BackgroundNeurogenic bowel dysfunction (NBD) is a major physical and psychological problem in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), and gut dysbiosis is commonly occurs in SCI. Here, we document neurogenic bowel management of male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI in our centre and perform comparative analysis of the gut microbiota between our patients and healthy males.MethodsA total of 43 male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI (20 with quadriplegia and 23 with paraplegia) and 23 healthy male adults were enrolled. Clinical data and fresh stool specimens were collected from all participants. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to survey the neurogenic bowel management of 43 patients with SCI. Gut microbiomes were analysed by sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene.ResultsNBD was common in adult male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI. Patients with quadriplegia exhibited a longer time to defecate than did those with paraplegia and had higher NBD scores and heavier neurogenic bowel symptoms. The diversity of the gut microbiota in the SCI group was reduced, and the structural composition was different from that of the healthy adult male group. The abundance of Veillonellaceae and Prevotellaceae increased, while Bacteroidaceae and Bacteroides decreased in the SCI group. The abundance of Bacteroidaceae and Bacteroides in the quadriplegia group and Acidaminococcaceae, Blautia, Porphyromonadaceae, and Lachnoclostridium in the paraplegia group were significantly higher than those in the healthy male group. Serum biomarkers (GLU, HDL, CR, and CRP), NBD defecation time and COURSE had significant correlations with microbial community structure. Microbial community structure was significantly associated with serum biomarkers (GLU, HDL, CR, and CRP), NBD defecation time, and COURSE.ConclusionsThis study presents a comprehensive landscape of the gut microbiota in adult male patients with chronic traumatic complete SCI and documents their neurogenic bowel management. Gut microbiota dysbiosis in SCI patients was correlated with serum biomarkers and NBD symptoms.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-018-1735-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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The aim of this study was to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of village doctors regarding the prescribing of antibiotics for children under 15 years with upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in rural China. Twelve focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted in Xianning, a prefecture-level city in rural China, during December 2014. We conducted 6 FGDs with 35 village doctors, 3 with 13 primary caregivers (11 parents), and 3 with 17 directors of township hospitals, county-level health bureaus, county-level Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or county-level Chinese Food and Drug Administration offices. Audio records of the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. Participants believed that unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for children under 15 years with The occurrence of URTIs was a problem in village clinics in rural China. The discussions revealed that most of the village doctors had inadequate knowledge and misconceptions about antibiotic use, which was an important factor in the unnecessary prescribing. Village doctors and directors reported that the doctors’ fear of complications, the primary caregivers’ pressure for antibiotic treatment, and the financial considerations of patient retention were the main factors influencing the decision to prescribe antibiotics. Most of the primary caregivers insisted on antibiotics, even when the village doctors were reluctant to prescribe them, and they preferred to go to see those village doctors who prescribed antibiotics. The interviewees also gave their opinions on what would be the most effective measures for optimizing antibiotic prescriptions; these included educational/training campaigns, strict regulations on antibiotic prescription, and improved supervision. Findings emphasized the need to improve the dissemination of information and training/education, and implement legislation on the rational use of antibiotics. And it also provided helpful information to guide the design of more effective interventions to promote prudent antibiotic use and good antimicrobial stewardship.

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Reactive adsorption desulfurization of FCC gasoline over a Ni/ZnO-SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 adsorbent was carried out in a fixed-fluidized bed reactor at low pressures in the presence of hydrogen. The results show that high temperature, high pressure, high molar ratios of hydrogen-to-oil, and low weight hourly space velocity are favorable to improve the desulfurization ability of adsorbent but not conducive to maintaining the octane number of FCC gasoline throughout the condition range examined. Under optimal operating conditions, ultralow sulfur gasoline can be produced, and the RON loss is only 1 unit. Furthermore, the effect of prereduction and adsorbent characterization data (SEM/EDX, N 2 adsorption) reveal that reduction increases the interaction between Ni and S compounds and improves the pore structure of adsorbent, leading to a significant improvement in the desulfurization capability of adsorbent. Take 3-methylthiophene for example, after adsorbing on an active Ni atom via the S-Ni bond, the sulfur of 3-methylthiophene is removed by direct hydrogenolysis of the C-S bond, resulting in the formation of NiS x and 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene in hydrogen atmosphere. The latter is mainly hydrogenated to 2-methyl-2-butene and 2-methylbutane. ZnO acts as a sulfur-acceptor, which can regenerate the active Ni in situ in hydrogen atmosphere. The complete sulfidation of adsorbent particles takes place by ion diffusion.

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Biogas upgrading using a physical absorbent is a simple and efficient technology with low energy requirements for regeneration. Owing to the good performance of carbon dioxide removal, propylene carbonate absorption is widely utilized in the purification of natural gas and synthesis gas. In this work, the feasibility of biogas upgrading with propylene carbonate as the absorbent was studied by the comparative tests of water scrubbing and propylene carbonate absorption. The influence factors of absorption gas/liquid ratio, air stripping gas/liquid ratio and hydrogen sulfide content in the feed gas were investigated. The capacity of biogas treated by propylene carbonate was 4−5 times of that by water. The propylene carbonate absorption showed better tolerance to the existence of hydrogen sulfide. When the concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the feed gas increased to 4000 ppm, the methane content in the product gas decreased by 5.09% with water as the absorbent, while it decreased only 1.68% in the propylene carbonate absorption test. The results showed that the propylene carbonate absorption had high efficiency and an obvious advantage of energy conservation when applied for biogas upgrading. The drawbacks of low methane recovery and high solvent loss could be avoided through flash evaporation and solvent recovery.