A Diamond/Graphene/Diamond Electrode for Waste Water Treatment.

Boron-doped diamond (BDD) thin film electrodes have great application potential in water treatment. However, the high electrode energy consumption due to high resistance directly limits the application range of existing BDD electrodes. In this paper, the BDD/graphene/BDD (DGD) sandwich structure electrode was prepared, which effectively improved the conductivity of the electrode. Meanwhile, the sandwich electrode can effectively avoid the degradation of electrode performance caused by the large amount of non-diamond carbon introduced by heavy doping, such as the reduction of the electrochemical window and the decrease of physical and chemical stability. The microstructure and composition of the film were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Then, the degradation performance of citric acid (CA), catechol, and tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) by DGD electrodes was systematically studied by total organic carbon (TOC) and Energy consumption per unit TOC removal (ECTOC). Compared with the single BDD electrode, the new DGD electrode improves the mobility of the electrode and reduces the mass transfer resistance by 1/3, showing better water treatment performance. In the process of dealing with Citric acid, the step current of the DGD electrode was 1.35 times that of the BDD electrode, and the energy utilization ratio of the DGD electrode was 2.4 times that of the BDD electrode. The energy consumption per unit TOC removal (ECTOC) of the DGD electrode was lower than that of BDD, especially Catechol, which was reduced to 66.9% of BDD. The DGD sandwich electrode, as a new electrode material, has good electrochemical degradation performance and can be used for high-efficiency electrocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants.

Misdiagnosis of hepatic cystic echinococcosis complicated with hepatocellular carcinoma: A case report.

RATIONALE: Hepatic cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a common zoonotic parasitic disease caused by the entry of Echinococcus granulosus eggs into human body. Surgical resection is the optimal treatment choice for hepatic CE. However, Coexistence of CE and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have been reported with a rare incidence rate, which led to unsatisfactory prognosis after the operation. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 69-year-old male patient was admitted to hospital because of "Upper abdominal pain and discomfort for more than 1 month and an aggravation for 10 days." DIAGNOSIS: An elderly male herder who was initially diagnosed as hepatic CE, and none of the preoperative imaging test revealed the existence of HCC. Co-existence of hepatic CE and HCC was confirmed by the postoperative pathological examination. INTERVENTIONS: The patient underwent "combined hepatic segmental resection, portal vein thrombectomy, portal vein repairment, hepatic hydatid internal capsule removal and external subtotal resection, cholecystectomy". OUTCOMES: During follow-up after discharge, the patient did not regularly review and get further treatment and died 8 months after operation. LESSONS: May improve the clinicians' understanding of CE complicated with HCC, and reduce the misdiagnosis of similar case, as well as provide guidance for clinical treatment.

Laparoscopic versus conventional open treatment of hepatic cystic hydatidosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.

Introduction: There still exist controversies about the advantages and disadvantages of laparoscopic and traditional open surgery. Aim: This meta-analysis aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of laparoscopic versus traditional laparotomy in hepatic cystic hydatidosis. Material and methods: A systematic literature search was conducted for studies about liver hydatid surgery. After the quality assessment and relevant data extraction, the article was screened and included according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. Results: Thirteen studies included 1211 cases, 362 in the laparoscopic group, and 849 in the open surgery group. According to meta-analysis, laparoscopic surgery is superior to traditional open surgery in terms of length of hospital stay, the recovery time of gastrointestinal function, total complications, and the risk of incision infection. There were no significant differences between laparoscopic surgery and traditional open surgery in operation time, postoperative time of abdominal drainage tube removal, recurrence rate, bile leakage rate, biliary fistula rate, and residual cavity infection rate. Conclusions: Laparoscopy is superior to traditional open surgery in terms of length of hospital stay, the recovery time of gastrointestinal function, total complications, and the risk of incision infection. There was no significant difference in postoperative recurrence between laparoscopy and open surgery. In addition, we think laparoscopy can achieve the same clinical effect as laparotomy. However, the reliability and validity of our conclusion need to be verified by more randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Annealing effects on the structural and dielectric properties of (Nb + In) co-doped rutile TiO2 ceramics.

Density functional theory calculations were conducted to investigate the electronic structures of rutile Ti16O32, Ti13Nb2InO32, and Ti13Nb2InO31 systems. High density (Nb + In) co-doped rutile TiO2 ceramics were successfully prepared by one modified solid state method. XRD, XPS, Raman scattering and FT-IR measurements were performed to investigate the structural properties of the (Nb + In) co-doped rutile TiO2 ceramics annealed in different atmospheres. The lattice parameters for the (Nb + In) co-doped rutile TiO2 ceramics were enlarged slightly after they were annealed in air and oxygen. Raman scattering results indicate that the Eg modes are quite sensitive to oxygen vacancy in comparison with the other Raman active modes. The ceramics annealed in oxygen at 873 K exhibit the best dielectric performance with giant dielectric permittivity (>14 000) and small dielectric loss (<0.2) over the frequency range from 40 Hz to 1 MHz.

The Formation of Nanoparticles and Their Competitive Interaction with Twins during Eutectic Si Growth.

In order to investigate the competitive interaction between nanoparticles and twin, the eutectic Si microstructures in Al⁻10Si (wt. %) base alloys with exclusive and combined addition of Sr and Sb are characterized by combined TEM and atom probe tomography (APT). The chemical short range order in Sb⁻Sb and Sb⁻Sr pairs is revealed by ab initio molecular dynamics simulation, which promotes the formation of clusters and nanoparticles. The coexistence of nanoparticles and twins is observed in Sb containing alloys, with a negative correlation in the corresponding number density, owing to the competitive stacking of precursors and individual atoms at the solid⁻liquid interface. Large size particles around 70 nm with a uniform distribution of Sr atoms are formed in Al⁻10Si⁻0.35Sb⁻0.015Sr (wt. %) alloys, due to the precursor aggregation and homogeneous nucleation in the droplets that nucleation are depressed. A model for the formation of nanoparticles and their interaction with twins is proposed.