Search

Transit spectroscopy is an effective method for the atmospheric study of exoplanets. However, clouds impose uncertainties in constraining the atmospheric parameters. The current exoplanetary study is awaiting improvement in analysing clouds in transit spectra with the retrieval technique and within reasonable computational time. Therefore, we developed YunMa, an optimised cloud microphysics model for transit spectroscopy. We took advantage of TauREx 3 (Al-Refaie et al. 2019, 2021), an open code framework for simulating exoplanetary spectra to enable the retrieval function of YunMa. We validated our model by comparing our simulation with previous literature results. We evaluated the retrieval performances on a synthetic temperate sub-Neptune. We, therefore, concluded that this work did the first transit spectral retrieval with parametric cloud microphysics included and proposed feasible applications with YunMa.

Congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia (CPT) is a rare congenital malformation. It is characterized by a tibial anterior bowing deformity or specific types of non-union, which typically result from abnormal development of the tibia, leading to the formation of local pseudarthrosis. The treatment of CPT is very challenging. The advent of 3D printing and computer-assisted techniques in recent years has provided a new ancillary technique for treatment planning and implementation. This case report describes the successful surgical treatment of a 14-year-old male that presented with a shortened limb deformity. Ahead of elective surgery, 3D printing and computer-assisted techniques were used to provide a 1:1 model of his left tibia, fibula and ankle joint to precisely determine the surgical procedure. The first surgery did not result in complete calcification of the tibial extension area, so a second proximal tibia iliac bone graft and internal fixation surgery was undertaken. Following regular follow-up and rehabilitation, by the 18-month follow-up, the proximal tibial bone graft had healed and the patient had resumed walking with a normal gait. This case report describes in detail the successful use of unilateral external fixation using the Ilizarov technique, 3D printing and computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery in the planning of treatment for CPT.

Norfloxacin, a kind of widely used fluoroquinolone antibiotics, was degraded by MnOx/SBA-15/O3 process. The prepared catalyst possessed a large surface area ranging from 405 to 671 m2 g−1, which was beneficial for surface reaction. The loaded MnOx on SBA-15 successfully increased its the adsorption ability and catalytic activity, and its surface property played an importance role in catalytic process. Under the adopted condition, both O3 and MnOx/SBA-15/O3 systems were effective for Nofloxacin removal. A high mineralization efficiency (54%) was achieved by MnOx/SBA-15/O3 process at 60 min, 1.36 times higher than that of single ozonation process. The protonated surface hydroxyl groups were the main reaction sites and more hydroxyl radicals generation were found after the presence of MnOx/SBA-15. Three kinds of common small molecule acid (oxalic acid, formic acid, acetic acid) were detected, and the concentration of oxalic acid in MnOx/SBA-15/O3 process was lower than that in sole ozonation process because more OH generated in catalytic ozonation. Toxicological tests were also conducted to evaluate their detoxification ability. As the accumulation of transformation products, the toxicity of solution increased at first and reached the highest after 15 min reaction time. And a high detoxification was achieved after 30 min.

Degradation efficiency and detoxification of Diclofenac (DCF) in Fe-MCM-41/O3 process were evaluated in this study. Both O3 and Fe-MCM-41/O3 systems were effective for DCF removal and the presence of Fe-MCM-41 significantly enhanced its mineralization. High mineralization efficiency (76.3%) was achieved in Fe-MCM-41/O3 process, 2.8 times higher than that in ozonation. Hydroxyl radicals were found to be the main active species and they were generated via the surface reaction of Fe-MCM-41 and O3. Intermediates were detected in Fe-MCM-41/O3 process and a possible degradation pathway was proposed. Dehalogenation, hydroxylation and cleavage of the NH-bridge between the aromatic rings were found in the degradation process. Formic acid, acetic acid, oxalic acid were also detected and their accumulation in catalytic ozonation process was less than that in ozonation as a result of more generation of OH. What’ s more, small molecular carboxylic acids accounted for 70% of the remaining TOC in catalytic ozonation process, only 32.5% in sole ozonation process. Toxicity assessments were conducted using chlorella according to standard procedure. The intermediates accumulated in the first 15 min were more toxic than its initial status. It had a high level of detoxification after 30 min treatment.

Study of impact craters on planetary surfaces has revealed secrets of the evolution of planets. Identifying craters on planetary surfaces has become fundamental in planetary researches, whereas time-consuming, e.g. months to years to collect crater database. Small craters, including a large number of secondary craters, have shown its importance in researches of planetary sciences, whose database requires construction. Whereas, few studies concentrate on detection of small craters. In this paper, the writer adopts morphology-based algorithm to detect and localize the crater candidates effectively. The methodology has shown its effectiveness by detecting 869 small crater candidates in a region covering 37500 × 56250 m2 on the Martian surface, with a precision of 79.29 %. Among those true positive detections, 91.25 % are craters with a diameter less than 1 km (not included). Compared with existing automatic detection methods on planetary impact craters, the method proposed in this paper performs better on detection of small craters, and it fills the blank of detection of craters with a diameter less than 200 m. Focusing on detection of small craters, it can provide a tool for quickly generating datasets for planetary scientific research in a targeted manner.

Highly ordered Iron-doped SBA-15 mesoporous material (Fe-SBA-15), which was synthesized via a direct hydrothermal method under weak acid condition, was used as heterogeneous catalyst for the ozonation of oxalic acid in aqueous solution. The results indicated that Fe doping significantly improved the catalytic activity of SBA-15, a high oxalic acid removal of 86.6% was achieved under the chosen condition, only 30.2% for SBA-15/O3 process. The major operating variables including Si/Fe ratio in catalyst, initial pH value and radical scavenger were also studied for catalytic reaction mechanism. The active sites of Fe-SBA-15 increased with iron doping content and Fe-SBA-15 significantly influenced ozone concentration in aqueous solution. The catalytic efficiency was mainly affected by radical scavenger and the pH value of solution, which illustrated that the catalytic ozonation process followed free radical mechanism, and the surface reaction played a critical role for oxalic acid degradation. The stability of Fe-SBA-15 was verified by the reused experiments. The XRD and BET tests also demonstrated that Fe-SBA-15 retained highly ordered 2D-hexagonal mesoporous structure and large surface area after reused. Fe-SBA-15 was a promising catalyst for catalytic ozonation of oxalic acid.

Fe-MCM-41 was prepared by a direct synthesis method and employed as an adsorbent to remove Norfloxacin (NFX) in water. The characterization results showed that Fe-MCM-41 retained the hexagonal mesoporous structure after incorporating Fe and had a large surface area ranging from 894 to 1028 m2 g−1. A significant relationship was found among adsorption efficiency, the surface area and the Fe content of adsorbent. The amounts of NFX absorbed increased from 52 to 117 mg g−1 with Fe content in Fe-MCM-41. The value of constant k2 (288 g mg−1 h−1) obtained from pseudo-second-order model was much greater than that of frequently used adsorbents such as macroporous resin (58 g mg−1 h−1). The results suggested that the introduction of Fe successfully enhanced hydrophobicity of MCM-41 and its adsorption efficiency. Additionally, Fe component also accelerated the formation of complex between NFX and Fe-MCM-41. Apart from the former mechanisms, electrostatic interaction and π–π interactions were also found in the adsorption process, and their combined effects significantly accelerated NFX adsorption. The adsorption isotherm was better fitted with Freundlich model. Thermodynamic results illustrated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and performed better at higher temperature.

Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) has potential as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of patients with denervated muscle atrophy. However, the endogenous secretion of NT-3 is low and exogenous NT-3 lacks sufficient time to accumulate due to its short half-life. The transfection of NT-3 has been demonstrated to have a beneficial effect on denervated muscle and motor endplates. Neural stem cells (NSCs) differentiate into neurons and form motor endplate nerve-muscle connections. It has been previously demonstrated that local and noninvasive transfection can be performed using ultrasound with microbubbles (MBs). In the current study, hematoxylin and eosin, acetylcholinesterase and gold chloride staining, as well as transmission electron microscopy, were performed to verify the effects of this treatment strategy. The results demonstrated that using ultrasound with MBs for the transfection of NT-3 into NSCs, and their subsequent transplantation in vivo, attenuated the atrophy of denervated muscle and reduced motor endplate degeneration. This noninvasive, efficient and targeted treatment strategy may therefore be a potential treatment for patients with denervated muscle atrophy.