The low‐cost commercial expandable graphite (EG) is adopted as raw materials to fabricate graphene based on liquid exfoliation method. Volume‐restricted expansion in this work is proposed to acquire ...good carbon precursor for further exfoliation. Morphology analysis results demonstrate that the multi‐layer graphene (MLG) is obtained from exfoliating the volume‐restricted expanded graphite (EdG). Raman spectrum and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicate that the obtained graphene is in high‐crystallinity and contains few defects. XPS and FTIR analysis show that the as‐prepared graphene contains seldom oxygen‐containing groups and the TGA demonstrate the outstanding thermal stability of the as‐prepared graphene.
In this study, a novel, low‐cost, and feasible method from commercial expandable graphite to fabricate graphene based on liquid exfoliation is revealed. The Raman, XRD, XPS, FTIR, and TGA analysis results confirmed the prepared graphene to be a kind of multi‐layer graphene with high‐crystallinity and excellent thermal stability.
Treatment of ventilated patients with gram-negative pneumonia (GNP) is often unsuccessful. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of nebulized amikacin (NA) as adjunctive therapy to systemic ...antibiotics in this patient population. PubMed, Embase, China national knowledge infrastructure, Wanfang, and the Cochrane database were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the effect of NA as adjunctive therapy in ventilated adult patients with GNP. Heterogeneity was explored using subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis. The Grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation approach was used to assess the certainty of the evidence. Thirteen RCTs with 1733 adults were included. The pooled results showed NA had better microbiologic eradication (RR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.69, P < 0.0001) and improved clinical response (RR = 1.23; 95% CI 1.13 to 1.34; P < 0.0001) when compared with control. Meanwhile, overall mortality, pneumonia associated mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay in ICU and change of clinical pneumonia infection scores were similar between NA and control groups. Additionally, NA did not add significant nephrotoxicity while could cause more bronchospasm. The use of NA adjunctive to systemic antibiotics therapy showed better benefits in ventilated patients with GNP. More well-designed RCTs are still needed to confirm our results.
The major task of Chinese water governance has gradually shifted away from water environment protection to water ecology remediation, and the governance of trace organic pollutants, including ...persistent organic pollutants and antibiotics, has attracted growing concern. The present study examined the seasonal distribution and sources of typical persistent organic pollutants and antibiotics in six representative water sources in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as their ecological risk to the environment. Six representative surface water and surface sediment samples were collected at different time intervals, i.e., December 2018, March 2019, and June 2019, and the concentrations of nineteen organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), seventeen polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and eight polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were analyzed by GC-MS. The major findings are listed below: ① Endosulfan sulfate, Beta-endosulfan, and methoxychlor were the major persistent organic pollutants (POPs) detected in the sediments from Gaoyou Lake, Gonghu Lake, and Gehu Lake, with concentrations ranging from 9.0 to 10.6 ng/g. ② The target antibiotics in water sources were at relatively low levels. Occurrences of sulfonamide antibiotics in water and surface sediments were NF~37.4 ng·L−1 and NF~47.3 ng·g−1. Concentrations of quinolone antibiotics in the two media were NF~5.3 ng·L−1, 0.4~32.5 ng·g−1. ③ The combined toxicity of antibiotics (risk quotient, RQ) in Lake Gehu was 0.18, which was at a moderate risk level. There was no obvious ecological risk in most water sources affected by POPs. However, there were certain ecological risks in the water sources of Gaoyou Lake, Gonghu Lake, and Sanjiangying, induced by OCPs and PCBs. This study provides a scientific basis for the treatment of antibiotics and organic pollutants in reservoir water sources.
To improve the accuracy of the Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) based quadrotor aircraft localization, a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter aided with an integration of the predictive model and Extreme ...Learning Machine (ELM) is proposed in this work. The FIR filter estimates the quad-rotor aircraft ’s position by fusing the positions measured with the UWB and Inertial Navigation System respectively. When the UWB dada are unavailable, both the ELM and the predictive model are used to provide the measurements, replacing those unavailable UWB data, for the FIR filter. The ELM estimates the measurement via the mapping between the one step prediction of state vector and the measurement built when the UWB data are available. For the predictive model, we mathematically describe the missing UWB data. Then, both the measurements estimated with the ELM and predictive model are employed to estimate the observations via
Mahalanobis
distance. The test results show that the FIR filter aided by the predictive model/ELM integrated can reduce the Cumulative Distribution Function and position Root Mean Square Error effectively when the UWB is unavailable. Compared with the ELM assisted FIR filter, the proposed FIR filter can reduce the localization error by about 48.59 %, meanwhile, the integrated method is close to the method with a better solution.
Graphical Abstract
Summary
Objective
This study explored the association between the risk of carbamazepine (CBZ)–induced Stevens‐Johnson syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) and CBZ dose, dose‐adjusted ...concentration, and ABCB1, CYP3A4, EPHX1, FAS, SCN1A, MICA, and BAG6 polymorphisms in patients of Han ethnicity with epilepsy who were living in northeastern China.
Materials and methods
We determined the genotypes of patients with CBZ‐SJS/TEN and CBZ‐tolerant patients, who were used as controls, for ABCB1, CYP3A4, EPHX1, FAS, SCN1A, MICA, and BAG6 polymorphisms by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and direct sequencing. We measured the steady‐state serum CBZ concentrations using fluorescence polarization immunoassay for the control patients.
Results
We observed statistically significant differences in EPHX1 c.337T>C polymorphisms between patients with CBZ‐SJS/TEN and CBZ‐tolerant controls in terms of allelic and genotypic frequencies (p = 0.011 and p = 0.007, respectively). The C allele and the C‐G diplotype of EPHX1 may play important roles in increasing the risk of CBZ‐SJS/TEN development (odds ratio OR 0.478, 95% confidence interval CI = 0.267–0.855, p = 0.011; OR = 0.213, 95% CI = 0.049–0.930, p = 0.025, respectively). We did not observe any significant associations between ABCB1, CYP3A4, EPHX1, FAS, SCN1A, MICA or BAG6 genes and CBZ dose or dose‐adjusted concentration in CBZ‐tolerant patients.
Significance
We found a significant association between EPHX1 c.337T>C polymorphisms and the development of CBZ–SJS/TEN in patients of Han ethnicity living in northeastern China. EPHX1 c.337T>C polymorphisms may contribute to the risk of severe CBZ‐SJS/TEN by increasing the concentration of a CBZ metabolite, CBZ‐10,11‐epoxide, in patients with epilepsy.
A PowerPoint slide summarizing this article is available for download in the Supporting Information section here.
As an energy conversion and generation device that converts hydrogen energy into electrical energy, the solid oxide fuel cell is one of the most promising fuel cells. However, thermal stability is ...the major reason for the shortened solid oxide fuel cell lifetime of hybrid electric vehicles usage. In existing solid oxide fuel cell system, the peak temperature occurs in the afterburner, so the thermal safety assessment is very important for solid oxide fuel cell stack. In this paper, afterburner thermal performance of natural gas solid oxide fuel cell system is studied based on computational fluid dynamics simulation. The model is analysed by changing gas temperature, gas flow velocity, gas composition ratio and steam to carbon ratio. The afterburner temperature distribution and its safety characteristics are obtained through model analysis. The simulation and discussion results can guide the thermoelectric safety assessment and controller design of the SOFC system.
•Afterburner thermal characteristics of SOFC system are analysed in depth.•Three-dimensional model is used to study temperature distribution of afterburner.•The verified model combined with afterburner experiment are more practical.
Highlights • High resolution 3D CUBE T1WI displays intracranial vessel wall clearly. • 3D CUBE T1WI detects intracranial artery abnormalities with high reproducibility. • Large coverage of ...intracranial arteries can be evaluated using 3D CUBE T1WI.
MicroRNAs have been demonstrated to be deregulated in different types of cancer. miR-21 is a key player in the majority of cancers. Down-regulation of miR-21 in glioblastoma cells leads to repression ...of cell growth, increased cellular apoptosis and cell-cycle arrest, which can theoretically
enhance the chemotherapeutic effect in cancer therapy. In this study, the poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer was employed as a carrier to co-deliver antisense-miR-21 oligonucleotide (as-miR-21) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to achieve delivery of as-miR-21 to human glioblastoma cells and enhance
the cytotoxicity of 5-FU antisense therapy. The inhibitory effect toward brain tumors was evaluated by MTT assay, and measurements of cell apoptosis and invasion using the human brain glioma cell line U251. PAMAM could be simultaneously loaded with 5-FU and as-miR-21, forming a complex smaller
than 100 nm in diameter. Both the chemotherapeutant and as-miR-21 could be efficiently introduced into tumor cells. The co-delivery of as-miR-21 significantly improved the cytotoxicity of 5-FU and dramatically increased the apoptosis of U251 cells, while the migration ability of the tumor
cells was decreased. These results suggest that our co-delivery system may have important clinical applications in the treatment of miR-21-overexpressing glioblastoma.
For the purpose of evaluating scientific output, examining literature utilization, and predicting the direction of publication for Journal of King Saud University – Science (JKSU-S). This paper ...explored the hot topics and new trends through the statistics of the journal between 2009 and 2019 from the perspective of bibliometric and visualization technologies. After excluding letters, book reviews, editorial materials, proceedings papers, etc., 543 valid records were screened out from Scopus database ultimately. The data were analyzed and mapped in terms of dynamics and trends of publications, productive and influential contributors and thematic and hot topic change, etc. Through these results, we also concluded the findings from these three aspects and presented a comprehensive picture of the journal. Correspondingly, this paper also provided the suggestion to authors, editorial board, publishers involved based on the findings.
Morinda officinalis
oligosaccharides (MOs) are natural herbal extracts that have been shown to exert antidepressant effects. However, the mechanism of this effect remains unclear. Here, we explored ...the mechanism by which MOs improved experimental depression. Using a chronic mild stress (CMS) murine model, we examined whether MOs could protect against depressive-like behaviour. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- and ATP-treated BV2 cells were used to examine the potential mechanism by which MOs mediate the inflammatory response. We found that MOs prevented the CMS-induced reduction in the sucrose preference ratio in the sucrose preference test (SPT) and shortened the immobility durations in both the tail suspension test (TST) and forced swim test (FST). We also noticed that MOs suppressed inflammatory effects by deactivating the MyD88/PI3K pathway
via
E2F2 in CMS mice or LPS- and ATP-stimulated BV2 cells. Furthermore, overexpression of E2F2 blunted the beneficial effects of MOs
in vitro
. Collectively, these data showed that MOs exerted antidepressant effects in CMS mice by targeting E2F2-mediated MyD88/PI3K signalling pathway.
PDF
