Solid waste mixtures combustion in a circulating fluidized Bed: emission properties of NOx, Dioxin, and Heavy Metals

To efficiently and environment friendly combust the domestic garbage, sludge, and swill waste fuels, five different fuels are prepared by mixing the waste fuels together with coal, and grass biomass at different mixing ratios, and finally those fuels were combusted in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) reactor. The emission performances of NOx, dioxin, and heavy metal during the combustion tests are studied. The results showed that a stable furnace temperature can be reached at approximately 850 °C when combusting all studied mixed fuels, benefiting the thermal processes of sludge and domestic garbage and thus realizing the purpose of waste-to-fuel. In addition, the dioxin emissions are much lower than the emission standards, and NOx emissions could be reduced significantly by adjusting the ratio of waste fuels. However, the emissions of mercury, lead, and the combinations of chromium, tin, antimony, cupper and manganese components all exceeded the pollution control standard for hazardous wastes incineration, a further technology is required for heavy metal reductions to achieve the emission standards

Bacteriological and Molecular Identification of Bartonella Species in Cats from Different Regions of China

With the improvements in diagnostic techniques, Bartonella henselae (B. henselae) infection has recently been recognized to cause a widening spectrum of diseases. Cats are the natural reservoir hosts of B. henselae. The current study aims to investigate the prevalence of B. henselae infection in the cat populations in China. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bacterial cultures confirm that 12.7% of the tested cats were positive for the infection. Old age and outdoor exposure were statistically associated with the infection. Multilocus sequence typing and eBURST analysis of the cat isolates collected in the present study show that 65.4% of the isolates belong to sequence type 1 (ST1). Three new STs (ST16–18) were identified in Midwestern China. These results may aid our understanding of the population structure of B. henselae in China and the relationship between human and cat strains in subsequent studies

The Characters of Soil Microbial Biomass and Metabolic Quotient Associated with Shrub Development in the Arid Region

Soil microbial biomass (MBC), as the most active of soil organic constituents, controls many important ecological processes in the ecosystem including nutrient cycling and litter decomposition (Jia et al. 2010), and is considered to be the most sensitive biological indicator of soil quality (Sinha et al. 2009). Moreover, soil microbial metabolic quotient (qCO2) reflects the quantity and quality of soil organic matter, soil nutrient availability, microbial substrate utilization efficiency and ecosystem stability (Mao et al. 2010). Shrub is the dominant vegetation of desert ecosystems, contributing to soil nutrient conservation and carbon sequestration. Considerable research related to shrubs in desert ecosystems has been reported, however changes of soil microbial properties throughout the process of shrub development remains poorly documented. The main objective of this study was to explore how soil microbial biomass and qCO2 change with shrub development

Plant C, N, P Stoichiometry Was Effected with Nitrogen Deposition on the Loess Plateau, China

The mass ratio of C:N:P (Carbon: Nitrogen: Phosphorus) in plant tissue can reflect the utilization efficiency of these basic elements (Piao et al. 2005). Additionally, the N:P ratio in plant tissue can be used to detect nutrient limita-tions as N, P or both are most often the driving force for ecosystem development and change (Koerselman and Meuleman 1996). N deposition has been increasing dramatically and it has great influence on the productivity, stability and nutrient supply conditions in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem in recent years (Wang and Yu 2008). Many scholars have focused on the C:N:P stoichiometry of individual plant or the whole plant communities which were based on weighted average of important key species and their element contents, rather than by collecting bio-mass samples of all the plants in the community level. Moreover, less is known of the effects of N deposition on C:N:P stoichiometry characteristics of plant communities, especially the grasslands of the Loess Plateau. An experiment was set to study the effects of N deposition on C, N,P stoichiometry characteristics by simulating N deposition by way of N addition

Discovery and Survey of a New Mandarivirus Associated with Leaf Yellow Mottle Disease of Citrus in Pakistan.

During biological indexing for viruses in citrus trees, in a collection of Symons sweet orange (SSO) (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) graft inoculated with bark tissues of citrus trees from the Punjab Province in Pakistan, several SSO trees exhibited leaf symptoms of vein yellowing and mottle. High-throughput sequencing by Illumina of RNA preparation depleted of ribosomal RNAs from one symptomatic tree, followed by BLAST analyses, allowed identification of a novel virus, tentatively named citrus yellow mottle-associated virus (CiYMaV). Genome features of CiYMaV are typical of members of the genus Mandarivirus (family Alphaflexiviridae). Virus particles with elongated flexuous shape and size resembling those of mandariviruses were observed by transmission electron microscopy. The proteins encoded by CiYMaV share high sequence identity, conserved motifs, and phylogenetic relationships with the corresponding proteins encoded by Indian citrus ringspot virus (ICRSV) and citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV), the two current members of the genus Mandarivirus. Although CYVCV is the virus most closely related to CiYMaV, the two viruses can be serologically and biologically discriminated from each other. A reverse-transcription PCR method designed to specifically detect CiYMaV revealed high prevalence (62%) of this virus in 120 citrus trees from the Punjab Province, Pakistan, where the novel virus was found mainly in mixed infection with CYVCV and citrus tristeza virus. However, a preliminary survey on samples from 200 citrus trees from the Yunnan Province, China failed to detect CiYMaV in this region, suggesting that the molecular, serological, and biological data provided here are timely and can help to prevent the spread of this virus in citrus-producing countries

Serum lactate dehydrogenase activities as systems biomarkers for 48 types of human diseases

Most human diseases are systems diseases, and systems biomarkers are better fitted for diagnostic, prognostic, and treatment monitoring purposes. To search for systems biomarker candidates, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a housekeeping protein expressed in all living cells, was investigated. To this end, we analyzed the serum LDH activities from 172,933 patients with 48 clinically defined diseases and 9528 healthy individuals. Based on the median values, we found that 46 out of 48 diseases, leading by acute myocardial infarction, had significantly increased (p  0.8) for hepatic encephalopathy and lung fibrosis