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Natural uranium is an important material basis to ensure the sustainable and stable development of national nuclear energy. Ocean contains abundant natural uranium resources, and the extraction of uranium from seawater is of great strategic and economic significance for supplementing and improving our country’s uranium supply system and realizing the autonomy of natural uranium supply. In this paper, the latest progress in the research direction of seawater uranium extraction technology in recent years is reviewed. This paper mainly summarizes the research results of adsorption materials and field tests for uranium extraction from seawater at home and abroad, and prospects the future development of uranium extraction from seawater.

As the amount of data increases,correlates and crosses between data,the value of data needs to be maximized through data fusion.However,due to the complexity of the data fusion process,to clearly explain the data fusion process,it is necessary to establish a backtracking mechanism for data fusion.Although many researches are focused on data provenance,most of them are based on query and workflow,and few of them are for data fusion.This paper focuses on the provenance of data fusion,and proposes a method to support multi-granularity provenance.Firstly,the data fusion process is abstracted,and the semantic graphs of patterns,entities and attributes are constructed with the entity as the core,and an optimized model for storing storage provenance information is proposed.Secondly,on the basis of the semantic graph,the data provenance query algorithms at the entity level and the attribute level are proposed respectively,and the corresponding query optimization strategy are also proposed.Finally,experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed data provenance method.

Objective To explore the role of parthanatos in propofol-induced injury in PC12 cells under hypoxic conditions. Methods PC12 cells were induced to differentiate with mouse nerve growth factor (NGF), and randomly divided into normal control (NC) group, lipid emulsion solvent+room air (CA) group, lipid emulsion solvent+hypoxia control (CH) group, propofol+room air (PA) group, propofol+hypoxia (PH) group, and 3-AB (PARP-1 inhibitor) group. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) kit and flow cytometry were adopted to detect the LDH level in the supernatant and the cell apoptosis, respectively. The mRNA levels of poly ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP-1) and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) were determined by RT-qPCR, and the protein levels of AIF, PARP-1 and polymerized ADP-ribose (PAR) in each group were measured by Western blotting. The nuclear distribution of AIF in PC12 cells was observed by immunofluorescence assay. Results As compared with the NC and CA groups, the levels of LDH and apoptosis were significantly enhanced in the PA and PH groups (P < 0.01); the mRNA and protein levels of PARP-1 and AIF (P < 0.05) were increased; and the accumulation of cytoplasmic PAR (P < 0.01) and AIF nuclear translocation (P < 0.01) were observed as well. In comparison with the CH and PA groups, the levels of LDH and cell apoptosis (P < 0.01), the mRNA and protein expression of PARP-1 (P < 0.01), the formation of cytoplasmic PAR (P < 0.01), and the AIF nuclear translocation (P < 0.01) were all augmented in the PH group. Pretreatment with PARP-1 inhibitor 3-AB notably reversed the increase in LDH level and cell apoptosis induced by hypoxia combined with propofol (P < 0.01), and restrained the up-regulation of PARP-1, AIF and PAR(P < 0.01). Conclusion Propofol causes parthanatos of PC12 cells under hypoxic conditions, and inhibition of parthanatos can alleviate the damage in PC12 cells induced by propofol combined with hypoxia.

Objective To investigate the effect of environmental enrichment on alleviating stress in laboratory British-shorthair cats. Methods A total of fourteen laboratory British-shorthair cats were randomly divided into welfare group (n = 7) and control group (n = 7) according to the presence of environmental enrichment interventions which lasted for 11 weeks. The hematological and blood biochemical, neuroendocrine and immunological parameters of each group were measured and compared to evaluate the stress level of different groups. Results The mean corpuscular volume in the welfare group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05), the percentage of lymphocyte was extremely higher than that in the control group (P < 0.01), and the neutrophilic percentage was extremely lower than that in the control group (P < 0.01). In addition, the levels of carbamide, creatinine, globulin, total protein in the welfare group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05); the adrenaline and dopamine indicators in the welfare group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05), while interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio, IL-2/IL-4 ratio, IFN-γ/IL-5 ratio and IL-2/IL-5 ratio of the welfare group were higher than those of control group; among them, IFN-γ, IL-2, IFN-γ/IL-5 ratio and IL-2/IL-5 ratio were significantly different (P < 0.05), and IL-5 difference was extremely significant (P < 0.01). Conclusion The environmental enrichment interventions can effectively improve the welfare level of laboratory cats and reduce the biological costs of stress.

This work efficiently investigated the simultaneous extraction of uranium (U) and niobium (Nb) from a low-grade natural betafite ore by using novel technique, namely, sulfatizing roasting coupled to sulfuric acid leaching process. First, the sulfatizing roasting was adopted to alert the properties of the raw ore, aiming to destroy the crystal structure of the ores and convert the valuable elements to soluble sulfate compounds. Moreover, the influences of the parameters affecting the sulfatizing roasting including roasting temperature, amount of sulfuric acid, and roasting time were studied. The results indicated that the extraction of U and Nb from the ores with sulfatizing roasting was an order of magnitude higher than the extraction of U and Nb from the ores without roasting under the same test conditions. Then, the effects of amount of sulfuric acid concentration, liquid–solid ratio, leaching temperature, and leaching time on U and Nb recoveries were systematically investigated. To verify the process parameters of extracting U and Nb for the novel technique, three validating tests were conducted, and the results showed that over 95% of U and 85% of Nb were leached out under the optimal conditions. The novel technique was proven as advantageous since it conspicuously improved the leaching rates of U and Nb and promoted the refractory natural betafite ores to become an economic source for uranium.

Abstract Despite immense revolutionary therapeutics potential, sustaining release of active small interfering RNA (siRNA) remains an arduous challenge. The development of nanoparticles with siRNA sustained release capabilities provides an avenue to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of gene-based therapy. Herein, we present a new system based on the encapsulation of siRNA/chitosan-methacrylate (CMA) complexes into liposomes to form UV crosslinkable Nanolipogels (NLGs) with sustained siRNA-release properties in vitro. We demonstrated that the CMA nanogel in NLGs can enhance the encapsulation efficiency of siRNA and provide sustained release of siRNA up to 28 days. To understand the particle mechanism of cellular entry, multiple endocytic inhibitors have been used to investigate its endocytosis pathways. The study saw positively charged NLGs entering cells via multiple endocytosis pathways, facilitating endosomal escape and slowly releasing siRNA into the cytoplasm. Transfection experiments confirmed that the crosslinked NLG delivery system provides effective transfection and prolonged silencing effect up to 14 days in cell cultures. We expect that this sustained-release siRNA NLG platform would be of interest in both fundamental biological studies and in clinical applications to extend the use of siRNA-based therapies.

Abstract Background Although breastfeeding is one of the top priorities for public health in China, the rate of breastfeeding is still low and a large number of women do not initiate breastfeeding due to various reasons. Hence, this study aimed to understand the decision-making of non-initiation and reveal the underlying reasons in order to protect, support, and promote breastfeeding. Methods In-depth, exploratory interviews were carried out with 13 new mothers who did not initiate breastfeeding. The collected data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. Results Although mothers generally understood the protective effects of breastfeeding, they believed that formula milk is a good alternative to human milk and even better in some aspects. Five core themes related to non-initiation decision-making emerged: (1) expected breastfeeding stress; (2) maladjustment to the maternal role; (3) concerns about physiological issues; (4) the lack of knowledge about the risks of artificial feeding; (5) belief that it is better not to initiate than to interrupt. Conclusions The environment for mothers to breastfeed in China is not supportive enough, and the medical staff and families should be held responsible for the non-initiation of breastfeeding. More professionals are needed to support mothers to solve their problems and breastfeeding education should be further expanded.