Macrophage LMO7 deficiency facilitates inflammatory injury via metabolic-epigenetic reprogramming.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a formidable disease due to its complex pathogenesis. Macrophages, as a major immune cell population in IBD, are crucial for gut homeostasis. However, it is still unveiled how macrophages modulate IBD. Here, we found that LIM domain only 7 (LMO7) was downregulated in pro-inflammatory macrophages, and that LMO7 directly degraded 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) through K48-mediated ubiquitination in macrophages. As an enzyme that regulates glycolysis, PFKFB3 degradation led to the glycolytic process inhibition in macrophages, which in turn inhibited macrophage activation and ultimately attenuated murine colitis. Moreover, we demonstrated that PFKFB3 was required for histone demethylase Jumonji domain-containing protein 3 (JMJD3) expression, thereby inhibiting the protein level of trimethylation of histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27me3). Overall, our results indicated the LMO7/PFKFB3/JMJD3 axis is essential for modulating macrophage function and IBD pathogenesis. Targeting LMO7 or macrophage metabolism could potentially be an effective strategy for treating inflammatory diseases.

Association of seizures with COVID-19 infection in underage during the pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has caused worldwide transmission. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the morbidity and characteristics of seizures after SARS-CoV-2 infection in underage (≤18 y) and to provide valuable reference material for subsequent clinical treatment. METHODS: PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases were searched up to 10th May 2023. We utilized the search strategy of medical subject headings combined with entry terms to search all related literatures. RESULTS: The meta-analysis was performed according to PRISMA reporting guidelines. Risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). A total of 12 articles were selected, including 4153 subjects and 333 seizure-prone minor patients with COVID-19. The morbidity of seizures after SARS-CoV-2 infection in immature patients was approximately 8.2 (95 % CI, 4.7%-12.4 %). By subgroup analysis, we know that the morbidity of male, Americas, with fever and first occurrence of seizures were 4.2% (95 % CI, 0.4-10.5 %), 4.6 % (95 % CI, 0.4 %-11.7 %), 5.4 % (95 % CI, 2.6 %-9.1 %) and 3.7 % (95 % CI, 0.7 %-8.2 %), respectively. Generalized seizures are the main type of seizures (80.6 %). CONCLUSIONS: Seizures can be caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection in underage groups, with a pooled morbidity of 8.2% and a higher morbidity in females, in African regions, in febrile groups and during 2022-2023. In addition, generalized seizures being the predominant seizure type.

Electrical Energy Consumption of Multiscale UV-AOP Reactors for Micropollutant Removal in Drinking Water: Facilitated Prediction by Reaction Rate Constants Measured on a Mini-Fluidic Photoreaction System.

Electrical energy consumption per order (EEO) is an important figure-of-merit for the selection and optimization of ultraviolet (UV)-based advanced oxidation processes (UV-AOPs). However, EEO applications are limited by the lack of an accurate and facilitative evaluation method because EEO presents reactor property dependence. In this study, we developed an EEO prediction method for multiscale UV-AOP reactors for micropollutant removal in water. The method utilized the reaction rate constants determined in a reference reactor (e.g., mini-fluidic photoreaction system), complemented by a scale-up method that clarified the dependence of EEO on reactor properties. The predicted results of various UV-AOPs were verified experimentally in four bench/pilot-scale reactors in laboratory and a full-scale flow-through reactor (FFR) in field using sulfamethazine as a model micropollutant. For example, EEO values of 0.105 and 0.058 kWh m-3 order-1 were predicted in the FFR at H2O2 doses of 5 and 10 mg L-1, respectively, which generally agreed with verification results. Additionally, the developed method could assist the identification of appropriate reactors in the laboratory for EEO measurements, providing a valuable supplement for the EEO prediction in practice. The developed method presents acceptable accuracy, convenience, and low cost, which would significantly facilitate EEO evaluations for practical UV-AOP applications.

IL-36α inhibits melanoma by inducing pro-inflammatory polarization of macrophages.

Interleukin-36α (IL-36α) is essential for various inflammatory conditions, such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, whereas its role in tumor immunity is unclear. In this study, it was demonstrated that IL-36α could activate the NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways in macrophages, leading to the expression of IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL3, CXCL5 and iNOS. Importantly, IL-36α has significant antitumor effects, altering the tumor microenvironment and promoting the infiltration of MHC IIhigh macrophages and CD8+ T cells while decreasing the levels of monocyte myeloid-derived suppressor cells, CD4+ T cells and regulatory T cells. This ultimately results in the inhibition of tumor growth and migration. Furthermore, IL-36α synergized with the PD-L1 antibody increased the immune cells infiltration and enhanced the anti-tumor effect of the PD-L1 antibody on melanoma. Collectively, this study reveals a new role for IL-36α in promoting anti-tumor immune responses in macrophages and suggests its potential for cancer immunotherapy.

Overcoming the Ambient Manufacturability-Performance Bottleneck in Perovskite Nanocrystal Emitters for Efficient Light-Emitting Diodes.

Colloidal perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have risen rapidly in luminescence efficiency and color purity. However, their high performance requires careful and complex pre-treatment of precursors and precise regulation of the reaction atmosphere; otherwise, their emission will be weak and broad. To overcome these limitations, we develop a facile ligand exchange method using a new type of bidentate ligand, which is obtained by reacting cheap sulfur with tributylphosphine (S-TBP). During ligand exchange, the double bond between P and S atoms breaks and a single bond is formed between them, after which S-TBP switches into a bidentate ligand and binds to a perovskite NC at two points. With short-chain S-TBP ligands that have high spatial position resistance, both NC spacing and surface ligand density can be reduced, thereby improving carrier injection and transport. On the NC surface after ligand exchange, halogen vacancies were substantially filled, leading to a PbSP (Pb, S, and P elements) component-dominated shell that greatly decreases trap density and enhances material stability. The resulting perovskite NCs are stable and bright with a photoluminescence quantum yield of ≈96 %, and an external quantum efficiency of 22 %. Note that our ligand-exchange strategy remains effective even when scaling up, which should accelerate commercialization.

An Efficient Bayesian Method for Estimating the Degree of the Skewness of X Chromosome Inactivation Based on the Mixture of General Pedigrees and Unrelated Females.

Skewed X chromosome inactivation (XCI-S) has been reported to be associated with some X-linked diseases. Several methods have been proposed to estimate the degree of XCI-S (denoted as γ) for quantitative and qualitative traits based on unrelated females. However, there is no method available for estimating γ based on general pedigrees. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a Bayesian method to obtain the point estimate and the credible interval of γ based on the mixture of general pedigrees and unrelated females (called mixed data for brevity), which is also suitable for only general pedigrees. We consider the truncated normal prior and the uniform prior for γ. Further, we apply the eigenvalue decomposition and Cholesky decomposition to our proposed methods to accelerate the computation speed. We conduct extensive simulation studies to compare the performances of our proposed methods and two existing Bayesian methods which are only applicable to unrelated females. The simulation results show that the incorporation of general pedigrees can improve the efficiency of the point estimation and the precision and the accuracy of the interval estimation of γ. Finally, we apply the proposed methods to the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research data for their practical use.

Comparative chloroplast genomics of three species of Bulbophyllum section Cirrhopetalum (Orchidaceae), with an emphasis on the description of a new species from Eastern Himalaya.

Background: Chloroplast (cp) genomes are useful and informative molecular markers used for species determination and phylogenetic analysis. Bulbophyllum is one of the most taxonomically complex taxa in Orchidaceae. However, the genome characteristics of Bulbophyllum are poorly understood. Methods: Based on comparative morphological and genomic analysis, a new species Bulbophyllum pilopetalum from eastern Himalaya belonging to section Cirrhopetalum is described and illustrated. This study used chloroplast genomic sequences and ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) analysis to distinguish the new Bulbophyllum species and determine its phylogenetic position. An additional phylogenetic analysis was conducted using 74 coding sequences from 15 complete chloroplast genomes from the genus Bulbophyllum, as well as nrDNA sequences and two chloroplast DNA sequences from 33 Bulbophyllun species. Results: The new species is morphologically similar to B. pingnanense, B. albociliatum, and B. brevipedunculatum in vegetative and floral morphology, but it can be distinguished by its ovate-triangle dorsal sepal without a marginal ciliate. The chloroplast genome of the new Bulbophyllum species is 151,148 bp in length, and includes a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,833 bp, a large single-copy region (LSC) of 86,138 bp, and a small single-copy region (SSC) of 13,300 bp. The chloroplast genome includes 108 unique genes encoding 75 proteins, 30 tRNAs, and four rRNAs. Compared with the cp genomes of its two most closely-related species, B. pingnanense and B. albociliatum, this chloroplast genome exhibited great interspecific divergence and contained several Indels that were specific to the new species. The plastid tree showed that B. pilopetalum is most closely-related to B. pingnanense. The phylogenetic tree based on combined nrDNA and chloroplast DNA sequences indicated that section Cirrhopetalum was monophyletic and B. pilopetalum was a member of this section. Discussion: The taxonomic status of the new species is strongly supported by cp genome data. Our study highlights the importance of using the complete cp genome to identify species, elucidate the taxonomy, and reconstruct the phylogeny of plant groups with complicated taxonomic problems.

Micropollutant degradation by UV/H2O2 in drinking water: Facilitated prediction through combination of model simulation and portable measurement.

Ultraviolet-based advanced oxidation processes (UV-AOPs) are highly effective for micropollutant degradation. However, it is considerably time and labor consuming to evaluate the practical performance of UV-AOPs. This study developed a novel method, through combination of model simulation with portable measurement (MS-PM), to facilitate prediction of the photon fluence-based rate constant of micropollutant degradation (k'p,MP) by UV/H2O2, a commercially available UV-AOP. Model simulation was performed with photochemical, hydroxyl radical (HO•) concentration steady-state approximation, and quantitative structure-activity relationship models; and portable measurement was conducted on a mini-fluidic photoreaction system to quantify the HO• scavenging capacity (HRSC) of a water matrix. The method was established and further verified experimentally in seven test waters by taking sulfamethazine (SMN) as a model micropollutant. A lower k'p,SMN was predicted in a water matrix with a higher HRSC, for example, 57.5 and 347.8 m2 einstein-1 in the raw water (HRSC = 5.91 × 105 s-1) and sand-filtered effluent (HRSC = 5.25 × 104 s-1) of a drinking water treatment plant at an H2O2 dose of 25 mg L-1, respectively. The predicted values agreed generally well with the experimental ones. The MS-PM method has advantages of high efficiency and convenience, low cost, and acceptable accuracy, which will significantly facilitate the design and field assessment of UV-AOPs for micropollutant removal from drinking water.

Facilely tuning the intrinsic catalytic sites of the spinel oxide for peroxymonosulfate activation: From fundamental investigation to pilot-scale demonstration.

Heterogeneous peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have shown a great potential for pollutant degradation, but their feasibility for large-scale water treatment application has not been demonstrated. Herein, we develop a facile coprecipitation method for the scalable production (∼10 kg) of the Cu-Fe-Mn spinel oxide (CuFeMnO). Such a catalyst has rich oxygen vacancies and symmetry-breaking sites, which endorse it with a superior PMS-catalytic capacity. We find that the working reactive species and their contributions are highly dependent on the properties of target organic pollutants. For the organics with electron-donating group (e.g., -OH), high-valent metal species are mainly responsible for the pollutant degradation, whereas for the organics with electron-withdrawing group (e.g., -COOH and -NO2), hydroxyl radical (•OH) as the secondary oxidant also plays an important role. We demonstrate that the CuFeMnO-PMS system is able to achieve efficient and stable removal of the pollutants in the secondary effluent from a municipal wastewater plant at both bench and pilot scales. Moreover, we explore the application prospect of this PMS-based AOP process for large-scale wastewater treatment. This work describes an opportunity to scalably prepare robust spinel oxide catalysts for water purification and is beneficial to the practical applications of the heterogeneous PMS-AOPs.

Association of cerebrospinal fluid advanced oxidation protein products levels with early brain injury and prognosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: A preliminary prospective study.

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we investigated the time course in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) advanced oxidation protein products (AOPPs) levels in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), and ascertained the relationship between the levels of AOPPs and early brain injury (EBI), hydrocephalus and prognosis of patients with aSAH. METHODS: We measured the CSF AOPPs levels in 50 patients with aSAH at 1-3 d, 4-6 d, 7-9 d, and 10-12 d after hemorrhage. The modified Fisher grades, Hunt-Hess grades, CSF IL-6 levels, peripheral blood count of white blood cells, cerebral edema scores and hydrocephalus were used to assess the severity of brain injury. Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores were used to assess the prognosis. Patients with mRS scores greater than 2 were considered to have a poor outcome. RESULTS: CSF AOPPs levels were significantly higher in patients with aSAH with poor prognosis, compared to patients with good prognosis and peaked in the early stage. Among patients with aSAH, the levels of CSF AOPPs on days 1-3 were significantly correlated with modified Fisher grades, Hunt-Hess grades, CSF IL-6 levels, peripheral blood count of white blood cells, and cerebral edema scores. Also, in patients with hydrocephalus, early CSF AOPPs levels were significantly elevated. Levels of CSF AOPPs in aSAH patients on days 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 were independently associated with poor prognosis at the 90-day follow-up, and the optimal area under the curve (AUC) values for CSF AOPPs levels were found on days 1-3. CONCLUSIONS: AOPPs may serve as the potential biomarker to assess the severity of EBI and prognosis in patients with aSAH.

The impact of natural sunlight irradiation on the biotoxicities of different molecular sizes EfOM/SRNOM and its relationship with spectral and molecular level parameters.

Natural sunlight irradiation is regarded as an efficient and low-carbon method for controlling the biotoxicity of effluents from domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Dissolved organic matter in WWTPs effluent (EfOM) is responsible for the non-specific biotoxicity of effluent. In the present study, the variation in spectral characteristics, molecular composition, luminescent bacteria toxicity, and genotoxicity of EfOM of different molecular sizes (MOSs) during natural sunlight irradiation were investigated from a systematic perspective, and the standard natural organic matter from the Suwannee River (SRNOM) was synchronously assessed for comparative purposes. To further explore the cause of the biotoxicity changes, the relationships between the spectral or molecular level parameters (obtained from FT-ICR MS analysis) and biotoxicity were assessed using correlation analysis. The molecules in <1 kDa EfOM with lower molecular weight, higher unsaturation degree, and higher humification and fluorescence had higher luminescent bacteria toxicity under sunlight irradiation. However, in the <1 kDa SRNOM, the molecules which were characterized by higher humification and fluorescence had higher luminescent bacteria toxicity. The notable genotoxicity reduction of EfOM under sunlight irradiation was attributed to the photochemical degradation of components with a high unsaturation degree. Such findings could enable ecological safety improvement of aquatic environments using natural sunlight.

Gene-Based Methods for Estimating the Degree of the Skewness of X Chromosome Inactivation.

Skewed X chromosome inactivation (XCI-S) has been reported to be associated with some X-linked diseases, and currently several methods have been proposed to estimate the degree of the XCI-S (denoted as γ) for a single locus. However, no method has been available to estimate γ for genes. Therefore, in this paper, we first propose the point estimate and the penalized point estimate of γ for genes, and then derive its confidence intervals based on the Fieller's and penalized Fieller's methods, respectively. Further, we consider the constraint condition of γ∈[0, 2] and propose the Bayesian methods to obtain the point estimates and the credible intervals of γ, where a truncated normal prior and a uniform prior are respectively used (denoted as GBN and GBU). The simulation results show that the Bayesian methods can avoid the extreme point estimates (0 or 2), the empty sets, the noninformative intervals ([0, 2]) and the discontinuous intervals to occur. GBN performs best in both the point estimation and the interval estimation. Finally, we apply the proposed methods to the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research data for their practical use. In summary, in practical applications, we recommend using GBN to estimate γ of genes.

BEXCIS: Bayesian methods for estimating the degree of the skewness of X chromosome inactivation.

BACKGROUND: X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is an epigenetic phenomenon that one of two X chromosomes in females is transcriptionally silenced during early embryonic development. Skewed XCI has been reported to be associated with some X-linked diseases. There have been several methods measuring the degree of the skewness of XCI. However, these methods may still have several limitations. RESULTS: We propose a Bayesian method to obtain the point estimate and the credible interval of the degree of XCI skewing by incorporating its prior information of being between 0 and 2. We consider a normal prior and a uniform prior for it (respectively denoted by BN and BU). We also propose a penalized point estimate based on the penalized Fieller's method and derive the corresponding confidence interval. Simulation results demonstrate that the BN and BU methods can solve the problems of extreme point estimates, noninformative intervals, empty sets and discontinuous intervals. The BN method generally outperforms other methods with the lowest mean squared error in the point estimation, and well controls the coverage probability with the smallest median and the least variation of the interval width in the interval estimation. We apply all the methods to the Graves' disease data and the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research data, and find that SNP rs3827440 in the Graves' disease data may undergo skewed XCI towards the allele C. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend the BN method for measuring the degree of the skewness of XCI in practice. The R package BEXCIS is publicly available at https://github.com/Wen-YiYu/BEXCIS .

Detection of Parent-of-Origin Effects for the Variants Associated With Behavioral Disinhibition in the MCTFR Data.

Behavioral disinhibition is one of the important characteristics of many mental diseases. It has been reported in literature that serious behavioral disinhibition will affect people's health and greatly reduce people's quality of life. Meanwhile, behavioral disinhibition can easily lead to illegal drug abuse and violent crimes, etc., which will bring great harm to the society. At present, large-scale genome-wide association analysis has identified many loci associated with behavioral disinhibition. However, these studies have not incorporated the parent-of-origin effects (POE) into analysis, which may ignore or underestimate the genetic effects of loci on behavioral disinhibition. Therefore, in this article, we analyzed the five phenotypes related to behavioral disinhibition in the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research data (nicotine, alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence, illicit drugs, and non-substance use related behavioral disinhibition), to further explore the POE of variants on behavioral disinhibition. We applied a linear mixed model to test for the POE at a genome-wide scale on five transformed phenotypes, and found nine SNPs with statistically significant POE at the significance level of 5 × 10-8. Among them, SNPs rs4141854, rs9394515, and rs4711553 have been reported to be associated with two neurological disorders (restless legs syndrome and Tourette's syndrome) which are related to behavioral disinhibition; SNPs rs12960235 and rs715351 have been found to be associated with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, skin cancer and type I diabetes, while both SNPs have not been identified to be related to behavioral disinhibition in literature; SNPs rs704833, rs6837925, rs1863548, and rs11067062 are novel loci identified in this article, and their function annotations have not been reported in literature. Follow-up study in molecular genetics is needed to verify whether they are surely related to behavioral disinhibition.

AMFR drives allergic asthma development by promoting alveolar macrophage-derived GM-CSF production.

Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are specialized tissue-resident macrophages that orchestrate the immune response in allergic inflammation and asthma. However, what signals direct AMs to cross talk with other immune cells remains unclear. Here, we report that autocrine motility factor receptor (AMFR), an endoplasmic reticulum-resident E3 ubiquitin ligase, is upregulated in AMs of asthma and is critical for this condition. AMFR deficiency significantly decreased allergy-induced T helper 2 (Th2) and eosinophilic inflammation, with less granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) production in AMs. Mechanistically, following thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) stimulation, AMFR associated directly with cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein (CIS), induced the ubiquitination of Lys48-linked polyubiquitination of CIS, and consequently blocked the inhibitory effect of CIS on signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) phosphorylation and the downstream pathway activation in AMs. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that AMFR serves a crucial role in promoting inflammation in asthma through regulating AM function, and may emerge as a new potential drug target for asthma therapy.

A review of the fluence determination methods for UV reactors: Ensuring the reliability of UV disinfection.

Ultraviolet (UV) is a green and effective technique that has been widely applied in water disinfection. The reliability of UV disinfection is an important issue, in which the aim is to ensure the delivery of adequate real-time fluence in a UV reactor. Unlike chemical disinfection systems whose disinfection dose can be directly measured with disinfectant residuals, UV is a physical process and the determination of fluence is complicated in practical reactors. To date, several fluence determination methods have been developed, including conventional methods such as biodosimetry and model simulation, as well as emerging methods such as dyed microsphere method and the model-detector method. However, a systematic and comprehensive review of these methods is still needed to discuss the attributes and application scenarios of each method. In this review, we summarized the principal theories, procedures, applications, and pros/cons of these fluence determination methods. Further, the selection and application of appropriate fluence determination methods were discussed based on different purposes (e.g., feedbacks for reactor design, evidence for third-party validation, as well as on-site determination and long-term monitoring of fluence). Overall, this review could provide useful information and new insights regarding the application of current fluence determination methods to ensure the reliability of UV disinfection.

Organic pollutant degradation by UV/peroxydisulfate process: Impacts of UV light source and phosphate buffer.

In recent years, ultraviolet (UV) based advanced oxidation processes have been extensively studied for degradation of refractory organic pollutants in water and wastewater, and selection of an appropriate UV light source is an important issue. In this study, bench-scale tests were conducted on a mini-fluidic photoreaction system (MFPS) to determine the degradation kinetics of methylene blue (MB) by UV/peroxydisulfate (UV/PDS) process equipped with a low-pressure UV (LPUV), vacuum UV (VUV)/LPUV, or medium-pressure UV (MPUV) mercury vapor lamp. Results indicate that MB degradation by UV/PDS with various light sources all followed the pseudo-first order kinetics, and the photon fluence-based rate constant (kp,λ') had a descending order of: VUV/LPUV/PDS â‰« MPUV/PDS > LPUV/PDS. Moreover, it is noted that phosphate buffer (PB) notably inhibited MB degradation: the kp,LPUV', kp,VUV/LPUV' and kp,MPUV' decreased by 35.0%, 44.9% and 37.5% with the PB concentration increasing from 0 to 20 mM, respectively. The maximal decrease in kp,VUV/LPUV' was ascribed to a strong competition of PB for VUV photons. Thereafter, pilot-scale tests were conducted to evaluate the practical performance of UV/PDS in terms of the electrical energy consumption per order (EEO). It was found again that the VUV/LPUV lamp was the optimal light source in UV/PDS for organic pollutant degradation. This study helps optimize the UV/PDS process for its practical application to water and wastewater treatment.

Revealing photon transmission in an ultraviolet reactor: Advanced approaches for measuring fluence rate distribution in water for model validation.

Fluence rate (FR) distribution (optical field) is of great significance in the optimal design of ultraviolet (UV) reactors for disinfection or oxidation processes in water treatment. Since the 1970s, various simulation models have been developed, which can be combined with computational fluidic dynamic software to calculate the fluence delivered in a UV reactor. These models strive for experimental validation and further improvement, which is a major challenge for UV technology in water treatment. Herein, a review of the simulation models of the FR distribution in a UV reactor and the applications of the current main experimental measurement approaches including conventional flat-type UV detector, spherical actinometer, and micro-fluorescent silica detector (MFSD), is presented. Moreover, FR distributions in a UV reactor are compared between various simulation models and MFSD measurements. In addition, the main influential factors on the FR distribution, including inner-wall reflection, refraction and shadowing effects of adjacent lamps, and turbidity effect are discussed, which is helpful for improving the accuracy of the simulation models and avoiding dark regions in the reactor design. This paper provides an overview on the simulation models and measurement approaches for the FR distribution, which is helpful for the model selection in fluence calculations and gives high confidence on the optimal design of UV reactors in regard to present methods.

Degradation of micropolluants in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors: Effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter.

The degradation of atrazine (ATZ), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and metoprolol (MET) in flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors was investigated with a focus on the effects of H2O2 dosage and reactor internal diameter (ID). Results showed that the micropollutants were degraded efficiently in the flow-through VUV/UV/H2O2 reactors following the pseudo first-order kinetics (R2 > 0.92). However, the steady-state assumption (SSA) kinetic model being vital in batch reactors was found invalid in flow-through reactors where fluid mixing was less sufficient. With the increase of H2O2 dosage, the ATZ removal efficiency remained almost constant while the SMX and MET removal was enhanced to different extents, which could be explained by the different reactivities of the pollutants towards HO•. A larger reactor ID resulted in lower degradation rate constants for all the three pollutants on account of the lower average fluence rate, but the change in energy efficiency was much more complicated. In reality, the electrical energy per order (EEO) of the investigated VUV/UV/H2O2 treatments ranged between 0.14-0.20, 0.07-0.14 and 0.09-0.26 kWh/m3/order for ATZ, SMX and MET, respectively, with the lowest EEO for each pollutant obtained under varied H2O2 dosages and reactor IDs. This study has demonstrated the efficiency of VUV/UV/H2O2 process for micropollutant removal and the inadequacy of the SSA model in flow-through reactors, and elaborated the influential mechanisms of H2O2 dosage and reactor ID on the reactor performances.

Tetraethylthiuram disulphide alleviates pulmonary fibrosis through modulating transforming growth factor-ß signalling.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) induces significant morbidity and mortality, for which there are limited therapeutic options available. Here, we found that tetraethylthiuram disulphide (disulfiram, DSF), a derivative of thiuram, used in the treatment of alcohol abuse, has an inhibitory effect on bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis via the attenuation of the fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition, migration, and proliferation of fibroblasts. Furthermore, DSF inhibited the activation of primary pulmonary fibroblasts and fibroblast cell line under transforming growth factor-ß 1 (TGF-ß1) challenge. Mechanistically, the anti-fibrotic effect of DSF on fibroblasts depends on the inhibition of TGF-ß signalling. We further determined that DSF interrupts the interaction between SMAD3 and TGF-ß receptor Ι (TBR Ι), and identified that DSF directly binds with SMAD3, in which Trp326, Thr330, and Cys332 of SMAD3 are critical binding sites for DSF. Collectively, our results reveal a powerful anti-fibrotic function of DSF in pulmonary fibrosis through the inhibition of TGF-ß/SMAD signalling in pulmonary fibroblasts, indicating that DSF is a promising therapeutic candidate for IPF.