Reversible-gel-assisted, ambient-pressure-dried, multifunctional, flame-retardant biomass aerogels with smart high-strength-elasticity transformation.

Bio-based aerogels, which are poised as compelling thermal insulators, demand intricate synthesis procedures and have limited durability under harsh conditions. The integration of smart stimuli-response transitions in biomass aerogels holds promise as a solution, yet remains a challenge. Here, we introduce a pioneering strategy that employs reversible-gel-assisted ambient-pressure drying without organic solvents to craft multifunctional bio-based aerogels.

Organic solvents-free and ambient-pressure drying melamine formaldehyde resin aerogels with homogeneous structures, outstanding mechanical strength and flame retardancy.

Atmospheric drying method for fabricating aerogels is considered the most promising way for casting aerogels on a large scale. However, the organic solvent exchange, remaining environmental pollution risk, is a crucial step in mitigating the impact of surface tension during the atmospheric drying process, especially for wet gel formed through the alkoxy-derived sol-gel process, such as melamine-formaldehyde resin (MF) aerogel. Herein, a tough polymer-assisted in situ polymerization was proposed to fabricate MF resin aerogel with a combination of mechanical toughness and strength, enabling it to withstand the capillary force during water evaporation.

Self-evolutionary recycling of flame-retardant polyurethane foam enabled by controllable catalytic cleavage.

Polyurethane (PU) foams, pivotal in modern life, face challenges suh as fire hazards and environmental waste burdens. The current reliance of PU on potentially ecotoxic halogen-/phosphorus-based flame retardants impedes large-scale material recycling. Here, our demonstrated controllable catalytic cracking strategy, using cesium salts, enables self-evolving recycling of flame-retardant PU.

Catalytic polymer self-cleavage for CO generation before combustion empowers materials with fire safety.

Polymeric materials, rich in carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen elements, present substantial fire hazards to both human life and property due to their intrinsic flammability. Overcoming this challenge in the absence of any flame-retardant elements is a daunting task. Herein, we introduce an innovative strategy employing catalytic polymer auto-pyrolysis before combustion to proactively release CO, akin to possessing responsive CO fire extinguishing mechanisms.

U-shaped association between plasma C-peptide and sarcopenia: A cross-sectional study of elderly Chinese patients with diabetes mellitus.

Limited research exists regarding the relationship between fasting plasma C-peptide levels and sarcopenia. As a result, our study aimed to examine this association in elderly Chinese diabetic patients. This cross-sectional study included 288 elderly patients with diabetes mellitus from the Fourth People's Hospital in Guiyang who were enrolled prospectively between March 2020 and February 2023.

A new modality of colorectal cancer screening based on chronic disease management.

Background: To develop a new modality of colorectal cancer screening based on chronic disease management (CDM) to improve the participation rate of screening, and maximize the benefits of limited resources.

Methods: Patients under CDM were assigned to screening intervention group (SI) and screening control group1 (SC1), residents from natural community were assigned to screening control group2 (SC2). A parallel controlled community intervention study was performed.

Morphological and molecular analyses reveal two new species of (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales) from China.

and , two new species parasitising spiders collected in China, are illustrated and described, based on morphological features and multiloci phylogenetic analysis. The group is sister to the group, but form long penicilloid conidiophore producing enlarged fusiform conidia ((7-) 7.5-9 (-10) × 2.

Deciphering clinical abbreviations with a privacy protecting machine learning system.

Physicians write clinical notes with abbreviations and shorthand that are difficult to decipher. Abbreviations can be clinical jargon (writing "HIT" for "heparin induced thrombocytopenia"), ambiguous terms that require expertise to disambiguate (using "MS" for "multiple sclerosis" or "mental status"), or domain-specific vernacular ("cb" for "complicated by"). Here we train machine learning models on public web data to decode such text by replacing abbreviations with their meanings.

Polyelectrolyte Complex with Controllable Viscosity by Doping Cu Protects Nylon-Cotton Fabric against Fire.

Nylon-cotton (NC) blend fabrics are widely used in military and industrial applications, but their high flammability still remains a serious problem. In an effort to effectively and quickly impart flame retardancy to the NC fabric, it was treated by simply blade coating with a Cu-doped polyelectrolyte complex (CPEC) that consists of ammonium polyphosphate (APP), polyethylenimine (PEI), and copper sulfate. The viscosity of the CPEC can be adjusted by altering the content of CuSO, which controls the amount of extrinsic and intrinsic ion pairs.

User-centred design for machine learning in health care: a case study from care management.

Objectives: Few machine learning (ML) models are successfully deployed in clinical practice. One of the common pitfalls across the field is inappropriate problem formulation: designing ML to fit the data rather than to address a real-world clinical pain point.

Methods: We introduce a practical toolkit for user-centred design consisting of four questions covering: (1) solvable pain points, (2) the unique value of ML (eg, automation and augmentation), (3) the actionability pathway and (4) the model's reward function.

Composite Sophora Colon-Soluble Capsule Ameliorates DSS-Induced Ulcerative Colitis in Mice via Gut Microbiota-Derived Butyric Acid and NCR ILC3.

Objective: To investigate the effects of composite Sophora colon-soluble Capsule (CSCC) on gut microbiota-mediated short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production and downstream group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) of dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis (UC) mice model.

Methods: The main components of CSCC were analyzed by hybrid ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography ion mobility spectromety quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-IM-QTOF/MS). Twenty-four male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into 4 groups (n=6) by using a computer algorithm-generated random digital, including control, DSS model, mesalazine, and CSCC groups.

[Research on anti-tumor natural product diosgenin].

Diosgenin is widely distributed in many plants, such as Polygonatum sibiricum, Paris polyphylla, Dioscorea oppositifolia, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Costus speciosus, Tacca chantrieri, which has good anti-tumor activity and preferable effects on preventing atherosclerosis, protecting the heart, treating diabetes, etc. This review combed through the anti-tumor mechanisms of diosgenin encompassing lung, breast, gallbladder, liver, oral cavity, stomach, bladder, bone marrow, etc. Besides, it was discovered that diosgenin mainly exerts its effect by inhibiting tumor cell migration, suppressing tumor cell proliferation and growth, and inducing cell apoptosis.

Environmentally Benign and Self-Extinguishing Multilayer Nanocoating for Protection of Flammable Foam.

Most current flame-retardant nanocoatings for flexible polyurethane foam (PUF) consist of passive barriers, such as clay, graphene oxide, or metal hydroxide. In an effort to develop a polymeric and environmentally benign nanocoating for PUF, positively charged chitosan (CH) and anionic sodium hexametaphosphate (PSP) were deposited using layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly. Only six bilayers of CH/PSP film can withstand flame penetration during exposure to a butane torch (∼1400 °C) for 10 s and stop flame spread on the foam.

Efficacy of TCM therapy of tonifying lung-kidney's Qi-deficiency in a case of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: A case report.

Rationale: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a special form of spontaneous, chronic, progressive interstitial fibrotic pneumonia of unknown cause, and treatments for IPF have shown a poor prognosis. This study reports a new treatment, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy, for tonifying Qi-deficiency of lung-kidney in a 64-year-old patient with IPF.

Patient Concerns: A 64-year-old man, who complained of cough and asthma, was diagnosed as IPF with mild impairment in lung function by thoracic high-resolution computed tomography and pulmonary function test.

Flame Retardant Polypropylene Composites with Low Densities.

Polypropylene (PP) is currently widely used in areas requiring lightweight materials because of its low density. Due to the intrinsic flammability, the application of PP is restricted in many conditions. Aluminum trihydroxide (ATH) is reported as a practical flame retardant for PP, but the addition of ATH often diminishes the lightweight advantage of PP.

Efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in a case of geriatric urinary tract infections with pain of episiotomy scar inflammation.

Rationale: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common infectious diseases in women. The management of patients with UTI after menopause is commonly combined with antibiotics and external application of estrogen, which could also cause drug resistance and result in poor curative effect. This study reports a case of UTI with pain of episiotomy scar inflammation for 10 years, which was successfully cured under traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and showed no recurrence for 5 years.

Self-cross-linked melamine-formaldehyde-pectin aerogel with excellent water resistance and flame retardancy.

Self-cross-linked aerogel based on pectin and melamine-formaldehyde resin (MF) was fabricated via freeze-drying method using water as solvent, where pectin is structural material meanwhile acting as acid to catalyse the cross-linking of MF. The cross-linking reaction easily occurs without additional additives, which can be significantly accelerated at elevated temperatures, with a critical value of about 55 °C. The obtained aerogel shows network microstructures as observed with SEM.

Large-scale converting waste coffee grounds into functional carbon materials as high-efficient adsorbent for organic dyes.

Functional carbon materials have been fabricated through simple and effective catalytic carbonization with waste coffee grounds (CGs) as carbon precursor and FeCl as catalyst. The effect of FeCl loading and carbonization temperature on carbon yield was investigated. The morphology and structure of as-synthesized carbons was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and nitrogen isothermal adsorption/desorption measurement, respectively.

Goose FMO3 gene cloning, tissue expression profiling, polymorphism detection and association analysis with trimethylamine level in the egg yolk.

Flavin-containing monooxygenase 3 (FMO3) plays a critical role in catalyzing the conversion of trimethylamine (TMA) to trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) in vivo. Despite the well-documented association between FMO3 mutations and a 'fishy' off-flavor eggs in chicken and quail, little information is available regarding the molecular characteristic of goose (Anser cygnoides) FMO3 and its relationship with the yolk TMA content. To fill these gaps, we cloned the full-length cDNA sequence of goose FMO3, which comprised 1851bp encoding 531 amino acids.

Role of tool marks inside spherical mitigation pit fabricated by micro-milling on repairing quality of damaged KH2PO4 crystal.

Repairing initial slight damage site into stable structures by engineering techniques is the leading strategy to mitigate the damage growth on large-size components used in laser-driven fusion facilities. For KH2PO4 crystals, serving as frequency converter and optoelectronic switch-Pockels cell, micro-milling has been proven the most promising method to fabricate these stable structures. However, tool marks inside repairing pit would be unavoidably introduced due to the wearing of milling cutter in actual repairing process.

[Species diversity and temporal niche of entomopathogenic fungi in the extensively managed tea plantation soil].

The species diversity and temporal niche of entomopathogenic fungi community in the rhizosphere soil collected from the extensively managed Huangshan fuzz tip tea plantation were investigated. A total of 140 soil samples were collected at the location of Tangkou Town, Huangshan of Anhui Province during August, 2012 to June, 2013, and totally 1041 fungal isolates were obtained on selective medium with soil dilution plating. The results showed that the entomopathogenic fungi community in the tea plantation soil was diverse with 13 species in 6 genera.

Efficient approach to improving the flame retardancy of poly(vinyl alcohol)/clay aerogels: incorporating piperazine-modified ammonium polyphosphate.

Ammonium polyphosphates (APP) modified with piperazine (PA-APP) was used to improve the flame retardancy of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/montmorillonite (MMT) aerogels, which were prepared via an environmentally friendly freeze-drying method. The thermal stabilities of the samples were evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TG); the flammability behaviors of samples were investigated by limiting oxygen index (LOI), vertical burning test (UL-94) and cone calorimeter (CC) tests. TG test results showed that the 5% weight loss temperature (T5%) of PVA/MMT/PA-APP was 10 °C higher than that of PVA/MMT/APP.