Photocatalytic degradation of microcystin-LR by modified high-energy {001} titanium dioxide: Kinetics and mechanism study of HF8

Background: Uniquely synthesised titanium dioxide (TiO2) with high-energy {001} exposed facets denoted HF8 was used for the photocatalytic degradation of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) under ultraviolet irradiation at 365 nm. Methods: The influence of various conditions including environmental pH, nutrient anions, TiO2 dose, and MC-LR concentration was studied, and concentration of MC-LR measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: Within 120 min, 72.6% of an environmentally relevant MC-LR concentration (120 µg/L) was degraded under pH conditions ranging from 3 to 11. Stability tests revealed no loss of TiO2 activity after four applications of the same dose, indicating its stability, reusability, and potential to be re-used for sustainable remediation of MC-LR in eutrophic waters. Mechanism studies suggested that the reaction obeyed the pseudo-first-order equation and that hydroxyl radicals are the major reactive intermediate contributing to the reaction. The structure elucidation of intermediates suggested that hydroxylation and bond cleavage between the Adda chain and Mdha site could be the initiation of reactions in the degradation of MC-LR by HF8 TiO2. Conclusion: The results present a fast, sustainable, and practical method using modified TiO2 to improve MC-LR remediation.Peer reviewe

The Influences of Combined Distortions on Fan Performance

Combined distortions negatively affect the aerodynamic stability of fans, but previous studies have limitations. The 3D CFD method was used to calculate the aerodynamic stability of fans under the total pressure and swirl distortion, total temperature and swirl distortion, and total pressure and total temperature distortion in the work. Rotor 67 was taken as the research object. According to the calculation results, the influences of variable distortion parameters on fan performance under combined distortions were summarized to establish the functional relationship between stability margin losses and distortion parameters

Improved Fine-Scale Tropical Forest Cover Mapping for Southeast Asia Using Planet-NICFI and Sentinel-1 Imagery

The accuracy of existing forest cover products typically suffers from “rounding” errors arising from classifications that estimate the fractional cover of forest in each pixel, which often exclude the presence of large, isolated trees and small or narrow forest clearings, and is primarily attributable to the moderate resolution of the imagery used to make maps. However, the degree to which such high-resolution imagery can mitigate this problem, and thereby improve large-area forest cover maps, is largely unexplored. Here, we developed an approach to map tropical forest cover at a fine scale using Planet and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery in the Google Earth Engine platform and used it to map all of Southeastern Asia’s forest cover. The machine learning approach, based on the Random Forests models and trained and validated using a total of 37,345 labels collected from Planet imagery across the entire region, had an accuracy of 0.937 and an F1 score of 0.942, while a version based only on Planet imagery had an accuracy of 0.908 and F1 of 0.923. We compared the accuracy of our resulting maps with 5 existing forest cover products derived from medium-resolution optical-only or combined optical-SAR approaches at 3,000 randomly selected locations. We found that our approach overall achieved higher accuracy and helped minimize the rounding errors commonly found along small or narrow forest clearings and deforestation frontiers where isolated trees are common. However, the forest area estimates varied depending on topographic location and showed smaller differences in highlands (areas \u3e300 m above sea level) but obvious differences in complex lowland landscapes. Overall, the proposed method shows promise for monitoring forest changes, particularly those caused by deforestation frontiers. Our study also represents one of the most extensive applications of Planet imagery to date, resulting in an open, high-resolution map of forest cover for the entire Southeastern Asia region. © 2023 Feng Yang et al

Perioperative immunotherapy for stage II-III non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis base on randomized controlled trials

BackgroundIn recent years, we have observed the pivotal role of immunotherapy in improving survival for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the effectiveness of immunotherapy in the perioperative (neoadjuvant + adjuvant) treatment of resectable NSCLC remains uncertain. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of its antitumor efficacy and adverse effects (AEs) by pooling data from the KEYNOTE-671, NADIM II, and AEGEAN clinical trials.MethodsFor eligible studies, we searched seven databases. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) pertaining to the comparative analysis of combination neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy plus perioperative immunotherapy (PIO) versus perioperative placebo (PP) were included. Primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS). Secondary endpoints encompassed drug responses, AEs, and surgical outcomes.ResultsThree RCTs (KEYNOTE-671, NADIM II, and AEGEAN) were included in the final analysis. PIO group (neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy plus perioperative immunotherapy) exhibited superior efficacy in OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.63 [0.49-0.81]), EFS (HR: 0.61 [0.52, 0.72]), objective response rate (risk ratio [RR]: 2.21 [1.91, 2.54]), pathological complete response (RR: 4.36 [3.04, 6.25]), major pathological response (RR: 2.79 [2.25, 3.46]), R0 resection rate (RR: 1.13 [1.00, 1.26]) and rate of adjuvant treatment (RR: 1.08 [1.01, 1.15]) compared with PP group (neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy plus perioperative placebo). In the subgroup analysis, EFS tended to favor the PIO group in almost all subgroups. BMI (>25), T stage (IV), N stage (N1-N2) and pathological response (with pathological complete response) were favorable factors in the PIO group. In the safety assessment, the PIO group exhibited higher rates of serious AEs (28.96% vs. 23.51%) and AEs leading to treatment discontinuation (12.84% vs. 5.81%). Meanwhile, although total adverse events, grade 3-5 adverse events, and fatal adverse events tended to favor the PP group, the differences were not statistically significant.ConclusionPIO appears to be superior to PP for resectable stage II-III NSCLC, demonstrating enhanced survival and pathological responses. However, its elevated adverse event (AE) rate warrants careful consideration.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/#recordDetails, identifier CRD42023487475

Approximate Equivalence of the Hybrid Automata with Taylor Theory

Hybrid automaton is a formal model for precisely describing a hybrid system in which the computational processes interact with the physical ones. The reachability analysis of the polynomial hybrid automaton is decidable, which makes the Taylor approximation of a hybrid automaton applicable and valuable. In this paper, we studied the simulation relation among the hybrid automaton and its Taylor approximation, as well as the approximate equivalence relation. We also proved that the Taylor approximation simulates its original hybrid automaton, and similar hybrid automata could be compared quantitatively, for example, the approximate equivalence we proposed in the paper

A method for protein extraction from different subcellular fractions of laticifer latex in Hevea brasiliensis compatible with 2-DE and MS

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Proteomic analysis of laticifer latex in <it>Hevea brasiliensis </it>has been received more significant attentions. However, the sticky and viscous characteristic of rubber latex as cytoplasm of laticifer cells and the complication of laticifer latex membrane systems has made it challenge to isolate high-quality proteins for 2-DE and MS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on the reported Borax/PVPP/Phenol (BPP) protocol, we developed an efficient method for protein preparation from different latex subcellular fractions and constructed high-resolution reference 2-DE maps. The obtained proteins from both total latex and C-serum fraction with this protocol generate more than one thousand protein spots and several hundreds of protein spots from rubber particles as well as lutoid fraction and its membranes on the CBB stained 2-DE gels. The identification of 13 representative proteins on 2-DE gels by MALDI TOF/TOF MS/MS suggested that this method is compatible with MS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The proteins extracted by this method are compatible with 2-DE and MS. This protein preparation protocol is expected to be used in future comparative proteomic analysis for natural rubber latex.</p

Impacts of Vegetation Change on the Regional Surface Climate: A Scenario-Based Analysis of Afforestation in Jiangxi Province, China

The afforestation is one of the most noticeable human activities that affect the climate through influencing not only the carbon sink but also the thermal properties of the land surface. This research accessed the potential effects of artificial vegetation change on the regional climate in Jiangxi Province, China. Based on simulation with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, a comparative analysis was carried out on the future temperature and precipitation under four hypothetical vegetation cover scenarios. The simulation results indicated that the vegetation change would have significant effects on the regional climate. The simulated effects of annual average temperature showed a decreasing order: evergreen broadleaf > evergreen needleleaf > deciduous needleleaf > deciduous broadleaf, and the effects of annual average precipitation of the evergreen forests would be bigger than those of the deciduous forests. The deciduous forests play a positive role in decreasing the annual average temperature, while the evergreen forests promote the annual average temperature rise. Besides, the expansion of deciduous forests may result in severe drought in the summer in Jiangxi Province. These conclusions are of important policy implication to the future afforestation in Jiangxi Province, China, and other regions of the world