Supercritical water oxidation for the treatment and utilization of organic wastes: Factor effects, reaction enhancement, and novel process.

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) has been regarded as a new and efficient technology for the harmless treatment and energy utilization of organic wastes, resulting in the quickly homogeneous oxidation between organics and oxidizers and the former being wholly degraded into small environment-friendly green molecules such as H2O and N2 and inorganic salts. This paper systematically analyzed the influencing behavior and mechanisms of the reaction factors, such as temperature, pressure, residence time, oxidant type, oxidation coefficient, and the concentration and pH values of the raw material, on the treatment effect of organic wastes. For most organic wastes, the SCWO conditions at 550 °C with a residence time of 1min and an oxidation coefficient of 100% can meet the removal rate of more than 99%. To further enhance the degradation rate of organics, the principles, implementation cases, and related equipment components of general enhancement technologies of supercritical water oxidation were discussed, such as fractional oxygen injection, auxiliary fuel co-oxidation, and hydrothermal flame-assisted degradation. This paper proposes a novel supercritical flame-assisted oxidation process in which the reactor performs preheating, corrosion protection, and desalination functions. The use of additive-enhanced oxidation, segmented oxidation, and supercritical hydrothermal flame-assisted oxidation has achieved good results in the complicated treatment process of brutal degradation of organic matter.

Evaluation of orderliness of underground workplace system based on occupational ergonomics: A case study in guangzhou and chengdu metro depots.

BACKGROUND: An underground workplace (UGW) is a complex system with multiple subsystems that interact with each other. However, the research on UGW from a systemic perspective has not received due attention. OBJECTIVE: This study constructs an evaluation approach to the orderliness of UGW and systematically evaluates the UGW with Guangzhou and Chengdu metro depots as case studies. METHODS: First, the evaluation index system is established based on occupational ergonomics. Second, the system entropy model is constructed based on information entropy. Third, a dissipative structure judgment model is built based on the Brusselator. Fourth, the orderliness evaluation model is constructed based on information entropy and synergetics. RESULTS: The UGW of the metro depot has not yet reached the dissipative structure and is in a medium-order state. But the system is in the trend of orderly development. The entropy increase caused by the physical environment and health status is the main obstacle for the system to move toward order. The equipment configuration is an essential source of system negative entropy. The coordination between equipment configuration, health status, and physical environment is low, and that of work effectiveness, equipment aging and failure, and organizational environment is high. CONCLUSIONS: Equipment configuration cannot fully cope with the harsh physical environment and meet the needs of underground workers. Safety security equipment has more room for improvement. Humanized support facilities can introduce more negative entropy to the system. Organizational intervention can reduce the negative impact of adverse factors on the system.

Who are the convoys of the happiness of Chinese urban residents? Research on social relations and subjective well-being based on the convoy model.

Introduction: While the rapid advancement of urbanization has driven the improvement of material living standards, it has also brought about rapid social changes and intensified competition. In this "involutive" environment characterized by highly competitive and strong pressure, urban residents tend to fall into a state of "mental exhaustion." Anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and other mental illnesses have seriously threatened public health in Chinese cities. Support from social relations is crucial for enhancing residents' subjective well-being (SWB) and promoting their mental health, especially in China's highly contextualized collectivist culture. Methods: According to the social structure of China's "difference sequence pattern," this paper constructs a theoretical framework of the relationship between social relations and SWB based on the convoy model and uses CGSS2018 data to verify the applicability of the theoretical framework. Results: Kinship and friendship positively relate to SWB, and their interaction effect is significantly negative. There is no necessary correlation between neighborhood and SWB. The relationship between social relations and SWB of different age groups is heterogeneous. In addition, the moderating effects of relative income and social class are significantly negative. Discussion: Kinship and friendship are Chinese urban residents' SWB convoys, and these two factors have an obvious substitution effect. The neighborhood has withdrawn from the convoy orbit of Chinese urban residents' SWB, which may be related to neighborhood indifference caused by China's housing system reform. From the life course perspective, the SWB convoys of young and middle-aged groups consist of kinship and friendship, while those of elderly people include kinship and neighborhood. In addition, for poor individuals living at the bottom of society, support from kinship is the most important source of social capital. These findings provide new insights into the relationship between social relations and the welfare of Chinese urban residents.

Aptasensors with palladium nanoparticle-modified hemin-containing metal-organic frameworks as the signal marker for detection of exosomes.

Zr-metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs) have received increasing interest for their use as the signal marker in the development of sandwich-structured aptasensors for the detection of exosomes. However, Zr4+ ions of the Zr-MOFs can interact with not only the exosomes, but also the aptamers, leading to possible false positives and a large background response. In the present study, we report for the first time aptasensors with Pd nanoparticle (NP)-decorated and hemin-embedded UiO-66 MOFs serving as the signal amplification marker to eliminate false positives and decrease the background response of aptasensors. To construct aptasensors for detection of exosomes, CD63-specific aptamers were tethered onto magnetic Fe3O4 particles coated with polydopamine (PDA) and UiO-66-NH2 using glutaraldehyde crosslinking for capturing the exosomes. To prepare highly catalytic Zr-MOF-based signal markers, UiO-66 MOFs were modified with hemin followed by Pd NPs. The as-prepared Pd-decorated hemin-embedded MOFs showed high catalytic activity towards the chromogenic oxidation reaction of TMB by H2O2. Moreover, the decoration with Pd NPs led to the change of the surface charge state of the catalytic hemin-embedded UiO-66 MOFs from positive to negative, weakening the interaction between the signal marker and the negatively charged aptamers. Therefore, the as-prepared aptasensors showed an improved sensing performance towards exosomes with a linear concentration range from 4.28 × 102 to 4.28 × 105 and a limit of detection (LOD) of 86.2 particles per µL. The as-prepared aptasensors also showed high sensitivity and selectivity to the exosomes from different origins including the HeLa cell line and MCF-7 cell line.

Destruction and defluorination of PFAS matrix in continuous-flow supercritical water oxidation reactor: Effect of operating temperature.

Cleanup and disposal of stockpiles and waste streams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) require effective end-of-life destruction/mineralization technologies. Two classes of PFAS, perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSAs), are commonly found in legacy stockpiles, industrial waste streams, and as environmental pollutants. Continuous flow supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) reactors have been shown to destroy several PFAS and aqueous film-forming foams. However, a direct comparison of the SCWO efficacy for PFSAs and PFCAs has not been reported. We show the effectiveness of continuous flow SCWO treatment for a matrix of model PFCAs and PFSAs as a function of operating temperature. PFSAs appear to be significantly more recalcitrant than PFCAs in the SCWO environment. The SCWO treatment results in a destruction and removal efficiency of 99.999% at a T > 610 °C and at a residence time of ∼30 s. Fluoride recovery lags destruction PFAS at 510 °C and reaches >100% above 610 °C, confirming the formation of liquid and gaseous phase intermediate product during lower temperature oxidation. This paper establishes the threshold for destroying PFAS-containing liquids under SCWO conditions.

Destruction of PFAS in AFFF-impacted fire training pit water, with a continuous hydrothermal alkaline treatment reactor.

As regulations are being established to limit the levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water and wastewater, effective treatment technologies are needed to remove or destroy PFAS in contaminated liquid matrices. Many military installations and airports have fire training ponds (FTPs) where PFAS-containing firefighting foams are discharged during training drills. FTP water disposal is expensive and challenging due to the high PFAS levels. Hydrothermal alkaline treatment (HALT) has previously been shown to destroy a wide range of PFAS compounds with a high degree of destruction and defluorination. In this study, we investigate the performance of a continuous flow HALT reactor for destroying PFAS in contaminated FTP water samples. Processing with 5 M-NaOH and 1.6 min of continuous processing results in >99% total PFAS destruction, and 10 min processing time yields >99% destruction of every measured PFAS species. Operating with 0.1 M-NaOH or 1 M-NaOH shows little effect on the destruction of measured perfluorosulfonic acids, while all measured perfluorocarboxylic acids and fluorotelomer sulfonates are reduced to levels below the method detection limits. Continuous HALT processing with sufficient NaOH loading appears to destroy parent PFAS compounds significantly faster than batch HALT processing, a positive indicator for scaling up HALT technology for practical applications in environmental site remediation activities.

Supercritical water co-oxidation behavior in the different monohydric alcohol-ammonia reaction environment.

The degradation of ammonia is a key rate-limiting step during the supercritical water oxidation of nitrogen-containing organics. This paper studied the co-oxidation behavior between different ammonia-alcohol environments, including the influence of reaction parameters and the co-oxidation mechanism. The results showed that increasing temperature, oxidation coefficient, residence time, and alcohol concentration significantly promoted the degradation of NH3-N and TOC, while rising the ammonia concentration enhanced the NH3-N destruction but inhibited the TOC degradation. Alcohols were oxidized first in the co-oxidation system to produce more OH* and HO2* radicals. Ethanol generated the highest concentration of HO2* in the shortest time, leading to more significant ammonia removal than isopropanol and methanol; however, the produced intermediate products like aldehydes and ketones reacted with residual ammonia to generate a small amount of organics at lower temperatures, inhibiting the degradation of alcohols slightly, and combined catalyst or nitrate in the batch reactor or used continuous supercritical water oxidation or supercritical hydrothermal combustion system without controlling the exotherm of fuels could improve this.

Review: Hydrothermal treatment of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

PER: and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a concerning and unique class of environmentally persistent contaminants with biotoxic effects. Decades of PFAS discharge into water and soil resulted in PFAS bioaccumulation in plants, animals, and humans. PFAS are very stable, and their treatment has become a global environmental challenge. Significant efforts have been made to achieve efficient and complete PFAS mineralization using existing and emerging technologies. Hydrothermal treatments in subcritical and supercritical water have emerged as promising end-of-life PFAS destruction technologies, attracting the attention of scholars, industry, and key stakeholders. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art research on the behavior of PFAS, PFAS precursors, PFAS alternatives, and PFAS-containing waste in hydrothermal processes, including the destruction and defluorination efficiency, the proposed reaction mechanisms, and the environmental impact of these treatments. Scientific literature shows that >99% degradation and >60% defluorination of PFAS can be achieved through subcritical and supercritical water processing. The limitations of current research are evaluated, special considerations are given to the challenges of technology maturation and scale-up from laboratory studies to large-scale industrial application, and potential future technological developments are proposed.

Tailorable antibacterial and cytotoxic chitosan derivatives by introducing quaternary ammonium salt and sulfobetaine.

Chitosan (CS) derivatives with improved water solubility, antibacterial activity and adequate biocompatibility are attracting increasingly interest in medical application. Herein, we have successfully synthesized isocyanate terminated quaternary ammonium salt (IQAS) and sulfopropylbetaine (ISB) to be readily covalently bounded to CS skeleton by selective reaction with amino and hydroxyl groups. And their molecular structures and crystallinity were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, and X-ray diffraction. The effect of the substitution degree, carbon chain length, content ratio of IQAS/ISB on their water solubility, antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity were systematically investigated, which shows that those properties of the CS derivatives can be tailored by adjusting the grafted antibacterial agents and their additive amount. The structure-property relationship of these CS derivatives may provide a solid guidance on the development of CS derivatives for more efficient practical applications.

Non-Leaching, Rapid Bactericidal and Biocompatible Polyester Fabrics Finished with Benzophenone Terminated N-halamine.

Pathogenic bacteria can proliferate rapidly on porous fabrics to form bacterial plaques/biofilms, resulting in potential sources of cross-transmissions of diseases and increasing cross-infection in public environments. Many works on antibacterial modification of cotton fabrics have been reported, while very few works were reported to endow poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabrics with non-leaching antibacterial function without compromising their innate physicochemical properties though PET is the most widely used fabric. Therefore, it is urgent to impart the PET fabrics with non-leaching antibacterial activity. Herein, a novel N-halamine compound, 1-chloro-3-benzophenone-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (Cl-BPDMH), was developed to be covalently bonded onto PET fabrics, rendering non-leaching antibacterial activity while negligible cytotoxicity based on contact-killing principle. Bacterial was easily adhered to Cl-BPDMH finished PET fabrics, and then it was inactivated quickly within 10 s. Furthermore, the breaking strength, breaking elongation, tearing strength, water vapor permeability, air permeability and whiteness of Cl-BPDMH finished PET fabrics were improved obviously compared to raw PET fabrics. Hence, this work developed a facile approach to fabricate multifunctional synthetic textiles to render outstanding and rapid bactericidal activity without compromising their physicochemical properties and biocompatibility. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42765-021-00100-z.

Ti3C2Tx@nonwoven Fabric Composite: Promising MXene-Coated Fabric for Wearable Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors.

Although Ti3C2Tx MXene/fabric composites have shown promise as flexible pressure sensors, the effects of MXene composition and structure on piezoresistive properties and the effects of the textile structure on sensitivity have not been systematically studied. Herein, impregnation at room temperature was used as a cost-effective and scalable method to prepare composite materials using different fabrics [plain-woven fabric, twill-woven fabric, weft plain-knitted fabric, jersey cross-tuck fabric, and nonwoven fabric (NWF)] and MXene nanosheets (Ti3C2Tx, Ti2CTx, Ti3CNTx, Mo2CTx, Nb2CTx, and Mo2TiC2Tx). The MXene nanosheets adhered to the fabric surface through hydrogen bonding, resulting in a conductive network structure. The Ti3C2Tx@NWF composite was found to be the optimal flexible pressure sensor, demonstrating high sensitivity (6.31 kPa-1), a wide sensing range (up to 150 kPa), fast response/recovery times (300 ms/260 ms), and excellent durability (2000 cycles). Furthermore, the sensor was successfully used to monitor full-scale human motion, including pulse, and a 4 × 4 pixel flexible sensor array was shown to accurately locate pressure and recognize the pressure magnitude. These findings provide a basis for the rational design of MXene/textile composites as wearable pressure sensors for medical diagnosis, human-computer interactions, and electronic skin applications.

A Novel Strategy Conjugating PD-L1 Polypeptide With Doxorubicin Alleviates Chemotherapeutic Resistance and Enhances Immune Response in Colon Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Modifying the structure of anti-tumor chemotherapy drug is of significance to enhance the specificity and efficacy of drug-delivery. A novel proteolysis resistant PD-L1-targeted peptide (PPA1) has been reported to bind to PD-L1 and disrupt the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction, thus appearing as an outstanding tumor-targeting modification of synergistic drug conjugate for effective anti-tumor treatment. However, the combination regimen of coupling PD-L1 polypeptide with chemotherapeutic drug in tumoricidal treatment has not been reported thus far. METHODS: We developed a novel synergistic strategy by conjugating PPA1 to doxorubicin (DOX) with a pH sensitive linker that can trigger the release of DOX near acidic tumor tissues. The binding affinity of PPA1-DOX with PD-L1 and the acid-sensitive cleavage of PPA1-DOX were investigated. A mouse xenograft model of colon cancer was used to evaluate the biodistribution, cytotoxicity and anti-tumor activity of PPA1-DOX. RESULTS: PPA1-DOX construct showed high binding affinity with PD-L1 in vitro and specifically enriched within tumor when administered in vivo. PPA1-DOX exhibited a significantly lower toxicity and a remarkably higher antitumor activity in vivo, as compared with free PPA1, random polypeptide-DOX conjugate, DOX, or 5-FU, respectively. Moreover, increased infiltration of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was found in tumors from PPA1-DOX treated mice. CONCLUSIONS: We describe here for the first time that the dual-functional conjugate PPA1-DOX, which consist of the PD-L1-targeted polypeptide that renders both the tumor-specific drug delivery and inhibitory PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibition, and a cytotoxic agent that is released and kills tumor cells once reaching tumor tissues, thus representing a promising therapeutic option for colon cancer with improved efficacy and reduced toxicity.

Review of the destruction of organic radioactive wastes by supercritical water oxidation.

Organic materials, such as ion exchange resins, plastic, oils, and solvents, are widely used in the operation and decommission of nuclear facilities. The generated radioactive organic wastes are both radioactive and organic; therefore, the degradation of such wastes becomes more difficult. Due to delays in the disposal of radioactive organic wastes, potential safety risks are increasing. With the advantages of degrading refractory organics rapidly and thoroughly, supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) has become a potential alternative way to degrade radioactive organic wastes. This review focused on the degradation characteristics of different radioactive wastes from the perspective of potential practical applications. Some improved methods for facilitating the degradation of radioactive wastes by SCWO are considered and analyzed. Moreover, the kinetics and intermediate pathways of radioactive organic wastes are further analyzed. The distribution, migration and transformation of radionuclides during the SCWO reaction, as well as the further processing of radionuclides in gas-, liquid- and solid-phase products, were summarized and discussed. Furthermore, some fruitful areas for further work were reviewed for the highly efficient degradation of radioactive organic wastes. This review can provide useful information and guidance for the industrial applications of SCWO treatment for radioactive wastes.

Supercritical water oxidation and process enhancement of nitrogen-containing organics and ammonia.

Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), as a promising technology for treating organic wastewater and sludge, has attracted the attention of many scholars. Nitrogen-containing organics are refractory substances that widely exist in industrial waste, and their effective degradation is of great significance to the environment. In this paper, the treatment effects, reaction kinetics, and migration and transformation pathways of various nitrogen-containing organics (amino group, nitro group, mixed group, and nitrogen heteroatom) under SCWO conditions are summarized, and the influences of the reaction temperature, oxidant type and concentration, residence time, and initial concentration of organics on the degradation of organics are also discussed. NH3-N is the primary intermediate product produced during the oxidation process of the amino group and nitrogen heteroatom organics, and the further degradation of NH3-N is the limiting step for the whole reaction. This paper focuses on the relevant strengthening technologies used to enhance the degradation of NH3-N, including heterogeneous catalytic oxidation with reactor wall or metal oxides; co-oxidation with auxiliary fuels such as methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, and glycol; strong oxidation with NO3- or NO2-; and segmented oxidation by multi-injection of oxidants or fuels. In addition, in order to achieve the complete removal of NH3-N and COD synergistically under relatively mild SCWO conditions, avoid the formation of NOx, NO3-, and NO2-, and convert organic nitrogen into environmentally friendly products such as N2 and N2O, further research requirements and challenges are introduced.

Supercritical water oxidation of semi-coke wastewater: Effects of operating parameters, reaction mechanism and process enhancement.

Semi-coke wastewater is a kind of industrial wastewater with complex composition, high concentration of organic pollutants and high chroma, seriously threatening the ecological environment and requiring to be effectively degraded. Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO), as for a promising environmental technology, was applied to treat semi-coke wastewater in this work. The influences of key operating parameters such as reaction temperature (400-600 °C), oxidation coefficient (1.0-4.0) and residence time (0.5-10 min), the reaction mechanism for organics in semi-coke wastewater and the process enhancement methods like catalytic oxidation and segmented oxidation were systematically investigated. Experimental results showed that the removal efficiency of COD and NH3-N both significantly increased with the increasing of temperature, oxidation coefficient and residence time, the COD removal efficiency and NH3-N removal efficiency could be 99.02% and 63.94% obtained under the condition of 600 °C, 25 MPa, 1.3 times oxidation coefficient and 10 min. The residual organics in liquid products were mainly phenols, ketones, imidazoles, esters and pyridines, which produced from the cyclization and esterification reaction between intermediate products such as alcohols, aldehydes, acids and NH3-N, etc. What's more, NH3-N was proved to have inhibitory effect on the degradation of phenol by generating more stubborn nitrogen-containing compounds with that. Besides, compared with single catalyst, the composite catalyst of MnO2/CeO2 exhibited the highest catalytic activity, which could synergistically degrade 98.52% COD and 67.18% NH3-N under a relatively mild reaction condition (550 °C, 25 MPa, 1.3 times oxidation coefficient, 2 min). Moreover, the segmented oxidation, combining the pre-oxidation in preheater and oxidation in reactor, was firstly observed and analyzed here, could achieve a higher COD removal efficiency with a shorter length of the reactor. The results obtained in this paper proved the technical feasibility and could provide basic data support for the industrialization of semi-coke wastewater treatment by SCWO.

Cytocompatible chitosan based multi-network hydrogels with antimicrobial, cell anti-adhesive and mechanical properties.

Hydrogel with good mechanical and biological properties has great potential and promise for biomedical applications. Here we fabricated a series of novel cytocompatible chitosan (CS) based double-network (DN) and triple-network (TN) hydrogels by physically-chemically crosslinking methods. Natural polysaccharide CS with abundant resources was chosen as the first network due to its good antimicrobial activity, biocompatibility and easy cross-linking reaction. Zwitterionic sulfopropylbetaine (PDMAPS) was chosen as the second network due its good biocompatibility, antimicrobial and antifouling properties. And nonionic poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PHEA) was chosen as the final network due to its good biocompatibility, excellent nonfouling and mechanical properties. Cross-section SEM images showed that both CS/PHEA (DN1, the molar ratio of glutaraldehyde to structural unit of CS is 0.2/3.0) and CS/PDMAPS/PHEA (TN1, the molar ratio of glutaraldehyde to structural unit of CS is 0.2/3.0) hydrogels exhibited a smooth and uniformly dispersed porous microstructures with pore size distribution in the range of 20∼100 µm. The largest compressive stress and tensile stress of DN1 hydrogels reached 84.7 MPa and 292 kPa, respectively, and largest compressive stress and tensile stress of TN1 hydrogels could reach 81.9 MPa and 384 kPa, respectively. Moreover, the value of failure strain for TN1 gels reached 1020%. Besides excellent mechanical properties, DN1 and TN1 gels exhibited good antimicrobial, cytocompatible and antifouling properties due to introduction of antimicrobial chitosan, cell anti-adhesive PDMAPS and PHEA. The combination of the excellent mechanical and biological properties of multiple network hydrogels can provide a potential pathway to develop biomedical hydrogels as promising bioapplications in wound dressing and other biomedical applications.

Experimental Study on Bi-Axial Mechanical Properties of Warp-knitted Meshes with and without Initial Notches.

Warp-knitted meshes have been widely used for structural reinforcement of rigid, semi-rigid, and flexible composite materials. In order to meet the performance requirements of different engineering applications, four typical warp-knitted meshes (rectangular, square, circular, and diamond) were designed and developed. The mechanical behaviors of these meshes under mono-axial and multi-axial tensile loads were compared. The influence of the initial notch length and orientation on the mechanical performance was also analyzed. The results showed that the biaxial tensile behavior of warp-knitted meshes tended to be more isotropic. The anisotropy level of the diamond warp-knitted mesh was the lowest (λ = 0.099), while the rectangular one was the highest (λ = 0.502). The notch on a significantly anisotropic mesh was propagated along the direction of larger modulus, while for a not remarkably anisotropic mesh, notch propagation was probably consistent with the initial notch orientation. The breaking strength of warp-knitted meshes with the same initial notch orientation decreased with the increase in notch length in both the wale and course directions. For warp-knitted meshes with the same initial notch length, the breaking strength in the wale direction was kept stable at different notch orientations, while that in the course direction decreased remarkably with notch orientation from 0° to 90°.

Interactions between genetic polymorphisms of glucose metabolizing genes and smoking and alcohol consumption in the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The impact of gene-environment interaction on diabetes remains largely unknown. We aimed to investigate if interaction between glucose metabolizing genes and lifestyle factors is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Interactions between genotypes of 4 glucose metabolizing genes (MTNR1B, KCNQ1, KLF14, and GCKR) and lifestyle factors were estimated in 722 T2DM patients and 759 controls, using multiple logistic regression. No significant associations with T2DM were detected for the single nucleotide polymorphisms of MTNR1B, KLF14 and GCKR. However, rs151290 (KCNQ1) polymorphisms were found to be associated with risk of T2DM. Compared with AA, the odds ratios (ORs) of AC or CC genotypes for developing T2DM were 1.545 (P = 0.0489) and 1.603 (P = 0.0383), respectively. In stratified analyses, the associations were stronger in smokers with CC than smokers with AA (OR = 3.668, P = 0.013); drinkers with AC (OR = 5.518, P = 0.036), CC (OR = 8.691, P = 0.0095), and AC+CC (OR = 6.764, P = 0.016) than drinkers with AA. Compared with nondrinkers with AA, drinkers who carry AC and CC had 12.072-fold (P = 0.0007) and 8.147-fold (P = 0.0052) higher risk of developing T2DM. In conclusions, rs151290 (KCNQ1) polymorphisms are associated with increased risk of T2DM, alone and especially in interaction with smoking and alcohol.

Experimental study on evaluation and optimization of tilt angle of parallel-plate electrodes using electrocoagulation device for oily water demulsification.

Tilt angle of parallel-plate electrodes (APE) is very important as it improves the economy of diffusion controlled Electrocoagulation (EC) processes. This study aimed to evaluate and optimize APE of a self-made EC device including integrally rotary electrodes, at a fixed current density of 120 Am-2. The APEs investigated in this study were selected at 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, and a special value (α(d)) which was defined as a special orientation of electrode when the upper end of anode and the lower end of cathode is in a line vertical to the bottom of reactor. Experiments were conducted to determine the optimum APE for demulsification process using four evaluation indexes, as: oil removal efficiency in the center between electrodes; energy consumption and Al consumption, and besides, a novel universal evaluation index named as evenness index of oil removal efficiency employed to fully reflect distribution characteristics of demulsification efficiency. At a given plate spacing of 4 cm, the optimal APE was found to be α(d) because of its potential of enhancing the mass transfer process within whole EC reactor without addition, external mechanical stirring energy, and finally the four evaluation indexed are 97.07%, 0.11 g Al g-1 oil, 2.99 kwhkg-1 oil, 99.97% and 99.97%, respectively.

Genetic effects on hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype: rs780094, rs10830963, rs151290, and rs972283 polymorphisms and the interactions between them and behavior risk factors.

BACKGROUNDS: We aimed to evaluate the association of SNPs in GCKR, MTNR1B, KCNQ1, and KLF14 genes confirmed in previous studies and hapertriglyceridemic waist (HTGW) in Han Chinese, and assess the interactions between genes and behavior risk factors. METHODS: We genotyped the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for GCKR, MTNR1B, KCNQ1, and KLF14 gene were genotyped in 373 patients with HTGW and 466 normal healthy subjects. We used logistic regression to investigate the gene-gene, gene-behavior interactions for the risk of HTGW. RESULTS: Among the 4 SNPs, the AG genotype of rs780094 was protective factor, whereas the recessive model of rs151290 was risk factor after adjusting for confounders. Stratified by sex, only for women, the recessive model of rs151290 was still significance. The significant synergies interactions between SNPs were found between rs780094 in GCKR and rs972283 in KLF14 and rs10830963 in MTNR1B, respectively; meanwhile, the antagonistic interaction was revealed for rs151290 and rs780094 only for women. For male, there were significant synergies interactions between rs780094, smoking and alcohol drinking; and antagonistic interaction was revealed between rs780094 and severe activity both for men and women. CONCLUSIONS: GCKR and KLF14 genes play a significant role in risk of HTGW in a Han Chinese population.