The Interaction Effect between Blood Stasis Constitution and Atherosclerotic Factors on Cognitive Impairment in Elderly People

Objective. Blood stasis (BS) constitution represents a tendency to stagnation and positively associates with the severity of atherosclerosis. In this study, we have identified the interaction effect between BS constitution and atherosclerosis on cognitive impairment in the elderly people. Methods. Eligible elderly people ≥65 years old who attended physical examination in the Mawei community of Fuzhou city during 2015 were enrolled in this study. We explored the characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) constitution and atherosclerotic factors in the normal and cognitive impairment groups and their interaction effect between participants’ Minimental State Examination (MMSE) scores in the elderly people. Results. The prevalence of cognitive impairment in the elderly people was 13.0%. Red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (HB), ankle brachial index (ABI), brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (BaPWV), and blood stasis (BS) were significantly different between normal and cognitive impairment group (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis indicated that RBC (odds ratio (OR)=0.530 (0.343-0.817), P=0.004), HB (OR=0.980 (0.967-0.993), P=0.003), ABI (OR=2.199(1.112-4.347), P=0.023), and blood stasis constitution (OR=1.808 (1.022-3.202), P=0.042) were correlated with cognitive impairment. The interactions of blood stasis with HB, ABI, and BaPWV significantly impacted the MMSE score (P<0.05). Conclusion. Elderly individuals with blood stasis may be at a higher risk of arterial stenosis and sclerosis, leading to susceptibility to cognitive impairment

Phosphorus recovery from synthetic biosolid digestion supernatant through lignin-induced struvite precipitation

Phosphorus recovery from wastewater is essential to resolve the problems of the fast depletion of phosphate rocks due to the increasing demand of phosphorus fertilizer and eutrophication caused by excessive phosphorus discharging from wastewater. In this study, the feasibility of adding lignin as seed materials to promote phosphorus recovery through struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O) crystallization from synthetic biosolid digestion supernatant was evaluated via batch experiments. Influencing factors including lignin dosage, Mg/P molar ratio, and pH were tested. Lignin addition enhanced phosphorus recovery by 44.6% at a relatively low pH of 7.9 with Mg/P molar ratio of 1.5 and lignin dosage of 6 g/L, improved the quality of recovered struvite crystals by reducing the potential of co-precipitation. The phosphorus recovery improvement became less noticeable and the extent of reducing the potential of co-precipitation became more evident as pH increases from 7.9 to 9.5. The characterizations by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and zeta potential analysis, combined with precipitation modeling by a thermodynamic model software (Visual MINTEQ) were done to understand the process. Struvite-lignin clusters were identified, which likely provide nucleation sites on lignin to enhance struvite crystallization. It can be concluded that the inclusion of Kraft lignin as a seeding material might be a sustainable strategy to enhance struvite formation, improve phosphorus recovery, and yield high-quality struvite.</p

Effect of phosphate and ammonium concentrations, total suspended solids and alkalinity on lignin-induced struvite precipitation

To solve the problems of eutrophication and resource crisis, the recovery of phosphorus by struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O) precipitation has become a focus of recent research. The feasibility of using Kraft lignin powder as a seed to promote struvite precipitation has been demonstrated in the previous study. In this study, the effect of lignin in promoting struvite precipitation in synthetic wastewater with different characteristics was investigated. Lignin-induced struvite crystallization was tested under various initial concentrations of PO4–P and NH4–N, total suspended solids (TSS) and alkalinity. At pH 7.9, the enhancement of PO4–P recovery remains around 45% under different PO4–P and NH4–N concentrations. Moreover, lignin is more effective under relatively lower alkalinity and still workable to reduce co-precipitates potential under higher alkalinity. Also, the effect of TSS on PO4–P recovery is not significant. Overall, the effect of lignin in promoting phosphorus recovery is relatively stable and can be used in synthetic wastewater with different characteristics.</p