Reducing the harmful effects of noise on the human environment. Sound insulation of industrial skeleton enclosures in the 10-40 kHz frequency range

The Effect of Vocal Intonation Therapy on Vocal Dysfunction in Patients With Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Control Trial

In this study, the vocal intonation therapy (VIT) was compared with the standard respiratory therapy for people suffering from respiratory dysfunction as a result of cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) to observe its effect on vocal quality. Thirty patients with vocal dysfunction after CSCI with the injury time of more than 3 months were screened for inclusion in the trial, and 18 patients completed the 12-weeks, each participant had 60 sessions in total in the clinical trial. All patients were allocated to the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group received VIT training and the control group received respiratory phonation therapy. Both groups were trained by professional therapists, and the training time was 30 min/day, 5 days/week, for 60 sessions for each group in a total of 12 weeks. In the Baseline (T0), mid-intervention period (after 6 weeks, T1), and after intervention (after 12 weeks, T2), the vocal quality of the two groups of patients was tested with a computer-aided real-time audio analyzer 2.1.6 (Adobe Systems, United States) for Sing-SPL (p < 0.0001), Speech-SPL (p < 0.0001), SNL (p < 0.0001), and F0 (p < 0.0001) of the intervention group were significantly improved compared with the control group. In comparing the spectrometry analysis of vocal quality for the 2 groups of participants, there was a significant difference in the results of Sing-SPL and Speech-SPL acoustic analysis in the intervention group of patients at T2 (after 12 weeks) compared to the control group. Vocal intonation therapy—music therapy can improve the speech sound quality of cervical CSCI patients and provide CSCI patients with a practical, highly operable treatment that has both functional training effects and can bring a pleasant experience that can be promoted in the medical field. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of China Rehabilitation Research Center (CRRC) (approval No. 2019-83-1) on May 20th, 2019. It was registered with the National Health Security Information Platform, medical research registration, and filing information system (Registration No. MR-11-21-011802) on January 28th, 2021.

π-π stacking derived from graphene-like biochar/g-C3N4 with tunable band structure for photocatalytic antibiotics degradation via peroxymonosulfate activation

The severe pollution caused by antibiotics has raised serious concerns in recent decades. In this study, graphene-like Enteromorpha biochar modified g-C₃N₄ (BC/CN) was synthesized and applied to degrade tetracycline by activating PMS under visible light, obtaining around 90% removal rate within 1 h. The Enteromorpha biochar can provide electron-withdrawing groups to adjust the electronic structure of g-C₃N₄, and induces more π-π interaction to decline the recombination of photocarriers. The environmental adaptability of the BC/CN/PMS/vis system was confirmed by the TC degradation in different initial pH, coexisting ions, and natural organic materials. In most cases, the system maintained over 78% degradation rate. The kinetics and mechanism of the system indicating that ∙O₂^-, ¹O₂ contributed more to the TC photocatalytic degradation than ∙OH, SO₄∙^-, and h⁺. During the process, TC underwent serials hydroxylation, demethylation, and ring-opening processes, and produced more than 40 intermediates in three pathways. Moreover, the BC/CN/PMS/vis system was proved to have at least a 50% degradation rate for more tetracyclines and quinolone antibiotics with the same condition.