Tripartite motif containing 26 prevents steatohepatitis progression by suppressing C/EBPδ signalling activation.

Currently potential preclinical drugs for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and NASH-related pathopoiesis have failed to achieve expected therapeutic efficacy due to the complexity of the pathogenic mechanisms. Here we show Tripartite motif containing 26 (TRIM26) as a critical endogenous suppressor of CCAAT/enhancer binding protein delta (C/EBPδ), and we also confirm that TRIM26 is an C/EBPδ-interacting partner protein that catalyses the ubiquitination degradation of C/EBPδ in hepatocytes. Hepatocyte-specific loss of Trim26 disrupts liver metabolic homeostasis, followed by glucose metabolic disorder, lipid accumulation, increased hepatic inflammation, and fibrosis, and dramatically facilitates NASH-related phenotype progression. Inversely, transgenic Trim26 overexpression attenuates the NASH-associated phenotype in a rodent or rabbit model. We provide mechanistic evidence that, in response to metabolic insults, TRIM26 directly interacts with C/EBPδ and promotes its ubiquitin proteasome degradation. Taken together, our present findings identify TRIM26 as a key suppressor over the course of NASH development.

A Second-Order Method for Removing Mixed Noise from Remote Sensing Images.

Remote sensing image denoising is of great significance for the subsequent use and research of images. Gaussian noise and salt-and-pepper noise are prevalent noises in images. Contemporary denoising algorithms often exhibit limitations when addressing such mixed noise scenarios, manifesting in suboptimal denoising outcomes and the potential blurring of image edges subsequent to the denoising process. To address the above problems, a second-order removal method for mixed noise in remote sensing images was proposed. In the first stage of the method, dilated convolution was introduced into the DnCNN (denoising convolutional neural network) network framework to increase the receptive field of the network, so that more feature information could be extracted from remote sensing images. Meanwhile, a DropoutLayer was introduced after the deep convolution layer to build the noise reduction model to prevent the network from overfitting and to simplify the training difficulty, and then the model was used to perform the preliminary noise reduction on the images. To further improve the image quality of the preliminary denoising results, effectively remove the salt-and-pepper noise in the mixed noise, and preserve more image edge details and texture features, the proposed method employed a second stage on the basis of adaptive median filtering. In this second stage, the median value in the original filter window median was replaced by the nearest neighbor pixel weighted median, so that the preliminary noise reduction result was subjected to secondary processing, and the final denoising result of the mixed noise of the remote sensing image was obtained. In order to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithm, the remote sensing image denoising experiments and denoised image edge detection experiments were carried out in this paper. When the experimental results are analyzed through subjective visual assessment, images denoised using the proposed method exhibit clearer and more natural details, and they effectively retain edge and texture features. In terms of objective evaluation, the performance of different denoising algorithms is compared using metrics such as mean square error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and mean structural similarity index (MSSIM). The experimental outcomes indicate that the proposed method for denoising mixed noise in remote sensing images outperforms traditional denoising techniques, achieving a clearer image restoration effect.

Arsenic removal from aqueous solutions using Fe3O4-HBC composite: effect of calcination on adsorbents performance.

The presence of elevated concentration of arsenic in water sources is considered to be health hazard globally. Calcination process is known to change the surface efficacy of the adsorbent. In current study, five adsorbent composites: uncalcined and calcined Fe3O4-HBC prepared at different temperatures (400°C and 1000°C) and environment (air and nitrogen) were investigated for the adsorptive removal of As(V) and As(III) from aqueous solutions determining the influence of solution's pH, contact time, temperature, arsenic concentration and phosphate anions. Characterizations from FTIR, XRD, HT-XRD, BET and SEM analyses revealed that the Fe3O4-HBC composite at higher calcination temperature under nitrogen formed a new product (fayalite, Fe2SiO4) via phase transformation. In aqueous medium, ligand exchange between arsenic and the effective sorbent site ( = FeOOH) was established from the release of hydroxyl group. Langmuir model suggested data of the five adsorbent composites follow the order: Fe3O4-HBC-1000°C(N2)>Fe3O4-HBC (uncalcined)>Fe3O4-HBC-400°C(N2)>Fe3O4-HBC-400°C(air)>Fe3O4-HBC-1000°C(air) and the maximum As(V) and As(III) adsorption capacities were found to be about 3.35 mg g(-1) and 3.07 mg g(-1), respectively. The adsorption of As(V) and As(III) remained stable in a wider pH range (4-10) using Fe3O4-HBC-1000°C(N2). Additionally, adsorption data fitted well in pseudo-second-order (R2>0.99) rather than pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The adsorption of As(V) and As(III) onto adsorbent composites increase with increase in temperatures indicating that it is an endothermic process. Phosphate concentration (0.0l mM or higher) strongly inhibited As(V) and As(III) removal through the mechanism of competitive adsorption. This study suggests that the selective calcination process could be useful to improve the adsorbent efficiency for enhanced arsenic removal from contaminated water.

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) assembled on magnetic Fe3O4/graphene for chromium (VI) removal from aqueous solution.

Nanoscale Zero-Valent Iron (nZVI) assembled on magnetic Fe3O4/graphene (nZVI@MG) nanocomposites was synthesized for Cr(VI) removal from aqueous solution. nZVI particles were perfectly dispersed either among Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) or above the basal plane of graphene. This material shows Cr(VI) removal efficiency of 83.8%, much higher than those of individuals (18.0% for nZVI, 21.6% for Fe3O4 NPs and 23.7% for graphene) and even their sum of 63.3%. The removal process obeys pseudo-second-order adsorption model, suggesting that adsorption is rate-controlling step. Maximum Cr(VI) adsorption capacity varies from 66.2 to 101.0 mg g(-1) with decreasing pH from 8.0 to 3.0 at 30°C. Negative ΔG and ΔH indicate spontaneous tendency and exothermic nature. Robust performance of nZVI@MG arises from the formation of micro-nZVI-graphene/nZVI-Fe3O4 batteries and strong adsorption capability of broad graphene sheet/Fe3O4 surfaces. Electrons released by nZVI spread all over the surfaces of graphene and Fe3O4, and the adsorbed Cr(VI) ions on them capture these floating electrons and reduce to Cr(III). Fe3O4 NPs also served as protection shell to prevent nZVI from agglomeration and passivation.

[Research on low-level Hg(II) removal from water by the heavy metal capturing agent].

Treatment of mercury containing wastewater using conventional approach is considered to be difficult to bring down its concentration to meet the discharge standard. In this study, we utilized dithiocarbamate (DTCR-2), 2,4,6-trimercaptotriazine(TMT-18B), Na2S and Ca(OH)2+ as the advanced treatment agents to remove low-level Hg2+ from water. Due to its better treatment effect, DTCR-2 was finally chosen as the most ideal option. The influence of pH value, dosage of DTCR-2, reaction time, initial Hg2+ concentration as well as other heavy metal ions on the Hg2+ removal were studied. The results showed that DTCR-2 had high removal efficiency under the following conditions: 100 microg x L(-1) of initial Hg2+ concentration, pH 8.0, 1.0 times stoichiometric ratio of DTCR-2 dosage and 10 min of reaction time, leading to 41.36 microg x L(-1) of residual Hg2+ concentration which was below the national discharge standard (50 microg x L(-1)). Moreover, three heavy metal ions including Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+, inhibited the DTCR-2 capturing capacity towards Hg2+ and the inhibition effects followed this order: Cu2+ > Pb2+ > Cd2+, while Zn2+ promoted the Hg2+ removal. From this study, we could provide theoretical support for process design to deal with wastewater containing low mercury concentration using DTCR-2.

Fe(0)-Fe3O4 nanocomposites embedded polyvinyl alcohol/sodium alginate beads for chromium (VI) removal.

In this study, Fe(0)-Fe3O4 nanocomposites embedded polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/sodium alginate (SA) beads were synthesized, which exhibited an excellent physical properties and catalytic reactivity, and a robust performance of post-separation (complete separation using a simple grille) and reusability (efficiency of 69.8% after four runs) in Cr(VI) removal. 5.0 wt% PVA with 1.5 wt% SA was the optimal proportion for beads molding, and the followed acidification and reduction treatments were critical to ensure high mechanical strength and high Cr(VI) removal ability of beads. Effects of Fe(0) and Fe3O4 mass fraction, initial pH and Cr(VI) concentration on final removal efficiency were also evaluated. Merely 0.075 wt% Fe(0) together with 0.30 wt% Fe3O4 was sufficient to deal with 20 mg L(-1) Cr(VI) solution. The efficiency decreased from 100 to 79.5% as initial Cr(VI) increased from 5 to 40 mg L(-1), while from 99.3 to 76.3% with increasing pH from 3.0 to 11.0. This work provides a practical and high-efficient method for heavy metal removal from water body, and simultaneously solves the problems in stabilization, separation and regeneration of Fe(0) nanoparticles.

A comparison of three-dimensional marginal adaptation among three all-ceramic crown systems.

PURPOSE: This study was to compare the marginal adaptation of single crown made of 3 different all-ceramic systems (IPS e.max, In-Ceram alumina, Kavo Everest) in vitro using a light-body silicone supported by a heavy-body silicone material. METHODS: The crowns were made for 1 extracted maxillary premolar prepared with a 0.8-mm chamfer margin and 6-degree tapered walls by milling. Ten crowns per system were fabricated. The horizontal marginal discrepancies, vertical marginal discrepancies and absolute marginal discrepancies were measured under an optical microscope at 39.2 magnification. The data were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SPSS 13.0 software package. RESULTS: The results showed the mean values for horizontal marginal discrepancies were between 41.1µm and 44.9µm, for vertical marginal discrepancies were between 51.4µm and 71.7µm, and for absolute marginal discrepancies were between 66.2µm and 85.1µm. CONCLUSIONS: The horizontal marginal discrepancies, vertical marginal discrepancies and absolute marginal discrepancies of the three all-ceramic crown systems were within the clinically acceptable standard. However, the IPS e.max system and the Kavo Everest System showed a better marginal fit compared with the In-Ceram alumina system.