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We measure the quality of the images using the metrics Peak Signal-To-Noise Ratio and Structural Similarity Index, obtaining very high values. We also compare the efficiency of using spinning disks versus Solid-State Drives, showing how the latter performs the Input/Output operations in a significantly lower amount of time. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that our proposed me thod and software are valid to efficiently solve large-scale systems and can be applied to the Computed Tomography reconstruction problem to obtain high-quality images. V.The frequent occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in domestic wastewater has caused great concern. In this study, the removal of two typical pharmaceuticals (Roxithromycin, ROX; Sulfamethoxazole, SMZ) in aerobic granular sludge (AGS) reactors was investigated under condition of different C/N (carbon to nitrogen) ratios. Results showed that higher removal efficiencies of ROX and SMZ (95.2 % and 92.9 %) were achieved in the AGS reactor fed with low C/N influent. Batch experiments further revealed that the removal of ROX was influenced by the adsorption ability of the AGS while SMZ removal was mainly enhanced by biodegradation process. Analysis of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) showed that the humic acid-like substances were enriched under low C/N condition, which was in accordance with dynamic change of microbial community. The microbes, like Thauera spp. and Xanthomonadaceae, were highly enriched in the reactor with high nitrogen loading rate and functioned as refractory organics degrader. Overall, the AGS process could achieve enhanced pharmaceuticals removal performance by the regulation of microbial community under low C/N influent, which provides insights into a feasible solution for simultaneous removal of nitrogen and trace organic pollutants in AGS reactor. Chlorothalonil (CHT) is widely used in agriculture as a fungicide and has been detected in various ecosystems along with its degradation products. A primary intermediate product of degradation, 4-hydroxychlorothalonil (4-OH-CHT) has demonstrated toxic effects on aquatic organisms. However, the toxic effects of 4-OH-CHT on human health and the impacts of environmental factors on the toxicity remain unclear. To understand the environmental modification on the toxicity of 4-OH-CHT to human health, we used a three-dimensional human skin culture model. 4-OH-CHT and irradiated 4-OH-CHT were applied to the model for the dermatoxicity analyses. Although neither the 4-OH-CHT nor the irradiated 4-OH-CHT inhibited the cell proliferation, the 4-OH-CHT significantly attenuated the keratinocyte migration by 26% at a concentration of 20 ppb and by 44 % at 100 ppb. The 4-OH-CHT also demonstrated inhibitory effects on keratinocyte differentiation at both 20 ppb and 100 ppb. In contrast, photodegraded 4-OH-CHT did not show inhibitory effects on the migration and differentiation of the keratinocytes at any concentration. Similarly, the 4-OH-CHT treated 3D keratinocyte culture dramatically activated the co-cultured dermal fibroblast cells by increasing the production of α smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and pro-Collagen Iα. The mRNA levels of these two proteins were upregulated by 1.13 and 10.97 folds with the stimulation of 100 ppb 4-OH-CHT. The protein level of pro-Collagen Iα in dermal fibroblast cells was increased by 68 % with 100 ppb 4-OH-CHT. The photodegraded 4-OH-CHT failed to activate the co-cultured fibroblast cells. The 4-OH-CHT also enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokine production in keratinocytes compared to the photodegraded products. These results suggest that exposure to environmental 4-OH-CHT could increase the risk of inflammatory skin diseases in humans. The relationship between sludge organic fraction and its dewaterability is well known in practice. However, the formal study to reveal the underlying reason is limited. To improve understanding of the nature of organic content on sludge dewatering process, this study systematically evaluated the effects of sludge organic content on its dewaterability and revealed the underlying mechanism. Analysis of 10 waste activated sludge (WAS) samples with varying organic contents showed that capillary suction time (CST) increased linearly from 34.90 ± 0.10 s to 104.90 ± 0.30 s (R2 = 0.92, p less then 0.01), whereas the solid content of centrifuge cake decreased from 21.23 %±0.45 % to 12.52 %±0.14 % (R2 = 0.89, p less then 0.01) when organic fractionincreased from 35.72 % to 61.11 %. These results first confirmed that WAS dewatering performance was negatively correlated to its organic content. Then, the underlying mechanism was revealed by studying the basic physicochemical properties of WAS with various organic content. The results showed that sludge with a higher organic content generally had greater extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content, lower density and higher negative zeta potential, which hinder the aggregation and flocculation of floc particles. These properties endow the WAS with a higher organic content generally possessed more bound water content, small pores, poorer fluidity, and stronger network strength. These characteristics can hamper the separation of water from sludge cake during dewatering. Based on which, this study discussed the potential of organic fraction as a surrogate of EPS for evaluating WAS dewaterability and indicated the organic fraction can be a useful and strong indicator of WAS dewaterability. Organoarsenicals remediation requires degrading organoarsenicals and simultaneously immobilizing the resulted inorganic arsenic, and is thus a great challenge. In this study, a simulated solar light driven Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycle strategy was developed to degrade roxarsone and immobilize the generated inorganic arsenic via tuning the degree of Fe(III) hydrolysis. At pH values of 2.0 and 3.0, the hydrolysis of Fe(III) in the solution was suppressed to produce photoreactive Fe(III)-hydroxyl complexes, which could be excited by simulated solar light to generate OH for 85.3 % of roxarsone degradation into arsenate within 60 min. Density functional theory calculations suggested that Fe(OH)(H2O)52+ with lower energy separation gap was the most photoactive Fe(III)-hydroxyl complex for OH generation. With further increasing pH value to 6.0, the hydrolysis of Fe(III) was promoted to precipitate the arsenate for its immobilization, accompanying with the decrease of final iron ions and arsenate concentrations to 0.012 mmol L-1 and 58 μg L-1, respectively. Meanwhile, the undegraded roxarsone was also adsorbed by the precipitate, increasing the overall roxarsone removal efficiency to 99.0 %. This study offers a promising strategy for the efficient organoarsenicals treatment, and also sheds light on the dual effects of iron based materials in organic pollutants degradation and heavy metal ions immobilization. V.BACKGROUND AND AIMS Elevated circulating levels of osteoprotegerin (OPG) are known to add to the prediction of cardiovascular mortality. Our objective was to clarify the long-term risk associated with serum OPG and the possible influence of diabetes and statins on OPG levels in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS We assessed the placebo-treated group (n = 1998) from the CLARICOR trial (NCT00121550), a cohort with stable CAD. At entry, 15% of the participants had diabetes and 41% received statins. Serum OPG levels were measured in blood drawn at randomization. Participants were followed through public registers for 10 years. RESULTS OPG levels correlated positively with diabetes status, age, CRP and female sex, but negatively with the use of statins. CAD participants with diabetes had significantly elevated serum OPG levels compared to participants without diabetes, p less then 0.0001. The participants without diabetes treated with statins presented with significantly lower serum OPG levels than the corresponding non-statin-users (p less then 0.0001). However, statin use showed no association with OPG levels in the participants with diabetes. High OPG levels at entry showed long-term associations with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events (hazard ratio associated with factor 10 OPG increase 15.9 (95% CI 11.0-22.9) and 6.38 (4.60-8.90), p = 0.0001, even after adjustment for standard predictors (3.16 (1.90-5.25) and 2.29 (1.53-3.44), p less then 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Circulating OPG holds long-term independent predictive ability for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in CAD participants. OPG levels were associated with diabetes, age, and female sex and statin treatment was associated with lower OPG levels in the absence of diabetes. Atherosclerosis, a pathology affecting large and medium-sized arteries, is the major cause of cardiovascular morbidity/mortality in industrialized countries. During atherosclerosis, cells accumulate large amounts of cholesterol through the uptake of modified low-density lipoprotein particles to form foam cells. This accumulation forms the basis for the development of the disease and for a large spectrum of other diseases in various organs. Massive research efforts have yielded valuable information about the underlying molecular mechanisms of atherosclerosis. In particular, newer discoveries on the early stage of lesion formation, cholesterol accumulation, reverse cholesterol transport, and local inflammation in the vascular wall have opened unanticipated horizons of understanding and raised novel questions and therapeutic opportunities. Tyloxapol In this review, we focus on Wnt signaling, which has received little attention so far, yet affects lysosomal function and signalling pathways that limit cholesterol accumulation. This occurs in different tissues and cell types, including smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and macrophages in the arterial wall, and thus profoundly impacts on atherosclerotic disease development and progression. BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although bisphosphonates have been suggested to protect against atherosclerotic cardiovascular (CV) events, evidence is still conflicting. We aimed at investigating the effect of bisphosphonates on hospitalizations for atherosclerotic CV events. METHODS We carried out a retrospective cohort study selecting subjects aged>40 years, incident users of bisphosphonates. Exposure to bisphosphonates was characterized based on cumulative doses (proportion of days covered, PDC). Treatment's adherence was classified as low (PDC≤40%), intermediate (PDC 41%-80%), or high (PDC>80%). A multivariate Cox model was fitted to estimate the association between cumulative time-dependent exposure to bisphosphonates and hospitalization for atherosclerotic CV events (hazard ratio [HR] and 95% confidence interval). RESULTS Among 82,704 new bisphosphonates users (females 87.0%, mean age 70.7 ± 10.6 years), 16.1% had a CV hospitalization during a mean follow-up of 6.5 + 2.6 years. Compared with individuals with PDC ≤40%, those exposed for 41-80% or more than 80% showed HRs of CV hospitalization of 0.95 [0.91-0.99] and 0.75 [0.71-0.81], respectively. In the sub-analysis by type of event, a PDC >80% was associated with a reduced incidence for both coronary and cerebrovascular events (HRs 0.75 [0.68-0.83] and 0.76 [0.70-0.83], respectively). The protective effect was confirmed in stratified analyses by sex and age classes, and in those performed at 1 and 3 years of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Strict adherence to bisphosphonate treatment was associated with a better CV outcome. Although further studies to investigate possible mechanisms are warranted, bisphosphonates could be considered as having a potential CV benefit beyond the effect on bones.
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