[en] Biofilm reactors were constructed to grow stratified multispecies biofilm in oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) supplemented with growth medium. The development of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) within the biofilm and the biofilm treatment of OSPW were evaluated. The community structure and potential activity of SRB in the biofilm were investigated with H_2S microsensor measurements, dsrB gene-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and the real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Multispecies biofilm with a thickness of 1000 μm was successfully developed on engineered biocarriers. H_2S production was observed in the deeper anoxic zone of the biofilm from around 750 μm to 1000 μm below the bulk water-biofilm interface, revealing sulfate reduction in the deeper zone of the stratified biofilm. The biofilm removed chemical oxygen demand (COD), sulfate, and nitrogen. The study expands current knowledge of biofilm treatment of OSPW and the function of anaerobic SRB in OSPW biofilm, and thus provides information for future bioreactor development in the reclamation of OSPW. - Graphical abstract: The development of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) within Oil Sands Process-affected Water (OSPW) biofilm and the biofilm treatment of OSPW were evaluated by Liu and coworkers. Combined microsensor and molecular biology techniques were utilized in this study. Their results demonstrated that multispecies biofilm with a thickness of 1000 μm was successfully developed on engineered biocarriers. H_2S production was observed in the deeper anoxic zone of the biofilm from around 750 μm to 1000 μm below the bulk water-biofilm interface, revealing sulfate reduction in the deeper zone of the biofilm. The biofilm removed chemical oxygen demand (COD), sulfate, and nitrogen. - Highlights: • Biofilm in oil sands wastewater was developed on engineered biocarriers. • Bacterial community and in situ activity of SRB were studied in the biofilm. • Sulfate reduction activity was observed in the deeper zone of the biofilm. • The biofilm could simultaneously remove sulfate, organic carbon, and nitrogen

[en] In the present work the influence of temperature, nitric acid and HDBP, H₂MBP on the formation of strong complexants in a 30% TBP-kerosene-HNO₃ system by γ-irradiation is investigated. The results indicate that all of these factors influence the formation of strong complexants in this system. The time taken to reach equilibrium of Hf-index is decreased with the increase in temperature after irradiation of the system. The post-irradiation effects are observed not only for HDBP and but also for H₂MBP, which are closely connected with the post-irradiation effects of the Hf-index. The existence of H₂MBP plays a much worse role in the deterioration of solvent properties than HDBP. This could be quite important in the future in reprocessing high burn-up fast breeder fuels with short cooling times, resulting in high solvent radiation exposure, which could increase the H₂MBP yield significantly. (author)

[en] Objective: This study was to evaluate the efficacy of Samarium-153-EDTMP in breast cancer with bone metastases. Methods: 438 cases with advanced breast cancer that had metastatic bone pain were treated with ¹⁵³Sm-EDTMP at a dosage of 25.9 MBq/Kg once a month. One course of treatment was 3 to 4 times. Results: The results were evaluated according to the degree of pain relief, mobility, analgesic intake and general feeling. 52.7% (231/438) of patients got complete remission and 33.8% (148/438) incomplete remission. There was no response in the remaining 13.8% (59/438). 52 cases had improved bone scan findings. Conclusion: Palliative treatment of metastatic bone pain from breast cancer with ¹⁵³Sm-EDTMP improves the quality of life and may be safely repeated with the same benefit and without significant myelosuppression

[en] It is the important feature of passive system and the basic difference from the active system that nuclear plant can be driven to safe state or shutdown by inherent safety characters of the reactor and physical principles, independent of human interfere or the operation of outside equipment, when the reactor is in abnormal condition. So passive system is widely used in new generation nuclear power plant(NPP) such as high-temperature gas-cooled reactors and AP1000 NPPs. While physical process failure become one of the important contributors to the system operation failure since system operation is depending on natural force but not on outside power and both the driven force and resistance are influenced by many uncertain factors. Then finding the key factors for the system operation, analyzing the development of the passive system combining with the accident scenarios are the main steps of the analysis of the passive system reliability, and the important content of the probability safety assessment (PSA) of nuclear plant with the passive design. (authors)

[en] A carrier consisting of lipid-coated hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres (L-HMSN) was produced for the combination of the water-insoluble drug (paclitaxel, PTX) and the water-soluble drug (doxorubicin, DOX). DOX was adsorbed into the nanoscale hollow structure of the hollow mesoporous silica nanospheres (HMSN) by adsorption and PTX was wrapped in the phospholipid layer of the HMSN surface by lipid film hydration method. The characterization results showed that DOX and PTX were present in the nanopheres in an amorphous state. The loaded L-HMSN (DOX/PTX@L-HMSN) in vitro drug release showed a sustained release in phosphate buffered solution (PBS) at pH 6.8 and 0.001%SDS. The cellular uptake experiment indicated that L-HMSN was successfully taken up by A549 cells. In addition, the combination of DOX and PTX in L-HMSN exhibited a marked synergistic effect in inhibiting the proliferation of A549 cells. The pharmacokinetic study demonstrated that L-HMSN could significantly improve the relative bioavailability of DOX and PTX. These results confirm that L-HMSN is a promising carrier for successful drug combination. - Highlights: • L-HMSN as a platform is used for combination of DOX and PTX • The drug delivery system demonstrates synergy effect in inhibiting A549 cell proliferation • The drug delivery system slowly releases the drugs and improves drug absorption

[en] We numerically investigate the injection process of electrons from metal electrodes to one-dimensional organic molecules by combining the extended Su—Schrieffer—Heeger (SSH) model with a nonadiabatic dynamics method. It is found that a match between the Fermi level of electrodes and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) or the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of organic molecules can be greatly affected by the length of the organic chains, which has a great impact on electron injection. The correlation between oligomers and electrodes is found to open more efficient channels for electron injection as compared with that in polymer/electrode structures. For oligomer/electrode structures, we show that the Schottky barrier essentially does not affect the electron injection as the electrode work function is smaller than a critical value. This means that the Schottky barrier is pinned for a small work-function electrode. For polymer/electrode structures, we find that it is possible for the Fermi level of electrodes to be pinned to the polaronic level. The condition under which the Fermi level of electrodes exceeds the polaronic level of polymers is shown to not always lead to spontaneous electron transfer from electrodes to polymers. (condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties)

[en] The paper reports the research progress in all-solid-state high power green laser. The intracavity frequency-doubled green laser adopts the two-rod L-shaped cavity. When the pumping power is 1 174 W, the 532 nm output power is 186 W and the optical-optical efficiency is 15.8% with LBO frequency-doubling crystal. A diode pumped master oscillator power amplifier laser with output pulse energy of 1.2 J at 400 Hz repetition rate is demonstrated. With a type II phase matched KTP crystal, 525 mJ green light pulse energy at 400 Hz repetition rate is obtained. The frequency conversion efficiency is about 43.7%. The laser energy of the double beam laser is more than 1 J with the technique of polarization synthesis. Moreover, a 90 degree quartz rotator is placed between the two laser modules to fulfill thermal-induced birefringence compensation of laser media, and a specially designed large aperture tapered fiber as a solid state phase conjugation mirror is used in the power amplifier to improve beam quality. (authors)

[en] Monte Carlo simulation is used in this paper to analyze the initiating event of loss of equipment cooling water system, the frequency of 2.7 x 10^-3/(reactor·year)^-1 is obtained, and the main contributor is the common cause demand failure of equipment cooling water system pumps and service water system pumps. The traditional fault tree result is 3.8 x 10^-1/(reactor·year)^-1(the main contributor is independent operation failure of equipment cooling water system pumps/service water system pumps). This result is more closer to the statistic value 9.7 x 10^-4//(reactor·year)^-1 in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report NUREG/CR-5750. The reason is that the mission time of the system in initiating event analysis is 1 reactor·year, so the redundant devices and the repair of the fault devices are important factors for the result. And for this type of problem related to the time order, the assumption is too conservative because of lack of time factor in the fault tree, while MC simulation is a dynamic method,and the system behavior can be described adequately, so the result is more closer to the statistic value of the nuclear power plant. (authors)

[en] Soft-landing buffer systems with spherical curvature outer shells are widely used in the aerospace field, which not only requires its efficient and smooth buffer performance, but also that the shell of the landing buffer system is compact and lightweight. This paper presents a novel design method for the spherical honeycomb core structure for a soft-landing device buffer shell. The proposed method aims to realize the positive sphere characteristics of the honeycomb core by adopting the spherical mosaic of a truncated icosahedron and the triangle formation principle. Furthermore, according to the relationship of the deformation and the energy absorption performance, the optimum structural parameters are obtained by discussing the mechanical properties of the inner core, which determine the unit size and density of the whole model. At the same time, we estimate the distortion rate caused by projection that can be considered as an evaluation criterion to describe the performance of the proposed structure of the spherical honeycomb core. Simulation tests are carried out employing Abaqus/explicit to analyze the distortion impact and the energy-absorbtion properties of the proposed structures under different actual environments.

[en] Objective: To investigate the feasibility to reduce radiation doses on pediatric multidetector abdominal CT using the adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction technique (ASIR) associated with automated tube current modulation technique (ATCM). Methods: Thirty patients underwent abdominal CT with ATCM and the follow-up scan with ATCM cooperated with 40% ASIR. ATCM was used with age dependent noise index (NI) settings: NI = 9 for 0-5 year old and NI = 11 for > 5 years old for simple ATCM group, NI = 11 for 0-5 year old and NI = 15 for > 5 years old for ATCM cooperated with 40% ASIR group (AISR group). Two radiologists independently evaluated images for diagnostic quality and image noise with subjectively image quality score and image noise score using a 5-point scale. Interobserver agreement was assessed by Kappa test. The volume CT dose indexes (CTDIvol) for the two groups were recorded. Statistical significance for the CTDIvol value was analyzed by pair-sample t test. Results: The average CTDIvol for the ASIR group was (1.38 ± 0.64) mGy, about 60% lower than (3.56 ± 1.23) mGy for the simple ATCM group, and the CTDIvol of two groups had statistically significant differences. (t = 33.483, P < 0.05). The subjective image quality scores for the simple ATCM group were 4.43 ± 0.57 and 4.37 ±0.61, Kappa = 0.878, P < 0.01 (ASIR group: 4.70 ± 0.47 and 4.60 ± 0.50, Kappa = 0.783, P < 0.01), by two observers. The image noise score for the simple ATCM group were 4.03 ±0.56 and 3.83 ±0.53, Kappa = 0.572, P < 0.01 (ASIR group: 4.20 ± 0.48 and 4.10 ± 0.48, Kappa = 0.748, P < 0.01), by two observers. All images had acceptable diagnostic image quality. Conclusion: Lower radiation dose can be achieved by elevating NI with ASIR in pediatric CT abdominal studies, while maintaining diagnostically acceptable images. (authors)