Enhanced organic removal for shale gas fracturing flowback water by electrocoagulation and simultaneous electro-peroxone process.

Colloids and organics in shale gas fracturing flowback water (SGFFW) during shale gas extraction are of primary concerns. Coagulation combined with oxidation might be a promising process for SGFFW treatment. In this study, a novel electrocoagulation-peroxone (ECP) process was developed for SGFFW treatment by simultaneous coagulation and oxidation process with a Al plate as the anode and a carbon-PTFE gas diffusion electrode as the cathode, realizing the simultaneous processes of coagulation, H2O2 generation and activation by O3 at the cathode. Compared with electrocoagulation (EC) and peroxi-electrocoagulation (PEC), COD removal efficiency mainly followed the declining order of ECP, PEC and EC under the optimal current density of 50 mA cm-2. The appearance of medium MW fraction (1919 Da) during ozonation and PEC but disappearance in ECP indicated that these intermediate products couldn't be degraded by ozonation and PEC but could be further oxidized and mineralized by the hydroxyl radical produced by the cathode in ECP, demonstrating the hydroxyl radical might be responsible for the significant enhancement of COD removal. The pseudo-first order kinetic model can well fit ozonation and EC process but not the PEC and ECP process due to the synthetic effect of coagulation and oxidation. However, the proposed mechanism based model can generally fit ECP satisfactorily. The average current efficiency for PEC was 35.4% and 12% higher than that of ozonation and EC, respectively. This study demonstrated the feasibility of establishing a high efficiency and space-saving electrochemical system with integrated anodic coagulation and cathodic electro-peroxone for SGFFW treatment.

Degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil mesocosms by microbial/plant bioaugmentation: Performance and mechanism.

In order to study the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in an aged and highly contaminated soil, four bioremediation strategies (indigenous microorganisms, microbial bioaugmentation with a PAH-degrading and bioemulsifier-producing strain, Rhodococcus ruber Em1, plant bioaugmentation with Orychophragmus violaceus and their combination) were compared and the enhanced degradation mechanism was investigated in soil mesocosms. Degradation rates over a period of 175 days showed that Em1 combined with Orychophragmus violaceus promoted a significant enhancement of PAHs degradation. In inoculated microcosms with Rhodococcus ruberEm1, mineralization reached a lower level in the absence than in the presence of plants. Elimination of PAHs was significantly enhanced (increased by 54.45%) in the bioaugmented mesocosms. Quantitative PCR indicated that copy numbers of linA and RHD-like gene (encoding PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenase) in the mesocosm with plant were three and five times higher than those in the mesocosm without plant, respectively. Transcript copy numbers of RHD-like gene and 16S rRNA gene of strain Em1 in mesocosm with plant were two and four times higher than those in the mesocosm without plant, respectively. Taken together, the results of this study show that plants or Rhodococcus ruber Em1 enhance total PAHs removal, moreover their effects are necessarily cumulative by combined strains and plants.

Hepatitis C virus-associated cryoglobulinemia with membrano-proliferative glomerulonephritis treated with prednisolone and interferon: A case report.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of liver-associated morbidity and has an increasing prevalence worldwide. Hepatitis C virus infection may lead to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver failure. However, it is also associated with a wide range of extra-hepatic complications, such as cryoglobulinemia, an immune complex disease associated with cryoglobulin leading to multiple organ damage and, while the major symptom is vasculitis. The present study reported on a-58-year-old woman who was diagnosed with HCV-associated cryoglobulinemia with skin, kidney and blood system damage and biopsy-proven cryoglobulinemia membrano-proliferative glomerulonephritis. HCV RNA clearance occurred within a few weeks of interferon treatment and the patient was then treated by prednisolone and sustained interferon. While the therapeutic effect was obvious at first, the disease reappeared in combination with refractory infection and multiple organ failure, and the patient finally died. HCV-associated cryoglobulinemia is uncommon in developing countries such as China, while treatment guidelines remain to be established, particularly if complex complications are present.

Review of Herbal Traditional Chinese Medicine for the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the most serious chronic complications of diabetes; 20-40% of diabetic patients develop into end stage renal disease (ESRD). However, exact pathogenesis of DN is not fully clear and we have great difficulties in curing DN; poor treatment of DN led to high chances of mortality worldwide. A lot of western medicines such as ACEI and ARB have been demonstrated to protect renal function of DN but are not enough to delay or retard the progression of DN; therefore, exploring exact and feasible drug is current research hotspot in medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used to treat and control diabetes and its complications such as DN in a lot of scientific researches, which will give insights into the mechanism of DN, but they are not enough to reveal all the details. In this paper, we summarize the applications of herbal TCM preparations, single herbal TCM, and/or monomers from herbal TCM in the treatment of DN in the recent 10 years, depicting the renal protective effects and the corresponding mechanism, through which we shed light on the renal protective roles of TCM in DN with a particular focus on the molecular basis of the effect and provide a beneficial supplement to the drug therapy for DN.

Histone lysine methylation in diabetic nephropathy.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) belongs to debilitating microvascular complications of diabetes and is the leading cause of end-stage renal diseases worldwide. Furthermore, outcomes from the DCCT/EDIC study showed that DN often persists and progresses despite intensive glucose control in many diabetes patients, possibly as a result of prior episode of hyperglycemia, which is called "metabolic memory." The underlying mechanisms responsible for the development and progression of DN remain poorly understood. Activation of multiple signaling pathways and key transcription factors can lead to aberrant expression of DN-related pathologic genes in target renal cells. Increasing evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms in chromatin such as DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and methylation can influence the pathophysiology of DN and metabolic memory. Exciting researches from cell culture and experimental animals have shown that key histone methylation patterns and the related histone methyltransferases and histone demethylases can play important roles in the regulation of inflammatory and profibrotic genes in renal cells under diabetic conditions. Because histone methylation is dynamic and potentially reversible, it can provide a window of opportunity for the development of much-needed novel therapeutic potential for DN in the future. In this minireview, we discuss recent advances in the field of histone methylation and its roles in the pathogenesis and progression of DN.

Microbial community dynamics of soil mesocosms using Orychophragmus violaceus combined with Rhodococcus ruber Em1 for bioremediation of highly PAH-contaminated soil.

Understanding of the effects of perturbation strategies on soil microorganisms is helpful in optimizing bioremediation systems and enhancing their efficiency. Four soil mesocosms were constructed for bioremediation of highly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-contaminated soil using the flowering plant Orychophragmus violaceus and/or bacterium Rhodococcus ruber Em1. Bacterial community dynamics were evaluated by 454 pyrosequencing, and Em1 abundance was assessed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that the diversity of the bacterial community increased gradually with time; the degree of increase was in the order mesocosm PE (combination of O. violaceus and Em1), mesocosm WE (Em1), mesocosm PC (O. violaceus only), mesocosm WA (attenuation). Increased diversity may be predictive of PAH degradation. O. violaceus had a marked effect on bacterial community evolution and promoted the growth of Em1. The bacterial community of mesocosm PE gradually separated from the others, as indicated by Venn diagrams and weight-principal component analysis. Abundances of the families Cytophagaceae + Nocardioidaceae + Iamiacaeae (Actinobacteria), and Alcanivoracaceae + Pseodomonadaceae + Xanthomonadaceae (Gammaproteobacteria) were positively correlated with PAH degradation. Our findings help bridge the gap between field bioremediation and laboratory approaches, provide insight into processes of microbial ecological recovery, and will be useful in developing strategies to optimize bioremediation by modifying plant-microbe interaction patterns.

Successful bioremediation of an aged and heavily contaminated soil using a microbial/plant combination strategy.

Bioremediation of an aged and heavily contaminated soil was performed using microbial remediation, phytoremediation, and microbial/phytoremediation. The removal efficiency of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was in the order microbial/phytoremediation>microbial remediation≈phytoremediation>control. The removal percentage of microbial/phytoremediation (69.6%) was twice that of control. Kocuria sp. P10 significantly enhanced PAH removal (P<0.05) and ryegrass growth (P<0.01). Dehydrogenase activity increased steadily and was negatively correlated with total PAH content. Successional changes in soil microbial communities were also detected by pyrosequencing. The results indicated that biodiversity of the soil bacterial community gradually increased with time and was slightly lower in control, as indicated by operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers and Shannon-Wiener indices. Proportions of Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria were consistently high in all groups. Actinobacteridae were initially predominant (>37.8%) but rapidly decreased to <4%. The proportions of Acidobacteria increased greatly and this increase was positively correlated with PAH removal. These findings indicate a healthy ecological progression and a role of Acidobacteria as an indicator of the process. This study provides new insights into the dynamics of community structure during bioremediation process and a possible basis for ecological assessment for bioremediation on a large scale.

Spontaneous type 2 diabetic rodent models.

Diabetes mellitus, especially type 2 diabetes (T2DM), is one of the most common chronic diseases and continues to increase in numbers with large proportion of health care budget being used. Many animal models have been established in order to investigate the mechanisms and pathophysiologic progress of T2DM and find effective treatments for its complications. On the basis of their strains, features, advantages, and disadvantages, various types of animal models of T2DM can be divided into spontaneously diabetic models, artificially induced diabetic models, and transgenic/knockout diabetic models. Among these models, the spontaneous rodent models are used more frequently because many of them can closely describe the characteristic features of T2DM, especially obesity and insulin resistance. In this paper, we aim to investigate the current available spontaneous rodent models for T2DM with regard to their characteristic features, advantages, and disadvantages, and especially to describe appropriate selection and usefulness of different spontaneous rodent models in testing of various new antidiabetic drugs for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Effect of prolonged tacrolimus treatment in idiopathic membranous nephropathy with nephrotic syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: Tacrolimus has been used for idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) therapy, but most patients who achieved remission showed a high relapse rate when tacrolimus was withdrawn after 6-12 months of therapy. We proposed that a prolonged therapeutic course should help reduce the relapse rate. METHODS: A total of 42 patients with nephrotic syndrome caused by IMN were randomly divided into short-term (n = 20) and long-term (n = 22) groups. All patients received initial treatment with tacrolimus and prednisone for 6 months, and afterward only the long-term patient group was tapered with low-dose tacrolimus until 24 months. RESULTS: Over 85% of the patients achieved proteinuria reduction, serum albumin improvement and serum lipid recovery; the probability of remission in both groups was over 80% at 6 months. The remission rate was steady at over 80% after 12 and 24 months in the long-term group, but only 50 and 45%, respectively, in the short-term group. Nine patients (45%) relapsed in the short-term group after tacrolimus withdrawal, while not a single patient suffered recurrence in the long-term group. The concentration of tacrolimus remained similar between the two groups at 5-8 ng/ml during the initial 6 months, and was significantly decreased at 12 months compared to 6 months (p < 0.05), along with reduction of oral administration in the long-term group. CONCLUSION: Combined therapy of tacrolimus with prednisone can relieve IMN significantly; prolonged tacrolimus treatment at a low blood concentration can alleviate the illness persistently, with a low recurrence rate and gratifying safety.

Pilot scale ex-situ bioremediation of heavily PAHs-contaminated soil by indigenous microorganisms and bioaugmentation by a PAHs-degrading and bioemulsifier-producing strain.

This study aims at the remediation of heavily PAH-contaminated soil containing 375 mg of total PAHs per kilogram dry soil. Pilot scale bioremediation experiments were carried out by three approaches with contaminated soil from abandoned sites of Beijing Coking Plant using outdoor pot trials. The first approach was bioaugmentation with a bacterial strain which degrades PAH and produces bioemulsifier, the second approach comprised of biostimulation of indigenous microorganisms with supplementing nutrients and the last approach involved the combination of both biostimulation and bioaugmentation. An on-site land farming group was set as a control in which the total PAHs and 4-6 ring-PAHs were reduced by 23.4% and 10.1%, respectively after 175 days. Meanwhile, in the first approach group, the total PAHs and 4-6 ring-PAHs were reduced by 26.82% and 35.36%, respectively; in the second approach group both percentages were 33.9% and 11.0%, respectively; while in the third approach group, these pollutants were reduced by 43.9% and 55.0%, respectively. The results obtained suggested that biostimulation and bioaugmentation combined could significantly enhance the removal of PAHs in the contaminated soil.

Theoretical study on the mechanism of the NCO + HCNO reaction.

The complex doublet potential surface of the NCO + HCNO reaction has been investigated at the QCISD(T)/6-311g(d,p)//UB3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level. We have found 29 isomers on the potential surface, which are connected by 38 transition states. The single-point energy calculations are performed at the high-level QCISD(T)/6-311G(d,p) for more accurate energy values. In various possible initial association ways, the end-N attack leading to HC2N2O2 a1 and a2 is the most favorable association way through a barrierless process. Through the thermodynamic and kinetic analyses, the product NO + CO + HCN should be the major product in both the low- and high-temperature conditions for its low-energy determination transition state. Our calculation is consistent with the available data in low-temperature condition and expected to be confirmed in the high-temperature condition.