•Effect of fluorine treatment over FCC-DO for mesophase formation firstly suggested.•Reaction mechanism of mesophase formation by fluorination was suggested.•Fluorine promoted radical polymerization ...of FCC-DO to form heavy mesophase nuclei.•The amount of hydrogen donating species also increased after the fluorination.•Pitch from fluorinated DO had higher mesophase yield than pitch from pristine DO.
Petroleum residue oil-based mesophase pitch production suffers from its low yield of mesophase. There have been continuous efforts, such as catalyst-assisted reactions and multistep heat treatments, to produce high-purity mesophase pitch. However, most of these techniques have difficulties with the processability. In this study, we suggest a novel fluorine pretreatment of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) decant oil for mesophase pitch (MP) production. The effects of fluorine pretreatment on FCC decant oil were evaluated with mass spectrometry (MS) and their hydrogen donating ability. Subsequently, the MPs from pristine pitches with fluorine pretreatment were intensively compared in terms of structural, thermal, and chemical characteristics. From these results, it was found that fluorine pretreatment helps mesophase formation by catalytic radical polymerization but does not cause coking and does not require posttreatment. It was found that the fluorination method can also provide an effective method for generating MP by increasing the hydrogen donating ability (HDA) fraction. We believe that the results of this work could inspire new insights into MP production.
•In-situ decoration of TiO2 nanoparticles onto RGO by sol–gel.•Size uniformity and appropriate dispersion of TiO2 onto the RGO surface.•RGO/TiO2 composite as an efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen ...production.•Excellent photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue dye.•Photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) under UV-irradiation.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles decorated reduced graphene oxide (RGO) composites were fabricated via an in-situ sol–gel route. TEM analysis revealed that the TiO2 nanoparticles of a size less than 8nm were coated onto the RGO surface. The TiO2 nanoparticles on the RGO surface were spherical and well dispersed. The nanocomposite exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity for hydrogen (H2) production with a rate of 203μmol/h, which was higher than that of TiO2 (35μmol/h) and P25 (51μmol/h). This is because the TiO2 nanoparticles on the RGO sheets can capture light energy and facilitate excited electron transfer for H2 production via the RGO, which acts as an efficient electron mediator. The nanocomposite also showed efficient photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and photo-reductive conversion of Cr(VI) with a rate of 2.2 and 1.7 times higher than that of P25, respectively. These degradation results indicated that the photocatalytic performance of the nanocomposite was greatly enhanced by the improved adsorption performance and separation efficiency of the photo-generated carriers. The nanocomposite maintained a higher level of activity even after four recycles.
Novel hybrid decontamination processes based on visible-light-responsive photocatalysts (VLPHS) have recently become a focus of environmental research. In this study, the sonophotocatalytic ...degradation of the antibiotic tetracycline (TC) using a binary rGO/CdWO4 composite under simulated visible-light irradiation was demonstrated for the first time. Structural characterization confirmed that flower-like CdWO4 particles with a wolframite phase structure were successfully immobilized on the surface of the graphene oxide (GO). Subsequently, reduced GO/CdWO4 (rGO/CdWO4) VLPHS were prepared via the facile photocatalytic reduction of GO/CdWO4. A Box-Behnken design based on response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to determine the maximum efficiency of sonophotocatalytic degradation by optimizing the process parameters (pH, initial TC concentration, treatment time, and catalyst dosage). The high determination coefficients (R2 = 0.9818 and adjusted-R2 = 0.9636) indicated that the experimental values fitted the proposed RSM model well. Compared with CdWO4, rGO/CdWO4 VLPHS exhibited significant photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance, superior sonophotocatalytic activity, and mineralization efficiency. The enhanced catalytic activity was mainly due to the larger optical adsorption range, greater photo-induced charge carrier transfer, and higher surface area. In addition, rGO/CdWO4 exhibited a catalytic activity that was 1.5 and 3 times higher than that of commercial nano–ZnO and –TiO2, respectively. The kinetic analysis indicated that the degradation rate of TC follows the Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model. The possible photocatalytic mechanism behind the degradation of TC by rGO/CdWO4 was also tentatively proposed. This study provides a simple and scalable pathway to produce highly efficient rGO-based VLPHS for photocatalytic and PEC applications.
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•Facile wet chemistry is reported for the synthesis of rGO/CdWO4 photocatalysts.•Tetracycline (TC) completely degraded by sonophotocatalysis.•rGO/CdWO4 exhibits superior sonophotocatalytic activity over nano-ZnO and nano-TiO2.•Maintaining the high sonophotocatalytic activity after four cycles of reusability tests•Sonophotocatalytic mechanism for degradation of TC over rGO/CdWO4 was proposed.
Purpose The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of elastic-band resistance exercise on balance, gait function, flexibility and fall efficacy in the elderly people of rural community. ...Subjects and Methods It is selected by 45 outpatients. They have come into the clinic continually to treat of physical therapy at least 1–2 times for a week. A group treated with both general physical therapy and elastic-band resistance exercise (23 patients), and the other group treated with only general physical therapy (22 patients). Elastic-band resistance exercise is composed of 8 movements of lower extremity joints. It is performed for 30 minutes during 8 weeks by 3 times for a week. It is measured and recorded at the pre and post test that sit and reach test (SRT), functional reach test (FRT), timed up and go test (TUG) for every subjects by measurement equipments. And, subjects performed for the form of performance and question as its rated scale by Berg’s balance scale (BBS), dynamic gait index (DGI), activities-specific balance confidence scale (ABC). Results In the study, both the elastic-band exercise group and the general physical therapy group showed a significant improvement in balance, gait function, flexibility and fall efficacy. And the group with elastic-band resistance exercise showed more effectiveness than the contrast group in value of variation. Conclusion From this study, it was confirmed that elastic-band resistance exercise has influence on balance, gait function, flexibility and fall efficacy are working for agriculture of elderly people of rural community. Based on this result, elastic-band resistance exercise can be better instrument and easier to elderly people of rural community for the improvement in balance, gait function, flexibility and fall efficacy as it performing along with and reciprocal physical therapy.
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•PB-MNPs-MAs were generated in microfluidic device using chemical co-precipitation.•The prepared PB-MNPs-MAs are monodispersed with uniform morphology.•PB-MNPs-MAs exhibited high Cs ...adsorption capacity (58.73 mg g−1).•100% recovery of PB-MNPs-MAs is possible under static magnetic field after Cs adsorption.
Here, we designed and synthesized a recoverable multifunctional adsorbent using a microfluidic reaction system and evaluated the removal performance of the smart adsorbent toward radioactive cesium as a model sample. Prussian blue-laden magnetic micro-adsorbents (PB-MNPs-MAs) with uniform morphology and monodispersity were generated via two-step sequential procedures using a glass capillary microfluidic system, followed by chemical co-precipitation with a high production rate. The cesium removal efficacy of the PB-MNPs-MAs was analyzed based on Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms by controlling adsorption parameters such as adsorbent size, initial cesium concentration, and contact time. The adsorption isotherm of the PB-MNPs-MAs was better fitted to the Langmuir model with a maximum cesium adsorption capacity of 58.73 mg g−1, which was 40% higher than that of macro-adsorbents in a dynamic magnetic field. This result can be attributed to their large specific area, which increased the kinetic rate of cesium adsorption and achieved saturation within 20 min. Additionally, the PB-MNPs-MAs were recovered from wastewater within 5 s under a static magnetic field, indicating their great potential for magnetic actuation. We believe that our PB-MNPs-MAs can encapsulate nano-functional adsorbents and prevent actuation, making them promising for environmental remediation and especially for removal of radionuclides.
Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is overexpressed in most prostate adenocarcinoma (AdPC) cells and acts as a target for molecular imaging. However, some case reports indicate that ...PSMA-targeted imaging could be ineffectual for delineation of neuroendocrine (NE) prostate cancer (NEPC) lesions due to the suppression of the PSMA gene (FOLH1). These same reports suggest that targeting somatostatin receptor type 2 (SSTR2) could be an alternative diagnostic target for NEPC patients. This study evaluates the correlation between expression of FOLH1, NEPC marker genes and SSTR2. We evaluated the transcript abundance for FOLH1 and SSTR2 genes as well as NE markers across 909 tumors. A significant suppression of FOLH1 in NEPC patient samples and AdPC samples with high expression of NE marker genes was observed. We also investigated protein alterations of PSMA and SSTR2 in an NE-induced cell line derived by hormone depletion and lineage plasticity by loss of p53. PSMA is suppressed following NE induction and cellular plasticity in p53-deficient NEPC model. The PSMA-suppressed cells have more colony formation ability and resistance to enzalutamide treatment. Conversely, SSTR2 was only elevated following hormone depletion. In 18 NEPC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models we find a significant suppression of FOLH1 and amplification of SSTR2 expression. Due to the observed FOLH1-supressed signature of NEPC, this study cautions on the reliability of using PMSA as a target for molecular imaging of NEPC. The observed elevation of SSTR2 in NEPC supports the possible ability of SSTR2-targeted imaging for follow-up imaging of low PSMA patients and monitoring for NEPC development.
Abstract
The precise prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) after nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is an important issue because of its relationship with subsequent kidney dysfunction and ...high mortality. Herein we addressed whether machine learning (ML) algorithms could predict postoperative AKI risk better than conventional logistic regression (LR) models. A total of 4104 RCC patients who had undergone unilateral nephrectomy from January 2003 to December 2017 were reviewed. ML models such as support vector machine, random forest, extreme gradient boosting, and light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) were developed, and their performance based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, accuracy, and F1 score was compared with that of the LR-based scoring model. Postoperative AKI developed in 1167 patients (28.4%). All the ML models had higher performance index values than the LR-based scoring model. Among them, the LightGBM model had the highest value of 0.810 (0.783–0.837). The decision curve analysis demonstrated a greater net benefit of the ML models than the LR-based scoring model over all the ranges of threshold probabilities. The application of ML algorithms improves the predictability of AKI after nephrectomy for RCC, and these models perform better than conventional LR-based models.
Recently, semiconductor wastewater treatment has received much attention due to the emergence of environmental issues. Acid-resistant coatings are essential for metal prefilters used in semiconductor ...wastewater treatment. Perfluoroalkoxy alkane is mainly used as an acid-resistant coating agent, since PFA has inherent superhydrophobicity, water permeability is lowered. To solve this problem, the surface of the PFA-coated metal mesh was treated via an oxyfluorination method in which an injected mixed gas of fluorine and oxygen reacted with the surface functional groups. Surface analysis, water contact angle measurement, and water permeability tests were performed on the surface-treated PFA-coated mesh. Consequently, the superhydrophobic surface was effectively converted to a hydrophobic surface as the PFA coating layer was surface-modified with C-O-OH functional groups via the oxyfluorination reaction. As a result of using simulation solutions that float silica particles of various sizes, the permeability and particle removal rate of the surface-modified PFA-coated stainless-steel mesh were improved compared to those before surface modification. Therefore, the oxyfluorination treatment used in this study was suitable for improving the filtration performance of SiO2 microparticles in the PFA-coated stainless-steel mesh.
The polygenic risk score (PRS) is used to predict the risk of developing common complex diseases or cancers using genetic markers. Although PRS is used in clinical practice to predict breast cancer ...risk, it is more accurate for Europeans than for non-Europeans because of the sample size of training genome-wide association studies (GWAS). To address this disparity, we constructed a PRS model for predicting the risk of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the Korean population.
Using GWAS analysis, we identified 43 Korean-specific variants and calculated the PRS. Subsequent to plotting receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, we selected the 31 best-performing variants to construct an optimal PRS model. The resultant PRS model with 31 variants demonstrated a prediction rate of 77.4%. The pathway analysis indicated that the identified non-coding variants are involved in regulating the expression of genes related to cancer initiation and progression. Notably, favorable lifestyle habits, such as avoiding tobacco and alcohol, mitigated the risk of RCC across PRS strata expressing genetic risk.
A Korean-specific PRS model was established to predict the risk of RCC in the underrepresented Korean population. Our findings suggest that lifestyle-associated factors influencing RCC risk are associated with acquired risk factors indirectly through epigenetic modification, even among individuals in the higher PRS category.
An understanding of immunological mechanisms in kidney diseases has advanced using mouse kidneys. However, the profiling of immune cell subsets in human kidneys remains undetermined, particularly ...compared with mouse kidneys. Normal human kidneys were obtained from radically nephrectomised patients with urogenital malignancy (n = 15). Subsequently, human kidney immune cell subsets were analysed using multicolor flow cytometry and compared with subsets from C57BL/6 or BALB/c mice under specific pathogen-free conditions. Twenty kidney sections from healthy kidney donors or subjects without specific renal lesions were additionally analysed by immunohistochemistry. In human kidneys, 47% ± 12% (maximum 63%) of immune cells were CD3
T cells. Kidney CD4
and CD8
T cells comprised 44% and 56% of total T cells. Of these, 47% ± 15% of T cells displayed an effector memory phenotype (CCR7
CD45RA
CD69
), and 48% ± 19% were kidney-resident cells (CCR7
CD45RA
CD69
). However, the proportions of human CD14
and CD16
myeloid cells were approximately 10% of total immune cells. A predominance of CD3
T cells and a low proportion of CD14
or CD68
myeloid cells were also identified in healthy human kidney sections. In mouse kidneys, kidney-resident macrophages (CD11b
F4/80
) were the most predominant subset (up to 50%) but the proportion of CD3
T cells was less than 20%. These results will be of use in studies in which mouse results are translated into human cases under homeostatic conditions or with disease.
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