/PMS reaction system could generate a large amount of 1O2 by the synergistic effect of Fe(II) and Pyridinic N. The system demonstrated excellent performance in a wide pH range for the degradation of contaminants represented by antibiotics. Additionally, the catalyst NPC-Fe had good stability and recyclability. This work provides novel insights for generating 1O2 by activation of PMS for environmental remediation.

Efficient degradation of levofloxacin using a g-C3N4@glucose-derived carbon catalyst with adjustable N content via peroxymonosulfate activation.

Metal-free carbon-based catalysts hold great promise for the degradation of organic pollutants by peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation because they avoid the negative effects of metal catalysts such as harmful metal ions leaching. However, these carbon-based catalysts are limited by their high cost and complex synthesis, and the mechanisms for the activation of PMS are unclear. Herein, the N-rich carbon catalysts (GCN-x) derived from glucose and g-C3N4 were facilely synthesized by hydrothermal treatment and carbonization to explore the mechanism of PMS activation. The nitrogen content of catalysts could be adjusted by simply altering the ratio of glucose and g-C3N4. GCN-2.4 with a ratio of glucose and g-C3N4 of 2.4 displayed the highest efficiency for the degradation of pollutants represented by Levofloxacin. The electron paramagnetic resonance and quenching experiments demonstrated that the non-radical pathway was dominant in Levofloxacin degradation and singlet oxygen (1O2) was the main active specie. Further, we found 1O2 was generated from superoxide radical (• O2-) which has rarely been studied. Levofloxacin degradation rate was shown to be positively correlated with both the amount of graphitic N and pyridinic N. Graphitic N and pyridinic N were identified as the catalytic sites. The GCN-2.4/PMS system could also remove multifarious contaminants effectively. Overall, this research advances understanding of the role of N species in PMS activation and has potential practical application in wastewater treatment.

Factors affecting blood lipid control among residents at a high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease / 预防医学

Objective@#To investigate the proportion of achieving the blood lipid control target and its influencing factors among residents at a high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), so as to provide insights into management of blood lipid among residents at a high risk of ASCVD.@*Methods@#Residents at a high risk of ASCVD and at ages of 35 to 70 years were sampled using a multi-stage cluster sampling method from 6 counties (districts) in Shaoxing City from May to July 2021. The residents' demographics, smoking, alcohol consumption and medical history of chronic diseases were collected using questionnaires, the height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure were measured, and the total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and fasting blood glucose were detected. The proportion of blood lipids achieving the control target was analyzed, and factors affecting the proportion of blood lipids achieving the control target were identified using a multivariable logistic regression model.@*Results@#A total of 1 695 individuals at a high risk of ASCVD were enrolled, including 940 men (55.46%) and 755 women (44.54%), with a mean age of (62.56±6.08) years. There were 285 participants that achieved the target of blood lipid control (16.81%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified gender (male, OR=1.962, 95%CI: 1.396-2.758), age (OR=1.037, 95%CI: 1.013-1.061), WC (OR=0.979, 95%CI: 0.964-0.995), diastolic blood pressure (OR=0.981, 95%CI: 0.967-0.994), smoking (OR=1.485, 95%CI: 1.034-2.133), alcohol consumption (OR=0.684, 95%CI: 0.498-0.941), hypertension (OR=1.428, 95%CI: 1.006-2.207), administration of hypoglycemic drugs (OR=2.326, 95%CI: 1.720-3.144) as factors affecting the achievement of the target for blood lipid control among residents at a high risk of ASCVD. @*Conclusions @#Individuals at a high risk of ASCVD with higher WC, higher diastolic blood pressure and alcohol consumption are less likely to achieve the target for blood lipid control, while male individuals with older age, hypertension and administration of hypogcemic drugs are more likely to achieve the target for blood lipid control.

Rapid and non-invasive surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection of chlorpyrifos in fruits using disposable paper-based substrates charged with gold nanoparticle/halloysite nanotube composites.

Chlorpyrifos is one of the most widely used organophosphate insecticides in agricultural production. Nevertheless, the residues of chlorpyrifos in agricultural by-product seriously threaten human health. Thus, the ultrasensitive detection of chlorpyrifos residues in agri-food products is of great demand. Herein, an AuNP/HNT-assembled disposable paper SERS substrate was prepared by an electrostatic self-assembly method to detect chlorpyrifos residues. The AuNP/HNT paper substrate exhibited high SERS activity, good reproducibility, and long-term stability, which was successfully used for quantitative detection of chlorpyrifos; the detection limit reached 7.9 × 10-9 M. For spiked apple samples the calculated recovery was 87.9% with a RSD value of 6.1%. The excellent detection ability of AuNP/HNT paper-based SERS substrate indicated that it will play an important role in pesticide detection in the future. AuNP/HNT assembled disposable paper SERS substrate was prepared by an electrostatic self-assembly method to detect chlorpyrifos residues in fruits.

A milliseconds flash joule heating method for the regeneration of spent cathode carbon.

Spent cathode carbon (SCC) blocks of aluminum electrolytic cell were hazardous waste produced in the production of electrolytic aluminum. In this present work, a facile, rapid, and economical strategy was proposed to remove fluoride and other toxic substances in the SCC block by the flash joule heating method. SCC after flash joule heating (F-SCC) were prepared in different flash voltages and number of passes; the chemical composition, microscopic morphology and carbon configuration of the SCC and F-SCC were described in detail. The results show that the purification efficiency depends upon the flash voltages and pass number. In terms of flash voltage, 150 V (5.62 kJ/g) is the optimal voltage to maintain the micro-expansion characteristics of the cathode carbon. Multiple flash joule heating can not only maintain its high-graphitization carbon, but also improve its micro-expansion characteristics. In addition, the electrochemical performance of F-SCC was characterized, and F-SCC displayed excellence capacitance performance. The low-cost, rapid -regeneration method based on the flash joule heating provides an effective method for the clean recycling and high-value utilization of carbonized solid waste.

Enrichment Characteristics of Macerals during Triboelectrostatic Separation in the View of Surface Microstructure, Pore distribution, and Typical Electrical Parameters.

Vitrinite and inertinite, respectively, are the reactive and inert macerals for coal liquefaction, which could be effectively enriched in triboelectrostatic separation specialized in particle processing. Inertinite has a higher specific surface area and more pores than vitrinite and a more balanced mesopores distribution, while the mesopores in vitrinite are mainly focused in the 4 nm × 7 nm range. As for electrical properties, inertinite has a higher relative dielectric constant than vitrinite in all granularities, while its resistivity is only higher than vitrinite in the <74 µm fraction, which means inertinite and vitrinite tend to have negative and positive charges, respectively, in their mutual friction, but inertinite (<74 µm) has a stronger ability to maintain surface charge. During triboelectrostatic separation, the 105 µm × 150 µm fraction of clean coal has the highest vitrinite content, whereas inertinite tends to concentrate at tailings <74 µm under the co-effect of separation granularity limit and electrical characteristics of macerals; this conclusion has a certain guiding significance to maceral separation.

Emergency measure of soft isolation controlling pollution diffusion response to sudden water pollution accidents.

The frequent occurrence of sudden water pollution accidents has become a major threat to water environment safety. Although most researches have focused on constructing a pollutant source identification model and risk assessment methods for dealing with sudden water pollution accidents, a real-time, effective emergency measure for controlling pollutant diffusion, isolating and removing the pollutant, aiming at sudden water pollution accidents, has not been emphasized. Therefore, in this paper, a novel emergency approach of soft isolation was investigated to control pollution diffusion and decrease damage as soon as the accident occurred. In stage 1, the feature of pollution diffusion regarding a sudden water accident was predicted through a water quality model using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Then, a design scheme of soft isolation was constructed in stage 2 to isolate the polluted zone and attention was paid to optimizing the parameters of soft isolation. Ultimately, the mathematical model of complete purification was formulated in stage 3 to remove the pollution from the impacted zone. The results indicated that the emergency measure of soft isolation could have significant potential to control and isolate pollution occurring in a sudden water pollution accident in the future.

Operation mode of a step-feed anoxic/oxic process with distribution of carbon source from anaerobic zone on nutrient removal and microbial properties.

This study investigated the operation mode of a step-feed anoxic/oxic (A/O) process with distribution of the carbon source from the anaerobic zone in terms of the treatment effects on sewage with low carbon and high nitrogen and phosphorus. After seven phases of operation, an optimal flow distribution ratio of 75%:25% was obtained from the anaerobic zone, and the concentrations of chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen, and total phosphorous in the effluent were 20.8, 0.64, 14.2, and 0.89 mg/L, respectively. The presence of an internal reflux system in the deaeration zone improved the treatment. 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing revealed that the microbial communities in aerobic zone I(O1) of the first-step A/O sludge were different from those in aerobic zone I (O2) of the second-step A/O sludge, whereas microbial communities of the seed sludge were similar to those in O2 of the second-step A/O sludge. The richness and diversity of microbial communities in O1 of the first-step A/O sludge samples were higher than those in O2 of the second-step A/O and seed sludge. At the optimal flow distribution ratio, the microbial abundance and treatment removal efficiency were the highest.

Factors influencing the severity of behavioral phenotype in autism spectrum disorders: Implications for research.

The phenotypic heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) presents particular research challenges in the assessment of symptom severity, while the standardized Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores present a severity metric, namely calibrated severity scores (CSS) that are relatively impervious to individual characteristics. To date, no studies have examined the convergent validity of CSS in Chinese sample populations. The present study investigated the validity of the ADOS-CSS using a sample of 321 children aged 2-18 years with ASD, and developed upon existing literature examining the influence of non-ASD-specific characteristics on other types of measures including Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). As expected, the findings revealed that the CSS were less influenced than ADOS-RAW scores by the demographic and developmental-level variables. Moreover, compared to the ADOS-CSS, the ADI-R, SRS and VABS were still strongly correlated with confounding factors, such as chronological age, intelligence quotients, and language-level. The results of this study corroborate the utilization of CSS as a more valid indicator of ASD severity than raw scores from ADOS and other instruments.

Nutrients removal and bacterial community structure for low C/N municipal wastewater using a modified anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (mA2/O) process in North China.

A modified anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (mA2/O) process based on utilizing the internal carbon source and adding polypropylene carriers was operated for 90d to investigate the nutrients removal performance and bacterial community. This system exhibited a stable and efficient performance, particularly, in removing the NH4+-N and total phosphorus. The results of high-throughput sequencing showed that the 13 dominant genera containing Pseudomonas, Comamonas, Arcobacter, Nitrobacteria, Nitrosospira, Nitrosomonas, Bacteroides, Flavobacterium, Rhizobium, Acinetobacter, Zoogloea, Rhodocyclus and Moraxella were shared by five zones, inferring that they were the essential players in treating low C/N (below 5.0) municipal wastewater around 10°C. The average abundance of Nitrosospira (4.21%) was higher than that of Nitrosomonas (2.93%), suggested that Nitrosospira performed well under low temperature for nitrification. Additionally, both known Rhodocyclus-related PAOs and GAOs Competibacter were not detected possibly due to low temperature. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that DO played more important roles in regulating bacterial community composition than HRT.

Ultraviolet-assisted synthesis of polyacrylamide-grafted chitosan nanoparticles and flocculation performance.

In the present work, a new flocculant, polyacrylamide-grafted chitosan nanoparticles (NCS-g-PAM), was synthesized by the copolymerization of acrylamide (AM) and chitosan nanoparticle (NCS) under ultraviolet irradiation using 2-hydroxy-4'-(2-hydroxyethoxy)-2-methylpropiophenone as photo-initiator. The NCS was prepared by the ionic gelation between chitosan and sodium tripolyphosphate. The structure and morphology of NCS-g-PAM were characterized by Fourier Transform Infraredspectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction, (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The factors affecting the intrinsic viscosity and the yield of copolymer were studied, which showed that the optimum conditions for the synthesis of NCS-g-PAM were mAM:mNCS=8:1, 0.15g of initiator dosage, mCS:mTPP=4.5:1, 1min of ultrasonication time, 4h of illumination time, and 30min of stirring time. The NCS-g-PAM was found to be more effective than NC-g-PAM in the flocculation of both kaolin suspension and Cu(2+) simulated wastewater. With 5mg/L of polyaluminium chloride (PAC) coordinated and 1mg/L of NCS-g-PAM it was confirmed to be appropriate for flocculating kaolin suspension.

Adsorptive characteristics of phosphate from aqueous solutions by MIEX resin.

This study investigated the potential of MIEX resin as the adsorbent for the removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions. In our batch experiments, we studied the effect of some parameters on the removal of phosphate. It was observed that uptake of phosphate was mainly affected by initial phosphate concentration, adsorbent dosage, initial pH of solution, and coexistent anions. The adsorption equilibrium data at 288 K fitted well to Freundlich and Koble-Corrigan isotherm models. The kinetics studies displayed that the adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order model. The diffusion studies showed that the intra-particle diffusion was not the only rate-controlling step and, the diffusion process of phosphate from solution to MIEX resin was controlled by film diffusion. The thermodynamics parameters were evaluated. The results showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous thermodynamically, endothermic, and entropy driven. These results have established a good potentiality for MIEX resin to be used as an adsorbent for the removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions. This work will deepen our understanding of the adsorptive characteristics of phosphate by MIEX resin and provide a better way to remove phosphate from wastewater.

3-Eth-oxy-4-hydroxy-benzaldehyde.

The title compound (ethyl vanillin), C(9)H(10)O(3), an important food additive and flavouring agent approved by FAO/WHO, has a vanilla odor four times that of vanillin and shows anti--mutagenic activity. There are two mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit, each having a planar conformation and an intramolecular O-H⋯O bond. Mol-ecules are connected side-by-side, building infinite ribbons along cvia inter-molecular O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl and hydroxyl groups. The ribbons are then packed into layers perpendicular to the a axis.