No abstract available

[en] 19 elements, such as Ca, Mg, Fe, Se, Cu, Zn, etc., in hair of 65 patients with chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema and cor-pulmonale diseases and 65 healthy people have been investigated by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The results show that the contents of Ca and Mg are lower and Fe, As and Co are higher in the hair of patients than in healthy persons. The contents of Ca and Mg are lower and Fe is higher in the hair of patients during attack periods of chronic bronchitis than in relaxed periods. The differences are significant (P<0.05-0.01). The content of Ca is closely related to that of Mg in hair (P<0.01). The contents of inorganic elements in the Chinese medicine cough and asthma capsule used to treat chronic bronchitis have been determined. The results show that the contents of elements Ca, Mg, Sr, etc., are higher in this medicine than the average amounts of these elements in 120 other Chinese medicines. (author) 15 refs.; 8 tabs

[en] 19 elements (Ca, Mg, Fe, Se, Cu, Zn, etc.) in hair of 65 patients with chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema and corpulmonale and 65 healthy persons were determined with instrumental neutron activation analysis. It was shown that the contents of Ca and Mg are lower while the contents of Fe, As and Co higher for the patients. For the patients with chronic bronchitis in attack period the contents of Ca and Mg are lower and the content of Fe higher than those in relaxed period. A highly positive relation between Ca and Mg contents was also found. In addition, inorganic elements in 'Kechuandeping' capsule, a prepared traditional Chinese medicine to treat chronic bronchitis, were determined, and the contents of Ca, Mg, Sr, etc. were found higher than the corresponding average values for 120 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines, indicating a possible shortage of Ca, Mg, etc. for the patients with respiratory-system diseased

[en] Highlights: • Biogas slurry is successfully treated as the flower fertilizer with a net profit. • Biogas slurry is concentrated and then CO₂ saturated for fertilizer generation. • Biogas slurry-based flower fertilizer achieves a good environmental friendliness. • CO₂ may be stored into the ornamental potted plants in a long time. A new approach for biogas slurry disposal was put forward in this study through converting biogas slurry to the organic fertilizer of Spathiphyllum. The biogas slurry was firstly concentrated by vacuum distillation to reduce its volume by 80% who is called 5CBS, and then CO₂ saturated to reduce its pH to about 6.50 ± 0.20. With or without adding the exogenetic Ca, Mg and P nutrients, CO₂-rich 5CBS (i.e., CR-5CBS) was adopted as the root or foliar fertilizer to cultivate Spathiphyllum. Additionally, the commercial Spathiphyllum fertilizer was also experimented as a control. Results showed that the cases adopting CR-5CBS as the root or foliar fertilizer can obtain the agronomic traits and ornamental values of Spathiphyllum better those irrigated by the commercial fertilizer. Exogenetic nutrients added into CR-5CBS can lead to a decreased dead leaf number of Spathiphyllum, an enhanced N assimilation performance, however only a slightly improved assimilation performance of Ca, Mg and P. In terms of the fertilizer economy, CR-5CBS without exogenetic nutrient addition may be a promising for replacing the commercial Spathiphyllum fertilizer in the future. Economic and environmental pollution potential (EPP) analyses indicated that treating biogas slurry as the organic flower fertilizer can achieve a high net profit with about $ 28.89/m³-biogas slurry and a negative EPP value (−3.9), showing its profitability and environmental friendliness.

[en] High-performance flexible strain sensors based on maleic anhydride-grafted styrene-butadiene-styrene triblock copolymer/carbon black (SBS-g-MAH/CB) composites were prepared by simple solvent swelling of SBS-g-MAH/CB composites obtained by melt blending. After swelling in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) or xylene, the aggregation of CB in the composites was reduced noticeably. Consequently, the conductivity of the composites improved by a great extent, and the percolation thresholds of the composites decreased. At 12% CB loading, the conductivity increased approximately 400 times or 6000 times upon swelling in DMF or xylene, respectively. DMF swelling did not change the morphology of SBS-g-MAH, and a three-dimensional conductive network was formed in the composites. The SBS-g-MAH morphology changed considerably, and a two-dimensional conductive network was formed after swelling in xylene. DMF swelling enhanced the piezoresistive performance of the composites. The gauge factor increased from 4 to 71. Moreover, the drawbacks of composites prepared by melt blending, including electromechanical inconsistency and poor stability, were overcome. Due to the high conductivity and the change in SBS-g-MAH morphology, an approximately two-fold increase in electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency was observed after swelling the composites in xylene. The mechanism of the strain sensor was discussed. The strain sensing behaviour of SBS-g-MAH/CB composites can be explained by an analytical model based on the tunneling theory. (paper)

[en] Highlights: : • Carbon fiber supported two-dimensional ZIF-7 interlayer were developed. • CNF and ZIF-7 creates a conductive and reactive network. • Trapping of LiPS was verified by DFT and experimental analysis. • ZIF-7@CNF interlayer significantly enhanced the performance of Li-S cell. -- Abstract: The development of conductive and porous interlayer can effectively mitigate the shutting of lithium polysulfide (LiPs) for high efficiency lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. In the present study, a flexible two-dimensional interlayer consists of ZIF-7 metal organic framework sheet rooted on carbon fiber (ZIF-7@CNF) was successfully fabricated. This ZIF-7@CNF interlayer not only works as a physical barrier for LiPs, the ZIF-7 flake also exposes a large number of active sites for LiPs adsorption. When stalked on the conductive CNF network, three dimensional channels for electron/ion transfer were formed, which also accelerates the transformation of LiPs. Due to these beneficial features, the Li-S batteries with this ZIF-7@CNF interlayer achieves an excellent discharge specific capacity (1226.9 mAh g⁻¹) at 0.2 C with a high capacity retention rate of 89% after 100 cycles, a areal capacity of 3.92 mAh cm⁻² under a sulfur loading of 6.37 mg cm⁻². It also delivers good rate performance, showing a specific capacity of 560.7 mAh g⁻¹ under the high rate of 5 C.

[en] The development of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries is obstructed by polysulfide-shuttling and sluggish conversion kinetics during the process of charge and discharge. Herein, a highly oriented MIL-101(Cr) continuous film is developed on carbon cloth and utilized as trustworthy interlayer for lithium-sulfur batteries. This interlayer possesses a unique hierarchical porous structure and abundant active sites, providing efficient confinement of polysulfides through strong physical/chemical adsorption. Specially, the Lewis acidic Cr(III) centers of MIL-101(Cr) films are able to coordinate with polysulfides through Lewis acid-base interactions. Moreover, MIL-101(Cr) films also have the electrocatalytic effect of promoting the conversion of polysulfides. Benefiting from these features, this composite interlayer establishes an efficient barrier to inhibit the shuttling of polysulfides. Consequently, the as-prepared multifunctional interlayer exhibits a remarkable rate performance of 635 mAh g⁻¹ at 3 C, a superior cycle stability with a low-capacity decay of 0.039% per cycle over 500 cycles at 1 C and high areal specific capacity of 4.3 mAh cm⁻² under raised sulfur loading (5.1 mg cm⁻²).

[en] Highlights: • MyD88 signaling is involved in the pathology of atherosclerosis. • MyD88 inhibitor LM9 suppressed ox-LDL induced inflammation and oxidative stress in macrophages. • MyD88 inhibition inhibited ox-LDL induced CD36 expression and foam cell formation. • Pharmacological inhibition of MyD88 by LM9 attenuated experimental atherosclerosis. -- Abstract: Development of atherosclerosis involves chronic and sustained inflammation and oxidative stress. Recent studies have linked atherosclerosis to the innate immune system. Genetic deficiency in myeloid differentiation primary-response protein 88 (MyD88) protects against the development and progression of atherosclerosis. However, it is unknown if pharmacological inhibition of MyD88 is able to be a therapeutic strategy for this disease. In this study, we evaluated the effect of a newly synthesized small-molecule inhibitor of MyD88, LM9, in an ApoE^−/− mouse model of atherosclerosis. Our results showed that the major source of MyD88 in atherosclerotic lesions is infiltrated macrophage. Treatment of HFD-fed ApoE^−/− mice with LM9 significantly attenuated the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, accompanied with reduced vascular inflammatory responses and oxidative stress. These effects were achieved without changes to serum lipid levels. We further showed that LM9 inhibited oxidized-lipoprotein induced foam cell formation through suppression of MyD88 and inflammatory pathway in macrophages. Additionally, either LM9 treatment or MyD88 knockdown prevented ox-LDL-induced oxidative stress in macrophages. This study highlights the translational role of MyD88 as a therapeutic target and identifies the MyD88 inhibitor LM9 as a new candidate for the treatment of atherosclerosis.