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Journal of Environmental Management Jun 2024Oil refineries produce annually large quantities of oily sludge and non-biodegradable wastewater during petroleum refining that require adequate management to minimize...
Oil refineries produce annually large quantities of oily sludge and non-biodegradable wastewater during petroleum refining that require adequate management to minimize its environmental impact. The fraction solid of the oily sludge accounts for 25 wt% and without treatment for their valorization. This work is focused on the valorization of these solid particles through their transformation into porous materials with enhanced properties and with potential application in the catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of a non-biodegradable spent caustic refinery wastewater. Hence, dealing with the valorization and treatment of both refinery wastes in a circular approach aligned with the petrol refinery transformations by 2050. The obtained oily sludge carbonaceous materials showed improved surface area (260-762 m/g) and a high Fe content. The good catalytic performance of these materials in CWAO processes has been attributed to the simultaneous presence of surface basic sites and iron species. Those materials with higher content of Fe and basic sites yielded the highest degradation of organic compounds present in the spent caustic refinery wastewater. In particular, the best-performing material ACT-NP 1.1 (non-preoxidated and thermically treated with 1:1 mass ratio KOH:solid) showed a chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 60 % after 3 h of reaction and with a higher degradation rate than that achieved with thermal oxidation without catalyst (WAO) and that using an iron-free commercial activated carbon. Moreover, the biodegradability of the treated wastewater increased up to 80% (from ca. 31% initially of the untreated effluent). Finally, this material was reused up to three catalytic cycles without losing metal species and keeping the catalytic performance.
PubMed: 38941846
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121606 -
Clinical Nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) Jun 2024An increasing amount of evidence suggests that migraine is a response to cerebral energy deficiencies or oxidative stress levels that exceed antioxidant capacity....
BACKGROUND
An increasing amount of evidence suggests that migraine is a response to cerebral energy deficiencies or oxidative stress levels that exceed antioxidant capacity. Current pharmacological options are inadequate in treating patients with chronic migraine, and a growing interest focuses on nutritional approaches as non-pharmacological treatments. The ketogenic diet, mimicking fasting that leads to an elevation of ketone bodies, is a therapeutic intervention targeting cerebral metabolism that has recently shown great promise in the prevention of migraines. Moreover, Mediterranean elements like vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices, and olive oil that are sources of anti-inflammatory elements (omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, vitamins, essential minerals, and probiotics) may create a positive brain environment by reducing imbalance in the gut microbiome.
METHODS
On the basis of these indications, a combined Mediterranean-ketogenic diet was administered to chronic migraine patients for 4 (T1) and 8 weeks (T2), and anthropometric estimations were collected at T1 and T2 while biochemical parameters at only T2.
RESULTS
A significant reduction (p < 0.01) in migraine frequency and intensity was detected as early as 4 weeks of dietary intervention, which was associated with a reduced fat mass (p < 0.001) as well as Homa index (p < 0.05) and insulin levels (p < 0.01) after 8 weeks.
CONCLUSION
Overall, Mediterranean-ketogenic diet may be considered an effective non-pharmacological intervention for migraine, with positive outcomes on body composition.
PubMed: 38941791
DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2024.06.015 -
Poultry Science Jun 2024The late embryonic development of the liver, a major metabolic organ, remains poorly characterized at single cell resolution. Here, we used single-nucleus RNA-sequencing...
The late embryonic development of the liver, a major metabolic organ, remains poorly characterized at single cell resolution. Here, we used single-nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) to characterize the chicken liver cells at 2 embryonic development time points (E14 and D1). We uncovered 8 cell types including hepatocytes, endothelial cells, hepatic stellate cells, erythrocytes, cholangiocytes, kupffer cells, mesothelial cells, and lymphocytes. And we discovered significant differences in the abundance of different cell types between E14 and D1. Moreover, we characterized the heterogeneity of hepatocytes, endothelial cells, and mesenchymal cells based on the gene regulatory networks of each clusters. Trajectory analyses revealed 128 genes associated with hepatocyte development and function, including apolipoprotein genes involved hepatic lipid metabolism and NADH dehydrogenase subunits involved hepatic oxidative phosphorylation. Furthermore, we identified the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between E14 and D1 at the cellular levels, which contribute to changes in liver development and function. These DEGs were significantly enriched in PPAR signaling pathways and lipid metabolism related pathways. Our results presented the single-cell mapping of chick embryonic liver at late stages of development and demonstrated the metabolic changes across the 2 age stages at the cellular level, which can help to further study the molecular development mechanism of embryonic liver.
PubMed: 38941785
DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103979 -
Spectrochimica Acta. Part A, Molecular... Jun 2024The sesquiterpene α-farnesene and its corresponding oxidation products, namely conjugated trienols (CTols) is well known to be correlated with the development of...
The sesquiterpene α-farnesene and its corresponding oxidation products, namely conjugated trienols (CTols) is well known to be correlated with the development of superficial scald, a typical physiological disorder after a long term of cold storage in pear fruit. In this work, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology was used for nondestructive predicting of α-farnesene and CTols [CT258, CT281 and CT(281-290)] content in 'Yali' pear. In order to obtain the best performance of calibration model and simplify the calibration model further, various preprocessing methods together with their combinations and different wavelength selection algorithms, including successive projections algorithm (SPA), competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and uninformative variable elimination (UVE), were investigated and compared based on linear partial least square regression (PLSR) and nonlinear least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) models, respectively. In conclusion, compared to the PLSR models, the results of LS-SVM models based on original and preprocessing methods performed better for the prediction of α-farnesene and CTols, while the performance of LS-SVM models based on the selected characteristic wavelengths were worse. For α-farnesene, the best result was obtained by LS-SVM model based on MSC-FD pretreatment with the RPD value of 2.6, R = 0.925 and RMSEP = 4.387 nmol cm. And for CTols, CT281 performed better compared with CT258 and CT(281-290), achieving the result with RPD = 2.4, R = 0.913 and RMSEP = 2.734 nmol cm based on LS-SVM model combined with SD pretreatment. The overall results illustrated HSI technology could be used for rapid and nondestructive prediction of α-farnesene and CTols in 'Yali' pear, which would be helpful for supporting postharvest decision systems.
PubMed: 38941754
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2024.124688 -
Biosensors & Bioelectronics Jun 2024Lab-on-Chip electrochemical sensors, such as Ion-Sensitive Field-Effect Transistors (ISFETs), are being developed for use in point-of-care diagnostics, such as pH...
Lab-on-Chip electrochemical sensors, such as Ion-Sensitive Field-Effect Transistors (ISFETs), are being developed for use in point-of-care diagnostics, such as pH detection of tumour microenvironments, due to their integration with standard Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. With this approach, the passivation of the CMOS process is used as a sensing layer to minimise post-processing, and Silicon Nitride (SiN) is the most common material at the microchip surface. ISFETs have the potential to be used for cell-based assays however, there is a poor understanding of the biocompatibility of microchip surfaces. Here, we quantitatively evaluated cell adhesion, morphogenesis, proliferation and mechano-responsiveness of both normal and cancer cells cultured on a SiN, sensor surface. We demonstrate that both normal and cancer cell adhesion decreased on SiN. Activation of the mechano-responsive transcription regulators, YAP/TAZ, are significantly decreased in cancer cells on SiN in comparison to standard cell culture plastic, whilst proliferation marker, Ki67, expression markedly increased. Non-tumorigenic cells on chip showed less sensitivity to culture on SiN than cancer cells. Treatment with extracellular matrix components increased cell adhesion in normal and cancer cell cultures, surpassing the adhesiveness of plastic alone. Moreover, poly-l-ornithine and laminin treatment restored YAP/TAZ levels in both non-tumorigenic and cancer cells to levels comparable to those observed on plastic. Thus, engineering the electrochemical sensor surface with treatments will provide a more physiologically relevant environment for future cell-based assay development on chip.
PubMed: 38941688
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116513 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Jun 2024Chromium (Cr) exposure is associated with various respiratory system diseases, but there are limited studies investigating its impact on lung function in young adults....
Chromium (Cr) exposure is associated with various respiratory system diseases, but there are limited studies investigating its impact on lung function in young adults. The Cr exposure-related metabolomic changes are not well elucidated. This study recruited 608 students from a university in Shandong Province, China in 2019. We used cohort design fitted with linear mixed-effects models to assess the association between blood Cr concentration and lung function. In addition, we performed metabolomic and lipidomic analyses of baseline serum samples (N = 582) using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Two-step statistical analysis (analysis of variance and mixed-linear effect model) was used to evaluate the effect of blood Cr exposure on metabolites. We found that blood Cr was associated with decreased lung function in young adults. Each 2-fold increase in blood Cr concentrations was significantly associated with decreased FEV and FVC by 35.26 mL (95 % CI: -60.75, -9.78) and 38.56 mL (95 % CI: -66.60, -10.51), respectively. In the metabolomics analysis, blood Cr exposure was significantly associated with 14 key metabolites. The changed metabolites were mainly enriched in six pathways including lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and cofactor vitamin metabolism. Blood Cr may affect lung function through oxidative stress and inflammation related pathways.
PubMed: 38941662
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116594 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Jun 2024The contamination of arsenic (As) in aqueous environments has drawn widespread attention, and iron compounds may largely alter the migration ability of As. However, the...
The contamination of arsenic (As) in aqueous environments has drawn widespread attention, and iron compounds may largely alter the migration ability of As. However, the stability of As(III) in Fe-As system with the intervention of organic matter (OM) remains unclear. Herein, we had explored the co-precipitation and co-oxidation processes of As-Fe system by using batch experiments combined with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) in this research. The precipitation quantity of As(III) increased (28.85-92.41 %) when the As/Fe ratio decreased, and increased (24.20-64.20 %) with pH increased. The main active substance for oxidizing As(III) was HO, which was produced in the As-Fe system. FTIR and XPS revealed that As(III) was first oxidized in neutral, and then absorbed and enteredthe interior of Fe(OH) colloids. But under alkaline conditions, As(III) was adsorbed by Fe (Oxyhydr) oxides firstly, and then oxidized. The intervention of OM would inhibit the redistribution process of As(III) in aqueous environments. Functional groups and unsaturation of the carbon chain were the dominant factors that affected the precipitation and oxidation processes of As(III), respectively. Co-existing ions (especially PO) also signally affected the precipitation quantity of As(Ⅲ) in the system and, when coexisting with OM, could exacerbate this process. The influence of co-existing ions on the redistributive process of As(III) in the As-Fe system with/without OM were as follows: PO > SO > mixed ions > SiO. Moreover, high concentration of OM and PO might lead to morphological alterations of As, acting as a threat to aqueous environments. In summary, the present findings were to further understand and appreciate the changes of As toxicity in the aqueous environments. Particularly, the coexistence of OM and As can potentially increase the risk to drinking water safety.
PubMed: 38941658
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116631 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Jun 20242-Ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP) is a frequently utilized organophosphorus flame retardant (OPFR) and has been extensively detected in environmental media....
2-Ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate (EHDPP) is a frequently utilized organophosphorus flame retardant (OPFR) and has been extensively detected in environmental media. Prolonged daily exposure to EHDPP has been linked to potential retinal damage, yet the adverse impacts on the retina are still generally underexplored. In this research, we explored oxidative stress, inflammation, and the activating mechanisms initiated by EHDPP in mouse retinal photoreceptor (661 W) cells following a 24 h exposure period. Our research demonstrated that EHDPP led to a decline in cell viability that was directly proportional to its concentration, with the median lethal concentration (LC50) being 88 µM. Furthermore, EHDPP was found to elevate intracellular and mitochondrial levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), trigger apoptosis, induce cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase, and modulate the expression of both antioxidant enzymes (Nrf2, HO-1, and CAT) and pro-inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6) within 661 W cells. These findings indicate that retinal damage triggered by EHDPP exposure could be mediated via the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway in these cells. Collectively, our investigation revealed that oxidative stress induced by EHDPP is likely a critical factor in the cytotoxic response of 661 W cells, potentially leading to damage in retinal photoreceptor cells.
PubMed: 38941656
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116640 -
Science Advances Jun 2024Light-driven oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) for multi-carbon (C) product evolution is a promising approach toward the sustainable production of value-added...
Light-driven oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) for multi-carbon (C) product evolution is a promising approach toward the sustainable production of value-added chemicals, yet remains challenging due to its low intrinsic activity. Here, we demonstrate the integration of bismuth oxide (BiO) and gold (Au) on titanium dioxide (TiO) substrate to achieve a high conversion rate, product selectivity, and catalytic durability toward photocatalytic OCM through rational catalytic site engineering. Mechanistic investigations reveal that the lattice oxygen in BiO is effectively activated as the localized oxidant to promote methane dissociation, while Au governs the methyl transfer to avoid undesirable overoxidation and promote carbon─carbon coupling. The optimal Au/BiO-TiO hybrid delivers a conversion rate of 20.8 millimoles per gram per hour with C product selectivity high to 97% in the flow reactor. More specifically, the veritable participation of lattice oxygen during OCM is chemically looped by introduced dioxygen via the Mars-van Krevelen mechanism, endowing superior catalyst stability.
PubMed: 38941471
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado4390 -
Science Advances Jun 2024Oral medication for ulcerative colitis (UC) is often hindered by challenges such as inadequate accumulation, limited penetration of mucus barriers, and the intricate...
Oral medication for ulcerative colitis (UC) is often hindered by challenges such as inadequate accumulation, limited penetration of mucus barriers, and the intricate task of mitigating excessive ROS and inflammatory cytokines. Here, we present a strategy involving sodium alginate microspheres (SAMs) incorporating M2 macrophage membrane (M2M)-coated Janus nanomotors (denominated as Motor@M2M) for targeted treatment of UC. SAM provides a protective barrier, ensuring that Motor@M2M withstands the harsh gastric milieu and exhibits controlled release. M2M enhances the targeting precision of nanomotors to inflammatory tissues and acts as a decoy for the neutralization of inflammatory cytokines. Catalytic decomposition of HO by MnO in the oxidative microenvironment generates O bubbles, propelling Motor@M2M across the mucus barrier into inflamed colon tissues. Upon oral administration, Motor@M2M@SAM notably ameliorated UC severity, including inflammation mitigation, ROS scavenging, macrophage reprogramming, and restoration of the intestinal barrier and microbiota. Consequently, our investigation introduces a promising oral microsphere formulation of macrophage-biomimetic nanorobots, providing a promising approach for UC treatment.
Topics: Colitis, Ulcerative; Microspheres; Macrophages; Animals; Administration, Oral; Mice; Alginates; Humans; Disease Models, Animal; Reactive Oxygen Species; Nanoparticles; Drug Delivery Systems; Hydrogen Peroxide
PubMed: 38941458
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado6798