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The main water source of a water purification plant in Tianjin is Yangtze River water from Mid-route of South-to-North Water Transfer Project. On the basis of conventional processes, the plant has added pre-ozone, post-ozone and activated carbon enhancement processes to improve the quality of effluent. In this study, a small-scale experimental device was set up to investigate the effect of each process in enhancing of the conventional processes for treating Yangtze River water. The results indicated that the optimal dosages of flocculants PAC and FeCl3 were both 17 mg/L. The addition of pre- or post-ozone process to the conventional process could effectively enhance the removal of organic matter. The addition of activated carbon process could enhance the removal of turbidity and organic matter at the same time. The addition of post-ozone and activated carbon process could significantly enhance the removal of turbidity and organic matter. The optimum dosage for both pre- and post-ozone both were 1.0 mg/L. When the concentration of bromine ion in the raw water was up to 150 μ/L, the dosage of ozone in the conventional-post-ozone process and pre-ozone-conventional-post ozone process should be adjusted to ≤0.5 mg/L.

Abstract This retrospective study aimed to investigate the impact of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) on vertebral axial rotation (VAR) in the lumbar spine, focusing on both close and distant neighboring vertebrae. A total of 516 patients with LDH and an equal number of healthy individuals were included in the study, matched for age and gender. The degree of axial rotation for each lumbar spine vertebra was assessed using the Nash–Moe index. The results revealed that the prevalence of VAR in the lumbar spine was significantly higher in the LDH group compared to the Control group (65.7% vs 46.7%, P

Abstract Background Vitreous floaters are a common ocular condition that affects individuals of all ages. Although vitreous floaters are typically benign, they can significantly impair visual acuity and quality of life. Laser vitreolysis, which uses an Nd: YAG laser to vaporize collagenous vitreous opacities, is increasingly being used as a treatment option. However, there is currently a lack of evidence regarding its efficacy and the appropriate timing of its application. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of early intervention with YAG laser vitreolysis in treating symptomatic vitreous floaters. Methods The present study is a randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial. A total of 70 participants with symptomatic floaters for 1 month were prospectively recruited. These participants will be randomly assigned to two groups, with 35 individuals in each group: the early treatment group and the delayed treatment group. Participants assigned to the early treatment group will undergo YAG laser vitreolysis immediately, followed by a sham laser treatment 3 months later. On the other hand, participants assigned to the delayed treatment group will receive a sham laser treatment and then undergo YAG laser vitreolysis 3 months later. The follow-up time points will be 1, 3, 6, and 12 months from randomization. Primary outcomes will be participants’ self-reported improvement in visual disturbance on a scale of 1 to 10 and their scores on the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 (NEI VFQ-25). Secondary outcomes will be an objective evaluation of the effectiveness of the treatment in reducing vitreous floaters through OCT and fundus photography and tracking any adverse events related to the eyes or overall health. Discussion This clinical trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of YAG laser vitreolysis in treating symptomatic vitreous floaters and assess the safety of performing early intervention with YAG laser vitreolysis. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05800353 . Registered on 10 March 2023.

Objective: Phytochemistry, microbiology, flavor and functional properties of fermented papaya juice were examined in relation to Lactobacillus plantarum (Lp), Lactobacillus rhamnosus (Lr), Lactobacillus acidophilus (La) and their mixed strains (Lp+Lr、Lp+La、Lr+La), in order to develop a probiotic papaya beverage with improved functionality and health-promoting properties. Methods: In thisstudy, changes in pH, total soluble solids, titratable acid, viable cells, glucose, fructose, sucrose, organic acids and volatile compounds were determined. The contents of total phenolics and total flavonoids, as well as the inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase and tyrosinase enzymes during the fermentation process, were also investigated. Results: The single-and mixed strain cultures showed similar changes during the 72 h fermentation period, exhibiting significantly decreased pH and increased acidity. The contents of lactic acid and succinic acid greatly increased, whereas that of citric acid and malic acid decreased significantly. After fermentation, the content of total phenolics and flavonoids increased in papaya juice. Pearson's correlation analysis revealed that the metabolism of phenolics likely contributed to enhancing the inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase and tyrosinase enzymes. Among all fermentation groups, the papaya juice fermented by Lp exhibited the highest contents of lactic acid, total phenolics, and flavonoids, showing the strongest inhibitory effect against α-glucosidase and tyrosinase enzyme. Additionally, six types of aromatic compounds were primarily detected in unfermented papaya juice, with butyric acid content being the highest (89.742%), followed by linalool. After fermentation, a total of 25 aromatic compounds were identified in the six fermented juice samples, and the content of butyric acid declined significantly, which reduced the unpleasant odor of papaya. In all fermentation groups, the Lp single-strain culture generated the most volatile components (18 types), while the Lp+Lr mixed culture achieved the lowest (5 types). Although the Lp+Lr mixed-strain culture had the highest number of viable bacteria [7.61 lg (CFU/mL)], the Lp single-strain culture may be preferable overall. Conclusion: The Lp single culture could improve the sensory characteristics of papaya juice and enhance its beneficial properties.

This study proposed the multi-coupling grouting system with the aim to tackle green mine problems such as surface collapse, water resources destruction and coal based solid waste accumulation.Successfully applied, this system yielded the following major achievements: this study (1) probed into the patterns of development and evolution in mining separation space and primary fracture space, and conducted the intelligent identification of grouting space by means of theoretical analysis, physical and numerical simulation and field detection.(2) prepared multi-source inorganic high-performance grouting materials for different scenarios by using coal-based solid wastes (coal gangue, fly ash), and developed a new KEP grouting material with underwater dispersion resistance, high volume coefficient and high plastic strength.(3) applied cluster well and feather well to grouting hole drilling and and developed an all-weather, high pump pressure and large flow intelligent grouting system; The reinforcement grouting technology is applied for the first time to strengthen the effect of grouting to reduce settlement.(4)put forward the technology system of grouting effect monitoring and detection, and emphatically expounded the borehole detection method of combining drilling core and well logging.(5)formed an intelligent technology system based on the methods of separation space grouting to reduce settlement and treat waste, caving zone grouting to treat waste, goaf grouting to strengthen foundation bearing capacity and treat waste, and roof fissure grouting to control water gushing as the core.Engineering demonstrations of this system have been carried out in Xiadian coal mine, Xinpu phosphate mine, Caojiatan coal mine, Gaojiabao coal mine and other places, which yielded good results.

Abstract Spine degeneration is an aging-related disease, but its molecular mechanisms remain unknown, although elevated β-catenin signaling has been reported to be involved in intervertebral disc degeneration. Here, we determined the role of β-catenin signaling in spinal degeneration and in the homeostasis of the functional spinal unit (FSU), which includes the intervertebral disc, vertebra and facet joint and is the smallest physiological motion unit of the spine. We showed that pain sensitivity in patients with spinal degeneration is highly correlated with β-catenin protein levels. We then generated a mouse model of spinal degeneration by transgenic expression of constitutively active β-catenin in Col2 + cells. We found that β-catenin-TCF7 activated the transcription of CCL2, a known critical factor in osteoarthritic pain. Using a lumbar spine instability model, we showed that a β-catenin inhibitor relieved low back pain. Our study indicates that β-catenin plays a critical role in maintaining spine tissue homeostasis, its abnormal upregulation leads to severe spinal degeneration, and its targeting could be an avenue to treat this condition.

In order to reduce the probability of human error in the cockpit of a civil aircraft, based on the SHEL model, this paper classifies performance shaping factors (PSF) that affect the human factor reliability of the human-machine interface. Then it constructs the relevant PSF system and uses the interpretation structure model to establish the corresponding adjacency matrix. When a multi-level recursive structure is obtained, the Noisy-OR model is introduced to construct the Bayesian network, thus establishing the new human-machine interface evaluation method. Real cases are used to verify the effectiveness of the method thus established through causal inference with the Bayesian network. The evaluation method for the reliability of a set of human factors this paper proposes provides a new approach to evaluating the human-machine interface in the cockpit of a civil aircraft.

To explore the relationship between diabetes and intervertebral disc degeneration in mice and the associated underlying mechanism. Four-week-old male Kunming mice were used to model diabetes using a high-fat diet combined with streptozotocin injection. After 6 months, morphological and pathological changes in L4-L6 intervertebral discs were detected by magnetic resonance imaging, micro-CT and histological staining. Immunostaining of CD31, F4/80 and CD16/32 receptors was used to detect vascular invasion and inflammatory infiltration in endplates; the exact changes were then explored by the transmission electron microscopy. The nucleus pulposus of the control and the diabetic group had a clear boundary and regular shape without collapse, while endplate calcification and chondrocyte abnormality in the diabetic group were more obvious. Immunofluorescence confirmed that compared to control, expression levels of CD31 (vascular endothelial marker) and F4/80 (monocyte/macrophage marker) in the diabetic group were significantly increased (P

Background: Wound healing is a complicated process involving multiple cell components and can help the re-establishment of the skin’s barrier function. Previous studies have pointed out that bacterial infection and sustained inflammatory reactions are the main causes of the delay of wound closure and scar formation during wound healing. The effect of current approaches for scar-free wound repair still faces many challenges, and alternative therapeutic methods are urgently needed to be established.Methods: The basic characteristics of the new-designed nanoparticles were clarified through the characterization of the material. The biocompatibility of the nanoparticles, as well as its effect on fibroblast function, anti-bacterial capacity, inflammation suppressive role, and the underlying mechanism were further verified by a panel of biochemical assays in vitro. Ultimately, pre-clinical rat model was employed to testify its role in wound healing and scar formation in vivo.Results: Firstly, gallium-modified gelatin nanoparticles loaded with quercetin was successfully established, displaying good biocompatibility and facilitative effect on fibroblast function. In addition, the nanoparticles showed prominent anti-bacterial and inflammation-suppressive effects. What’s more important, the nanoparticles could also induce the polarization of macrophages from M1 to M2 phenotype to exert its inflammatory inhibitory role through TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. Ultimately, in vivo experiment showed that the nanoparticles could effectively promote wound repair and inhibit scar formation during the process of wound healing.Conclusion: Taken together, the new nanoparticles have good anti-bacterial and anti-scar formation effects and great potential in the field of skin wound repair, which provides a promising therapeutic strategy for wound treatment.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have broad potential applications in electrochemical glucose detection. Herein, a green ultrasonic synthesis process is presented for preparing two-dimensional (2D) copper–nickel metal–organic framework nanosheets (CuNi-MOFNs) for glucose detection. The synthesized CuNi-MOFNs were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The CuNi-MOFN nanocomposites were used to cover the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and the CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode was studied in alkaline media. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometric i–t curves indicated that the CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode revealed great electrochemical performances towards glucose oxidation. Due to the ease of access to active metal sites in large specific surface of nanosheets, the CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode can effectively improve the electronic transfer rate and enhance electrocatalytic activity of the CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode. The CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode showed electrochemical performances for glucose detection with a linear range from 0.01 mM to 4 mM, sensitivity of 702 μAmM−1cm−2, and detection limit of 3.33 μΜ (S/N = 3). The CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode exhibited excellent anti-interference ability and high selectivity in glucose measurements. Hence, the CuNi-MOFNs-modified electrode has good, promising prospects in non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose detection.

Abstract Background Vertebral rotation and facet tropism are very common in various lumbar degenerative diseases. Facet tropism means the presence of asymmetric angles on both sides of the facet joints. Studies have shown that facet tropism contributes to lumbar degenerative disease, and also inevitably leads to the asymmetry of movement and the imbalance of force, which may be possible to rotate the vertebral body. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between lumbar vertebral rotation and facet tropism in patients with lumbar degenerative diseases. Methods A total of 198 patients with lumbar degenerative diseases from 2018 to 2019 were enrolled. Five hundred and seventy vertebral rotation angles and 1140 facet angles were measured. The vertebral bodies are divided into non-rotation group (Group A) and rotation group (Group B) with the vertebral rotation angle of 3° as the boundary. The information including gender, age, BMI (body mass index), bone mineral density, history of smoking, drinking, hypertension, diabetes, diagnosis, segment distribution, and degree of facet degeneration were also counted. Using inter-class correlation coefficients (ICC) to test the reliability of measurement results. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship between vertebral rotation and facet tropism. Results The consistency of the ICC within the groups of the observers is above 0.8, with good agreement. The results of univariate analysis showed that facet tropism was significantly different between group A and group B (OR (odds ratio) = 3.30, 95% CI = 2.03–5.35, P

IntroductionAKR1C3, as a crucial androgenic enzyme, implicates the androgen biosynthesis and promoting prostate cancer cell growth in vitro. This study provides a new gene therapy strategy for targeting AKR1C3 to treat castration-resistant prostate cancer.MethodssiAKR1C3@PPA is assembled from PEG3500, PAMAM, Aptamer-PSMA, and siRNA for AKR1C3. We analyzed the relationship between AKR1C3 expression and the survival rate of prostate cancer patients based on the GEPIA online database to perform disease-free survival, and found that AKR1C3 may be an important factor leading to poor prognosis in prostate cancer. Considering AKR1C3 as a therapeutic target for castration-resistant prostate cancer, we constructed a complex nucleic acid nanoparticle, siAKR1C3@PPA to investigate the inhibitory effect on castration-resistant prostate cancer.ResultsAptamer-PSMA acts as a target to guide siAKR1C3@PPA into PSMA-positive prostate cancer cells and specifically down regulate AKR1C3. Cyclin D1 was decreased as a result of siAKR1C3@PPA treatment. Changes in Cyclin D1 were consistent with decreased expression of AKR1C3 in LNCaP-AKR1C3 cells and 22RV1 cells. Furthermore, in the LNCaP-AKR1C3 group, 1070 proteins were upregulated and 1015 proteins were downregulated compared to the LNCaP group according to quantitative 4D label-free proteomics. We found 42 proteins involved in cell cycle regulation. In a validated experiment, we demonstrated that PCNP and CINP were up-regulated, and TERF2 and TP53 were down-regulated by western blotting.ConclusionWe concluded that siAKR1C3@PPA may arrest the cell cycle and affect cell proliferation.

Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member C3 (AKR1C3) plays an important role in prostate cancer (PCa) progression, particularly in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). It is necessary to establish a genetic signature associated with AKR1C3 that can be used to predict the prognosis of PCa patients and provide important information for clinical treatment decisions. AKR1C3-related genes were identified via label-free quantitative proteomics of the AKR1C3-overexpressing LNCaP cell line. A risk model was constructed through the analysis of clinical data, PPI, and Cox-selected risk genes. Cox regression analysis, Kaplan–Meier (K–M) curves, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to verify the accuracy of the model, and two external datasets were used to verify the reliability of the results. Subsequently, the tumor microenvironment and drug sensitivity were explored. Moreover, the roles of AKR1C3 in the progression of PCa were verified in LNCaP cells. MTT, colony formation, and EdU assays were conducted to explore cell proliferation and drug sensitivity to enzalutamide. Migration and invasion abilities were measured using wound-healing and transwell assays, and qPCR was used to assess the expression levels of AR target genes and EMT genes. CDC20, SRSF3, UQCRH, INCENP, TIMM10, TIMM13, POLR2L, and NDUFAB1 were identified as AKR1C3-associated risk genes. These risk genes, established using the prognostic model, can effectively predict the recurrence status, immune microenvironment, and drug sensitivity of PCa. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and several immune checkpoints that promote cancer progression were higher in high-risk groups. Furthermore, there was a close correlation between the sensitivity of PCa patients to bicalutamide and docetaxel and the expression levels of the eight risk genes. Moreover, through in vitro experiments, Western blotting confirmed that AKR1C3 enhanced SRSF3, CDC20, and INCENP expression. We found that PCa cells with a high expression of AKR1C3 have high proliferation ability and high migration ability and were insensitive to enzalutamide. AKR1C3-associated genes had a significant role in the process of PCa, immune responses, and drug sensitivity and offer the potential for a novel model for prognostic prediction in PCa.

C32H56F24N8P4, triclinic, P1‾$P‾{1}$ (no. 2), a = 8.6769(13) Å, b = 9.8858(14) Å, c = 14.510(2) Å, α = 102.564(2)°, β = 94.461(3)°, γ = 92.152(3)°, V = 81.710(2) Å3, Z = 1, Rgt(F) = 0.0692, wRref(F2) = 0.2245, T = 296(2) K.

C11H18F12N4P2, monoclinic, P21/c (no. 14), a = 14.975(3) Å, b = 9.897(2) Å, c = 13.525(3) Å, β = 105.507(3)°, V = 1931.5(7) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0590, wRref(F2) = 0.1843, T = 296(2) K.

With the development of oilfield exploitation in China, in-depth understanding of the change of polymer flooding injection-production index can effectively alleviate the contradiction of polymer flooding and improve the production efficiency. Based on this, taking Daqing oilfield as an example, this paper makes a detailed analysis on the classification of polymer flooding stages and the prediction methods of development indicators for the first and second oil layers, and mainly discusses the variation rules of injection-production indicators in the process of polymer flooding for the first and second oil layers, in order to provide reference for others.