A Comparative Analysis of Sino-Thai College English Course Teaching——A Case of Comparison between Jiujiang University and Chiang Mai University

English is one of the most common languages in the world,and it has become one of the most important subjects in various countries.The native languages of China and Thailand are not English,and both countries are located in Asia and have many similarities in geographical location and cultural background.The Ministries of Education of the two countries have successively put forward relevant policies to promote the development of English education in the country.The implementation of these policies has promoted the development of college English course teaching in the country.These factors determine that the two countries have similarities in college English course teaching for Non-English majors.However,there are differences in teaching mode and teaching staff in the two countries because of their different national conditions,which make many differences,exist in college English course teaching for non-English majors in the two countries.During the author’s career as an exchange student in Chiang Mai University,she experienced the difference of college English course teaching for non-English majors in Thai universities,so the author did some researches on the basis of the understanding of English course teaching in Thai universities.Therefore,this thesis takes Sino-Thai college English course teaching for non-English majors as the research object—takes Jiujiang University and Chiang Mai University as example,and analyses their present situation from the aspects of the development and evolution,the teaching mode,and teaching staff of college English course teaching for non-English majors.On this basis,the author makes a comparative analysis of the English course teaching for non-English majors in two selected universities,then find their respective advantages and disadvantages,and put forward some suggestions on the development of Sino-Thai college English course teaching.

The emerging role of nitric oxide in the synaptic dysfunction of vascular dementia

With an increase in global aging,the number of people affected by cerebrovascular diseases is also increasing,and the incidence of vascular dementia-closely related to cerebrovascular risk-is increasing at an epidemic rate.However,few therapeutic options exist that can markedly improve the cognitive impairment and prognosis of vascular dementia patients.Similarly in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders,synaptic dysfunction is recognized as the main reason for cognitive decline.Nitric oxide is one of the ubiquitous gaseous cellular messengers involved in multiple physiological and pathological processes of the central nervous system.Recently,nitric oxide has been implicated in regulating synaptic plasticity and plays an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular dementia.This review introduces in detail the emerging role of nitric oxide in physiological and pathological states of vascular dementia and summarizes the diverse effects of nitric oxide on different aspects of synaptic dysfunction,neuroinflammation,oxidative stress,and blood-brain barrier dysfunction that underlie the progress of vascular dementia.Additionally,we propose that targeting the nitric oxide-sGC-cGMP pathway using certain specific approaches may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for vascular dementia.

Moyamoya syndrome may result from psoriasis: Four case reports

BACKGROUND Moyamoya syndrome(MMS)is a group of diseases that involves more than one underlying disease and is accompanied by moyamoya vascular phenomena.Psoriasis is a chronic immune skin disease closely linked to high blood pressure and heart disease.However,psoriasis-related MMS has not been reported.CASE SUMMARY We collected data on patients with stroke due to MMS between January 2017 and December 2019 and identified four cases of psoriasis.Case histories,imaging,and hematological data were collected.The average age of the initial stroke onset was 58.25±11.52 years;three cases of hemorrhagic and one case of ischemic stroke were included.The average duration from psoriasis confirmation to the initial MMS-mediated stroke onset was 17±3.56 years.All MMS-related stenoses involved the bilateral cerebral arteries:Suzuki grade III in one case,grade IV in two cases,and grade V in one case.Abnormally elevated plasma interleukin-6 levels were observed in four patients.Two patients had abnormally elevated immunoglobulin E levels,and two had thrombocytosis.All four patients received medication instead of surgery.With an average follow-up time of 2 years,two causing transient ischemic attacks occurred in two patients,and no hemorrhagic events occurred.CONCLUSION Psoriasis may be a potential risk factor for MMS.Patients with psoriasis should be screened for MMS when they present with neurological symptoms.

Controllable optical bistability in a Fabry-Pérot cavity with a nonlinear three-dimensional Dirac semimetal

Optical bistability(OB)is capable of rapidly and reversibly transforming a parameter of an optical signal from one state to another,and homologous nonlinear optical bistable devices are core components of high-speed all-optical communication and all-optical networks.In this paper,we theoretically investigated the controllable OB from a Fabry-Pérot(FP)cavity with a nonlinear three-dimensional Dirac semimetal(3D DSM)in the terahertz band.The OB stems from the third-order nonlinear bulk conductivity of the 3D DSM and the resonance mode has a positive effect on the generation of OB.This FP cavity structure is able to tune the OB because the transmittance and the reflectance can be modulated by the Fermi energy of the 3D DSM.We believe that this FP cavity configuration could provide a reference concept for realizing tunable bistable devices.

Privacy-Preserving Multi-Keyword Fuzzy Adjacency Search Strategy for Encrypted Graph in Cloud Environment

In a cloud environment,outsourced graph data is widely used in companies,enterprises,medical institutions,and so on.Data owners and users can save costs and improve efficiency by storing large amounts of graph data on cloud servers.Servers on cloud platforms usually have some subjective or objective attacks,which make the outsourced graph data in an insecure state.The issue of privacy data protection has become an important obstacle to data sharing and usage.How to query outsourcing graph data safely and effectively has become the focus of research.Adjacency query is a basic and frequently used operation in graph,and it will effectively promote the query range and query ability if multi-keyword fuzzy search can be supported at the same time.This work proposes to protect the privacy information of outsourcing graph data by encryption,mainly studies the problem of multi-keyword fuzzy adjacency query,and puts forward a solution.In our scheme,we use the Bloom filter and encryption mechanism to build a secure index and query token,and adjacency queries are implemented through indexes and query tokens on the cloud server.Our proposed scheme is proved by formal analysis,and the performance and effectiveness of the scheme are illustrated by experimental analysis.The research results of this work will provide solid theoretical and technical support for the further popularization and application of encrypted graph data processing technology.

Decolorization on Indigo Dyeing Wastewater by Laccase from Coriolus versicolor

[ Object] The study aimed to discuss the decolorization on indigo dyeing wastewater by laccase from Coriolus versicolor. [ Method ] Firstly, the effects of temperature, pH, indigo concentration, HBT concentration, laccase dosage on the decolorization of indigo dyeing wastewater by laccase/HBT, and then the synergism of laccase and acid cellulase was analyzed. [Result] Using ABTS as the substrate, the kinetic parame- ters, K,, and Vmax, were 0.318 mmol/L and 0.035 5 mmol/（ L . min） respectively. The decolorization rate of indigo reached 96.5% when the lacca- se acted on indigo for 40 min with HBT as an introducer at temperature 50 ℃, pH =4.5, indigo concentration 100 mg/L, HBT concentration 0.1% and laccase dosage 100 lU/L. Due to the synergism of laccase and acid cellulase during the bio-finishing of blue jeans, the backstaining degree of blue jeans reduced by 85% when the amount of laccase added was 15 000 IU/kg. Menawhile, the synergism of the laccase and acid cellulase de- creased indigo concentration in wastewater by 83.8%. [ Conclusion ] The laccase from Coriolus versicolor had a good prospect in the bio-finishing of blue jeans and the decolorization of indigo dyeing wastewater.

Preparation,Characterization of Dawson-type Heteropoly Acid Cerium（Ⅲ） Salt and Its Catalytic Performance on the Synthesis of n-Butyl Acetate

A novel cerium(Ⅲ) salt of Dawson type tungstophosphoric acid(Ce2P2W18O62·16H2O) was prepared by doping cerous nitrate in H6P2W18O62·13H2O powder and characterized by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analyses(TG/DTA),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR),X-ray powder diffraction(XRD),pyridine infrared spectroscopy(Py-IR) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).Its catalytic activity was evaluated by the probe reaction of synthesis of n-butyl acetate with acetic acid and n-butanol.The effects of various parameters such as molar ratio of n-butanol to acetic acid,reaction temperature,reaction time,and catalyst amount have been studied by single factor experiment.The results show that Ce2P2W18O62·16H2O behaved as an excellent heterogeneous catalyst in the synthesis of n-butyl acetate.The optimum synthetic conditions were determined as follows︰molar ratio of n-butanol to acetic acid at 2.0︰1.0,mass of the catalyst being 1.44% of the total reaction mixture,reaction temperature of 120 ℃ and reaction time of 150 min.Under above conditions,the conversion of acetic acid was above 97.8%.The selectivity of n-butyl acetate based on acetic acid was,in all cases,nearly 100%.The catalysts could be recycled and still exhibited high catalytic activity with 90.4% conversion after five cycles of reaction.It was found by means of TG-DTA and Py-IR that the catalyst deactivation was due to the adsorption of a complex of by-product on the active sites on catalysts surface or the catalyst loss in its separation from the products.Compared with using sulfuric acid as catalyst,the present procedure with Ce2P2W18O62·16H2O is a green productive technology due to simple process,higher yield,catalyst recycling and no corrosion for the production facilities.

Dioscin-induced Apoptosis of Human LNCaP Prostate Carcinoma Cells through Activation of Caspase-3 and Modulation of Bcl-2 Protein Family

Dioscin is a natural steroid saponin derived from several plants, showing potent anti-cancer effect against a variety of tumor cell lines. In the present study, we investigated the anti-cancer activity of dioscin against human LNCaP cells, and evaluated the possible mechanism involved in its antineoplastic action. It was found that dioscin（1, 2 and 4 μmol/L） could significantly inhibit the viability of LNCaP cells in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Flow cytometry revealed that the apoptosis rate was increased after treatment of LNCaP cells with dioscin for 24 h, indicating that apoptosis was an important mechanism by which dioscin inhibited cancer. Western blotting was employed to detect the expression of caspase-3, Bcl-2 and Bax in LNCaP cells. The expression of cleaved caspase-3 was significantly increased, and meanwhile procaspase-3 was markedly decreased. The expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 was down-regulated, whereas the pro-apoptotic protein Bax was up-regulated. Moreover, the Bcl-2/Bax ratio was drastically decreased. These results suggested that dioscin possessed potential anti-tumor activity in human LNCaP cells through the apoptosis pathway, which might be associated with caspase-3 and Bcl-2 protein family.

Applications of Fractional Lower Order Time-frequency Representation to Machine Bearing Fault Diagnosis

The machinery fault signal is a typical non-Gaussian and non-stationary process. The fault signal can be described by SaS distribution model because of the presence of impulses.Time-frequency distribution is a useful tool to extract helpful information of the machinery fault signal. Various fractional lower order(FLO) time-frequency distribution methods have been proposed based on fractional lower order statistics, which include fractional lower order short time Fourier transform(FLO-STFT), fractional lower order Wigner-Ville distributions(FLO-WVDs), fractional lower order Cohen class time-frequency distributions(FLO-CDs), fractional lower order adaptive kernel time-frequency distributions(FLO-AKDs) and adaptive fractional lower order time-frequency auto-regressive moving average(FLO-TFARMA) model time-frequency representation method.The methods and the exiting methods based on second order statistics in SaS distribution environments are compared, simulation results show that the new methods have better performances than the existing methods. The advantages and disadvantages of the improved time-frequency methods have been summarized.Last, the new methods are applied to analyze the outer race fault signals, the results illustrate their good performances.

Molecular cloning and mRNA expression analysis of myosin heavy chain(MyHC)from fast skeletal muscle of grass carp,Ctenopharyngodon idella

The myosin heavy chain(MyHC)is one of the major structural and contracting proteins of muscle.We have isolated the cDNA clone encoding MyHC of the grass carp,Ctenopharyngodon idella. The sequence comprises 5 934 bp,including a 5 814 bp open reading frame encoding an amino acid sequence of 1 937 residues.The deduced amino acid sequence showed 69%homology to rabbit fast skeletal MyHC and 73%–76%homology to the MyHCs from the mandarin fish,walleye pollack,white croaker,chum salmon,and carp.The putative sequences of subfragment-1 and the light meromyosin region showed 61.4%–80%homology to the corresponding regions of other fish MyHCs.The tissue-specific and developmental stage-specific expressions of the MyHC gene were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR.The MyHC gene showed the highest expression in the muscles compared with the kidney,spleen and intestine.Developmentally,there was a gradual increase in MyHC mRNA expression from the neural formation stage to the tail bud stage.The highest expression was detected in hatching larva.Our work on the MyHC gene from the grass carp has provided useful information for fish molecular biology and fish genomics.

Microstructure,properties and first principles calculation of titanium alloy/steel by Nd: YAG laser self-fluxing welding

The experiment of Nd： YAG pulsed laser self-fluxing welding for 304 stainless steel/Ti6Al4V titanium alloy dissimilar metal was carried out. The microstructure properties of welded joint were analyzed by SEM, EDS and XRD. The equilibrium lattice constants, enthalpies of formation, cohesive energies, mechanical properties, Debye temperatures and valence electron structures of Ti-Fe intermetallic compounds （IMCs） were calculated by the first principle pseudopotential plane wave method based on density functional theory （DFT）. According to the thermodynamic data of Ti-Fe-Cr compounds, the Gibbs free energy per mole of compound at different temperatures was calculated and their thermal stability was compared. The results show that there are no macroscopic cracks in the welded joints, and the IMCs distributed evenly along the welding interface exhibits 3 distinct layers of microstructure with different colors. The welds interface generates IMCs of TiFe, TiFe 2 and a small amount of Ti 5Cr 7Fe 17 IMCs. Ti-Fe IMCs with high thermodynamic stability and easy alloying formation. The results of Gibbs free energies show that the sequence of precipitates in the interface is Ti 5Cr 7Fe 17 , TiFe 2 and TiFe in high temperature during the metallurgical reaction. The G/B values of Ti-Fe IMCs are greater than the critical value of 0.5, indicating that it is an intrinsic brittleness.

Drip irrigation incorporating water conservation measures:Effects on soil water-nitrogen utilization,root traits and grain production of spring maize in semi-arid areas

The Northeast Plain is the largest maize production area in China,and drip irrigation has recently been proposed to cope with the effects of frequent droughts and to improve water use efficiency(WUE).In order to develop an efficient and environmentally friendly irrigation system,drip irrigation experiments were conducted in 2016-2018 incorporating different soil water conservation measures as follows:(1)drip irrigation under plastic film mulch(PI),(2)drip irrigation under biodegradable film mulch(BI),(3)drip irrigation incorporating straw returning(SI),and(4)drip irrigation with the tape buried at a shallow soil depth(OI);with furrow irrigation(FI)used as the control.The results showed that PI and Bl gave the highest maize yield,as well as the highest WUE and nitrogen use efficiency(NUE)because of the higher root length density(RLD)and better heat conditions during the vegetative stage.But compared with BI,PI consumed more soil water in the 20-60 and 60-100 cm soil layers,and accelerated the progress of root and leaf senescence due to a larger root system in the top 0-20 cm soil layer and a higher soil temperature during the reproductive stage.SI was effective in improving soil water and nitrate contents,and promoted RLD in deeper soil layers,thereby maintaining higher physiological activity during the reproductive stage.FI resulted in higher nitrate levels in the deep 60-100 cm soil layer,which increased the risk of nitrogen losses by leaching compared with the drip irrigation treatments.RLD in the 0-20 cm soil layer was highly positively correlated with yield,WUE and NUE(P<0.001),but it was negatively correlated with root nitrogen use efficiency(NRE)(P<0.05),and the correlation was weaker in deeper soil layers.We concluded that Bl had advantages in water-nitrogen utilization and yield stability response to drought stress,and thus is recommended for environmentally friendly and sustainable maize production in Northeast China.

Contrasting changes in above- and below-ground biomass allocation across treeline ecotones in southeast Tibet

Under conditions of a warmer climate,the advance of the alpine treeline into alpine tundra has implications for carbon dynamics in mountain ecosystems.However,the above- and below-ground live biomass allocations among different vegetation types within the treeline ecotones are not well investigated.To determine the altitudinal patterns of above-/below-ground carbon allocation,we measured the root biomass and estimated the above-ground biomass(AGB) in a subalpine forest,treeline forest,alpine shrub,and alpine grassland along two elevational transects towards the alpine tundra in southeast Tibet.The AGB strongly declined with increasing elevation,which was associated with a decrease in the leaf area index and a consequent reduction in carbon gain.The fine root biomass(FRB) increased significantly more in the alpine shrub and grassland than in the treeline forest,whereas the coarse root biomass changed little with increasing altitudes,which led to a stable below-ground biomass(BGB) value across altitudes.Warm and infertile soil conditions might explain the large amount of FRB in alpine shrub and grassland.Consequently,the root toshoot biomass ratio increased sharply with altitude,which suggested a remarkable shift of biomass allocation to root systems near the alpine tundra.Our findings demonstrate contrasting changes in AGB and BGB allocations across treeline ecotones,which should be considered when estimating carbon dynamics with shifting treelines.

Community health nursing courses in baccalaureate nursing programsin China: A descriptive study based on website information

Objective:To survey current community health nursing(CHN)courses offered in baccalaureate nursing programs in the mainland of China from the perspective on information available on websites of colleges and universities.Methods:A descriptive research design was used.Data were collected from the official websites of colleges and universities providing baccalaureate nursing programs in the mainland of China.A checklist was applied to identify academic year,type of course,credit,and class hours for both theory and practice teaching of CHN courses including Community Nursing,Geriatric Nursing,Rehabilitation Nursing,and Health Education.The prescribed textbooks were consulted for teaching content.Results:Colleges(n?16)and universities(n?26)offering baccalaureate nursing programs with accessible online information for curriculum setting were recruited.The results showed that most of the accessible educational institutions(92.86%)have offered three to four investigated CHN courses.Community Nursing,Geriatric Nursing and Rehabilitation Nursing are generally offered to juniors,while Health Education is offered in half of these institutions in different academic years.Community Nursing is mainly offered as a required course with 2 credits,while Geriatric Nursing,Rehabilitation Nursing and Health Education are provided as elective courses with fewer credits.Around half of the institutions have practice hours for Community Nursing,Geriatric Nursing and Rehabilitation Nursing courses.However,the proportion of practice hours in the courses is generally less than 50%.The teaching content focuses on clinical care competencies instead of complementary competencies.Conclusion:It was revealed that CHN education in China is still in its infancy from website information of colleges and universities.CHN courses should be included in curriculum design,and teaching reforms and innovations should be taken to prepare nursing students to practice in primary health care and community settings.

Constraints on granite-related uranium mineralization in the Sanjiu uranium ore field,SE China provided by pyrite mineralogy,major and trace elements,S-He-Ar isotopes

The Sanjiu uranium ore field,located in the central of Zhuguangshan granitic batholith,is a newly discovered granite-related uranium ore field in South China.The main sulfide in the ore field is pyrite,which is closely related to uranium mineralization.The textures major and trace elements,S-He-Ar isotopes compositions of pyrites in ores of different grade were observed and/or analyzed by optical microscope,scanning electron microscope,electron microprobe,laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry,and noble gas mass spectrometer(Helix-SFT).It is observed that these U-related pyrites are generally euhedral-subhedral with dissolution textures,anhedral variety with colloform texture veinlet and fine particles,and the color of the associated minerals is mostly dark hue,such as purple-black fluorite dark-red hematite,and dark-green chlorite,etc.The analytical results show that the average compositions of major elements in pyrite are FeS1.944.Pyrites are characterized by S-deficiency,low content of Co and Th,and Co/Ni>1which indicate that these ores are of low-temperature hydrothermal origin.We found that the higher the grade of ore,the more deficient in S,the more obvious negative δ^34S,and the higher REE content(close to U-rich granitic pluton)of pyrite.The S-He-Ar isotopic compositions of various varieties of pyrites indicate that the ore-forming fluids mainly come from crust-derived fluids and mixed with mantle-derived fluids.

Synthesis of novel thionocarbamate for copper-sulfur flotation separation and its adsorption mechanism

As a novel collector, O-isopropyl-N,N-diethyl thionocarbamate(IPDTC) was designed and synthesized for copper-sulfur flotation separation. Density functional theory calculations were performed to investigate the electronic structures of IPDTC. The results showed that IPDTC had higher energy of the highest occupied molecular orbital but lower electronegativity than O-isopropyl-N-ethyl thionocarbamate(Z-200). It was predicted that IPDTC had strong collection ability according to the reaction energy criteria. Flotation results demonstrated that the collecting ability of IPDTC to chalcopyrite and pyrite was stronger than that of Z-200. Then, the flotation mechanism was analyzed by measurements of surface tension, adsorption capacity, XPS, FTIR and zeta potential. These results indicated that IPDTC could reduce the solution surface tension. The adsorption capacity of IPDTC on chalcopyrite was higher than that on pyrite, consistent with the results of the flotation tests. FTIR, zeta potential and XPS results also demonstrated that IPDTC was strongly absorbed on the chalcopyrite surface by formation of Cu—S—C bonds, but showed a weak affinity on the pyrite surface.

Expression of Resistin Protein in Normal Human Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue and Pregnant Women Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue and Placenta

The expression of resistin protein in normal human abdominal, thigh, pregnant women abdominal, non-pregnant women abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue and placenta and the relationship between obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus （T2DM）, pregnant physiological insulin resistance （IR） and gestational diabetes mellitus （GDM） was investigated. The expression of resistin protein in normal human abdominal, thigh, pregnant women abdominal, non-pregnant women abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue and placenta was detected by using Western blotting method. Fasting serum glucose concentration was measured by glucose oxidase assay. Serum cholesterol （CHOL）, serum triglycerides （TG）, serum HDL cholesterol （HDL-C） and serum LDL cholesterol （LDL-C） were determined by full automatic biochemical instrument. Fasting insulin was measured by enzyme immunoassay to calculate insulin resistance index （IRI）. Height, weight, systolic blood pressure （SBP） and diastolic blood pressure （DBP） were measured to calculate body mass index （BMI） and body fat percentage （BF%）. Resistin protein expression in pregnant women placental tissue （67 905±8441） （arbitrary A values） was much higher than that in subcutaneous adipose tissue in pregnant women abdomen （40 718 ± 3818, P〈 0. 01 ）, non-pregnant women abdomen （38 288±2084, P〈0.01）, normal human abdomen （39 421±6087, P〈0.01） and thigh （14 942 ±6706, P〈0.001） respectively. The resistin expression in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue showed no significant difference among pregnant, non-pregnant women and normal human, but much higher than that in thigh subcutaneous adipose tissue （P〈0. 001）. Pearson analysis revealed that resistin protein was correlated with BMI （r=0.42）, fasting insulin concentration （r=0.38）, IRI （r=0.34）, BF% （r=0.43） andfasting glucose （r=0.39）, but not with blood pressure, CHOL, TG, HDL-C and LDL-C. It was suggested that resistin protein expression in human abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue was much higher than that in human thigh subcutaneous adipose tissue. Resistin was closely related with central obesity, leading to IR, subsequently obesity and T2DM. Resistin protein expression in placental tissue was much higher than that in subcutaneous adipose tissue in normal human abdomen, pregnant abdomen, non-pregnant women abdomen and thigh. It was indicated that resistin protein could be secreted from human placental tissue. Resistin might be one of the factors that lead to pregnant physiological IR and GDM.

Inhibiting tau protein improves the recovery of spinal cord injury in rats by alleviating neuroinflammation and oxidative stress

After spinal cord injury,the concentrations of total and hyperphosphorylated tau in cerebrospinal fluid increase,and levels of both correlate with injury severity.Tau inhibition is considered effective therapy for many central nervous system diseases,including traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's disease.However,whether it can play a role in the treatment of spinal cord injury remains unclear.In this study,the therapeutic effects of tau inhibition were investigated in a rat model of transection spinal cord injury by injecting the rats with a lentivirus encoding tau siRNA that inhibits tau expression.We found that tau inhibition after spinal cord injury down-regulated the levels of inflammatory mediators,including tumor necrosis factor-α,interleukin-6 and interleukin-1β.It also led to a shift of activated microglial polarization from the M1 pro-inflammatory phenotype to the M2 anti-inflammatory phenotype,and reduced the amount of reactive oxygen species in the acute phase.Furthermore,the survival of residual neural cells around the injury epicenter,and neuronal and axonal regeneration were also markedly enhanced,which promoted locomotor recovery in the model rats.Collectively,our findings support the conclusion that tau inhibition can attenuate neuroinflammation,alleviate oxidative stress,protect residual cells,facilitate neurogenesis,and improve the functional recovery after spinal cord injury,and thus suggest that tau could be a good molecular target for spinal cord injury therapy.

Fouling process and anti-fouling mechanisms of dynamic membrane assisted by photocatalytic oxidation under sub-critical fluxes

Membrane fouling is often considered as a hindrance for the application of microfiltration/ultrafiltration(MF/UF) for drinking water production. A novel process of photocatalytic membrane reactor/dynamic membrane(PMR/DM), operating in a continuous mode under sub-critical flux, was proposed for the mitigation of membrane fouling caused by humic acids(HAs) in water. The mechanism of membrane fouling alleviation with synergistic photocatalytic oxidation and dynamic layer isolating effect was comprehensively investigated from the characterization of foulant evolution responsible for the reversible and irreversible fouling. The results showed that the PMR/DM utilized photocatalytic oxidation to enhance the porosity and hydrophilicity of the fouling layer by converting the high molecular weight(MW) and hydrophobic HA molecules with carboxylic functional groups and aromatic structures into low-MW hydrophilic or transphilic fractions, including tryptophan-like or fulvic-like substances. The fouling layer formed in the PMR/DM by combination of photocatalytic oxidation and DM running at a sub-critical flux of 100 L·h^-1·m^-2, was more hydrophilic and more porous, resulting in the lowest trans-membrane pressure(TMP) growth rates, as compared to the processes of ceramic membrane(CM), DM and PMR/CM.Meanwhile, the dynamic layer prevented the foulants, particularly the high-MW hydrophobic fractions,from contacting the primary membrane, which enabled the membrane permeability to be restored easily.

Wendan decoction improves learning and memory deficits in a rat model of schizophrenia

An experimental model of schizophrenia was established using dizocilpine （MK-801）. Rats were intragastrically administered with Wendan decoction or clozapine for 21 days prior to establishing the model. The results revealed that the latency of schizophrenia model rats to escape from the hidden platform in the Morris water maze was significantly shortened after administration of Wendan decoction or clozapine. In addition, the treated rats crossed the platform significantly more times than the untreated model rats. Moreover, the rate of successful long-term potentiation induction in the Wendan decoction group and clozapine group were also obviously increased compared with the model group, and the population spike peak latency was significantly shortened. These experimental findings suggest that Wendan decoction can improve the learning and memory ability of schizophrenic rats to the same extent as clozapine treatment.