Ultrasound image-based deep learning to differentiate tubal-ovarian abscess from ovarian endometriosis cyst.

Objectives: We developed ultrasound (US) image-based convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to distinguish between tubal-ovarian abscess (TOA) and ovarian endometriosis cyst (OEC). Methods: A total of 202 patients who underwent US scanning and confirmed tubal-ovarian abscess or ovarian endometriosis cyst by pathology were enrolled in retrospective research, in which 171 patients (from January 2014 to September 2021) were considered the primary cohort (training, validation, and internal test sets) and 31 patients (from September 2021 to December 2021) were considered the independent test cohort. There were 68 tubal-ovarian abscesses and 89 OEC, 4 TOA and 10 OEC, and 10 TOA and 21 OEC patients belonging to training and validation sets, internal sets, and independent test sets, respectively. For the model to gain better generalization, we applied the geometric image and color transformations to augment the dataset, including center crop, random rotation, and random horizontal flip. Three convolutional neural networks, namely, ResNet-152, DenseNet-161, and EfficientNet-B7 were applied to differentiate tubal-ovarian abscess from ovarian endometriosis cyst, and their performance was compared with three US physicians and a clinical indicator of carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) on the independent test set. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were used to evaluate the performance. Results: Among the three convolutional neural networks, the performance of ResNet-152 was the highest, with AUROCs of 0.986 (0.954-1). The AUROCs of the three physicians were 0.781 (0.620-0.942), 0.738 (0.629-848), and 0.683 (0.501-0.865), respectively. The clinical indicator CA125 achieved only 0.564 (0.315-0.813). Conclusion: We demonstrated that the CNN model based on the US image could discriminate tubal-ovarian abscess and ovarian endometriosis cyst better than US physicians and CA125. This method can provide a valuable predictive reference for physicians to screen tubal-ovarian abscesses and ovarian endometriosis cysts in time.

Unraveling the behavior of nitrite on promoting short-chain fatty acids accumulation from waste activated sludge by peracetic acid pretreatment: Extracellular polymeric substance decomposition and underlying mechanism.

Peracetic acid (PAA) is an emerging oxidant for waste activated sludge (WAS) treatment due to its strong oxidization and few toxic byproducts. Nitrite which can be in-situ recovered from WAS fermentation liquor, its protonated form (free nitrous acid, FNA) is regarded as the cost-effective inactivator. The stubborn extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) is the rate-limiting step for energy/resource recovery from WAS. This work found that the co-pretreatment of PAA and FNA can effectively promote short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production during anaerobic fermentation. Higher PAA dosage (100 mg/g VSS, FP4WAS) in co-pretreatment was beneficial for organics release (1976.9 mg COD/L), remarkably increased by 10.3- 96.5 % than that of low PAA dosage (25- 75 mg/g VSS), and promoted by 105.1 % and 62.1 % than FNA (FWAS)/PAA (100 mg/g VSS, P4WAS)-pretreated WAS. Effective release of soluble organics contributed to the SCFAs accumulation (7679 ± 86 mg COD/L, 4 d), enhanced by 200.0 % and 19.0 % than FWAS and P4WAS, respectively. Acetic (HAc) and propionic acid (HPr) peaked at 6344.7 mg COD/L in FP4WAS (accounted for 82.6 %), which increased by 10.6- 899.0 % than other groups. Moreover, OH and O2- were detected in co-pretreatment, may play the synchronous effect with the crucial intermediates of NO, NO2 and ONOO-/ONOOH on EPS decomposition.

Initial-alkaline motivated fermentation of fine-sieving fractions and its effect on properties of cellulosic components.

Exploration of value-added products from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) was promising for its sustainable development. This study simultaneously addressed the possibility of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production boost and cellulosic components recovery from fine-sieving fractions (FSF) under initial alkaline conditions. The step utilization of FSF was relatively untapped in similar literatures. The effect of different initial pH values with 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 (defined as F-8.5, F-9.5 and F-10.5) on fermentation performance were investigated. Then, the fermentation residues were collected to evaluate the changes in chemical structure and thermodynamic properties by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermo-gravimetric (TG) analysis. Furthermore, analysis of the changes in microbial community structure and the interaction between functional genus and performance parameters were undertaken by high throughput sequencing and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Results showed that F-10.5 obtained the highest VFAs yields of 234 mg/g VSS, due to efficient polysaccharides release and inhibited methane production. However, high alkaline intensity caused proteins denaturation. Acidogenesis kinetics suggested that the fermentation rate was chemical-dominated. Although crystalline structure was more disordered with increasing alkalinity, the weight loss was lower than 2.5%, making it possible to recover cellulose from fermented residues. Interaction between functional genus and performance parameters revealed the microbial mechanism during the alkaline fermentation. Consequently, the initial-alkaline motivated fermentation was proved to be a promising technology in value-added products recovery to be cost economic, energy positive and environmental friendly.

Enhanced degradation of quinoline by coupling microbial electrolysis cell with anaerobic digestion simultaneous.

In this study, the feasibility of quinoline-wastewater treatment was investigated in a coupled microbial electrolysis cell and anaerobic digestion system (MEC-AD). Improved degradation and enhanced mineralization of quinoline were obtained, and the optimal voltage was determined to be 1.0 V. Effective removal of quinoline at relative high concentration, and a 1.5-fold increase in methane production were achieved. The results indicated that the MEC-AD could simultaneously remove carbon and nitrogen from quinoline. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis identified 2-hydroxyquinoline and 8-hydroxycoumarin as the intermediates of quinoline. The formation and degradation of metabolites were rapid, and they did not accumulate in the MEC-AD. The results of microbial community structure analysis demonstrated that the functional species were enriched and coexisted, and that the dominant bacterial genera were SM1A02, Comamonas, Desulfovibrio, Geobacter, and Actinomarinales_norank; the dominant archaeal genera were Methanocorpusculum and Nitrosoarchaeum. Furthermore, the applied current played a selective role in the enrichment of microorganisms.

A bilayer media bioretention system for enhanced nitrogen removal from road runoff.

Bioretention has been widely used in urban non-point source (NPS) pollution management for effectively reducing downstream pollution loads and peak flows. However, nitrogen (N) removal in conventional bioretention systems has been uniformly unstable and highly variable due to a lack of anaerobic denitrification. To improve the stability and effectiveness of N removal, two bioretention columns with bilayer media (C1 and C2) were designed. High permeability quartz sand (~2 mm diameter) was used as the upper media, and low permeability modified media (~0.6 mm diameter, adding 5% organic substance) as the lower media. The bilayer media structure formed an anaerobic zone for promoting denitrification processes. The results showed that the retrofitted columns performed well and that the removal efficiencies of various forms of N were considerably enhanced to 76.8%-95.3%, 85.1%-98.3%, and 87.5%-97.4% for TN, NH4+-N, and NO3--N, respectively. Additionally, copying numbers of the denitrification functional genes detected via FQ-PCR in the lower media of C1 and C2 were accounted for 46.06% and 44.16% of the 16S rDNA gene, respectively. These results confirmed the presence of anaerobic denitrification processes. Consequently, bilayer media bioretention systems are worth promoting in cities where nitrogen in urban runoff poses a threat to the receiving surface water, due to the systems' remarkable performance in nitrogen removal, simple structure, and easy implementation.

Sulfate radical oxidation combined with iron flocculation for upgrading biological effluent of coking wastewater.

Because the components of the coking wastewater was biologically toxic and hence inhibit the actions of microorganisms in conventional biological treatment processes,the biological effluent of coking wastewater (BECW) still remains much recalcitrant pollutants. In the current work, we set out to explore the feasibility of using a proposed advanced oxidation method, involving the persulfate-activated zero-valent iron system (PS/ZVI), to realize a deep treatment of BECW. The efficiency levels at which sulfate radical oxidation combined with iron flocculation removed pollutants, specifically TOC, phenolic compounds (PCs), cyanide, and suspended solids (SSs), as well as removing colour were investigated in batch tests. Increasing the persulfate concentration generally resulted in improved pollutant removal, with maximum removal efficiency levels of 58.5%, 68.4%, 61% 99.9% and 91.04% for TOC, PCs, SS, cyanide and colour, respectively. Note that the coexisting inorganic ions CO3 2- and HCO3 - were strong competitors of the radical consumption of TOC, but this interference was eliminated by adjusting the pH to 4.5. Also, flocculation of the generated Fe3+ ions from the radical reaction significantly enhanced SS removal. GC-MS analysis showed that the compositional diversity of the BECW decreased after oxidation. Meanwhile its biodegradability increased, indicating less bio-toxicity reaching the natural water body. This study suggests that the PS/ZVI system may be an alternative safer and more efficient method than Fenton's method for carrying out an advanced treatment of coking wastewater.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations to Investigate the Binding Mode of the Natural Product Liphagal with Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase α.

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase α (PI3Kα) is an attractive target for anticancer drug design. Liphagal, isolated from the marine sponge Aka coralliphaga, possesses the special "liphagane" meroterpenoid carbon skeleton and has been demonstrated as a PI3Kα inhibitor. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to explore the dynamic behaviors of PI3Kα binding with liphagal, and free energy calculations and energy decomposition analysis were carried out by use of molecular mechanics/Poisson-Boltzmann (generalized Born) surface area (MM/PB(GB)SA) methods. The results reveal that the heteroatom rich aromatic D-ring of liphagal extends towards the polar region of the binding site, and the D-ring 15-hydroxyl and 16-hydroxyl form three hydrogen bonds with Asp810 and Tyr836. The cyclohexyl A-ring projects up into the upper pocket of the lipophilic region, and the hydrophobic/van der Waals interactions with the residues Met772, Trp780, Ile800, Ile848, Val850, Met922, Phe930, Ile932 could be the key interactions for the affinity of liphagal to PI3Kα. Thus, a new strategy for the rational design of more potent analogs of liphagal against PI3Kα is provided. Our proposed PI3Kα/liphagal binding mode would be beneficial for the discovery of new active analogs of liphagal against PI3Kα.