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The analysis of PFAS in a variety of municipal biosolids was enhanced through optimizing adsorbent use in sample cleanup.

A simple equilibrium passive sampler, consisting of water in an inert container capped with a rate-limiting barrier, for the monitoring of PFAS in sediment pore water and surface water was developed and tested through a series of laboratory and field experiments.

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fastest increasing cause of cancer death in Australia. A recent Australian consensus guidelines recommended HCC surveillance for cirrhotic patients and non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients at gender and age specific cut-offs. A cost-effectiveness model was then developed to assess surveillance strategies in Australia. Methods A microsimulation model was used to evaluate three strategies: biannual ultrasound, biannual ultrasound with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and no formal surveillance for patients having one of the conditions: non-cirrhotic CHB, compensated cirrhosis or decompensated cirrhosis. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses as well as scenario and threshold analyses were conducted to account for uncertainties: including exclusive surveillance of CHB, compensated cirrhosis or decompensated cirrhosis populations; impact of obesity on ultrasound sensitivity; real-world adherence rate; and different cohort’s ranges of ages. Results Sixty HCC surveillance scenarios were considered for the baseline population. The ultrasound + AFP strategy was the most cost-effective with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) compared to no surveillance falling below the willingness-to-pay threshold of A$50,000 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) at all age ranges. Ultrasound alone was also cost-effective, but the strategy was dominated by ultrasound + AFP. Surveillance was cost-effective in the compensated and decompensated cirrhosis populations alone (ICERs < $30,000), but not cost-effective in the CHB population (ICERs > $100,000). Obesity could decrease the diagnostic performance of ultrasound, which in turn, reduce the cost-effectiveness of ultrasound ± AFP, but the strategies remained cost-effective. Conclusions HCC surveillance based on Australian recommendations using biannual ultrasound ± AFP was cost-effective.

Phytochemical investigation of the whole plants of Vernonia gratiosa Hance. led in the isolation and identification of two new stigmastane-type steroidal glucosides (1–2), namely vernogratiosides A (1), and B (2). Their chemical structures were fully elucidated based on 1 D/2D NMR spectroscopic, HR-ESI-MS data analyses, and by producing derivatives by chemical reactions. The binding potential of the isolated compounds to replicase protein − main protease of SARS-CoV-2 were examined using the molecular docking simulations. Our results show that the isolated steroidal glucosides (1–2) bind to the substrate‐binding site of SARS-CoV-2 main protease with binding affinities of −7.2 and −7.6 kcal/mol, respectively, as well as binding abilities equivalent to N3 inhibitor that has already been reported (–7.5 kcal/mol).

Appendix A. Input paratemeters of the model. Table A1. Transition probabilities at 6-month interval, proportion values and discount rate used in the model. Table A2. Costs values (inflated to 2019-20 price)* at 6-month interval and Health state utility values (HSUV) used in the model. Table A3. Health price index, 2013/14 to 2019/20 (reference year 2019/20: 100) [30]. Table A5. Treatments for HCC at different BCLC stages (Triangular distribution for PSA) [32]. Table A6. Cumulative mortality rate of Cholangiocarcinoma at time of diagnosis [33]. Table A7. Cumulative mortality rate after liver transplant [12]. Table A8. Annual recurrence rate after liver resection [34]. Table A9. Cumulative recurrence rate after liver ablation [35]. Table A10. Treatments after HCC recurrence (Beta distribution for PSA with Standard deviation = 20% of the mean.Appendix B. Distribution of age at baseline in Australia, 2020. Table B1. Number and percentage of Australians by age. Figure B1. Distribution of age at baseline. Appendix C. Cost-effectiveness results of exclusive surveillance for non-cirrhotic CHB, compensated cirrhosis and decompensated cirrhosis population. Table C1. Cost-effectiveness of surveillance strategies on non-cirrhotic CHB people only. Table C2. Cost-effectiveness of surveillance strategies on compensated cirrhosis patients only.Table C3. Cost-effectiveness of surveillance strategies on decompensated cirrhosis patients only. Appendix D. Results of sensitivity and threshold analyses. Figure D2. Disease progression rates from CHB to compensated cirrhosis at different age ranges: (A) 20 to 80; (B) 30 to 80; (C) 40 to 80; (D) 50 to 80. Figure D3. Incremental cost-effectiveness scatterplot for Ultrasound+AFP versus status quo at real-world adherence rates, baseline population aged 40 to 80 years (green points represent optimal strategies, eclipse area represents 95% confidence interval). Figure D4. Incremental cost-effectiveness scatterplot for Ultrasound versus status quo at real-world adherence rate, baseline population aged 40 to 80 years (green points represent optimal strategies, eclipse area represents 95% confidence interval). Appendix E. Validation of the model. Table E1. Internal validity results. Table E2. External validity results. Table E3. Mean error values of internal and external validation. Figure E. Goodness-of-fit results of the model. Appendix F. Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) Checklist. Appendix G. Reference

Driven by deep neural networks (DNN), the recent development of computer vision makes vision sensors such as stereo cameras and Lidars ubiquitous in autonomous cars, robotics and traffic monitoring. However, a traditional DNN-based data fusion pipeline like object tracking has to hard-wire an engineered set of DNN models to a fixed processing logic, which makes it difficult to infuse new models to that pipeline. To overcome this, we propose a novel neural-symbolic stream reasoning approach realised by semantic stream reasoning programs which specify DNN-based data fusion pipelines via logic rules with learnable probabilistic degrees as weights. The reasoning task over this program is governed by a novel incremental reasoning algorithm, which lends itself also as a core building block for a scalable and parallel algorithm to learn the weights for such program. Extensive experiments with our first prototype on multi-object tracking benchmarks for autonomous driving and traffic monitoring show that our flexible approach can considerably improve both accuracy and processing throughput compared to the DNN-based counterparts.

Objectives Many economic evaluations of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) screenings have been conducted; however, these vary substantially with regards to screening strategies, patient group, and setting. This review aims to report the current knowledge of the cost-effectiveness of screening and describe the published data. Methods We conducted a search of biomedical and health economic databases up to July 2020. We included full and partial health economic studies if they evaluated the costs or outcomes of HCC screening strategies. Results The review included 43 studies. Due to significant heterogeneity in key aspects across the studies, a narrative synthesis was conducted. Most studies reported using ultrasound or alpha fetoprotein as screening strategies. Screening intervals were mostly annual or biannual. Incidence, diagnostic performance, and health state utility values were the most critical parameters affecting the cost-effectiveness of screening. The majority of studies reported HCC screening to be cost-effective, with the biannual ultrasound + alpha fetoprotein standing out as the most cost-effective strategy. However, few studies considered the utilization rate, and none considered the diagnostic performance of ultrasound in the context of central adiposity. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were also evaluated, but its cost-effectiveness was still controversial. Conclusions Although many studies suggested HCC screening was cost-effective, substantial limitations of the quality of these studies means the results should be interpreted with caution. Future modeling studies should consider the impact of central adiposity on the precision of ultrasound, real-world utilization rates and projections of increased HCC incidence.

Background: It remains controversial if intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) prior to mechanical thrombectomy (MTE) is superior to MTE alone in patients with acute ischemic stroke caused by large vessel occlusion. We aim to compare functional outcomes, mortality, reperfusion, and intracranial hemorrhage rates in bridging therapy (IVT prior thrombectomy) and MTE alone groups within 6 h from symptom onset. Materials and Methods: Consecutive hospitalized patients (September 2017 and July 2018) with acute large artery occlusion within the anterior cerebral circulation eligible for MTE with or without prior IVT were included. A modified Rankin Scale score of 0 to 2 was considered as good functional outcome at 90 days. Successful reperfusion was defined as a Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction scale of 2b to 3. Results: Of the 124 patients included, 56 (45.2%) received bridging therapy and 68 (54.8%) received MTE alone. Patients receiving bridging therapy were younger (median, 56 vs 63, P = .045) and had shorter onset-to-groin time (median, 270 vs 370 min, P < .001) than those receiving MTE alone. Successful reperfusion rate was significantly greater in the bridging therapy group (87.5% vs 72.1%, P = 0.03). There were no statistically significant differences between the 2 groups in functional independence (bridging 58.9% vs 75.0%, P = 0.07), mortality at 90 days (bridging 14.3% vs 7.4%, P = 0.22), parenchymal hematoma type 2 (bridging 3.6% vs 2.9%, P > .99), and any hemorrhage (bridging 42.3% vs 26.5%, P = 0.07). Conclusion: Compared to MTE alone, bridging therapy with IVT improved the reperfusion rate but not other outcomes. Further clinical trials are needed to confirm our findings.

Rationale, aims and objectives: Changes in, and predictors of, quality of life (QoL) among unstable angina patients are informative for both clinical and public health practice. However, there is little research on this topic, especially in health care settings with limited resources. This study aims to detect changes in QoL and its associated factors among patients with unstable angina after percutaneous coronary intervention. Methods: A longitudinal design was conducted with two repeated rounds of measurements, 1 and 3 months after intervention, using the generic SF-36 questionnaire, in 120 patients from Vietnam National Heart Institute. A linear mixed-effects model was used to assess changes in patient QoL over time while adjusting for other covariates. Results: Only two out of eight QoL subscales (social functioning and emotional well-being) declined after 1 month, but these tended to rise again after 3 months, while scores of all other QoL subscales increased. Adjusting for covariates, QoL increased slightly after 1 month of intervention (β = 0.65, 95%CI = −0.86 to 2.16) but improved by almost six QoL points after 3 months (β = 5.99, 95%CI = 4.48 to 7.50). Four confounders significantly associated with a decline in QoL were older age, being retired, living in rural areas, and having abnormal troponin level. Conclusion: QoL of the patients with unstable angina improves significantly 3 months after intervention, rather than after 1 month. More attention should be given to patients, who are old, retired, live in rural areas and have abnormal troponin level.

The adoption of selective laser melting (SLM) for fabrication of porous titanium has resulted in many new investigations into the complex design parameters associated with porous architecture of high spatial resolution. The development of meta-materials has included research into the effects of unit cell architecture (strut versus sheet), porosity, pore size, and other factors on the performance of metallic scaffolds. The current study examined the interactive effects of varying the gyroid sheet unit cell size and overall specimen size on the compressive behavior of Ti–6Al–4V ELI porous scaffolds manufactured via SLM. The increasing unit cell size relative to specimen geometry was found to decrease the compressive strength and stiffness of the overall structure and shift the material fracture mode. The understanding of the relationship between unit cell size and specimen geometry can be used to optimize mechanical properties of implants with constrained volumes and pore/wall size requirements to optimize properties of porous titanium implants for strength and osseointegration.

Survival for Primary Liver Cancer (PLC) has been investigated in Australia, but limited work has been conducted on the burden for people with different socioeconomic status, region of residence, causes of PLC, and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. This study aimed to cover this gap in the literature by investigating PLC survival with the aforementioned factors.This study linked four administrative datasets: Victorian Cancer Registry, Admitted Episodes Dataset, Emergency Minimum Dataset, and Death Index. The cohort was all cases with a PLC notification within the Victorian Cancer Registry between 01/01/2008 and 01/01/2016. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate survival probabilities and the log-rank test was used to compare the difference in survival between subgroups. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to explore factors associated with PLC survival.The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 50.0%, 28.1% and 20.6%, respectively, with a median survival of 12.0 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 11.0 - 12.9 months). Higher survival was associated with younger age, hepatocellular carcinoma, and higher socio-economic status. People born in Asian, African, and American regions had higher survival than those born in Australia and New Zealand. Cases with viral hepatitis as an identified aetiology had higher survival than those whose PLC was related to alcohol consumption (hazard ratio=1.52, 95% CI: 1.19 - 1.96), diabetes and fatty liver disease (hazard ratio=1.35, 95% CI: 1.08 - 1.68).Survival outcomes for people diagnosed with PLC were still poor and affected by many factors. Asian and African cases had better survival than Australian and New Zealand patients as PLC in Asian and African cases was mostly caused by viral hepatitis. Metropolitan areas were associated with a higher survival than rural areas, not only due to accessibility to surveillance and healthcare services but also because the majority of overseas-born patients reside in metropolitan areas.

Objective This study aimed to estimate the public hospital costs associated with primary liver cancer (PLC) in the first and second years following the cancer diagnosis. Methods This study linked administrative datasets of patients diagnosed with PLC in Victoria, Australia, from January 2008 to December 2015. The health system perspective was adopted to estimate the direct healthcare costs associated with PLC, based on inpatient and emergency costs. Costs were estimated for the first 12 months and 12–24 months after the PLC diagnosis and expressed in 2017 Australian dollars (A$). The cost estimated was then extrapolated nationally. The linear mixed model with a Box–Cox transformation of the costs was used to explore the relationship between costs and patients’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Results For the first 12 months, the total and annual per-patient cost was A$211.4 million and A$63 664, respectively. Costs for the subsequent year were A$49.7 million and A$46 751, respectively. Regarding the cost extrapolation to Australia, the total cost was A$137 million for the first 12 months after notification and A$42.6 million for the period from 12 to 24 months. Higher costs per episode of care were mostly associated with older age, hepatocellular carcinoma type of PLC, metropolitan hospitals, and Asian birth region. Conclusion This study showed the public hospital admission and emergency costs associated with PLC and the substantial economic burden this cancer has placed on the Australian health system.

International audience; With an ever-growing population of around 10 million inhabitants (officially 7.9 in 2013), Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is set to become one of the largest cities in South East Asia and already occupies a major economic role in the area. To accommodate the increasing population, the megacity now stretches out in an urban continuum covering more than 800 square kilometers and is currently growing at a rate of 3.2% per year. If the neighboring provinces around HCMC are included, the total population reaches nearly 18 million people.This paper attempts to describe the interplay between HCMC and flood-related risks and offer some guidelines to deal with inundations. The potential risks of flooding by rain, tsunami and/or dam failure upstream of the city are evaluated and contextualized within the perspective of climate and human-induced environmental changes. The region is highly vulnerable to the combined effects of subsidence and rising sea levels and has already led to serious flooding that may extend spatially before the end of the century. We propose possible preventative solutions to urban flooding using a multi-pronged approach to issues regarding urban development and suggest a redevelopment strategy for major infrastructure projects.

6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FtS) is being widely used as a mist suppressant in the chromate (Cr(VI)) plating process. As a result, it is often present alongside Cr(VI) in the chromate plating wastewater (CPW). While the removal of Cr(VI) from CPW has been studied for decades, little attention has been paid to the treatment of 6:2 FtS. In this study, the removal of Cr(VI) and 6:2 FtS by Ga2O3, In2O3, and TiO2 photocatalysts was investigated. In the Ga2O3/UVC system, over 95% of Cr(VI) was reduced into Cr(III) after only 5 min. Simultaneously, 6:2 FtS was degraded into F− and several perfluorocarboxylates. The predominant reactive species responsible for the degradation of 6:2 FtS in the Ga2O3 system were identified to be hVB+ and O2˙−. In addition, it was observed that the presence of Cr(VI) helped accelerate the degradation of 6:2 FtS. This synergy between Cr(VI) and 6:2 FtS was attributable to the scavenging of eCB− by Cr(VI), which retarded the recombination of eCB− and hVB+. The In2O3/UVC system was also capable of removing Cr(VI) and 6:2 FtS, although at significantly slower rates. In contrast, poor removal of 6:2 FtS was achieved with the TiO2/UVC system, because Cr(III) adsorbed on TiO2 and inhibited its reactivity. Based on the results of this study, it is proposed that CPW can be treated by a treatment train that consists of an oxidation–reduction step driven by Ga2O3/UVC, followed by a neutralization step that converts dissolved Cr(III) into Cr(OH)3(S).

Video streams are becoming ubiquitous in smart cities and traffic monitoring. Recent advances in computer vision with deep neural networks enable querying a rich set of visual features from these video streams. However, it is challenging to deploy these queries on edge devices due to the resource intensive nature of the computing operations of this sort. Hence, this paper will demonstrate our approach in pushing these computing operations closer to the video stream sources via autonomous stream fusion agents. These agents will facilitate an edge computing paradigm that enables edge devices to utilize its computing resources to serve federated queries over video streams. Our demonstration shows that edge devices can significantly alleviate the bottleneck of the centralized server in dealing with distributed video streams.

Essential oils from the leaf and twig of Polyalthia suberosa (Roxb.) Thwaites were analyzed using GC/MS/FID. A total of sixty-three constituents were namely identified accounting for 96.03 and 94.12 % in the hydrodistilled oils of the leaf and twig, respectively. Monoterpenes, monoterpenoids, sesquiterpenes, and sesquiterpenoids were characteristic derivatives of P. suberosa essential oils. Sesquiterpenes bicyclogermacrene (26.26 %) and (E)-caryophyllene (7.79 %), and monoterpene β-pinene (12.71 %) were the major constituents of the leaf oil. Sesquiterpenes (E)-caryophyllene (17.17 %) and α-humulene (9.55 %), sesquiterpenoid caryophyllene oxide (9.41 %), and monoterpenes camphene (8.16 %) and tricyclene (6.35 %) were to be main components in the twig oil. The leaf oil indicated cytotoxic activity against three cancer cell lines HepG2, MCF7 and A549 with the IC50 values of 60.96-69.93 μg/mL, while the twig oil inhibited MCF7 with the IC50 value of 66.70 μg/mL. Additionally, the twig oil successfully suppressed the growth of the negative Gram bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, fungus Aspergillus niger, and yeast Candida albicans with the same MIC value of 50 μg/mL, whereas the leaf oil had the same result on the negative Gram bacterium Escherichia coli.

Phytochemical investigation applying GC (gas chromatography)-MS (mass spectrometry)/GC-FID (flame ionization detection) on the hydro-distilled essential oils of the Vietnamese medicinal plant

Essential oils of two Asteraceae plants Blumea riparia DC. and Pluchea pteropoda Hemsl. ex Hemsl., collected from Vietnam, have been studied by hydro-distillation and GC/MS-FID (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-flame ionization detector) analysis. Oil yields of B. riparia fresh leaves and twigs were in the range of 0.1–0.2%, whereas essential oil in the fresh aerial parts of P. pteropoda reached about 0.5%. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated sesquiterpenes were the main chemical classes in the essential oils of B. riparia. The leaves and twigs of this species gave essential oils containing germacrene D (33.6-42.6%), ( E)-β-caryophyllene (11.2-11.6%), and bicyclogermacrene (9.3-12.1%) as the major components. Oxygenated monoterpenes and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons achieved the highest amounts in the essential oil of P. pteropoda aerial parts; 2,5-dimethoxy- p-cymene (43.5%), β-maaliene (14.0%), and α-isocomene (9.0%) were characteristic compounds. Particularly, as compared with related Blumea and Pluchea species, B. riparia and P. pteropoda, collected from Vietnam, might be good sources of germacrene D and 2,5-dimethoxy- p-cymene, respectively. The essential oil of B. riparia leaf successfully controlled the growth of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum, with an MIC value of 50.0 µg/mL, and the essential oil of P. pteropoda aerial parts showed significant antimicrobial activity against the Gram positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis and the yeast Candida albicans, with the same MIC value of 50.0 µg/mL.

Critical-sized defects remain a significant challenge in orthopaedics. 3D printed scaffolds are a promising treatment but are still limited due to inconsistent osseous integration. The goal of the study is to understand how changing the surface roughness of 3D printed titanium either by surface treatment or artificially printing rough topography impacts the mechanical and biological properties of 3D printed titanium. Titanium tensile samples and discs were printed via laser powder bed fusion. Roughness was manipulated by post-processing printed samples or by directly printing rough features. Experimental groups in order of increasing surface roughness were Polished, Blasted, As Built, Sprouts, and Rough Sprouts. Tensile behavior of samples showed reduced strength with increasing surface roughness. MC3T3 pre-osteoblasts were seeded on discs and analyzed for cellular proliferation, differentiation, and matrix deposition at 0, 2, and 4 weeks. Printing roughness diminished mechanical properties such as tensile strength and ductility without clear benefit to cell growth. Roughness features were printed on mesoscale, unlike samples in literature in which roughness on microscale demonstrated an increase in cell activity. The data suggest that printing artificial roughness on titanium scaffold is not an effective strategy to promote osseous integration.

One of the biggest issues in electrocoagulation (EC) water treatment processes is electrode fouling, which can cause decreased coagulant production, increased ohmic resistance and energy consumption, and reduced contaminant removal efficiency, among other operational problems. While it has been suggested that switching the current direction intermittently (i.e., polarity reversal, PR) can help mitigate electrode fouling, conflicting results about the utility of this approach have been reported in the literature. The objective of this study was to systematically investigate the effects of PR frequency and current density on the performance of Fe-EC and Al-EC. It was found that operating Fe-EC under the PR mode reduced neither electrode fouling nor energy consumption. Notably, the Faradaic efficiency (ϕ) in Fe-EC decreased with increasing PR frequency; ϕ was as low as 10% when a PR frequency of 0.5 minutes was employed. Unlike Fe-EC, operating Al-EC under the PR mode resulted in high coagulant production efficiencies, reduced energy consumption, and diminished electrode fouling. In addition to comparing PR-EC and DC-EC, a novel strategy to minimize electrode fouling was investigated. This strategy involved operating Fe DC-EC and Al DC-EC with a Ti-IrO2 cathode, whose fouling by Ca- and Mg-containing minerals could be readily avoided by periodically switching the current direction.

Iron immobilized on supports such as silica, alumina, titanium oxide, and zeolite can activate hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into strong oxidants. However, the role of the support and the nature of the ...

Phytochemical investigation of a methanolic extract of

Handling and improving the quality of medical images with the help of computer software is one of the important stages in the diagnosis and treatment. In this article, we focus on describing the new morphological algorithms by ITK (Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit). These morphological operators eliminate noise, detect good edges, and overcome the drawback of traditional edge detection methods.

The choice is justified for the values of specific carbon monoxide formation coefficient and the specific mass gasification rate required for mathematical modeling of the parameters and heat impact of running crowning forest fires on the power engineering facilities in Vietnam. The results of an experimental study of the combustion process of wood pulp samples of the trunks of the most common hardwood and coniferous trees of Vietnam are presented. For the flaming combustion, the experimental dependences of the specific carbon monoxide emission coefficient and the specific mass gasification rate on the time period of testing of wood samples were obtained. A comparison of the average values of these parameters with the data given in the literature was carried out. It is shown that the average experimental values of the specific mass gasification rate of all wood samples in terms of time are in the range between the corresponding values for coniferous and hardwood trees listed in the fire load database by Yu. A. Koshmarov.

Electrocoagulation (EC) is a promising electrochemical water treatment technology. However, a major challenge to sustaining effective long-term EC operation is controlling the precipitation of materials on the electrodes, commonly referred to as fouling. Periodically reversing electrode polarity has been suggested as an in-situ fouling mitigation strategy and is often implemented in EC field applications. However, the utility of this approach has not been investigated in detail. In this study, the effect of polarity reversal (PR) on the performance of EC using iron electrodes was examined under different water chemistry conditions and at a range of reversal frequencies. It was observed that the faradaic efficiency in PR-EC was always lower than that in the EC systems operated with a direct current (i.e., DC-EC). It was also observed that the faradaic efficiency progressively decreased as the current reversal frequency increased, with the faradaic efficiency dropping as low as 10% when the PR interval was 0.5 min. Results from fouling layer, chronopotentiometric, and cyclic voltammetric investigations indicated that the decrease in the faradaic efficiency was caused by (i) increased electrode fouling by iron precipitates and (ii) electrochemical side reactions at the electrode-electrolyte interface. The extent of these effects was dependent on the solution chemistry; oxyanions and sulfide were found to be particularly detrimental to the performance of PR-EC, causing severe electrode fouling while decreasing the faradaic efficiency. Fouling could be mitigated by increasing the solution convection rate, resulting in a shear on the electrode surface that removed iron and other electrochemically reactive species from the electrodes.

This article illustrates the development of a software named GoldEnvSim for simulation of the dispersion of radionuclides in the atmosphere. The software is written in JavaFX programming language to couple the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the FLEXPART-WRF model. The highlight function of this software is to provide convenience for users to run a simulation workflow with a user-friendly interface. Many toolkits for post-processing and visualizing output are also incorporated to make this software more comprehensive. At this first version, GoldEnvSim is specifically designed to analyze and predict the dispersion of radioactive materials in the atmosphere, but it has potential for further development and applicable to other fields of environmental science. For demonstration, a simulation of the dispersion of the Cs-137 that is assumed to be released from the Fangchenggang nuclear power plant to whole Vietnam territory was performed. The simulation result on meteorological in comparison to the monitoring data taken from a first-class meteorological observatory was used to evaluate the accuracy of dispersion simulation result., Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures

Phytochemical investigation of a methanolic extract of Sedum sarmentosum collected from Vietnam resulted in the isolation of a new megastigmane glucoside, named sedumoside K (1), together with 17 previously reported compounds (2–18). Structural elucidation of the new compound was achieved by HRFABMS, NMR spectroscopic analysis, acid hydrolysis and quantum ECD calculations. The absolute configuration of compounds 2–6 has been revised. The major isolates were tested for cytotoxic activity against HeLa human cervical cancer cells, and all showed moderate activities.

The wide adoption of increasingly cheap and computationally powerful single-board computers, has triggered the emergence of new paradigms for collaborative data processing among IoT devices. Motivated by the billions of ARM chips having been shipped as IoT gateways so far, our paper proposes a novel continuous federation approach that uses RDF Stream Processing (RSP) engines as autonomous processing agents. These agents can coordinate their resources to distribute processing pipelines by delegating partial workloads to their peers via subscribing continuous queries. Our empirical study in “cooperative sensing” scenarios with resourceful experiments on a cluster of Raspberry Pi nodes shows that the scalability can be significantly improved by adding more autonomous agents to a network of edge devices on demand. The findings open several new interesting follow-up research challenges in enabling semantic interoperability for the edge computing paradigm.

This review critically examined the existing technologies for the treatment of sulfolane, which is an emerging groundwater contaminant. In general, sulfolane plumes are difficult to contain and mitigate because sulfolane is highly mobile and does not biodegrade to an appreciable extent under anoxic conditions typical of many subsurface environments. Several studies have shown that sulfolane biodegradation can be enhanced in the presence of oxygen, suggesting that in situ biosparging or ex-situ (i.e., pump and treat) aerobic biodegradation can potentially be effective means of remediating sulfolane-contaminated sites. While highly reactive species such as SO4•- and •OH radicals have been shown to oxidize sulfolane, whether sulfolane can be effectively treated by ex situ advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) or by in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) needs to be further examined. Besides chemical and biological treatments, pump and treat by adsorption on granular activated carbon (GAC) has been applied to remove sulfolane at several sites. To optimize the treatment as well as to identify more effective adsorbents, additional research is needed to investigate the mechanism and factors affecting sulfolane adsorption. In addition to assessing the treatment of sulfolane, this review also discussed the analytical methods for the quantification of sulfolane in the context that guidelines for sulfolane will likely become more stringent and, therefore, analytical methods with lower detection limit will be needed for future research.

The nanocomposite of metallic nickel and nickel oxide (denoted as Ni–NiO), synthesized by a simple sol–gel method, was found to activate peroxydisulfate (PDS), resulting in the effective oxidation of phenolic compounds and selected pharmaceuticals. A nonradical mechanism was proposed to explain the activation of PDS by Ni–NiO, in which organic contaminants are believed to be oxidized through an electron abstraction pathway mediated by the reactive complexes formed between PDS and the Ni–NiO surface. This mechanism was supported by multiple lines of evidence including radical scavenger experiments, the oxidation products, linear sweep voltammetry, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The Ni–NiO/PDS system exhibited a PDS utilization efficiency (expressed by the ratio of degraded organic contaminant to decomposed PDS) that was over 80%, and Ni–NiO showed a greater activity for PDS activation than a commercial nanoparticulate nickel oxide. This improved performance of Ni‒NiO was attributed to the disproportioned incorporation of the metallic Ni into the NiO matrix, creating more sites with oxygen vacancy. Also owing to the metallic Ni, Ni–NiO possessed magnetic properties and therefore could be easily separated and reused.

The oxidation of chlorendic acid (CA), a polychlorinated recalcitrant contaminant, by heat-, mineral-, and base-activated persulfate was investigated. In pH 3–12 homogeneous (i.e., solid-free) solutions, CA was oxidized by •OH and SO4•- radicals, resulting in a nearly stoichiometric production of Cl−. The rate constants for the reaction between these radicals and CA were measured at different temperatures by electron pulse radiolysis, and were found to be kOH = (8.71 ± 0.17) × 107 M−1s−1 and kSO4 = (6.57 ± 0.83) × 107 M−1s−1 at 24.5 °C for •OH and SO4•-, respectively. CA was oxidized at much slower rates in solutions containing iron oxyhydroxide or aquifer soils, partially due to the adsorption of CA on these solids. To gain further insight into the effect of solids during in-situ remediation of CA, the adsorption of CA onto iron (hydr)oxide, manganese dioxide, silica, alumina, and aquifer soils was investigated. The fraction of CA that was adsorbed on these materials increased as the solution pH decreased. Given that the solution pH can decrease dramatically in persulfate-based remedial systems, adsorption may reduce the ability of persulfate to oxidize CA. Overall, the results of this study provide important information about how persulfate can be used to remediate CA-contaminated sites. The results also indicate that the groundwater pH and geology of the subsurface can have a significant influence on the mobility of CA.

Listeriolysin O (LLO) is an important extracellular toxin of Listeria monocytogenes which degrades the phospholipid membranes of the host cells’ phagosomes at low pH during the intracellular survival. In contrast to the natural form, the mutant LLO carrying two replacements of amino acid E247M and D320K possesses stable activity at pH 7.4. In this study, we have constructed vectors that carry the mhlyA gene encoding double-mutated LLOE247M/D320K express in B. subtilis 1012. The target gene was fused to the sequence of LysRN-6xHis-TEV site to enhance the recombinant protein expression in B. subtilis and to ease the acquisition of protein by Ni2+-based affinity chromatography. As results, we have obtained the purified protein LLOE247M/D320K with high purity. The activity measurement with 3 HU hemolytic toxins in the pH range from 5.0 to 8.5 suggested that the activity of LLOE247M/D320K was much better than that of natural LLO at neutral pH and slightly alkaline. These results not only provided important scientific foundations for mutant LLO bases expression in B. subtilis but also supplied purified materials for researche and medical applications based on this protein.

Sulfur-doped TiO2 (S-TiO2) coupled with the Fenton-like reagent (i.e., Fe(III) and H2O2) exhibited photochemical activity under visible-light illumination, resulting in the degradation of over 95 % benzoic acid, 95 % carbamazepine, and 99 % 4-chlorophenol within 30 min. The combined system removed contaminants much faster than its uncombined S-TiO2/visible light and Fe(III)/H2O2 counterparts. The synergistic effect between S-TiO2 and the Fenton-like reagent was found to be due to 1) the generation of conduction band electrons and valence band holes in S-TiO2 under visible light illumination; 2) the reduction of Fe(III) by the conduction band electrons, thereby enhancing Fe(II) generation while minimizing electron-hole recombination; 3) the production of •OH from the reactions between Fe(II) and H2O2, and between H2O2 and conduction band electrons; and 4) the oxidation of contaminants by both valence band holes and •OH. Under the experimental conditions employed in this study, the S-TiO2/visible light/Fe(III)/H2O2 system exhibited a sustainable reactivity over 7 testing cycles, with more than 90 % of BA degraded in each cycle.

In this commentary, we express our reservation about the mechanism of PFOS degradation proposed by Chang et al. (Environmental Science Water Research & Technology, 2020, 6, 3476).

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The goal of the study is to understand how changing the surface roughness of 3D printed Titanium either by processing printed samples or artificially printing rough topography impacts the mechanical and biological properties of the Titanium. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Titanium dog bones and discs were printed via laser powder bed fusion. groups were defined as 1. polished, 2.blasted, 4.as built, 4.sprouts and 5.rough sprouts. Roughness was measured with line measurement using a confocal microscope. Tensile testing of dog bones produced stress strain curves. MC3T3 preosteoblast were seeded on discs. Samples were analyzed at 0, 2, and 4 weeks. A cell viability assay and confocal fluorescent microscopy assessed cell growth. Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) assay and Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) examined cell differentiation. Extracellular matrix (ECM) was stained for collagen and calcium. Scanning Electron Microcopy (SEM) was done on sputter coated discs. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Measured roughness defined by Rz, maximum peak to valley distance of the sample profile ranged from 2.6-65.1 µm. The addition of printed roughness in the sprouts and rough sprouts group significantly diminished ductility resulting in early strain to failure during tensile testing. Cells adhered and proliferated on discs regardless of roughness group. There was no statistical difference in ALP activity, but qPCR showed that rough groups (sprouts and rough sprouts) had diminished Osteocalcin gene expression at week 2 and 4. The ECM in the rough groups was more resistant to repeated washes and was more extensive with SEM. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Printing roughness diminished mechanical properties without clear benefit to cell growth. Roughness features were on mesoscale, unlike samples in literature on microscale that increase cell activity. Printed topography may aid in implant fixation and not osseous integration as hypothesized. CONFLICT OF INTEREST DESCRIPTION: Dr. Samual Adams, Dr. Ken Gall and Cambre Kelly own stock and/or stock options in restor3d, Inc.

Semantic interoperability for the Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by standards and technologies from the Semantic Web. As recent research suggests a move towards decentralised IoT architectures, we have investigated the scalability and robustness of RDF (Resource Description Framework)engines that can be embedded throughout the architecture, in particular at edge nodes. RDF processing at the edge facilitates the deployment of semantic integration gateways closer to low-level devices. Our focus is on how to enable scalable and robust RDF engines that can operate on lightweight devices. In this paper, we have first carried out an empirical study of the scalability and behaviour of solutions for RDF data management on standard computing hardware that have been ported to run on lightweight devices at the network edge. The findings of our study shows that these RDF store solutions have several shortcomings on commodity ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) boards that are representative of IoT edge node hardware. Consequently, this has inspired us to introduce a lightweight RDF engine, which comprises an RDF storage and a SPARQL processor for lightweight edge devices, called RDF4Led. RDF4Led follows the RISC-style (Reduce Instruction Set Computer) design philosophy. The design constitutes a flash-aware storage structure, an indexing scheme, an alternative buffer management technique and a low-memory-footprint join algorithm that demonstrates improved scalability and robustness over competing solutions. With a significantly smaller memory footprint, we show that RDF4Led can handle 2 to 5 times more data than popular RDF engines such as Jena TDB (Tuple Database) and RDF4J, while consuming the same amount of memory. In particular, RDF4Led requires 10%&ndash, 30% memory of its competitors to operate on datasets of up to 50 million triples. On memory-constrained ARM boards, it can perform faster updates and can scale better than Jena TDB and Virtuoso. Furthermore, we demonstrate considerably faster query operations than Jena TDB and RDF4J.

RDF stores provide a simple abstraction for publishing and querying data, that is becoming a norm in data sharing practice. They also empower the decentralised architecture of data publishing for the Web or IoT-driven systems. Such architecture shares a lot in common with blockchain infrastructure and technologies. Therefore, there are emerging interests in marrying RDF stores and blockchain to realise desirable but speculative benefits of blockchain-powered data sharing. This paper presents the first RDF store with blockchain that enables lightweight edge devices to control of the data sharing processes (personal, IoT data). Our novel approach on the deep integration of the storage design for RDF store enables the ability to enforce controlling measures on access methods and auditing policies over data elements via smart contracts before they fetched from the sources to the consumers. Our experiments show that the prototype system delivers an effective performance for a processing load of 1 billion triples on a small network of lightweight nodes which costs less than a commodity PC.

Semantic interoperability for the Internet of Things(IoT) is being enabled by standards and technologies from the Semantic Web. As recent research suggests a move towards decentralised IoT architectures, our focus is on how to enable scalable and robust RDF engines that can be embedded throughout the architecture, in particular at edge nodes. RDF processing at edge enables the creation of semantic integration gateways for locally connected low-level devices. We introduce a lightweight RDF engine, which comprises of RDF storage and SPARQL processor, for the lightweight edge devices, called RDF4Led. RDF4Led follows the RISCstyle (Reduce Instruction Set Computer) design philosophy. The design comprises a flash-aware storage structure, an indexing scheme and a low-memory-footprint join algorithm which improves scalability as well as robustness over competing solutions. With a significantly smaller memory footprint, we show that RDF4Led can handle 2 to 5 times more data than RDF engines such as Jena TDB and Virtuoso. On three types of ARM boards, RDF4Led requires 10--30% memory of its competitors to operate up to 30 million triples dataset; it can perform faster updates and can scale better than Jena TDB and Virtuoso. Furthermore, we demonstrate considerably faster query operations than Jena TDB.

Microdeletion on the Y chromosome is one of the causes that makes men infertile, accounting for 2-10 % of all infertility cases, and occurs frequently at 3 regions of the Ychromosome long arm namely AZFa, AZFb and AZFc (azoospermia factor). Currently, the diagnosis of microdeletion on the Y chromosome is almost mandatory in institutes and centers for infertility diseases before selecting treatment or assisting methods. To detect microdeletion in AZF, SRY and ZFY regions, the current approach is a Multiplex – PCR assay offering by European Academy of Andrology/European Molecular Genetics Quality Network (EAA/ EMQN). However, the drawback of this method is the PCR products posess similar size and then the DNA electrophoresis bands were very close on gels causing the difficult in diagnosis. Therefore, in this study, we have redesigned primer pairs matching with genes that were recommended by EAA/EMQN but the PCR products are clearly different in sizes, making the DNA electrophoresis bands take apart further to facilitate the diagnosis. Besides, we have also created recombinant plasmids carrying the marker genes for the control sample in kits.

This paper presents a comparison between the dynamic performance of Static Var Compensators (SVC) and Static Synchronous Compensators (STATCOM) in improving the voltage stability of the system and reducing the post disturbance voltage recovery time. The dynamic simulation has been done on the Nordic-32 test system which mimics the characteristics of the Swedish transmission system. The simulation has been carried out using a time-domain simulation software called PSS/E. The simulation has been done while taking into account different load characteristics including induction motor loads which are prevalent in the Swedish power grid. A methodology for sizing and placement of the SVC and STATCOM has been proposed to mitigate the voltage instability of the system. It has been found that STATCOMs have shown superior performance over SVCs in improving the post-disturbance voltage recovery time and the voltage stability of the system. It has been found that the post-disturbance voltage recovery time was reduced down by 60% for the case with STATCOM while for the case with SVC, the voltage recovery time was reduced down by 26% for the same capacitive rating as that of the STATCOM1.

Chlorendic acid (CA) is a recalcitrant groundwater contaminant for which an effective treatment technology does not currently exist. In this study, a series of batch experiments were conducted to investigate the treatment of CA by zero-valent iron (ZVI) under various water chemistry conditions. It was observed that CA was removed by ZVI via both adsorption and degradation, with the degradation rate being proportional to the fraction of CA adsorbed onto ZVI. The rate of CA degradation decreased as pH increased, presumably due to the passivation of ZVI and diminishing CA adsorption. Chloride (Cl-) did not appreciably affect CA adsorption and degradation, while sulfate (SO42-) significantly inhibited both processes because SO42- competed with CA for ZVI adsorptive sites. The rate of CA degradation was significantly accelerated by ZVI-associated Fe(II). Nine byproducts of CA transformation were identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry. The formation and subsequent degradation of these products revealed that the transformation of CA by ZVI occurred via a step-wise reductive dechlorination pathway. Overall, this study suggests that ZVI may be effective at remediating CA-contaminated sites.