Development of an effective QSAR-based hazard threshold prediction model for the ecological risk assessment of aromatic hydrocarbon compounds.

The insufficient hazard thresholds of specific individual aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (AHCs) with diverse structures limit their ecological risk assessment. Thus, herein, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for estimating the hazard threshold of AHCs were developed based on the hazardous concentration for 5% of species (HC) determined using the optimal species sensitivity distribution models and on the molecular descriptors calculated via the PADEL software and ORCA software. Results revealed that the optimal QSAR model, which involved eight descriptors, namely, Zagreb, GATS2m, VR3_Dzs, AATSC2s, GATS2c, ATSC2i, ω, and V, displayed excellent performance, as reflected by an optimal goodness of fit (R = 0.

Synthesis of iron-manganese bimetallic materials supported by activated carbon and application of activated persulfate in the degradation of soil contaminated by crude oil.

Heterogeneous catalytic processes based on zero-valent iron (ZVI) have been developed to treat soil and wastewater pollutants. However, the agglomeration of ZVI reduces its ability to activate persulfate (PS). In this study, a new Fe-Mn@AC activated material was prepared to activated PS to treat oil-contaminated soil, and using the microscopic characterization of Fe-Mn@AC materials, the electron transfer mode during the Fe-Mn@AC activation of PS was clarified.

Quantitative structure-activity relationship model development for estimating the predicted No-effect concentration of petroleum hydrocarbon and derivatives in the ecological risk assessment.

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) is a cost-effective solution to directly and accurately estimating the environmental safety thresholds (ESTs) of pollutants in the ecological risk assessment due to the lack of toxicity data. In this study, QSAR models were developed for estimating the Predicted No-Effect Concentrations (PNECs) of petroleum hydrocarbons and their derivatives (PHDs) under dietary exposure, based on the quantified molecular descriptors and the obtained PNECs of 51 PHDs with given acute or chronic toxicity concentrations. Three high-reliable QSAR models were respectively developed for PHDs, aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives (AHDs), and alkanes, alkenes and their derivatives (ALKDs), with excellent fitting performance evidenced by high correlation coefficient (0.

A Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Approach to Determine Biotoxicity of Amide Herbicides for Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment.

Amide herbicides have been widely applied in agriculture and found to be widespread and affect nontarget organisms in the environment. To better understand the biotoxicity mechanisms and determine the toxicity to the nontarget organisms for the hazard and risk assessment, five QSAR models were developed for the biotoxicity prediction of amide herbicides toward five aquatic and terrestrial organisms (including algae, daphnia, fish, earthworm and avian species), based on toxicity concentration and quantitative molecular descriptors. The results showed that the developed models complied with OECD principles for QSAR validation and presented excellent performances in predictive ability.

Tracing sources of oilfield wastewater based on excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy coupled with chemical pattern recognition techniques.

In order to prevent the illegal discharge of oilfield wastewater, this work proposed excitation-emission matrix fluorescence (EEMF) spectroscopy coupled with two kinds of chemical pattern recognition methods for tracing the sources of oilfield wastewater. The first pattern recognition method was built from the relative concentrations extracted by alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) based on partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) algorithm, and the other one was modeled based on strictly multi-way partial least squares-discriminant analysis (N-PLS-DA). Both methods showed good discrimination abilities for oilfield wastewater samples from three different sources.

miR-200a-3p improves neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis by regulating RIPK1.

Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an acquired disease, which mainly occurs in premature infants or sick newborns. microRNA (miR), as a common non-coding RNA in recent years, is found in many diseases. In this research, miR usefulin NEC is analyzed by GEO.

Cardiac Rehabilitation of Patients with Acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in a Han Population in Northern China: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been associated with improved cardiac function in cardiovascular diseases. Our aim was to explore the factors associated with cardiac function and CR.

Methods: This prospective cohort study had 473 STEMI patients admitted for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) who were divided into a CR group (group A, n = 104) and a non-CR group (group B, n = 369) based on whether they could complete CR.

Influence of light-irradiated Noccaea caerulescens on the characteristics of dissolved organic matter in its rhizospheric soil during phytoremediation.

It has been observed that suitable light irradiation can improve the phytoremediation efficiency of various plants by enhancing their growth rate and metal uptake capacity. However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of light irradiation on metal mobilization and translocation in soils have rarely been reported. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the variation in dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the rhizosphere of Noccaea caerulescens (formerly Thlaspi caerulescens J.

Influence of Planting Density on the Phytoremediation Efficiency of Festuca arundinacea in cd-Polluted Soil.

Planting density can influence the biomass generation and element uptake capacity of various plants, which are two critical factors that determine the phytoremediation efficiency of plants. A series of 70 d experiments was performed to evaluate the influence of the planting density (10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 g seeds·m, namely D10, D15, D20, D25, and D30, respectively) of Festuca arundinacea on the decontamination of Cd-polluted soils. The variations in the biomass yield, falling tissue (senescent and dead leaf tissues) proportion, and Cd extraction capacity of the species under different cultivation strategies were determined.

EARLY VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENTATION IMPROVES THE OUTCOME OF RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY IN EXTREMELY PRETERM INFANTS.

Purpose: This study assessed the efficacy and safety of early vitamin A (VA) supplementation to improve outcomes of retinopathy of prematurity in extremely preterm infants.

Methods: A total of 262 eligible extremely preterm infants underwent randomization; of these, 132 were assigned to the VA group and 130 to the control group. The infants were administered a solution of VA (1,500 IU/day), added to their enteral feeds as soon as minimal feeding was introduced and continued for 28 days or until discharge.

A new function of spent activated carbon in BAC process: Removing heavy metals by ion exchange mechanism.

To investigate the potential of the spent activated carbon (AC) on removing heavy metals, the spent ACs used 5 years were collected from a full-scale BAC water treatment plant of southern China. The study found that the spent ACs had very good adsorption capacity for Pb(II) and Cd(II) at low concentrations (about 200 μg/L or less) with the maximum removal rates of more than 95% and 86% respectively (only 10-15% for virgin ACs), which will provide the theoretical basis for the disposal of spent AC (the hazardous waste) in BAC process or the combination reuse of spent AC and the virgin AC. Surface properties analyses showed that compared to virgin AC, the pH and PZC in the spent AC significantly decreased, and the relative abundance of surface carboxyl increased by 81% on average, which are essential for the adsorption of metals.

Combined prediction of miR-210 and miR-374a for severity and prognosis of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Background And Aim: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a disorder featured by hypoxic and ischemic damages during the perinatal period and its high mortality (i.e., 15%-20%) could be partly attributed to late diagnosis.

An efficient and green reaction of isatins, 3-amino-1-phenyl-2-pyrazolin-5-one (3-amine-1H-pyrazole), and β-diketone in aqueous medium.

An efficient and green reaction of isatins, 3-amino-1-phenyl-2-pyrazolin-5-one (3-amine-1H-pyrazole), and [Formula: see text]-diketone in aqueous medium in the presence of [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] is reported, and a series of novel spirocompounds was obtained with high yields. The advantages of this reaction were simple procedure, moderate reaction conditions, and wide range of substrates. More importantly, the catalyst [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] could be recovered for reuse up to five times.

Associations of Genetic Polymorphisms Relevant to Metabolic Pathway of Vitamin D3 with Development and Prognosis of Childhood Bronchial Asthma.

This study was aimed at investigating the correlation between genetic polymorphisms relevant to metabolic pathway of vitamin D3 (VD) and susceptibility to childhood bronchial asthma. Altogether 143 childhood patients with bronchial asthma and 143 healthy children of Chinese Han ethnicity were enrolled in this study. The key single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified by HaploView 4.

Intracellular DNA sensing pathway of cGAS-cGAMP is decreased in human newborns and young children.

Newborns are highly susceptible to DNA virus infections, which may result from the characteristics of neonatal innate immune systems. Here we analyzed for the first time the development of innate immune sensing and signaling of intracellular DNA virus infection in human newborns and young children. Both mRNA and protein expression of cGAS, an intracellular DNA sensor, were shown to be significantly reduced in neonatal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

Promotion of Wilms' tumor cells migration and invasion by mono-2-ethyhexyl phthalate (MEHP) via activation of NF-κB signals.

Wilms tumor is a pediatric kidney cancer associated with inactivation of the WT1 tumor-suppressor gene in 5-10% of cases. There is an urgent need to illustrate risk factors which can trigger the motility of Wilms tumor cells. Our present study revealed that mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP) exposure can significantly increase the in vitro migration and invasion of G401 and WiT49 cells.

Physicochemical and porosity characteristics of thermally regenerated activated carbon polluted with biological activated carbon process.

The characteristics of thermally regenerated activated carbon (AC) polluted with biological activated carbon (BAC) process were investigated. The results showed that the true micropore and sub-micropore volume, pH value, bulk density, and hardness of regenerated AC decreased compared to the virgin AC, but the total pore volume increased. XPS analysis displayed that the ash contents of Al, Si, and Ca in the regenerated AC respectively increased by 3.

Theoretical and experimental study of 37-core waveguides with large mode area.

The evanescently coupled multicore waveguide lattice composed of 37 linear type I cores hexagonally arranged has been theoretically studied and fabricated by low-repetition-rate femtosecond laser inscription of bulk fused silica. The effects of the single core's numerical apertures (NAs) and spacing on the mode characteristics of the 37-core waveguide were calculated by the finite-element method. It was found that the mode field areas of the fundamental mode LP₀₁ with 5 μm spacing of different NAs were all larger than 577  μm², which was confirmed by the experiments.

Honokiol suppresses TNF-α-induced migration and matrix metalloproteinase expression by blocking NF-κB activation via the ERK signaling pathway in rat aortic smooth muscle cells.

Honokiol, a small-molecule polyphenol derived and isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Magnolia officinalis, has been shown to possess a wide range of pharmacological activities. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of honokiol on tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced migration in rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASMCs). We found that honokiol inhibited TNF-α-induced RASMC proliferation and migration in a dose-dependent manner.

Red blood cell count as an indicator of microvascular complications in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Background: Rheological disorders of red blood cells (RBC) and decreased RBC deformability have been involved in the development of diabetic microangiopathy. However, few studies have evaluated the association of RBC count with microvascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of RBC count with microvascular complications in patients with T2DM.

Emodin, a naturally occurring anthraquinone, ameliorates experimental autoimmune myocarditis in rats.

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart and a major cause of dilated cardiomyopathy that can lead to heart failure and sudden death in young adults. Giant cell myocarditis is a severe heart disease of unknown causes and is defined histopathologically as diffuse myocardial necrosis with multinucleated giant cells in the absence of sarcoid-like granulomata. Giant cell myocarditis is often studied using a model of experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) in rats.

[Removal of organic pollutants by adsorption cooperated with biodegradation in BAC].

The determination measure for distribution of NOM removal by two mechanisms in BAC was established. In this method, the change in DOC and BDOC of inflow and effluent was used to evaluate the distribution and to determinate the effect of the different ozone doses on the adsorption and biodegradation in BAC. The ozonation increased the concentration of BDOC in 0.

[Determination for optimal ozone dose in O3-BAC].

The ozonation can increase biodegradability of water and the biofilter after ozonation can increase biostability of water. The result shows that with different doses of ozone between 2 and 8 mg/L, ozonation can increase AOC-P17, AOC-NOX and BDOC by 20.9%-85.