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Enhanced fuel characteristics and physical chemistry of microwave hydrochar for sustainable fuel pellet production via co-densification

Kang K, Nanda S, Lam SS, Zhang T, Huo L, Zhao L

Environ Res, 2020 07;186:109480.
PMID: 32302869 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109480

Microwave assisted hydrothermal treatment (MHTC) was compared with torrefaction in terms of carbonization efficiency and physicochemical characteristics of char products. The utilization of produced char was optimized for composite solid biofuel production. The results show that MHTC significantly improved the binding capability of the microwave hydrochar (MHC) particles during co-densification with unprocessed biomass and coal. One possible contributor to the improved binding is the pseudo lignin formed during the MHTC, which led to a better interlocking of the feedstock particles and promoted the solid bridge formation. Composite pellet prepared with 80 wt% of torrefaction char (TC-120), 10 wt% of microwave hydrochar (MHC-30), and 10 wt% of Coal-04 showed a higher heating value of 24.54 MJ/kg and energy density of 26.43 GJ/m3, which is significantly higher than that of the raw cotton stalk pellet (16.77 MJ/kg and 18.76 GJ/m3, respectively), showing great promise as a solid biofuel. The moisture resistance and oxidation reactivity are also significantly improved. The results demonstrate that MHCs provides dual functionalities in acting as binder and fuel promoter in the production of composite biofuel. This study can provide new insight into the unique functions of MHC during fuel application, which demonstrates the great potential of applying MHTC in energy recovery from lignocellulosic biomass.
Fulltext Did the cyberspace foster the entrepreneurship of women with children in rural China?

Shao K, Ma R, Zhao L, Wang K, Kamber J

Front Psychol, 2022;13:1039108.
PMID: 36389586 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1039108

Female-entrepreneurship plays a significantly important role in rural areas of China today. In fact, it is a driving force behind inclusive economic development of the country as a whole. However, notably very little literature out there has focused on the impact of how widespread usage of information technology tools affects the mothers entrepreneurship in the outskirt regions. Here, in this paper, the authors attempt to explore the finer details of such an impact by utilizing the data from the 2017 China Integrated Social Survey; along with the IV-Probit model to explore the transmission mechanism. Interestingly enough, it was discovered that Internet applications and tools do indeed increase entrepreneurship among women with children by a roughly 7.88%. In addition, this paper finds that the utilization of such "InfoTech" promote a continuous progress in entrepreneurship among those women with children who endeavor to start a self-managed enterprise in the less developed areas. Lastly, when looking the analysis of the transmission mechanism, this paper found that the role of Internet-usage in promoting rural mothers entrepreneurship was mainly through three factors - the gender equality effect, the information learning effect, and the financing effect. This accumulated data will be thoroughly presented here in the ensuing sections.
Current status of cholesterol goal attainment after statin therapy among patients with hypercholesterolemia in Asian countries and region: the Return on Expenditure Achieved for Lipid Therapy in Asia (REALITY-Asia) study

Kim HS, Wu Y, Lin SJ, Deerochanawong C, Zambahari R, Zhao L, et al.

Curr Med Res Opin, 2008 Jul;24(7):1951-63.
PMID: 18547466 DOI: 10.1185/03007990802138731

BACKGROUND: Data on achieving National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) goals in Asia are limited.
OBJECTIVE: To examine treatment patterns, goal attainment, and factors influencing treatment among patients in 6 Asian countries who were taking statins.
METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in China, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, where 437 physicians (41% cardiologists) recruited adults with hypercholesterolemia newly initiated on statin monotherapy.
RESULTS: Of 2622 patients meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria, approximately 66% had coronary heart disease (CHD)/diabetes mellitus, 24% had no CHD but > or =2 risk factors, and 10% had no CHD and <2 risk factors. Most patients ( approximately 90%) received statins at medium or lower equipotency doses. Across all cardiovascular risk categories, 48% of patients attained ATP III targets for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), including 38% of those with CHD/diabetes (goal: <100 mg/dL), 62% of those without CHD but with > or =2 risk factors (goal: <130 mg/dL), and 81% of those without CHD and <2 risk factors (goal: <160 mg/dL). Most patients who achieved goals did so within the first 3 months. Increasing age (odds ratio (OR)=1.015 per 1-year increment; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.005-1.206; p=0.0038) and initial statin potency (OR=2.253; 95% CI=1.364-3.722; p=0.0015) were directly associated with goal attainment, whereas increased cardiovascular risk (OR=0.085; 95% CI=0.053-0.134; p<0.0001 for CHD/diabetes mellitus at baseline compared with <2 risk factors,) and baseline LDL-C (OR=0.990; 95% CI=0.987-0.993); p<0.0001 per 1-mg/dL increment) were inversely associated with LDL-C goal achievement. Limitations of this study include potential differences in treatment settings and cardiovascular risk factors between different countries and centers. In addition, the effects on cholesterol goal achievement of concomitant changes in lifestyle were not assessed.
CONCLUSION: LDL-C goal attainment is low in Asians, particularly those with CHD/diabetes. More effective patient monitoring, treatments, including combining regimens and dose titration, and adherence to these treatments along with therapeutic lifestyle counseling may facilitate goal attainment.
Assessing the Redox Toxicity of 2D Nanosheets Based on Their Redox Effect on Cytochrome c in Microchannels

Zhao L, Wang Q, Cui X, Li H, Zhao L, Wang Z, et al.

Anal Chem, 2024 Feb 06;96(5):1913-1921.
PMID: 38266028 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c04062

2D nanosheets (NSs) have been widely used in drug-related applications. However, a comprehensive investigation into the cytotoxicity mechanism linked to the redox activity is lacking. In this study, with cytochrome c (Cyt c) as the model biospecies, the cytotoxicity of 2D NSs was evaluated systematically based on their redox effect with microfluidic techniques. The interface interaction, dissolution, and redox effect of 2D NSs on Cyt c were monitored with pulsed streaming potential (SP) measurement and capillary electrophoresis (CE). The relationship between the redox activity of 2D NSs and the function of Cyt c was evaluated in vitro with Hela cells. The results indicated that the dissolution and redox activity of 2D NSs can be simultaneously monitored with CE under weak interface interactions and at low sample volumes. Both WS2 NSs and MoS2 NSs can reduce Cyt c without significant dissolution, with reduction rates measured at 6.24 × 10-5 M for WS2 NSs and 3.76 × 10-5 M for MoS2 NSs. Furthermore, exposure to 2D NSs exhibited heightened reducibility, which prompted more pronounced alterations associated with Cyt c dysfunction, encompassing ATP synthesis, modifications in mitochondrial membrane potential, and increased reactive oxygen species production. These observations suggest a positive correlation between the redox activity of 2D NSs and their redox toxicity in Hela cells. These findings provide valuable insight into the redox properties of 2D NSs regarding cytotoxicity and offer the possibility to modify the 2D NSs to reduce their redox toxicity for clinical applications.
Fulltext A hybrid interpretable deep structure based on adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, decision tree, and K-means for intrusion detection

Liu J, Yinchai W, Siong TC, Li X, Zhao L, Wei F

Sci Rep, 2022 Dec 01;12(1):20770.
PMID: 36456582 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23765-x

For generating an interpretable deep architecture for identifying deep intrusion patterns, this study proposes an approach that combines ANFIS (Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System) and DT (Decision Tree) for interpreting the deep pattern of intrusion detection. Meanwhile, for improving the efficiency of training and predicting, Pearson Correlation analysis, standard deviation, and a new adaptive K-means are used to select attributes and make fuzzy interval decisions. The proposed algorithm was trained, validated, and tested on the NSL-KDD (National security lab-knowledge discovery and data mining) dataset. Using 22 attributes that highly related to the target, the performance of the proposed method achieves a 99.86% detection rate and 0.14% false alarm rate on the KDDTrain+ dataset, a 77.46% detection rate on the KDDTest+ dataset, which is better than many classifiers. Besides, the interpretable model can help us demonstrate the complex and overlapped pattern of intrusions and analyze the pattern of various intrusions.