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Background & Hypothesis We sought to assess the reliability of 4 different shoulder arthroplasty 3-dimensional preoperative planning programs. Comparison was also made to manual measurements conducted by 2 fellowship-trained musculoskeletal radiologists. We hypothesized that there would be significant variation in measurements of glenoid anatomy affected by glenoid deformity. Methods A retrospective review of computed tomography (CT) scans of patients undergoing shoulder arthroplasty was undertaken. A total of 76 computed tomographies were analyzed for glenoid version and inclination by 4 templating software systems (VIP, Blueprint, TrueSight, ExactechGPS). Inter-rater reliability was assessed via intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). For those shoulders with glenohumeral arthritis (58/76), ICC was also calculated when sub-grouping by modified Walch classification. Lin's concordance correlation coefficient was calculated for each system with 2 musculoskeletal-trained radiologists’ measurements. Results Measurements of glenoid version and inclination differed between at least 2 programs by 5o-10o in 75% and 92% of glenoids respectively, and by >10o in 18% and 45% respectively. ICC was excellent for version but only moderate for inclination. ICC was highest among Walch A glenoids for both version (near excellent) and inclination (good), and lowest among Walch D for version (near poor) and Walch B for inclination (moderate). When measuring version, VIP had the highest concordance with manual measurement; Blueprint had the lowest. For inclination Blueprint had the highest concordance; ExactechGPS had the lowest. Discussion & Conclusion Despite overall high reliability for measures of glenoid version between 4 frequently utilized shoulder arthroplasty templating softwares, this reliability is significantly affected by glenoid deformity. The programs were overall less reliable when measuring inclination, and a similar trend of decreasing reliability with increasing glenoid deformity emerged that was not statistically significant. Concordance with manual measurement is also variable. Further research is needed to understand how this variability should be accounted for during shoulder arthroplasty preoperative planning. Level of Evidence Level III; Retrospective Comparative Study

Combining the advantages of homogeneous catalysis and the recyclability of heterogeneous catalysts is highly desired for sustainable catalysis but remains a challenging goal. In the current work, hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) that consist of cage molecules with amino groups were prepared. The HOFs with heteroatom-containing porous cavities and stable backbone confine ultrafine Ru clusters with diameter of about 0.47 nm and high Ru loading of 30 wt%. The obtained Ru@HOF catalyst can well disperse in water in the form of discrete cage-confined Ru clusters similar to a homogeneous catalyst, and can be recycled easily through simple precipitation by the addition of acetone due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between discrete cages. The Ru@HOF was used as a homogenous catalyst for efficiently selective catalytic hydrogenation of N-heteroarene compounds, such as quinolines and indoles in aqueous solution. Especially quinoline compounds can be fully hydrogenated to decahydroquinoline with Ru@HOF catalyst, which is not easy to be implemented with other Ru nanoparticle-based catalysts. The high catalytic performance of Ru@HOF is attributed to the homogeneously dispersed and accessible active sites of the ultrafine Ru clusters. This study provides a novel strategy for fabricating ultrafine noble metal clusters-based catalysts with homogeneous catalytic performance and heterogeneous recyclability.

The fabrication of stable and efficient catalysts for green and economic catalytic transformation is significant. Here, highly stable covalent triazine frameworks (CTF-1) were used as the supporting material for anchoring ultrafine Pd nanoparticles (NPs) via a facile impregnation process and a one-pot calcination-reduction strategy. The widespread dispersion of ultrafine Pd NPs was a result of the abundant high nitrogen-content triazine groups of CTF-1 that endowed the catalyst Pd@CTF-1 with high catalytic activity. The catalytic performance of Pd@CTF-1 was demonstrated by the one-pot N-alkylation of benzaldehyde with aniline (or nitrobenzene) under mild reaction conditions, and Pd@CTF-1 exhibited a wide range of general applicability for N-alkylation reactions. The reaction mechanism for the N-alkylation reaction was also studied in detail. In addition, the Pd@CTF-1 catalyst exhibited high thermal and chemical stability, maintaining good catalytic efficiency after multiple reaction cycles. This study provides new insights for the fabrication of organic supporting materials with highly dispersed active catalytic sites that can lead to excellent catalytic performance for efficient, economical, and green reactions.

Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic multisystem disorder characterized by noncaseating granulomas. The article focuses on the typical imaging manifestations of sarcoid and the common differentials that need to be included when appropriate. Mistaking a sarcoid-mimicking disease for sarcoid can result in increased patient morbidity and mortality. The pulmonary system is the most common system involved and is typically the best understood by the radiologist, however a deeper knowledge of the pulmonary findings and features of sarcoid in other organ systems is critical. There is a myriad of sarcoid imaging manifestations that can involve every organ system. Often a confidant diagnosis of sarcoid can be made, however a broad differential may need to be considered- differential diagnoses include primary neoplasm, metastatic disease, infectious, and inflammatory etiologies. Radiologist familiarity with the multimodality multisystem imaging findings of sarcoid can help guide clinical management and optimize patient care.

We report the first New Zealand case of Anncaliia algerae myositis in a 55-year-old man with a history of psoriatic arthritis, treated with long-term immunosuppressive therapy. He resided in the city of Rotorua, which is famous for geothermal hot springs. A vastus lateralis muscle biopsy was performed to investigate the cause of an unexplained myositis. Light microscopy demonstrated a necrotizing myositis with scattered clusters of ovoid spores within the myocyte cytoplasm resembling microsporidia. DNA analysis by PCR and electron microscopy confirmed microsporidial myositis with features characteristic of A. algerae. Immunosuppressive drugs were stopped and the patient was treated with cholestyramine wash and albendazole. The patient deteriorated with involvement of bulbar and respiratory muscles requiring intensive care and ventilation. He died 3 weeks after diagnosis. Post-mortem examination of skeletal muscle from tongue and intercostal muscles also revealed numerous organisms confirming disseminated disease.

Although the folding of single-domain proteins is well characterized theoretically and experimentally, the folding of large multidomain proteins is less well known. Firefly luciferase, a 550 residue three-domain protein, has been commonly used as a substrate to study chaperone reactions and as a model system for the study of folding of long polypeptide chains, including related phenomena such as cotranslational folding. Despite being characterized by various experimental techniques, the atomic-level contributions of various secondary structures of luciferase to its fold’s mechanical stability remain unknown. Here, we developed a piecewise approach for all-atom steered molecular dynamics simulations to examine specific secondary structures that resist mechanical unfolding while minimizing the amount of computational resources required by the large water box of standard all-atom steered molecular dynamics simulations. We validated the robustness of this approach with a small NI3C protein and used our approach to elucidate the specific secondary structures that provide the largest contributions to luciferase mechanostability. In doing so, we show that piecewise all-atom steered molecular dynamics simulations can provide novel atomic resolution details regarding mechanostability and can serve as a platform for novel mutagenesis studies as well as a point for comparison with high-resolution force spectroscopy experiments.

Impoverishing nutrients from wastewater via assimilation into microalgal biomass has gained footprint in bioremediation technologies. To ease the harvesting of mature microalgal biomass from effluent, this study proposed the employment of fluidized bed bioreactor to grow attached microalgal biomass onto polyurethane foam support material while bioremediating the N-rich real wastewater from chemical fertilizer manufacturing industry. The complete removals of all nitrogen species (NH4+-N, NO2−-N and NO3−-N) together with COD and total phosphorus were achieved at the optimum light intensity and CO2 concentration of 216 μmol/m2 s and 9.1 %, respectively, giving rise to the attached microalgal biomass productivity of 0.094 g/L/day. These performances were also found maintaining for at least 4 cycles of reiterative uses of spent polyurethane foam support material in similar fluidized bed bioreactor setup condition with every cycle being introduced with fresh N-rich real wastewater. The mechanism of attachment formations study predicted that the polysaccharides and proteins from microalgal extracellular polymeric substances had bridged the cells onto polyurethane foam support material during the initial colonization prior to populating and growing to cover the surfaces of support material. For biodiesel production, the extracted neutral lipid content of attached microalgal biomass was found to be four times higher than the suspended growth culture. From the transesterification process, about 97 %–98 % of attached microalgal lipid could be converted into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) mixture. Interestingly, the degree of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in FAMEs was recorded increasing with the increase of cycles of reusing spent polyurethane foam support material. The presence of more SFA in FAMEs could overall enhance the oxidative stability and contribute to higher cetane number of produced biodiesel from facilely harvested attached microalgal biomass.

S100 calcium-binding protein B (S100B) is overexpressed in various malignant tumors, where it regulates cancer cell proliferation and metabolism by physical interactions with other molecules. Interfering with S100B-effector protein interactions is a potential strategy to treat malignant tumors. Although some S100B inhibitors have been discovered by virtual screening (VS), most target the S100B-p53 interaction. Hence, there is scope for the discovery of other S100B-effector protein interaction modulators for malignant tumors. In this review, we provide an overview of S100B-effector protein interaction inhibitor discovery using VS and discuss promising S100B-effector protein interaction targets that permit in silico analysis for drug discovery.

The hierarchical SAPO-34 zeolites have been prepared with the simultaneous generation of strong Bronsted acid sites (BASs) via a post-synthetic method, which allows the cooperation of the positive effects of both porous structure and acidity in the dehydration of glycerol to acrolein. The cooperation of strong BASs only in enhancing the acrolein selectivity and the hierarchical pores in improving the glycerol conversion has significantly increased the overall acrolein yield to 89.8% on the hierarchical SAPO-34 zeolite at 345 °C and WHSV = 3.7 h−1. This kind of cooperation also limited the catalyst deactivation and prolonged the lifetime of zeolites, which is another significant challenge for glycerol dehydration. The knowledge from this research is very valuable to design the high-efficient nanoporous catalysts for hydrocarbon conversion and bio-refining.

The amphiphilic copolymer polystyrene-maleic anhydride (SMA)-2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) was synthesized for the first time in this study, and used as a linker to graft zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) in order to enhance the hydrophilicity and anti-adsorption ability of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes. This amphiphile linker is composed of a hydrophobic extremity, i.e., the SMA copolymer, and a hydrophilic extremity, i.e., the HEA. The SMA-HEA linker was first dispersed into the PVDF matrix via the blending method, and the hydrophobic polystyrene of SMA was adsorbed into the PVDF membrane via hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction. The SBMA was then grafted onto the expanded HEA via free radical polymerization. The functional groups, morphologies, and hydrophilicity of the amphiphile-modified PVDF membranes were analyzed by attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and water contact angle (WCA) measurements. The PVDF membrane modified with the SMA-HEA amphiphile linker showed significant enhancement in hydrophilicity as the WCA decreased from 135.0° to 45.0°, and the protein adsorption of the modified membrane decreased from 112.5 to 33.3 μg⋅cm−2. Furthermore, dynamic protein separation was performed, and the pure water flux recovery rate reached 100%, indicating good anti-adsorption ability.

The development of porous organic polymer (POP)-based materials with controllable structures is highly desirable for catalysis, drug delivery, and chemical adsorption. In this work, we prepared unique porous magnetic core–shell POP nanospheres (Fe3O4@PDA@POP) through a facile strategy. These nanospheres contained a core of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs), a hydrophilic intermediate layer of dopamine and a POP outer layer. The Fe3O4@PDA@POP showed high porosity, making it an ideal supporting material for fabricating ultrafine and highly dispersed noble-metal NPs (NMNPs). Thus, highly dispersed ultrafine Pd NPs (1.5–2.1 nm) were confined and stabilized within the pores of Fe3O4@PDA@POP via a reverse double-solvent approach (RDSA) to obtain Fe3O4@PDA@POP@Pd catalyst. The Fe3O4@PDA@POP@Pd-2.5% catalyst showed excellent catalytic performance and recyclability towards the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene, alkenes, and alkynes. Hence, this work can pave the way for the development and application of functionalized POP materials to construct efficient catalytic systems.

A series of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes based on mixed matrix of chromium-doped strontium titanate (SrTiO3–Cr) photocatalyst and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) were systematically prepared by non-solvent induced phase inversion technique. Porous PVDF membrane and mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) incorporated with 3–10 wt% SrTiO3–Cr were produced in the UF range using polyethylene glycol as a porogen additive. The crystal morphology and electronic property of as-synthesized Cr-doped SrTiO3 nanoparticles were characterized by XRD and UV–Vis DRS. We found that the SrTiO3–Cr nanoparticles are cubic perovskite structure of approximately 30–40 nm in size with a low band gap energy of 2.05 eV. The morphology, surface roughness, hydrophilicity and textural properties of SrTiO3–Cr/PVDF MMMs were comprehensively characterized using field emission-scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, atomic force microscope, sessile drop technique, and capillary flow porometer. The SrTiO3–Cr was observed to be homogeneously dispersed in all the MMMs and provided additional anti-fouling properties from Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) protein. The membrane UF property and tri-cycling performance were evaluated under three distinct protocols in (1) Dark, (2) constant UVA exposure, and (3) UVA during post-treatment clean only. By increasing the SrTiO3–Cr concentration, the MMMs displayed an improved homogeneity and macropore distribution with enhanced water permeability given by 51–110 LMH bar−1 pure water flux and 37 to 45 LMH bar−1 BSA water flux in the Dark. A consistently high BSA rejection of 95% and an improved anti-fouling property under constant UVA irradiation were achieved due to a combination of photo-induced hydrophilic and photocatalytic effect. Also, a significant improvement in UF performance in terms of membrane flux recovery was observed in the 3rd protocol signifying that the effect of protein fouling on membrane filtration was further reduced due to a lower degree of BSA fragment deposition in the membrane pores. The findings in this study dramatically lower the operational constraints (transmembrane pressure, membrane cleaning, use of UVA) in the protein filtration process and offer an innovative membrane material for the research of photo-induced, anti-fouling membranes for protein separation applications.

Chinese rice wine (CRW), with its high nutritional value and unique flavor, has been popular in China for thousands of years. The traditional steps of immersion and steam cooking during the brewing of rice wine have several drawbacks, including the long production time, large energy consumption, generation of wastewater and the large production area it occupies. Extrusion puffing has the potential to overcome these drawbacks. In this study, the physicochemical properties of extruded-puffed brown rice obtained under different conditions were analyzed. The puffed extrudates exhibited low bulk density, high water solubility index and higher surface area than the steam-cooked brown rice. Extrusion puffing operates at high temperatures, high pressure and provides mechanical shearing forces, resulting in the puffed extrudates having a higher degree of gelatinization, as determined by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), revealed the disruption of the native crystalline structure. The effect of extrusion on enzymatic hydrolysis was evaluated using amylase digestion. The results indicated that puffed extrudates significantly improved the enzymatic hydrolysis rate and yield. Moreover, the catalytic efficiency was evaluated by kinetic constants, with extrusion puffing treatment demonstrating an efficiency18-fold higher than steam-cooked brown rice. Finally, extruded-puffed blown rice was used for Chinese rice wine fermentation. The extruded-puffed blown rice improved alcohol yield during the fermentation process, which increased the wine yield by 12.4% compared to traditional cooking methods.

This study aims to investigate the effect of chitosan and gelatin as a stabilizer of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and on their application designs. Ag NPs hydrogels was synthesized and stabilized by capping agents (chitosan and gelatin). Then, Ag NPs membrane was prepared by coating Ag NPs hydrogel on PCL fibrils. Optical and microscopic observation as well as structural properties were studied to compare two stabilizers. Antimicrobial testing was done on both Ag NPs hydrogels and membranes. The results suggest that gelatin provides better stabilizing activity and superior antimicrobial potency in membrane form while chitosan exhibits better antibacterial inhibition in hydrogel form.

When developing purification processes for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), ensuring the effective removal of high molecular weight (HMW) species is often challenging and labor intensive. In this work, we present a bottom-up characterization approach to achieve streamlined polishing step development as well as a more fundamental understanding of the protein of interest. Prior to physicochemical characterization, in-process HMW species of two IgG4 mAbs (mAb A and mAb B) were isolated via semi-preparative size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Key differences in approximate molecular weight, net charge, and native surface hydrophobicity were then identified using multi-angle light scattering (SEC-MALS), analytical-scale chromatographic screening, isoelectric focusing, and structural aggregation propensity modeling. SEC-MALS revealed two main HMW isoforms for each mAb: dimers and 1.7-mers for mAb A, and tetramers and dimers for mAb B. Analytical-scale chromatographic screening showed promising trends in charge-based separation for mAb A, and hydrophobic-based separation for mAb B. Isoelectric focusing data detected a 30% increase in acidic variants for mAb A HMW species relative to monomer, and a 20% increase in basic variants for mAb B HMW species. Lastly, analytical-scale characterization data was successfully applied to preparative scale purification conditions, producing results highly similar to those observed during analytical characterization of the isolated species. By using this high-throughput approach as a template for preparative-scale process development, key physicochemical differences between aggregate and monomer species were utilized to determine optimal polishing steps for HMW removal.

In this study, cereals with high starch content, including brown rice, corn, and buckwheat were pretreated by extrusion. The physicochemical properties of extruded-puffed cereals obtained from different extrusion conditions were analyzed herein. The puffed extrudates exhibited lower bulk density, higher water solubility and gelatinization as compared to untreated cereals. The FTIR-ATR results confirmed a decrease in the crystalline structure of extruded-puffed cereals. A higher V

Aberrant neural oscillations hallmark the pathophysiology of numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders. Here, we first report a method to accurately track the phase of neural oscillations in real-time by a Hilbert transform that avoids the characteristic Gibbs distortion at the end of the signal, aka endpoint-corrected Hilbert transform (ecHT). The ecHT method maintains the same computational complexity class of the original Hilbert transform allowing implementation in simple digital hardware. We then used the ecHT method to show that the aberrant neural oscillation that hallmarks treatment-resistant essential tremor (ET), the most common adult movement disorder, can be noninvasively supressed via transcranial electrical stimulation at a fixed phase lag over the cerebellar hemisphere ipsilateral to the tremor movement. This was tested in a quadruple-replication randomized way including stimulation at 6 fixed phases, sham and without phase-locking. In a total of 11 subjects, the suppression of ET activity was sustained after the end of the stimulation and was phenomenologically predicted, post-hoc, from the features of the tremor movement before the start of the stimulation. To test for reproducibility, 6 of the original participants werer stimulated exactly the same way three years after the original experiments: the observed, significant stimulation response remained, i.e. responders continued to respond and non-responders did not. Finally, we used a highly-comparative feature extraction (> 8000 features) with statistical learning and neurophysiological computational modelling to show that the suppression of ET activity can be mechanistically attributed to a disruption of the temporal coherence in the tremor movement that can be originated in a higher bursting entropy at the cortico-olivo-cerebello-thalamic circuitry. The suppression of aberrant neural oscillation via phase-locked driven disruption of temporal coherence may represent a powerful neuromodulatory strategy to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Extracellular vehicles have a natural targeting ability and immune tolerance of being usually applied in drug delivery systems; however, the purification of EVs is complicated and the production yield was quite low. We developed an artificial cellular mimetic nanovesicle (NV) with melanoma fragment membrane for the transportation with curcumin to achieve the anticancer purpose. B16F10 derived NVs were manufactured by the breakdown of cells using a series of extrusions through cut-off size filters (10 and 5 µm), and the whole procedure was easy and time-saving. To terminate the suspicion of cancer metastatic issue, B16F10 cells were treated by 30-min sonication and 1-min UVB exposure to remove genetic materials before the extrusion. B16F10 derived NV loaded with curcumin was called NV(S30U1/Cur), and the anticancer effect was evaluated by cell-based viability, immune, migration, and invasion. The results showed that NVs were manufactured by passing through 10 and 5 µm filters having an enviable production yield, and the mRNA amounts were declined within NVs produced by B16F10 cells treated with UVB in a comparison to the control group. NV(S30U1/Cur) were effectively decreased B1610 cell viability, and migratory and invasive abilities were also reduced significantly. Besides, CD8+ expression of murine primary lymphocytes was activated with CD4+ reduction by NV(S30U1/Cur) to stimulate the inherent tumor suppressive capacity in the immune system. Taken together, we established bioengineered NVs serving as novel cell mimetic nanocarriers to deliver natural compound for malignant melanoma potential immune chemotherapy. Data Availability Statement: The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon requests.

The proliferation of digital data has opened the door for a 21st-century social science that explores human relationships on an unprecedented scale. A particular area of interest is that of leader social media (SM) usage. As studies on leader SM usage have grown dramatically in the past several years, we take stock of the extant literature across various research disciplines. Within this manuscript, we contextualize leader SM usage and demonstrate how it compares to analogous concepts. We subsequently abridge relevant findings and reflect on methodological and theoretical components of the research studies identified in this review. Further, we outline the nature of SM data and provide practical recommendations for leadership scholars to capitalize on this rich data source in their investigations. We also offer a theoretical framework and summary of how scholars have studied leader SM usage. Specifically, this review article synthesizes the current literature while also elevating the academic rigor of leader SM research.

Accurate assessment of the impact of electric vehicle (EV) charging on the electric grid is critical for energy policymakers to design efficient EV subsidy programs as well as to provide reliable electricity infrastructure. Despite the fact that 80 % of EV charging is conducted with residential in-home chargers, very few empirical studies have examined the load and environmental impact of residential EV charging based on actual electricity consumption data. Our paper fills this critical gap in the literature, applying a difference-in-differences approach to high frequency smart meter data of about 1600 EV homes from 2014 to 2019 in Arizona, United States. First, we find that the electricity demand during the system peak hours from 6 to 8 pm in summer can increase by 7–14 % at an average household with in-home EV charging. Second, EV households respond to electricity pricing signals by increasing their charging in lower-priced off-peak hours within the EV-specific time-of-use (TOU) pricing. Third, we find evidence of rebound effects in driving that lead to a reduction in home-electricity consumption in certain hours of the day. Lastly, we show that our empirical estimation of the grid impact due to in-home EV charging is different from that predicted by existing simulation models due to factors such as consumer behaviors. Such deviations between predicted and actual behaviors imply potential adjustment of relevant policy interventions.

Inhabiting the escape and migration of lead ions of perovskite films is crucial for the stable and clean perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The spider web is strong and sticky to catch the prey. Inspired by that, we employed an in-situ polymerized Zinc porphyrin (ZnP) with carbonyl group to fix lead into perovskite lattice to encapsulate the perovskite films. The carbonyl group can coordinate with lead ions in the modified perovskite films to inhibit the lead leakage when soaked into water, which could also reduce the trap density and suppressed non-radiative recombination within the modified film demonstrated by the space-charge-limited current, photoluminescence intensity and the electronic impedance spectroscopy measurements. Thus, the stabilities of the treated PSCs against heating and lighting improved obviously, and the optimal Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs also increased to 20.53% with the passivation of ZnP. This finding has provided an effective method to fix lead ions in the perovskite lattice.

Forward osmosis membrane bioreactors (FOMBRs) are currently gaining attention from the wastewater treatment industry, for their potential to produce high effluent quality and a relatively better flux stability against fouling. However, only using physical cleaning methods is not sufficient to recover the water flux performance satisfactorily under a long-term operation. This study comprehensively investigated the efficiency of a hybrid, environmentally-friendly cleaning strategy involving a combination of physical and free nitrous acid (FNA) cleanings under a long-term FOMBR operation. During 92 days of FOMBR operation, physical cleaning recovered the water flux by 85%, whilst FNA cleaning contributed to an additional 5% of the recovery. In addition, FNA cleaning also offered a retardation of fouling deposition by maintaining the water flux 18–30% more than that obtained by only the physical cleaning. A possible mechanism for FNA's role as the cleaning reagent was proposed for the first time in this study based on the water flux performance and membrane autopsy analysis. The results showed FNA cleaning broke down the residual fouling layer, preferencing protein-based substances. A lower ratio of protein to polysaccharides of the residual fouling layer contributed to a more negatively charged membrane surface (- 42.34 ± 0.30 mV) compared to the virgin one (- 17.54 ± 0.81 mV). This resulted in a stronger electrostatic repulsion between the foulants and the membrane surface, and thus slowed down the biofouling deposition process. This study suggested FNA solution has the great potential not only to recover the membrane performance, also as a strategy to slow down fouling deposition.

In order to retain a high concentration of activated sludge in the wastewater treatment plant, the dense activated sludge is entrapped into the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cryogel beads. For protecting the entrapped activated sludge biomass from the inhibitory effect exerted by recalcitrant pollutant, i.e., 4-chlorophenol (4-CP), the novel PVA cryogel beads with external surface covered by the powdered activated carbon (PAC) were successfully synthesized in this study. The synthesis was achieved by extruding the biomass-PVA polymeric matrix into the gelatin solution containing PAC. The maximum PAC density on the external surface of cryogel beads was calculated to be in the range of 938–978 mg/m2. The PAC distributed on the external surface of cryogel beads was found to possess a higher 4-CP adsorption capacity than the beads with homogenized PAC. These cryogel beads were also capable of shielding the activated sludge biomass entrapped within beads from being directly exposed to the inhibitory effect of 4-CP via adsorption by PAC distributed on the external surface. Thus, only low concentration of 4-CP was diffused into the beads and biodegraded to achieve a total removal of 4-CP. This beneficial effect was later confirmed could last for more than 20 cycles of uses in removing 4-CP via the simultaneous adsorption and biodegradation processes.

A series of photocatalytic TiO2–carbon composite hollow fibres (HFs) was prepared in this study by a wet-dry phase inversion spinning method followed by a rapid thermal processing (RTP). The RTP method consists of two stages: (1) calcination at 800 °C for 15 min encased in a quartz tube followed by (2) a short open heating exposure at 800 °C for 0 to 7.5 min in air. The innovative two-stage RTP method led to a time saving of more than 90%. Results revealed that the pyrolysis conditions during the second stage of HF fabrication were essential to the final physical and chemical properties of resultant TiO2-carbon HFs, such as TiO2 crystallinity and carbon content, mechanical, textural and electronic properties, as well as photocatalytic reactivity. The best results show that HFs pyrolysed for a short duration (< 2 min) in the second stage produced a high microporous surface area of 217.8 m2·g−1, a good mechanical strength of 11 MPa and a TiO2 anatase-to-rutile (A/R) ratio of 1.534 on the HF surface. The HFs also achieved a 68% degradation of acid orange 7 dye with a kapp of 0.0147 min−1 based on a Langmuir-Hinshelwood model during the photocatalysis under UV light. Thus, this work provides a new synthesis protocol with significant time and cost savings to produce high-quality HFs for wastewater treatment.

Currently, 1 out of 6 Americans lives within a jurisdiction in which physician-assisted dying is legally authorized. In most cases, patients ingest lethal physician-assisted dying medications at home without involvement of emergency medical services (EMS) or the emergency department (ED). However, occasionally the dying process is interrupted as a result of incomplete ingestion or vomiting of medications, confusion about timing of dying trajectory, familial emotional distress, and other variables. A case is presented here of a patient who arrived by ambulance to an urban ED after ingesting physician-assisted dying medication. Stepwise analysis of communication and actions between providers (paramedics, emergency physician, and admitting physician), risk management, and family are described chronologically. This case highlights the significant distress experienced by each party, as well as key challenges and learning points. Guidance is provided to emergency providers about expectations and communication. In states with limited physician-assisted dying experience, many EMS agencies, EDs, and hospitals require comprehensive protocols to handle the complex ethical and psychosocial issues surrounding physician-assisted dying in the ED.

In the present work, a facile and environment-friendly route is illustrated for the efficient fabrication of highly dispersed PdCo nanoparticles (NPs) by modified cotton-derived carbon fibers (PdCo/CCF). Firstly, commercial cotton was impregnated with CoCl2, followed by pyrolysis under high calcination temperature to obtain the Co NPs modified CCF sample (Co/CCF). Secondly, Co/CCF was treated with Pd(AcO)2 aqueous solution, wherein, through a spontaneous replacement reaction process, Pd2+ is reduced to metallic Pd and mostly covered on the surface of the Co NPs. Thus, the PdCo/CCF catalyst was obtained avoiding the use of toxic reductants like NaBH4, NH2NH2 and HCHO. The PdCo/CCF catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic activity and recyclability for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol and other nitroarenes compared with Pd/CCF, PdCo NPs and many other noble metals based catalysts. The reasons could be attributed to the uniformly dispersed and accessible PdCo NPs on the surface of the CCF, and the Pd atoms deposited on the Co NPs surface that makes the Pd active sites available for optimum use. The PdCo/CCF catalyst also exhibits potential application for catalytic reduction of nitroarenes in a fixed bed reactor under mild reaction conditions. Furthermore, the PdCo/CCF catalyst can be magnetically recycled and reused for at least ten cycles without either losing catalytic activity or leaching of Pd active sites, thereby confirming its superior stability.

This study demonstrated the application of a new type of interlayer-free cobalt-doped silica membrane in treating ammonia solutions by pervaporation applied towards wastewater treatment. For enhanced hydrothermal stability, cobalt-doped silica (CoSi) membranes with increasing cobalt concentrations from 1 to 35 mol% were prepared and evaluated, namely CoSi-1, 5, 20 and 35. These membranes exhibited high water fluxes of 66 L m−2 h−1 for CoSi-1 and 15.5 L m−2 h−1 for CoSi-35 at 45 °C. The fluxes of the membranes decreased with increasing cobalt concentration; while the rejection to total nitrogen (TN, ammonia nitrogen) increased and hence allowed selective passage of water molecules. Enhanced thermostability was observed for the membranes, particularly CoSi-35 that exhibited TN rejection up to 99% at high temperature of 65 °C and highly alkaline environment (pH > 10). Also, the CoSi-35 membrane showed stable performance in treating ammonia present in industry wastewater by achieving stable TN and mineral rejections of 97% and 99%, respectively. Fouling was observed and confirmed by SEM morphological analysis and EDX elemental inspection. The results indicated the deposition of low solubility salts such as CaSO4.