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BackgroundThe preoperative identification of BRAF mutation could assist to make appropriate treatment strategies for patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). This study aimed to establish an ultrasound (US) radiomics nomogram for the assessment of BRAF status.MethodsA total of 328 PTMC patients at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital between February 2019 and November 2021 were enrolled in this study. They were randomly divided into training (n = 232) and validation (n = 96) cohorts. Radiomics features were extracted from the US images. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was applied to select the BRAF status-related features and calculate the radiomics score (Rad-score). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were subsequently performed to identify the independent factors among Rad-score and conventional US features. The US radiomics nomogram was established and its predictive performance was evaluated via discrimination, calibration, and clinical usefulness in the training and validation sets.ResultsMultivariate analysis indicated that the Rad-score, composition, and aspect ratio were independent predictive factors of BRAF status. The US radiomics nomogram which incorporated the three variables showed good calibration. The discrimination of the US radiomics nomogram showed better discriminative ability than the conventional US model both in the training set (AUC 0.685 vs. 0.592) and validation set (AUC 0.651 vs. 0.622). Decision curve analysis indicated the superior clinical applicability of the nomogram compared to the conventional US model.ConclusionsThe US radiomics nomogram displayed better performance than the conventional US model in predicting BRAF mutation in patients with PTMC.

Nanospheres were prepared by different materials of nano-bamboo charcoal powder, zeolite powder, and aquaculture pond sediment in different ratios. It was then fermented with effective microorganisms (EM) active calcium liquid to synthesize the bioactive microbial nanospheres. These nanospheres were used to compare the purification effect of ammonium nitrogen (NH 4 + -N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) pollutants in aquaculture wastewater. The indoor simulation experiment was also conducted to compare the different dosage methods (one-time dosing without aeration, multiple dosing without aeration, and multiple dosing with aeration) of microbial nanospheres on the removal of organic matter (OM) and effect of the biodegradability (G value) in aquaculture sediment. The results obtained indicated that the purification effect was most remarkable when the mass ratio of nano-bamboo charcoal powder: zeolite powder: pond sediment was 10%: 15%: 75%, in which the maximum removal rate of NH 4 + -N, TN, and TP reached up to 84.86%, 52.15%, and 50.35%, respectively. Under the same microbial nanospheres amount, the effect of one-time addition on the removing of OM in sediment was not as effective as that of multiple dosing. After the 20th day, the removal rate of OM reached 25.99% in multiple dosing treatment and it was 35.58% higher than one-time dosing treatment. The OM content in sediment was reduced by 32.38% under the multiple dosing with aeration treatment. Multiple dosing of microbial nanospheres with aeration increased the G value of sediment about 337.0%. In situ experiment further indicated that the microbial nanospheres dosage with aeration had a good sediment bio-remediation effect, which is applicable to solve the problem of endogenous pollution in aquaculture ponds.leads to the ecological degradation and the serious diseases [3]. Therefore, repairing the eutrophic aquaculture environment requires not only the reduction of nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter in the aquaculture water, but also the removal of the sediment mud. In the aspect of aquaculture water purification, the leading technologies include biological filter treatment [4], artificial floating bed cultivation [5], artificial wetland [6], and so on. Due to the shortage of freshwater resources, the high density of breeding and a large amount of bait in the aquaculture industry as well as the present aquaculture water treatments still have problems, such as single treatment method adoption, high cost, and difficult operation [7]. In recent years, a new type of circulating water pond model is applied to reduce the nitrogen and phosphorus content in the aquaculture water, mainly relying on aquatic plants and microbes function [8]. Many studies [9][10][11] have found the composite microbial agents composed of various microbes could make the control effects of aquaculture water quality better. The EM population (containing more than 80 kinds of microbes, with photosynthetic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and actinomycetes as repr...

The endogenous release of nitrogen and phosphorus from aquaculture sediment can continuously pollute the water quality in aquaculture ponds. In this study, an integrated bioremediation approach that combined effective microorganisms (EM) with aeration techniques was designed to restore contaminated aquaculture sediment. Initially, a set of laboratory-scale experiments was designed to evaluate the feasibility of the technology for the bioremediation of nitrogen and phosphorus. The removal and transformation efficiency indexes of both the overlying water and sediment were measured. From the obtained results, the combination of sediment aeration and immobilized EM significantly improved the nitrogen and phosphorus removal rate from the overlying water and sediment when compared to other methods. Subsequently, a series of field-scale experiments was further implemented to assess the integrated technique in practical applications. In field experiments, the variation in the comprehensive trophic level index (TLI) and sediment biodegradation activities (G value) was used to assess the effect of sediment bioremediation. In pond II which promotes sediment biodegradation, the values of TLI varied from 70.13 to 54.16, and the classification level changed from Hypereutrophic to a Light eutrophic. In addition, the G value increased from 0.98 kg/(kg•h) to 2.12 kg/(kg•h). The organic matter (OM) and sediment thickness (ST) decreased by 17.4 g/kg and 2.3 cm, respectively. The obtained results indicated that the combination of EM and sediment aeration might be feasible and effective for the remediation of nitrogen-and phosphorus-polluted aquaculture sediment.

The endogenous release of nitrogen and phosphorus from aquaculture sediment can continuously pollute the water quality in aquaculture ponds. In this study, an integrated bioremediation approach that combined effective microorganisms (EM) with aeration techniques was designed to restore contaminated aquaculture sediment. Initially, a set of laboratory-scale experiments was designed to evaluate the feasibility of the technology for the bioremediation of nitrogen and phosphorus. The removal and transformation efficiency indexes of both the overlying water and sediment were measured. From the obtained results, the combination of sediment aeration and immobilized EM significantly improved the nitrogen and phosphorus removal rate from the overlying water and sediment when compared to other methods. Subsequently, a series of field-scale experiments was further implemented to assess the integrated technique in practical applications. In field experiments, the variation in the comprehensive trophic level index (TLI) and sediment biodegradation activities (G value) was used to assess the effect of sediment bioremediation. In pond II which promotes sediment biodegradation, the values of TLI varied from 70.13 to 54.16, and the classification level changed from Hypereutrophic to a Light eutrophic. In addition, the G value increased from 0.98 kg/(kg•h) to 2.12 kg/(kg•h). The organic matter (OM) and sediment thickness (ST) decreased by 17.4 g/kg and 2.3 cm, respectively. The obtained results indicated that the combination of EM and sediment aeration might be feasible and effective for the remediation of nitrogen-and phosphorus-polluted aquaculture sediment.