Effects of virtual reality-based cue exposure therapy on craving and physiological responses in alcohol-dependent patients-a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Cue exposure therapy is used to treat alcohol dependence. However, its effectiveness is controversial due to the limitations of the clinical treatment setting. Virtual reality technology may improve the therapeutic effect. The aim of this study is to explore whether virtual reality-based cue exposure therapy can reduce the psychological craving and physiological responses of patients with alcohol dependence. METHODS: Forty-four male alcohol-dependent patients were recruited and divided into the study group (n = 23) and the control group (n = 21) according to a random number table. The control group received only conventional clinical treatment for alcohol dependence. The study group received conventional clinical treatment with the addition of VR cue exposure (treatment). The primary outcome was to assess psychological craving and physiological responses to cues of patients before and after treatment. RESULTS: After virtual reality-based cue exposure therapy, the changes in VAS and heart rate before and after cue exposure in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05), while the changes in skin conductance and respiration between the study group and the control group were not significantly different (P > 0.05). The changes in VAS and heart rate before and after cue exposure in the study group were significantly lower than those before treatment (P < 0.05), while the changes in skin conductance and respiration were not significantly different from those before treatment (P > 0.05). The changes in VAS, heart rate, skin conductance and respiration before and after cue exposure in the control group were not significantly different from those before treatment (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Virtual reality-based cue exposure therapy can reduce the psychological craving and part of the physiological responses of alcohol-dependent patients during cue exposure in the short term and may be helpful in the treatment of alcohol dependence. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study protocol was registered at the China Clinical Trial Registry on 26/02/2021 ( www.chictr.org.cn ; ChiCTR ID: ChiCTR2100043680).

Color-Dense Illumination Adjustment Network for Removing Haze and Smoke from Fire Scenario Images.

The atmospheric particles and aerosols from burning usually cause visual artifacts in single images captured from fire scenarios. Most existing haze removal methods exploit the atmospheric scattering model (ASM) for visual enhancement, which inevitably leads to inaccurate estimation of the atmosphere light and transmission matrix of the smoky and hazy inputs. To solve these problems, we present a novel color-dense illumination adjustment network (CIANet) for joint recovery of transmission matrix, illumination intensity, and the dominant color of aerosols from a single image. Meanwhile, to improve the visual effects of the recovered images, the proposed CIANet jointly optimizes the transmission map, atmospheric optical value, the color of aerosol, and a preliminary recovered scene. Furthermore, we designed a reformulated ASM, called the aerosol scattering model (ESM), to smooth out the enhancement results while keeping the visual effects and the semantic information of different objects. Experimental results on both the proposed RFSIE and NTIRE'20 demonstrate our superior performance favorably against state-of-the-art dehazing methods regarding PSNR, SSIM and subjective visual quality. Furthermore, when concatenating CIANet with Faster R-CNN, we witness an improvement of the objection performance with a large margin.

Analysis of 27 ß-Blockers and Metabolites in Milk Powder by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Quadrupole Orbitrap High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

This paper presents an application of high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS) for the analysis of 27 ß-blockers and metabolites in milk powder. Homogenized milk power samples were extracted by acetonitrile and purified by using Oasis PRiME HLB solid-phase extraction cartridges. The Ascentis® C8 chromatographic column was used to separate the analytes. The quantification was achieved by using matrix-matched standard calibration curves with carazolol-d7 and propranolol-d7 as the internal standards. The results show an exceptional linear relationship with the concentrations of analytes over wide concentration ranges (0.5⁻500 µg kg-1) as all the fitting coefficients of determination r² are > 0.995. All the limits of detection (LODs) and quantitation (LOQs) values were within the respective range of 0.2⁻1.5 µg kg-1 and 0.5⁻5.0 µg kg-1. Overall average recoveries were able to reach 66.1⁻100.4% with the intra- and inter-day variability under 10%. This method has been successfully applied to the screening of ß-blockers and metabolites in commercial milk powders. At the same time, the corresponding characteristic fragmentation behavior of the 27 compounds was explored. The characteristic product ions were determined and applied to the actual samples screening.

Design and Implementation of an Infrared Radiant Source for Humidity Testing.

A novel way to measure humidity through testing the emissivity of an area radiant source is presented in this paper. The method can be applied in the environment at near room temperature (5~95 °C) across the relative humidity (RH) range of 20~90% RH. The source, with a grooved radiant surface, works in the far infrared wavelength band of 8~12 µm. The Monte-Carlo model for thermal radiation was set up to analyze the V-grooved radiant surface. Heat pipe technology is used to maintain an isothermal radiant surface. The fuzzy-PID control method was adopted to solve the problems of intense heat inertia and being easily interfered by the environment. This enabled the system to be used robustly across a large temperature range with high precision. The experimental results tested with a scanning radiant thermometer showed that the radiant source can provide a uniform thermal radiation capable of satisfying the requirements of humidity testing. The calibration method for the radiant source for humidity was explored, which is available for testing humidity.

Research on emergency logistics information traceability model and resource optimization allocation strategies based on consortium blockchain.

In response to increasingly complex social emergencies, this study realizes the optimization of logistics information flow and resource allocation by constructing the Emergency logistics information Traceability model (ELITM-CBT) based on alliance blockchain technology. Using the decentralized, data immutable and transparent characteristics of alliance blockchain technology, this research breaks through the limitations of traditional emergency logistics models and improves the accuracy and efficiency of information management. Combined with the hybrid genetic simulated Annealing algorithm (HGASA), the improved model shows significant advantages in emergency logistics scenarios, especially in terms of total transportation time, total cost, and fairness of resource allocation. The simulation results verify the high efficiency of the model in terms of timeliness of emergency response and accuracy of resource allocation, and provide innovative theoretical support and practical scheme for the field of emergency logistics. Future research will explore more efficient consensus mechanisms, and combine big data and artificial intelligence technology to further improve the performance and adaptability of emergency logistics systems.

Relationship between sphingolipids-mediated neuroinflammation and alcohol use disorder.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorder is a chronic recurrent encephalopathy, and its pathogenesis has not been fully understood. Among possible explanations, neuroinflammation caused by the disorders of brain central immune signaling has been identified as one possible mechanism of alcohol use disorder. As the basic components of cells and important bioactive molecules, sphingolipids are essential in regulating many cellular activities. Recent studies have shown that sphingolipids-mediated neuroinflammation may be involved in the development of alcohol use disorder. METHODS: PubMed databases were searched for literature on sphingolipids and alcohol use disorder (alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, alcohol dependence, and alcohol misuse) including evidence of the relationship between sphingolipids-mediated neuroinflammation and alcohol use disorder (formation, withdrawal, treatment). RESULTS: Disorders of sphingolipid metabolism, including the different types of sphingolipids and regulatory enzyme activity, have been found in patients with alcohol use disorder as well as animal models, which in turn cause neuro-inflammation in the central nervous system. Thus, these disorders may also be an important mechanism in the development of alcohol use disorder in patients. In addition, different sphingolipids may have different or even reverse effects on alcohol use disorder. CONCLUSIONS: The sphingolipids-mediated neuroinflammation plays an important role in the development of alcohol use disorder. This review proposes a potential approach to prevent and treat alcohol use disorders by manipulating sphingolipid metabolism.

Alcohol-induced gut microbiome dysbiosis enhances the colonization of Klebsiella pneumoniae on the mouse intestinal tract.

Chronic alcohol consumption, an important risk factor for diseases and deaths, can cause intestinal microbiota dysbiosis and increase the infection of some opportunistic pathogens. However, the current studies on the effects of alcohol-induced intestinal microbiota dysbiosis on gut colonization of Klebsiella pneumoniae are still scarce. In the present study, we established a binge-on-chronic alcohol model in mice to identify the characteristics of alcohol-induced intestinal microbiome and metabolite dysbiosis using multi-omics and explored the effects and potential mechanisms of these dysbioses on the intestinal colonization of K. pneumoniae. The results show that chronic alcohol consumption alters the diversity and composition of gut microbiota (including bacteria and fungi), decreases the complexity of the interaction between intestinal bacteria and fungi, disturbs the gut metabolites, and promotes the colonization of K. pneumoniae on the gut of mice. The relevance analyses find that alcohol-induced gut microbiome dysbiosis has a strong correlation with the alteration of secondary bile acids. In vitro results suggest that the high concentration of lithocholic acid, a secondary bile acid, could significantly inhibit the proliferation of K. pneumoniae, and the adhesion of K. pneumoniae to Caco-2 cells. Our results indicate that alcohol-induced microbiome dysbiosis contributes to decreased levels of secondary bile acids, which was one of the main reasons affecting the colonization of K. pneumoniae in mice's intestines. Some secondary bile acids (e.g., lithocholic acid) might be a potential drug to prevent the colonization and spread of K. pneumoniae.IMPORTANCEAlcohol is one of the most commonly misused substances in our lives. However, long-term heavy drinking will increase the colonization of some opportunistic pathogens (e.g., Klebsiella pneumoniae) in the body. Here, we revealed that binge-on-chronic alcohol consumption disrupted the balance between gut bacteria and fungi, induced the gut microbiome and metabolites dysbiosis, and promoted the colonization of K. pneumoniae in the intestine of mice. In particular, alcohol-taking disrupted intestinal bile acid metabolism and reduced the lithocholic acid concentration. However, a high concentration of lithocholic acid can protect against intestinal colonization of K. pneumoniae by inhabiting the bacterial growth and adhesion to the host cell. Hence, regulating the balance of gut microbiota and intestinal bile acid metabolism may be a potential strategy for reducing the risk of K. pneumoniae infection and spread.

Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis in alcohol dependence.

Genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors influence the development of alcohol dependence (AD). Recent studies have shown that DNA methylation markers in peripheral blood may serve as risk markers for AD. Yet a genome-wide epigenomic approach investigating the role of DNA methylation in AD has yet to be performed. We conducted a population-based, case-control study of genome-wide DNA methylation to determine if alterations in gene-specific methylation were associated with AD in a Chinese population. Using the Illumina Infinium Human Methylation27 BeadChip, we assessed gene-specific methylation in over 27 000 CpG sites from DNA isolated from lymphocytes in 63 male AD in-patients and 65 male healthy controls. Using a multi-factorial statistical model, we observed differential methylation between cases and controls at multiple CpG sites with the majority of the methylated CpG sites being hypomethylated. Analyses with the online gene set analysis toolkit WebGestalt revealed that the genes of interest were enriched in multiple biological processes involved in AD development. Gene Ontology function annotation showed that stress, immune response and signal transduction were highly associated with AD. Further analysis by the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes revealed associations with multiple pathways involved in metabolism through cytochrome P450, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and calcium signaling. Associations with canonical pathways previously shown to be involved in AD were also observed, such as dehydrogenases 1A (ADH1A), ADH7, aldehyde dehydrogenases 3B2 (ALDH3B2) and cytochrome P450 2A13. We present evidence that alterations in DNA methylation may be associated with AD, which is consistent with epigenetic theory.

A retrospective study: the prognostic value of anemia, smoking and drinking in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with primary radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have investigated the relationship between anemia, smoking, drinking and survival in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) with primary radiotherapy. This study had the aim of evaluating the prognostic value of anemia, smoking and drinking in patients receiving primary radiotherapy for ESCC. METHODS: A total of 79 patients who underwent radiotherapy during initial treatment for ESCC were included in this study. The 2-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were analyzed between the anemic and non-anemic groups, non-smokers and smokers, and non-drinkers and drinkers using the Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: There were 79 patients (10 male) of median age 63 (range 38 to 84) years. The 2-year OS and DFS were 36% and 25%, respectively, in the non-anemic group, and 17% and 13%, respectively, in the anemic group (P = 0.019 for OS; P = 0.029 for DFS) using the Kaplan-Meier method. Survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method showed that the 2-year OS and DFS had no statistical difference between smoking, drinking and survival. In a univariate analysis, anemia was identified as a significant prognostic factor for 2-year OS (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.897; P = 0.024) and 2-year DFS (HR = 1.776; P = 0.036), independent of tumor, lymph node, metastasis (TNM) stage. In a multivariate analysis, anemia was identified as a highly significant prognostic factor for 2-year OS (HR = 2.125; P = 0.011) and 2-year DFS (HR = 1.898; P = 0.025), independent of TNM stage and initial treatment. We found no statistical difference in the 2-year OS and DFS associated with smoking (P > 0.2) and drinking (P > 0.6) using univariate and multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Smoking and drinking were not prognostic for 2-year OS or DFS. Anemia before radiotherapy was associated with poor prognosis and an increased risk of relapse, which may serve as a new prognostic characteristic in ESCC treated with primary radiotherapy. Hemoglobin is a routine examination and anemia is therefore simple and quick to determine.

Self-assembled organogels formed by L-leucine dihydrazide derivative.

A new organogelator, benzyl (4-methyl-1-oxo-1-(2-hexadecanoylhydrazinyl)pentan-2-yl)carbamate (designated as Cbz-Leu-HdHz), was designed and synthesized, which could self-assemble in many organic solvents and form the thermally reversible physical supramolecular organogels. The gel-sol phase transition temperatures (TGS) were determined as a function of gelator concentration and the corresponding enthalpies (ΔHg) were extracted. SEM, FT-IR and XRD were used for the investigations of the morphology and formation mechanism of organogels in the presence of the Cbz-Leu-HdHz. Based on the XRD data and molecular modeling, it was possible to propose packing modes for the formation of organogelator aggregates.

Effects of Different Die Metals on the Performance and Friction and Wear of Composite Materials during the Extrusion Process.

Extrusion technology is widely utilized in the rubber processing industry, with the extruder serving as the core equipment. As mixed rubber enters the extruder, it undergoes conveyance and plasticization, ultimately forming specific shapes and dimensions upon extrusion. The extruder head is a crucial component, playing a key role in achieving the final product's required size and shape. Factors such as its structure, materials, and manufacturing processes significantly impact the efficiency, product quality, and sustainability of the extrusion process. However, prolonged operation leads to severe wear of the extruder head, adversely affecting rubber product quality. Additionally, extruder head processing poses challenges, with maintenance and repair being complex procedures. Therefore, exploring a wear-resistant, long-lasting metal material for the extruder head without compromising mixed rubber performance is essential. This study focuses on severely worn extruder head metal materials, comparing wear levels after friction with STELLITE 6 alloy, Hastelloy C-276 alloy, 38CrMoAlA, and tungsten carbide with composite rubber. Results show that compared to the NR/BR composite material after Hastelloy C-276 alloy friction, rubber Payne effect increased by 4.4% (38CrMoAl), 3.2% (STELLITE 6), and 4.6% (tungsten carbide). Similarly, rubber dispersion decreased by 9.4% (38CrMoAl), 4.7% (STELLITE 6), and 9.8% (tungsten carbide). Rolling resistance increased by 18.1% (38CrMoAl), 16% (STELLITE 6), and 23.4% (tungsten carbide). Friction coefficient increased by 3.5% (38CrMoAl), 2.8% (STELLITE 6), and 4.3% (tungsten carbide). Wear volume increased by 39.3% (38CrMoAl), 45.3% (STELLITE 6), and 48.9% (tungsten carbide). Specifically, using Hastelloy C-276 alloy as the extruder head metal material yields the best NR/BR composite material dispersion, highest ten times tear strength, excellent anti-wet skid resistance, and minimum rolling resistance. Conversely, using the other alloys results in varying reductions in the physical and mechanical properties of NR/BR composite materials. This research is crucial for improving rubber product quality and extending extruder head lifespan.

Recognition of opinion leaders in blockchain-based social networks by structural information and content contribution.

Exploring the influence of social network users in the blockchain environment and identifying opinion leaders can help understand the information dissemination characteristics of blockchain social networks, direct the discovery of quality content, and avoid the spread of rumors. Members of blockchain-based social networks are given new responsibilities by token awards and consensus voting, which alters how users connect to the network and engage with one another. Based on blockchain theory and the relevant theories of opinion leaders in social networks, this article combines structural information and content contributions to identify opinion leaders. Firstly, user influence indicators are defined from the perspective of network structure and behavioral characteristics of user contributions. Then, ECWM is constructed, which combines the entropy weight method and the criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) weighting method to address the correlation and diversity among indicators. Furthermore, an improved Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), called ECWM-TOPSIS, is proposed to identify opinion leaders in blockchain social networks. Moreover, to verify the effectiveness of the method, we conducted a comparative analysis of the proposed algorithm on the blockchain social platform Steemit by using two different methods (voting score and forwarding rate). The results show that ECWM-TOPSIS produces significantly higher performance than other methods for all selected top N opinion leaders.

Study on the Mechanism and Experiment of Styrene Butadiene Rubber Reinforcement by Spent Fluid Catalytic Cracking Catalyst.

Spent Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) Catalyst is a major waste in the field of the petroleum processing field, with a large output and serious pollution. The treatment cost of these waste catalysts is high, and how to achieve their efficient reuse has become a key topic of research at home and abroad. To this end, this paper conducted a mechanistic and experimental study on the replacement of some carbon blacks by spent FCC catalysts for the preparation of rubber products and explored the synergistic reinforcing effect of spent catalysts and carbon blacks, in order to extend the reuse methods of spent catalysts and reduce the pollution caused by them to the environment. The experimental results demonstrated that the filler dispersion and distribution in the compound are more uniform after replacing the carbon black with modified spent FCC catalysts. The crosslinking density of rubber increases, the Payne effect is decreased, and the dynamic mechanical properties and aging resistance are improved. When the number of replacement parts reached 15, the comprehensive performance of the rubber composites remained the same as that of the control group. In this paper, the spent FCC catalysts modified by the physical method instead of the carbon-black-filled SBR can not only improve the performance of rubber products, but also can provide basic technical and theoretical support to realize the recycling of spent FCC catalysts and reduce the environmental pressure. The feasibility of preparing rubber composites by spent catalysts is also verified.

All-in-one aerial image enhancement network for forest scenes.

Drone monitoring plays an irreplaceable and significant role in forest firefighting due to its characteristics of wide-range observation and real-time messaging. However, aerial images are often susceptible to different degradation problems before performing high-level visual tasks including but not limited to smoke detection, fire classification, and regional localization. Recently, the majority of image enhancement methods are centered around particular types of degradation, necessitating the memory unit to accommodate different models for distinct scenarios in practical applications. Furthermore, such a paradigm requires wasted computational and storage resources to determine the type of degradation, making it difficult to meet the real-time and lightweight requirements of real-world scenarios. In this paper, we propose an All-in-one Image Enhancement Network (AIENet) that can restore various degraded images in one network. Specifically, we design a new multi-scale receptive field image enhancement block, which can better reconstruct high-resolution details of target regions of different sizes. In particular, this plug-and-play module enables it to be embedded in any learning-based model. And it has better flexibility and generalization in practical applications. This paper takes three challenging image enhancement tasks encountered in drone monitoring as examples, whereby we conduct task-specific and all-in-one image enhancement experiments on a synthetic forest dataset. The results show that the proposed AIENet outperforms the state-of-the-art image enhancement algorithms quantitatively and qualitatively. Furthermore, extra experiments on high-level vision detection also show the promising performance of our method compared with some recent baselines.

Acclimatizing waste activated sludge in a thermophilic anaerobic fixed-bed biofilm reactor to maximize biogas production for food waste treatment at high organic loading rates.

Thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAD) provides a promising solution for sustainable high-strength waste treatment due to its enhanced methane-rich biogas recovery. However, high organic loading rates (OLR) exceeding 3.0 kgCOD/m3/day and short hydraulic retention times (HRT) below 10 days pose challenges in waste-to-energy conversion during TAD, stemming from volatile fatty acids (VFAs) accumulation and methanogenesis failure. In this study, we implemented a stepwise strategy for acclimatizing waste activated sludge (WAS) in a thermophilic anaerobic fixed-bed biofilm reactor (TA-FBBR) to optimize methanogen populations, thereby enhancing waste-to-energy efficiencies under elevated OLRs in food waste treatment. Results showed that following stepwise acclimatization, the TA-FBBR achieved stable methane production of approximately 5.8 L/L-reactor/day at an ultrahigh OLR of ∼20 kgCOD/m3/day and ∼15 kgVS/m3/day at 6-day HRT in food waste treatment. The average methane yield reached 0.45 m3/kgCODremoval, attaining the theoretical production in TAD. Moreover, VFA concentrations were stabilized below 1000 mg/L at the ultrahigh OLR under 6-day HRT, while maintaining an acetate/propionate ratio of > 1.8 and a VFA/TAK ratio of < 0.3 serving as effective indicators of system stability and methane yield potential. The microbial community analysis revealed that the WAS acclimatization strategy fostered the microbial diversity and abundance of Methanothermobacter and Methanosarcina. Methanosarcina in the biofilm were observed to be twice as abundant as Methanothermobacter, indicating a potential preference for biofilm existence among methanogens. The findings demonstrated an effective strategy, specifically the stepwise acclimatization of WAS in a thermophilic fixed-bed biofilm reactor, to enhance the food waste treatment performance at high OLRs, contributing valuable mechanistic and technical insights for future sustainable high-strength waste management.

The efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy for the treatment of alcohol use disorder among adult males: a randomized controlled trial comparing with acceptance and commitment therapy and treatment as usual.

Background: This multicenter, three-armed, parallel, single-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) primarily aims to compare the efficacy of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) with that of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and treatment as usual (TAU) to depreciate the degree of alcohol craving among alcohol use disorder patients who have undergone in-patient detoxification across four timelines (t0 = baseline prior to intervention, t1 = 4 weeks after baseline, t2 = 12 weeks after baseline, and t3 = 24 weeks after baseline). The secondary aims of this RCT are to compare the efficacy of VRET with that of ACT and TAU to alleviate the severity of alcohol use disorder, dissipate comorbid depressive and anxiety symptoms, and normalize event-related potential (ERP) in electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring across the four timelines. Methods: Initially, after 2 weeks of in-patient detoxification, 120 patients with alcohol use disorder will be randomized into three groups (VRET, ACT, and TAU control groups) via stratified permuted block randomization in a 1:1:1 ratio. Baseline assessment (t0) commences, whereby all the participants will be administered with sociodemographic, clinical, and alcohol use characteristics questionnaire, such as Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), while event-related potential (ERP) detection in electroencephalogram (EEG) will also be carried out. Then, 4 weeks of VRET, ACT, and non-therapeutic supportive activities will be conducted in the three respective groups. For the subsequent three assessment timelines (t1, t2, and t3), the alcohol use characteristic questionnaire, such as AUDIT, PACS, HAM-D, HAM-A, and ERP monitoring, will be re-administered to all participants. Discussion: As data on the effects of non-pharmacological interventions, such as VRET and ACT, on the treatment of alcohol craving and preventing relapse in alcohol use disorder are lacking, this RCT fills the research gap by providing these important data to treating clinicians. If proven efficacious, the efficacy of VRET and ACT for the treatment of other substance use disorders should also be investigated in future. Clinical trial registration: NCT05841823 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Study on synergistic pyrolysis and kinetics of mixed plastics based on spent fluid-catalytic-cracking catalyst.

At present, disposable plastic products such as plastic packaging are very common in our daily life. These products are extremely easy to cause serious damage to the soil and marine environment due to their short design and service life, difficulties in degradation, or long degradation cycles. Thermochemical method (pyrolysis or catalytic pyrolysis) is an efficient and environmentally friendly way to treat plastic waste. In order to further reduce the energy consumption of plastic pyrolysis and improve the recycling rate of spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts, we adopt the "waste-to-waste" approach to apply the spent FCC catalysts as catalysts in the catalytic pyrolysis of plastics, exploring the pyrolysis characteristics, kinetic parameters, and synergistic effects between different typical plastics (polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, polystyrene). The experimental results show that the spent FCC catalysts used in the catalytic pyrolysis of plastics are beneficial to reduce the overall pyrolysis temperature and activation energy, in which the maximum weight loss temperature decreases by about 12 â„ƒ and the activation energy decreases by about 13%. The activity of spent FCC catalysts is improved after modification by microwave and ultrasonic, which further improve the catalytic efficiency and reduce the energy consumption of pyrolysis. The co-pyrolysis of mixed plastics is dominated by positive synergistic effect, which is conducive to improving the thermal degradation rate and shortening the pyrolysis time. This study provides relevant theoretical support for the resource application of spent FCC catalysts and "waste-to-waste" treatment of plastic waste.

Serum metabolomics analysis in patients with alcohol dependence.

Objective: Alcohol dependence (AD) is a chronic recurrent mental disease caused by long-term drinking. It is one of the most prevalent public health problems. However, AD diagnosis lacks objective biomarkers. This study was aimed to shed some light on potential biomarkers of AD patients by investigating the serum metabolomics profiles of AD patients and the controls. Methods: Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to detect the serum metabolites of 29 AD patients (AD) and 28 controls. Six samples were set aside as the validation set (Control: n = 3; AD group: n = 3), and the remaining were used as the training set (Control: n = 26; AD group: n = 25). Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PCA-DA) were performed to analyze the training set samples. The metabolic pathways were analyzed using the MetPA database. The signal pathways with pathway impact >0.2, value of p <0.05, and FDR < 0.05 were selected. From the screened pathways, the metabolites whose levels changed by at least 3-fold were screened. The metabolites with no numerical overlap in their concentrations in the AD and the control groups were screened out and verified with the validation set. Results: The serum metabolomic profiles of the control and the AD groups were significantly different. We identified six significantly altered metabolic signal pathways, including protein digestion and absorption; alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism; arginine biosynthesis; linoleic acid metabolism; butanoate metabolism; and GABAergic synapse. In these six signal pathways, the levels of 28 metabolites were found to be significantly altered. Of these, the alterations of 11 metabolites changed by at least 3-fold compared to the control group. Of these 11 metabolites, those with no numerical overlap in their concentrations between the AD and the control groups were GABA, 4-hydroxybutanoic acid, L-glutamic acid, citric acid and L-glutamine. Conclusion: The metabolite profile of the AD group was significantly different from that of the control group. GABA, 4-hydroxybutanoic acid, L-glutamic acid, citric acid, and L-glutamine could be used as potential diagnostic markers for AD.

Intestinal microbiome dysbiosis in alcohol-dependent patients and its effect on rat behaviors.

IMPORTANCE: Intestinal microbiome dysbiosis is associated with psychiatric disease through the "microbiota-gut-brain" axis. Here, we revealed that there was obvious intestinal microbiome (including bacterial and fungal) dysbiosis in alcohol-dependent patients. Alcohol consumption seriously disturbs the gut equilibrium between bacteria and fungi, reduces the interactions among bacterial-fungal trans-kingdom, and increases intestinal permeability. Gut microbiota should be considered as a whole to study the development of alcohol dependence. The gut microbiome of alcohol-dependent patients increased the anxiety- and depression-like behavior in rats. The gut microbiota dysbiosis may promote the development of alcohol dependence by regulating the endogenous cholecystokinin (CCK) and related receptors. Hence, regulating the balance of gut microbiota and the endogenous CCK may be a potential strategy for reducing the risk of relapse in alcohol addiction patients.

Safety and effectiveness of lurasidone in the treatment of Chinese schizophrenia patients: An interim analysis of post-marketing surveillance.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by chronic or recurrent symptoms. Lurasidone was licensed in China in 2019 for the treatment of adult schizophrenia in adults with a maximum dose of 80 mg/d. However, post-market surveillance (PMS) with an adequate sample size is required for further validation of the drug's safety profile and effectiveness. AIM: To conduct PMS in real-world clinical settings and evaluate the safety and effectiveness of lurasidone in the Chinese population. METHODS: A prospective, multicenter, open-label, 12-wk surveillance was conducted in mainland China. All patients with schizophrenia from 10 sites who had begun medication with lurasidone between September 2019 and August 2022 were eligible for enrollment. Safety assessments included adverse events (AEs), adverse drug reactions (ADRs), extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), akathisia, use of EPS drugs, weight gain, and laboratory values as metabolic parameters and the QTc interval. The effectiveness was assessed using the brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS) from baseline to the end of treatment. RESULTS: A total of 965 patients were enrolled in the full analysis set and 894 in the safety set in this interim analysis. The average daily dose was 61.7 ± 19.08 mg (mean ± SD) during the treatment. AEs and ADRs were experienced by 101 patients (11.3%) and 78 patients (8.7%), respectively, which were mostly mild. EPS occurred in 25 individuals with a 2.8% incidence, including akathisia in 20 individuals (2.2%). Moreover, 59 patients received drugs for treating EPS during the treatment, with an incidence of 6.6% which dropped to 5.4% at the end of the treatment. The average weight change was 0.20 ± 2.36 kg (P = 0.01687) with 0.8% of patients showing a weight gain of ≥ 7% at week 12 compared with that at the baseline. The mean values of metabolic parameters and the QTc interval at baseline and week 12 were within normal ranges. The mean changes in total BPRS scores were -8.9 ± 9.76 (n = 959), -13.5 ± 12.29 (n = 959), and -16.8 ± 13.97 (n = 959) after 2/4, 6/8, and 12 wk, respectively (P < 0.001 for each visit compared with the baseline) using the last-observation-carried-forward method. CONCLUSION: The interim analysis of the PMS of adult patients with schizophrenia demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of lurasidone in the Chinese population. No new safety or efficacy concerns were identified.