Search

Objective To investigate the rules of gout patients attending the hospital by analyzing their time series data, and to provide a reference for the prevention and treatment of gout in medical and health departments. Methods Time series data were collected from the gout patients who attended a grade A tertiary hospital in Qingdao from 2013 to 2018, and a descriptive analysis was performed for the data including the time of patients attending the hospital, age, and sex. An Autoregressive Integra-ted Moving Average (ARIMA) model was established based on the time series data of gout patients in 2013—2018, and the data of gout patients from January to October, 2019, were used for the extrapolation validation of this model. The X-11 method was used to analyze seasonal factors, long-term trends, and random fluctuations. Results Among the gout patients attending the hospital in 2013—2018, male patients accounted for 94.68% and female patients accounted for 5.32%; in terms of age composition, the patients aged 30-39 years, 40-49 years, 50-59 years, and >60 years accounted for 21.50%, 21.67%, 19.74%, and 23.32%, respectively. The ARIMA model established based on time series data of the gout patients in 2013—2018 was ARIMA(0,1,1)×(0,1,1)12, with an AIC value of 674.89 and an SBC value of 679.05, and the extrapolation verification of the predictive effect of this model showed an MAE value of 86.28 and an MAPE value of 7.64%. The X-11 method for seasonal stability (F=27.81,P0.05) showed that the time series of gout patients had stable seasonality and was not affected by time. The number of patients attending the hospital in July and August each year was higher than the mean value, and that in February was lower than the mean value; the number of patients was stable in the other months. Conclusion The ARIMA model is effective with stable prediction results, and combined with the seasonal factors and long-term trend extracted by the X-11 method, it can better explain the rules of gout patients attending the hospital and thus provide a reference for health authorities and medical institutions to formulate the prevention and control policies for gout, conduct health education, and allocate human resources.

The distributional characteristics of microorganisms in karst cave ecosystems have been widely studied. However, in such a dark, humid, and oligotrophic habitat, studies on the differences in carbon-sequestering bacteria in multiple habitats are limited. Therefore, to learn the distribution characteristics of carbon-sequestering colonies in cave habitats and their correlation with habitat factors (e.g., pH, Ca2+, Mg2+, etc.), samples from five cave habitats (weathered rock walls, underground river water, drips, sediments, and air) were collected from the twilight and dark zones of Shiziyan Cave (CO2 concentration 5385 ppm). The results of high-throughput sequencing and statistical analyses showed that there were significant differences in the distribution of communities in different habitats, with higher abundance in sediments habitat and underground river water habitat, and the dominant phyla of Pseudomonadota (30.53%) and Cyanobacteria (75.11%) in these two habitats. The microbial diversity of the carbon-sequestering microbial community was higher in sediments than in underground river water. The pH, and Ca2+, SO 4 2 − , and NO 3 − concentrations can alter the diversity of carbon-sequestering microbes, thereby affecting carbon cycling in caves. Carbon metabolism analyses suggest that microbes in the habitat can cooperate and coexist by participating in different carbon metabolic pathways. These results expanded our understanding of carbon-sequestering microbial communities in cave systems and their responses to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VOCs can be used instead of ammonia as a reducing agent to remove NO, achieving the effect of removing VOCs and NO simultaneously. Due to the high energy consumption and low photocatalytic efficiency required for conventional thermocatalytic purification, photothermal coupled catalytic purification can integrate the advantages of photocatalysis and thermocatalysis in order to achieve the effect of pollutants being treated efficiently with a low energy consumption. In this study, samples loaded with Co and Mn catalysts were prepared using the hydrothermal method on Fe-MOF with various morphologies. The catalytic performance of each catalyst was analyzed by studying the effects of their physicochemical properties through various characterizations, including XRD, SEM, BET, XPS, H2-TPR, TEM and O2-TPD. The characterization results demonstrated that the specific surface area, pore volume, high valence Co and Mn atoms, surface adsorbed oxygen and the abundance of oxygen lattice defects in the catalysts were the most critical factors affecting the performance of the catalysts. Based on the results of the performance tests, the catalysts prepared with an octahedral-shaped Fe-MOF loaded with Co and Mn showed a better performance than those loaded with Co and Mn on a rod-shaped Fe-MOF. The conversions of acetone and NO reached 50% and 64%, respectively, at 240 °C. The results showed that the catalysts were capable of removing acetone and NO at the same time. Compared with the pure Fe-MOF without Co and Mn, the loaded catalysts showed a significantly higher ability to remove acetone and NO simultaneously under the combination of various factors. The key reaction steps for the catalytic conversion of acetone and NO on the catalyst surface were investigated according to the Mars–van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism, and a possible mechanism was proposed. This study presents a new idea for the simultaneous removal of acetone and NOx by photothermal coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substitution of ethyl acetate for ammonia in NH3-SCR provides a novel strategy for the simultaneous removal of VOCs and NO. In this study, three distinct types of biochar were fabricated through pyrolysis at 700 °C. MnOx and TiO2 were sequentially loaded onto these biochar substrates via a hydrothermal process, yielding a family of biochar-based catalysts with optimized dosages. Upon exposure to xenon lamp irradiation at 240 °C, the biochar catalyst designated as 700-12-3GN, derived from Ginkgo shells, demonstrated the highest catalytic activity when contrasted with its counterparts prepared from moso bamboo and loofah. The conversion efficiencies for NO and ethyl acetate (EA) peaked at 73.66% and 62.09%, respectively, at a catalyst loading of 300 mg. The characterization results indicate that the 700-12-3GN catalyst exhibits superior activity, which can be attributed to the higher concentration of Mn4+ and Ti4+ species, along with its superior redox properties and suitable elemental distribution. Notably, the 700-12-3GN catalyst has the smallest specific surface area but the largest pore volume and average BJH pore size, indicating that the specific surface area is not the predominant factor affecting catalyst performance. Instead, pore volume and average BJH pore diameter appear to be the more influential parameters. This research provides a reference and prospect for the resource utilization of biochar and the development of photothermal co-catalytic ethyl acetate and NO at low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]