Supercritical Water Oxidation for Environmentally Friendly Treatment of Organic Wastes

Supercritical water oxidation is a promising, environment-friendly technology to efficiently deal with a wide variety of organic wastes such as wastewaters, industrial and municipal sludge, etc. As for the two key problems, i.e., corrosion and salt plugging, generally encountered in supercritical water oxidation plants, this chapter firstly reported the related mechanism analysis, solutions, research status, and development trends, respectively. From the perspectives of corrosion prevention and control, safety and automatic control, economic improvements, and development of novel reactors, a number of advanced technologies and equipment such as on-line desalination in supercritical water, new operation scheme assisted secondary traditional treatment, produced-gas recovery and oxygen reuse and novel TWM reactor, etc., were introduced systematically. Finally, this chapter summarizes the implementation status of industrial plants and the technological features of several firms being active in the construction of full-scale supercritical water oxidation plants. This chapter will provide very valuable information for the researchers and engineers who are interested in supercritical water oxidation for the harmless treatment of organic pollutants

An Accelerated Variance Reduced Extra-Point Approach to Finite-Sum VI and Optimization

In this paper, we develop stochastic variance reduced algorithms for solving a class of finite-sum monotone VI, where the operator consists of the sum of finitely many monotone VI mappings and the sum of finitely many monotone gradient mappings. We study the gradient complexities of the proposed algorithms under the settings when the sum of VI mappings is either strongly monotone or merely monotone. Furthermore, we consider the case when each of the VI mapping and gradient mapping is only accessible via noisy stochastic estimators and establish the sample gradient complexity. We demonstrate the application of the proposed algorithms for solving finite-sum convex optimization with finite-sum inequality constraints and develop a zeroth-order approach when only noisy and biased samples of objective/constraint function values are available.Comment: 45 pages, 4 figure

New digital infrastructure, cross-border e-commerce and global vision of creating Electronic World Trade Platform

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has integrated with the global economy more closely in the past decade. How to create global digital customs to facilitate cross-border e-commerce on the basis of national Single Window system has become an important task for national governments and international organizations such as World Customs Organizations? The paper aims to explore the relationship between technological progress, cross-border e-commerce and the establishment of global digital customs from the dimensions of the latest development of new digital infrastructure, national Single Window system and global vision of creating Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). It is argued that cross-border e-commerce platforms, national Single Window and eWTP, all of which are indispensable for the establishment of global digital customs, have close linkages in business regulation, data sharing and information exchange. The establishment of global digital customs requires global governance through the joint efforts by firms, national governments and international organizations

Aloperine attenuates carbon tetrachloride-induced mouse hepatic injury via Nrf2/HO-1 pathway

Purpose: To investigate whether aloperine pretreatment ameliorates acute liver injury in carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-treated mice.Methods: Mice were injected with CCl4 and orally administered aloperine. Blood samples and liver tissues were used for histopathological and biochemical analyses, respectively. Protein expression levels were determined by western blotting.Results: Histopathological analysis indicate that aloperine pretreatment significantly alleviated CCl4- induced mouse hepatic injury. CCl4 treatment induced the upregulation of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine amino transferase (ALT), and total bilirubin (p < 0.05). However, these alterations were significantly inhibited by aloperine treatment. Moreover, aloperine pretreatment markedly decreased (p < 0.05) the CCl4-induced expression of oxidative stress biomarkers, including malondrialdeline (MDA), glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), and  superoxide dismutase (SOD). Compared to the control group, the protein levels of Nrf2, HO-1, iNOS, and COX-2 were significantly increased in the CCl4 group, while Nrf2 and HO-1 were upregulated. Furthermore, iNOS and COX-2 were downregulated in mouse liver in CCl4 + aloperine group compared to CCl4 group in a concentration-dependent manner (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Aloperine pretreatment appears to markedly upregulate Nrf2 and HO-1 and downregulate iNOS and COX-2 to suppress hepatic injury in mice. Thus, aloperine is a promising treatment for acute liver injury. Keywords: Hepatic injury, Aloperine, Oxidative stress, Nrf2/HO-1 pathwa

Protective effect of midazolam against convulsion in neonatal rats via down-regulation of LC3 and Beclin-1 expression

Purpose: To investigate the effect of midazolam on growth of neurocytes in vitro and in neonatal rats. Methods: Neurocyte proliferation and activity of lactate dehydrogenase were assessed by MTT and lactate dehydrogenase assays, respectively. Western blotting was used to determine the effect of midazolam on LC3, Bax, p62 and Beclin-1 protein expressions. Results: The suppression of neurocyte proliferation byconvulsion was alleviated significantly (p < 0.05) by midazolum treatment. Exposure of convulsion model of neurocytes to midazolum suppressed LC3, Bax, p62 and Beclin-1 protein expression. Midazolum exposure of convulsion model of neurocytes suppressed LDH, caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9 activities. The 3-MA (autophagy inhibitor) treatment also significantly (p < 0.05) promoted neurocyte viability after convulsion induction. In convulsion-induced neurocytes, 3-MA exposure suppressed expression of caspase-3/8/9, LC3, Bax, Beclin-1 and p62, while application of midazolum treatment to the rats with convulsion markedly decreased brain water content and neurocyte apoptosis (p < 0.05). Treatment with midazolum inhibited LC3, p62 and Beclin-1 expression in the rat model of convulsion. Conclusion: Midazolum promotes neurocyte proliferation and inhibits edema development via downregulation of autophagy. Therefore, midazolum can potentially be used for the treatment of convulsion, but further studies need to be carried out first. Keywords: Convulsion, Neurocytes, Caspase, Autophagy, Mitochondrial pathwa

Checkpoint kinase 2-mediated phosphorylation of BRCA1 regulates the fidelity of nonhomologous end-joining

The tumor suppressor gene BRCA1 maintains genomic integrity by protecting cells from the deleterious effects of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Through its interactions with the checkpoint kinase 2 (Chk2) kinase and Rad51, BRCA1 promotes homologous recombination, which is typically an error-free repair process. In addition, accumulating evidence implicates BRCA1 in the regulation of nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ), which may involve precise religation of the DSB ends if they are compatible (i.e., error-free repair) or sequence alteration upon rejoining (i.e., error-prone or mutagenic repair). However, the precise role of BRCA1 in regulating these different subtypes of NHEJ is not clear. We provide here the genetic and biochemical evidence to show that BRCA1 promotes error-free rejoining of DSBs in human breast carcinoma cells while suppressing microhomology-mediated error-prone end-joining and restricting sequence deletion at the break junction during repair. The repair spectrum in BRCA1-deficient cells was characterized by an increase in the formation of >2 kb deletions and in the usage of long microhomologies distal to the break site, compared with wild-type (WT) cells. This error-prone repair phenotype could also be revealed by disruption of the Chk2 phosphorylation site of BRCA1, or by expression of a dominant-negative kinase-dead Chk2 mutant in cells with WT BRCA1. We suggest that the differential control of NHEJ subprocesses by BRCA1, in concert with Chk2, reduces the mutagenic potential of NHEJ, thereby contributing to the prevention of familial breast cancers

Effects of temperature on oxidation behaviours of 35CrMo in high temperature flue gas environment

The pipelines made by alloy 35CrMo are widely used in the process of flue gas injection. Therefore, corrosion behaviours of alloy 35CrMo have been investigated at varied temperatures, namely 120 °C, 150 °C, 200 °C and 250 °C, with same experimental pressure of 9 MPa and flus gas environment. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to examine the morphologies and microstructures of the oxide films. The results indicated that moderate temperature stands an essential role in the reaction mechanism and aggressive effects. In addition to increase in the diffusion rate of both alloy ions and corrosive gas, temperature can also reform the morphology of oxides by resulting in larger oxide particles and thicker oxide films, plus the transmission from needle-like oxides to spherical oxides