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In order to better describe the pressure-sinkage process of deep-sea surface sediments, this article proposes a new four-element model. First, the pressure-sinkage process was divided into four components according to the change in the deep-sea sediment sinkage rate, and the time-dependent mechanical property of deep-sea sediments was described. Then, a new four-element pressure-sinkage model was established by introducing variable-order fractional derivatives into the modelling idea of classic element combination to describe the full pressure-sinkage regions of deep-sea sediments. Furthermore, by comparing with the experimental results from other literature, the proposed model was verified to predict the pressure-sinkage process of deep-sea sediments under static and dynamic loads. Finally, through a sensitivity analysis of model parameters, the effects of ground pressure and time on the law and mechanism of deep-sea sediment pressure sinkage were revealed. Results indicate that the deep-sea sediment pressure-sinkage process has obvious nonlinear characteristics and that the sinkage depth increases directly with ground-specific pressure and time. Through comparative analysis of both experimental and predicted results, the proposed pressure-sinkage constitutive model can describe the stress-strain of the full stages. Thus, the variable order model represents an effective method to predict the pressure-sinkage process of deep-sea sediments.

A dielectrophoresis (DEP) method for direct capture and fast removal of Anabaena was established in this work. The factors affecting the removal efficiency of Anabaena were investigated systematically, leading to optimized experimental conditions and improved DEP process equipment. The experimental results showed that our improved DEP method could directly capture Anabaena in eutrophic water with much enhanced removal efficiency of Anabaena from high-concentration algal bloom-eutrophication-simulated solution. The removal rate could increase by more than 20% after applying DEP at 15 V compared with a pure filtration process. Moreover, the removal rate could increase from 38.76% to 80.18% in optimized experimental conditions (the initial concentration of 615 μg/L, a flow rate of 0.168 L/h, an AC voltage of 15 V, and frequency of 100 kHz). Optical microscopic images showed that the structure of the captured algae cells was intact, indicating that the DEP method could avoid the secondary pollution caused by the addition of reagents and the release of phycotoxins, providing a new practical method for emergent treatment of water bloom outbreaks.

In our work, the transition-metal-oxide precursor (TMO@BC, M = Fe, Co, Ni) has been loaded on the pollen carbon by the hydrothermal method and annealed at different temperatures to generate a composite material of metal oxide and pollen carbon in this study, which can effectively prevent agglomeration caused by a small size and magnetism. The XRD patterns of the samples showed that the as-synthesized metal oxides were γ-Fe2O3, CoO, and NiO. In the 20 mg/L methyl orange adsorption experiment, the adsorption amount of CoO@C at 500 ℃ reached 19.32 mg/g and the removal rate was 96.61%. Therefore, CoO@C was selected for the adsorption correlation-model-fitting analysis, which was in line with the secondary reaction. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2: 0.9683–0.9964), the intraparticle diffusion model, and the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model indicated that the adsorption process was the result of both physical and chemical adsorptions, and the judgment was based on the electrostatic action. The adsorption and removal efficiency of ciprofloxacin (CIP) by changing the pH of the reaction was about 80%, so the electrostatic attraction worked, but not the main factor. Recovered by an external magnetic field, the three-time recycling efficiency was still maintained at more than 80%. This novel biomass-derived magnetic porous carbon material embedded with transition-metal-oxide nanoparticles is highly promising for many applications, especially in the field of environmental remediation.

The global, regional, and national burden of psoriasis was investigated based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.To report the incidence of psoriasis in 204 countries and territories from 21 regions according to age, sex, region, country, and socialdemographic index (SDI) between 1990 and 2019.Estimates from the GBD 2019 study were used to analyse the incidence of psoriasis at the global, regional, and national levels. The estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs) in the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) were calculated to quantify trends between 1990 and 2019.From 1990 to 2019, the global incidence of psoriasis increased by 26.53%, but the ASIR of psoriasis decreased, with an EAPC of -0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.78 to -0.76). In 2019, the highest ASIRs of psoriasis (112.58 per 100,000 population; 95% uncertainty interval, 108.89 to 116.07) were observed in high-SDI regions. The male-to-female ratio for psoriasis incidence peaked globally in the 50-54-year-old age group and peaked in the 75-79-year-old age group in high-SDI regions. Regionally, Central Sub-Saharan Africa (EAPC, -0.57; 95% CI: -0.67 to -0.48) and Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa (EAPC, -0.36; 95% CI, -0.38 to -0.34) had the largest decrease in ASIR of psoriasis from 1990 to 2019. Nationally, increases in the ASIR of psoriasis was observed only in Japan (EAPC, 0.04; 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.05).Globally, the incidence of psoriasis showed an increasing trend, but the ASIR of psoriasis decreased significantly from 1990 to 2019. Only Japan showed an unfavourable increasing trend.

Electrochemical oxidation of landfill leachate after biological treatment by a novel electrochemical system, which was constructed by introducing a corroding electrode of iron (Fec) between a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode and carbon felt (CF) cathode (named as BDD–Fec–CF), was investigated in the present study. Response surface methodology (RSM) with Box–Behnken (BBD) statistical experiment design was applied to optimize the experimental conditions. Effects of variables including current density, electrolytic time and pH on chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) removal efficiency were analyzed. Results showed that electrolytic time was more important than current density and pH for both COD and NH3-N degradation. Based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) under the optimum conditions (current density of 25 mA·cm−2, electrolytic time of 9 h and pH of 11), the removal efficiencies for COD and NH3-N were 81.3% and 99.8%, respectively. In the BDD–Fec–CF system, organic pollutants were oxidized by electrochemical and Fenton oxidation under acidic conditions. Under alkaline conditions, coagulation by Fe(OH)3 and oxidation by Fe(VI) have great contribution on organic compounds degradation. What is more, species of organic compounds before and after electrochemical treatment were analyzed by GC–MS, with 56 kinds components detected before treatment and only 16 kinds left after treatment. These results demonstrated that electrochemical oxidation by the BDD–Fec–CF system has great potential for the advanced treatment of landfill leachate.

The removal of excessive amounts of nitrate and phosphate from water sources, especially agricultural wastewater, has been of high significance to control eutrophication in aquatic systems. Here, a new method is reported for the removal of nitrate and phosphate simultaneously from wastewater based on the combination of the solution-phased adsorption (ADS) and dielectrophoresis (DEP) techniques. The plant ash was first selected as the adsorbent by screening tests, followed by a systematic investigation of using the adsorbent to remove nitrate and phosphate from wastewater under various experimental conditions, including the testing of adsorbent dosage, pretreatment time, water flow rate, and electrode voltage. The analysis of the adsorbent particles was also performed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) test, and the measurement of Zeta potentials. Compared with the ADS method alone, the introduction of DEP into the purification process has greatly increased the removal rate by 66.06% for nitrate and 43.04% for phosphate, respectively. In the meantime, it is observed that the processing time has been greatly reduced by 92% with the assistance of DEP.

Metal pollution has raised negative impact on microbes, but little is known about the distribution and co-occurrence pattern of bacterial, fungal and archaeal communities along the soil profiles at multiple metal contamination sites. Here, we characterized the variations of metal concentrations and microbial communities with soil depth along five deep bores at the Tanghe Sewage Reservoir, a typical metal contamination area on the North China Plain. Co, Cd, Mg, Se, and Li were identified as the major contaminants in this area, and the pollution load index was 1.88, 1.54 and 1.62 in the shallow layer (0-0.6 m), deep layer (2.0 m) and middle layer (0.6-2.0 m), respectively. The diversities and compositions of bacterial, archaeal and fungal communities varied significantly along the soil profiles. Deterministic process played a crucial role in shaping the difference of microbial community compositions among different soil layers, in which metal levels contributed more than soil physiochemical parameters. Furthermore, the interspecific co-occurrence network was most complex in the middle layer, indicating that metal pollution could decrease microbial network complexity. Bacterial keystone species in the co-occurrence networks showed both positive and negative correlations with polluted metals, whereas most archaeal and fungal keystone species were negatively related to multiple metals. These finding increased our understanding of distribution patterns, co-occurrence networks and environmental drivers of microbial communities in metal pollution soils.

Climate, land use and human activity have an impact on the Qingshui River in Chongli County. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to separately analyze the contributions of climate, land use and direct human activity on the discharge variations. The results indicated that human activity had been the dominant factor for the discharge decrease, while climate and land use change had a positive influence on the discharge increase. The contributions of these three factors were −56.24%, 38.59% and 5.17%, respectively. Moreover, on the seasonal scale, the impact of those factors was consistent with their impact on the annual scale. Human activity was the main factor for discharge decrease in the summer, the contribution accounting for −77.13%. Due to the over-extraction of groundwater for irrigation and use in the mining industry, the discharge showed a decreasing tendency, which has the potential to place stress on sustainable water use in the future. The result of the study may contribute to the optimization of water resource allocation and management.

In the exploration of deep-sea nodule mineral resources, computer vision-based methods have been widely used to assess nodule mineral resources, such as abundance, particle size, coverage and other information. Among them, the separation of nodule minerals from the background is an important part of deep-sea mineral resource assessment. Threshold segmentation, clustering segmentation, multispectral segmentation and other traditional segmentation methods need to rebuild the model from scratch once the distribution of feature space changes. However, the data-driven deep learning method provides a general framework to solve this problem, which has strong generalization and robustness. In order to improve the segmentation performance, a novel deep sea nodule mineral images segmentation algorithm based on Mask R-CNN was proposed. The comparative analysis is also processed on some other different deep learning methods, such as U-Net, and the Generative Adversarial Network. The experimental results show that, the method based on Mask R-CNN is better than the method based on U-Net, improced U-Net and Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks on the dataset.

Three-dimensional (3D) titania (TiO2) hollow spheres doped with rare earth elements were successfully synthesized via a nonhydrolytic sol-gel method using lotus pollen as a biotemplate and a cationic surfactant as a co-template. The as-prepared samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, photodegradation tests, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The results indicate that the 3D TiO2 hollow spheres have a structure similar to that of lotus pollen. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface areas of 3D TiO2 and 3D Gd-La–co-doped TiO2 are 94.90 and 88.62 m2g-1, respectively, which are higher than for a commercial TiO2 sample (P25). In addition, 3D TiO2 in combination with rare earth element co-doping can extend light absorption to the visible region and enhance photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange under simulated solar irradiation as compared with P25 and pristine 3D TiO2. The superior photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the higher specific surface areas and the doping with rare earth elements.

The surface morphology, particle size and crystal structure have a great impact on the performance of materials. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a method for the controllable synthesis of materials. In this study, three-dimensional TiO2 nanotube arrays (3D-TNAs) formed by electrochemical anodization over Ti meshes have been prepared. The TiO2 nanotubes are oriented in all directions, and could harvest the incident light from any direction. 3D TiO2 nanotube arrays decorated by TiO2 nanoparticles (3D-TNAs/TiO2) were successfully prepared by a combined dielectrophoresis (DEP)/sol–gel process. This method greatly shortens the time required for 3D-TNAs/TiO2 preparation while increasing the density of electrode materials and particle size uniformity. Experimental results show that the morphology and size of 3D-TNAs/TiO2 can be controlled using DEP technology. These mesh electrodes with an anatase/rutile heterojunction were applied in photoelectrocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB), and show a significant improvement in photoelectrocatalytic activity compared to unmodified 3D-TNAs and 3D-TNAs/TiO2 fabricated through only a sol–gel process. The photocurrent density could reach 0.11 mA cm−2. The superior photoelectrocatalytic activity and the photocurrent response of 3D-TNAs/TiO2 were mainly attributed to the high specific surface area, strong light absorption, low electron–hole recombination rate and wide light-response range.

With the abuse of pharmaceuticals in human living activities, contaminants generated in the process of drug production and discharged into natural water after usage, which results in a huge challenge to current water treatment technologies. Perovskite materials have exhibited well photocatalytic properties from the application point of view for water treatment. In this paper, perovskite LaNiO3 was co-substituted by Ce and Cu elements with enhanced photocatalytic performance for the degradation of the antibiotic (norfloxacin, NOR). The crystal structure and performance of as-synthesized co-substituted LaNiO3 photocatalyst are characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), BET, scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrum (EDS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UV‐vis absorption spectroscopy, Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic spectroscopy (XPS) and photocatalysis experiments. Co-substituted LaNiO3 showed higher absorbance, photocatalytic performance, and excellent total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency compared with LaNiO3. The photodegradation capacity and the TOC removal efficiency are almost 2 times higher than that of pure LaNiO3. The utilization of Ce and Cu, partially substituting for La and Ni to tune physical properties of perovskite materials provides a facile way to improve the photocatalytic performance for water treatment with degradation of antibiotics.

With the discovery of the IL-23 / Th17 axis, the treatment of psoriasis has entered a new era. The aim of this study was to explore the progress of biologics and janus kinases (JAK) inhibitors targeting IL-23/Th17 axis in the treatment of psoriasis. review of English-language article was performed. Search terms included IL-17, IL-23, biologics, monoclonal antibodies, neutralizing antibodies, JAK, inhibitors, Psoriasis Area Severity Index and psoriasis. Data were selected from two phase 2 clinical trials; and nine phase 3 randomized, double-blind clinical trials; and other clinical trials. This review analyzes skin lesion clearance and major adverse reactions of 9 mAbs including mirikizumab and bimekizumab. At the same time, the research progress and prospects of three non-IgG small molecule biologics are analyzed too. This paper also compares the efficacy and limitations of biologics targeting the IL-23/Th17 axis with non-biologics acting on the JAK-signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway. The IL-17A/F inhibitors and non-IgG small molecule biologics that are being studied will bring a revolutionary development to the treatment of psoriasis. Topical application of JAK inhibitors can not only achieve the purpose of treating psoriasis, but also reduce the amounts of systemic medication, and reduces side effects. Each drug has its own indication, and the effect of the drug can be better achieved by selecting the indication for the drug.

Three-dimensional TiO2 nanotube arrays (3D-TNAs) formed by anodization over Ti meshes has been prepared. The TiO2 nanotube arrays were uniformly grown around each Ti wire in a radially outward direction, which have a large specific surface area and can absorb incident light from any direction. Composite electrodes, made of Gd, N or Gd–N and TiO2 co-doped 3D TiO2 nanotube arrays (Gd-TiO2/3D-TNAs, N–TiO2/3D-TNAs and Gd-N-TiO2/3D-TNAs), were successfully prepared by an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process and applied for the photoelectrocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. The experimental results show that the multi-doped electrodes significantly enhanced visible light photoelectrocatalytic activity compared to TiO2/3D-TNAs without element-doped and unmodified 3D-TNAs. 99% of methylene blue (MB) was degraded by N–TiO2/3D-TNAs with a 0.7 V bias under 210 min simulated solar irradiation, which was approximately 1.5 and 1.8 times higher than that of TiO2/3D-TNAs and pristine 3D-TNAs, respectively. The N–TiO2/3D-TNAs has excellent stability, the degradation rate remained almost unchanged after used for 4 times. The enhanced photoelectrocatalytic performance of N–TiO2/3D-TNAs could be attributed to the large specific surface area, strong light absorption, low electron-hole recombination rate and wide light-response range as the result of the three-dimensional structure and N-doping heterojunction structure.

A novel electrochemical system with corroding electrode of iron (Fec) inserted between boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode and carbon felt (CF) cathode, named BDD-Fec-CF system, was initially constructed and investigated in the present study. In this system, p-nitrophenol (p-NP) degradation was significantly enhanced in a wide pH range of 3–11 compared with BDD anode with CF cathode system (BDD-CF) and BDD anode with stainless steel (SS) cathode system (BDD-SS), respectively. Especially under acidic conditions, COD removal efficiency in BDD-Fec-CF system was achieved 89.1%, which was only 35.2% in BDD-SS system under the same conditions. The excellent performance under acidic conditions was mainly attributed to Electro-Fenton reaction. Hydroxyl radicals were formed by reaction between Fe2+ released from Fec electrode and H2O2 generated by dissolved oxygen reduction at CF cathode. Under alkaline conditions, flocs were formed to remove p-NP by coagulation besides anode oxidation, electro-generated oxidants and Fe(VI) oxidation. The fate of Fe was examined whose releasing rate was influenced by strength of electronic field and pH of solution. Under acidic conditions, Fe2+ released from Fec was oxidized into Fe3+ and then was absorbed and reduced at CF cathode. Under alkaline conditions, flocs were formed by reaction between Fe2+ and hydroxyl which came from oxygen reduction.

Whereas electrochemical oxidation is noted for its ability to degrade bio-refractory organics, it has also been incorrectly criticized for excessive energy consumption. The present paper rectifies this misunderstanding by demonstrating that the energy actually consumed in the degradation process is much less than that wasted in the side reaction of oxygen evolution. To minimize the side reaction, the possible highest instantaneous current efficiency (PHICE) for electrochemical oxidation of phenol at Boron-doped Diamond (BDD), Ti/SnO2-Sb/PbO2 (PbO2), and Ti/SnO2-Sb (SnO2) anodes has been investigated systematically, and found to reach almost 100% at the BDD anode compared with 23% at the PbO2 anode and 9% at the SnO2 anode. The significant discrepancy between PHICE values at the various anodes is interpreted in terms of different existing forms of hydroxyl radicals. For each anode system, the PHICEs are maintained experimentally using a computer-controlled exponential decay current mode throughout the electrolysis process. For applications, the minimized energy consumption is predicted by response surface methodology, and demonstrated for the BDD anode system. Consequently, almost 100% current efficiency is achieved (for a relatively meagre energy consumption of 17.2 kWh kgCOD−1) along with excellent COD degradation efficiency by optimizing the initial current density, flow rate, electrolysis time, and exponential decay constant. Compared with galvanostatic conditions, over 70% of the energy is saved in the present study, thus demonstrating the great potential of electrochemical oxidation for practical applications.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is an important component of soil and a significant criterion in determining the dynamics of soil quality. A rapid, low-cost method to measure SOM content is needed to sup...

Composite materials, made of graphitic carbon nitride/gadolinium and nitrogen co-doped titanium dioxide (g-C3N4/Gd-N-TiO2), have been successfully prepared by a simple and reproducible in-situ synthetic method. Specific surface area, pore size, particle morphology, crystalline structure, energy band gap, and chemical bonding mode of the materials have been characterized by spectroscopic and electron microscopic means. Photoluminescence measurement and photocatalytic degradation of methyl blue (MB) and antibiotics (gatifloxacin) test show that the composites exhibit significant enhanced photocatalytic activity. Our experimental results indicate that nanoscale heterojunctions are formed in the composites, and these junctions have played a key role in the separation and transportation of photo generated electrons and holes, and hence the effective promotion of the photocatalysis.

Soil organic matter (SOM) plays a key role in soil, and is used to determine soil quality. Conventional soil property analysis is relatively slow, expensive and laborious. Although using a spectrometer can quickly assess a large amount of organic matter content, it is an expensive, complex and undefined process. This article presents a potential simple method for estimating black-SOM that uses a digital camera that is cheaper and easier to operate than a spectrometer. RGB (red, green and blue) image-intensity values of the soil from a digital camera were measured, to research the relationship between black-SOM and RGB. The results show the red image-intensity values provide the greatest correlation with SOM, with a correlation coefficient (r) reaching 0.73. A comparison with spectrometer results for SOM predictions shows that the best prediction result for the digital camera (R2 = 0.72, root-mean-square error [RMSE] = 0.40) is slightly better than the spectrometer (R2 = 0.65, RMSE = 0.45) at certa...