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To reveal the performance of stem powder of Solidago canadensis as a putatively advantageous biosorbent for removal of Cd(II) from simulated waste water, the kinetic and thermodynamic characteristics of biosorption, the effects of ionic strength, humic acid and the physio-chemical factors on biosorption, as well as the desorption and regeneration processes were investigated comprehensively. The stem of S. canadensis was oven-dried and processed into fine powder then mixed with 5 mg/L, 10 mg/L or 20 mg/L Cd(II) solution. The residual concentration was measured using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The reacting conditions were optimized to pH = 6.0 with a dosage of 0.5 g/L for contact of 240 min. The results showed that: the biosorption reaction is best described by Langmuir monolayer isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models; thermodynamic analysis indicates an exothermic and entropy-decreasing biosorption process; at the optimal temperature 298 K, the saturated biosorption capacity was 19.34 mg/g, greater than that of rise husk and wheat straw reported literally; the increase of ionic strength was beneficial to the capacity of biosorption, for example 0.01 mmol/L and, 0.1 mmol/L Na + increased the biosorption capacity from 17.58 mg/g to 19.03 mg/g and 19.50 mg/g; the presence of 20 mg/L Ca (II) Mg(II) or humic acid reduced the biosorption capacity by 62.2%, 44.0% and 51.9%, respectively; growing additional amounts of alkaline earth metal ions or humic acid increasingly reduce the biosorption capacity; using 0.01 mmol/L HCl as an agent to regenerate the Cd(II)-loaded biosorbent, the biosorption efficiency decreased to 69.11% of the first round biosorption after 4 cycles. Our results demonstrate that the stem powder of S. canadensis is a promising biomass-based biosorbent for the removal of Cd(II) from waste water for its fine capacity of biosorption and regeneration.

In order to develop a high-voltage power supply (HVPS) with high quality parameters, not only its electrical circuit but also its structure should be studied in detail. In this paper, the structure design of the collector power supply for gyrotron is discussed first. Then the electrical field and potential simulations of its main devices are analyzed. Finally, relevant calculations and conclusions are given.

Observational studies suggest an association between fruit and vegetables intake and risk of bladder cancer, but the results are controversial.We therefore summarized the evidence from observational studies in categorical, linear, and nonlinear, dose-response meta-analysis. Pertinent studies were identified by searching EMBASE and PubMed from their inception to August 2013.Thirty-one observational studies involving 12,610 cases and 1,121,649 participants were included. The combined rate ratio (RR, 95 % CI) of bladder cancer for the highest versus lowest intake was 0.83 (0.69-0.99) for total fruit and vegetables, 0.81 (0.70-0.93) for total vegetables, 0.77 (0.69-0.87) for total fruit, 0.84 (0.77-0.91) for cruciferous vegetables, 0.79 (0.68-0.91) for citrus fruits, and 0.74 (0.66-0.84) for yellow-orange vegetables. Subgroup analysis showed study design and gender as possible sources of heterogeneity. A nonlinear relationship was found of citrus fruits intake with risk of bladder cancer (P for nonlinearity = 0.018), and the RRs (95 % CI) of bladder cancer were 0.87 (0.78-0.96), 0.80 (0.67-0.94), 0.79 (0.66-0.94), 0.79 (0.65-0.96), and 0.79 (0.64-0.99) for 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 g/day. A nonlinear relationship was also found of yellow-orange vegetable intake with risk of bladder cancer risk (P for nonlinearity = 0.033). Some evidence of publication bias was observed for fruit, citrus fruits, and yellow-orange vegetables.This meta-analysis supports the hypothesis that intakes of fruit and vegetables may reduce the risk of bladder cancer. Future well-designed studies are required to confirm this finding.

Li–Mn–Sb–O composites (nLi : nMn : nSb = 1.1 : 2 : 0.1) were synthesized via a ball milling technique and a solid state reaction method. The morphology, structure and electrochemical behavior were characterized by means of SEM, X-ray diffraction analysis and electrochemical charge–discharge tests. XRD analysis confirms that the as-prepared product is a complex composite of antimony-doped lithium manganese oxide and manganese-doped lithium antimony oxide. The composite calcinated at 750 °C consists of spherical-like nanoparticles with particle size ranging from 20–100 nm. A reversible capacity of about 94 mA h g−1 remains after 40 cycles for the composite, when it is cycled at a voltage of 2.85–4.8 V. The rate performance and EIS results indicate that the capacity retention of the composite is superior to that of pure LiMn2O4.

Welding residual stresses between 12Cr1MoV and P91 steel pipes were analyzed by experiment and finite element method (FEM). Both measured hoop and axial stresses are in general agree with the simulation results. Meanwhile, to examine the effect of start/stop welding position on residual stresses, a simulation model whose welding passes all started at the same location during multi-pass welding was compared with a model whose start/stop positions were uniformly distributed along circumferential direction of the dissimilar pipe. The results show that higher residual stresses occurred near the superimposed start/stop position than the steady region when calculated by the model whose welding passes all started at the same location. Whereas, start/stop welding positions which are distributed uniformly along the circumferential direction of the pipe can significantly relieve this effect, correspondingly leading to a more uniform residual stress distribution around the multi-pass welded dissimilar pipe.

2LiBH 4 /MgH 2 system is a representative and promising reactive hydride composite for hydrogen storage. However, the high desorption temperature and sluggish desorption kinetics hamper its practical application. In our present report, we successfully introduce CoNiB nanoparticles as catalysts to improve the dehydrogenation performances of the 2LiBH 4 /MgH 2 composite. The sample with CoNiB additives shows a significant desorption property. Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) measurement demonstrates that the peak decomposition temperatures of MgH 2 and LiBH 4 are lowered to be 315 °C and 417 °C for the CoNiB-doped 2LiBH 4 /MgH 2 . Isothermal dehydrogenation analysis demonstrates that approximately 10.2 wt% hydrogen can be released within 360 min at 400 °C. In addition, this study gives a preliminary evidence for understanding the CoNiB catalytic mechanism of 2LiBH 4 /MgH 2

Display Omitted The approximation K-singular value decomposition algorithm with nonnegative constraint is used to train PSD dictionary.The least angle regression algorithm with a new termination rule is applied to obtain the sparse representation.The termination rule is related to the noise level and nonzero cross terms of the speech and noise spectra.The enhanced speech signal is obtained by using the estimated PSD and subspace approach. Using sparse representation of power spectral density (PSD) approximated by magnitude-squared spectrum, a new speech enhancement method is presented. The approximation K-singular value decomposition (K-SVD) algorithm with nonnegative constraint is used to train an overcomplete dictionary of the clean speech PSD. The least angle regression algorithm (LARS) with a termination rule based on the ? 2 norm of the sum of the noise PSD and cross term between the clean speech and noise spectra is applied to estimate the clean speech PSD. Combining the estimated PSD with the signal subspace approach based on the short-time spectral amplitude (SSB-STSA), the enhanced speech signal is obtained. The simulation results show that the new method can yield better performance in most of noise conditions.

Mixed chemical wastewaters (MCWW) from industrial park contain complex mixtures of trace contaminants, which cannot be effectively removed by wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and have become an unignored threat to ambient environment. However, limited information is available to evaluate the complicated toxic effects of MCWW and its effluent from wastewater treatment plant (WTPE) from the perspective of bio-omics. In this study, mice were exposed to the MCWW and WTPE for 90 days and distinct differences in the hepatic transcriptome and serum metabolome were analyzed by digital gene expression (DGE) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectra, respectively. Our results indicated that disruption of lipid metabolism in liver and hepatotoxicity were induced by both MCWW and WTPE exposure. WTPE is still a health risk to the environment, which is in need of more attention. Furthermore, we demonstrated the potential ability of bio-omics approaches for evaluating toxic effects of MCWW and WTPE.

We investigate whether leading indicators of currency crises differ across exchange rate regimes using data for 88 countries in the period 1981–2010. Our estimates suggest that in fixed exchange rate regimes external indicators, such as deviations of the real exchange rate from trend and the growth of international reserves, have the strongest predictive power. In contrast, in floating exchange rate regimes monetary policy and credibility indicators, such as domestic credit growth and inflation, are the best leading indicators of currency crises. Both credibility and external economic indicators have predictive power in intermediate exchange rate regimes.

Recent progress of Web 2.0 applications has witnessed the rapid development of microblog in China, which has already been one of the most important ways for online communications, especially on sharing information. This paper tries to make an in-depth investigation on the big data modeling and analysis of microblog ecosystem in China by using a real dataset containing over 17 million records of SinaWeibo users. First, we present the detailed geography, gender, authentication, education and age analysis of microblog users in this dataset. Then we conduct the numerical features distribution analysis, propose the user influence formula and calculate the influences for different kinds of microblog users. Finally, user content intention analysis is performed to reveal users' most concerns in their daily life.

BACKGROUND An animal study reported that TGF-β1 maturation was linked to the homeostasis of blood pressure and elastogenesis of essential hypertension (EH). Recent advances require further research of TGF-β1 receptor in EH. METHODS A case-control study comprised of 2,012 adult hypertension case patients and 2,210 adult control subjects was conducted, and the association with blood pressure was further tested in children. Logistic regression and calculated genetic risk score were used to evaluate the effects of one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and multiple SNPs on EH, respectively. RESULTS The genetic risk score of 10 SNPs showed a significant association with hypertension; the odds ratio of the upper quartile vs. the lower quartile was 1.282 (P = 4.67 × 10(-3)). rs7256241 in miR-518 was significantly associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) change in control subjects (P = 0.002), and this association was also observed in children (P = 0.04). The systolic blood pressure (SBP) and DBP of female patients taking reserpine were higher with the C and G alleles of rs3773661 (P = 0.004) and rs7256241 (P = 0.002), respectively. In patients taking Zhen Ju Jiang Ya tablets, SBP and DBP decreased linearly with rs749794 (P = 0.004 and P = 0.048, respectively). SBP decreased linearly with rs1155705 (P = 0.007) and rs11709624 (P = 0.04), but increased with rs1036096 (P = 0.03) in male patients. In male patients taking Jiang Ya tablets, SBP increased linearly with rs11709624 (P = 0.007), DBP increased linearly with rs1155705 (P = 0.03) whereas decreased with rs7256241 (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that TGFBR2 and miR-518 harbor variants that increase the risk of EH and affect blood pressure homeostasis as well as efficacy of antihypertensive agents.

This paper investigates which factors determine whether sudden stops in international capital flows are followed by a currency crash using data for 85 economies in the period 1980–2012. An event study approach is used for an 11-year window around the crises for nine potential explanatory variables. In addition, the paper estimates discrete-choice panel models. The results suggest that low trade openness, shallow financial markets, and current account imbalances increase the likelihood that a sudden stop will be followed by a currency crash. Moreover, it is established that the impact of these factors differs across different exchange rate regimes.

It is a recurrent finding that software development is often troubled by considerable delays as well as budget overruns and several solutions have been proposed in answer to this observation, software fault prediction being a prime example. Drawing upon machine learning techniques, software fault prediction tries to identify upfront software modules that are most likely to contain faults, thereby streamlining testing efforts and improving overall software quality. When deploying fault prediction models in a production environment, both prediction performance and model comprehensibility are typically taken into consideration, although the latter is commonly overlooked in the academic literature. Many classification methods have been suggested to conduct fault prediction; yet associative classification methods remain uninvestigated in this context. This paper proposes an associative classification (AC)-based fault prediction method, building upon the CBA2 algorithm. In an empirical comparison on 12 real-world datasets, the AC-based classifier is shown to achieve a predictive performance competitive to those of models induced by five other tree/rule-based classification techniques. In addition, our findings also highlight the comprehensibility of the AC-based models, while achieving similar prediction performance. Furthermore, the possibilities of cross project prediction are investigated, strengthening earlier findings on the feasibility of such approach when insufficient data on the target project is available.

Fibrillin-1 (FBN1) was reported to have impact on the physiological arterial stiffness and vascular remodeling with hypertension of recent years. In the previous study we reported the association of four functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of FBN1 gene and hypertension. Here, we further investigate the association of four tagging SNPs (tagSNPs) which covered remain genetic variation blocks of FBN1 gene with hypertension, blood pressure and efficacy of antihypertensive in a South Han Chinese population. A case–control study including 2,012 hypertension cases and 2,116 controls age- and sex-matched controls was conducted from a community-based population and four candidate tagSNPs of the FBN1 gene were genotyped. Association analysis by multiple logistic regression was conducted for allele, genotype and haplotype and hypertension, blood pressure trait and control status with antihypertensive. General linear model was applied to compare blood pressure levels between genotypes. The association of rs17361868 and hypertension was statistically significant and that was further observed in female, ≥55 years, non-smoking and non-drinking populations (P

Porous TiO2 micro-tubes were fabricated by a solvothermal method, and the effect of TiO2 micro-tubes on the hydrogen desorption properties of LiBH4 was systematically investigated. It was confirmed that LiBH4 nanoparticles were successfully incorporated into these TiO2 scaffolds via a chemical impregnation method. It was revealed by results of TPD, PCT and DSC that both the lowered desorption temperature and improved kinetics of the desorption rate were due to the synergistic effects of nanoconfinement and destabilization of TiO2. The LiBH4@2TiO2 mixture (the preparation mass ratio is 1 : 2) started to release hydrogen at 180 °C, and the apparent activation energy (Ea) had been reduced from 146 kJ mol−1 (pure LiBH4) to 121.9 kJ mol−1. Moreover, it is interesting that the onset desorption temperature of LiBH4@3TiO2 composite was below 100 °C, reduced by about 300 °C compared to that of pure LiBH4, which was lower than that in most of the current studies about LiBH4.

Acute diarrhea is the most common infectious disease worldwide and its causes vary from one region to another. We aimed to analyze the spectrum and epidemiological characteristics of pathogens from 22,386 outpatients with acute diarrhea on the basis of surveillance data from Shanghai, China, during 2006-2011. The following 8 pathogens were isolated and identified using standard methods: Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, enterotoxigenic E. coli, enteroinvasive E. coli, and enterohemorrhagic E. coli. In total, 2,234 strains of pathogens were obtained and the overall isolation rate of these 8 pathogens gradually decreased from 17.1% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2011. V. parahaemolyticus was the most frequently identified pathogen, followed by Shigella and Salmonella. The isolation rate of V. parahaemolyticus notably varied by season, whereas Salmonella and Shigella infections showed little seasonal variation. Age-related variation was also observed. V. parahaemolyticus infection occurred more often in patients aged 20-40 years. S. enterica serovar Enteritidis and S. flexneri were the most common serotypes of Salmonella and Shigella, respectively. The descending trend observed in the isolation rate of pathogens from the current surveillance suggests an urgent requirement or improvement.

In this article, we report on the preparation of a graphene-like MoS2/graphene nanocomposite by hydrolysis of lithiated MoS2 (LiMoS2) and its application as the anode material for lithium ion batteries. When the mass ratio of graphene/LiMoS2 is 15/100, the obtained composite (MoS2/GNS-15) displays a flower-like architecture composed of exfoliated nanosheets. The structure analyses further demonstrate that graphene-like MoS2 is supported on the surface of graphene nanosheets (GNS) and some of the interlayer spacings of MoS2 are enlarged with the intercalation of graphene. The reversible capacity of the MoS2/GNS-15 nanocomposite is ∼1400 mA h g−1 in the initial cycle and remains 1351 mA h g−1 after 200 cycles at 100 mA g−1. Furthermore, the capacity can reach 591 mA h g−1 even at a high current density of 1000 mA g−1. The excellent electrochemical performance of MoS2/GNS-15 is due to the synergetic effect between highly conductive GNS and graphene-like MoS2. On one hand, the GNS matrix can offer two-dimensional conductive networks and effectively suppress the aggregation of layered MoS2 during the lithiation/delithiation process. On the other hand, graphene-like MoS2 with an enlarged gallery can ensure the flooding of the electrolyte, provide more active sites and lower the diffusion energy barrier of Li+ ions.

A synergistic effect of nanoconfinement and catalyzing is a new strategy to enhance the dehydrogenation properties of complex hydrides. Herein, LiBH4 has been infiltrated into a CoNiB-loaded carbon aerogels system (donated as LiBH4@CA@CoNiB). It is found that the desorption performances of LiBH4 are significantly strengthened. The onset desorption temperature of LiBH4@CA@CoNiB is decreased to 192 °C, and majority of the liberation occurs at about 320 °C, much lower than that of pure LiBH4. Also, about 15.9 wt% H2 could be released below 600 °C. Furthermore, LiBH4 doped with CA@CoNiB exhibits an excellent desorption kinetics, with a capacity of 9.33 wt% H2 released in 30 min at 350 °C, while only 2.13 wt% H2 is gained for bulk LiBH4. In addition, the apparent activation energy (Ea) is reduced sharply from 59.00 kJ/mol (pure LiBH4) to 46.39 kJ/mol.

We investigated neovasculization effects of embolus-carried human vascular endothelial cell growth factor 165 (VEGF165)-encoded adenovirus (Ad) vector in the hindlimbs of rats with thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO). Rats were equally divided into blank control (I), TAO model (II), embolus (III), Ad-VEGF165 intravascular treatment (IV), Ad-VEGF165 intramuscular treatment (V), and embolus-carried Ad-VEGF165 (VI) groups. After interventional treatment, the neovasculization effect of the test gene was observed using immunohistochemistry. At 1 week after administration, compared with group II, groups V and VI had significantly increased microvessel densities, but no significant difference was observed between groups V and VI. At 2 weeks, groups V and VI exhibited significantly increased microvessel densities. At 1 week after administration, compared with group II, both groups V and VI showed a significant difference in the ratio between the α-smooth muscle actin count and the muscle fiber count, whereas no significant difference was observed between them. At 2 weeks, groups V and VI also exhibited significant differences in these ratios compared with the other groups. We conclude that Ad-VEGF165 promotes neovasculization in ischemic limbs. Embolus-carried Ad- VEGF165 had the most pronounced effect.

The English version of the Condom Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) was translated, back-translated, and tested among a representative sample of the Hong Kong general population. It then underwent reconsolidation, confirmation, and validation following standard procedures. Construct validity was performed by exploratory factor analysis and item-scale correlation. Independent t-test and effect size were used to identify the score differences between consistent and non-consistent condom users. The factor loading scores of 14 items ranged between 0.749 and 0.884. Cronbach's alpha for the traditional Chinese version of CSES (CSES-TC) was 0.96 for the overall scale. The CSES-TC was highly correlated with self-reported condom use among the 265 participants who indicated they had been sexually active in the past 12 months. The CSES-TC demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties in terms of validity, reliability, and sensitivity. This scale can be used as an instrument to measure condom use efficacy for condom promotion and intervention purposes.

Background This study aims to investigate the effects of miR-3613-3p and its underlying mechanisms on chronic hepatitis B. Methods Expressions of miR-3613-3p were determined in clinical samples from chronic hepatitis B patients and healthy volunteers. HBV-transfected hepatoma cell lines were constructed for in vitro study. HBV-infected animal model was established in vivo study. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to determine mRNA expressions. Western blotting and ELISA were used to determine protein expressions. Luciferase reporter and biotin pull-down assays were used to analyze RNA-RNA interactions. siRNA silencing was used to knockdown miR-3613-3p and CMPK1. Results MiR-3613-3p was upregulated in the chronic hepatitis B patients, as compared with healthy volunteers. Inhibition of miR-3613-3p decreased relative expressions of IFN-α and IFN-β, HBV DNA copies, and increased the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) levels, whereas miR-3613-3p overexpression reversed these changes in vitro and in vivo. MiR-3613-3p directly targeted CMPK1 and interactions between CMPK1 and miR-3613-3p regulated the anti-HBV efficiency of IFN. Conclusion MiR-3613-3p impaired IFN-induced immune response by targeting CMPK1 in chronic hepatitis B.

Ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Mey) is commonly used to treat osteoarthritis (OA) in Chinese traditional medicine (TCM). In this study, we investigated whether ginsenoside retinoblastoma 1 (Rb1), an active component of ginseng, could regulate NO production in chondrocytes and its potential mechanisms of action. SW1353 cells were stimulated with IL-1β in the presence of different concentrations of ginsenoside Rb1. NO concentration was assessed by the Griess reaction. Expression of iNOS, degradation of Ii«Bα and nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 were determined by Western blot. DNA binding activity of NF-κB complex was evaluated with Trans AM™ kit for p65. We found that ginsenoside Rb1 significantly decreased the NO production and iNOS protein expression in a concentration-dependent manner. Ginsenoside Rb1 markedly decreased the IκBα degradation and nuclear p65 levels, as well as inhibited the DNA binding activity of NF-κB complex. These results suggest that ginsenoside Rb1 inhibits IL-1β-induced NO production through downregulation of NF-κB-dependent iNOS expression in chondrocytes, and reveals potential mechanisms explaining the benefits of ginseng for OA treatment in TCM. Key words: Ginsenoside, retinoblastoma 1 (Rb1), NO, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), chondrocyte, osteoarthritis.

Tetracycline (TC), a common antibiotic, can behave as an efficient ligand with cations, but the effect of its interaction with heavy metal cations on the mobility of both species in soils has not been well evaluated. In this study, the complexation affinities of TC with Cd (II), Cu (II) and Pb (II) were examined using potentiometric titration and spectroscopic methods. The cosorption behavior of TC and metal ions onto three selected Chinese soils was evaluated using batch adsorption experiments. The presence of metal cations promoted TC adsorption through an ion bridging effect in the order Cu (II) > Pb (II) > Cd (II), which is in accordance with their complexation ability with TC. The addition of TC affects metal adsorption differently depending on the solution pH and metal type. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the complexation ability of TC and divalent metal cations when evaluating their mobility in soils.

Municipal wastewater effluents (MWWE) contain a lot of trace organic pollutants, which will be a threat to environmental health. However, little information is available for the mixed toxicity of MWWE on mammals. In the present study, male mice were exposed to MWWE for 90 days, and then, histopathology and clinical biochemistry determination and transcriptomic and metabolomic profiling were conducted. The results showed that MWWE exposure resulted in injuries in liver and kidney. Combined transcriptomic and metabolomic data demonstrated that MWWE exposure induced perturbations of metabolism, including lipid, nucleotide, amino acid, and energy metabolism. Furthermore, dysregulation of signal transduction processes were also identified based on differentially expressed genes. These results suggested that chronic exposure to MWWE could induce hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in mice and omic approaches are of practical value to evaluate the complex toxicity of MWWE.

The pristine Li 2 FeP 2 O 7 and Li 2 FeP 2 O 7 /C nanocomposites with different content of carbon have been successfully synthesized via a simple solid-state reaction, using cheap glucose as carbon source. XRD and EDS patterns demonstrate the high purity of the products. SEM images exhibit that the size of the particles is about 50–500 nm. Electrochemical measurements reveal that carbon coating and reducing particle size significantly enhance the electrochemical performances of Li 2 FeP 2 O 7 . Particularly, the Li 2 FeP 2 O 7 /C sample with a carbon content of 4.88 wt.% displays the best performance with a specific discharge capacity of 103.1 mAh g −1 at 0.1 C, which is 93.7% of its one-electron theoretical capacity, meaning 110 mAh g −1 . Meanwhile, it shows favorable cycling stability and excellent rate performance, indicating its potential applicability in Li-ion batteries in the long term.

A speech enhancement method employing sparse reconstruction of the power spectral density is proposed. The overcomplete dictionary of the power spectral density is learned by approximation K-singular value decomposition algorithm with non negative constraint. The power spectral density of clean speech signal is reconstructed by least angle regression method with a norm termination rule, and the estimation of clean speech signal in the short-time Fourier transform domain is obtained by using signal subspace approach on the basis of short-time spectral amplitude. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reconstruct structured speech signal and suppress unstructured noise significantly even in low SNR conditions.

Microarray-based transcriptomics and one-dimensional proton nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H NMR) based metabonomics approaches were employed to investigate the health effects of nitrogenous disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs) of trichloroacetamide (TCAcAm) on mice. Mice were exposed to TCAcAm at concentrations of 50, 500, and 5000 μg/L for 90 days, and hepatic transcriptome and serum metabonome and histopathological parameters were detected in comparison with those of control. TCAcAm esposures resulted in liver inflammation, weight loss (in 5000 ug/L TCAcAm group), and alterations in hepatic transcriptome and serum metabonome. Based on the differentially expressed genes and altered metabolites, several significant pathways were identified, which are associated with lipid, xenobiotics, amino acid and energy metabolism, and cell process. Moreover, integrative pathway analyses revealed that TCAcAm exposure in this study induced hepatotoxicity and cytotoxicity. These results also highlight the noninvasive prospect of transcriptomic and metabonomic approaches in evaluating the health risk of emerging N-DBPs.

Groundwater recharge and evolution in the Quaternary aquifer beneath the Dunhuang Basin was investigated using chemical indicators, stable isotopes, and radiocarbon data to provide guidance for regional water management. The quality of groundwater and surface water is generally good with low salinity and it is unpolluted. The dissolution of halite and sylvite from fine-grained sediments controls concentrations of Na+ and K+ in the groundwater, but Na+/Cl- molar ratios >1 in all samples are also indicative of weathering of feldspar contributing to excess Na+. The dissolution of carbonate minerals yields Ca2+ to the groundwater, thereby exerting a strong influence on groundwater salinity. The delta O-18 and delta H-2 values in unconfined groundwater are enriched along the groundwater flow path from SW to NE. In contrast, confined groundwater was depleted in heavy isotopes, with mean values of -10.4 parts per thousand delta O-18 and -74.4 parts per thousand delta H-2. Compared with the precipitation values, all of the groundwater samples were strongly depleted in heavy isotopes, indicating that modern direct recharge to the groundwater aquifers in the plains area is quite limited. The unconfined water is generally young with radiocarbon values of 64.9-79.6 pmc. In the northern basin, radiocarbon content in the confined groundwater is less than 15 pmc and an uncorrected age of similar to 15 ka, indicates that this groundwater was recharged during a humid climatic phases of the late Pleistocence or early Holocene. The results have important implications for inter-basin water allocation programmes and groundwater management in the Dunhuang Basin. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dissimilar joints have been widely used in many applications, especially for steam piping in the superheater and reheater of power plants. However, these dissimilar metal welds tend to fail less than half of their design life, and carbon diffusion is the main cause of the premature failure. Dissimilar joints operated at high temperature or after post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) exhibit carbon-enriched zone (CEZ) in the high alloy part and carbon-depleted zone (CDZ) in the low alloy part, causing by the chemical potential gradients across the weld interface. The carbides dissolute in the low alloy part while precipitate in the high alloy part. At the same time, a consequent of strength gradients are generated between the CEZ and CDE. The CDZ results in a loss of creep strength due to the carbides dissolution while an increase of strength due to the carbides precipitation. In this work, welding consumable of GTR-2CM was used to join P91 and 12Cr1MoV metals together. The stable phases and carbon activities of these metals are calculated by THERMO-CALC software. Carbon diffusion between P91/GTR-2CM/12Cr1MoV dissimilar joint after aging at 550 °C for varying time are predicted by employing dispersed multiphase model in DICTRA software. Volume fractions of carbides varying with distance from both sides of the weld interfaces were also investigated, showing that the formation of CDZs and CEZs is related to the dissolution and precipitation of M23C6 and M7C3 carbides. The dissolution and coarsening of M7C3 and M23C6 particles in the CDZ and CEZ were also modelled by DICTRA software. The creep properties of base metals, weld metal and the dissimilar joint were investigated at 550 °C. The stress dependence of minimum creep rate and rupture life obeyed the Norton’s power law, and the stress exponents can be used to identify the creep mechanism. Monkman-Grant (MG) relations were also used to study the creep rupture data. The simulation results of carbon diffusion can be used to study the creep properties of CDZ and CEZ for the P91/GTR-2CM/12Cr1MoV dissimilar joint. The threshold stress concept can be incorporated into the analysis of creep power law. The magnitudes of threshold stress within CEZ and CDZ can be calculated according to the volume fraction and average diameter of carbides from carbon diffusion.

To investigate the effect of different surface treatment of zirconia and to find the best way to reduce the wear of its antagonist.Twenty-five plates(5 mm×10 mm×15 mm) made of zirconia were divided into five equal groups. Group A was only ground, group B was ground and polished, group C was ground and polished then polished by prophylaxis paste, group D was ground and glazed, group E was ground, polishsed, and then reglazed. Five central incisors were embedded in autopolymerizing acrylic resin with a size of 5 mm×10 mm×15 mm as the control group F. Thirty upper premolars buccal cusps were prepared as the antagonist. Cusps were embedded in autopolymerizing acrylic resin with a shape of circular column whose diameter were 3.1 mm. The wear test was performed in the universal micro-tribotester in artificial saliva. The roughness of each group was measured with rough meter before the wear test. The volume loss of the antagonist was measured using a 3D scanner. The wear surface was observed with scanning electron microscopy to determine the wear characteristics. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance.Each group of surface roughness and mass loss of antagonist showed significant statistical difference (P0.05). Antagonist of group D showed the maximum volume loss([0.905±0.018] mm3). Antagonist of control group showed the least volume loss([0.235±0.017] mm3). Antagonist of group C showed less volume loss than antagonist of control group did([0.413±0.017] mm3). Wear type of enamel of control group and the antagonist of the groups in which the samples were polished with prophylaxis paste was fatigue wear, and the other groups showed abrasive and adhesive wear.In the surface treatment methods of zirconia, polishing is better than glazing. Ground and polishing and then polishing with prophylaxis paste can decrease the wear of the antagonist.

Microplastics have become emerging contaminants, causing widespread concern about their potential toxic effects. In this study, the uptake and tissue accumulation of polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) in zebrafish were detected, and the toxic effects in liver were investigated. The results showed that after 7 days of exposure, 5 μm diameter MPs accumulated in fish gills, liver, and gut, while 20 μm diameter MPs accumulated only in fish gills and gut. Histopathological analysis showed that both 5 μm and 70 nm PS-MPs caused inflammation and lipid accumulation in fish liver. PS-MPs also induced significantly increased activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase, indicating that oxidative stress was induced after treatment with MPs. In addition, metabolomic analysis suggested that exposure to MPs induced alterations of metabolic profiles in fish liver and disturbed the lipid and energy metabolism. These findings provide new insights into the toxic effects of MPs on fish.

Social media has been a new platform for emotion expression of individuals or groups in recent years. Millions of textual messages are constantly being generated. People with different emotion perceptions have different reactions to the same emotional event occurring in real life. However, it is hard to measure individual's emotion perception ability in both real world and social networks. This paper deals with online individual's emotion in view of complex system theory, and explores the emotion expression mechanism behind tweets. An concept of emotion bifurcation point is defined to denote the emotion perception ability and a methodological framework is proposed to measure it. Under the fundamental integration of the recognized Chinese emotion dictionaries (25,651 words included in total after reconciliation), new-born emotion words (458 in total) trained from a Sina-weibo corpus with 17 million tweets and commonly used emoticons (298 in total) as full-scale as possible, an emotion element ontology is constructed. Experimental evaluation on several certificated figures on Sina-weibo are implemented and the obtained results illustrate the reliability and validity of the proposed method.

Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography (CT) of the parotid gland for Sjogren's syndrome in comparison with conventional X-ray sialography. Methods CT scans and X-ray sialography were performed in 34 patients with confirmed Sjogren's syndrome and 22 symptomatic controls without the disease. CT data from 57 asymptomatic controls were included for quantitative analysis. The CT findings of heterogeneity, abnormal diffuse fat tissue deposition, diffuse punctate calcification, swelling or atrophy, nodularity or cystic changes of the parotid gland were analyzed by two independent blinded readers. The correlation between CT and X-ray sialography findings was evaluated. Diagnostic performance and receiver operating characteristics curves were calculated. Results On CT, heterogeneity of the parotid gland was seen in 30/31 (reader 1/reader 2) Sjogren's syndrome patients by the two readers (sensitivity 88.2%/91.2%; specificity 100%/90.9%). Abnormal diffuse fat tissue deposition was seen in 28/28 SS patients by the readers (sensitivity 82.3%/82.3%; specificity 100%/90.9%). Diffuse punctate calcification was seen in 10/12 Sjogren's syndrome patients (sensitivity 29.4%/35.2%; specificity 100%/100%). Stagings of CT findings correlate positively with sialography. The areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves were 0.887 (P = 0.000) and 0.908 (P = 0.000) for the maximum and standard deviation (SD) of the CT value. Conclusions Parotid CT is accurate and reliable in the diagnosis of Sjogren's syndrome. Heterogeneity, abnormal diffuse fat tissue deposition, and diffuse punctate calcification are specific for Sjogren's syndrome. CT attenuation analysis is helpful in diagnosis.

Based on chloride mass balance approach, we used two tracers (Cl − and NO 3 − ) to study the interstitial water in four profiles of an unsaturated dune sand. The aim was to reconstruct the recharge history and use this to infer the long-term related climate changes and vegetation transitions in a cold-arid desert region of northwestern China. The estimated recharge rate of 0.21 to 0.59 mm year − 1 represented approximately 0.2 to 0.7% of the annual precipitation in the western Badain Jaran desert. The orientation of a megadune's slopes appeared to greatly affect recharge variability. Below the near-surface peaks, the total cumulative NO 3 –N inventories ranged from 61 to 121 kg ha − 1 . The near-surface peaks in NO 3 –N, with larger NO 3 –N/Cl − molar ratios, reflected active modern N-fixation by cyanobacteria, and the nitrate enrichment deeper in the unsaturated moisture zone indicated drier periods with less vegetation, limited nitrate fixation, or a combination of the two.

The adsorption of tetracycline (TC) on a Na-montmorillonite was studied as a function of five background electrolyte cations (Li + , Na + , K + , Mg 2 + and Ca 2 + ), one transitional metal cation (Cu 2 + ) and humic acid (HA) over a pH range from 3 to 9 using batch experiments combined with XRD and FTIR measurement. Results showed that pH had great effect on the TC adsorption and acidic condition is more favored. Monovalent (Li + , Na + and K + ) and divalent (Mg 2 + , Ca 2 + and Cu 2 + ) cations showed very different effects on the TC adsorption onto montmorillonite. In the presence of monovalent cations, the adsorption edge curves were little affected by the types of cations. They presented a great decrease at pH 2 + ≫ Ca 2 + > Mg 2 + , which might be due to the capability of “bridge” effect of divalent cations. The difference of enhancing TC adsorption in the presence of Ca 2 + and Mg 2 + might be a result of different ionic radii and different interacting groups in TC molecular. XRD results showed that TC was intercalated into interlayers of montmorillonite since the interlayer expansion was observed. The band changes of amide carbonyl and amino groups in tricarbonyl methane group and the carbonyl group in phenolic deketone group in the FTIR spectra of TC equilibrated with montmorillonite confirmed that TC was adsorbed to the clay via cation exchange and surface complexation. It was also found that the effect of HA on the TC adsorption was pH-dependent and the presence of HA significantly reduced the mobility of TC in solution especially under acidic condition due to the complexation between cationic or zwitterionic TC species and the deprotonated sites on HA (mainly carboxylic groups) via electrostatic attraction. These results suggested that coexistence of divalent cations and HA would reduce TC's mobility in soil environment, especially at acidic condition.

A new carbon nanotubes modified electrode (poly-Nq-MWCNTs/GCE) was fabricated by electropolymerization of 1,2-naphththoquinone to the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified electrode by casting method. The morphology of the nanocomposite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry were applied to investigate the electrochemical properties of the poly-Nq-MWCNTs nanocomposite modified electrode. The result of electrochemical experiments showed that such modified electrode had a favorable catalytic ability to oxidation of β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). The resulted sensor was sensitiveness to NADH and achieved 95β of the steady-state current within 5s. Furthermore, the anodic peak current was linear to the concentration of NADH for the range from 1.0 μM to 0.14 mM. The linear equation was: I(μA) = 0.3987 + 0.1035c (μmol/L), the correlation coefficient r = 0.9962, the detect limit is down to 1 × 10−7 M (S/N = 3) and the sensitivity is 0.1035 μA/mmol. The well catalytic activity of the sensor was ascribed to the synergistic effect role played by MWCNTs and poly-Nq. Moreover, the based sensor possesses good stability and reproducibility.

Ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating has been used in tokamaks as one of the most successful auxiliary heating tools and has been adopted in EAST. To ensure the steady operation of the I...

Objective The aim of this study was to primarily investigate the usefulness of computerized tomographic (CT) fistulography in the diagnosis and management of branchial cleft fistulae and sinuses. Study Design Fifteen patients with confirmed branchial fistulae or sinuses who had undergone CT fistulography were included. The diagnoses were confirmed by clinical, radiologic, or histopathologic examinations. The internal openings, distribution, and neighboring relationship of the lesions presented by CT fistulography were analyzed to evaluate the usefulness in comparison with x-ray fistulography. Results Nine patients were diagnosed with first branchial fistulae or sinuses, 2 with second branchial fistulae, and 4 with third or fourth branchial fistulae. The presence and location of the lesions could be seen on x-ray fistulography. The distribution of the lesions, internal openings, and neighboring relationship with parotid gland, carotid sheath, and submandibular gland could be clearly demonstrated on CT cross-sectional or volume-rendering images. Conclusions CT fistulography could provide valuable information and benefit surgical planning by demonstrating the courses of branchial anomalies in detail.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are produced by non-enzymatic glycation or glycoxidation of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. The bond of AGEs and the receptor of AGE (AGER) in a pro-oxidant environment could induce immune and inflammation reaction involved in progress of microvascular disease. Accumulated evidence warrant further study on AGE-AGER pathway and genetic susceptibility to hypertension (HT).We designed a two-stage association study to evaluate the association of AGER polymorphism and HT. In stage 1, seven tagSNPs were tested in 524 cases and 531 controls and the significant SNPs (P0.05) would enter into stage 2 including 807 cases and 869 controls. Furthermore, joint analysis was performed for all 2731 subjects including 1331 cases and 1400 controls, and meta-analysis was applied to evaluate combined estimations from the subgroups of stage 1 and stage 2.In stage 1, rs204994 had significant association with HT (P0.05) and enter stage 2. Neither joint analysis nor meta-analysis found statistical association of rs204994 with HT after adjusted for the covariates in the whole population. However, further stratification analysis found that rs204994 was significantly associated with HT in50years and ≥50years groups, ORs (95%CI) of dominant model were 1.623 (1.054-2.500) and 0.721 (0.546-0.952) respectively. No significant correlation was found between blood pressure and the polymorphisms of rs204994.Our data suggests that age might modulate the genetic effects of variation of rs204994 in AGER on HT and further replications in other populations and functional studies should be warranted.

High radio frequency (rf) power amplifiers were designed as a part of research and development of an ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) system that aimed at long-pulse operation at the megawatt level in a frequency range of 25 to 70 MHz. A study on the high-power amplifiers for ICRF heating in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is presented. To realize the design with a compact structure, a double coaxial cavity was employed as the output circuit of the final power amplifier (FPA) for tuning and matching, and the strip line was adopted for the input impedance matching circuit of the drive power amplifier (DPA). A double-stub tuner matching network with a variable-length U-link was used to obtain the impedance matching between the DPA and the FPA. To ensure the stable operation of the amplifiers, a grounded-grid configuration was chosen, and precautions were taken to suppress all parasitic oscillations of the anode output circuit. The rf power amplifiers performed successfull...

Adsorption of tetracycline, one of the most widely used antibiotics, onto goethite was studied as a function of pH, metal cations, and humic acid (HA) over a pH range 3-10. Five background electrolyte cations (Li(+), Na(+), K(+), Ca(2+), and Mg(2+)) with a concentration of 0.01 M showed little effect on the tetracycline adsorption at the studied pH range. While the divalent heavy metal cation, Cu(2+), could significantly enhance the adsorption and higher concentration of Cu(2+), stronger adsorption was found. The results indicated that different adsorption mechanisms might be involved for the two types of cations. Background electrolyte cations hardly interfere with the interaction between tetracycline and goethite surfaces because they only form weak outer-sphere surface complexes. On the contrary, Cu(2+) could enhance the adsorption via acting as a bridge ion to form goethite-Cu(2+)-tetracycline surface complex because Cu(2+) could form strong and specific inner-sphere surface complexes. HA showed different effect on the tetracycline sorption under different pH condition. The presence of HA increased tetracycline sorption dramatically under acidic condition. Results indicated that heavy metal cations and soil organic matters have great effects on the tetracycline mobility in the soil environment and eventually affect its exposure concentration and toxicity to organisms.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a serious disorder with poor prognosis. Urotensin II (UII) has been confirmed to be powerful vasoconstrictor than endothelin-1, which may play an important role in PAH development. The aim of this study is to observe the effects of urantide, a UII receptor antagonist, on monocrotaline (MCT) induced PAH in rats. 60 male Wistar rats were divided into six groups. For early treatment experiment, rats were divided into normal control group, MCT(4w) model group (MCT + saline × 3 wks from the 8th day of MCT injection) and urantide early treatment group (MCT + urantide 10 μg/kg/d × 3 wks, 1 week after MCT injection once). For late treatment experiment, rats were divided as controls, MCT(6w) model group (MCT + saline × 2 wks, 4 weeks after MCT injection once) and urantide late treatment group (MCT + urantide 10 μg/kg/d × 2 wks, 4 weeks after MCT injection once). At the end of experiments, mean pulmonary arterial pressures (mPAP) and mean blood pressure (MBP) of rats in each group were measured by catheterization. Right ventricular weight ratio was also weighed. Relaxation effects of urantide on intralobar pulmonary arterial rings of normal control and MCT(4w) model rats were investigated. Pulmonary artery remodeling was detected by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry analysis. Serum nitric oxide (NO) levels in all six groups were assayed by ELISA kits. Urantide markedly reduced the mPAP levels of MCT induced PAH in both early and late treatment groups. It didn't change the MBP. Urantide dose-dependently relaxed the pulmonary arterial rings of normal control and MCT(4w) model rats. Moreover, N(G)-Nitro-l-arginine Methyl Ester (l-NAME) blocked the dilation response induced by urantide. In addition, urantide inhibited the pulmonary vascular remodeling remarkably. Serum NO level elevated in both early and late treatment rats with urantide infusion. These results suggest that urantide effectively alleviated MCT induced rats PAH may through relaxing pulmonary arteries and inhibiting pulmonary vascular remodeling. NO pathway might be one of the mechanisms in urantide induced pulmonary artery dilation. Thus, it is expected that urantide may be a novel therapy for PAH.

Pulsed plasma polymerization is adopted to synthesize alkaline anion-exchange membranes (AAEMs) with high contents of functional groups. The attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis demonstrate that the benzyltrimethylammonium cationic groups can be successfully introduced into the polymer matrix. The content of the quaternary nitrogen in pulsed plasma-polymerized membrane is up to 1.93 atom%. The ultra-flat and undamaged morphology structure of the AAEMs indicates a low plasma ablation effect in the pulsed plasma polymerization. The excellent properties of the pulsed plasma-polymerized AAEMs, including good adhesion to the substrate, acceptable chemical stability and thermal stability, high ion-exchange capacity (1.42 mmol g −1 ) and water uptake (59.73 wt%), interesting ionic conductivity (0.0205 S cm −1 in deionized water at 20 °C) and ethanol permeability (3.37 × 10 −11 m 2 s −1 ), suggest a great potential for application in direct alcohol fuel cells.

Background The main HIV transmission route in Hong Kong is sex, accounting for 78.0% of the total reported cases. The majority of HIV cases were identified among those 20 to 49 years of age. In this study, we explored the prevalence and factors associated with HIV testing among 18 to 49 years old residents in Hong Kong. Methods A population-based survey on sexual practice and health behavior was conducted in Hong Kong with a sample of 881 participants drawn from geospatial modeling, proportional to the district population sizes. Invitation letters were sent to selected households and interviewers were sent to recruit one subject per household. Once recruited, face-to-face interviews were carried out with a computer-assisted self-interview. The final data were weighted according to the 2011 Hong Kong census and factors identified through logistic regression. Results Among 881 participants, 81.6% reported having sex before, among whom, 19.5% (137) had ever taken HIV tests. The main reasons for the 75.5% of participants not taking HIV testing are they do not think they are at risk of HIV infection (59.1%) or think they are very healthy (29.4%). The main places for HIV testing among those tested were public hospital/clinic (39.7%), private clinic/hospital (34.7%), and another 22.0% was tested in antenatal check-up or Hong Kong Red Cross. Among the sexually experienced residents, factors associated with HIV testing include marital status and number of sexual partners. Compared with single participants, those cohabiting, married, or with marital history were about seven times more likely to be tested (aOR = 6.73, 95% CI 2.23–20.31). Those who had >1 sexual partners were about twice as likely to be tested (aOR = 1.84, 95% CI 1.05–3.25). Other factors such as condom use, sexual orientation, anal sex behaviors or sexually transmitted infections history were not associated with HIV testing. Conclusion HIV testing among Hong Kong residents is comparatively low. Though those with more than one sexual partner are more likely to be tested, those single, nonconsistent condom users, or with risky behavior such as anal sex behaviors do not associate with higher HIV testing. More HIV testing campaign and awareness raising shall be targeted toward people with at-risk behaviors. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.