Stoichioproteomics study of differentially expressed proteins and pathways in head and neck cancer

Hypoxia is a prominent feature of head and neck cancer. However, the oxygen element characteristics of proteins and how they adapt to hypoxia microenvironments of head and neck cancer are still unknown. Human genome sequences and proteins expressed data of head and neck cancer were retrieved from pathology atlas of Human Protein Atlas project. Then compared the oxygen and carbon element contents between proteomes of head and neck cancer and normal oral mucosa-squamous epithelial cells, genome locations, pathways, and functional dissection associated with head and neck cancer were also studied. A total of 902 differentially expressed proteins were observed where the average oxygen content is higher than that of the lowly expressed proteins in head and neck cancer proteins. Further, the average oxygen content of the up regulated proteins was 2.54% higher than other. None of their coding genes were distributed on the Y chromosome. The up regulated proteins were enriched in endocytosis, apoptosis and regulation of actin cytoskeleton. The increased oxygen contents of the highly expressed and the up regulated proteins might be caused by frequent activity of cytoskeleton and adapted to the rapid growth and fast division of the head and neck cancer cells. The oxygen usage bias and key proteins may help us to understand the mechanisms behind head and neck cancer in targeted therapy, which lays a foundation for the application of stoichioproteomics in targeted therapy and provides promise for potential treatments for head and neck cancer.

Nanobubbles Produced by Hydraulic Air Compression Technique

The anoxia of coastal water has already been a serious problem all over the word. Nanobubbles are proved to have great applications in water remediation because they could effectively increase the oxygen content and degrade organic matters in water. But the existing methods to produce nanobubbles are complicated and high cost to operate, especially in deep sea. In this paper, we presented a low-cost method, hydraulic air compression (HAC), to produce a large number of nanobubbles and proved that nanoscale gas bubbles could be produced by HAC for the first time. Nanoparticle tracking analysis was used to measure the size and concentration of produced nanobubbles. It indicated that the concentration of nanobubbles would increase as the downpipe height increases. Degassed measurements proved that produced “nanoparticles” are gas nanobubbles indeed. More dissolved oxygen in water would provide the source for larger number of nanobubble formation. Those results are expected to be very helpful for water remediation in ocean in the future.

Assessment of Interchangeability of Fuels Used in the Process of Heat Production and Comparison of Their Selected Characteristics: A Case Study

Exchangeability means the possibility of the fuel changing, with conservation of the required energy and environmental criteria. The assessment of fuel exchangeability should be realized by a suitable method, which must reliably present the possibility of the exchangeability of fuels, or reject it. In the presented paper, research on the exchangeability of solid fuels in the field of heating production is surveyed by the case study. Based on the available published knowledge from previous studies on fuel exchangeability, the statistical method was chosen for evaluation. The application of this method is useful. For example, by evaluating the exchangeability of natural gas, the manuscript will describe its application for the field of solid fuels in heat production. The research evaluated and analyzed the sample of 12 fuels. For each fuel sample, 35 gas attributes were measured, which were classified into separate flue gas attribute groups: ash content, combustion heat, heating capacity, sulfur content, combustible content, water content, emission factor, carbon content, hydrogen content, and oxygen content. Attributes of flues were evaluated and grouped according to the fuel properties—ash content and combustion heat, sulphur content, water content, emission factor, carbon content, hydrogen content, nitrogen content, oxygen content, and combustible content.

The Effects of the Acid Treatment of ZrB2 Particles on Their Purity and Aqueous Dispersibility

Oxide impurities such as boria (B2O3) and zirconia (ZrO2) on the surfaces of zirconium diboride (ZrB2) particles are known to limit their sinterability. Among the impurities, B2O3 on the surface of ZrB2 particles could be easily removed by methanol or hydrofluoric acid. However, the remaining ZrO2 still gave negative influences on the sinterability. In this study, ZrB2 particles were treated with various acids to remove oxide impurities on their surfaces. The acid treatments were found to vary in efficacy, according to acid type, and affect the crystallinity and morphology of ZrB2 particles to varying degrees, in some cases forming additional impurities. In particular, the change in the oxygen content of the ZrB2 particles induced by acid treatment was found to depend on the type of acid. The results of the acid treatments were compared which revealed that HNO3 treatment optimizes the purity of ZrB2 particles. In addition, the effects of acid treatment on the surface properties of ZrB2 particles were considered. In particular, the correlation between the surface properties of the acid-treated ZrB2 particles and their dispersibility in aqueous solution was investigated.

Programmable logic controller-based automatic control for municipal wastewater treatment plant optimization

The treatment of industrial wastewater can effectively protect the water environment and maintain sustainable development. This paper introduces an incremental proportion and integration (IPI) control algorithm-based programmable logic controller (PLC) used to adjust the aeration tank's dissolved oxygen content automatically in the wastewater treatment process. The control algorithm was improved by a back-propagation neural network (BP-NN). An instance analysis was carried out on a wastewater treatment plant in Zhejiang Province, China. This showed that the BP-NN improved control algorithm made the aeration tank's dissolved oxygen content more stable at the set value than it was with manual adjustment and the conventional algorithm. The total nitrogen content in wastewater treated in the aeration tank under the control of the improved IPI algorithm was minimized and fluctuated least. The aeration tank blower's power consumption was also at its lowest under the control of the improved IPI algorithm.

Degradation of benzene, toluene, xylene with high GHSV by double dielectric barrier discharge combined with Mn3O4/activated carbon fibers

A novel strategy for degradation of high gaseous hourly space velocity (GHSV) benzene, toluene, xylene (BTX) by double dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) coupled with Mn3O4/ activated carbon fibers (ACF) catalysts was proposed in this work. A series of Mn3O4/ACF catalysts were synthesized by hydrothermal method and characterized. The results showed that all the prepared catalysts could improve the degradation of BTX in DDBD system and inhibit the production of ozone. Among the catalysts with different Mn loading, the 5.6%Mn3O4/ACF, with the highest Mn(+3) content (43.2%) and the highest absorbed oxygen content (38.5%), presented the best catalytic performance. In 5.6%Mn3O4/ACF+DDBD system, the degradation efficiency of benzene, toluene and xylene could reach 49.9%, 79.7% and 97.1% respectively with SIE of 400 J L-1. The carbon balance and CO2 selectivity, meanwhile, were 83.3% and 51.1%, respectively. It seemed that Mn(+3) and absorbed oxygen content could be a reference for the catalytic performance of Mn3O4/ACF catalysts. The higher the Mn (Ⅲ) and absorbed oxygen, the better the catalytic performance of the Mn3O4/ACF catalysts. The organic by-products were identified by chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and a possible reaction mechanism of BTX in DDBD reactor and catalyst surface was proposed based on the composition of organic by-products.