α-FeOOH-Modified Sn/N-Codoped TiO2 Bifunctional Composites for As(III) Removal through Photocatalytic Oxidation and Simultaneous Adsorption.

Photocatalytic oxidation technology is one of the most efficient and green methods to convert highly toxic As(III) into lowly toxic As(V) for arsenic-polluted wastewater. However, the obtained As(V) may be reduced to As(III) again in the environment, causing secondary pollution. In order to resolve these issues, a bifunctional composite consisting of needle-like α-FeOOH-modified Sn/N-codoped TiO2 granules (SNT-FeOOH) has been synthesized. After modifying, the band gap of SNT-FeOOH narrowed from 2.94 eV (SNT) to 2.29 eV. When the composites were applied to As(III) removal, 10 mg of SNT-FeOOH could totally photocatalytically oxidize 40 mL of As(III) solution with a concentration of 10,000 µg/L within 15 min and synchronously achieve complete adsorption of the produced As(V), which is much more efficient than pure Sn/N-codoped TiO2 [21 min for As(III) photocatalytic oxidation and only 20.01% of total arsenic removal efficiency]. Based on the characterizations, α-FeOOH modification plays a significant role in the promoted performances of photocatalytic oxidation and adsorption of SNT-FeOOH, leading to arsenic removal. On one hand, the Fe-O-Ti interfacial chemical interactions formed between α-FeOOH and Sn/N-codoped TiO2 can further boost the separation rate of photogenerated carriers, hence increasing the photocatalytic oxidation efficiency. On the other hand, α-FeOOH surface hydroxyl groups adsorb the generated As(V) by forming Fe-O-As bonds. The SNT-FeOOH bifunctional composites, prepared in this paper, with dual performances of photocatalytic oxidation and adsorption provide a new strategy to achieve arsenic removal from wastewater.

Synergistic photocatalytic oxidation and adsorption boost arsenic removal by in-situ carbon-doped TiO2 and nitrogen deficiency C3N4 heterojunction.

The efficient removal of arsenic from wastewater is still a challenge. In this paper, a heterojunction consisting of in-situ carbon-doped TiO2 and nitrogen deficiency g-C3N4 (C/TiO2@ND-C3N4) has been constructed, which can completely oxidize As(III) (10,000 µg/L, 40 mL) to As(V) within 12 min under visible light and simultaneously adsorb total As (95.0%) with the pseudo-secondary kinetic equation, superior than in-situ carbon-doped TiO2 (75.0%) and nitrogen deficiency g-C3N4 (50.5%). The good photocatalytic oxidation and adsorption performances of C/TiO2@ND-C3N4 on As(III) removal can be attributed to the successful synthesis of heterojunction. On one hand, the building of C-O-Ti interfacial chemical bonds enable rapid electron transfer and improve the efficiency of photocatalytic oxidation. On the other hand, the decreased As(V) adsorption energy resulted from the synthesized heterojunction boost the adsorption capability of As(V), which was completed by the generation of O-As bonds with oxygen-containing functional groups on the surface of TiO2 and hydrogen bonds with high content pyrrole nitrogen derived from ND-C3N4, respectively. The results manifest that the preparation of bifunctional materials with both photocatalytic oxidation and adsorption properties provides a new strategy to achieve the removal of As.

Qianggu Decoction Alleviated Osteoporosis by Promoting Osteogenesis of BMSCs through Mettl3-Mediated m6A Methylation.

Osteoporosis development is linked to abnormal bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) differentiation. N6-methyladenosine (m6A), a prevalent mRNA modification, is known to influence BMSCs' osteogenic capacity. Qianggu decoction (QGD), a traditional Chinese medicine for osteoporosis, has unknown effects on BMSCs differentiation. This study investigates QGD's impact on BMSCs and its potential to ameliorate osteoporosis through m6A regulation. Using Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with ovariectomy-induced osteoporosis, it is evaluated QGD's antiosteoporotic effects through micro-CT, histology, Western blotting, and osteoblastogenesis markers. QGD is found to enhance bone tissue growth and upregulate osteogenic markers Runx2, OPN, and OCN. It also promoted BMSCs osteogenic differentiation, as shown by increased calcium nodules and ALP activity. QGD treatment significantly increased m6A RNA levels and Mettl3 expression in BMSCs. Silencing Mettl3 with siRNA negated QGD's osteogenic effects. Collectively, QGD may improve BMSCs differentiation and mitigate osteoporosis, potentially through Mettl3-mediated m6A modification.

Identification of Pepper Leaf Diseases Based on TPSAO-AMWNet.

Pepper is a high-economic-value agricultural crop that faces diverse disease challenges such as blight and anthracnose. These diseases not only reduce the yield of pepper but, in severe cases, can also cause significant economic losses and threaten food security. The timely and accurate identification of pepper diseases is crucial. Image recognition technology plays a key role in this aspect by automating and efficiently identifying pepper diseases, helping agricultural workers to adopt and implement effective control strategies, alleviating the impact of diseases, and being of great importance for improving agricultural production efficiency and promoting sustainable agricultural development. In response to issues such as edge-blurring and the extraction of minute features in pepper disease image recognition, as well as the difficulty in determining the optimal learning rate during the training process of traditional pepper disease identification networks, a new pepper disease recognition model based on the TPSAO-AMWNet is proposed. First, an Adaptive Residual Pyramid Convolution (ARPC) structure combined with a Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) module is proposed to solve the problem of edge-blurring by utilizing adaptivity and channel attention; secondly, to address the issue of micro-feature extraction, Minor Triplet Disease Focus Attention (MTDFA) is proposed to enhance the capture of local details of pepper leaf disease features while maintaining attention to global features, reducing interference from irrelevant regions; then, a mixed loss function combining Weighted Focal Loss and L2 regularization (WfrLoss) is introduced to refine the learning strategy during dataset processing, enhancing the model's performance and generalization capabilities while preventing overfitting. Subsequently, to tackle the challenge of determining the optimal learning rate, the tent particle snow ablation optimizer (TPSAO) is developed to accurately identify the most effective learning rate. The TPSAO-AMWNet model, trained on our custom datasets, is evaluated against other existing methods. The model attains an average accuracy of 93.52% and an F1 score of 93.15%, demonstrating robust effectiveness and practicality in classifying pepper diseases. These results also offer valuable insights for disease detection in various other crops.

AISOA-SSformer: An Effective Image Segmentation Method for Rice Leaf Disease Based on the Transformer Architecture.

Rice leaf diseases have an important impact on modern farming, threatening crop health and yield. Accurate semantic segmentation techniques are crucial for segmenting diseased leaf parts and assisting farmers in disease identification. However, the diversity of rice growing environments and the complexity of leaf diseases pose challenges. To address these issues, this study introduces an innovative semantic segmentation algorithm for rice leaf pests and diseases based on the Transformer architecture AISOA-SSformer. First, it features the sparse global-update perceptron for real-time parameter updating, enhancing model stability and accuracy in learning irregular leaf features. Second, the salient feature attention mechanism is introduced to separate and reorganize features using the spatial reconstruction module (SRM) and channel reconstruction module (CRM), focusing on salient feature extraction and reducing background interference. Additionally, the annealing-integrated sparrow optimization algorithm fine-tunes the sparrow algorithm, gradually reducing the stochastic search amplitude to minimize loss. This enhances the model's adaptability and robustness, particularly against fuzzy edge features. The experimental results show that AISOA-SSformer achieves an 83.1% MIoU, an 80.3% Dice coefficient, and a 76.5% recall on a homemade dataset, with a model size of only 14.71 million parameters. Compared with other popular algorithms, it demonstrates greater accuracy in rice leaf disease segmentation. This method effectively improves segmentation, providing valuable insights for modern plantation management. The data and code used in this study will be open sourced at https://github.com/ZhouGuoXiong/Rice-Leaf-Disease-Segmentation-Dataset-Code.

[Single mini-incision combined with honeycomb titanium plate in treatment of acute acromioclavicular joint dislocation].

OBJECTIVE: To explore clinical effect of single small incision with honeycomb titanium plate in treating acute acromioclavicular dislocation. METHODS: The clinical data of 40 patients with acute acromioclavicular dislocation admitted from December 2019 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed and divided into two groups according to different surgical methods. Among them, 20 patients were fixed with single small incision with honeycomb titanium plate (titanium plate group), including 11 males and 9 females, aged from 23 to 65 years old with an average of (47.40±12.58) years old;12 patients on the left side, 8 patients on the right side;11 patients with type Ⅲ, 3 patients with type Ⅳ, and 6 patients with type Ⅴ according to Rockwood classification. Twenty patients were fixed with clavicular hook plate (clavicular hook group), including 8 males and 12 females, aged from 24 to 65 years old with an average of (48.40±12.08) years old;12 patients on the left side, 8 patients on the right side;10 patients with type Ⅲ, 2 patients with type Ⅳ, and 8 patients with type Ⅴ according to Rockwood classification. Operative time, incision length, intraoperative blood loss, hospital stay, visual analogue scale (VAS) and Constant-Murley score of shoulder joint function were compared between two groups. Anteroposterior radiographs of the affected shoulder joint were recorded before, immediately and 6 months after surgery, and the coracoclavicular distance was measured and compared. RESULTS: Both groups of patients were successfully completed operation without serious complications. All patients were followed up for 6 to 15 months with an average of (11.9±4.8) months. There were no incisional infection, internal plant fracture or failure, bone tunnel fracture and other complications occurred. The incision length of titanium plate group (35.90±3.14) mm was significantly shorter than that of clavicular hook group (49.30±3.79) mm (P<0.05). There were no significant difference in operative time, intraoperative blood loss and hospital stay between two groups (P>0.05). At 1 and 3 months after operation, VAS of titanium plate group was lower than that of clavicular hook group (P<0.05). Connstant-Murley scores in titanium plate group at 1, 3 and 6 months after operation were (86.80±1.36), (91.60±2.32) and (94.90±2.22), respectively;and in clavicular hook group were (78.45±5.47), (85.55±2.01) and (90.25±1.92), which were higher than that of clavicular hook group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in coracoclavicular distance between two groups immediately and 6 months after operation(P>0.05). CONCLUSION: For the treatment of acute acromioclavicular joint dislocation, single small incision combined with honeycomb titanium plate have advantages of shorter incision, fast recovery of shoulder joint function without the second operation, and has good satisfaction of patient.

Associations between general trait anxiety, trait social anxiety and cardiovascular responses to social and non-social stressors.

OBJECTIVE: The present study sought to examine whether anxiety propensity dimensions (general trait anxiety vs. trait social anxiety) interact with stressor types (tasks with social vs. non-social challenges) to determine cardiovascular stress responses. METHODS: A 2 × 3 mixed-factorial experimental design was employed. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Social Performance and Social Interaction Anxiety Scales were administered to 233 participants, who engaged in a stress task with either social or non-social challenges during which their cardiovascular data were continuously collected. RESULTS: General trait anxiety negatively predicted heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity (ß = -0.16, p = 0.001; ß = -0.17, p = 0.001; ß = -0.18, p < 0.001), and positively predicted HR, SBP, DBP recovery (ß = 0.16, p = 0.012; ß = 0.15, p = 0.014; ß = 0.15, p = 0.011), regardless of stress types. Social performance anxiety (ß = -0.23, p = 0.002; ß = -0.25, p = 0.001; ß = -0.24, p = 0.001) and social interaction anxiety (ß = -0.22, p < 0.001; ß = -0.25, p < 0.001; ß = -0.22, p < 0.001) only negatively predicted HR, SBP, DBP reactivity to the stress task with social challenges. No associations were observed between trait social anxiety and cardiovascular recovery from the stress task with social or non-social challenges. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that different trait anxiety dimensions interact with stressor types in affecting cardiovascular stress responses, which have different health implications.

Feasibility and clinical value of TIPS combined with subsequent antitumor treatment in HCC patients with refractory ascites.

BACKGROUND: Currently, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with refractory ascites (RA) have a very poor prognosis, and there are no effective treatments recommended by the guidelines. A treatment strategy that utilizes a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) combined with subsequent antitumor treatment is explored in this study for its feasibility and clinical value. METHODS: One month after TIPS, the ascites grade and Child-Pugh scores and stages were reassessed to compare changes in the preoperative indicators. RESULTS: A total of 68 patients from 3 centers were enrolled. After TIPS, the following results were obtained: a complete response (CR), partial response (PR), or absent RA response (AR) of 38 [55.9%], 21 [30.9%], and 9 [13.2%], respectively. The control of RA was 86.8%. The median Child-Pugh scores prior to TIPS and one month after TIPS were 8 (IQR 7-9) and 7 (IQR 6-8), respectively. The down, unchanged, and elevated Child-Pugh stages were 26 [38.2%], 36 [53.0%], and 6 [8.8%], respectively. The postoperative Child-Pugh scores were significantly lower than the preoperative (p < 0.001). 92.6% (63/61) of the patients received subsequent anti-tumor treatment opportunities. The median overall survival (OS) was 8.7 (range, 0.4-49.6) months. The lower postoperative Child-Pugh stage(p = 0.001), downward change of the Child-Pugh stage(p = 0.027), and downward change of the Child-Pugh score (p = 0.002) were independent protected prognostic factors for OS. CONCLUSION: As a minimally invasive method, TIPS can effectively control ascites and improve Child-Pugh scores and stages. TIPS combined with subsequent anti-tumor therapy is a feasible and effective management for HCC patients with RA.

[Radiological features of AIDS complicated by pulmonary tuberculosis and the association with CD4+ T lymphocytes].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the imaging features in cases with AIDS complicated by pulmonary tuberculosis and the association with CD(4)(+) T lymphocytes. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was carried out of the manifestations of chest X-rays in patients with late stage AIDS complicate by pulmonary tuberculosis (n = 26 cases) and patients with pulmonary tuberculosis only (n = 60 cases). The results of measurements of CD(4)(+) T lymphocytes were compared. RESULTS: (1) The chest X-ray features in patients with AIDS complicated by pulmonary tuberculosis showed more patchy and blurring shadows (53.8% vs 8.3%; P < 0.01), more military changes (23.1% vs 5.0%; P < 0.05), more enlarged intrathoracic lymph nodes (34.6% vs 8.3%; P < 0.01) as well as more extra-pulmonary tuberculous processes (23.1% vs 3.3%; P < 0.05) as compared to patients with pulmonary tuberculosis alone. Fewer upper lung or apical lesions (23.1% vs 76.7%; P < 0.01), as well as less consolidation (11.5% vs 71.7%; P < 0.01) and cavity formation (7.7% vs 30.0%; P < 0.05) were found in AIDS patients. No significant difference was found in the occurrence of hydrothorax (11.5% vs 20.0%; P > 0.05). (2) The relative numbers of CD(4)(+) T lymphocytes in patients with AIDS complicated by pulmonary tuberculosis and in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis alone were (5.0 +/- 6.4)% and (65.3 +/- 1.5)% respectively. Atypical manifestations of tuberculosis were found in 15 out of the 26 cases of AIDS patients showing a CD(4)(+) T lymphocytic count < 50/microl, in 3 of the 4 cases with the count between 50/microl - 100/microl, while in cases with CD(4)(+)T lymphocytic count between 100/microl -200/microl (n = 4) and > 200/microl (n = 2), numbers of atypical tuberculosis were 2 and 0 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The chest X-ray changes of tuberculosis in cases with late stage AIDS were mostly of the atypical pattern, and were related to a significant decrease in CD(4)(+)T lymphocyte count.

Correlation between imaging features of Pneumocystis Jiroveci Pneumonitis (PCP), CD(4) (+) T lymphocyte count, and plasma HIV viral load: A study in 50 consecutive AIDS patients.

PURPOSE: To investigate the imaging manifestations of Pneumocystis Jiroveci Pneumonitis (PCP) in AIDS patients, and the correlation between imaging features, CD(4) (+) lymphocyte count, and plasma HIV viral load. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of consecutive 50 AIDS patients with PCP were reviewed retrospectively. Chest CT manifestations, CD(4) (+) lymphocyte count, and plasma HIV viral load were analyzed to investigate their correlation. RESULTS: PCP chest CT manifestations included ground-glass opacities dominated in 28 cases (28/50, 56%), lung cysts dominated in 10 cases (10/50, 20%), consolidation dominated in 6 cases (6/50, 12%), interstitial lesion dominated in 3 cases (3/50, 6%), and mixed lesions in 3 cases (3/50, 6%). In these 50 patients, CD(4) (+) lymphocyte count ranged from 2 to 373 cells/µL. Plasma HIV viral load ranged from 500 to 5.28×10(7) copies/mL. CD(4) (+) lymphocyte count in ground-glass opacities dominated patients was higher than that of lung cyst dominated patients (P<0.05). Plasma virus load of lung cysts dominated PCP patients was higher than that of consolidation dominated patients (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The typical chest imaging features of PCP in AIDS patients included lung ground-glass opacities and lung cysts. The chest imaging features were correlated with CD(4) (+) T lymphocyte count and plasma HIV viral load.

[Three Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy Combined with Concurrent Chemotherapy for Stage III Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.].

BACKGROUND: The outcome of treatment for stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by radiotherapy plus concurrent chemotherapy is poor. This study was aimed to investigate the feasibility of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) plus concurrent cisplatin-based chemotherapy on the patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: 88 cases with stage III NSCLC from August 2004 to June 2007 were divided randomly into concurrent group and 3D-CRT alone group RESULTS: The overall response rate (CR+PR) in concurrent group and 3D-CRT alone group were 90.9% and 68.2% respectively (P<0.05). The 1, 2, 3-year overall survival rate in concurrent group and 3D-CRT alone group were 68.8%, 35.1%, 19.7% and 38.9%, 22.8%, 12.4% respectively. The median survival was 18.8 months, and 12.6 months, respectively, and the difference of the toxicity (except leukocytopenia) was not statistically significant in two groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: 3D-CRT combined with concurrent chemotherapy has better response and shorter treatment course than the 3DCRT alone, and increases the overall survival, so it is the best method for the treatment stage III NSCLC.