Cadmium uptake and transport in vegetables near a zinc-lead mine: Novel insights from Cd isotope fractionation.

In this study, Cd isotope analysis was conducted on drought-tolerant (cowpea and sesame) and less drought-tolerant vegetables (water spinach, green pepper, and mung bean) to elucidate the mechanisms underlying Cd uptake and transport. Cd isotopes in plants were identical to or lighter than those in the available pool and exhibited negative fractionation from roots to straws (ΔCd = -0.22 ‰ to -0.

CT-derived extracellular volume and liver volumetry can predict posthepatectomy liver failure in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objectives: Posthepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) is a severe complication of liver resection. We aimed to develop and validate a model based on extracellular volume (ECV) and liver volumetry derived from computed tomography (CT) for preoperative predicting PHLF in resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients.

Methods: A total of 393 resectable HCC patients from two hospitals were enrolled and underwent multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT before surgery.

Nomogram based on CT-derived extracellular volume for the prediction of post-hepatectomy liver failure in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram based on extracellular volume (ECV) derived from computed tomography (CT) for predicting post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) in patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Methods: A total of 202 patients with resectable HCC from two hospitals were enrolled and underwent multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT before surgery. One hundred twenty-one patients from our hospital and 81 patients from another hospital were assigned to the training cohort and the validation cohort, respectively.

MRI-based radiomics to compare the survival benefit of induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy plus adjuvant chemotherapy in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multicenter study.

Background And Purpose: It remains uncertain whether induction chemotherapy (IC) plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) or CCRT plus adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) is more effective in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC). This study aimed to develop and validate a joint radiomic and clinical signature (RCS) for the prognostic stratification of LA-NPCs and to identify patients who might benefit more from IC + CCRT or CCRT + AC.

Materials And Methods: Overall, 893 LA-NPC patients who received IC + CCRT or CCRT + AC were enrolled from four hospitals.

Using quantitative parameters derived from pretreatment dual-energy computed tomography to predict histopathologic features in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients with a high tumor grade, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), or perineural invasion (PNI) tend to demonstrate a poor prognosis in clinical series. Thus, the identification of histopathological features, including tumor grade, LVI, and PNI, before treatment could be used to stratify the prognosis of patients with HNSCC. This study aimed to assess whether quantitative parameters derived from pretreatment dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) can predict the histopathological features of patients with HNSCC.

A highly porous animal bone-derived char with a superiority of promoting nZVI for Cr(VI) sequestration in agricultural soils.

Paddy soil and irrigation water are commonly contaminated with hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] near urban industrial areas, thereby threatening the safety of agricultural products and human health. In this study, we develop a porous and high specific area bone char (BC) to support nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) and apply it to remediate Cr(VI) pollution in water and paddy soil under anaerobic conditions. The batch experiments reveal that BC/nZVI exhibits a higher removal capacity of 516.

Behavior and mechanism of different fraction lead leach with several typical sulfate lixiviants in the weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore.

Recently, some new leaching agents without ammonium, such as magnesium sulfate (MgSO) and aluminum sulfate [Al(SO)], have been developed to eliminate ammonia nitrogen pollution in in situ mining process of the weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore (WCED-REO), but they might cause heavy metal contamination. In this study, characteristics and mechanisms of different fractions of lead (Pb) released by (NH)SO, MgSO and Al(SO) leaching agents were investigated using batch experiments and column leaching tests. The experimental results showed that the amounts of Pb released by the different leaching agents followed the trend of Al(SO) > (NH)SO > MgSO under the same total cationic charge, and both the acid extractable and reducible fractions of Pb were released.

Multiparametric dual-energy CT for distinguishing nasopharyngeal carcinoma from nasopharyngeal lymphoma.

Objectives: To determine the optimal kiloelectron volt of noise-optimized virtual monoenergetic images [VMI (+)] for visualization of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and nasopharyngeal lymphoma (NPL), and to explore the clinical value of quantitative parameters derived from dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) for distinguishing the two entities.

Materials And Methods: Eighty patients including 51 with NPC and 29 with NPL were enrolled. The VMIs (+) at 40-80 keV with an interval of 10 keV were reconstructed by contrast enhanced images.

The influence of soil particle size distribution and clay minerals on ammonium nitrogen in weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth tailing.

Even after being abandoned for many years, a large number of weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth (WCED-RE) tailings continue to release ammonia nitrogen (AN) pollution into their surrounding environments. However, the influences of particle size distribution and clay minerals on AN pollution caused by these tailings have been insufficiently studied, and its causes are poorly understood. In this study, soil samples at different depths (5, 7, 9, 11 and 14 m) were collected from a rare earth tailing in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, China.

Predicting Progression-Free Survival Using MRI-Based Radiomics for Patients With Nonmetastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

This study aimed to explore the predictive value of MRI-based radiomic model for progression-free survival (PFS) in nonmetastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A total of 327 nonmetastatic NPC patients [training cohort ( = 230) and validation cohort ( = 97)] were enrolled. The clinical and MRI data were collected.

[Intestine lactobacilli of 1-4 months infant and characterize their biochemical properties in Chengdu City in 2015-2016].

Objective: To collect intestinal lactobacilli in healthy infants and to characterize them biochemically for further studies.

Methods: Lactobacilli were isolated from the fecal samples collected from total 41 of 1-4 month old healthy infants with culture method by selective medium. After morphological observation and oxygen test, the isolates were tested for their abilities to use 50 carbohydrate and identified with API 50 CHL system and 16 S RNA sequencing.

Remediation of nitrate-nitrogen contaminated groundwater using a pilot-scale two-layer heterotrophic-autotrophic denitrification permeable reactive barrier with spongy iron/pine bark.

A novel two-layer heterotrophic-autotrophic denitrification (HAD) permeable reactive barrier (PRB) was proposed for remediating nitrate-nitrogen contaminated groundwater in an oxygen rich environment, which has a packing structure of an upstream pine bark layer and a downstream spongy iron and river sand mixture layer. The HAD PRB involves biological deoxygenation, heterotrophic denitrification, hydrogenotrophic denitrification, and anaerobic Fe corrosion. Column and batch experiments were performed to: (1) investigate the NO3(-)-N removal and inorganic geochemistry; (2) explore the nitrogen transformation and removal mechanisms; (3) identify the hydrogenotrophic denitrification capacity; and (4) evaluate the HAD performance by comparison with other approaches.

Removal of ammonium-nitrogen from groundwater using a fully passive permeable reactive barrier with oxygen-releasing compound and clinoptilolite.

A novel fully passive permeable reactive barrier (PRB) with oxygen-releasing compound (ORC) and clinoptilolite was proposed for the removal of ammonium-nitrogen from groundwater. The PRB involves a combination of oxygen release, biological nitrification, ion exchange, and bioregeneration. A pilot-scale performance comparison experiment was carried out employing three parallel columns to assess the proposed PRB.

Pharmacological properties of SD-282 - an alpha-isoform selective inhibitor for p38 MAP kinase.

The effects of small-molecule p38 inhibitors in numerous models of different disease states have been published, including those of SD-282, an indole-5-carboxamide inhibitor. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the pharmacological activity of SD-282 on cytokine production in vitro as well as in 2 in vivo models of inflammation in order to illuminate the role of this particular inhibitor in diverse disease states. The results presented here provide further characterization of SD-282 and provide a context in which to interpret the activity of this p38 inhibitor in models of arthritis, pain, myocardial injury, sepsis and asthma; all of which have an inflammatory component.

[Degradation of volatile chlorinated aliphatics by zero-valent iron].

Tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE) and carbon tetrachloride (CT) were selected as target contaminants in this paper. Experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of zero-valent iron on dechlorination reaction and reaction-affecting factors in different mixing conditions. The results show that selected iron scrapes were effective in the dechlorination of chlorinated aliphatics, especially for chlorinated alkanes, and dechlorination reaction was pseudo first order.