Analysis of the heavy metals (As, Pb, Cu, Zn) by leaching and sequential extraction procedure from a municipal solid waste incinerator fly ash co-processing cement kiln plant.

The municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash has been a major problem with the rapid development of the cities in China. And the cement rotary kiln co-processing technique is accepted as an effective method to dispose detrimental heavy metals in MSWI fly ash. This study focused on presented the total leaching content and the morphological distribution of the heavy metals in cement solid samples doped with MSWI fly ash. These samples were collected from a MSWI fly ash co-processing cement rotary kiln plant. The leaching test and the sequential extraction procedure were adopted to measure the migration characteristic of As, Pb, Cu, and Zn. In addition, the leachability of clinker samples under different simulated environmental conditions was also detected to analyze the security of the cement product doped with MSWI fly ash. This work demonstrates the feasibility of the cement rotary kiln MSWI fly ash co-processing technique and provides a scientific guidance to related plant.

Caloric restriction delays age-related muscle atrophy by inhibiting 11ß-HSD1 to promote the differentiation of muscle stem cells.

Introduction: Calorie restriction (CR) is an important direction for the delay of sarcopenia in elderly individuals. However, the specific mechanisms of CR against aging are still unclear. Methods: In this study, we used a CR model of elderly mice with muscle-specific 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11ß-HSD1) knockout mice and 11ß-HSD1 overexpression mice to confirm that CR can delay muscle aging by inhibiting 11ß-HSD1 which can transform inactive GC(cortisone) into active GC(cortisol). The ability of self-proliferation and differentiation into muscle fibers of these mouse muscle stem cells (MuSCs) was observed in vitro. Additionally, the mitochondrial function and mitochondrial ATP production capacity of MuSCs were measured by mitochondrial oxygen consumption. Results: It was found that the 11ß-HSD1 expression level was increased in age-related muscle atrophy. Overexpression of 11ß-HSD1 led to muscle atrophy in young mice, and 11ß-HSD1 knockout rescued age-related muscle atrophy. Moreover, CR in aged mice reduced the local effective concentration of glucocorticoid (GC) through 11ß-HSD1, thereby promoting the mitochondrial function and differentiation ability of MuSCs. Conclusions: Together, our findings highlight promising sarcopenia protection with 40% CR in older ages. Furthermore, we speculated that targeting an 11ß-HSD1-dependent metabolic pathway may represent a novel strategy for developing therapeutics against age-related muscle atrophy.

Study of 320-slice dynamic volume CT perfusion in different pathologic types of kidney tumor: preliminary results.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate microcirculatory differences between pathologic types of kidney tumor using 320-slice dynamic volume CT perfusion. METHODS: Perfusion imaging with 320-slice dynamic volume CT was prospectively performed in 85 patients with pathologically proven clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) (n = 66), papillary RCC (n = 7), chromophobe RCC (n = 5), angiomyolipoma (AML) with minimal fat (n = 7), or RCC (n = 78). Equivalent blood volume (Equiv BV), permeability surface-area product (PS; clearance/unit volume = permeability), and blood flow (BF) of tumor and normal renal cortex were measured and analyzed. Effective radiation dose was calculated. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in all three parameters between tumor and normal renal cortex (P<0.001). Equiv BV was significantly different between RCC and AML with minimal fat (P = 0.038) and between clear cell RCC and AML with minimal fat (P<0.001). Mean Equiv BV and BF were significantly higher in clear cell RCC than in papillary RCC (P<0.001 for both) and mean Equiv BV was higher in clear cell RCC than in chromophobe RCC (P<0.001). The effective radiation dose of the CT perfusion protocol was 18.5 mSv. CONCLUSION: Perfusion imaging using 320-slice dynamic volume CT can be used to evaluate hemodynamic features of the whole kidney and kidney tumors, which may be useful in the differential diagnosis of these four pathologic types of kidney tumor.