An efficient and robust exfoliated bentonite/Ag3PO4/AgBr plasmonic photocatalyst for degradation of parabens

Efficient visible-light-driven heterojunction photocatalysts have attracted broad interest owing to their promising adsorption and degradation performances in the removal of organic pollutants. In this study, a mesoporous exfoliated bentonite (EB)/Ag3PO4/AgBr (30%) photocatalyst was obtained by stripping and exfoliating bentonite as the support for loading Ag3PO4 and AgBr. The particle size ranges of Ag3PO4 and AgBr were about 10-30 nm and 5-10 nm, respectively. The exfoliated bentonite could greatly improve the dispersion and adsorption of Ag3PO4 and AgBr, and significantly enhance the stability of the material during paraben photodegradation. 0.2 g L-1 methylparaben (MPB) was completely decomposed over the EB/Ag3PO4/AgBr (30%) in 40 min under visible light irradiation. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of EB/Ag3PO4/AgBr (30%) remained at about 91% after five recycling runs manifesting that EB/Ag3PO4/AgBr (30%) possessed excellent stability. Radical quenching tests revealed that holes (h+) and hydroxyl radicals (·OH) were the major radicals. They attacked the side chain on the benzene ring of parabens, which were gradually oxidized to the intermediates, such as benzoic acid, 3-hydroxybenzoic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, azelaic acid, and eventually became CO2 and H2O. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity and photo-stability could be ascribed to the stable structural characteristics, enlarged surface area, high absorption ability, and improved light absorption ability from loading Ag3PO4 onto EB. Meanwhile, the matched energy levels of Ag3PO4 and AgBr made the photoelectron-hole pairs separate and transfer effectively at the interfaces. As a result, the photocatalytic properties of EB/Ag3PO4/AgBr (30%) composites were enhanced. © 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Development and validation of radiomics machine learning model based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography to predict axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer

Preoperative identification of axillary lymph node metastasis can play an important role in treatment selection strategy and prognosis evaluation. This study aimed to establish a clinical nomogram based on lymph node images to predict lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients. A total of 193 patients with non-specific invasive breast cancer were divided into training (n = 135) and validation set (n = 58). Radiomics features were extracted from lymph node images instead of tumor region, and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator logistic algorithm was used to select the extracted features and generate radiomics score. Then, the important clinical factors and radiomics score were integrated into a nomogram. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the nomogram, and the clinical benefit of using the nomogram was evaluated by decision curve analysis. We found that clinical N stage and radiomics score were independent clinical predictors. Besides, the nomogram accurately predicted axillary lymph node metastasis, yielding an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.95 (95% confidence interval 0.93-0.98) in the validation set, indicating satisfactory calibration. Decision curve analysis confirmed that the nomogram had higher clinical utility than clinical N stage or radiomics score alone. Overall, the nomogram based on radiomics features and clinical factors can help radiologists to predict axillary lymph node metastasis preoperatively and provide valuable information for individual treatment

Safety of Spectacles for Children's Vision: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: To study safety of children's glasses in rural China, where fear that glasses harm vision is an important barrier for families and policy makers. DESIGN: Exploratory analysis from a cluster-randomized, investigator-masked, controlled trial. METHODS: Among primary schools (n = 252) in western China, children were randomized by school to 1 of 3 interventions: free glasses provided in class, vouchers for free glasses at a local facility, or glasses prescriptions only (Control group). The main outcome of this analysis is uncorrected visual acuity after 8 months, adjusted for baseline acuity. RESULTS: Among 19 934 children randomly selected for screening, 5852 myopic (spherical equivalent refractive error <=-0.5 diopters) eyes cif 3001 children (14.7%, mean age 10.5 years) had VA <= 6/12 without glasses correctable to >6/12 with glasses, and were eligible. Among these, 1903 (32.5%), 1798 (30.7%), and 2151 (36.8%) were randomized to Control, Voucher, and Free Glasses, respectively. Intention-to-treat analyses were performed on all 1831 (96.2%), 1699 (94.5%), and 2007 (93.3%) eyes of children with follow-up in Control, Voucher, and Free Glasses groups. Final visual acuity for eyes of children in the treatment groups (Free Glasses and Voucher) was significantly better than for Control children, adjusting only for baseline visual acuity (difference of 0.023 logMAR units [0.23 vision chart lines, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.43]) or for other baseline factors as well (0.025 logMAR units [0.25 lines, 95% CI 0.04, 0.45]). CONCLUSION: We found no evidence that spectacles promote decline in uncorrected vision with aging among children. (C) 2015 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.ONESIGHT (MASON, OHIO); LUXOTTICA-CHINA (SHANGHAI); ESSILOR-CHINA (SHANGHAI); CREDIT LYONAIS Securities Asia (Asia Pacific Markets; Hong Kong); Charity Aid Foundation (Sydney); Chinese government; Ulverscroft Foundation; OneSight, Luxottica-China; Essilor-ChinaSCI(E)[email protected]

Reply (Correspondence) to Safety of Spectacles for Children’s Vision: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

We appreciate the interest of Galvis and associates in our work.1 It has been suggested that undercorrection of children's refractive error might retard myopia progression. Previous studies,2,3 limited by size, have generally not been consistent with this. We performed a post hoc analysis on data from our large trial of spectacle provision in China and found no evidence of worsening visual acuity (VA) among children randomized to receive glasses compared to controls. In fact, the final uncorrected VA of Treatment Group children was significantly better than that of controls

Systematic identification and characterization of chicken (Gallus gallus) ncRNAs

Recent studies have demonstrated that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play important roles during development and evolution. Chicken, the first genome-sequenced non-mammalian amniote, possesses unique features for developmental and evolutionary studies. However, apart from microRNAs, information on chicken ncRNAs has mainly been obtained from computational predictions without experimental validation. In the present study, we performed a systematic identification of intermediate size ncRNAs (50–500 nt) by ncRNA library construction and identified 125 chicken ncRNAs. Importantly, through the bioinformatics and expression analysis, we found the chicken ncRNAs has several novel features: (i) comparative genomic analysis against 18 sequenced vertebrate genomes revealed that the majority of the newly identified ncRNA candidates is not conserved and most are potentially bird/chicken specific, suggesting that ncRNAs play roles in lineage/species specification during evolution. (ii) The expression pattern analysis of intronic snoRNAs and their host genes suggested the coordinated expression between snoRNAs and their host genes. (iii) Several spatio-temporal specific expression patterns suggest involvement of ncRNAs in tissue development. Together, these findings provide new clues for future functional study of ncRNAs during development and evolution

News Media Usage, Political Interest and Political Participation

The discussion in this thesis focus on the relationship between news media usage and political participation. During the last several decades, many researchers have been worried about the decline of political participation, however, more and more opinions believe that political participation has not declined, but just transformed from traditional forms to new forms. Although there are facts that participation rates for traditional forms of political participation like voting and being party members are dropping, the emergence and application of the internet have also brought many new forms of political participation like online protests and expressing political views online. These new forms of political activities should also be included in the scope of political participation. Under the magnificent transition of technology, media, especially the internet has attracted attention from many researchers. Abundant research results show that the use of internet is generally beneficial for promoting political participation. Young citizens are more intensive internet users and joining more non-institutionalized forms of political participation. Although more and more researchers are investigating the relationship between internet usage and political participation, there is still a gap in comparing the effects of different media on different forms of political participation. As a mature democratic country, Australia is one of the few places requiring compulsory voting and having relatively stable voting rates. Thus, it is interesting to think about the question: does media, especially internet usage have different effects on various political participation in Australia than that in other democratic countries? Besides, in contemporary society, people use various devices with internet to acquire news and information, and research assume that using media for news and political information is good to increase political knowledge learning and political interest, and in further step to motivate people for political engagement. Then could news media usage for political participation indeed enhance political participation in the background of Australia? At last, political interest is also being assumed to have a mediation effect on the relationship between news media usage and political participation. Then does it also work with that mediation effect in Australia? Based on the questions above, this thesis will focus on the effects of different forms of news media usage on different forms of political participation in Australia, and further study the role of political interest in the relationship between news media usage and political participation. The thesis conducts multiple regression analyses and mediation analyses to investigate the proposed research questions. The research could be split into the following aspects to examine:(a) the age differences in news media usage and political participation; (b) the effects of using different media for political news on different forms of political participation; and (c) the mediation effect of the political interest between different media for political news usage on different forms of political participation. According to relevant theories, the political participation forms are separated into two major categories: institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political participation. The analyses utilize on two data sets: ISSP Citizenship 2004 and 2014. A quantitative method has been developed to perform the analyses. With the multiple regression analyses and mediation analyses, a deeper understanding of the relationship between news media usage and political participation could be found. The findings show several implications: 1) in Australia, both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political participation have increased over time, but the non-institutionalized forms of political participation increased even more. 2) Young citizens are more frequently using the internet to acquire political news than older citizens, and they also prefer to engage in non-institutionalized forms of political participation. On the contrary, old citizens are more likely to use traditional mass media for political news than younger citizens, and they engaged in more institutionalized forms of political participation. 3) The results of multiple regression analyses indicate that using traditional mass media and the internet for political news have positive effects on both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political participation. In addition, the study finds that using the internet for political news is a stronger predictor of non-institutionalized forms of political participation compared to the institutionalized forms of political participation. A similar pattern is also found in the effect of using traditional mass media for political news on political participation. 4) Moreover, the study finds that using media for political news increases citizens' political interest, and political interest mediates the relationship between different news media usage and political participation of both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms. The results of this study complement and contribute to the complex picture of political participation. By comparing the media effects on political participation over time, an interesting finding is that the effects of traditional mass media usage for political news are relatively weak but quite stable for both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political participation, while using the internet for political news has stronger effects on both of the two forms of political participation. However, it is still worth bearing in mind that even though the internet has penetrated in people's daily life and affected individuals' political behavior, but traditional media has not been replaced by the internet. Both traditional media and the internet are positively associated with citizen's political participation. In general, the wide-spread application of the internet yields more influence on political participation. Given younger citizens are intensive internet users and use the internet to obtain political news and engage in public affairs more often, the society and politicians should think about how to use digital tools to inspire, empower, and motivate young people to engage in more political activities. This is the more meaningful significance and indication of the research

The Impact of Parental Migration on Offspring’s Education Investment: Evidence from Left-Behind Children in China

Educational investment of families in their children is related to the sustainable development of both individuals and society. This paper uses data from China Family Panel Studies to study the impact of rural parents’ internal migration on education investment in left-behind children in China. The results show that parental internal migration has a significant negative impact on educational investment in left-behind children. The results persisted after further treatment for endogeneity and multiple robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that while increasing the family income, rural to urban migration reduces parents’ recognition of children’s education, thus reducing the family’s investment in left-behind children’s education. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the negative impact of both parents’ going out was the largest, followed by only the father going out, while only the mother going out was no longer significant. The negative effect of inter-provincial out-going is greater than that of intra-provincial out-going. Girls were negatively affected more than boys; middle school students were more affected than primary school students. Our findings suggest it is necessary to further eliminate labor market discrimination caused by household registration and improve educational quality of rural public schools. The lessons learned from China are valuable for other developing countries with large numbers of rural citizens migrating to cities

The Impact of Parental Migration on Offspring’s Education Investment: Evidence from Left-Behind Children in China

Educational investment of families in their children is related to the sustainable development of both individuals and society. This paper uses data from China Family Panel Studies to study the impact of rural parents’ internal migration on education investment in left-behind children in China. The results show that parental internal migration has a significant negative impact on educational investment in left-behind children. The results persisted after further treatment for endogeneity and multiple robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that while increasing the family income, rural to urban migration reduces parents’ recognition of children’s education, thus reducing the family’s investment in left-behind children’s education. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the negative impact of both parents’ going out was the largest, followed by only the father going out, while only the mother going out was no longer significant. The negative effect of inter-provincial out-going is greater than that of intra-provincial out-going. Girls were negatively affected more than boys; middle school students were more affected than primary school students. Our findings suggest it is necessary to further eliminate labor market discrimination caused by household registration and improve educational quality of rural public schools. The lessons learned from China are valuable for other developing countries with large numbers of rural citizens migrating to cities

Solution and Stability of a General Mixed Type Cubic and Quartic Functional Equation

We consider the following mixed type cubic and quartic functional equation = where is a fixed integer. We establish the general solution of the functional equation when the integer , and then, by using the fixed point alternative, we investigate the generalized Hyers-Ulam-Rassias stability for this functional equation when the integer