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Biochar (BC) has been widely applied in the remediation of chlorophenols (CPs) from contaminated sites in which the role and mechanisms of BC dissolved organic matter (BDOM), as a crucial component of BC, with CPs are largely unknown and thus need to be investigated. In this study, DOM was derived from peanut hulls (PDOM) and corn stalks (CDOM) as BC sources, and the interactions between PDOM/CDOM and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) were analysed using excitation-emission matrix spectroscopy (EEM) in combination with multiple models. EEM combined with fluorescence region integration (EEM-FRI) indicated that humic-like materials were the major materials of both PDOM and CDOM (percentage fluorescence response R

Fulvic acid (FA) consists of various organic compounds that interact with metals in the aquatic environment. Interactions between subcomponents (FA

BACKGROUND: Periodontitis (PD) is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by infection of the periodontal supporting tissues. Clinical studies have reported that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a higher prevalence of PD. This study aimed to explore the correlation between RA and PD. METHODS: A total of 307 RA patients (RA group) and 324 healthy individuals (control group) who received physical examinations during the same period were recruited to this study. The incidence of PD in the two groups was analyzed, and the periodontal disease index (PDI) and bleeding on probing (BOP) were recorded. Then, 42 RA patients with PD and 56 control group patients with PD were selected for further analysis. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of interleukin 1s (IL-1s) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of the two groups. For patients with both RA and PD, the level of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and the duration of morning stiffness were also recorded. RESULTS: The prevalence of PD in the RA group (51.5%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (31.2%), and the prevalence of PD also increased notably with the increase of age and the duration of the disease in RA patients. The levels of TNF-α and IL-1s in the PDI and the GCF in the concurrent RA and PD group were significantly higher than those in the PD group (P

Purpose To investigate the mechanism underlying particulate matter (PM) exposure-induced oxidative stress and potential rescue strategies against pulmonary damage in this context. Methods A combination of omics technology and bioinformatic analysis were used to uncover mechanisms underlying cellular responses to PM exposure in human bronchial epithelia (HBE) cells and imply the potential rescue. Results Our results implicated that oxidative stress, metal ion homeostasis, and apoptosis were the major cellular responses to PM exposure in HBE cells. PM exposure disrupted oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS)-related gene expressions in HBE cells. Rescuing the expression of these genes with supplemental coenzyme Q10 (Co Q10) inhibited reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation; however, it only partially protected HBEs against PM exposure-induced apoptosis. Further, metallothionein (MT)-encoding genes associated with metal ion homeostasis were significantly induced in HBE cells, which was transcriptionally regulated by specificity protein 1 (SP1). SP1 knock-down (KD) aggravated PM-induced apoptosis in HBE cells, suggesting it plays a role in MT induction. Subsequent studies corroborated the protective role of MT by showing that exogenous MTs supplement demonstrated effective protection against PM-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in HBE cells. Importantly, exogenous MTs supplement was shown to reduce ROS generation and apoptosis in airway epithelia in both HBE cells and a PM-inhaled murine model. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the impact of MTs on airway epithelia by suppressing oxidative stress and maintaining metal ion homeostasis is beneficial in attenuating damage to pulmonary cells undergoing PM exposure.

To investigate the feasibility of predicting dental implant loss risk with deep learning (DL) based on preoperative cone-beam computed tomography.Six hundred and three patients who underwent implant surgery (279 high-risk patients who did and 324 low-risk patients who did not experience implant loss within 5 years) between January 2012 and January 2020 were enrolled. Three models, a logistic regression clinical model (CM) based on clinical features, a DL model based on radiography features, and an integrated model (IM) developed by combining CM with DL, were developed to predict the 5-year implant loss risk. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the model performance. Time to implant loss was considered for both groups, and Kaplan-Meier curves were created and compared by the log-rank test.The IM exhibited the best performance in predicting implant loss risk (AUC = 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.84-0.95), followed by the DL model (AUC = 0.87, 95% CI 0.80-0.92) and the CM (AUC = 0.72, 95% CI 0.63-0.79).Our study offers preliminary evidence that both the DL model and the IM performed well in predicting implant fate within 5 years and thus may greatly facilitate implant practitioners in assessing preoperative risks.

Periodontitis is a chronic infectious disease that causes inflammation and immune response and has an ultimate impact on the health of the whole body. Sirtuin6 (SIRT6) and Krüppel-like factor 5 (KLF5) have been reported to regulate the inflammatory response and play an important role in the development of periodontitis. LPS was adopted to induce periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) to construct a periodontitis cell model. SIRT6 expression was assayed through RT-qPCR and Western blot. Subsequently, after SIRT6 was overexpressed, CCK8 was to appraise cell viability. ELISA analysis was used to estimate inflammatory response. ALP staining, ARS staining, and Western blot were used to detect osteogenic differentiation. The JASPAR website then predicts the binding of transcription factor KLF5 to SIRT6 promoter. The interaction between KLF5 and SIRT6 was verified by a luciferase reporter and ChIP assays. Additionally, the osteogenic differentiation and inflammation in LPS-induced PDLSCs transfected with Ov-SIRT6 and si-KIF5 were also explored. Finally, the protein levels of the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) pathway-related factors were detected by Western blot to further explore the mechanism. There was a marked decrease in SIRT6 expression in LPS-induced PDLSCs. SITR6 overexpression prevented LPS-induced cell viability loss and inflammation, while promoting osteogenic differentiation. In addition, KLF5 could transcriptionally activate SIRT6. Further, KLF5 knockdown reversed the impacts of SIRT6 on the proliferation, inflammation, and osteogenic differentiation of LPS-induced PDLSCs via mediating NF-κB pathway. Overall, KLF5-mediated SIRT6 promoted the viability and osteogenic differentiation, while inhibiting the inflammatory response of LPS-induced PDLSCs by inhibiting NF-κB pathway.

Aim This study was aimed to investigate the role of TUG1 in LPS-stimulated hPDLCs and to evaluate the potential functions of TUG1 in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Methods LPS-stimulated hPDLCs were established as the cell model. CCK-8 assay was performed to assess cell proliferation ability. Flow cytometry was performed to detect cell cycle distribution, and quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting were conducted to measure gene expressions. ELISA kits were used to evaluate the production of inflammatory cytokines. The putative binding site between TUG1 and miR-498 was verified using luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation assays. Results TUG1 was downregulated upon LPS stimulation in hPDLCs. TUG1 overexpression promoted cell proliferation through regulating the cell cycle distribution, along with the decreased expression of p21 and increased expression of CDK2 and cyclin D1. Besides, TUG1 overexpression decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines. The effects were opposite upon TUG1 knockdown. TUG1 negatively regulated its target miR-498, and influenced the expression of RORA, the direct target of miR-498. Simultaneous TUG1 overexpression and miR-498 reversed the effect of TUG1 overexpression alone on alleviating LPS-induced cell injury and inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, which was further changeover after co-overexpression with RORA. Conclusion Therefore, TUG1 could protect against periodontitis via regulating miR-498/RORA mediated Wnt/β-catenin signaling.

Chlorophenols are difficult to degrade and biohazardous in the natural environment. This study demonstrated that humic acid (HA) could promote Fe

Diosgenin is a steroidal saponin isolated from dioscorea opposita, which has been proven to have anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic and immune system modulating effects in a large number of pharmacological tests. Diosgenin is also one of the important raw materials for the synthesis of steroidal drugs, and structural modification of diosgenin to obtain diosgenin derivatives can not only improve the solubility and dissolution, but also enhance their pharmacological effects. This paper reviews the synthetic reactions, pharmacological effects of diosgenin and its derivatives, aiming to provide detailed information for the further development and application of diosgenin, which is important to improve the utilization value of diosgenin.

Surface activity of humic acid (HA) and its six sub-fractions isolated from forest soil were characterized by surface tension measurements, dynamic light scattering, and laser doppler electrophoresis. The surface tension of HA and its sub-fractions reduced from 72.4 mN·m−1 to 36.8 mN·m−1 in exponential model with the increasing concentration from 0 to 2000 mg·L−1. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) and Z-average particle size ranged from 216–1024 mg·L−1 and 108.2–186.9 nm for HA and its sub-fractions, respectively. The CMC have related with alkyl C, O-alkyl C, aromatic C, and carbonyl C (p &lt, 0.05), respectively, and could be predicted with the multiple linear regression equation of CMC, CMC = 18896 − 6.9 × C-296 × alkyl C-331 × aromatic C-17019 × H/C + 4054 × HB/HI (p &lt, 0.05). The maximum particle size was 5000 nm after filtered by a membrane with pore size of 450 nm, indicating HA and its sub-fractions could progressed self-assembly at pH 6.86. The aggregate sizes of number-base particle size distributions were mainly in six clusters including 2 ± 1 nm, 5 ± 2 nm, 10 ± 3 nm, 21 ± 8 nm, 40 ± 10 nm, and &gt, 50 nm analyzed by Gaussian model that maybe due to the inconsistency of the components and structures of the HA sub-fractions, requiring further study. It is significance to explore the surface activity of HA and its sub-fractions, which is helpful to clarify the environmental behavior of HA.

Surface activity of humic acid (HA) and its six sub-fractions isolated from forest soil were characterized by surface tension measurements, dynamic light scattering, and laser doppler electrophoresis. The surface tension of HA sub-fractions decreased from 72.4 mN·m-1 to 36.8 mN·m-1 with the increasing concentration from 0 to 20000 mg·L-1. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of HA and its sub-fractions ranged from 216 to 1024 mg·L-1 with the multiple linear regression equation of CMC = 18896–6.9×C–296×alkyl-C–331×aromatic-C–17019×H/C+4054×HB/HI (p < 0.05). The Z-average particle size ranges from 108.2 nm to 186.9 nm. The maximum particle size was 5000 nm after filtered with a membrane of 0.45 μm, indicating HA and its sub-fractions progressed self-assembly during 2000 mg·L-1, pH = 6.86. The number-base particle size distribution of HA sub-fractions was identified as four peaks by Gaussian model, and the aggregate sizes were mainly in six clusters including 2 ± 1 nm, 5 ± 2 nm, 10 ± 3 nm, 21 ± 8 nm, 40 ± 10 nm, and > 50 nm indicating multiple aggregations of different particle sizes in the HA fractions solution.

Due to its wide applications in tire and rubber products, carbon black (CB) implicates concerns on its safety during production, collection, and handling. Here we report that exposure CB, increases coagulation-thrombosis potential in a splenic extramedullary hemopoiesis (EMH)-dependent manner. Adult C57BL/6 mice are kept in whole-body inhalation chambers, and exposed to filtered room air (FRA) or CB for 28 consecutive days. CB exposure resulted in splenic EMH characterized with platelet precursor cells, megakaryocytes (MKs), hyperplasia and enhanced in vivo blood coagulation ability. Metabolomics analysis suggests significant enhance in PGE2 production but reduction in folic acid (FA) levels in murine serum following CB exposure. Mechanistically, activation of COX-dependent PGE2 production promotes IL-6 expression in splenic macrophages, which subsequently results in splenic EMH and increased platelet counts in circulation. Administration of FA protects the mice against CB-induced splenic EMH through inhibiting prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (Ptgs2 or Cox2) and prostaglandin E synthase (Ptges) expression in splenic macrophages, eventually recover the coagulation capacity to normal level. The results strongly suggest the involvement of splenic EMH in response to CB exposure and subsequently increased coagulation-thrombosis potential. Supplementation with FA may be a candidate to prevent thrombosis potential attributable to CB exposure.

With the increased appreciation for the significance of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), the present research aimed to determine the role of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) in the process of particulate matter (PM) exposure-induced pulmonary damage. Alterations in messenger RNA (RNA), microRNA and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) profiles of human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells treated with PM were analyzed by microarray assays. Next, we identified that lncRNA taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) acted as a competing endogenous RNA for microRNA-222-3p (miR-222-3p) and subsequently attenuated the inhibitory effect of miR-222-3p on CUGBP elav-like family member 1 (CELF1). The binding potency among ceRNAs was verified by RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay and dual-luciferase reporter assay. Knockdown of TUG1 attenuated HBE cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by downregulation of CELF1 and protein 53 (p53). Further, we confirmed that Tug1/mir-222-3p/CELF1/p53 network aggravated PM-induced airway hyper-reactivity (AHR) in mice. In summary, our novel findings revealed that TUG1 triggered dysfunction of pulmonary cells followed by PM exposure by serving as a sponge for miR-222-3p and thereby upregulating the expression of CELF1and p53.

Summary The association between meteorological factors and infectious diarrhea has been widely studied in many countries. However, investigation among children under 5 years old in Jiangsu, China remains quite limited. Data including infectious diarrhea cases among children under five years old and daily meteorological indexes in Jiangsu, China from 2015 to 2019 were collected. The lag-effects up to 21 days of daily maximum temperature (Tmax) on infectious diarrhea were explored using a quasi-Poisson regression with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) approach. The cases number of infectious diarrhea was significantly associated with seasonal variation of meteorological factors, and the burden of disease mainly occurred among children aged 0–2 years old. Moreover, when the reference value was set at 16.7°C, Tmax had a significant lag-effect on cases of infectious diarrhea among children under 5 years old in Jiangsu Province, which was increased remarkably in cold weather with the highest risk at 8°C. The results of DLNM analysis implicated that the lag-effect of Tmax varied among the 13 cities in Jiangsu and had significant differences in 8 cities. The highest risk of Tmax was presented at 5 lag days in Huaian with a maximum RR of 1.18 (95% CI: 1.09, 1.29). Suzhou which had the highest number of diarrhea cases (15830 cases), had a maximum RR of 1.04 (95% CI:1.03, 1.05) on lag 15 days. Tmax is a considerable indicator to predict the epidemic of infectious diarrhea among 13 cities in Jiangsu, which reminds us that in cold seasons, more preventive strategies and measures should be done to prevent infectious diarrhea. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11596-021-2338-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the effect of nicorandil (NCR) combined with trimetazidine (TMZ) on miR-223-3p and NRF2 expression in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: This study included 71 CHD patients admitted to our hospital from February 2017 to March 2019, including 33 cases in the control group (CG) treated with NCR and 38 cases in the research group (RG) treated with TMZ combined with NCR. Improvement in clinical efficacy after treatment was observed in the two groups; serum miR-223-3p and NRF2 levels pre- and post-treatment were compared, and the predictive value of the two for curative effect was analyzed. In addition, ST segment depression frequency and total duration, pre- and post-treatment cardiac function levels and blood lipid levels were recorded and compared. Results: RG had statistically more markedly effective cases and notably lower serum miR-223-3p and NRF2 expression than CG after treatment. Through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, it was found that the area under curves (AUCs) of miR-223-3p and NRF2 were 0.716 and 0.712 respectively. The post-treatment ST segment depression frequency and duration were lower in RG than in CG (P

This paper proposes a constructive steganography approach using texture synthesis. With a source texture pattern, we first generate a reference pattern using a point-based texture synthesis. The reference pattern is further extended using a patch-based synthesis algorithm. We crop the extended pattern to generate an intermediate pattern. The reference pattern is then divided into overlapping patches. With a secret key, the reference patches are pseudo-randomly painted onto a blank canvas. To hide secret messages, we identify appropriate patches from the intermediate pattern to represent secret bits, and fulfill the blank regions with these patches using image quilting. The proposed method has a better performance than previous works. As we extend the source pattern to generate more candidate patches, more secret bits can be hidden into the stego image, and the quality of the synthesized image is better. Meanwhile, the proposed method has a capability of resisting a specified attack designed for te...

Fulvic acid (FA) significantly influences the bioavailability and fate of heavy metals in environments, while its acid-base characters and metal binding processes are still unclear. Here, spectroscopic techniques combined with multiple models (e.g., NICA-Donnan model) and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D COS) were applied to explore the proton and copper binding properties of FA sub-fractions (FA3-FA13). The charge densities, average contents of carboxylic and phenolic groups, average dissociation constants pKa1 and pKa2 of sub-fractions ranged 0–16 meq∙g∙C−1, 5.03–9.58 meq∙g∙C−1, 2.52–4.67 meq∙g∙C−1, 4.15–4.33 and 8.52–9.72, respectively. FA sub-fractions had a relatively narrow distribution of carboxyl group and a broad distribution of phenolic group. FA sub-fractions also exhibited roughly two phenolic hydroxyl groups per every 1–3 phenyl rings. Differential absorbance spectra (DAS) derived Gaussian bands were associated to the inter-chromophore interactions, the changes of molecular conformations and functional groups with copper addition. Differential spectra slopes (DSlope275-295&325-375) were more significant with higher copper concentration and copper amounts bonded to carboxylic groups. UV–Vis and fluorescence spectra with 2D heterospectral COS revealed the copper binding heterogeneities and sequential orders of chromophores and fluorophores, quantitatively confirming by the order of conditional stability constants (log KCu: 4.64–5.56). Salicylic-/polyhydroxyphenolic, hydroxyl and amino groups were strongly associated to the basic units for fluorophores. Sequential changes followed the order of humic-like→fulvic-like materials for FA3/FA5, humic-like→fulvic-like→tryptophan-like materials for FA7, and humic-like→tryptophan-like→fulvic-like→tyrosine-like materials for FA9/FA13. Spectroscopic techniques combined with various models (especially for 2D COS) are beneficial to elucidate the binding heterogeneity and sensitivity for metal-organic matters at the functional group level.

International audience; Nowadays, emoji image is widely used in social networks. To achieve covert communication in emoji images, this paper proposes a distortion function for emoji images steganography. The profile of image content, the intra-and inter-frame correlation are taken into account in the proposed distortion function to fit the unique properties of emoji image. The three parts are combined together to measure the risks of detection due to the modification on the cover data. With the popular syndrome trellis coding (STC), the distortion of stego emoji image is minimized using the proposed distortion function. As a result, less detectable artifacts could be found in the stego images. Experimental results show that the proposed distortion function performs much higher undetectability than current state-of-the-art distortion function HILL which is designed for natural image.

To investigate the surveillance of drug resistance and serotype monitoring of steptococcus pneumoniae in hospitalized children. the pathogenic bacteria isolation and identification methods were employed to do the bacteria isolation identification and drug sensitive test on the specimens from WomenInfants Hospital of Zhengzhou. From the specimens, there were 134 detected strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and the drug resistance to erythromycin and clindamycin were respectively 97.7% and 89.9%, and the drug resistance to tetracycline, azithromycin and paediatric compound sulfamethoxazole were respectively 86. 3%, 58. 3%, 51. 2%. The vancomycin resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae were often not found. the Streptococcus pneumoniae in children were generally with drug resistant in Zhengzhou area. It shall strengthen drug resistance surveillance, and reasonably choose antibacterial agents.

In this paper, the clinical value of the detection about serum and unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) in neonatal jaundice was studied to found an effective and rapid method for diagnose of neonatal jaundice. ALB (Serum Albumin), total serum bilirubin (TSB) and UCB were detected by ELISA method among the 100 cases with neonatal jaundice selected for the study. The values of ALB, UCB and TSB in moderate jaundice patients were (42.83±3.87) g/L, (287.35±44.38) μm/L, (304.16±43.40) μm/L, respectively; as for the severe jaundice patients, the values were (38.41±4.82) g/L, (354.38±48.75) μm/L, (375.20±47.51) μm/L. The results showed significant differences with the p0.05 between moderate and severe jaundice patients. The level of ALB, UCB, TSB in hemolytic jaundice, obstructive jaundice and jaundice caused by other infections also had significant differences, and the difference was statistically significant (p0.05). The detection of ALB and UCB provides a useful method for the diagnosis and assessment of neonatal jaundice.

The finite element method was used for simulating the mechanical performance and fatigue safety of three different structures of Nitinol stent. According to the actual situation, after proposing reasonable assumptions and simplification, the geometry model and finite element model establishment, material mode selection and boundary condition setting are completed. The strain and fatigue life of different stent edges wide (omega) or strut angle (theta) are computed. The result can provide a valuable reference for the optimal design of stent.

According to self-organized ability of ants, this paper described a new distributed dynamic routing method: Distributed QoS-guaranteed Routing Algorithm (DQRA). This method aimed at the existent quantity of service in the current communication network. DQRA can resolve the problem of the delay and the bandwidth allocation parallel in the networks. It is already theoretically proved that the algorithm is simple and easy to realize. It can resolve the problem of the payload balance effectively in the large communication networks. At present, the Ant Algorithm has been applied to solve the problem on TSP and a series of discrete optimization successfully. It will be applied in the much wider field. The DQRA algorithm is simulated by MATLAB in order to prove its validity in this paper.