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Herein, a series of Fe-Ti bimetal oxide adsorbents were prepared by reduction-co-precipitation method, and their performance in removing low concentration H2S at room temperature was investigated. The adsorbents were characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Ultraviolet Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis-DRS), X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and N2 adsorption-desorption. The results showed that the addition of Ti increased the specific surface area, pore volume and small oligomeric Fe2O3 of ferrihydrite. When the Fe/Ti molar ratio was 8:1, Fe-Ti bimetal oxide formed a large amount of oligomeric Fe2O3, and its specific surface area and pore volume reached 344.99 m2/g and 0.34 cm3/g, respectively. At this time, Fe-Ti bimetal oxide exhibited the highest breakthrough sulfur capacity of 222.8 mg/g. High temperature calcination caused Fe-Ti bimetal oxide to form small specific surface area and pore volume, and produced crystalline α-Fe2O3. And the breakthrough sulfur capacity of Fe-Ti bimetal oxide decreased with the increasing calcination temperature. In addition, the desulfurization process conformed to the unreacted shrinking nucleus model.

Clinical studies have shown that oral vitamin C supplementation can reduce serum uric acid levels in multiple populations and may also improve acute mountain sickness. However, it is unclear whether this protocol can improve high-altitude hyperuricemia. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the role of vitamin C supplementation on high-altitude hyperuricemia.A preliminary prospective control study was performed in 2015. Young male army recruits (n = 66), who had recently arrived on the Tibetan Plateau for the first time, were recruited for study I. Subjects were assigned to either the vitamin C group, who took an oral daily dose of 500 mg vitamin C for 1 month, or the blank control group, who had no intervention. The levels of serum uric acid, serum creatinine, and blood urea nitrogen were monitored at baseline and at the end of 1 month. In a second study II in 2016 (n = 120), the effect of 500 mg/d vitamin C on high-altitude hyperuricemia was compared with 75 IU/d of vitamin E.In study I, the level of serum uric acid at 1 month was significantly higher than at baseline (436.1 ± 79.3 μmol/L vs. 358.0 ± 79.8 μmol/L, p 0.001) and the prevalence of hyperuricemia was also significantly higher (63.6% [95% confidence interval, CI: 52.0%-75.2%] vs. 19.7% [95% CI: 10.1%-29.3%], p 0.001). Both the level of serum uric acid (411.5 ± 74.2 μmol/L vs. 460.8 ± 54.8 μmol/L, p = 0.003) and the prevalence of hyperuricemia (48.5% [95% CI: 31.4%-65.6%] vs. 78.8% [95% CI: 64.9%-92.7%], p = 0.020) were significantly lower in the vitamin C group than in the blank control group. In study II, the levels of serum uric acid and the frequency of hyperuricemia also increased over 1 month and were similar in the vitamin C and the vitamin E groups at both baseline and 1 month (p 0.05). The change in serum uric acid was positively correlated with both the changes in serum creatinine (r = 0.599, p 0.001) and blood urea nitrogen (r = 0.207, p = 0.005).These findings indicate that healthy young men develop an increase in serum uric acid within a month of moving from low to high altitude. Oral vitamin C supplementation can safely reduce this increase at a low cost.

This paper presents a radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based shock-sensor system. The impedance characteristics of tilt/vibration sensors incorporated in the RFID tag change when the electrodes and the internal conducting bolls inside the tilt/vibration sensors change between the short-circuit and open-circuit states. Thus, the antenna input impedance characteristics are also changed. Software was developed for the proposed system to measure the read-interval times between consecutive reads by the RFID reader, and to visualize the measurement metric in graphs. The validity of the proposed shock-sensor system was demonstrated experimentally using a cart and an obstacle placed on the floor. The shocks caused by the front and rear tires of the cart crossing the obstacle were clearly observed, confirming the validity of the proposed measurement metric.

Resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and its induced immune suppression have prevented its extensive application in the clinical treatment of breast cancer. In this study, the combined effect of 50 Hz-EMFs and 5-FU in the treatment of breast cancer was explored. MCF-7 and MCF10A cells were pre-exposed to 50 Hz-EMFs for 0, 2, 4, 8 and 12 h and then treated with different concentrations of 5-FU for 24 h; cell viability was analyzed by MTT assay and flow cytometry. After pre-exposure to 50 Hz-EMFs for 12 h, apoptosis and cell cycle distribution in MCF-7 and MCF10A cells were detected via flow cytometry and DNA synthesis was measured by EdU incorporation assay. Apoptosis-related and cell cycle-related gene and protein expression levels were monitored by qPCR and western blotting. Pre-exposure to 50 Hz-EMFs for 12 h enhanced the antiproliferative effect of 5-FU in breast cancer cell line MCF-7 in a dose-dependent manner but not in normal human breast epithelial cell line MCF10A. Exposure to 50 Hz-EMFs had no effect on apoptosis and P53 expression of MCF-7 and MCF10A cells, whereas it promoted DNA synthesis, induced entry of MCF-7 cells into the S phase of cell cycle, and upregulated the expression levels of cell cycle-related proteins Cyclin D1 and Cyclin E. Considering the pharmacological mechanisms of 5-FU in specifically disrupting DNA synthesis, this enhanced inhibitory effect might have resulted from the specific sensitivity of MCF7 cells in active S phase to 5-FU. Our findings demonstrate the enhanced cytotoxic activity of 5-FU on MCF7 cells through promoting entry into the S phase of the cell cycle via exposure to 50 Hz-EMFs, which provides a novel method of cancer treatment based on the combinatorial use of 50 Hz-EMFs and chemotherapy.