Fungal and bacterial successions in the process of co-composting of organic wastes as revealed by 454 pyrosequencing

© 2017 Galitskaya et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Composting is viewed as one of the primary methods to treat organic wastes. Co-composting may improve the efficiency of this treatment by establishing the most suitable conditions for decomposers than those present in the individual wastes. Given that bacteria and fungi are the driving agents of composting, information about the composition of their communities and dynamics during composting may improve reproducibility, performance and quality of the final compost as well as help to evaluate the potential human health risk and the choice of the most appropriate application procedure. In this study, the co-composting of mixtures containing two similar components (organic fraction of municipal solid waste and sawdust polluted by oil) and one discriminate component (sewage sludges of different origin) were investigated. Bacterial and fungal community successions in the two mixtures were analyzed during the composting process by determining the change in their structural dynamics using qPCR and 454 pyrosequencing methods in a lab experiment for a period of 270 days. During the initial composting stage, the number of 16S bacterial copies was (3.0 ±0.2) × 10 6 and (0.4±0.0) × 10 7 g -1 , and the Rhodospiralles and Lactobacialles orders dominated. Fungal communities had (2.9±0.0) ×10 5 and (6.1±0.2) ×10 5 ITS copies g -1 , and the Saccharomycetales order dominated. At the end of the thermophilic stage on the 30 th day of composting, bacterial and fungal communities underwent significant changes: dominants changed and their relative abundance decreased. Typical compost residents included Flavobacteriales, Chitinophagaceae and Bacterioidetes for bacteria and Microascaceae, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Agaricomycetes for fungi. During the later composting stages, the dominating taxa of both bacterial and fungal communities remained, while their relative abundance decreased. In accordance with the change in the dominating OTUs, it was concluded that the dynamics of the bacterial and fungal communities were not similar. Analysis by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) revealed that the bacterial communities of the two composts became progressively more similar; a similar trend was followed by the fungal community

Digital Competences of Teachers in the Higher Education Academic Development System: Experience of the Empirical Research

The article analyzes the problem of higher education teachers’ digital competence formation in relation to the university academic development. In the system of academic development, a higher education teacher becomes an active subject and an object of influence of the university structures.The notion of “academic capital” – a system of professional competencies of a teacher, in whose structure digital competencies acquire special importance, is introduced to assess the effectiveness of academic development.It is assumed that depending on the attitudes towards the development and integration of digital competencies into professional practices, teachers are divided into different categories according to their role in the academic development.In order to test the hypothesis, focus group research was carried out with teachers of the humanities, social and natural sciences from universities in different regions of Russia with at least three years of professional experience. A total of five focus groups of seven teachers in each were conducted.In the context of academic development, digital educational practices were analyzed, and three types of agents were identified – innovators and promoters, who contribute to the academic development of the higher education institutions, and routiners, who slow down the introduction of digital technologies. It is concluded that a possible barrier to the innovative activities for teachers is an ambiguous attitude towards the process of digitalization of the education sector

Advances in research on the use of biochar in soil for remediation: a review

Purpose: Soil contamination mainly from human activities remains a major environmental problem in the contemporary world. Significant work has been undertaken to position biochar as a readily-available material useful for the management of contaminants in various environmental media notably soil. Here, we review the increasing research on the use of biochar in soil for the remediation of some organic and inorganic contaminants.  Materials and methods: Bibliometric analysis was carried out within the past 10 years to determine the increasing trend in research related to biochar in soil for contaminant remediation. Five exemplar contaminants were reviewed in both laboratory and field-based studies. These included two inorganic (i.e., As and Pb) and three organic classes (i.e., sulfamethoxazole, atrazine, and PAHs). The contaminants were selected based on bibliometric data and as representatives of their various contaminant classes. For example, As and Pb are potentially toxic elements (anionic and cationic, respectively), while sulfamethoxazole, atrazine, and PAHs represent antibiotics, herbicides, and hydrocarbons, respectively.  Results and discussion: The interaction between biochar and contaminants in soil is largely driven by biochar precursor material and pyrolysis temperature as well as some characteristics of the contaminants such as octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW) and polarity. The structural and chemical characteristics of biochar in turn determine the major sorption mechanisms and define biochar’s suitability for contaminant sorption. Based on the reviewed literature, a soil treatment plan is suggested to guide the application of biochar in various soil types (paddy soils, brownfield, and mine soils) at different pH levels (4–5.5) and contaminant concentrations ( 50 mg kg−1).  Conclusions: Research on biochar has grown over the years with significant focus on its properties, and how these affect biochar’s ability to immobilize organic and inorganic contaminants in soil. Few of these studies have been field-based. More studies with greater focus on field-based soil remediation are therefore required to fully understand the behavior of biochar under natural circumstances. Other recommendations are made aimed at stimulating future research in areas where significant knowledge gaps exist

Fungal and bacterial successions in the process of co-composting of organic wastes as revealed by 454 pyrosequencing

© 2017 Galitskaya et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Composting is viewed as one of the primary methods to treat organic wastes. Co-composting may improve the efficiency of this treatment by establishing the most suitable conditions for decomposers than those present in the individual wastes. Given that bacteria and fungi are the driving agents of composting, information about the composition of their communities and dynamics during composting may improve reproducibility, performance and quality of the final compost as well as help to evaluate the potential human health risk and the choice of the most appropriate application procedure. In this study, the co-composting of mixtures containing two similar components (organic fraction of municipal solid waste and sawdust polluted by oil) and one discriminate component (sewage sludges of different origin) were investigated. Bacterial and fungal community successions in the two mixtures were analyzed during the composting process by determining the change in their structural dynamics using qPCR and 454 pyrosequencing methods in a lab experiment for a period of 270 days. During the initial composting stage, the number of 16S bacterial copies was (3.0 ±0.2) × 10 6 and (0.4±0.0) × 10 7 g -1 , and the Rhodospiralles and Lactobacialles orders dominated. Fungal communities had (2.9±0.0) ×10 5 and (6.1±0.2) ×10 5 ITS copies g -1 , and the Saccharomycetales order dominated. At the end of the thermophilic stage on the 30 th day of composting, bacterial and fungal communities underwent significant changes: dominants changed and their relative abundance decreased. Typical compost residents included Flavobacteriales, Chitinophagaceae and Bacterioidetes for bacteria and Microascaceae, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Sordariomycetes, and Agaricomycetes for fungi. During the later composting stages, the dominating taxa of both bacterial and fungal communities remained, while their relative abundance decreased. In accordance with the change in the dominating OTUs, it was concluded that the dynamics of the bacterial and fungal communities were not similar. Analysis by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) revealed that the bacterial communities of the two composts became progressively more similar; a similar trend was followed by the fungal community

High proton conductivity state of water in nanoporous materials

A simple model has been proposed for water confined in nanochannels of a porous material, where the proton conductivity is six orders of magnitude higher than the value for bulk water. The key concept of the model is topological inconsistency of the ice rules with ordering of interface molecules, which results in the formation of excess charge carriers near the interface and in a sharp increase in the proton conductivity of water confined in channels with diameters of about several nanometers as compared to bulk water. Numerical estimates within our model are in quantitative agreement with measured proton conductivities of nanoporous materials with different chemical compositions, degrees of crystallinity, and morphologies of the structure. The model gives a useful scheme for the interpretation of proton transport in confined water and provides recommendations for the fabrication of nanoporous materials with a high proton conductivity

Giftedness: A Three Way Approach and the Role of ICTs

This article presents a group of students who are found in the general classroom. This group consists of gifted children, whose way of learning has not been extensively studied. High achievement students have more developed skills than their peers and this often results in them not engaging in school lessons as they seem too simplistic. This article first introduces the different levels of intelligence that have been formulated from time to time. Secondly, studies showing the relationship between working memory and giftedness, are presented. Finally, ways of teaching giftedness students are suggested with the use of ICTs

Study of Boraginaceae plants for phytoremediation of oil-contaminated soil

Long-term field observations of the natural vegetation cover in industrial and adjacent areas has revealed that the Boraginaceae was one of the main plant family representatives of which were noted in oil-contaminated area. In this study against the background of the previously well characterized plant families Poaceae and Fabaceae, the phytoremediation potential of Boraginaceae plants was investigated under the field conditions and described. Among the members of this family, Lithospermum arvense, Nonea pulla, Asperugo procumbens, Lappula myosotis, and Echium vulgare were the most common in oil-contaminated areas. N. pulla was the most tolerant to hydrocarbons and, along with L. arvense and E. vulgare, actively stimulated the soil microorganisms, including hydrocarbon-oxidizing ones, in their rhizosphere. A comparative assay confirmed that the plants of the Fabaceae family as a whole more efficiently enrich the soil both with available nitrogen and with pollutant degradation genes. Nevertheless, the comparatively high ammonium nitrogen content in the rhizosphere of N. pulla and E. vulgare allows these species to be singled out to explain their high rhizosphere effect, and to suggest their remediation potential for oil-contaminated soil. Novelty statement Against the background of the previously well characterized plant families Poaceae and Fabaceae, the remediation potential of Boraginaceae plants was described for the first time. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the differences in remediation potential of plants at the family level and suggests the monitoring pollutant degradation genes as an informative tool to the search for plant promising for use in the cleanup of oil-contaminated soil

ANALYSIS OF PNEUMOCOCCAL VACCINATION EFFICACY AND SAFETY IN CHILDREN WITH VARIOUS DISABILITIES OF HEALTH

The results of vaccination tolerability assessment against pneumococcal infection in children with various disabilities of health as well as the results of the follow-up of the vaccinated children are cited. The work was carried out at the Vaccination Department of the Scientific Centre for Children’s Health, RAMS. It is shown that vaccination against pneumococcal infection was safe as in healthy and in children with various disabilities of health. In the post-immunization period there were no serious adverse events observed (frequency of the expressed general and local postvaccinal reactions didn’t exceed 3%). The health of children one year after vaccination remained stable for the underlying disease (if any). It was proved that there was a significant reduction in acute respiratory infections in a group of sickly children, compared with the previous year

АНАЛИЗ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ И БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ ВАКЦИНАЦИИ ПРОТИВ ПНЕВМОКОККОВОЙ ИНФЕКЦИИ ДЕТЕЙ С РАЗЛИЧНЫМИ ОТКЛОНЕНИЯМИ В СОСТОЯНИИ ЗДОРОВЬЯ

The results of vaccination tolerability assessment against pneumococcal infection in children with various disabilities of health as well as the results of the follow-up of the vaccinated children are cited. The work was carried out at the Vaccination Department of the Scientific Centre for Children’s Health, RAMS. It is shown that vaccination against pneumococcal infection was safe as in healthy and in children with various disabilities of health. In the post-immunization period there were no serious adverse events observed (frequency of the expressed general and local postvaccinal reactions didn’t exceed 3%). The health of children one year after vaccination remained stable for the underlying disease (if any). It was proved that there was a significant reduction in acute respiratory infections in a group of sickly children, compared with the previous year. В статье приведены результаты оценки переносимости вакцинации против пневмококковой инфекции пациентов с различными отклонениями в состоянии здоровья, а также данные катамнестического наблюдения за вакцинированными детьми. Работа проводилась в отделении вакцинопрофилактики Научного центра здоровья детей РАМН. Показано, что вакцинация против пневмококковой инфекции безопасна как у практически здоровых, так и у детей с различными отклонениями в состоянии здоровья. В поствакцинальном периоде не отмечено серьезных нежелательных явлений (частота выраженных общих и местных постпрививочных реакций не превышает 3%). Состояние здоровья детей через один год после вакцинации остается стабильным по основному заболеванию (если таковое имелось). Доказано, что происходит достоверное снижение острых респираторных инфекций в группе часто болеющих детей по сравнению с предшествующим годом.