Toxicity of GO and rGO suspension against P. acnes: physical puncture and oxidative stress

Acne vulgaris associated with Propionibacterium acnes ( P. acnes ) remains one of the most common skin diseases, while lacking of effective and non-resistant treatments. Graphene inclusing graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have been triggering abundant attentions due to their astonishing performances in multi research areas. Here, the GO and rGO suspensions with different concentrations and sizes against P. acnes were investigated. The higher the concentration while the smaller the size distribution led to the better the antibacterial performance. And the loss of viability of P. acnes can surprisely achieve 72% under a 100 μ g 10 000 mesh rGO existed which was induced by physical puncture and oxidative stress. Furthermore, the physiological activities of P. acnes will reduce the GO to rGO which further accelerate its death. This study will provide a rapid, effective and non-resistant method for the treatment of acne

Flexural Behavior of Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer Tube Confined Coconut Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Basalt fiber has arisen new perspectives due to the potential low cost and excellent mechanical performance, together with the use of environmental friendly coir can be beneficial to the development of sustainable construction. In this study, a new composite structure called basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) tube encased coconut fiber reinforced concrete (CFRC) is developed. The 28-day compression strength of the plain concrete is about 15 MPa, which represents the low-strength poor-quality concrete widely existing in many old buildings and developing countries. Three types of BFRP tubes, i.e., 2-layer, 4-layer, and 6-layer, with the inner diameter of 100 mm and a length of 520 mm, were prepared. The plain concrete (PC) and CFRC were poured and cured in these tubes to fabricated BFRP tube confined long cylindrical beams. Three PC cylindrical beams and 3 CFRC cylindrical beams were prepared to be the control group. The four-point bending tests of these specimens were carried out to investigate the enhancement due to the BFRP tube and coir reinforcement. The load-carrying capacity, force-displacement relationship, failure mode, and the cracking moment were analyzed. Results show that both BFRP tube confined plain concrete (PC) and BFRP tube confined CFRC have excellent flexural strength and ductility, and the inclusion of the coir can further enhance the ductility of the concrete

Effect of Heat Treatment on Cr2Nb Phase and Properties of Spark Plasma Sintered Cu-2Cr-1Nb Alloy

Achieving a good match between strength and conductivity is a challenge of the development of the high-performance Cu-Cr-Nb alloy for aerospace and fusion energy. The effect of heat treatment on Cr2Nb phase, strength and conductivity of spark plasma sintered (SPSed) Cu-2Cr-1Nb (at%) alloy was investigated. The results illustrated that Cr2Nb phase of Cu-2Cr-1Nb alloy can be regulated by heat treatment, multi-scale Cr2Nb phase with sizes of 0.10–0.50 μm, 30–100 nm and less than 30 nm was obtained, and the strength and conductivity were significantly increased after heat treatment at 500 °C for 2 h, the room temperature tensile strength and conductivity were 332 MPa and 86.7% IACS, 2.5% and 34.8% higher than those of as-SPSed alloy; the tensile strength at 700 °C was 76 MPa. Increasing heat treatment temperature and time, the tensile strength of the alloy was reduced by 1.5%, 4.3% and 12.3% after heat treatment at 500 °C, 700 °C and 950 °C for 72 h. The good match between strength and conductivity of Cu-Cr-Nb alloy was obtained by reducing the content of alloying elements (Cr and Nb) and microstructure regulation. This approach can be used to prepare structural/functional materials with excellent strength and conductivity

A meta-analysis of Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: Electronic search of the Cochrane library, PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (VIP), and Wanfang Database was conducted to collect appropriate studies about Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in the treatment of NSCLC. All data were analyzed by using RevMan 5.2 software provided by Cochrane, which involved the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) calculated with fixed-effect models according to the heterogeneity test. Results: Eighteen studies were included in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy could enhance the efficacy of the tumor response (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.23-1.85, Z = 3.94, P < 0.0001), improve the quality of life (OR = 3.37, 95% CI: 2.71-4.20, Z = 10.86, P < 0.00001), alleviate the adverse reaction of digestive tract (OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.32-0.55, Z = 6.34, P < 0.00001) and reduce the risk of the bone marrow suppression (OR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.29-0.49, Z = 7.37, P < 0.00001) compared with chemotherapy alone. Asymmetries were observed in funnel plots, which indicated an evidence of publication bias. Conclusion: Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy can enhance the short-term efficacy, improve the quality of life, and alleviate the chemotherapy-induced adverse reaction in the treatment of advanced NSCLC, although these results need to be further confirmed by more high-quality trials

Cracking Behavior of René 104 Nickel-Based Superalloy Prepared by Selective Laser Melting Using Different Scanning Strategies

Eliminating cracks is a big challenge for the selective laser melting (SLM) process of low-weldable Nickel-based superalloy. In this work, three scanning strategies of the snake, stripe partition, and chessboard partition were utilized to prepare Ren&eacute; 104 Ni-based superalloy, of which the cracking behavior and the residual stress were investigated. The results showed that the scanning strategies had significant effects on the cracking, residual stress, and relative density of the SLMed Ren&eacute; 104 superalloy. The scanning strategies with more partitions boosted the emergence of cracks, as high-density cracks occurred in these samples. The overlapping zone (OZ) of the scanning partition was also susceptible to cracking, which increased the size, number, and density of the cracks. The cracking performance was relatively moderate in the snake-scanned samples, while that in the chessboard-partition-scanned samples was the most severe. It is concluded that the partition scanning strategies induced more cracks in the SLMed Ren&eacute; 104 superalloy, of which the residual stress was apparently reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to design scanning strategies with optimized scanning partitions and overlaps to avoid cracking and acquire a high-quality, near fully dense, low-weldable Nickel-based superalloy using SLM

Network Pharmacology-Based Approach to Revealing Biological Mechanisms of Qingkailing Injection against IschemicStroke: Focusing on Blood-Brain Barrier

Ischemic stroke is the most common type of cerebrovascular accident worldwide. It causes long-term disability and death. Qingkailing (QKL) injection is a traditional Chinese patent medicine which has been clinically applied in the treatment of ischemic stroke for nearly thirty years. In the present study, network pharmacology combined with experimentation was used to elucidate the mechanisms of QKL. ADME screening and target prediction identified 62 active compounds and 275 targets for QKL. Topological screening of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was used to build a core PPI network consisting of 408 nodes and 17,830 edges. KEGG enrichment indicated that the main signaling pathway implicated in ischemic stroke involved hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1). Experimentation showed that QKL alleviated neurological deficits, brain infraction, blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage, and tight junction degeneration in a mouse ischemic stroke model. Two-photon laser scanning microscopy was used to evaluate BBB permeability and cerebral microvessel structure in living mice. HIF-1α, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and tight junction proteins such as occludin, zonula occludins-1 (ZO-1), claudin-5, and VE-Cadherin were measured by western blotting. QKL upregulated ZO-1 and downregulated HIF-1α and MMP-9. QKL has a multiapproach, multitarget, and synergistic effect against ischemic stroke