Studies on competitive adsorption characteristics of bisphenol A and 17α-ethinylestradiol on thermoplastic polyurethane by site energy distribution theory.

Compound pollution of microplastics and estrogens is a growing ecotoxicological problem in aquatic environments. The adsorption isothermal properties of bisphenol A (BPA) and 17α-ethinyl estradiol (EE2) on polyamide (TPU) in monosolute and bisolute systems were studied. Under the same adsorption concentration (1-4 mg L-1), EE2 had a greater adsorption capacity than BPA in the monsolute system. Compared to the energy distribution features of the adsorption sites of EE2 and BPA, the BPA adsorption sites were located in the higher energy area and were more evenly distributed than those of EE2, while the quantity of BPA adsorption sites was less than that of EE2. In the bisolute system, the average site energy, site energy inhomogeneity, and adsorption site numbers of BPA increased by 1.674, -17.166, and 16.793%, respectively. In comparison, the average site energy, site energy inhomogeneity, and adsorption sites numbers of EE2 increased by 2.267, 4.416, and 8.585%, respectively. The results showed that BPA and EE2 had a cooperative effect on the competitive adsorption of TPU. XPS analysis showed that BPA and EE2 had electron transfer on TPU, although the chemisorption effects and hydrogen bonds between BPA and TPU were more significant. Comparing the changes in the relative functional group content of TPU in monosolute and bisolute systems, BPA and EE2 were synergistically absorbed on TPU. This study can provide a theoretical reference for the study of competitive adsorption between coexisting organic pollutants.

Cooling Ability/Capacity and Exergy Penalty Analysis of Each Heat Sink of Modern Supersonic Aircraft.

The aerospace-based heat sink is defined as a substance used for dissipating heat generated by onboard heat loads. They are becoming increasingly scarce in the thermal management system (TMS) of advanced aircraft, especially for supersonic aircraft. In the modern aircraft there are many types of heat sinks whose cooling abilities and performance penalties are usually obviously different from each other. Besides, the cooling ability and performance penalty of a single heat sink is even different under different flight conditions-flight altitude, Mach number, etc. In this study, the typical heat sinks which are the fuel mass, ram air, engine fan air, skin heat exchanger, and expendable heat sink will be studied. Their cooling abilities/capacities, and exergy penalties under different flight conditions have been systematically estimated and compared with each other. The exergy penalty presented in this paper refers to the exergy loss of aircraft caused by the extra weight, drag and energy extraction of various heat sinks. The estimation models, as well as the results and discussion have been elaborated in this paper, which can be can be used to further optimize the TMS of modern advanced aircraft, for example, the layout design of various heat sinks and the improvement the control algorithm.

Pathological Change of Chronic Hepatitis B Patients with Different Tongue Coatings by Circular Multi-Omics Integrated Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the circular pathological changes of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients according to the tongue diagnosis. METHODS: Totally 41 CHB patients with typical white tongue coating (WTC) or yellow tongue coating (YTC) were enrolled and 14 healthy volunteers with normal tongue manifestation served as controls. The mRNA expression of peripheral leukocytes was detected by GeneChips, and 9 genes were randomly selected for expression validation. Circular metabolites were detected by gas chromatographymass spectrometry. Biological information was analyzed based on ingenuity pathways analysis or metabolomics database and the integrated networks were constructed by ClueGO. RESULTS: A total of 945 and 716 differentially expressed genes were found in patients with WTC and YTC relative to healthy volunteers respectively. The biological information analysis indicated that CHB patients had obviously increased functions in cell death, apoptosis and necrosis (Z-score ⩾2, P<0.05) and decreased activation in T lymphocytes (Z-score ⩽-2, P<0.05), regardless of the tongue manifestation. Compared to patients with WTC, the YTC patients were predicted to be more active in functions related to virus replication (Z-score ⩾2, P<0.05), and the content of circular fatty acids, such as oleic acid (P=0.098) and lauric acid (P=0.035), and citric acid cycle-related metabolites were higher in the YTC patients (P<0.1). The integrated analysis based on differential genes and metabolites indicated that the most difference in the biological function network between the WTC and YTC patients was tumor necrosis factor receptor associated factor 6 mediated-nuclear factor kappa-B activation process. CONCLUSIONS: CHB patients with YTC had more severe inflammation and fatty acids metabolism aberrant than patients with WTC. The results facilitate the modern pathological annotation of Chinese medicine tongue diagnosis theory and provide a reference for the interpretation of pharmacological mechanisms of Chinese medicine treatment.

Altered oral microbiota in chronic hepatitis B patients with different tongue coatings.

AIM: To elucidate tongue coating microbiota and metabolic differences in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with yellow or white tongue coatings. METHODS: Tongue coating samples were collected from 53 CHB patients (28 CHB yellow tongue coating patients and 25 CHB white tongue coating patients) and 22 healthy controls. Microbial DNA was extracted from the tongue samples, and the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene V3 region was amplified from all samples and sequenced with the Ion Torrent PGM™ sequencing platform according to the standard protocols. The metabolites in the tongue coatings were evaluated using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) platform. Statistical analyses were then performed. RESULTS: The relative compositions of the tongue coating microbiotas and metabolites in the CHB patients were significantly different from those of the healthy controls, but the tongue coating microbiota abundances and diversity levels were not significantly different. Compared with the CHB white tongue coating patients, the CHB yellow tongue coating patients had higher hepatitis B viral DNA (HBV-DNA) titers (median 21210 vs 500, respectively, P = 0.03) and a significantly lower level of Bacteroidetes (20.14% vs 27.93%, respectively, P = 0.013) and higher level of Proteobacteria (25.99% vs 18.17%, respectively, P = 0.045) in the microbial compositions at the phylum level. The inferred metagenomic pathways enriched in the CHB yellow tongue coating patients were mainly those involved in amino acid metabolism, which was consistent with the metabolic disorder. The abundances of bacteria from Bacteroidales at the order level were higher in the CHB white tongue coating patients (19.2% vs 27.22%, respectively, P = 0.011), whereas Neisseriales were enriched in the yellow tongue coating patients (21.85% vs 13.83%, respectively, P = 0.029). At the family level, the abundance of Neisseriaceae in the yellow tongue patients was positively correlated with the HBV-DNA level but negatively correlated with the S-adenosyl-L-methionine level. CONCLUSION: This research illustrates specific clinical features and bacterial structures in CHB patients with different tongue coatings, which facilitates understanding of the traditional tongue diagnosis.