Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of sewage sludge application on the heavy metal content in soils and grasses. The sewage sludge was obtained from Northern Shenyang Wastewater ...Treatment Plant, China, and applied at 0, 15, 30, 60, 120 and 150
t
ha
−1. Native grasses
Zoysia japonica and
Poa annua were chosen as experimental plants. The experimental results showed that nutrient content of the soil, especially organic matter, was increased after sewage sludge application. The grass biomass was increased and the grass growing season was longer. Heavy metal concentrations in the soil also increased; however, the Zn content did not exceed the stringent Chinese environmental quality standard for soil. Pb and Cu did not exceed the standard for B grade soil, but Cd concentration in soil amended by sewage sludge has exceeded the B grade standard. Therefore, it is suggested that the sewage sludge produced from the wastewater treatment plant should not be applied to farmland, for which B grade soil or better is required. The sludge is suitable for application to forestry and grasslands or nurseries where food chain contamination with cadmium is not a concern.
China’s construction industry has constantly been confronted with the problems, such as high resource consumption, serious pollution and low energy efficiency. Thus, improving the energy efficiency ...of the construction industry and reducing its energy consumption can not only promote the sustainable development of the socio-economy and eco-economy, but also enhance the overall development level of the construction industry. In the context, the objectives are to put forward a set of systematic methodologies for measuring the energy efficiency of the regional construction industry and analyzing its change trends. First, the energy efficiency index system of the construction industry and its influencing factors are constructed through the literature review. Second, two research methods (the three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model and the Data Envelopment Analysis-Discriminant Analysis (DEA-DA) model) are applied to analyze the energy efficiency in 30 provinces of China and the change trends from 2003 to 2011. The results indicate that after eliminating the influence of the environment factors and random errors, the energy efficiency values of the construction industry in most of the provinces were improved. The mean of China’s energy efficiency of the construction industry in each year was approximately 0.92. Except Shandong with the lowest values, the mean of the other provinces was over 0.8, which reflected that the energy management and utilization levels in the construction industry were relative mature. However, the energy efficiency in most of provinces fluctuated constantly during these nine years, with the peak in 2004 and a downward trend in the overall efficiency after 2004. From the regional aspect, the energy efficiency of the construction industry in the eastern, central and western regions decreased successively; as the development level of the local economy had less significant effects on the energy efficiency, the gaps among the three regions were not obvious.
In recent years, how to accurately identify targets from measured synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images according to electromagnetic synthetic SAR images is attracting more and more research ...interest. Most existing algorithms only focus on decreasing the domain differences in visual representations, while the special characteristics of SAR images are not explored enough. Besides, these algorithms tend to align only the overall distribution of synthetic and measured images, while domain shifts between subclasses are ignored. To solve these problems, a novel unsupervised domain adaptation framework named visual and scattering topological feature fusion and alignment network (VSFA) is proposed in this article. First, considering that visual features are crucial for recognition, image reconstruction is introduced to enhance the generalization of visual features. Second, by analyzing the imaging mechanism of SAR, we explore the differences in scattering topologies between synthetic and measured images for the first time. To measure the differences quantitatively, we model the non-Euclidean scattering topology of the target as graph data and introduce graph neural networks (GNNs) to extract scattering topological features. Moreover, in order to describe the scattering topology of the target more comprehensively, we introduce two different but complementary scattering topological point extraction algorithms and achieve their fusion at the feature level by GNN for the first time. Finally, a simple but effective two-stage domain adaptation loss is proposed to constrain the network to align the distribution of synthetic and measured images class by class. Benefiting from the simultaneous reduction of distribution differences in visual space and scattering topological space, the proposed method achieves 99.15% and 98.18% recognition accuracies in two typical experiment scenarios of the Synthetic and Measured Paired Labeled Experiment (SAMPLE) dataset, demonstrating its effectiveness.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) exhibits great potential as a novel therapeutic option due to its highly sequence-specific ability to silence genes. However, efficient and safe delivery carriers are ...required for developing novel therapeutic paradigms. Thus, the successful development of efficient delivery platforms for siRNA is a crucial issue for the development of siRNA-based drugs in cancer treatments. In this study, biocompatible selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were loaded with RGDfC peptide to fabricate tumor-targeting gene delivery vehicle RGDfC-SeNPs. Subsequently, RGDfC-SeNPs were loaded with Derlin1-siRNA to fabricate RGDfC-Se@siRNA, which are functionalized selenium nanoparticles. RGDfC-Se@siRNA showed greater uptake in HeLa cervical cancer cells in comparison with that in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), verifying the RGDfC-mediated specific uptake of RGDfC-Se@siRNA. RGDfC-Se@siRNA was capable of entering HeLa cells via clathrin-associated endocytosis, and showed faster siRNA release in a cancer cell microenvironment in comparison with a normal physiological environment. qPCR and western blotting assays both indicated that RGDfC-Se@siRNA exhibited an obvious gene silencing efficacy in HeLa cells. RGDfC-Se@siRNA suppressed the invasion, migration and the proliferation of HeLa cells, and triggered HeLa cell apoptosis. Moreover, RGDfC-Se@siRNA induced the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potentials. Meanwhile, RGDfC-Se@siRNA enhanced the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in HeLa cell, suggesting that mitochondrial dysfunction mediated by ROS might play a significant role in RGDfC-Se@siRNA-induced apoptosis. Interestingly, RGDfC-SeNPs@siRNA exhibited significant antitumor activity in a HeLa tumor-bearing mouse model. Additionally, RGDfC-SeNPs@siRNA is nontoxic to main organ of mouse. The above results indicate that RGDfC-Se@siRNA provides a promising potential for cervical cancer therapy.
A rhodium-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition of internal ynamides is described. The reaction could be performed in a wide range of solvents, including aqueous media, under mild conditions without ...careful exclusion of air and moisture, giving a variety of 5-amino-triazoles as a single regioisomer. The mechanism of regioselective cycloaddition was rationalized by means of density functional theory calculations.
Tumor-initiating cells are resistant to chemotherapy, but how microRNAs play a role in regulating drug resistance of breast tumor-initiating cells (BT-IC) needs to be clarified.
Lentivirus-mediated ...miR-128 transduction was done in BT-ICs, enriched by mammosphere cultures or CD44(+)CD24(-) fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Apoptosis and DNA damage were determined upon treatment with doxorubicin. Expression of miR-128 in breast cancer tissues was examined by in situ hybridization and correlated with breast tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and patient survival.
MiR-128 was significantly reduced in chemoresistant BT-ICs enriched from breast cancer cell lines and primary breast tumors (P < 0.01), accompanied by an overexpression of Bmi-1 and ABCC5, which were identified as targets of miR-128. Ectopic expression of miR-128 reduced the protein levels of Bmi-1 and ABCC5 in BT-ICs, along with decreased cell viability (P < 0.001) and increased apoptosis (P < 0.001) and DNA damage (P < 0.001) in the presence of doxorubicin. Reduced miR-128 expression in breast tumor tissues was associated with chemotherapeutic resistance (P < 0.001) and poor survival of breast cancer patients (P < 0.05; n = 57).
Reduction in miR-128 leading to Bmi-1 and ABCC5 overexpression is a stem cell-like feature of BT-ICs, which contributes to chemotherapeutic resistance in breast cancers. Ectopic expression of miR-128 sensitizes BT-ICs to the proapoptotic and DNA-damaging effects of doxorubicin, indicating therapeutic potential.
The N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a typical ionotropic glutamate receptor, is a crucial protein for maintaining brain function. GluN2A and GluN2B are the main types of NMDA receptor subunit ...in the adult forebrain. Studies have demonstrated that they play different roles in a number of pathophysiological processes. Although the underlying mechanism for this has not been clarified, the most fundamental reason may be the differences between the signaling pathways associated with GluN2A and GluN2B. With the aim of elucidating the reasons behind the diverse roles of these two subunits, we described the signaling differences between GluN2A and GluN2B from the aspects of C‐terminus‐associated molecules, effects on typical downstream signaling proteins, and metabotropic signaling. Because there are several factors interfering with the determination of subunit‐specific signaling, there is still a long way to go toward clarifying the signaling differences between these two subunits. Developing better pharmacology tools, such as highly selective antagonists for triheteromeric GluN2A‐ and GluN2B‐containing NMDA receptors, and establishing new molecular biological methods, for example, engineering photoswitchable NMDA receptors, may be useful for clarifying the signaling differences between GluN2A and GluN2B.
•Education related to global and domain-specific cognitive functioning.•Premorbid IQ related to attention/processing speed and psychosocial functioning.•Premorbid IQ moderated the relation between ...affective episodes and cognition.•Education moderated the relation between affective episodes and subjective cognition.
Cognitive reserve (CR) reflects the resilience of the brain to cope with neuropathological changes and minimize clinical manifestations. In the present study, we explore the association between CR and cognitive and psychosocial functioning, and examined the potential moderating role of CR in patients with bipolar disorder (BD).
One hundred and twenty-five outpatients with BD type I and sixty healthy individuals were recruited. All participants were assessed with a neuropsychological battery examining attention and processing speed, working memory, visual memory and executive functioning, the Global Assessment of Functioning scale and the Cognitive Complaints in Bipolar Disorder Rating Assessment. Proxies for cognitive reserve included premorbid intelligence and educational level.
Patients with bipolar disorder presented with worse cognitive performance and psychosocial functioning than healthy controls. Multiple regression models revealed that educational level negatively associated with all assessed domain-specific cognition scores and premorbid intelligence predicted attention and processing speed and psychosocial functioning. Notably, premorbid intelligence significantly moderated the associations between the number of episodes (total, hypo/manic and depressed) and neurocognitive functioning, and the educational level also moderated the relationships between the numbers of hypo/manic and total episodes and subjective cognitive functioning.
Cognitive reserve contributes to functional outcomes in patients with BD and may emerge as a key factor contributing to the course and prognosis of patients with BD. In the future, cognitive reserve must be considered in both research and clinical interventions related to bipolar disorder.
•De novo biosynthesis of protocatechuic acid and hydroquinone was achieved using E. coli-E.coli co-cultures.•Biosensor-assisted cell selection was integrated with co-culture engineering to enhance ...the biosynthesis.•Metabolically engineered co-cultures produced more protocatechuic acid and hydroquinone than the mono-culture controls.
Protocatechuic acid (PCA) and hydroquinone (HQ) are two important phenolic molecules with recognized biological activities and industrial values. In the present study, we constructed a series of E. coli mono-cultures and co-cultures for the PCA and HQ biosynthesis from simple carbon substrate glucose. Metabolic engineering strategies, include over-expression of key pathway enzymes and utilization of biosensor-assisted cell selection, were adapted to improve the pathway intermediate supply and the overall biosynthesis. The comparative analysis showed that the adapted strategies had different degrees of impacts on the biosynthesis performance of the constructed mono-cultures and co-cultures. The highest PCA and HQ bioproduction (641 and 303 mg/L, respectively) was achieved using the optimized co-culture. Our findings show that, compared with mono-cultures, rationally designed co-cultures provide a new perspective for application of advanced metabolic engineering strategies.
La modified TiO
2
prepared by sol–gel method as the support of Fe–Mn/TiO
2
(
x
La) catalyst significantly improved SO
2
resistance. La inhibited the growth of TiO
2
particle, and led to the obvious ...layered structure of TiO
2
and more mesopores, which accelerated the decomposition of ammonium sulfate. The increase of Brønsted acid sites and the electron transfer between La and active components Fe and Mn in La doped catalysts inhibit the adsorption and oxidation of SO
2
on the catalyst, thus improving the SO
2
resistance.
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