Acupuncture modulates the gut microbiota in Alzheimer's disease: current evidence, challenges, and future opportunities.

Alzheimer's disease, one of the most severe and common neurodegenerative diseases, has no effective cure. Therefore it is crucial to explore novel and effective therapeutic targets. The gut microbiota - brain axis has been found to play a role in Alzheimer's disease by regulating the neuro-immune and endocrine systems. At the same time, acupuncture can modulate the gut microbiota and may impact the course of Alzheimer's disease. In this Review, we discuss recent studies on the role of acupuncture on the gut microbiota as well current challenges and future opportunities of acupuncture as potential treatment for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Fabrication of an intimately coupled photocatalysis and biofilm system for removing sulfamethoxazole from wastewater: Effectiveness, degradation pathway and microbial community analysis.

Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is an extensively applied antibiotic frequently detected in municipal wastewater, which cannot be efficiently removed by conventional biological wastewater processes. In this work, an intimately coupled photocatalysis and biodegradation (ICPB) system consisting of Fe3+-doped graphitic carbon nitride photocatalyst and biofilm carriers was fabricated to remove SMX. The results of wastewater treatment experiments showed that 81.2 ± 2.1% of SMX was removed in the ICPB system during the 12 h, while only 23.7 ± 4.0% was removed in the biofilm system within the same time. In the ICPB system, photocatalysis played a key role in removing SMX by producing hydroxyl radicals and superoxide radicals. Besides, the synergism between photocatalysis and biodegradation enhanced the mineralization of SMX. To understand the degradation process of SMX, nine degradation products and possible degradation pathways of SMX were analyzed. The results of high throughput sequencing showed that the diversity, abundance, and structure of the biofilm microbial community remained stable in the ICPB system at the end of the experiments, which suggested that microorganisms had accommodated to the environment of the ICPB system. This study could provide insights into the application of the ICPB system in treating antibiotic-contaminated wastewater.

Integrated photocatalysis and moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) for treating conventional and emerging organic pollutants from synthetic wastewater: Performances and microbial community responses.

Increasing concern for emerging organic pollutants (e.g. antibiotics) urges improvements in conventional biological wastewater treatment processes. This study examined the performance of an integrated photocatalysis and moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) system in treating synthetic wastewater containing sulfamethoxazole (SMX). It was found that the integrated system could remove over 80.5 % of SMX and 67.7-80.7 % of chemical oxygen demand (COD) with a hydraulic retention time of 24 h. The introduction of photocatalysis had no impact on COD removal and significantly enhanced SMX removal. High-throughput analysis indicated that microbial community greatly altered due to photocatalytic oxidation stress, with clostridiaceae and enterobacteriaceae becoming dominant families. Nevertheless, microorganisms maintained metabolic activity, which may be ascribed to the protection of carriers and microbial self-preservation by secreting extracellular polymeric substances and antioxidant enzymes. Collectively, this study sheds light on treating wastewater containing conventional and emerging organic pollutants by integrating photocatalysis with MBBR.

Intimately coupled photocatalysis and biodegradation for effective simultaneous removal of sulfamethoxazole and COD from synthetic domestic wastewater.

The inefficiency of conventional biological treatment for removing sulfamethoxazole (SMX) is posing potential risks to ecological environments. In this study, an intimately coupled photocatalysis and biodegradation (ICPB) system consisting of Fe3+/g-C3N4 and biofilm was fabricated for the treatment of synthetic domestic wastewater containing SMX. The results showed that this ICPB system could simultaneously remove 96.27 ± 5.27% of SMX and 86.57 ± 3.06% of COD, which was superior to sole photocatalysis (SMX 100%, COD 4.2 ± 0.74%) and sole biodegradation (SMX 42.21 ± 0.86%, COD 95.1 ± 0.18%). Contributors to SMX removal in the ICPB system from big to small include LED photocatalysis, biodegradation, LED photolysis, and adsorption effect of the carrier, while COD removal was largely ascribed to biodegradation. Increasing initial SMX concentration inhibits SMX removal rate, while increasing photocatalyst dosage accelerates SMX removal rate, and both had no impact on COD removal. Our analysis of biofilm activity showed that microorganisms in this ICPB system maintained a high survival rate and metabolic activity, and the microbial community structure of the biofilm remained stable, with Nakamurella and Raoultella being the two dominant genera of the biofilm. This work provides a new strategy to effectively treat domestic wastewater polluted by antibiotics.

Bio-inspired photonics - marine hatchetfish camouflage strategies for RF steganography.

Camouflage is a strategy that animals utilize for concealment in their habitat, making themselves invisible to their predators and preys. In RF systems, steganography or stealth transmission is the camouflage of information - a technology of hiding and transmitting secret messages in public media. Steganography conceals the secret message in publicly available media such that the eavesdropper or attacker will not be able to tell if there is a secret message to look for. Marine hatchetfish have two effective camouflage skills to help them hide from their predators - silvering and counterillumination. Silvering in marine hatchetfish uses its microstructured skin on its sides to achieve destructive interference at colors that could indicate the presence of the fish, while they also emit light at their bottom part to match its color and intensity to its surrounding, making it invisible from below, referred to as counterillumination. In this work, we borrow the two underwater camouflage strategies from marine hatchetfish, mimic them with photonic phenomena, and apply the camouflage strategies for physical stealth transmission of a 200 MBaud/s 16QAM OFDM secret signal at 5 GHz over a 25-km of optical fiber. The proposed bio-inspired steganography strategies successfully hid the secret signal in plain sight in temporal, RF spectral, and optical spectral domains, by blending in using counterillumination and turning invisible using silvering techniques. The stealth signal can only be retrieved with the precise and correct parameter for constructive interference at the secret signal frequency to unmask the silvering.

Adaptive photonic RF spectral shaper.

The radio frequency spectral shaper is an essential component in emerging multi-service mobile communications, multiband satellite and radar systems, and future 5G/6G radio frequency systems for equalizing spectral unevenness, removing out-of-band noise and interference, and manipulating multi-band signal simultaneously. While it is easy to achieve simple spectral functions using either conventional microwave photonic filters or the optical spectrum to microwave spectra mapping techniques, it is challenging to enable complex spectral shaping functions over tens of GHz bandwidth as well as to achieve point-by-point shaping capability to fulfill the needs in dynamic wireless communications. In this paper, we proposed and demonstrated a novel spectral shaping system, which utilizes a two-section algorithm to automatically decompose the target RF response into a series of Gaussian functions and to reconstruct the desired RF response by microwave photonic techniques. The devised spectral shaping system is capable of manipulating the spectral function in various bands (S, C, and X) simultaneously with step resolution of as fine as tens of MHz. The resolution limitation in optical spectral processing is mitigated using the discrete convolution technique. Over 10 dynamic and independently adjustable spectral control points are experimentally achieved based on the proposed spectral shaper.

Movement Detection in Soft Robotic Gripper using Sinusoidally Embedded Fiber Optic Sensor.

Soft robotics is an emerging field, since it offers distinct opportunities in areas where conventional rigid robots are not a feasible solution. However, due to the complex motions of soft robots and the stretchable nature of soft building materials, conventional electronic and fiber optic sensors cannot be used in soft robots, thus, hindering the soft robots' ability to sense and respond to their surroundings. Fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensors are very popular among various fiber optic sensors, but their stiff nature makes it challenging to be used in soft robotics. In this study, a soft robotic gripper with a sinusoidally embedded stretchable FBG-based fiber optic sensor is demonstrated. Unlike a straight FBG embedding configuration, this unique sinusoidal configuration prevents sensor dislocation, supports stretchability and improves sensitivity by seven times when compared to a straight configuration. Furthermore, the sinusoidally embedded FBG facilitates the detection of various movements and events occurring at the soft robotic gripper, such as (de)actuation, object holding and external perturbation. The combination of a soft robot and stretchable fiber optic sensor is a novel approach to enable a soft robot to sense and response to its surroundings, as well as to provide its operation status to the controller.

Microwave photonic multiband filter with independently tunable passband spectral properties.

Multiband RF filters with independently controllable passbands are an essential component in dynamic multiband RF communications. Unfortunately, even a fixed multiband RF filter without the capability to adjust the passband properties individually is very difficult to achieve using either RF electronics or microwave photonic technologies. In microwave photonic approaches, the critical limitation is the close relationship between passbands-the tuning of one passband leads to a change in another, hindering the ability to independently control each passband. In this Letter, a programmable microwave photonic multiband filter with full control of amplitude, frequency, bandwidth, group delay slope, and the spectral shape of each passband has been experimentally demonstrated. A multiband filter design algorithm has also been developed that considers each RF passband as an individual, then uses inverse Fourier transform and filter design rule to determine the corresponding optical parameters and combines a series of shaped cosine functions to achieve the desired RF properties.

Characterizing the correlation between dephosphorization and solution pH in a calcined water treatment plant sludge.

This study focused on characterizing the correlation between the dephosphorization process of calcined water treatment plant sludge (C-WTPS) and the solution initial pH in batch experiments. The specific aim was to illustrate the effect of different initial pH on the adsorption and desorption of phosphorous in C-WTPS. In addition, the effects of solution initial pH on the release of ammonia nitrogen and total organic carbon (TOC) from C-WTPS and the change of pH after adsorption were also investigated. The results demonstrated that the initial pH significantly influenced the adsorption of phosphorus on C-WTPS. When initial pH was increased from 3 to 10, the phosphorous absorption capacity reduced by 76.5%. Especially, when the initial pH reached to 11, the phosphorus adsorption capacity became a negative value, indicating that C-WTPS released phosphorus into the solution. The addition of C-WTPS to the solution had little impact on the initial pH of the solution. The absorbed phosphorous on C-WTPS was relatively stable in the pH range of 3 to 10. Nevertheless, when the solution pH was higher than 11, it can be easily released into the solution. Furthermore, by comparison with WTPS, C-WTPS released less ammonia nitrogen and TOC into the solution and adsorbed more phosphorus from the solution in the experimental pH range. Therefore, C-WTPS is more suitable to serve as a cost-effective sorbent for phosphorus removal.

Optimization of the processing technology of Fructus Arctii by response surface methodology.

The present study was designed to optimize the processing of Fructus Arctii by response surface methodology (RSM). Based on single factor studies, a three-variable, three-level Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to monitor the effects of independent variables, including processing temperature and time, on the dependent variables. Response surfaces and contour plots of the contents of total lignans, chlorogenic acid, arctiin, and arctigenin were obtained through ultraviolet and visible (UV-Vis) monitoring and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Fructus Arctii should be processed under heating in a pot at 311 °C, medicine at 119 °C for 123s with flipping frequently. The experimental values under the optimized processing technology were consistent with the predicted values. In conclusion, RSM is an effective method to optimize the processing of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Chemical analysis of raw and processed Fructus arctii by high-performance liquid chromatography/diode array detection-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry.

BACKGROUND: In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), raw and processed herbs are used to treat the different diseases. Fructus Arctii, the dried fruits of Arctium lappa l. (Compositae), is widely used in the TCM. Stir-frying is the most common processing method, which might modify the chemical compositions in Fructus Arctii. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To test this hypothesis, we focused on analysis and identification of the main chemical constituents in raw and processed Fructus Arctii (PFA) by high-performance liquid chromatography/diode array detection-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The results indicated that there was less arctiin in stir-fried materials than in raw materials. however, there were higher levels of arctigenin in stir-fried materials than in raw materials. CONCLUSION: We suggest that arctiin reduced significantly following the thermal conversion of arctiin to arctigenin. In conclusion, this finding may shed some light on understanding the differences in the therapeutic values of raw versus PFA in TCM.

[Study on quality evaluation of cimicifugae rhizoma from different producing areas by HPLC fingerprint].

To establish a fingerprint for Cimicifugae Rhizoma from different producing areas. Column kromasil (4.6 mm x 250 mm, 5 microm) was employed with acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid solution as the mobile phase for gradient elution. The flow rate was 1.0 mL x min(-1), the detection wavelength was 254 nm. Twenty chromatographic peaks were extracted as the common peaks of fingerprint, and 21 batches of samples were compared and classified with such methods as similarity evaluation, cluster analysis and principle component analysis. The results showed 12 common peaks and three categories of samples. The method was so highly reproducible, simple and reliable that it could provide basis for quality control and evaluation of Cimicifugae Rhizoma from different producing areas.

Photoinduced reactions of bicycloalkylidenes with isatin and isoquinolinetrione.

Photoinduced reactions of isatin and N-methyl-1,3,4-isoquinolinetrione with bicycloalkylidenes such as bicyclopropylidene, cyclopropylidenecyclobutane, cyclopropylidenecyclohexane and bicyclohexylidene were investigated. The reactions gave spirooxetanes as the major products derived from the [2 + 2] photocycloaddition pathway via 1,4-biradical recombination. Unusual products including the [4 + 2 + 2] cycloadducts, the oxoisochroman derivatives and other ring-rearranged products were derived from competitive pathways via 1,6-biradical recombination. The presence of oxygen in the reaction solution was found to be relevant to the distribution of different types of products. Mechanisms were proposed to rationalize the chemo- and regioselectivity in the photoreactions and the origin of the different types of products.