This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in patients with severe/ critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this retrospective study, data were collected from 662 patients with severe/critical COVID-19 who were admitted to a designated hospital to treat patients with severe COVID-19 in Wuhan before March 20, 2020. All patients were divided into an exposed group (CHM users) and a control group (non-users). After propensity score matching in a 1:1 ratio, 156 CHM users were matched by propensity score to 156 non-users. No significant differences in seven baseline clinical variables were found between the two groups of patients. All-cause mortality was reported in 13 CHM users who died and 36 non-users who died. After multivariate adjustment, the mortality risk of CHM users was reduced by 82.2% (odds ratio 0.178, 95% CI 0.076-0.418; P < 0.001) compared with the non-users. Secondly, age (odds ratio 1.053, 95% CI 1.023-1.084; P < 0.001) and the proportion of severe/critical patients (odds ratio 0.063, 95% CI 0.028-0.143; P < 0.001) were the risk factors of mortality. These results show that the use of CHM may reduce the mortality of patients with severe/ critical COVID-19.

The development of a facile and efficient approach to prepare high-toughness epoxy resin is vital but has remained an enormous challenge. Herein, we have developed a high-performance environment-friendly solid epoxy resin modified with epoxidized hydroxylterminated polybutadiene (EHTPB) via one-step melt blending. The characterization, mechanical performance, curing behavior, and thermal properties of EHTPB-modified epoxy resin were investigated. EHTPB-modified epoxy resin exhibited excellent toughness with a 100% increase in elongation at break of tensile than that of neat epoxy resin. The transfer stress and dissipated energy in the rubber phase were predominant mechanisms of toughening. The toughening effect of EHTPB on solid epoxy resin was better than that of some of the previously reported liquid epoxy resins. Meanwhile, at 10 wt % of EHTPB loading, the EHTPB-modified epoxy resin displayed high strength and 22 and 101% improvement of flexural strength and impact strength, respectively. Moreover, at 10 wt % of EHTPB loading, the activation energy of EHTPB-modified epoxy resin for curing reaction decreased from 73.89 to 65.12 kJÁmol −1 , which is beneficial for the curing reaction. Furthermore, EHTPB-modified epoxy resin had a good thermal stability and the initial degradation temperature increased from 249 to 313 C at 10 wt % of EHTPB loading. This work provides a simple-preparation and highly efficient and large-scale approach for the production of high-toughness environment-friendly solid epoxy resins.

Removing excess phosphorus is a highly effective method to prevent eutrophication in contaminated water.However, the design and preparation of an efficient biosorbent for phosphate capture is still a great challenge. We fabricated a novel, and inexpensive nano-biosorbent, L-NH 2 @Ce, by loading cerium oxide nanoparticles (nano-CeO 2 ) within the aminated lignin using a facile in situ precipitation approach for efficient phosphate removal. The as-designed nano-biosorbent L-NH 2 @Ce exhibited a BET surface area (S BET ) of 89.8 m 2 g À1 , 3 times that of lignin, and a pore volume (V p ) of 0.23 cm 3 g À1 . Owing to these results, the adsorption capacity of L-NH 2 @Ce increased by 14-fold to 27.86 mg g À1 compared with lignin (1.92 mg g À1 ). Moreover, the L-NH 2 @Ce can quickly reduce a high phosphate concentration of 10 ppm to well below the discharge standard of 0.5 ppm recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water. Importantly, a study of leaching tests indicated the negligible risk of Ce ion leakage during phosphate adsorption over the wide pH range of 4-9. Moreover, L-NH 2 @Ce exhibits good reusability and retains 90% of removal efficiency after two adsorption-desorption cycles.The environmentally benignity of the raw material, the simple preparation process, and the high stability and reusability makes L-NH 2 @Ce a promising nano-biosorbent for phosphate removal. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: The phosphate adsorption capacity of L-NH 2 @Ce in comparison with some biosorbents. See Fig. 3 (a) Adsorption kinetics of phosphate on L-NH 2 @Ce, and fitting results for (b) pseudo-second-order model and (c) pseudo-first-order model on L-NH 2 @Ce. 1254 | RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 1249-1260 This journal is

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A composite catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with NH is investigated, in which the rare earth (RE, including La, Ce, Pr, and Nd) is doped into manganese oxides supported on activated semi-coke (MnO/ASC) via hydrothermal method at the molar ratio of Mn:RE = 1:5. It is evidenced that the addition of RE at a rather low molar ratio can enhance the catalytic activity of MnO/ASC. The catalyst with a Mn:Ce molar ratio of 10:1 yields an over 90% NO removal efficiency in the temperature range of 150-250 °C. An approximate 100% NO conversion and 95% N selectivity are achieved at about 200 °C. The catalysts are characterized by N physisorption, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction (H-TPR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that the Ce additive is conducive to the NO adsorption and then accelerates the SCR reaction due to the formation of more chemisorbed oxygen (O), which is favored during the oxidation of NH and NO. Moreover, the in situ diffused reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) results confirm that the Ce additive on MnO/ASC catalyst could provide more active Brønsted acid sites, which eventually contributes to the SCR reaction. The generation of ad-NH and nitrite species is proved to play the crucial role in the promotional effect of RE addition.

This study reports a protocol for successful micropropagation of Penthorum chinense using nodal explants on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 6-benzyladenine (BA) or kinetin (Kn). The presence of BA promoted a higher rate of shoot multiplication than Kn. Maximum multiple shoot formation was observed in 59.2% of nodal explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg l −1 BA after 6 wk. After subculture for 4 wk, the maximum number of shoots (6.4) was obtained on a medium with 2.0 mg l −1 BA, but shoots were too short and not suitable for micropropagation. The taller shoots that regenerated in the presence of lower BA concentration (1.0 mg l −1 ) were selected for root induction study. Most shoots (98.8%) rooted in the presence of 0.5 mg l −1 indole-3-acetic acid after 3 wk, with each shoot forming an average of 10.0 roots. Plantlets were transferred to soil and successfully acclimatized.