Efficient removal of tetracycline in water using modified eggplant straw biochar supported green nanoscale zerovalent iron: synthesis, removal performance, and mechanism.

A novel NaOH modified eggplant straw biochar supported green nanoscale zerovalent iron (P-nZVI/ESBC) composite was synthesized and its removal performance and reaction mechanism for tetracycline (TC) in water were investigated. Multiple characterizations showed that the prepared P-nZVI/ESBC composite contained oxygen-containing functional groups (hydroxyl, carbonyl, and carboxyl groups) and Fe species (nZVI and its oxides). The dosage of composite, temperature, and solution pH significantly affected the removal capacity of the P-nZVI/ESBC composite for TC. The Avrami fraction-order kinetic model and Sips adsorption isotherm model can fit well the removal process of TC by the P-nZVI/ESBC composite, indicating that the adsorption behavior of TC involved multiple adsorption mechanisms and chemical adsorption might occur. The maximum adsorption capacity of the P-nZVI/ESBC composite for TC was 304.62 mg g-1. The adsorption and reductive degradation were the dominant mechanisms of TC removal by the P-nZVI/ESBC composite. This work offers abundant information on the application of eggplant straw to manufacture biochar-based composites for the efficient removal of antibiotic contaminants from aquatic environments.

Convenient green synthesis of Cu/Fe nanoparticles using pomegranate peel extracts and their performance for tetrabromobisphenol A removal.

In this work, pomegranate peel extracts were used as the green reducing agent to synthesize Cu/Fe nanoparticles (P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles) and removed tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) in aqueous solution. P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles were amorphous and irregularly spherical. The surfaces of nanoparticles contained Fe0, Fe3+ oxides (hydroxides), and Cu0. The bioactive molecules from pomegranate peel were extremely important for the synthesis of nanoparticles. P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles had excellent removal performance for TBBPA, and 98.6% of TBBPA (5 mg L-1) was removed within 60 min. The removal reaction of TBBPA by P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles was well-fitted with the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The Cu loading was critical for TBBPA removal with an optimum value of 1.0 wt%. A weakly acidic condition (pH 5) was more favorable for the removal of TBBPA. The removal efficiency of TBBPA increased with the rise of temperature and decreased with increasing initial TBBPA concentration. The activation energy (Ea) was 54.09 kJ mol-1, indicating that the removal of TBBPA by P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles was mainly surface-controlled. Reductive degradation was the main mechanism of TBBPA removal by P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles. In conclusion, green synthesized P-Cu/Fe nanoparticles using pomegranate peel waste show great potential for the remediation of TBBPA in aqueous solution.

Study on the Changes in Immobilized Petroleum-Degrading Bacteria Beads in a Continuous Bioreactor Related to Physicochemical Performance, Degradation Ability, and Microbial Community.

Continuous bioreactors for petroleum degradation and the effect factors of these bioreactors have rarely been mentioned in studies. In addition, indigenous bacteria living in seawater could influence the performance of continuous bioreactors with respect to petroleum degradation in practice. In this paper, a bioreactor fitted with immobilized petroleum-degrading bacteria beads was designed for further research. The results indicated that the diesel degradation rate of the bioreactor could remain above 50% over 27 days, while degradation performance decreased with bioremediation time. Intriguingly, the diameters of immobilized petroleum-degrading bacteria beads were reduced by 32.49% after 45 days remediation compared with the initial size of the immobilized petroleum-degrading bacteria beads. Change in immobilized petroleum-degrading bacteria beads was considered to correlate remarkably with reduced degradation efficiency. Therefore, this paper will be helpful for further study and improvement of bioreactors in the practical context of oil-spill accident recovery.

Effectiveness and safety of aspirin combined with letrozole in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the efficacy and safety of aspirin combined with letrozole in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS: Through comprehensive searches of the China Knowledge Network (CNKI), the VIP database (VIP), the Wanfang database, the China Biomedical Database (CBM), PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, the clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published on aspirin combined with letrozole in the treatment of PCOS were collected. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the included studies were screened and quality evaluated, and RevMan 5.3 software was used for meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 10 RCTs and 948 patients with PCOS were included. Meta-analysis results showed that compared with letrozole monotherapy, aspirin combined with letrozole could significantly increase the thickness of the endometrium [MD=1.98, 95% CI: 1.63-2.34, P<0.00001], cervical mucus scores (MD =1.65, 95% CI: 1.32-1.98, P<0.00001), the ovulation rate (OR=3.50, 95% CI: 2.08-5.91, P<0.00001), the number of mature follicles (MD=0.65, 95% CI: 0.51-0.78, P<0.00001), and the pregnancy rate (OR=3.06, 95% CI: 2.28-4.12, P<0.00001), and significantly reduced the abortion rate (OR=0.20, 95% CI: 0.11-0.38, P<0.00001). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the 2 groups (OR=0.76, 95% CI: 0.44-1.32, P=0.33). CONCLUSIONS: Aspirin combined with letrozole in the treatment of PCOS is safe and effective. Due to the limitations in the number and quality of the included studies, further verification with multi-center, large-sample, high-quality RCTs is still needed.

A hybrid sterile locus leads to the linkage drag of interspecific hybrid progenies.

Interspecific hybridization plays an important role in rice breeding by broadening access to desirable traits such as disease resistance and improving yields. However, interspecific hybridization is often hindered by hybrid sterility, linkage drag, and distorted segregation. To mine for favorable genes from Oryza glaberrima, we cultivated a series of BC4 introgression lines (ILs) of O. glaberrima in the japonica rice variety background (Dianjingyou 1) in which the IL-2769 (BC4F10) showed longer sterile lemmas, wider grains and spreading panicles compared with its receptor parent, suggesting that linkage drag may have occurred. Based on the BC5F2 population, a hybrid sterility locus, S20, a long sterile lemma locus, G1-g, and a new grain width quantitative trait locus (QTL), qGW7, were mapped in the linkage region about 15 centimorgan (cM) from the end of the short arm of chromosome 7. The hybrid sterility locus S20 from O. glaberrima eliminated male gametes of Oryza sativa, and male gametes carrying the alleles of O. sativa in the heterozygotes were aborted completely. In addition, the homozygotes presented a genotype of O. glaberrima, and homozygous O. sativa were not produced. Surprisingly, the linked traits G1-g and qGW7 showed similar segregation distortion. These results indicate that S20 was responsible for the linkage drag. As a large number of detected hybrid sterility loci are widely distributed on rice chromosomes, we suggest that hybrid sterility loci are the critical factors for the linkage drag in interspecific and subspecific hybridization of rice.

[Development and Application of Automatic Analysis and Surveillance Platform for Chrimerism in Donors and Recipients after Allo-HSCT].

OBJECTIVE: To develop an automated chimeric analysis and reporting platform based on short tandem repeat (STR) and capillary electrophoresis methods for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) so as to improve work efficiency. METHODS: Apache, MySQL, PHP and HTML5 were used to build the database and interface. The STR locus geno typing and chimeric analysis logic and flow were set up on the basis of STR rules and capillary electrophoresis. STR genotyping and 194 times of chimeric testing data of 100 patients after allo-HSCT were used to test the platform for automatic STR locus genotyping, chimeric calculation and report generation. RESULTS: The established platform could realize the functions of STR locus customization, STR genotype determination, automatic chimeric analysis, and detection information database management, which can automatically generate an integrated report including multiple sequential chimeric results and trend graphs for the same patient and can be accessed and used simultaneously by different users through different browser interfaces. The results of automated analysis by the platform are completely consistent with that of manual analysis by experienced technicians, and the possibility of manual analysis error is reduced through automation. The time required for automatic analysis using this platform is approximately 1/6-1/5 of manual analysis. CONCLUSION: The automatic analysis platform built in this study is operation stable and reliable in analysis results, which can improve work efficiency and report connotation, thus worthing popularized and applicable.

Enhanced solubilization and reductive degradation of 2,2',4,4'- tretrabromodiphenyl ether by PAC-Pd/Fe nanoparticles in the presence of surfactant.

2,2',4,4'-Tretrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE47) is known as a typical polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) due to its high environmental abundance, ecological toxicity, and bioaccumulation. In this study, the influences of three typical surfactants (CTAB, SDS, and TX-100) on BDE47 solubilization and degradation by the polyanionic cellulose-stabilized Pd/Fe (PAC-Pd/Fe) nanoparticles were investigated. The results showed that BDE47 solubilities increased linearly when surfactant concentrations were above their critical micelle concentrations (CMCs), and the solubilization capacities of surfactants for BDE47 followed the order of TX-100 > CTAB > SDS. The appropriate dosages of surfactants were favorable for BDE47 degradation due to enhancing solubilization and accelerating mass transfer, while excessive surfactants inhibited BDE47 degradation due to excessive and thicker micelles formed, but still higher than no surfactant. The influences of various factors (PAC-Pd/Fe nanoparticle dosage, solution pH, and temperature) on BDE47 degradation in TX-100 solution were also tested. The results showed that BDE47 degradation followed the pseudo first-order kinetics model. The degradation rates of BDE47 increased as PAC-Pd/Fe nanoparticle dosage and temperature increased. Weak acidic condition (pH 5.5) was favorable for BDE47 degradation with 96.8% BDE47 was removed within 7.5 min, while alkaline condition (9.0) was not conducive to the degradation of BDE47. The degradation of BDE47 by PAC-Pd/Fe nanoparticles was a catalytic reductive debromination process via active H-species attack, wherein the sequential debromination was the dominant reaction. This study suggests that in the presence of moderate surfactant, PAC-Pd/Fe nanoparticles may be potentially employed to eliminate BDE47 in contaminated water.

Synthesis, characterization, and debromination reactivity of cellulose-stabilized Pd/Fe nanoparticles for 2,2',4,4'-tretrabromodiphenyl ether.

In this study, two kinds of cellulose derivatives (polyanionic cellulose (PAC) and hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC)) were selected as stabilizers of Pd/Fe nanoparticles (NPs) to investigate their influences on the debromination performances of 2,2',4,4'-tretrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE47). Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images revealed that the cellulose-stabilized Pd/Fe NPs were smaller and more uniform than the bare-Pd/Fe NPs. X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results suggested that cellulose coatings found on Pd/Fe NPs surfaces featured some antioxidation abilities, which followed the order of HPMC < PAC. Sedimentation tests demonstrated that the stabilizing power of PAC for Pd/Fe NPs was higher than that of HPMC. Fourier transfer infrared spectrometer (FTIR) results indicated that PAC molecules were bound to the Pd/Fe NPs surfaces by polar covalent bonds and hydrogen bonds, while HPMC molecules interacted with the nanoparticles by hydrogen bonds. Batch debromination test for BDE47 demonstrated that the catalytic debromination rate with cellulose-stabilized Pd/Fe NPs was higher than that with bare-Pd/Fe NPs during reaction period of 15 min. Overall, this study indicated that both celluloses are beneficial to forming smaller, more regular, stable and antioxidative Pd/Fe NPs, leading to higher debromination reactivity for BDE47 compared with the bare-Pd/Fe NPs. Therefore Pd/Fe NPs can be utilized as a promising remediation technology for the contaminated groundwater and soils.

Removal of tetracycline and oxytetracycline from water by magnetic Fe3O4@graphene.

In this paper, Fe3O4@graphene (Fe3O4@G) magnetic nanocomposite was prepared via in situ precipitation method for the removal of oxytetracycline (OTC) and tetracycline (TC) from aqueous solution. The properties of the prepared nanocomposite were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and magnetic property measurement system (MPMS). Adsorption isotherm and kinetics of OTC and TC were studied in batch experiments. The influence of the dosage of Fe3O4@G, the solution pH, and ion strength on the adsorption process were also assessed. The results demonstrated that the Langmuir model fitted the adsorption equilibrium data better than did the Freundlich model, and the pseudo-first-order model was more suitable than the pseudo-second-order to describe the adsorption process, with a good adsorption rate constant (k = 0.974 and 0.834 g mg-1 h-1, respectively). The adsorption ability reached maximum at pH of 7 with no NaCl. The removal efficiency of Fe3O4@G in lake, tap, and pool water were 95.45, 96.68, and 89.82 % for OTC and 98.77, 98.23, and 89.09 % for TC, respectively. The π-π interaction and cation-π bonding of the adsorbent and analytes make it suitable for the removal of OTC and TC. The present study suggests that the prepared composite can be deemed as a promising material for the removal of tetracycline antibiotics from aqueous solution.