Search

In this study, a functionalized Co3O4-Bi2O3-Ti catalytic membrane (CBO-Ti-M) was prepared and applied for removing organic pollutants via activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) in the dead-end filtration mode. Characterizations including scanning electron microcopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed that the Co3O4-Bi2O3 catalyst was successfully supported on the Ti membrane. The CBO-Ti-M /PMS system could efficiently remove various organic pollutants such as sulfamethoxazole, methyl orange, bisphenol A and methylene blue, achieving removal efficiencies of 98.0%-99.5%. The effects of PMS concentration, flow rate and solution environment on degradation efficiency were investigated in detail. Furthermore, quenching experiments, electron spin resonance (ESR) and in-situ open circuit potential (OCP) tests collectively demonstrated that singlet oxygen as well as the non-radical electron transfer pathway mainly contributed in the reaction mechanism. The synergistic effect of Co and Bi was illustrated according to XPS results, and the possible degradation pathway of MB was proposed based on LC-MS analysis. Reusability test showed that pollutant removal efficiency with the CBO-Ti-M /PMS system remained stable in four runs and limited metal leaching was observed.

In this study, generalized predictive models were developed to estimate KOA of four kinds of aromatic pollutants based on the calculated solvation free energy and taking the dimer effect into account. Uncorrected log KOA values, which were directly estimated from the calculated solvation free energy of individual molecules, underestimated experimental values, and the deviation increased with increasing log KOA. Dimers were found to greatly affect the apparent KOA values of these aromatic pollutants, which were driven by π-π interactions. London dispersion and exchange-repulsion terms were identified to be dominant components of the underlying π-π interactions. It is interesting to find that the π-π interactions of polybrominated diphenyl ethers correlate with not only the molecular polarizability but also the size of opposing aromatic surfaces, which leads to a different trend of π-π interactions from other aromatic pollutants. A universal quantitative structure-activity relationship model was developed to estimate the proportion of dimers based on five molecular structural descriptors relevant to the π-π interactions. After calibration with the dimer effect, estimations of log KOA were consistent with experimental values. Therefore, the dimer effect should be taken into consideration when investigating the partition behavior of aromatic pollutants, and the solvation free energy model could be an alternative method for the prediction of KOA.

Background Tumor microenvironment plays an essential role during the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Tumor infiltrating immune cells (TILs) was an important component of tumor microenvironment. However, whether TIL features are correlated with the prognosis of HCC patients remains unclear. Methods Cancer tissue and paired paracancerous tissues from 220 stage II∼III HBV-related HCC patients were collected. TILs were analyzed using a tyramide signal amplification system combined with immunohistochemistry. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was conducted to investigate the associations between the prognosis and the infiltrating pattern of TILs. Results The patients were classified into three distinct subgroups (Clusters (C)1–3) with different overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) according to the distribution pattern of TILs. The CD68/CD8 ratio in the cancer SA was correlated with the prognosis. Patients with a higher CD68/CD8 ratio exhibited poorer OS and DFS than those with a lower ratio. The CD68/CD8 ratio in the cancer SA was an independent factor for OS prediction but not DFS. Conclusion CD68+ macrophages and CD8+ T-cells are essential immunological determinants for HBV-related HCC prognosis, and the CD68/CD8 ratio in cancer SA is a novel, prognostic factor for OS prediction in HBV-related HCC patients.

The performance stability and regeneration property of catalytic membranes should be considered from a practical viewpoint. In this review, recent works concerning this issue have been comprehensively summarized. The performance stability of catalytic membranes was first summarized in terms of the two commonly employed evaluation ways, i.e., multi-cycle experiments and long-time filtration. The main deactivation reasons included the adsorption of pollutants and its oxidation intermediates, the change in chemical properties of the membranes, as well as leaching of metal species. After that, the regeneration property of the catalytic membranes was discussed according to the different regeneration methods including solvent washing, heat treatment, advanced oxidation, and others. This review further highlights the current achievements and hurdles in the performance stability and regeneration property of catalytic membranes and proposes recommendations for future works, including more attention on changes in the kinetic constant, trans-membrane pressure/flux and removals of total organic carbon/chemical oxygen demand, the selection of suitable cycle numbers and operation time, the development of new regeneration methods, as well as more studies on the pilot and larger scales.

In the present study, five magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MMWCNTs) with different diameters were prepared and their performance on the sorptive removal of methylene blue (MB) from water was investigated. Transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, and vibrating sample magnetometer confirm that the surface of these MMWCNTs has been decorated by Fe3O4 nanoparticles, which renders the MMWCNTs superparamagnetic. Thus, these MMWCNTs can be easily separated from water after the adsorption. During the adsorption process, pH slightly affected the removal efficiency of MB and the adsorption performed better under weak alkaline conditions. Adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model well, and the Dubinin-Radushkevich model fitted the isotherms best. The maximum adsorption capacity for MB reached 204.2 mg/g, and the values decreased with increasing diameters of MMWCNTs due to decreasing specific surface areas. The thermodynamics parameters indicated the spontaneous and exothermic nature of the adsorption. The reusability test showed that MMWCNTs could be used for 6 cycles without significant loss of the adsorption capacity. And common ions (K+, Na+, Ca2+ and Al3+) and SDS in water did not show greatly effects on the removal efficiency of MB. Hence, MMWCNTs prepared in this study could be promising adsorbents for dyes removal from wastewater.

Magnetic graphene oxide (MGO) was prepared and used as a catalyst to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for degradation of Coomassie brilliant blue G250 (CBB). The effects of operation conditions including MGO dosage, PMS dosage and initial concentration of CBB were studied. CBB removal could reach 99.5% under optimum conditions, and high removals of 98.4-99.9% were also achieved for other organic dyes with varied structures, verifying the high efficiency and wide applicability of the MGO/PMS catalytic system. The effects of environmental factors including solution pH, inorganic ions and water matrices were also investigated. Reusability test showed that CBB removals maintained above 90% in five consecutive runs, indicating the acceptable recyclability of MGO. Based on quenching experiments, solvent exchange (H

Purpose To characterize plasma cell‐free cancer genome chromosomal instabilities (CIN) in patients with liver cancer and to evaluate the potential of CIN as minimally invasive biomarkers for primary liver cancer (PLC) diagnoses. Experimental Design We collected 196 plasma samples from 172 individuals in two cohorts, a discovery cohort of surgery ineligible PLC patients and a validation cohort of hepatectomy patients with pathological disease confirmations. All samples were subjected to HiSeq X10 sequencing followed by a customized bioinformatics workflow Ultrasensitive Chromosome Aneuploidy Detection (UCAD). Results In the discovery cohort, 29 significant copy number changes were identified in plasma from surgery‐ineligible PLC. Twenty‐two (95.7%) surgery‐ineligible liver cancers were identified as harboring copy number changes in at least 1 of 29 segments. Meanwhile 40/41 (97.6%) noncancers harbored no changes. In the validation cohort, 54 (69.4%) surgery‐eligible liver cancers were identified with positive screening, all of which were subsequently confirmed as cancer by pathological examination. Moreover, 26/27 = 96.3% noncancers were identified with negative screening. UCAD‐positive screening was significantly associated with microvascular invasion (OR > 10, 95% CI:[2.53,]), tumor stages B and C (OR = 8.59, 95% CI [1.07, 400]), and tumor size ≥ 3 cm (OR = 5.68, 95% CI [1.43, 28.1]). Furthermore, we collected 29 followed‐up plasma samples from 19 postsurgery patients. Nine (31.0%) postsurgery samples from 6 (31.5%) patients were identified with positive screening. Among them, 3 patients (50.0%) with positive screening were then confirmed as having disease recurrences. Conclusions In addition to AFP, plasma cell‐free DNA sequencing is a useful tool for primary liver cancer diagnoses., In addition to AFP, plasma cell‐free DNA sequencing is a useful tool for primary liver cancer diagnoses.

Once released into natural water, the environmental behavior and fate of C60 could inevitably been affected by humic acid (HA), sunlight, and hydrodynamic conditions. However, the combined effects of these factors are not so clear. Therefore, in the present study, effects of HA, sunlight, and agitation intensity on generation and properties of aqu/nC60 were investigated. The results indicated that HA could increase the concentration of aqu/nC60 mainly through the steric hindrance effect. The higher agitation intensity led to higher concentrations of aqu/nC60 and more efficient steric stabilization was formed by HA. Sunlight irradiation promoted the surface oxidization and consequently enhanced the dispersion of C60. The relative order of the influence on the UV/vis concentration was sunlight > agitation intensity > HA. In addition, HA might not always enhance the dispersion of aqu/nC60 due to light screening/ROS scavenging, over-coating, or chain-like bridging mechanism. Therefore, evaluating the environmental behavior and fate of C60 should take these factors into account together.

In this study, a Ti

China’s exports of architectural designs to numerous countries in Asia and Africa during the Mao era generated significant tensions regarding the necessary geographical knowledge. As many of these countries are situated in tropical regions, understanding and responding to the unique hot, humid or dry climate conditions was crucial for successful transnational architectural production. This article situates the practical knowledge generation process within a complex process of political, institutional, individual, and intellectual interactions, examining the role of Chinese architects and technocrats in constructing geographical and architectural imaginations for China-aided projects built in Africa. Specifically, in this article, two case studies of assembly buildings erected in Guinea (1967) and Sudan (1976) are presented to demonstrate Chinese efforts to address the climatic, cultural, and practical requirements of architectural aid. Through political negotiation, personal observation, onsite visits, media publication, and scholarly exchange, Chinese professionals constructed geographical and architectural imaginations in Africa, creating modernist architecture that retained a particular sense of place and time, thereby reflecting continuity and transformation of their domestic work. These subjective imaginations were shaped by the combination of economic rationality and technical expertise, manifested in the selection of appropriate site, climate responsive designs, materials, technologies, cultural articulations, and economic considerations. The aided buildings, as embodiment of the Chinese professionals’ geographical and architectural imaginations not only displayed a critical process of knowledge production situated within the physical, material world in the tropics, but also served as China’s political engagement with Guinea and Sudan that aimed to interrogate existing structure of international order.

Emerging per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and traditional organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the marginal seas of China were analyzed to study the occurrence, transport and phase partitioning. The influence of organic carbon (OC) and element carbon (EC) on particulate emerging pollutants in seawater was studied for the first time. The concentrations of PFASs, OCPs and PAHs in the seawater (dissolved phase plus particulate phase) ranged from 1.4 to 8.6, 0.76 to 4.3 and 8.4 to 130 ng L

A series of Fe

Environmental waters cover a range of water quality characteristics which could greatly affect the behavior and fate of C60 in the aquatic environment. In this study, the dispersion and stability of C60 in several environmental water matrices during a 70-day extended mixing period were investigated to better understand its environmental behavior and fate in environmental waters. Relatively stable nanoscale aggregates in water (aqu/nC60) could be formed in wastewater influent, while unstable suspensions were obtained in river water, wastewater effluent, seawater, and estuarine water. During the extended mixing under sunlight, oxygen-containing moieties were produced on the surface of the C60 aggregates, independent of the kind of environmental water matrices. Once the mixed system went under quiescent condition, aggregation and sedimentation of aqu/nC60 occurred. However, an extremely short-time disturbance could easily resuspend the C60 aggregates deposited and increase the concentration of aqu/nC60 in the overlying water column. Therefore, the effects of resuspension should be considered when investigating the environmental behavior and fate of C60.

Almost every architecture school in China has its own university-run design institute, which functions as a platform for academics and students to engage with architectural practice.1 Design institutes play an active role in advancing, producing, and sharing architectural knowledge.2 Academic-architects, in the context of design institutes, tend to embed themselves within a complex academic-professional network, simultaneously engaging with scholarly inquiry, training young professionals and transforming cultural assets into capital in the market.3 It is the unique position of such educator-practitioners that has distinguished the work of university-run design institutes from that of numerous other state-backed design institutes.

In this study, a functionalized Co

Through glass vias on a high-quality borosilicate glass wafer (i.e., BOROFLOAT® 33) of $500\ \mu \mathrm{m}$ in thickness were accomplished in 49% HF solution using an AZ4620 enhanced Cr/Au mask, without pin holes or defects on the surface. Here, the dehydrated AZ4620 photoresist film plays an important in etching process, which not only enhances the Cr/Au masks by filling micro cracks on them, but also resists the etchant as the first barrier for a longer etching time (e.g., 150 min for $6\ \mu \mathrm{m}$ thick AZ4620 photoresist in 49% HF solution). No peeling off of AZ4620 photoresist film occurs due to its excellent adhesive properties to Au film. The etching rate of borosilicate glass wafer in depth, which is found to be significantly affected by the dimension of masks, decreases with increasing etching time due to the deposition of etching products. The undercut etching rate of glass wafers can be twice of that in depth, resulting in an inclination of the side wall of the vias (or cavities), which ranges from 45° to 50° and is found to be slightly depended on the quality of the masks, the adhesive strength between the interface, for example.

In addition to China’s state-owned ones, university-run design institutes are unique phenomenon in China’s building industry. This chapter is intended to examine the role of academic-architects in Chinese universities and their affiliated design institutes. The university-run design institutes were mobilized by the ideal of integrating research, production and teaching, which has long been emphasized for all academic institutions by the Chinese central government. Design institutes run by the universities excel in the society by their mental input from the faculty of design profession. Most significant architectural works and events are closely associated with the academic-architects and their university-run design institutes. Tongji University possesses a top architectural school in China. This chapter uses Tongji as a typical case to delineate the emergence, growth, achievements and challenges of university-run design institutes. The model of running architectural education and production in China may inspire the other educational institutions in the world.

Background: Conventional strategies for assessing clinical and pathological risk factors have been adopted to predict clinical outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We hypothesized that an ensemble learning approach that incorporates multidimensional features would enable the construction of an effective prediction model for patient-specific risk profiles. Methods: We analyzed data from 222 stage II-III HCC patients who underwent surgical resection at Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital (Shanghai, China). We developed five machine learning-based estimation models for patient overall survival. The models were trained on 155 patients with 48 features (included clinical and pathological risk factors, laboratory tests and in situ immunological profiles), and validated on the remaining 67 patients. Findings: A risk scoring system incorporating multiple machine learning methods was developed for survival prediction. For all models tested, immune features such as CD68+ and CD8+ immune cell infiltration played a crucial role in predicting patient overall survival. The risk scoring system stratified patients into high-risk and low-risk subgroups (validation cohort: HR, 6.5; 95% CI, 2.4-18; p = 3.4e-05). In the validation set, the scoring system predicted the half-year mortality of patients with an AUC of 0.9 (95% CI, 0.771-1.029) and 1-year mortality with an AUC of 0.897 (95% CI, 0.816-0.978). The system was also predictive of the time to recurrence (p

This study aims to evaluate the subacute toxic effects of oil under different treatments on marine organism by simulating natural contaminative processes. In this study, 120# (RMD15) fuel oil was selected as the pollutant and marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) embryos as the experimental organism. The developmental toxicity of different volume concentrations (0.05%, 0.2%, 1% and 5%) of water-accommodated fractions, biologicallyenhanced water-accommodated fractions, and chemically-enhanced water-accommodated fractions on the embryos in different exposure time (8, 15 and 22 d) were compared and the content of relevant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was studied (in dispersion and in vivo). The subacute toxic effects were assessed in terms of antioxidant activities of enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione S-transferase) and the blue sac disease (BSD) indexes.The results showed that the BSD indexes of the treatment groups were significantly higher than the respective control groups and showed positive correlations with both concentration and exposure time. The experiments with three antioxidant enzymes indicated that enzymatic activities of the embryos changed dramatically under the oxidation stress of petroleum hydrocarbons, especially after adding the dispersants. With the increase of petroleum hydrocarbon concentration and exposure time, the three enzymes showed different degrees of induction and inhibition effects.

The present study investigated the toxic effects of parental (maternal/paternal) exposure to heavy fuel oil (HFO) on the adult reproductive state, gamete quality and development of the offspring of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius. Adult sea urchins were exposed to effluents from HFO-oiled gravel columns for 7 days to simulate an oil-contaminated gravel shore, and then gametes of adult sea urchins were used to produce embryos to determine developmental toxicity. For adult sea urchins, no significant difference in the somatic size and weight was found between the various oil loadings tested, while the gonad weight and gonad index were significantly decreased at higher oil loadings. The spawning ability of adults and fecundity of females significantly decreased. For gametes, no effect was observed on the egg size and fertilization success in any of the groups. However, a significant increase in the percentage of anomalies in the offspring was observed and then quantified by an integrative toxicity index (ITI) at 24 and 48 h post fertilization. The offspring from exposed parents showed higher ITI values with more malformed embryos. The results confirmed that parental exposure to HFO can cause adverse effects on the offspring and consequently affect the recruitment and population maintenance of sea urchins.

In the present study, the thermodynamic relationship between log KOW and the solvation free energy from water to octanol (ΔGOW) was employed to estimate log KOW of PCBs. HF/MIDI!6D was identified to be the optimal calculation level for both the geometry optimization and energy calculation. Based on the optimal calculation level, ΔGOW values were calculated and used to estimate the log KOW values of PCBs. It was found that the intermolecular interactions of PCBs in the aqueous phase and octanol phase were similar, resulting in different effects of the dimer on the estimation of log KOW of PCBs from that on log KOA of PCBs. Compared with other reported models, the ΔGOW model had comparable goodness-of-fit and predictive ability, and a more universal application domain. Therefore, the solvation free energy method could be a promising method for the prediction of KOW.

Aggregation of C

Once released into natural water, the environmental behavior and fate of C

This paper presents experimental investigations on temperature drifts of the floating element wall shear stress sensor with capacitive sensing. A temperature-controllable wind tunnel setup with a temperature range from 16°C (room temperature) to 35 °C is built for calibrating the sensor under different temperatures. According to the results, static sensitivity of the sensor increases from 2.36mV/Pa at 16°C to 2.68mV/Pa at 35°C due to structural thermal expansions. However, temperature-induced variations of the sensor’s output decrease from 22mV at zero position to 3mV at an airflow of 0.65Ma, with respect to a temperature difference of 19°C. The results indicate that the sensor is more sensitive to temperature variations at lower wall shear stress levels.

The present study investigated the developmental toxicity of water-accommodated fractions (WAFs) of Oman crude oil (OCO) and Merey crude oil (MCO) on zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) in early-life stages (ELS). Based on total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), LC 50 values manifested that OCO WAF was 1.2-fold more lethal to zebrafish embryos than MCO WAF. As for hatching rate, EC 50 value for OCO WAF was 5.7-fold lower than that for MCO WAF. To evaluate the sublethal morphological effects, semi-quantitative extended general morphological score (GMS) and general teratogenic score (GTS) systems were adopted. The GMS and GTS scores indicated that the WAFs caused remarkable developmental delay and high frequencies of malformation in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, OCO and MCO WAFs exposure exhibited severe bradycardia (reduced heart rate) and overt reduction of stroke volume, with a concomitant decrease in the cardiac output. Meanwhile, the WAFs also induced dose-dependent down-regulated expressions of several key functional genes of excitation-contraction coupling in cardiomyocytes, including ryr2 , atp2a2a , atp2a2b , ncx1h , and kcnh2 . For key gene markers of swim bladder development, results showed that high dose of TPH induced significant down-regulation of hb9 and anxa5 with no obvious change of acta2 , suggesting that the WAFs could affect the specification and development of epithelium and outer mesothelium of swim bladder in zebrafish ELS. A strong negative relationship between the failure of swim bladder inflation and cardiac dysfunction via cardiac output was found. All these findings provide novel insights into the complicated mechanisms of the developmental toxicity of crude oil on fish in ELS.