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The rapid expansion of the human population has raised the chemical stress on the environment due to the increased demand of agricultural yields. The use of pesticides is the primary contributor to environmental chemical stress, which is essential for agricultural expansion in order to produce enough food to sustain the burgeoning human population. Pesticide residues in soil have grown to be a subject of rising concern as a result of their high soil retention and potential harm to unintended species. Diverse remediation strategies, such as physical, chemical, and biological, for limiting and getting rid of such contaminants have been put forth to deal with this problem. Bioremediation is one of these techniques, which has been deemed the best for reducing pollution because of its low environmental impact, simplicity of operation and construction. Microorganisms are implemented in this technique to break down and get rid of toxins in the environment or to reduce the toxicity of chemical compounds. This study thoroughly analyses the different composting soil remediation methods, including landfarming, biopiles, and windrows, to reduce and eliminate soil pollution. Although biological treatment is the best option for cleaning up polluted soil, it is still important to evaluate and review the approaches over the long term to determine whether they are effective in the field. It is because the reactivity of the microorganisms is highly dependent on environmental parameters, and the contemporary environment is characterised by unpredictable weather patterns, localised droughts, and temperature fluctuations.

Parkinson’s disease is a severe neurodegenerative disorder. Currently, deep brain electrical stimulation (DBS) is the first line of surgical treatment. However, serious neurological impairments such as speech disorders, disturbances of consciousness, and depression after surgery limit the efficacy of treatment. In this review, we summarize the recent experimental and clinical studies that have explored the possible causes of neurological deficits after DBS. Furthermore, we tried to identify clues from oxidative stress and pathological changes in patients that could lead to the activation of microglia and astrocytes in DBS surgical injury. Notably, reliable evidence supports the idea that neuroinflammation is caused by microglia and astrocytes, which may contribute to caspase-1 pathway-mediated neuronal pyroptosis. Finally, existing drugs and treatments may partially ameliorate the loss of neurological function in patients following DBS surgery by exerting neuroprotective effects.

Pretreatment processes are essential for the preparation of biofuels from lignocellulosic feedstocks. Based on alkaline H2O2 pretreatment, photocatalytic alkaline H2O2 pretreatment (U-AHP) was investigated to examine the effects of reaction time, alkali concentration, and H2O2 concentration on the enzymatic digestion of corn stover. The optimum process conditions were determined by orthogonal tests: 1% NaOH, 2% H2O2, and reaction time of 8 h. Under these conditions, the lignin removal efficiency of UH-AHP was 90.2% and the saccharification yield was 94.7%. Furthermore, FT-IR, XRD, and SEM analyses showed that U-AHP pretreatment caused structural damage to the maize straw and increased the crystallinity of the cellulose, and it was speculated that the U-AHP pretreatment reaction was a complex mechanism, which might be a multiple synergistic reaction. This study shows that U-AHP pretreatment is a simple, green and effective method to promote lignin removal.

Aim. We sought to profile gut microbiota’s role in combination of Bu Fei Hua Yu (BFHY) with cisplatin treatment. Methods. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) mice model were constructed followed by treatment with cisplatin alone or combined with BFHY. Mice weight and tumor volume were measured during the experiment. And mice cecum were detected by hematoxylin and eosin, cecum contents were collected for Enzyme Linked ImmuneSorbent Assay, and stool were profiled for metagenomic sequencing. Results. Combination of BFHY with cisplatin treatment decreased the tumor growth and relieved the damage of cecum. Expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were decreased compared with cisplatin treatment alone. Linear discriminant analysis effect size analysis showed that g_Parabacteroides was downregulated and g_Escherichia and g_Blautia were upregulated after cisplatin treatment. After combination with BFHY, g_Bacteroides and g_Helicobacter were decreased. g_Klebsiella, g_Unclssified_Proteobacteria, and g_Unclssified_Clostridiates were increased. Moreover, heatmap results showed that Bacteroides abundance was increased significantly after cisplatin treatment; BFHY combination treatment reversed this state. Function analysis revealed that multiple functions were slightly decreased in cisplatin treatment alone and increased significantly after combination with BFHY. Conclusion. Our study provided evidence of an efficacy of combination of BFHY with cisplatin on treatment of NSCLC and revealed that gut microbiota plays a role in it. The above results provide new ideas on NSCLC treatment.

Tricholoma lishanense is described and illustrated from northern China based on both morphological and molecular data. Phylogenetic analyses based on sequence data from the ITS locus resolved the new species in section Lasciva of Tricholoma. Tricholoma lishanense can be diagnosed by its overall white basidiomata with a fragrant and pleasant odor, very narrow lamellae, different phylogenetic position and habitat under oaks.

The growing integration of technology into education, particularly in the STEM fields, has tended to focus on its objective advantages, ignoring its affective potential. To explore this potential, based on some principles of Kansei/Affective Engineering, an initial analysis was conducted considering 501 interventions in a conversation among six students about a previous e-learning experience. The analysis revealed the need for personalized feedback, a self-adapted pace, and the possibility to express. Based on the identified needs, three activities (applets based on dynamic reasoning and contextualized in the movement of the Sun) were designed to explore the affective value of the tool through the feedback it provided. Thirteen engineering students at a Japanese university participated in the experiment and the results were analyzed considering the type (task-focus/constructivist, self-focus/motivational) and purpose of the feedback, as well as some indicators based on the Instructional Feedback Orientation Scale. The model constructed for each student revealed that those who attributed a higher value to feedback showed a greater relation between the purpose of the feedback received and the reaction selected (completion-positive, correction-negative). Furthermore, it was found that the proposed model can inform future designs based on the potential of the feedback to promote positive reactions.

Lepiota atrobrunneodisca sp. nov. is described and illustrated based on collections from Shanxi Province in North China. This species is characterized by the pileus with dark brown to black-brown umbonate disc, irregularly shaped squamules on a whitish surface, annulus often adhering to stipe, ellipsoid to narrowly ellipsoid, binucleate basidiospores, numerous cheilocystidia, the absence of pleurocystidia, and the hymeniform pileus covering made up of tightly packed subglobose, sphaeropedunculate to clavate terminal elements. The phylogenetic analyses were performed using ITS and four combined loci (ITS-nrLSU-IGS-mtSSU) datasets, which supported that L. atrobrunneodisca formed a distinct clade.

Background: Vascular aging, as assessed by structural and functional arterial properties, is an independent predictor of cardiovascular outcomes. We aimed to explore the associations of individual cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to midlife and their accumulation over a 30-year span with vascular aging in midlife. Methods: Using data from the ongoing cohort of Hanzhong Adolescent Hypertension study, 2180 participants aged 6 to 18 years at baseline were followed for over 30 years. Distinct trajectories of systolic blood pressure (SBP), body mass index (BMI), and heart rate from childhood to midlife were identified by group-based trajectory modeling. Vascular aging was assessed by carotid intima media thickness or brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity. Results: We identified 4 distinct SBP trajectories, 3 distinct BMI trajectories, and 2 distinct heart rate trajectories from childhood to midlife. Persistently increasing SBP, high-increasing BMI, and high-stable heart rate were all shown to have a positive association with brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity in midlife. For carotid intima–media thickness, similar associations were observed for persistently increasing SBP and high-increasing body mass index. After further adjustment for SBP, body mass index and heart rate at the time of vascular assessment in 2017, associations were also observed for cardiovascular risk factor trajectories accumulation with brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (β, 0.656 [95% CI, 0.265–1.047]) and with carotid intima media thickness (β, 0.045 [95% CI, 0.011–0.079]) in adulthood. Conclusions: Longitudinal exposure to individual cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to midlife and cardiovascular risk factor accumulation were associated with an increased risk of vascular aging in midlife. Our study lends support for early targeting of risk factors in order to prevent cardiovascular disease later in life.

Highly asymmetric bimetal nanostructures, such as Au-Pt nanorings and Au-Ag nanoplates possess superior plasmonic properties owing to various synergistic effects between different components and diversified morphologies. Herein, we report a controllable growth of asymmetric Pt-Au nanoplates and Au@Pt nanorings with excellent photothermal conversion efficiency. Hexagonal Au nanoplates are used as templates, which is achieved through a transformation reaction from Au nanotriangles. Pt-Au nanoplates is prepared by a site-selective growth of Pt on the rim of obtained hexagonal Au nanoplates. Subsequently, Pt nanorings is obtained by a selective etching of Au, and a regrowth of Au on the Pt nanorings leads to bimetallic Au@Pt nanorings. The evolution of extinction spectra during the whole process is carefully studied. Under irradiation by 1064 nm laser located in the second near-infrared bio-window, the Pt-Au nanoplates exhibit excellent photothermal conversion, better than that of initial Au nanotriangles and hexagonal Au nanoplates with same mass concentration. The improvement of photothermal effect can be ascribed to the strong surface plasmon resonances and coupling between Au and Pt.

Aqueous zinc-air battery (ZAB) has attractive features as the potential energy storage system such as high safety, low cost and good environmental compatibility. However, the issue of dendrite growth on zinc metal anodes has seriously hindered the development of ZAB. Herein, the N-doped carbon cloth (NC) prepared via magnetron sputtering is explored as the substrate to induce the uniform nucleation of zinc metal and suppress dendrite growth. Results show that the introduction of heteroatoms accelerates the migration and deposition kinetics of Zn2+ by boosting the desolvation process of Zn2+, eventually reducing the nucleation overpotential. Besides, theoretical calculation results confirm the zincophilicity of N-containing functional group (such as pyridine N and pyrrole N), which can guide the nucleation and growth of zinc uniformly on the electrode surface by both promoting the redistribution of Zn2+ in the vicinity of the surface and enhancing its interaction with zinc atoms. As a result, the half-cell assembled with magnetron sputtered carbon cloth achieves a high zinc stripping/plating coulombic efficiency of 98.8% and long-term stability of over 500 cycles at 0.2 mA cm-2. And the Coulombic efficiency reached about 99.5% at the 10th cycle and maintained for more than 210 cycles at a high current density of 5.0 mA cm-2. The assembled symmetrical battery can deliver 220 plating/stripping cycles with ultra-low voltage hysteresis of only 11 mV. In addition, the assembled zinc-air full battery with NC-Zn anode delivers a high special capacity of about 429 mAh gZn-1 and a long life of over 430 cycles. The effectiveness of surface functionalization in promoting the transfer and deposition kinetics of Zn2+ presented in this work shows enlightening significance in the development of metal anodes in aqueous electrolytes.

We evaluated the evolution of thyroid function and autoimmunity among COVID-19 survivors over 6 months in relation to interferon beta-1b treatment and long COVID.We included COVID-19 survivors managed in a major COVID-19 centre between July 2020 and May 2021 who were reassessed three and/or six months after acute COVID-19. Thyroid function tests (TFTs) and anti-thyroid antibody titres were measured at acute COVID-19, 3-month and 6-month.250 COVID-19 survivors were included (mean age 52.7 years, 50.4% men). Persistent thyroid function abnormalities were more likely in those with abnormal TFTs in acute COVID-19 (P 0.001). Among 51 patients with abnormal TFTs in acute COVID-19, 82.4% resolved upon follow-up. Of 199 patients with normal TFTs in acute COVID-19, only 4.5% had incident abnormal TFTs, more likely in interferon-treated patients (P = 0.044) and none clinically overt. Among 129 patients with complete 6-month follow-up for anti-thyroid antibody titres, there was no significant change overall, except for modest increase in anti-thyroid antibody titres among the 84 interferon-treated patients (P 0.05 at both 3 months and 6 months). Long COVID occurred in 19.5% and 10.4% at 3 and 6 months respectively, where TFTs and anti-thyroid antibody titres were not predictive of its occurrence.Over 6 months, most abnormal TFTs in acute COVID-19 resolved, with no significant incident thyroid dysfunction. SARS-CoV-2 infection did not lead to change in thyroid autoimmunity, while interferon treatment was associated with modest increase in anti-thyroid antibody titres. Thyroid function and anti-thyroid antibodies did not play a significant role in long COVID.

Fluoxetine (Prozac™) is the only antidepressant approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in children. Despite its considerable efficacy as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, the possible long-term effects of fluoxetine on brain development in children are poorly understood. In the current study, we aimed to delineate molecular mechanisms and protein biomarkers in the brains of juvenile rhesus macaques (氟西汀 (Prozac

Crustaceans and fish scales in the marine food industry are basically thrown away as waste. This not only wastes resources but also causes environmental pollution. While reducing pollution and waste, biological activity and storage of materials are urgent issues to be solved. In this study, by first preparing dry fibers and then making hydrogels, we prepared a fish scale/sodium alginate/chitosan nanofiber hydrogel (FS-P) by cross-linking the nanofibers

We explored the symbiotic relationship of villages on the Jimei Peninsula from the perspective of new human ecology adopting literature analysis and field investigation, and the four steps of reading, sorting, analysis, and induction for qualitative research. Two stages of Jimei Peninsula's development from natural areas to human ecosystems were analyzed by using the survey data in this research, and the spatial evolution process of Jimei Peninsula's development from a fishing village to a Jimei School Village was analyzed. The key factors in the formation of natural areas were political rather than economic, and the human ecosystem is determined by the spatial pattern embedded in the village and the school. After adaptation, growth, and evolution, Jimei School Village and the environment of the peninsula formed a symbiotic relationship of convergence and complementarity.