[Mechanism of Mailuo Shutong Pills on posterior limb muscle swelling caused by femoral fracture in rats based on network pharmacology and experimental verification].

This study aims to investigate the mechanism of Mailuo Shutong Pills(MLST) on posterior limb muscle swelling caused by femoral fracture(SCFF) through network pharmacology and animal experiments. The plasma components of MLST were analyzed by LC-MS, and the target and signal pathway of SCFF were predicted by network pharmacology and verified by molecular docking. SCFF model rats were established through animal experiments, and different doses of MLST were administered to detect the degree of limb swelling. Hematoxylin-eosin(HE) staining was used to observe pathological changes in muscle tissue, and interleukin-6(IL-6), interleukin-1ß(interleukin-1ß), and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) in peripheral blood were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The expression of relevant signaling pathways was measured by Western blot. Network pharmacological results showed that MLST and SCFF had a total of 153 disease targets, and the key targets were IL-6, TNF, etc., involving mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK) signaling pathway, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI3K)/protein kinase B(AKT) signaling pathway, etc. The binding energies of the main components and key targets were lower than-7.0 kcal·mol~(-1), indicating that the network analysis results were reliable. The results of animal experiments showed that MLST could reduce the swelling degree and pathological damage of the posterior limb muscles of SCFF rats compared with the model group. ELISA results showed that MLST could reduce the levels of IL-6, IL-1ß, and TNF-α in the serum of SCFF rats. Western blot results showed that MLST can reduce the expression of p-AKT, p-PI3K, p-NF-κB, p-p38 MAPK, and p-ERK in SCFF rats. MLST may reduce the content of inflammatory factors in serum by regulating the expression of PI3K/AKT and MAPK-related signaling pathway protein and improving posterior limb muscle SCFF in rats.

Ecofriendly Microencapsulated Phase-Change Materials with Hybrid Core Materials for Thermal Energy Storage and Flame Retardancy.

Microencapsulated phase-change material (ME-PCM) employing octadecane as a core material has been practiced for thermal-energy-storage (TES) applications in buildings. However, octadecane as a hydrocarbon-based PCM is flammable. Herein, silica-shelled microcapsules (SiO2-MCs) and poly(urea-formaldehyde)-shelled microcapsules (PUF-MCs) were successfully prepared, loaded with octadecane/tributyl phosphate (TBP) as hybrid core materials, which not only exhibited good TES properties but also high-effective flame retardancy. SiO2-MC (ΔHm = 124.6 J g-1 and ΔHc = 124.1 J g-1) showed weaker TES capacity than PUF-MC (ΔHm = 186.8 J g-1, ΔHc = 188.5 J g-1) but better flame retardancy with a lower peak heat-release rate (HRRpeak) of 460.9 W g-1 (556.9 W g-1 for PUF-MCs). As compared with octadecane (38.7 kJ g-1), the reduction in total heat release (THR) for SiO2-MC was up to 22% (30.1 kJ g-1) with combustion time shortened by 1/6. SiO2-MC had a typical diameter of 150-210 µm, shell thickness of ∼6.5 µm, and a core fraction of 84 wt %. SiO2-MC showed better thermal stability with a higher initial evaporation/pyrolysis temperature than PUF-MC. The thermal decomposition of MCs with its mechanism of flame retardancy was significantly studied using thermogravimetric analysis/infrared spectrometry (TG-IR). The strategy presented in this study should inspire the development of microcapsules with PCMs/flame retardants as hybrid core materials for structural applications.

Mitigating environmental impact by development of ambient-cured EAF slag and fly ash blended geopolymer via mix design optimization.

This article discusses the utilization of industrial by-products, namely, electric arc furnace slag (EAFS) and fly ash to produce cementless geopolymer binder. Taguchi-grey optimization is used for experimental design and for investigating the effects of mix design parameters. Fly ash, in the levels of 0-75% (by mass), partly replaced EAFS in the binary-blended composite system. Experiments were performed on the microstructural development, mechanical properties, and durability of ambient-cured EAFS-fly ash geopolymer paste (EFGP). The optimal mix with 75-25% composition of EAFS and fly ash produced ~ 39 MPa compressive strength accrediting to the co-existence of C-A-S-H and N-A-S-H gels. The initial and final setting times were 127 min and 581 min, respectively, owing to adequate alkali and amorphous contents in the matrix, and the flowability was 108% due to sufficient activator content and the spherical shape of fly ash particles. SEM, XRD, and FTIR results corroborated the mechanical test results.

Review of leaching behavior of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ash.

Incineration is widely adopted in modern waste management because it provides an effective way to minimize municipal solid waste that needs to be disposed of in landfills. The ash residue is often disposed by landfilling. Alternatively, the incineration ash may be recycled and reused for various applications. The crucial issues, however, are the leaching of harmful elements during the use and the end-of-life phases. This review summarizes extensive studies on leaching behavior of municipal solid waste incineration ash. Specifically, pollutants generated through leaching, factors governing leaching, methodologies to study leaching, leaching mechanisms, and treatments to reduce leaching. Many types of pollutants are generated through leaching from municipal solid waste incineration ash, in which heavy metals and organic contaminants are the most toxic and concerned. Ash properties, pH and liquid to solid ratio are the main factors governing municipal solid waste incineration ash leaching. Leaching behavior of municipal solid waste incineration ash is complicated and existing methods to evaluate leaching may not be able to represent the field conditions. Solubility and sorption are the two major leaching mechanisms. Many treatment methods have been proposed. However, not all methods are effective and some approaches are associated with high energy and high cost, which makes them less economically feasible and attractive.

Humic acid-induced formation of tobermorite upon hydrothermal treatment with municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash and its application for efficient removal of Cu(II) ions.

In this study, conversion of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash (IBA) into highly efficient sorbents for Cu(II) removal was reported. The formation of tobermorite induced by humic acid (HA) and IBA under hydrothermal condition was explored and its potential application for efficient removal of Cu(II) ions was further investigated. After hydrothermal treatment, the morphology and microstructure of IBA remarkably changed from sheet-like to particle-like, thereby resulting in substantial increases of sorption capacity. The synthesized tobermorite exhibited a strongly enhanced sorption performance toward Cu(II), which was 270.3 mg g-1 and higher than other reported sorbents. The adsorption behaviors were subsequently examined by isotherm and kinetic studies. Langmuir model was found to describe the adsorption process well, suggesting that the adsorption was chemisorption in nature. Therefore, the hydrothermally synthesized tobermorite may be used as sorbents to remove Cu(II). Conversion of IBA into valuable minerals recovers waste into potential resources and alleviates the needs for ash disposal.

Controllable mullite bismuth ferrite micro/nanostructures with multifarious catalytic activities for switchable/hybrid catalytic degradation processes.

In this work, controllable preparation of micro/nanostructured bismuth ferrites (BFOs) were used to investigate multifarious heterogeneous catalyses, including Fenton/Fenton-like reaction, photocatalysis, photo-Fenton oxidation, and peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. Results showed that BFO can be used asa novel catalyst to activate switchable catalytic degradation of organic matters. Additionally, a novel catalytic system for degradation of organic pollutants, which integrating all-above heterogeneous catalyses is denoted as BFO/H2O2/PMS hybrid reaction, is introduced for the first time. BFO/H2O2/PMS system effectively degraded>99% for both methyl orange (MO) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) within 60min, which shows better efficiency than above BFO-driven catalyses. The major SMX degradation pathway in BFO/H2O2/PMS system is proposed via detecting intermediates using LC/MS/MS. It was found that catalytic activities of BFOs are in the order of BFO-L (co-precipitation, micro/nanosize, single crystals exposing facet (001))>BFO-H (hydrothermal, nanocluster with a higher surface area than other BFOs)>BFO-C (fabricated using calcination process, microsize), which demonstrated that crystallographic orientation is more significant in heterogeneous catalyses than specific surface area at micro/nanoscale. Besides, the required H2O2 consumption for achieving 99% TOC removal was identified in BFO-driven photo-Fenton oxidation. The other effects on degradation efficiency, such as H2O2 dosage and pH, were investigated as well. In Fenton/Fenton-like reaction, reaction conditions suggested are ∼61.5mM H2O2 dosage and pH≥4.5 to avoid quenching of HO into HO2 by excessive H2O2 and Fe leaching.