Search

Global climate change leads to simultaneous changes in multiple environmental drivers in the marine realm. Although physiological characterization of coccolithophores has been studied under climate change, there is limited knowledge on the biochemical responses of this biogeochemically important phytoplankton group to changing multiple environmental drivers. Here, we investigate the interactive effects of reduced phosphorus availability (4 to 0.4 µmol L−1), elevated pCO2 concentrations (426 to 946 µatm), and increasing light intensity (40 to 300 µmol photons m−2 s−1) on elemental content and macromolecules of the cosmopolitan coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi. Reduced phosphorus availability reduces particulate organic nitrogen (PON) and protein contents per cell under 40 µmol photons m−2 s−1 but not under 300 µmol photons m−2 s−1. Reduced phosphorus availability and elevated pCO2 concentrations act synergistically to increase particulate organic carbon (POC) and carbohydrate contents per cell under 300 µmol photons m−2 s−1 but not under 40 µmol photons m−2 s−1. Reduced phosphorus availability, elevated pCO2 concentrations, and increasing light intensity act synergistically to increase the allocation of POC to carbohydrates. Under elevated pCO2 concentrations and increasing light intensity, enhanced carbon fixation could increase carbon storage in the phosphorus-limited regions of the oceans where E. huxleyi dominates the phytoplankton assemblages. In each type of light intensity, elemental-carbon-to-phosphorus (C:P) and nitrogen-to-phosphorus (N:P) ratios decrease with increasing growth rate. These results suggest that coccolithophores could reallocate chemical elements and energy to synthesize macromolecules efficiently, which allows them to regulate their elemental content and growth rate to acclimate to changing environmental conditions.

Global climate change leads to simultaneous changes in multiple environmental drivers in the marine realm. Although physiological characterization of coccolithophores has been studied under climate change, there is limited knowledge on the biochemical responses of this biogeochemically important phytoplankton group to changing multiple environmental drivers. Here, we investigate the interactive effects of reduced phosphorus availability (4 to 0.4 µmol L−1), elevated pCO2 concentrations (426 to 946 µatm), and increasing light intensity (40 to 300 µmol photons m−2 s−1) on elemental content and macromolecules of the cosmopolitan coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi. Reduced phosphorus availability reduces particulate organic nitrogen (PON) and protein contents per cell under 40 µmol photons m−2 s−1 but not under 300 µmol photons m−2 s−1. Reduced phosphorus availability and elevated pCO2 concentrations act synergistically to increase particulate organic carbon (POC) and carbohydrate contents per cell under 300 µmol photons m−2 s−1 but not under 40 µmol photons m−2 s−1. Reduced phosphorus availability, elevated pCO2 concentrations, and increasing light intensity act synergistically to increase the allocation of POC to carbohydrates. Under elevated pCO2 concentrations and increasing light intensity, enhanced carbon fixation could increase carbon storage in the phosphorus-limited regions of the oceans where E. huxleyi dominates the phytoplankton assemblages. In each type of light intensity, elemental-carbon-to-phosphorus (C:P) and nitrogen-to-phosphorus (N:P) ratios decrease with increasing growth rate. These results suggest that coccolithophores could reallocate chemical elements and energy to synthesize macromolecules efficiently, which allows them to regulate their elemental content and growth rate to acclimate to changing environmental conditions.

In order to explore the migration rules of solutes in Nacl sand under unidirectional freezing, the humidity and solute solubility of the soil columns with different water content, density and solute concentration were determined by using calibration test and TDR technique. The results show that the migration of solute in the soil increases the rate of solute movement twice during the test, and the movement of salt is affected by the water movement.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a clinical syndrome caused by a variety of internal and external injury factors in the lung, and its morbidity and mortality have remained stubbornly high. Recent studies have shown that endothelial-derived extracellular vesicles are an important mediator of pathological signal transduction and play an important regulatory role in the occurrence, development and prognosis of ARDS. Now our paper reviewed the regulatory mechanism of endothelial-derived extracellular vesicles in ARDS.

Background: The efficacy of intravenous vitamin C among sepsis patients is uncertain according to recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin C application in adults with sepsis.Methods: We performed a systematic literature search in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and the Cochrane Library. Eligible studies were RCTs that investigated the application of intravenous vitamin C in adult patients with sepsis. We assessed the risk of bias of the included studies using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the certainty of evidence according to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, for each outcome.Results: Fourteen trials involving a total of 1823 patients were included. We found that there was no significant effect of vitamin C on 28-day mortality [risk ratio (RR) 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73 to 1.04, p = 0.12, TSA-adjusted CI 0.70 to 1.08, low quality evidence], but among patients who were treated with vitamin C monotherapy instead of combination therapy, the mortality was reduced (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.88, p = 0.004). Vitamin C was associated with a significant improvement of 72-h ΔSOFA score (SMD = 0.20, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.32, p = 0.002, I2=11%, moderate quality evidence).Conclusions: In this meta-analysis of patients with sepsis, the use of vitamin C was not associated with reduction in 28-day mortality, but vitamin C may have a positive effect in improving organ function. As the certainty of evidence was low, Larger RCTs were needed.

To determine and evaluate the value of shadowing and the twinkling artifact (TA) for the diagnosis of ureteral stones.Related ultrasound images from 117 patients with suspected ureteral stones were consecutively collected with optimized machine settings, confirmed by computed tomography and then retrospectively reviewed by 12 physicians who were classified into 3 groups according to their experience levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. The shadowing/TA grades were separately evaluated by all the participating physicians in a blinded manner, and the consistency was verified using Kendall's coefficient of concordance (Kendall's W). Furthermore, the diagnostic performance was compared among the groups stratified by physicians' clinical experience levels and ureteral stone sizes.Using shadowing/TA as indicators for ureteral stones, Kendall's W for the TA evaluation was higher than that for shadowing among all the participating physicians and subgroups (P.05). Furthermore, with no difference in specificity at 100%, the sensitivity of the isolated TA was superior to that of shadowing in groups stratified by the physicians' clinical experience levels and stone sizes, respectively (P.05). However, for the respective comparisons of shadowing and the TA among groups stratified by stone sizes, as ureteral stones became larger, the detection sensitivities all significantly increased (P ≤.001).Among physicians, subjective evaluation of the TA is more consistent and has better diagnostic sensitivity than that of shadowing for the diagnosis of ureteral stones, and the stone size may play an important role in the detection sensitivity of these 2 indicators.

To investigate the effect of the completion time of initial 30 mL/kg fluid resuscitation on the prognosis of patients with septic shock.An observational study was conducted. The inpatients with septic shock admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University and Jiangdu People's Hospital from October 1st, 2018 to September 30th, 2020 were enrolled. The general data including gender, age, body mass index (BMI), patient source, site of infection, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score and arterial blood lactic acid (Lac) at ICU admission, fluid resuscitation dose, completion time of initial 30 mL/kg fluid resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI), continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), length of ICU stay and 28-day mortality. The relationship between the completion time of initial 30 mL/kg fluid resuscitation and ΔSOFA score (the difference between SOFA score 3 hours of fluid resuscitation and initial SOFA score) was analyzed. In addition, according to the completion time (T) of initial 30 mL/kg fluid resuscitation, the patients were divided into T ≤ 1 hour group, 1 hourT ≤ 2 hours group, 2 hoursT ≤ 3 hours group and T3 hours group, and the observation parameters among the groups were compared.(1) A total of 131 patients were enrolled, including 94 males and 37 females with an average age of (68.3±15.0) years old. The median APACHE II score was 27 (21, 34), the median of initial SOFA score was 12 (10, 14), the median of initial Lac was 5.0 (3.4, 7.1) mmol/L, and the most common source of infection was lung, with a total of 87 patients (66.41%). The completion time of initial 30 mL/kg fluid resuscitation and ΔSOFA score fitted the Logistic curve (Y = -1.062 6XCompletion of initial 30 mL/kg fluid resuscitation in 1-2 hours after septic shock may reduce the 28-day mortality and improve organ dysfunction, and initial fluid resuscitation prematurely or too late may increase 28-day mortality. But further research and verification are needed.

Objective: It is still debated whether sepsis patients with high CVP (central venous pressure) benefit from it. We performed a retrospective study of sepsis patients with CVP ≥ 12 mmHg to analyze mortality resulting from the different amounts of fluid administered in the fluid therapy at the first 6, 24, and 48 h of the course.Methods: This study included sepsis patients from the eICU database who met the sepsis-3 diagnostic criteria and showed CVP ≥ 12 mmHg on admission. We analyzed the differences between the survivors and the non-survivors at baseline and the difference in fluid balance at 6, 24, and 48 h. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) and logistic regression model were used to identify the association between fluid balance and mortality.Results: Out of the 1150 sepsis patients that showed a high CVP obtained from the eICU database, 847 were survivors and 303 were non-survivors. Compared to survivors, non-survivors had a larger positive fluid balance at 6, 24, and 48 h. The fluid balance and mortality in sepsis patients with high CVP showed an inverted U-type relationship. At 6 h, lower mortality was found in patients who required less than -5 ml/kg fluid therapy. At 24 h, mortality was the lowest at -40~-20 ml/kg. At 48 h, low mortality was observed in patients with < -40 ml/kg fluid balance. In septic shock patients with high CVP, positive balance decrease mortality. In sepsis patients with high CVP without a history of chronic heart failure, and with a history of heart failure negative fluid balance can decrease mortality.Conclusion: In the sepsis group without shock, achieving negative fluid balance possible may significantly improve the prognosis of patients with high CVP, and patients with no history of chronic heart failure and patients with history of chronic heart failure should limit fluid infusion. In patients with septic shock whose CVP ≥ 12 mmHg, positive fluid balance may decrease mortality.

Teachable Machine (teachablemachine.withgoogle.com) is a web-based GUI tool for creating custom machine learning classification models without specialized technical expertise. (Machine learning, or ML, lets systems learn to analyze data without being explicitly programmed.) We created it to help students, teachers, designers, and others learn about ML by creating and using their own classification models. Its broad uptake suggests it has empowered people to learn, teach, and explore ML concepts: People have created curriculum, tutorials, and other resources using Teachable Machine on topics like AI ethics at institutions including the Stanford d.school, NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the MIT Media Lab, as well as creative experiments. Users in 201 countries have created over 125,000 classification models. Here we outline the project and its key contributions of (1) a flexible, approachable interface for ML classification models without ML or coding expertise, (2) a set of technical and design decisions that can inform future interactive machine learning tools, and (3) an example of how structured learning content surrounding the tool supports people accessing ML concepts.

Laminar structure membranes assembled with two-dimensional materials, such as graphene oxide (GO), have attracted wide attention from researchers in waste water treatment. However, it is still a challenge to obtain high-performance membranes by precisely controlling the channel of water permeation. In this work, a series of GO nanosheets and silica (SiO2) nanoparticles were employed to adjust the channel microstructure of GO/SiO2 composite nanofiltration membranes. In general, the use of small-size GO nanosheets in the composite membrane could short the length of the transverse channels between the GO nanosheets and increase the amount of the longitudinal pores among the GO nanosheet edges, thus largely enhancing the water flux of the composite membrane. The addition of small-size SiO2 nanoparticles in the composite membrane could help to form a continuous transverse channel of water permeation, and also greatly raise the water flux. The results showed that the composite membrane prepared with GO (1.2 μm) and SiO2 nanoparticle (25 nm, 30 wt% of the GO mass), had the best performance, the pure water flux was 72.8 L m−2 h−1, and the rejection rate for the dyes was>99.4 %. After being recycled for 8 times, the rejection rate for the dyes was still as high as 97.5%. This work showed that controlling the size of nanosheets and nanoparticles could effectively adjust the channel microstructure of the composite membranes, which was very important for the membrane performance.

Electrochemical atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM), a branch of a scanning probe microscopy (SPM), can image substrate topography with high resolution. Since its inception, it was extended to a wide range of research areas through continuous improvement. The presence of an electrolytic cell and a potentiostat makes it possible to observe the topographical changes of the sample surface in real time. EC-AFM is used in in situ corrosion research because the samples are not required to be electrically conductive. It is widely used in passive film properties, surface dissolution, early-stage corrosion initiation, inhibitor efficiency, and many other branches of corrosion science. This review provides the research progress of EC-AFM and summarizes the extensive applications and investigations using EC-AFM in corrosion science.

Additional file 14: Table S2. The risk of bias of included RCTs

Background: Few studies have addressed whether abnormalities in the lenticular nucleus (LN) are characteristic transcranial sonography (TCS) echo features in patients with primary dystonia. This study aimed to explore alterations in the basal ganglia in different forms of primary focal dystonia. Methods: cross-sectional observational study was performed between December 2013 and December 2014 in 80 patients with different forms of primary focal dystonia and 55 neurologically normal control subjects. TCS was performed in patients and control subjects. Multiple comparisons of multiple rates were used to compare LN hyperechogenicity ratios between control and patient groups. Results: Thirteen individuals were excluded due to poor temporal bone windows, and two subjects were excluded due to disagreement in evaluation by sonologists. Totally, 70 patients (cervical dystonia, n = 30; blepharospasm, n = 30; oromandibular dystonia, n = 10) and 50 normal controls were included in the final analysis. LN hyperechogenicity was observed in 51% (36/70) of patients with primary focal dystonia, compared with 12% (6/50) of controls (P < 0.001). Substantia nigra hyperechogenicity did not differ between the two groups. LN hyperechogenicity was observed in 73% (22/30) of patients with cervical dystonia, a greater prevalence than in patients with blepharospasm (33%, 10/30, P = 0.002) and oromandibular dystonia (40%, 4/10, P = 0.126). LN hyperechogenicity was more frequently observed in patients with cervical dystonia compared with controls (73% vs. 12%, P < 0.001); however, no significant difference was detected in patients with blepharospasm (33% vs. 12%, P = 0.021) or oromandibular dystonia (40% vs. 12%, P = 0.088). Conclusions: LN hyperechogenicity is more frequently observed in patients with primary focal dystonia than in controls. It does not appear to be a characteristic TCS echo feature in patients with blepharospasm or oromandibular dystonia.