First Report of Leaf Spot Disease on Lonicera japonica Caused by Nigrospora oryzae in China.

Lonicera japonica Thunb. is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, which widely cultivated in China, Japan and Korea. From August to October in 2021 and 2022, severe leaf spots symptoms were observed on L. japonica in medicinal botanical garden of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (36°55'89"N, 116°79'91"E), Jinan, Shandong Province, China. The disease incidence was above 80% in the 25 acre cultivation area. Early symptoms were small brown spots on the leaves. Then the number of small spots gradually increased and spread over the entire leaves. The small brown spots seldom merge together to form larger lesions. Leaves with typical symptoms were collected from twenty individual plants, and cut into small 5×5 mm fragments in the junction of infected and healthy tissues. The fragments were sterilized in 75% ethanol for 30 s and 1% NaClO for 60 s, rinsed three times in sterile water, and then placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA). After 3 days of incubation at 25°C, fungal plugs along the edge of the colony were cut and transferred to new PDA for purification. A total number of 23 colonies with similar morphological characteristics were obtained, and three representative strains (Lj14, Lj18 and Lj20) were selected for subsequent study. The colonies grew rapidly on PDA and covered the entire petri dish in 4 days. Colonies had abundant aerial hyphae, initially white, round, later turning gray and black. Conidia were oblate or nearly spherical, single-celled, black, and measured in size from 9.6 to 13.2 µm × 7.9 to 16.1 µm in diameter (n=150) (Figure S1). The observed characteristics were close to those of Nigrospora spp. ( Wang et al. 2017). The genomic DNA was extracted, and PCR amplification of the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS), ß-tubulin gene (TUB), and translation elongation factor 1-alpha gene (TEF1) were completed by primers ITS1/ITS4, Bt2a/Bt2b and EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone and Kohn, 1999). Sequences were deposited in GenBank (accession nos. OR936661, OR936662, OR936671 for ITS, OR947626, OR947627, OR947628 for TUB, and OR947629, OR947630, OR947631 for TEF1 sequences, respectively). BLAST analyses of ITS (OR936661), TUB(OR947626) and TEF1 (OR947629) sequences exhibited 100% (487 bp out of 487 bp), 99.48% (380 bp out of 382 bp), and 99.6% (248 bp out of 249 bp) similarity to the sequences of N. oryzae strains KoLRI_053384 (MZ855426), LC2991 (KY019496) and LC7307 (KY019409), respectively. Lj14, Lj18 and Lj20 formed a clade with N. oryzae LC6763 and LC2991 in phylogenetic tree (Figure S2). Based on morphological and molecular evidence, the pathogen was identified as N. oryzae (Berk. &Broome) Petch. To fulfill Koch's postulates, the pathogenicity was tested in vivo experiments. Thirty non-wounded healthy leaves of ten intact plants were inoculated with 10 µl spore suspension (106 spores/ml) of three strains, respectively. As negative control, thirty leaves of ten healthy plants were inoculated with sterile water. The inoculated plants were placed at 28°C in the growth chamber with high relative humidity. The pathogenicity tests were repeated three times. Distinct symptoms similar to that of natural conditions were observed on the leaves of inoculated plants after 4 to 7 days. The strain was reisolated from the lesions and identified as N. oryzae by morphological features and ITS sequence. The pathogen has been reported to cause leaf spot disease on tobacco (Wang et al. 2022) and asiatic dayflower (Qiu et al. 2022). To our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf spot caused by N. oryzae on Lonicera japonica in China. The research will be helpful for leaf spot disease control.

Effect of Salt Solution Erosion on Mechanical Properties and Micropore Structure of Recycled Fine Aggregate ECC.

This study examined the impact of sulfate and sulfate-chloride dry-wet cyclic erosion on the mechanical properties and microscopic pore structure of engineered cementitious composite (ECC) with recycled fine aggregate (RA). Uniaxial tensile tests and four-point bending tests were conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties of RAECC, while the resonance frequency ratio was used to assess the integrity of the specimens. Finally, X-ray computed tomography (X-CT) reconstruction was employed to analyze the erosion effects on the microscopic pore structure. The results showed that the uniaxial tensile strength and flexural strength of the RAECC specimens in corrosive solution first increased and then decreased, and the 5% Na2SO4 solution caused the most serious erosion of the specimens. The resonance frequency ratio of the specimens reached the peak value when they were subjected to dry-wet cycles 15 times in the 5% Na2SO4 solution. During the erosion process, the pore space of the specimen first decreased and then increased, and the number of pores increased. The erosion process is the result of the erosion products continuously filling and eventually destroying the pores, and the erosion damage produces a large number of new pores and poor sphericity, leading to a decline in mechanical properties.

Machine learning for the prediction of delirium in elderly intensive care unit patients.

PURPOSE: This study aims to develop and validate a prediction model for delirium in elderly ICU patients and help clinicians identify high-risk patients at the early stage. METHODS: Patients admitted to ICU for at least 24 h and using the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV (MIMIC-IV) database (76,943 ICU stays from 2008 to 2019) were considered. Patients with a positive delirium test in the first 24 h and under 65 years of age were excluded. Two prediction models, machine learning extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and logistic regression (LR) model, were developed and validated to predict the onset of delirium. RESULTS: Of the 18,760 patients included in the analysis, 3463(18.5%) were delirium positive. A total of 22 significant predictors were selected by LASSO regression. The XGBoost model demonstrated superior performance over the LR model, with the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUC) values of 0.853 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.846-0.861) and 0.831 (95% CI 0.815-0.847) in the training and testing datasets, respectively. Moreover, the XGBoost model outperformed the LR model in both calibration and clinical utility. The top five predictors associated with the onset of delirium were sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), infection, minimum platelets, maximum systolic blood pressure (SBP), and maximum temperature. CONCLUSION: The XGBoost model demonstrated good predictive performance for delirium among elderly ICU patients, thus assisting clinicians in identifying high-risk patients at the early stage and implementing targeted interventions to improve outcome.

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of the PHT1 Gene Family and Its Response to Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Salvia miltiorrhiza under Phosphate Stress.

Phosphorus (P) is a vital nutrient element that is essential for plant growth and development, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can significantly enhance P absorption. The phosphate transporter protein 1 (PHT1) family mediates the uptake of P in plants. However, the PHT1 gene has not yet been characterized in Salvia miltiorrhiza. In this study, to gain insight into the functional divergence of PHT1 genes, nine SmPHT1 genes were identified in the S. miltiorrhiza genome database via bioinformatics tools. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the PHT1 proteins of S. miltiorrhiza, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa could be divided into three groups. PHT1 in the same clade has a similar gene structure and motif, suggesting that the features of each clade are relatively conserved. Further tissue expression analysis revealed that SmPHT1 was expressed mainly in the roots and stems. In addition, phenotypic changes, P content, and PHT1 gene expression were analyzed in S. miltiorrhiza plants inoculated with AMF under different P conditions (0 mM, 0.1 mM, and 10 mM). P stress and AMF significantly affected the growth and P accumulation of S. miltiorrhiza. SmPHT1;6 was strongly expressed in the roots colonized by AMF, implying that SmPHT1;6 was a specific AMF-inducible PHT1. Taken together, these results provide new insights into the functional divergence and genetic redundancy of the PHT1 genes in response to P stress and AMF symbiosis in S. miltiorrhiza.

Transcriptome sequencing and metabolome analysis reveal the molecular mechanism of Salvia miltiorrhiza in response to drought stress.

Salvia miltiorrhiza is commonly used as a Chinese herbal medicine to treat different cardiovascular and cerebrovascular illnesses due to its active ingredients. Environmental conditions, especially drought stress, can affect the yield and quality of S. miltiorrhiza. However, moderate drought stress could improve the quality of S. miltiorrhiza without significantly reducing the yield, and the mechanism of this initial drought resistance is still unclear. In our study, transcriptome and metabolome analyses of S. miltiorrhiza under different drought treatment groups (CK, A, B, and C groups) were conducted to reveal the basis for its drought tolerance. We discovered that the leaves of S. miltiorrhiza under different drought treatment groups had no obvious shrinkage, and the malondialdehyde (MDA) contents as well as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities dramatically increased, indicating that our drought treatment methods were moderate, and the leaves of S. miltiorrhiza began to initiate drought resistance. The morphology of root tissue had no significant change under different drought treatment groups, and the contents of four tanshinones significantly enhanced. In all, 5213, 6611, and 5241 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were shared in the A, B, and C groups compared with the CK group, respectively. The results of KEGG and co-expression analysis showed that the DEGs involved in plant-pathogen interactions, the MAPK signaling pathway, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, and plant hormone signal transduction responded to drought stress and were strongly correlated with tanshinone biosynthesis. Furthermore, the results of metabolism analysis indicated that 67, 72, and 92 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs), including fumarate, ferulic acid, xanthohumol, and phytocassanes, which were primarily involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, and diterpenoid biosynthesis pathways, were detected in these groups. These discoveries provide valuable information on the molecular mechanisms by which S. miltiorrhiza responds to drought stress and will facilitate the development of drought-resistant and high-quality S. miltiorrhiza production.

Identification of Age-Related Characteristic Genes Involved in Severe COVID-19 Infection Among Elderly Patients Using Machine Learning and Immune Cell Infiltration Analysis.

Elderly patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 are at higher risk of severe clinical manifestation, extended hospitalization, and increased mortality. Those patients are more likely to experience persistent symptoms and exacerbate the condition of basic diseases with long COVID-19 syndrome. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying severe COVID-19 in the elderly patients remain unclear. Our study aims to investigate the function of the interaction between disease-characteristic genes and immune cell infiltration in patients with severe COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 datasets (GSE164805 and GSE180594) and aging dataset (GSE69832) were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The combined different expression genes (DEGs) were subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway and Diseases Ontology functional enrichment analysis, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, machine learning, and immune cell infiltration analysis. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed that the eight DEGs (IL23A, PTGER4, PLCB1, IL1B, CXCR1, C1QB, MX2, ALOX12) were mainly involved in inflammatory mediator regulation of TRP channels, coronavirus disease-COVID-19, and cytokine activity signaling pathways. Three-degree algorithm (LASSO, SVM-RFE, KNN) and correlation analysis showed that the five DEGs up-regulated the immune cells of macrophages M0/M1, memory B cells, gamma delta T cell, dendritic cell resting, and master cell resisting. Our study identified five hallmark genes that can serve as disease-characteristic genes and target immune cells infiltrated in severe COVID-19 patients among the elderly population, which may contribute to the study of pathogenesis and the evaluation of diagnosis and prognosis in aging patients infected with severe COVID-19.

Impermeability and Durability of Self-Compacting Concrete Prepared with Aeolian Sand and Recycled Coarse Aggregate.

Self-compacting concrete has seen extensive application in both engineering and construction. In order to save building resources, aeolian sand-recycled coarse aggregate self-compacting concrete (ARSCC) is created by partially substituting recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) and aeolian sand (AS) for natural coarse aggregates. For ten groups with different mechanical and durable properties, this study examined the effects of sulfate erosion, chloride penetration resistance, and related impermeability, as well as AS replacement ratios of 20%, 40%, and 60% and RCA replacement ratios of 25%, 50%, and 75% in ARSCC and a control group (A0-R0). According to the study's findings, after sulfate attack, the highest relative dynamic elastic modulus and corrosion resistance factor were obtained with the 20% AS replacement ratio and 50% RCA replacement ratio (A20-R50). The highest impermeability grade and lowest electric flux were obtained with the 20% AS replacement ratio and 25% RCA replacement ratio (A20-R25). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) revealed that the addition of aeolian sand and recycled coarse aggregates improved the pore structure of the SCC and increased the densification of the self-compacting concrete, particularly following sulfate attack. This study highlights the importance of recycled aggregates and aeolian sand in engineering applications and the sustainable growth of the concrete industry, both of which support resource conservation and environmental protection.

Frost Durability of Self-Compacting Concrete Prepared with Aeolian Sand and Recycled Coarse Aggregate.

Aeolian sand (AS) and recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) can be reasonably utilized as green materials for concrete modification. The paucity of natural sand and gravel in the construction industry is anticipated to be remedied by the use of these two eco-friendly concrete ingredients. This is incredibly important for environmental protection. Study on the damage law of self-compacting concrete with the addition of AS and RCA (ARSCC) under severely cold conditions is of great significance for the promotion and implementation of this material. In this study, 12 groups of ARSCC specimens were prepared for freeze-thaw cycle experiments, with AS substitution rates of 0, 20%, 40%, and 60% as well as RCA replacement rates of 0, 25%, and 50%. Then, the degradation mechanism of ARSCC freeze-thaw damage was discussed from both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives via mass loss rate (Wn), relative dynamic modulus of elasticity (Pn), bubble spacing factor, and SEM analysis. Finally, the response surface method was utilized to determine the damage variable. A freeze-thaw damage model for ARSCC was developed based on the Weibull distribution and Grey theories. The results showed that the Pn could reflect the evolution law of the internal structure of ARSCC. Appropriate addition of AS to fill the large, harmful pores in RCA would inhibit freeze-thaw damage of ARSCC. The optimum substitution rates of AS and RCA were determined to be 20-40% and 25-50%, respectively. In addition, the values obtained from theoretical damage modeling and experiments were in good agreement. The acquired damage model had the potential to predict ARSCC damage under freeze-thaw cycles.

Multi-Target Tracking Algorithm Combined with High-Precision Map.

On high-speed roads, there are certain blind areas within the radar coverage, especially when the blind zone is in curved road sections; because the radar does not have the measurement point information in multiple frames, it is easy to have a large deviation between the real trajectory and the filtered trajectory. In this paper, we propose a track prediction method combined with a high-precision map to solve the problem of scattered tracks when the targets are in the blind area. First, the lane centerline is fitted to the upstream and downstream lane edges obtained from the high-precision map in certain steps, and the off-north angle at each fitted point is obtained. Secondly, the normal trajectory is predicted according to the conventional method; for the extrapolated trajectory, the northerly angle of the lane centerline at the current position of the trajectory is obtained, the current coordinate system is converted from the north-east-up (ENU) coordinate system to the vehicle coordinate system, and the lateral velocity of the target is set to zero in the vehicle coordinate system to reduce the error caused by the lateral velocity drag of the target. Finally, the normal trajectory is updated and corrected, and the normal and extrapolated trajectories are managed and reported. The experimental results show that the accuracy and convergence effect of the proposed methods are much better than the traditional methods.

A Regulatory Game Analysis of Smart Aging Platforms Considering Privacy Protection.

Privacy and information protection are important issues in the era of big data. At present, China's elderly care industry is gradually adopting the supply model of smart elderly care to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand. However, the low level of regulation of smart aging platforms may lead to a low level of privacy protection on the platforms. Therefore, in this paper, based on the evolutionary game and Lyapunov theory, we discuss the willingness of elderly people to participate in regulation, the privacy protection status of platform service providers, and the degree of government regulation, as well as the key factors affecting the equilibrium of the three-party game system, and conduct simulation analysis and game system optimization using MATLAB. The simulation results show that A1(0,0,1) and A5(0,0,0) can be transformed to A8(1,1,0) by adjusting the parameters, i.e., the optimal ESS is participation, high-quality protection, and low investment supervision; the service income of the elderly, the loss of privacy leakage, the investment cost of service providers, and the amount of government rewards and punishments are the key factors affecting the tripartite game system. By analyzing the impact of factors, such as benefits and costs, on privacy protection and the regulation of smart senior care platforms, the level of privacy protection of smart senior care platforms can be improved and the process of the comprehensive regulation of domestic senior care services can be promoted.

Joint Power and Subchannel Allocation for Distributed Storage in Cellular-D2D Underlays.

Wireless distributed storage is beneficial in the provision of reliable content storage and offloading of cellular traffic. In this paper, we consider a cellular device-to-device (D2D) underlay-based wireless distributed storage system, in which the minimum storage regenerating (MSR) coding combined with the partial downloading scheme is employed. To alleviate burdens on insufficient cellular resources and improve spectral efficiency in densely deployed networks, multiple storage devices can simultaneously use the same uplink cellular subchannel under the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) protocol. Our objective is to minimize the total transmission power for content reconstruction, while guaranteeing the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints for cellular users by jointly optimizing power and subchannel allocation. To tackle the non-convex combinational program, we decouple the original problem into two subproblems and propose two low-complexity algorithms to efficiently solve them, followed by a joint optimization, implemented by alternately updating the solutions to each subproblem. The numerical results illustrate that our proposed algorithms are capable of performing an exhaustive search with lower computation complexity, and the NOMA-enhanced scheme provides more transmission opportunities for neighbor storage devices, thus significantly reducing the total power consumption.

Simultaneous changes of exogenous dissolved organic matter treated by ozonation in properties and interaction behavior with sulfonamides.

Effluent is often treated with ozone before being discharged into a natural water environment. This process will change the interaction between effluent organic matter and pollutants in aquatic environment. The impact of ozonation on complexation between dissolved organic matter in such wastewater and sulfadimidine often found in natural water was studied in laboratory experiments using four types of real wastewater. Ozonation was found to decrease the proportion of organic matter with a molecular weight greater than 5 kDa as well as protein-like, fulvic-like and humic-like components, but except the proportion of hydrophilic components. The aromaticity of the dissolved organic matter was also reduced after ozonation. The complexation of tryptophan and tyrosine with sulfadimidine mainly depends on their hydrophobicity and large molecular weight. Ozonation of fulvic and humic acid tends to produce small and medium molecular weight hydrophilics. The complexation of humic and fulvic acids with sulfadimidine was enhanced by ozonation. Dissolved organic matter, with or without oxidation, were found to weaken sulfadimidine's inhibition of microbial growth, especially for Aeromonas and Acinetobacter species. This finding will expand our understanding about the impact of advanced treatment processes on the dissolved organic matters' properties in effluent.

Abundance and distribution characteristics of microplastic in plateau cultivated land of Yunnan Province, China.

Microplastic pollution in cultivated soil has received increasing attention recently. There may be more serious microplastic abundance but little research has been done in cultivated soil in plateau areas. To survey the pollution characteristics of microplastics in inland cultivated soil, 100 soil samples collected from 10 counties of Yunnan Province were investigated through density separation and microscopic examination. The research results showed that microplastic abundance was in the range of 0.9 × 103 to 40.8 × 103 particles (kg Ds)-1 with average abundance of 9.8 × 103 particles (kg Ds)-1. Moreover, compared with other studies on sediments, it was found that microplastic abundance in inland soil was one order of magnitude higher than that in offshore sediments. The use of plastic mulch and its long-term residue in cultivated soil was an important reason for microplastic pollution. In this survey, various morphologies of microplastics existed, including fragment (78.3%), transparent/translucency (49.7%), and micro-size microplastics (< 500 µm) (89.3%). And the microplastic morphologies occurred in different degrees of aging phenomenon under the influence of the environment factors such as ultraviolet radiation. The findings provided the pollution status of microplastics in cultivated soil, and more attention should be paid to inland soil microplastic pollution. Grapical abstract.

Application values of prenatal screening and non-invasive gene sequencing in fetal birth defects.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate effects of prenatal screening and non-invasive gene sequencing on the clinical diagnosis of fetal birth defects and the outcome of pregnancy. METHODS: Totally 2520 pregnant women who received prenatal screening in our hospital were selected as the research subjects. The high-risk pregnant women were further tested by the non-invasive gene sequencing technology. Pregnant women with positive results were diagnosed by amniocentesis and fetal chromosome karyotype analysis, and the pregnancy outcome was followed up for one year. RESULTS: 870 out of the 2520 pregnant women was tested by non-invasive gene sequencing technology; 26 of the 870 women was 13-trisomy-positive and was diagnosed by amniocentesis and fetal chromosome karyotype analysis, 22 of which was diagnosed as 47, XN, +13 and four of which was normal; the diagnosis accuracy of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) was 84.6%. 18 out of the 22 confirmed cases underwent abortion, three cases had termination of embryonic development, and one case had postnatal anomaly. Thirty four out of the 2520 pregnant women was 18-trisomy-positive and was diagnosed by amniocentesis and fetal chromosome karyotype analysis, 31 of which was diagnosed as 47, XN, +18 and three cases were normal; the diagnosis accuracy of NIPT was 91.2%. 29 out of the 31 confirmed cases underwent abortion and two cases had termination of embryonic development. Forty out of the 2520 pregnant women was 21-trisomy-positive and was diagnosed by amniocentesis and fetal chromosome karyotype analysis, 39 of which was diagnosed as 47, XN, +21 and one case was normal; the diagnosis accuracy of NIPT was 97.5%. Thirty four out of the 39 confirmed cases underwent abortion, three cases had termination of embryonic development, and two cases had postnatal anomaly. Twenty eight cases were tested as sex chromosome-positive and were diagnosed by amniocentesis and fetal chromosome karyotype analysis, 25 out of which was diagnosed as abnormal and three cases were normal; the diagnosis accuracy of NIPT was 89.3%. 24 out of the 25 confirmed cases underwent abortion, and one case had termination of embryonic development. CONCLUSION: Prenatal screening and non-invasive gene sequencing technology have a high accuracy in the diagnosis of fetal birth defects, which can reduce the maternal abortion injury as much as possible and relieve the psychological pressure. The promotion of the mode can be strengthened in clinics.

Quercetin suppresses migration and invasion by targeting miR-146a/GATA6 axis in fibroblast-like synoviocytes of rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systematic autoimmune disease which may lead to joint dysfunction and disability. Aberrant migration and invasion of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) is one of the most predominant etiopathogenesis of RA. Quercetin is a bioflavonoid which is implicated in the development of RA, yet its role in regulating the migration and invasion of FLSs is still elusive. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of quercetin treatment on migration and invasion of FLSs and the underlying mechanism.Methods: Capacity of migration and invasion of FLSs were assessed using transwell assay. Immunofluorescence assay was used to determine the expression of F-actin. The RNA levels of miR-146a and GATA transcription factor 6 (GATA6) were measured using quantitative real-time PCR. Western blot was used to examine the protein level of GATA6. The correlation between miR-146a and GATA6 was validated using luciferase reporter assay.Results: Transwell assay revealed that the migration and invasion of FLSs were significantly inhibited after quercetin treatment, which was also proved by decreased expression of F-actin. The RNA level of miR-146a was decreased in RA tissues and was negatively related to the expression of GATA transcription factor 6 (GATA6). Quercetin treatment elevated the RNA level of miR-146a, but suppressed the expression of GATA6 in FLSs. Further luciferase reporter assay validated that GATA6 is a downstream target of miR-146a. Besides, miR-146a inhibited the migration and invasion of FLSs, and further GATA6 over-expression abrogated the miR-146a-induced inhibition. In addition, specific anti-miR-146a inhibitor abolished quercetin-mediated suppression of migration and invasion of FLSs.Conclusion: Our study suggested that quercetin suppresses the migration and invasion of FLSs via regulating the miR-146a/GATA6 axis.

Photocatalytic degradation of dye by Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles prepared with different sol-gel crystallization in the presence of effluent organic matter.

TiO2 nanoparticle-doped Ag (Ag/TNPs) have good photocatalytic properties based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect. The effluent organic matter (EfOM) can be easily activated by photo-excitation to promote pollutant photodegradation, but excessive EfOM has an inactive effect. Herein, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes of photocatalytic performance by Ag/TNPs in the presence of EfOM. Three Ag/TNPs made by condensation crystallization or rotary evaporation crystallization using the sol-gel method were conducted in photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO). The Ag/TNPs crystallized by condensation had greater separation rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and photocatalytic degradation of MO with high load rates of binding Ag and TiO2 than those formed by rotary evaporation crystallization. Indeed, EfOM could be excited to produce the active substances under illumination resulting in the promotion of MO degradation. However, contrary to previous speculation, no additive effect of MO photodegradation was observed with the addition both of EfOM and Ag/TNPs at different pH values (5~9) and ion strength (0~0.4 mol L-1). It can be explained that the EfOM changed the morphology and active sites in Ag/TNPs' surface. Meanwhile, EfOM could be consumed and degraded by Ag/TNP photocatalysis leading to the concentration of free radicals to decrease. This study revealed a nonsynergistic effect between nanomaterial and EfOM for photocatalysis. EfOM would have a negative effect on photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds by Ag/TNPs in the aquatic environment. Graphical abstract .

Biochar enhanced microbial degradation of 17ß-estradiol.

Steroid estrogens (SEs), especially 17ß-estradiol (E2), can be a serious threat to the health of organisms. The removal of E2 from the natural environment is mainly carried out by microbial degradation partly mediated by biochar, which contains quinone structures. In this study, reed straw biochar samples made at four different heat treatment temperatures (HTTs) were used to mediate E2 microbial degradation by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. The removal efficiency of E2 (95%) was highest in the presence of HTT - 500 °C biochar under anaerobic conditions after 120 h of microbial degradation. The effect of biochar on promoting microbial degradation was far more superior under anaerobic conditions than under aerobic conditions. The redox-activity and types of surface functional groups of biochar reveal that biochar can accept electrons generated by microorganisms in a timely manner. This mechanism promotes the metabolic process of cells and microbial degradation of E2 (exponential increase). Biochar particles rather than biochar-derived water-soluble organic compounds are responsible for this stimulating effect. These results highlight the impact that biochar has on microbial degradation of trace pollutants in a natural environment.

Spontaneous changes in dissolved organic matter affect the bio-removal of steroid estrogens.

Microbial action is the main pathway removing steroid estrogens (SEs) from both aerobic and anaerobic natural waters. The rate is influenced by other active substances present, particularly dissolved organic matter (DOM). DOM in natural surface waters has unstable components which undergo spontaneous photochemical oxidation, biological oxidation, chemical oxidation changes. How these changes influence the biosorption and bio-removal of SEs was the subject of this research. Photo oxidation-induced DOM increased the proportion of the fluorescence in area V, but biological oxidation and chemical oxidation caused fluorescence area V to decrease. All three oxidation processes can reduce the proportions of molecular weight (MW) > 5 kg·mol-1 and increase the proportions of MW < 5 kg·mol-1. Both the electron transfer capacity decreased monotonically with photo oxidation and chemical oxidation ageing, but biological oxidation ageing increased them. 17ß-estradiol (E2) was the SEs used in the experiments. In aerobic conditions, fresh river humic acids (RHA) and aged RHA had the stronger mediating effect on the rate of E2 bio-removal under aerobic conditions. Its greater effectiveness was probably related to its binding with E2. Binding, biosorption of E2 and bio-removal of E2 were strongly positively correlated with the elemental C (R > 0.8, p ≤ 0.01) and SUVA254 (R > 0.8, p ≤ 0.01) by correlation matrix. Besides, fresh river fulvic acids (RFA) and aged RFA had the bigger mediating effect on E2 bio-removal under anaerobic conditions, and this imply that changes in aged DOM affected by other electron transfer groups in an anaerobic water environment. In anaerobic conditions, biosorption of E2 and binding action could cluster together with SUVA254, p(v), and 1 kg·mol-1 < MW < 5 kg·mol-1 by redundancy analysis, and but bio-removal of E2 could be well polymerized with EAC, EDC, p(iv), and MW > 5 kg·mol-1.

Intermittent light and microbial action of mixed endogenous source DOM affects degradation of 17ß-estradiol day after day in a relatively deep natural anaerobic aqueous environment.

All kinds of wastewaters containing steroid estrogens (SEs) and mixed endogenous source dissolved organic matter (DOM) enter natural water environments with intermittent illumination where microbial action occurs in a relatively deep natural aqueous environment. The role of mixed endogenous source DOM in SEs' biodegradation and photochemical degradation in such environments was studied using 17ß-estradiol (E2) in laboratory experiments under anaerobic conditions. The experimental results show that microbial action can improve the optical properties and electron transfer capability of mixed endogenous source DOM, promoting photodegradation and biodegradation. Intermittent illumination attenuates DOM's electron transfer capacity and its chromophore groups, but it improves the bioavailability of low molecular weight dissolved organic matter which promotes microbial growth under anaerobic conditions. DOM-mediated co-degradation by light and microbial action over three days was better than either individually. The presence of Fe(III) promoted electron transfer, and Fe(III)-DOM complexes accelerated energy transfer under irradiation, enhancing photodegradation. Any remaining estrogens will continue to degrade, most effectively in well-aerated waters with sufficient illumination.

Detection of myocardial enzymes, cardiac troponin T and hepatic and renal function in the diagnosis and treatment of severe pneumonia in children.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the significance of myocardial enzymes, cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and hepatic and renal function in the treatment of severe pneumonia in children. METHODS: One hundred and twenty children with severe pneumonia who were admitted to the hospital between April 2015 and February 2017 were selected and included as a severe pneumonia group; 120 children with common pneumonia were included as a common pneumonia group; 100 healthy children were included as controls. The myocardial enzymes, cTnT and hepatic and renal function of patients in the three groups were detected and compared. The children with severe pneumonia were divided into a mild hypoxia group, a moderate hypoxia group and a severe hypoxia group according to arterial partial pressure of oxygen; the myocardial enzymes, hepatic and renal function and cTnT of the children in the three groups were compared. The correlations of partial pressure of blood oxygen with myocardial enzymes, hepatic and renal function and cTnT were analyzed. RESULTS: The levels of myocardial enzymes, hepatic and renal function and cTnT of the severe pneumonia group, common pneumonia group and control group declined, and the differences had statistical significance (P<0.05). The levels of myocardial enzymes, hepatic and renal function and cTnT were higher in the children with severe hypoxia. The partial pressure of blood oxygen was in a negative correlation with myocardial enzymes, hepatic and renal function and cTnT in the severe pneumonia group. CONCLUSION: Timely monitoring of myocardial enzymes, hepatic and renal function and cTnT has an extremely important role in the evaluation of children with severe pneumonia.