Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Improves Hearing Level via Attenuating TLR4/NF-κB Mediated Inflammation in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss Patients

Objective Hyperbaric oxygen treatment(HBOT)has demonstrated efficacy in improving hearing levels of patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss(ISSHL);however,the underlying mechanisms are not well understood.HBOT alleviates the inflammatory response,which is mediated by Toll-like receptor(TLR)4 and nuclear factor(NF)-κB.In this study we investigated whether HBOT attenuates inflammation in ISHHL patients via alteration of TLR4 and NF-κB expression.Methods ISHHL patients(n=120)and healthy control subjects(n=20)were enrolled in this study.Patients were randomly divided into medicine group treated with medicine only(n=60)and HBO group receiving both HBOT and medicine(n=60).Audiometric testing was performed pre-and posttreatment.TLR4,NF-кB,and TNF-αexpression in peripheral blood of ISSHL patients and healthy control subjects was assessed by ELISA before and after treatment.Results TLR4,NF-κB,and TNF-αlevels were upregulated in ISSHL patients relative to healthy control subjects;the levels were decreased following treatment and were lower in the HBO group than that in the medicine group post-treatment(P<0.05 and P<0.01).Conclusion HBOT alleviates hearing loss in ISSHL patients by suppressing the inflammatory response induced by TLR4 and NF-κB signaling.

Effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on GCS after traumatic brain injury in patients

Objective To evaluate the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on Glasgow Coma Scale (GCC) after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in patients. Methods One hundred and thirty-eight patients with traumatic brain injury were treated by routine therapy combined with HBOT and 29 patients by routine therapy.

Hyperbaric-oxygen treatment: An adjunctive therapy in acute renal failure due to crush injury

Objective: Major seismic events leave their survivors trapped under the rubble leading to extensive muscle damage and its devastating sequale of hemodynamic and metabolic disturbances and acute renal failure. Hypoxemia aggravated during each hemodialysis (HD) session is important in acute renal failure patients with massive tissue injury. We retrospectively analyzed the adjunctive role of hyperbaric-oxygen (HBO) therapy in patients treated with HD for acute renal failure due to crush injury in terms of dialysis duration. Patients and methods: 16 patients admitted after the Marmara earthquake to Istanbul Faculty of Medicine were treated with HBO. Only 8 (2M, 6F, mean age: 24.8 + 7.3 years) of them had required HD treatment. 29 (16M, 13F, mean age: 34.6 + 12.9 years) crush syndrome patients treated with HD but not with HBO were taken as controls and the clinical and laboratory data of the two groups were compared. Results: The mean duration time under the rubble for the HBO group was 9.4 + 3.2 hours. Mainly lower extremity fasciotomies were performed at 15.6 + 14.8 hours after extrication. There were no amputations in this group. There were three amputations in the control group. The mean number of HD sessions was 9.2 + 6.7/patient for 10.9+9.6 days until renal functions recovered and the patients had 27.4 + 15.6 HBO sessions until the recovery of their lesions. There were no correlations between the number of HBO sessions and any laboratory parameter nor the number of HD sessions. There was no statistical difference in the need for HD between the HBO and control group. Conclusions: Our results could not demonstrate any beneficial effect of HBO treatment in terms of HD duration;however, the valuable contribution of the HBO treatment was to increase the salvage of crushed limbs.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment on keloid tumor immune gene expression

Background:Hyperbaric oxygen treatment(HBOT)has been demonstrated to influence the keloid recurrence rate after surgery and to relieve keloid symptoms and other pathological processes in keloids.To explore the mechanism of the effect of HBOT on keloids,tumor immune gene expression and immune cell infiltration were studied in this work.Methods:From February 2021 to April 2021,HBOT was carried out on keloid patients four times before surgery.Keloid tissue samples were collected and divided into an HBOT group(keloid with HBOT before surgery[HK]group,n=6)and a non-HBOT group(K group,n=6).Tumor gene expression was analyzed with an Oncomine Immune Response Research Assay kit.Data were mined with R package.The differentially expressed genes between the groups were compared.Hub genes between the groups were determined and verified with Quantitative Real-time PCR.Immune cell infiltration was analyzed based on CIBERSORT deconvolution algorithm analysis of gene expression and verified with immunohistochemistry(IHC).Results:Inflammatory cell infiltration was reduced in the HK group.There were 178 upregulated genes and 217 downregulated genes.Ten hub genes were identified,including Integrin Subunit Alpha M(ITGAM),interleukin(IL)-4,IL-6,IL-2,Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type C(PTPRC),CD86,transforming growth factor(TGF),CD80,CTLA4,and IL-10.CD80,ITGAM,IL-4,and PTPRC with significantly downregulated expression were identified.IL-10 and IL-2 were upregulated in the HK group but without a significant difference.Infiltration differences of CD8 lymphocyte T cells,CD4 lymphocyte T-activated memory cells,and dendritic resting cells were identified with gene CIBERSORT deconvolution algorithm analysis.Infiltration levels of CD4 lymphocyte T cell in the HK group were significantly higher than those of the K group in IHC verification.Conclusion:HBOT affected tumor gene expression and immune cell infiltration in keloids.CD4 lymphocyte T cell,especially activated memory CD4+T,might be the key regulatory immune cell,and its related gene expression needs further study.

Influence of oxygen treatment and temperature on electrical properties of the epitaxial Nb-doped SrTiO_3 films on silicon

We have fabricated the epitaxial Nb-doped SrTiO3(NbSTO) thin films on Si substrates using a TiN film as the buffer layer.The oxygen-treatment and temperature dependence of electrical properties has been investigated.Oxygen treatment showed the surface change of NbSTO films has immense influence on the resistance switching.The resistance ratio of two resistance states decreased after oxygen treatment.With tested-temperature rising,the resistance and resistance ratio of two resistance states increased.The resistance switching of Pt/NbSTO junction as a function of oxygen-treatment and temperature can be explained by the charge trapping and detrapping process in the Pt/NbSTO interface,which will help understand the resistance switching mechanism of oxides.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a new treatment approach for Alzheimer's disease

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a new treatment approach for Alzheimer’s disease（AD）：Alongside the increase in life expectancy,the prevalence of age-related disorders,such as neurodegenerative diseases,is on the rise.For example,AD,the most common form of dementia in the elderly,accounts for 60–80%of all dementia cases.

Influence of hyperbaric oxygenation treatment (HBOT) on clinical outcomes (recurrent myocardial infarction and survival rate) during five-year monitoring period after acute myocardial infarction

Surgical treatments of acute myocardial infarction (MI) possess a high clinical effectiveness, but there are fixed limitations, related to the patient’s state, which are limited by medical resources and organizational problems. The development of new medical technologies provides a better and effective non-surgical treatment of acute MI and increases long-term prognosis in this category of patients. The study aims to investigate the influence of hyperbaric oxygenation treatment on clinical outcomes (survival rate and recurrent myocardial infarction (rMI)) during the five-year period of monitoring. The study involved 697 patients who suffered from acute MI, having undergone the standard treatment. The patients were randomly divided into two groups: Group 1 (reference, n = 363);Group 2 (test, n = 334). Patients of Group 2 were given the traditional treatment, accompanied with HBOT (isopression for forty minutes at a working pressure of 0.03 MPa). HBOT was applied first through the fifth day following MI. The treatment course included six cycles, once per day. The clinical assessment was focused on clinical outcome: rMI and mortality related to cardiovascular events. HBOT application that accompanied the acute MI with traditional pharmacotherapy has been proved to reduce rMI within five years following inpatient discharge (rMI rate was 14% in the reference group and 5.4% in the test group, χ2 = 13.3, р < 0.05). The combination of HBOT with traditional methods in treating acute MI makes it possible to raise the five-year survival rate from 84.4% up to 95.9%.

Effect of oxygen content and heat treatment on carbide precipitation behavior in PM Ni-base superalloys

The influence of oxygen content and heat treatment on the evolution of carbides in a powder metallurgy （PM） Ni-base superalloy was characterized. The results reveal that oxygen content has little influence on the precipitation of carbides inside the particles. However, under the consolidated state, stable Ti oxides on the particle surface act as nuclei for the precipitation of prior particle boundaries （PPB）. Also, oxygen can diffuse internally along grain boundaries under compressive stress, which favors the precipitation of carbides inside the particles. Therefore, a higher amount of carbides will appear with more oxygen content in the case of consolidated alloys. It is also observed that PPB can be disrupted into discontinuous particles at 1200℃, but this carbide network is hard to be eliminated completely. The combined MC-M23C6 morphology approves the nucleation and growth mechanism of carbide evolution.

Heat treatment bimetallic PdAu nanocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction

Pd-based nanocatalyst is a potential oxygen reduction oxidation(ORR)catalyst because of its high activity in alkaline medium and low cost.In this work,bimetallic Pd Au nanocatalysts are prepared by one-pot hydrothermal method using triblock pluronic copolymers,poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO19-PPO69-PEO19)(P123)as reducer and stabilizer,and heat-treatment method is applied to regulate catalyst structure and improve catalyst activity.The results show that the heat treatment can agglomerate the catalyst to a certain extent,but effectively improve the crystallinity and alloying degree of the catalyst.The ORR performance of the Pd Au nanocatalysts obtained under different heat treatment conditions is systematically investigated.Compared with commercial Pd black and Pd Au catalyst before heat treatment,the ORR performance of Au Pd nanocatalyst obtained after heat treatment for one hour at 500℃ has been enhanced.The Pd Au nanocatalysts after heat treatment also display enhanced anti-methanol toxicity ability in acidic medium.

Facile synthesis of hierarchically porous carbons by controlling the initial oxygen concentration in-situ carbonization of ZIF-8 for efficient water treatment

The state-of-the-art approaches for adjusting the structural characteristics of porous carbons are the aftertreatments, which are complicated and time consuming. In this work, a facile approach was developed, i.e., controlling the initial oxygen concentration in-situ during the direct carbonization of zeolitic imidazole framework-8(ZIF-8), to adjust the pore structure and prepare hierarchically porous carbons. The introduction of oxygen can significantly affect the crystalline and pore structures of porous carbons, and promote the pore widening and the formation of mesopores. An appropriate initial oxygen concentration can notably enhance the surface area and mesopore volume of porous carbon, and then improve the adsorption capacity toward methylene blue(MB) dye from water by 3.4 times. The developed approach is more efficient at lower carbonization temperature.Moreover, the introduction of oxygen can increase the ratio of HO\\C_O groups on the carbon surface, leading to enhanced interaction with MB molecules and higher adsorption capacity toward MB. The as-prepared porous carbons exhibit superior adsorption capacities toward MB dye as compared to the reported ZIF-8 derived carbons. These findings would aid the development of porous carbon materials with high performance.

Effects of microwave oxygen plasma treatments on microstructure and Ge-V photoluminescent properties of diamond particles

The microstructure and Ge-V photoluminescent properties of diamond particles treated by microwave oxygen plasma are investigated.The results show that in the first 5 min of microwave plasma treatment,graphite and disordered carbon on the surface of the particles are etched away,so that diamond with regular crystal plane,smaller lattice stress,and better crystal quality is exposed,producing a Ge-V photoluminescence(PL)intensity 4 times stronger and PL peak FWHM(full width at half maximum)value of 6.6 nm smaller than the as-deposited sample.It is observed that the cycles of‘diamond is converted into graphite and disordered carbon,then the graphite and disordered carbon are etched’can occur with the treatment time further increasing.During these cycles,the particle surface alternately appears smooth and rough,corresponding to the strengthening and weakening of Ge-V PL intensity,respectively,while the PL intensity is always stronger than that of the as-deposited sample.The results suggest that not only graphite but also disordered carbon weakens the Ge-V PL intensity.Our study provides a feasible way of enhancing the Ge-V PL properties and effectively controlling the surface morphology of diamond particle.

Curcumin pretreatment and post-treatment both improve the antioxidative ability of neurons with oxygen-glucose deprivation

Recent studies have shown that induced expression of endogenous antioxidative enzymes thr- ough activation of the antioxidant response element/nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 （Nrf2） pathway may be a neuroprotective strategy. In this study, rat cerebral cortical neurons cultured in vitro were pretreated with 10 ktM curcumin or post-treated with 5 pM curcumin, respectively before or after being subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation and reoxygenation for 24 hours. Both pretreatment and post-treatment resulted in a significant decrease of cell injury as indicated by propidium iodide/Hoechst 33258 staining, a prominent increase of Nrf2 protein expression as indicated by western blot analysis, and a remarkable increase of protein expression and enzyme activity in whole cell lysates of thioredoxin before ischemia, after ischemia, and after reoxygenation. In addition, post-treatment with curcumin inhibited early DNA/RNA oxidation as indicated by immunocytochemistry and increased nuclear Nrf2 protein by inducing nuclear accumulation of Nrf2. These findings suggest that curcumin activates the expression of thi- oredoxin, an antioxidant protein in the Nrf2 pathway, and protects neurons from death caused by oxygen-glucose deprivation in an in vitro model of ischemia/reperfusion. We speculate that pharmacologic stimulation of antioxidant gene expression may be a promising approach to neu- roprotection after cerebral ischemia.

Overcoming ischemia in the diabetic foot:Minimally invasive treatment options

As the global burden of diabetes is rapidly increasing,the incidence of diabetic foot ulcers is continuously increasing as the mean age of the world population increases and the obesity epidemic advances.A significant percentage of diabetic foot ulcers are caused by mixed micro and macro-vascular dysfunction leading to impaired perfusion of foot tissue.Left untreated,chronic limb-threatening ischemia has a poor prognosis and is correlated with limb loss and increased mortality;prompt treatment is required.In this review,the diagnostic challenges in diabetic foot disease are discussed and available data on minimally invasive treatment options such as endovascular revascularization,stem cells,and gene therapy are examined.

Soft Computing of Biochemical Oxygen Demand Using an Improved T–S Fuzzy Neural Network

It is difficult to measure the online values of biochemical oxygen demand(BOD) due to the characteristics of nonlinear dynamics, large lag and uncertainty in wastewater treatment process. In this paper, based on the knowledge representation ability and learning capability, an improved T–S fuzzy neural network(TSFNN) is introduced to predict BOD values by the soft computing method. In this improved TSFNN, a K-means clustering is used to initialize the structure of TSFNN, including the number of fuzzy rules and parameters of membership function. For training TSFNN, a gradient descent method with the momentum item is used to adjust antecedent parameters and consequent parameters. This improved TSFNN is applied to predict the BOD values in effluent of the wastewater treatment process. The simulation results show that the TSFNN with K-means clustering algorithm can measure the BOD values accurately. The algorithm presents better approximation performance than some other methods.

Performance of a water hyacinth(Eichhornia crassipes)system in the treatment of wastewater from a duck farm and the effects of using water hyacinth as duck feed

Nowadays, intensive breeding of poultry and livestock of large scale has made the treatment of its waste and wastewater an urgent environmental issue, which motivated this study. A wetland of 688 mz was constructed on an egg duck farm, and water hyacinth （Eichhornia crassipes） was chosen as an aquatic plant for the wetland and used as food for duck production. The objectives of this study were to test the role of water hyacinth in purifying nutrient-rich wastewater and its effects on the ducks＇ feed intake, egg laying performance and egg quality. This paper shows that the constructed wetland removed as much as 64.44% of chemical oxygen demand （COD）, 21.78% of total nitrogen （TN） and 23.02% of total phosphorus （TP）. Both dissolved oxygen （DO） and the transparency of the wastewater were remarkably improved, with its transparency 2.5 times higher than that of the untreated wastewater. After the ducks were fed with water hyacinth, the average daily feed intake and the egg-laying ratio in the test group were 5.86% and 9.79% higher, respectively, than in the control group; the differences were both significant at the 0.01 probability level. The egg weight in the test group was 2.36% higher than in the control group （P 〈 0.05）, but the feed conversion ratios were almost the same. The eggshell thickness and strength were among the egg qualities significantly increased in ducks fed with water hyacinth. We concluded that a water hyacinth system was effective for purifying wastewater from an intensive duck farm during the water hyacinth growing season, as harvested water hyacinth had an excellent performance as duck feed. We also discussed the limitations of the experiment.

SURFACE REARRANGEMENTS OF OXYGEN PLASMA TREATED POLYSTYRENE:SURFACE DYNAMICS AND HUMIDITY EFFECT

The time evolution of oxygen plasma treated polystyrene(PS)surfaces was investigated upon storing them in theair under controlled humidity conditions.The methods of water contact angle,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS),sumfrequency generation(SFG)vibrational spectroscopy,and atomic force microscopy(AFM)were used to infer the surfaceproperties and structure.Chemical groups containing oxygen were formed on the PS surface with the plasma treatment,demonstrated by water contact angle and XPS.The surface polarity decayed markedly on time,as assessed by steady increasein the water contact angle as a function of storage time,from zero to around 60°.The observed decay is interpreted as arisingfrom surface rearrangement processes to burying polar groups away from the uppermost layer of the surfaces,which is incontact with air.On the other hand,XPS results show that the chemical composition in the first 3 nm surface layer isunaffected by the surface aging,and the depth profile of oxygen is essentially the same with time.A possible change of PSsurface roughness was examined by AFM,and it showed that the increase of water contact angle during surface aging couldnot be attributed to surface roughness.Thus,it is concluded that surface aging is attributable to surface reorganization andthe motion of oxygen containing groups is confined within the XPS probing depth.SFG spectroscopy,which is intrinsicallyinterface-specific,was used to detect the chemical structure of PS surface at the molecular level after various aging times.The results are interpreted as follows.During the aging of the plasma treated PS surfaces,the oxygen containing groupsundergo reorientation processes toward the polymer bulk and/or parallel to the surface,while the CH_2 moiety stands up onthe PS surface.Our results indicate that the surface configuration changes do not require large length scale segmentalmotions or migration of macromolecules.Motions that are responsible for surface configuration changes could be relativelysmall rotational motions.The aging behaviors under different relative humidity conditions were shown to be similar from18% to 91%,whereas the kinetics of surface polarity decays were faster in higher relative humidity.Here,the surfacerearrangement of polystyrene films that were previously treated by oxygen plasma and aged,and was investigated in terms ofcontact angle after the water immersion.The contact angles of the water-immersed samples were found to change andapproach the initial values before the immersion asymptotically.

Characterization of Oxygen Plasma Modified Polyimide Fibers Interfacial Adhesion Performance by Single Fiber Fragmentation Test

The application of polyimide( PI) fibers in the field of composite materials has been limited because of their smooth surface and chemical inertness. In order to overcome these problems,oxygen plasma was used to modify the surface of fibers. The single fiber fragmentation test( SFFT) was used to characterize the interfacial adhesion performance of PI fiber as a simple and accurate analysis method. It was found that the interfacial shear strength between the fiber and resin after oxygen plasma modification was increased by 54% compared to the untreated fiber. Meanwhile, the surface micromorphology,chemical composition, wettability of fibers and the interface morphology at the fiber fracture were analyzed by field emission scanning electron microscope( FESEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy( XPS),contact angle measurement and polarizing microscope,respectively. All of these results demonstrated that the single fiber fragmentation test for analyzing the interfacial adhesion of PI fibers was effective.

Production of liquid bio-fuel from catalytic de-oxygenation:Pyrolysis of beech wood and flax shives

This study presents a detailed analysis of the catalytic de-oxygenation of the liquid and gaseous pyrolytic products of two biomasses (beech wood and flax shives) using different catalysts (commercial HZSM-5 and H-Y,and lab-synthesised Fe-HZSM-5,Fe-H-Y,Pt/Al2O3 and CoMo/Al2O3). The experiments were all conducted in a semi-batch reactor under the same operating conditions for all feed materials. BET specific surface area,BJH pore size distribution and FT-IR technologies have been used to characterise the catalysts,while gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS),flame ionisation detection (GC-FID) and thermal conductivity detection (GC-TCD) were used to examine the liquid and gaseous pyrolytic products. It was firstly seen that at higher catalyst-to-biomass ratios of 4∶1,de-oxygenation efficiency did not experience any further significant improvement. FeHZSM-5 was deemed to be the most efficient of the catalysts utilised as it helped reach the lowest oxygen contents in the bio-oils samples and the second best was HZSM-5. It was also found that HZSM-5 and H-Y tended to privilege the decarbonylation route(production of CO),whilst their iron-modified counterparts favoured the decarboxylation one (production of CO2) for both biomasses studied. It was then seen that the major bio-oil components (carboxylic acids) underwent almost complete conversion under catalytic treatment to produce mostly unoxygenated aromatic compounds,phenols and gases like CO and CO2. Finally,phenols were seen to be the family most significantly formed from the actions of all catalysts.

Synthesis of dual-doped non-precious metal electrocatalysts and their electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction

The pyrolyzed carbon supported ferrum polypyrrole （Fe-N/C） catalysts are synthesized with or without selected dopants, p-toluenesulfonic acid （TsOH）, by a facile thermal annealing approach at desired temperature for optimizing their activity for the oxygen reduction reaction （ORR） in O2-saturated 0.1 mol/L KOH solution. The electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry （CV） and rotating disk electrode （RDE） are employed with the Koutecky-Levich theory to quantitatively obtain the ORR kinetic constants and the reaction mechanisms. It is found that catalysts doped with TsOH show significantly improved ORR activity relative to the TsOH-free one. The average electron transfer numbers for the catalyzed ORR are determined to be 3.899 and 3.098, respectively, for the catalysts with and without TsOH-doping. The heat-treatment is found to be a necessary step for catalyst activity improvement, and the catalyst pyrolyzed at 600℃ gives the best ORR activity. An onset potential and the potential at the current density of -1.5 mA/cm2 for TsOH-doped catalyst after pyrolysis are 30 mV and 170 mV, which are more positive than those without pyrolized. Furthermore, the catalyst doped with TsOH shows higher tolerance to methanol compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst in 0.1 mol/L KOH. To understand this TsOH doping and pyrolyzed effect, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscope （SEM） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） are used to characterize these catalysts in terms of their structure and composition. XPS results indicate that the pyrrolic-N groups are the most active sites, a finding that is supported by the correspondence between changes in pyridinic-N content and ORR activity that occur with changing temperature. Sulfur species are also structurally bound to carbon in the forms of C-Sn-C, an additional beneficial factor for the ORR.

Impact of <i>Moringa oleifera</i>Cake Residue Application on Waste Water Treatment: A Case Study

Most of water treatments require higher expenditure. Chemical coagulant requires higher cost and has some drawback after treatment such as pH changes. Moringa oleifera cake residue (MOCR) is one of the alternatives to replace chemical coagulant. A jar test apparatus was used to monitor water treatment. Water quality of Gebeng River (GR) and waste water (WW) was examined before and after treatment. Different parameters using (MOCR) was investigated. Preliminary laboratory results showed the great potential of the (MOCR) to be used in water treatment. MOCR shows an excellent reduction in turbidity (97 % was removed). The bacteria were reduced from 1.7 × 105 to 8 × 103 CFU/ml. Dissolved oxygen (DO) was improved that elevated from 1.06 ± 0.04 to 5.09 ± 0.03 mg/L. However, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) were increased from 520.5 ± 0.71 to 865.0 ± 2.12 mg/L and from 120.5 ± 2.12 to 270.5 ± 2.12 mg/L respectively. Nevertheless, there is no significant alteration of pH, conductivity, salinity and total dissolved solid (TDS) after treatment. The iron (Fe) was fully removed while copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) were successfully removed up to 98%. The reduction of lead (Pb) also achieved 82.17%. Also, (MOCR) can be stored for long time up to 6 months without affecting the biological properties of MO.