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Palygorskite-bearing claystones and mudstones were deposited in a salt lake in the middle and lower parts of the Neogene Baiyanghe Formation in the Yangtaiwatan Basin, China. The petrological, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the sediments were investigated to determine the factors controlling palygorskite formation. The palygorskite claystones and mudstones have distinctly varying mineral compositions. The claystones are composed of detrital minerals, palygorskite and illite, whereas the mudstones consist mainly of mixed-layer illite/smectite and illite. The palygorskite crystals were intact with sharp edges and interwoven with other minerals, indicating an authigenic origin. The chemical characteristics indicate that the palygorskite claystones in the middle part of the Baiyanghe Formation were deposited in a salt lake environment in an arid and hot climate. As the salinity of the lake gradually increased, the detrital minerals such as quartz, feldspar, dolomite and detrital clay minerals dissolved in the alkaline medium, thus providing Si4+, Mg2+and Al3+for the crystallization of palygorskite. The palygorskite coexists with certain amounts of detrital quartz and feldspar with limited roundness and sorting, indicating that the shallow lake of the basin under an oxidation environment may represent a favourable environment for the crystallization of palygorskite.

Deng Y, Qin Z, Wu Q, et al. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2022;16:2439‒2451. The authors have informed the journal that Remimazolam Tosilate was used in this study, not Remimazolam Besylate as indicated throughout the paper. The authors apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

To better deliver antiretroviral drugs for treating patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with poor immune reconstitution, a novel nanopole capsule was designed in this study. Forty-eight patients with AIDS with poor immune reconstitution were chosen as subjects to test their immune state. CD4+ T and Regulatory T cells (Treg) infected with HIV were cultured to test polyethyleneimine (PEI) and polychitosan (PC) drug delivery system efficiency. The infiltration efficiency test was performed to study the drug delivery efficiency of the delivery systems, and the cell numbers of CD4+ T and Treg cells infected with HIV were calculated to evaluate the therapeutic effect. The results showed that patients with AIDS with poor immune reconstitution had lower CD4+ T cell count and higher Treg cell count. Furthermore, the infiltration efficiency of the PC drug delivery system was higher than that of the PEI drug delivery system, and the therapy efficiency of antiretroviral drugs was greatly improved in the PC group. Additionally, the improvement of CD4+ T and Treg cells damaged by HIV was greater in the PC group. Sequentially, the PC system can better deliver and release loaded antiretroviral drugs and may be a better choice for treating patients with AIDS with poor immune reconstitution in the future.

Gray-black kaolinitic claystones of industrial value are abundant in Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian coal-bearing strata of the Datong Coalfield of northern China. The main types are tonsteins and cryptocrystalline kaolinitic claystones, distinguished by the thinness and greater crystallinity of kaolinite in the former and by the presence of detrital illite and authigenic pyrite in the latter. In order to determine the formation history of these two types of kaolinitic claystone, the petrological, mineralogical, and geochemical characteristics of borehole samples from the Upper Carboniferous Taiyuan Formation which comprises siliciclastics and coal seams deposited in a coastal environment, were analyzed. In addition to kaolinite, the claystones contain subordinate illite, quartz, pyrite, anatase, feldspar, siderite, and calcite. The tonsteins and cryptocrystalline kaolinitic claystones have different sources, as shown by petrographic data, elemental ratios, and chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns. The volcanic origin of the tonsteins is revealed by an abundance of volcanic quartz and vitric fragments as well as Al2O3/TiO2, Zr/Hf, and Nb/Ta ratios consistent with a felsic igneous source. Their REE fraction was derived from feldspars or micas of the parent rocks, and the fraction decreased with alteration of these minerals to kaolinite. The sedimentary origin of the cryptocrystalline kaolinitic claystones is revealed by an abundance of detrital quartz and illite grains derived from either granite or sedimentary upper crust, and by the total REE contents (ΣREE) and (La/Yb)N values which are consistent with granitic material. Their depositional environment was in a transitional (coastal) setting (as shown by intermediate Sr/Ba ratios) hosting an open acidic hydrologic system (as shown by high chemical index of alteration (CIA) values indicative of intensive chemical weathering) that was suboxic to anoxic (as shown by high U/Th ratios and trace-metal enrichment factors). The present chemistry of these claystones was thus controlled by a combination of parent rock type and diagenetic alteration.

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is extremely infectious and the human population globally is generally susceptible to it. Its spread poses a serious threat to public health. Analyzing the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can more fully demonstrate its characteristics and evolution, and provide effective scientific strategies for preventing and controlling the epidemic. In this study, nucleic acid detection was performed on 228 suspected COVID-19 cases in Ningbo City from January 2020 to August 2020. The RNA of the virus was extracted by the nano magnetic bead method and was detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. Patients whose test results were positive were considered as research subjects. Clinical data of the patients were collected through a medical record system and the epidemiology and characteristics of COVID-19 were analyzed. Among the 228 suspected cases, 108 patients had a positive nucleic acid test result. The 108 confirmed patients were selected as research subjects, including 9 patients with mild symptoms, 85 patients with common symptoms, and 14 patients with severe symptoms. The age range of the patients was 17–82 years. Overall, 35 patients (32.40%) had complications. The median incubation period for patients was 7.5 days. Seventy patients (64.81%) had a contact history with a diseased individual. In terms of the clinical symptoms of the patients, the following symptoms were identified: fever in 92, cough in 62, fatigue in 34, sputum expectoration in 32, dry cough in 22, sore throat in 19, diarrhea in 8, headache in 8, shortness of breath in 7, nasal congestion in 5, and muscle ache in 5 cases. The results of chest CT imaging showed that 96 patients (88.89%) exhibited bilateral or unilateral pneumonia lesions of varying degrees, manifested as bilateral or unilateral lung patches, cloudy floccules, patches with an increased density shadow. The CT images of 12 patients (11.11%) showed no obvious abnormalities, while 24 cases (22.22%) had absolute white blood cell count of 9/L, while 1 case had one of >10×109/L. The absolute neutrophil count in 10 patients (9.26%) increased (>6.3×109/L). The absolute lymphocyte count in 49 patients (45.37%) decreased (9/L). The hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet levels of the vast majority of patients were normal, while a few were low or high. Fifty-eight patients (53.70%) had elevated C-reactive protein (>10 mg/L); 14 (12.96%) had elevated D-dimer (>256 μg/L); 14 (12.96%) had high levels of alanine aminotransferase (>40 U/L); 9 (8.33%) had increased aspartate aminotransferase (>40 U/L); while 32 (29.6%) had increased lactate dehydrogenase (>250 U/L). COVID-19 in Ningbo is mainly transmitted in clusters, and elderly patients are more likely to develop severe symptoms. There is no significant difference in clinical characteristics between patients with severe conditions and those with mild and common ones.

Background: Lutembacher’s syndrome (LS) is a rare cardiovascular anomaly that is defined as any combination of congenital or iatrogenic atrial septal defect (ASD) with congenital or acquired mitral stenosis (MS). The clinical features and hemodynamic effects of LS depend on the balance between ASD and MS. Case Report: In this case report, we describe a rare case of LS with a huge right atrium in a 39-year-old male patient who was admitted to the hospital with worsening fatigue and breathlessness on exertion. Clinical examination revealed central cyanosis, raised jugular venous pressure bilaterally, clear breath sounds bilaterally with no dry and wet rales, hyperdynamic apex beat, and dull heart sounds. His vital signs on admission included blood pressure of 90/60 mmHg, irregular pulse of 76 beats/min, and oxygen saturation of 90.4%. Echocardiography revealed moderate to severe MS with ASD (ostium secundum). The patient’s condition deteriorated after initial medical management, and he underwent open heart surgery for mitral valve replacement, ASD repair, tricuspid annuloplasty, and right atrial volume reduction. Conclusions: This case report describes the successful surgical management of this rare condition.

In order to investigate the genesis of different types of claystones and facies-related variations in clay mineralogy, a mineralogical and geochemical investigation of the coal-bearing Upper Carboniferous Taiyuan Formation of North China was undertaken in the Wangping and Xiaoyu mines of the SE Datong Basin. This formation contains both kaolinitic and mixed-layer illite/smectite (I/S) claystones having distinctly different compositions. The former is composed of kaolinite with minor illite, quartz, calcite, and boehmite, whereas the latter consists mainly of R1 and R3 mixed-layer I/S clay and kaolinite with minor illite, siderite, quartz, dolomite, and anatase. The two types of claystone formed from the same parent materials, as shown by Al2O3/TiO2 ratios and rare earth element (REE) patterns. Paleosalinity indices (B/Ga and Sr/Ba) and redox proxies (Mo and U enrichment factors and Corg/P ratios) indicate that the kaolinitic claystones formed under freshwater, oxic-anoxic conditions, whereas the I/S claystones formed under brackish, oxic-suboxic conditions. Chemical index of alteration (CIA) values show that the kaolinitic claystones experienced more intense leaching than the I/S claystones, even though both formed in a warm and humid climate, and this result is consistent with late Carboniferous-early Permian global climate and weathering intensity. The kaolinite developed through recrystallization and alteration of terrigenous clastics and an aluminosilicate colloidal solution in a reducing, freshwater peaty swamp environment. The formation of smectite was linked to marine transgressions that altered the salinity and oxygen content of sedimentary porewaters, with subsequent deep-burial conversion of smectite to mixed-layer I/S. The frequent changes in salinity and redox conditions that caused mineralogical variations in Taiyuan Formation claystones were driven by glacio-eustatic fluctuations of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA), which led to episodic marine incursions into the Datong Basin.