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The study aims to solve the problems of limited capacity and difficult recovery of lignite to adsort Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ in acid mine wastewater (AMD). Magnetically modified lignite (MML) was prepared by the chemical co-precipitation method. Static beaker experiments and dynamic continuous column experiments were set up to explore the adsorption properties of Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ by lignite and MML. Lignite and MML before and after the adsorption of heavy metal ions were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). Meanwhile, the adsorption mechanisms of Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ by lignite and MML were revealed by combining the adsorption isotherm model and the adsorption kinetics model. The results showed that the pH, adsorbent dosage, temperature, initial concentration of heavy metal ions, and contact time had an influence on the adsorption of Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ by lignite and MML, and the adsorption processes were more in line with the Langmuir model. The adsorption kinetics experiments showed that the adsorption processes were jointly controlled by multiple adsorption stages. The adsorption of heavy metal ions by lignite obeyed the Quasi first-order kinetic model, while the adsorption of MML was chemisorption that obeyed the Quasi second-order kinetic model. The negative Δ G and positive Δ H of Cu 2+ and Zn 2+ indicated the spontaneous and endothermic nature reaction, while the negative Δ H of Pb 2+ indicated the exothermic nature reaction. The dynamic continuous column experiments showed that the average removal rates of Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ by lignite were 78.00, 76.97 and 78.65%, respectively, and those of heavy metal ions by MML were 82.83, 81.57 and 83.50%, respectively. Compared with lignite, the adsorption effect of MML was better. As shown by SEM, XRD and FTIR tests, Fe 3 O 4 was successfully loaded on the surface of lignite during the magnetic modification, which made the surface morphology of lignite coarser. Lignite and MML removed Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ and Pb 2+ from AMD in different forms. In addition, the adsorption process of MML is related to the O–H stretching vibration of carboxylic acid ions and the Fe–O stretching vibration of Fe 3 O 4 particles.

Electrochemical-mechanical coupling poses enormous challenges to the interfacial and structural stability but create new opportunities to design innovative all-solid-state batteries from scratch. Relying on the solid-solid constraint in the space-limited domain structure, we propose to exploit the lithiation-induced stress to drive the active materials creep, thereby improving the structural integrity. For demonstration, we fabricate the creep-type all-solid-state cathode using creepable Se material and an all-in-one rigid ionic/electronic conducting Mo6Se8 framework. As indicated by the in-situ experiment and numerical simulation, this cathode presents unique capabilities in improving interparticle contact and avoiding particle fracture, leading to its superior electrochemical performance, including a superior long-cycle life of more than 3000 cycles at 0.5 C and a high volumetric energy density of 2460 Wh/L at the cathode level. We believe this innovative strategy to utilize mechanics to boost the electrochemical performance could shed light on the future design of all-solid-state batteries for practical applications. Electrochemical-mechanical issues bring challenges but create new opportunities to design innovative all-solid-state batteries. Here, the authors propose to use the (de)lithiation-stress-creep synergistic time-dependent evolution to boost the electrochemical performance of all-solid-state batteries.

This paper investigates the role of host-country corruption in private participation projects in emerging markets. Privatization activities, especially in infrastructure development, were traditionally inaccessible to multinational enterprises, but they are nowadays encouraged in many countries. Prior literature on corruption finds two contradictory (\"grease\" and \"sand\") results when examining the consequences of corruption on investments. Drawing on a sample of 1185 projects from 1997 to 2013 in 18 Central and Eastern European Countries, our results show that higher levels of host-country corruption are associated with greater probabilities of failure. Our results also show that including local investors in the ownership structure of the project weakens the negative effect of corruption by reducing the liability of foreignness. In contrast, being a publicly traded project has no moderating effect in the effect of corruption in this region. Therefore, our results highlight that not all common strategies to deal with corruption are equally effective in this region.

The problems of acid mine drainage (AMD) in coal mine acidic wastewaters arise from a range of sources, including severe pollution with heavy metals and SO 4 2- and difficulties during treatment. Based on the ability of Maifan stone to adsorb heavy metals and the dissimilatory reduction of SO 4 2- by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), Maifan stone-sulfate-reducing bacterium-immobilized particles were prepared via immobilization techniques using Shandong Maifan stone as the experimental material. The effects of Maifan stones containing SRB on mitigating AMD were investigated by constructing Dynamic Column 1 with Maifan stone-sulfate-reducing bacterium-immobilized particles and by constructing Dynamic Column 2 with SRB mixed with Maifan stones. By the use of adsorption isotherms, adsorption kinetics, a reduction kinetics model and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies, the mechanism by which Maifan stone-sulfate-reducing bacterium-immobilized particles mitigate AMD was revealed. The results showed that the total effect of Maifan stone-sulfate-reducing bacterium-immobilized particles on AMD was better than that of biological Maifan stone carriers. The highest rates for the removal of Fe 2+ , Mn 2+ , and SO 4 2- in AMD were 90.51%, 85.75% and 93.61%, respectively, and the pH value of the wastewater increased from 4.08 to 7.64. The isotherms for the adsorption of Fe 2+ and Mn 2+ on Maifan stone-sulfate-reducing bacterium-immobilized particles conformed to the output of the Langmuir model. The adsorption kinetics were in accordance with Lagergren first-order kinetics, and the kinetics for the reduction of SO 4 2- conformed to those of a first-order reaction model.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is believed to be associated with a notable disruption of cellular energy metabolism. By detecting the changes of energy metabolites in the serum of patients with pulmonary fibrosis, we aimed to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of energy metabolites in IPF, and further elucidated the mechanism of their involvement in pulmonary fibrosis. Through metabolomics research, it was discovered that the TCA cycle intermediates changed dramatically in IPF patients. In another validation cohort of 55 patients with IPF compared to 19 healthy controls, it was found that succinate, an intermediate product of TCA cycle, has diagnostic and prognostic value in IPF. The cut-off levels of serum succinate were 98.36 μM for distinguishing IPF from healthy controls (sensitivity, 83.64%; specificity, 63.16%; likelihood ratio, 2.27, respectively). Moreover, a high serum succinate level was independently associated with higher rates of disease progression (OR 13.087, 95%CI (2.819–60.761)) and mortality (HR 3.418, 95% CI (1.308–8.927)). In addition, accumulation of succinate and increased expression of the succinate receptor GPR91 were found in both IPF patients and BLM mouse models of pulmonary fibrosis. Reducing succinate accumulation in BLM mice alleviated pulmonary fibrosis and 21d mortality, while exogenous administration of succinate can aggravate pulmonary fibrosis in BLM mice. Furthermore, GPR91 deficiency protected against lung fibrosis caused by BLM. In vitro, succinate promoted the activation of lung fibroblasts by activating ERK pathway through GPR91. In summary, succinate is a promising biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of IPF. The accumulation of succinate may promote fibroblast activation through GPR91 and pulmonary fibrosis.

Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-related myocarditis is a rare but fatal immune-related adverse event in lung cancer patients, with limited multivariate prognostic analysis. This study aimed to identify risk factors for severity, major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and survival time, and develop a survival prediction model. Data from 70 lung cancer patients with ICI-related myocarditis (training set) and 40 patients (validation set) were analyzed, with ≥ 1.5 years of follow-up. Cox regression was employed to determine factors associated with survival time, and Logistic regression models identified risk factors for severe myocarditis and MACE. Several factors were independently associated with all-cause death: protective factors included combined radiotherapy (HR 0.12, 95%CI: 0.01–0.98, p  = 0.047) and longer ICI treatment duration (≥ 132 days, HR 0.93, 95%CI: 0.91–0.98, p  = 0.013); risk factors included low-dose glucocorticoid use in patients with severe myocarditis (HR 3.92, 95%CI: 1.16–13.2, p  = 0.028). A nomogram model constructed based on these three variables yielded area under the time-ROC curves of 0.832, 0.835, and 0.924 for 0.5-, 1-, and 1.5-year survival in the training set, and 0.821, 0.806, and 0.789 in the validation set, respectively. It also demonstrated good discriminative ability and clinical utility for predicting survival in lung cancer patients with ICI-related myocarditis, as this study established a validated nomogram model that may aid survival prediction in this population. Additionally, we analyzed the risk factors for severe ICI related myocarditis and 90-day MACE. We found that the use of angiogenesis inhibitors was an independent risk factor for severe myocarditis (OR 18.72, 95% CI: 2.52–428.27, p  = 0.02); a history of coronary artery disease (OR 10.54, 95% CI: 1.62–210.10, p  = 0.037) was an independent risk factor for 90-day MACE; and left ventricular ejection fraction (OR 0.94, 95% CI: 0.88–0.99, p  = 0.026) was an independent protective factor against 90-day MACE.

Background Bladder flap hematoma (BFH) is a rare complication associated with cesarean section (CS). Its pathogenesis is linked to insufficient hemostasis and bleeding at the incision site, leading to the formation of a hematoma between the bladder and the lower uterine segment (LUS). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no specific protocols have been formulated to guide the treatment of BFH. Case presentation A 29-year-old woman underwent an emergency CS due to relative cephalopelvic disproportion. Twenty-two hours after the CS, she developed pale red hematuria accompanied with a significant decrease in hemoglobin. The patient experienced two fainting episodes after standing and engaging in activity, along with vaginal bleeding. A bedside ultrasound revealed a 50 mm fluid-filled sonolucent area between the lower uterine segment (LUS) and bladder. Subsequently, the patient received conservative treatment with internal iliac artery embolization, antibiotics and blood transfusion, to avoid secondary laparotomy. The angiography and computer tomography examinations revealed the existence of uterine artery pseudoaneurysm and a large BFH. Her vital signs remained stable after the intervention and repeat ultrasonography demonstrated a significant reduction in the hematoma size. Conclusions Selective pelvic artery embolization as a conservative treatment can be a safe and effective option for large BFH, provided the patient remains clinically stable. This interventional therapy presents an innovative, non-surgical approach to a condition that is typically treated surgically and may carry the risk of irreparable complications.

Background Soybean seed weight is not only a yield component, but also a critical trait for various soybean food products such as sprouts, edamame, soy nuts, natto and miso. Linkage analysis and genome-wide association study (GWAS) are two complementary and powerful tools to connect phenotypic differences to the underlying contributing loci. Linkage analysis is based on progeny derived from two parents, given sufficient sample size and biological replication, it usually has high statistical power to map alleles with relatively small effect on phenotype, however, linkage analysis of the bi-parental population can’t detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) that are fixed in the two parents. Because of the small seed weight difference between the two parents in most families of previous studies, these populations are not suitable to detect QTL that have considerable effects on seed weight. GWAS is based on unrelated individuals to detect alleles associated with the trait under investigation. The ability of GWAS to capture major seed weight QTL depends on the frequency of the accessions with small and large seed weight in the population being investigated. Our objective was to identify QTL that had a pronounced effect on seed weight using a selective population of soybean germplasm accessions and the approach of GWAS and fixation index analysis. Results We selected 166 accessions from the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection with either large or small seed weight and could typically grow in the same location. The accessions were evaluated for seed weight in the field for two years and genotyped with the SoySNP50K BeadChip containing >42,000 SNPs. Of the 17 SNPs on six chromosomes that were significantly associated with seed weight in two years based on a GWAS of the selective population, eight on chromosome 4 or chromosome 17 had significant Fst values between the large and small seed weight sub-populations. The seed weight difference of the two alleles of these eight significant SNPs varied from 8.1 g to 11.7 g/100 seeds in two years. We also identified haplotypes in three haplotype blocks with significant effects on seed weight. These findings were validated in a panel with 3753 accessions from the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection. Conclusion This study highlighted the usefulness of selective genotyping populations coupled with GWAS and fixation index analysis for the identification of QTL with substantial effects on seed weight in soybean. This approach may help geneticists and breeders to more efficiently identify major QTL controlling other traits. The major regions and haplotypes we have identified that control seed weight differences in soybean will facilitate the identification of genes regulating this important trait.

This study evaluates the feasibility of the pencil beam scanning technique of carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) in the setting of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and establishes the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) calculated by the Local Effect Model version I (LEM‐I) with a dose escalation plan. The escalated relative biological effectiveness‐weighted dose levels included 55, 60, 65, and 70 Gy in 10 fractions. Active motion management techniques were employed, and several measures were applied to mitigate the interplay effect induced by a moving target. CIRT was planned with the LEM‐I‐based treatment planning system and delivered by raster scanning. Offline PET/CT imaging was used to verify the beam range. Offline adaptive replanning was performed whenever required. Twenty‐three patients with a median tumor size of 4.3 cm (range, 1.7–8.5 cm) were enrolled in the present study. The median follow‐up time was 56.1 months (range, 5.7–74.4 months). No dose limiting toxicity was observed until 70 Gy, and MTD had not been reached. No patients experienced radiation‐induced liver disease within 6 months after the completion of CIRT. The overall survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 91.3%, 81.9%, and 67.1% after CIRT, respectively. The local progression‐free survival and progression‐free survival rates at 1, 3 and 5 years were 100%, 94.4%, and 94.4% and 73.6%, 59.2%, and 37.0%, respectively. The raster scanning technique could be used to treat HCC. However, caution should be exercised to mitigate the interplay effect. CIRT up to 70 Gy in 10 fractions over 2 weeks was safe and effective for HCC. No dose‐limiting toxicity was observed in this phase I dose escalation trial, and the maximum tolerated dose had not been reached. After a median follow‐up time of 56.1 months (range, 5.7–74.4 months), we obtained excellent 5‐year survival rates (overall survival rate of 67.1% and local progression‐free survival rate of 94.4%). Our study demonstrated that the pencil beam scanning (raster scanning) technique was feasible for HCC, and carbon ion radiotherapy up to 70 Gy in 10 fractions over 2 weeks was safe and effective for HCC.

In view of the characteristics of the high content of SO42−, Fe2+ and Mn2+ in acid mine drainage (AMD) and low pH value, based on adsorption and biological methods, coal gangue was combined with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). On this basis, four dynamic columns, including Column 1 (SRB combined with spontaneous combustion gangue from the Gaode coal mine), Column 2 (SRB combined with spontaneous combustion gangue from Haizhou), Column 3 (SRB combined with gangue from Haizhou), and Column 4 (SRB combined with gangue from Shanxi), were constructed. The efficacy of four columns was compared by the inflow of AMD with different pollution load. Results showed that the repair effect of four columns was: Column 3 > Column 2 > Column 1 > Column 4. In the second stage of the experiment, the repair effect of Column 3 was the best. The average effluent pH value and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) value were 9.09 and –262.83 mV, the highest removal percentages of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and SO42− were 84.41% and 72.73%, and the average removal percentages of Fe2+, Mn2+ were 98.70% and 79.97%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, when deionized water was injected, the fixed effect of AMD in the four columns was stable and no secondary release appeared.