Erosion-induced CO2 flux of small watersheds

Soil erosion not only results in severe ecological damage, but also interferes with soil organic carbon formation and decomposition, influencing the global green-house effect. However, there is controversy as to whether a typical small watershed presumed as the basic unit of sediment yield acts as a CO2 sink or source. This paper proposes a discriminant equation for the direction of CO2 flux in small watersheds, basing on the concept of Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR). Using this equation, watersheds can be classified as Sink Watersheds, Source Watersheds, or Transition Watersheds, noting that small watersheds can act either as a CO2 sink or as a CO2 source. A mathematical model for calculating the two discriminant coefficients in the equation is set up to analyze the conditions under which each type of watershed would occur. After assigning the model parameter values at three levels (low, medium, and high), and considering 486 scenarios in total, the influences are examined for turnover rate of the carbon pool, erosion rate, deposition rate, cultivation depth and period. The effect of adopting conservation measures like residue return, contour farming, terracing, and conservation tillage is also analyzed. The results show that Sink Watersheds are more likely to result in conditions of high erosion rate, long cultivation period, high deposition rate, fast carbon pool turnover rate, and small depth of cultivation; otherwise, Source Watersheds would possibly occur. The results also indicate that residue return and conservation tillage are beneficial for CO2 sequestration. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Geography, PhysicalGeosciences, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)EI0ARTICLE101-11094-9

The Role of Natural Fe(II)-Bearing Minerals in Chemoautotrophic Chromium (VI) Bio-reduction in Groundwater,

To date, comparatively little is known about the role of natural Fe(II)-bearing minerals in bioremediation of chromium (VI) contaminated aquifers subject to chemoautotrophic conditions. This work employed four kinds of Fe(II)-bearing minerals (pyrite, mackinawite, wustite, and magnetite) as inorganic electron donors to support Cr(VI) bio-reduction. In batch experiments, mackinawite (FeS) performed best, with Cr(VI) removal efficiency of 98.1 ± 1.21 % in 96 h. Continuous column experiments lasting 180 d implied that groundwater chemistry and hydrodynamics influenced the Cr(VI) removal process. A breakthrough study suggested that biotic and abiotic contributions to Cr(VI) reduction were 76.0 ± 1.12 % and 24.1 ± 1.43 %, respectively. Cr(VI) was reduced to insoluble Cr(III), whereas Fe(II) and S(-II) in mackinawite were finally oxidized to Fe(III) and sulfate. Mackinawite evolved progressively into pyrrhotite. High-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that mackinawite-driven Cr(VI) reduction was mediated through synergistic interactions of microbial consortia; i.e. autotrophs as Acidovorax synthesized volatile fatty acids as metabolic intermediates, which were consumed by Cr(VI) reducers as Geobacter. Genes encoding enzymes for S oxidation (soxB) and Cr(VI) reduction (chrA, yieF) were upregulated. Cytochrome c participating in Fe(II) oxidation increased significantly. This work advances the development of sustainable techniques for Cr(VI) polluted groundwater remediation

Sale-based estimation of pharmaceutical concentrations and associated environmental risk in the Japanese wastewater system

Information on sales and emission of selected pharmaceuticals were used to predict their concentrations in Japanese wastewater influent through a >300 of pharmaceuticals data sink. A combined wastewater-based epidemiology and environmental risk analysis follow was established. By comparing predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) of pharmaceuticals in wastewater influent against measured environmental concentrations (MECs) reported in previous studies, it was found that the model gave accurate results for 17 pharmaceuticals (0.5 1 μg/L), and the PECs of 6 pharmaceuticals were extremely high (>10 μg/L) in wastewater effluent, which could be attributed to their high usage rates by consumers and poor removal rates in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Furthermore, environmental risk assessment (ERA) was carried out by calculating the ratio of predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) to PEC of different pharmaceuticals, and it was found that 9 pharmaceuticals were likely to have high toxicity, and 54 pharmaceuticals were likely to have potential toxicity. It is recommended that this is further investigated in detail. The priority screening and environmental risk assessment results on pharmaceuticals can provide reliable basis for policy-making and environmental management

Synchronous microbial vanadium (V) reduction and denitrification in groundwater using hydrogen as the sole electron donor

Groundwater co-contaminated by vanadium (V) (V(V)) and nitrate requires efficient remediation to prevent adverse environmental impacts. However, little is known about simultaneous bio-reductions of V(V) and nitrate supported by gaseous electron donors in aquifers. This study is among the first to examine microbial V(V) reduction and denitrification with hydrogen as the sole electron donor. V(V) removal efficiency of 91.0 ± 3.2% was achieved in test bioreactors within 7 d, with synchronous, complete removal of nitrate. V(V) was reduced to V(IV), which precipitated naturally under near-neutral conditions, and nitrate tended to be converted to nitrogen, both of which processes helped to purify the groundwater. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were produced from hydrogen oxidation. High-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenomic analyses revealed the evolutionary behavior of microbial communities and functional genes. The genera Dechloromonas and Hydrogenophaga promoted bio-reductions of V(V) and nitrate directly coupled to hydrogen oxidation. Enriched Geobacter and denitrifiers also indicated synergistic mechanism, with VFAs acting as organic carbon sources for heterotrophically functional bacteria while reducing V(V) and nitrate. These findings are likely to be useful in revealing biogeochemical fates of V(V) and nitrate in aquifer and developing technology for removing them simultaneously from groundwater

Combined intranasal and intramuscular parainfluenza 5-, simian adenovirus ChAdOx1- and poxvirus MVA-vectored vaccines induce synergistically HIV-1-specific T cells in the mucosa

IntroductionThe primary goal of this work is to broaden and enhance the options for induction of protective CD8+ T cells against HIV-1 and respiratory pathogens.MethodsWe explored the advantages of the parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) vector for delivery of pathogen-derived transgenes alone and in combination with the in-human potent regimen of simian adenovirus ChAdOx1 prime-poxvirus MVA boost delivering bi-valent mosaic of HIV-1 conserved regions designated HIVconsvX.ResultsWe showed in BALB/c mice that the PIV5 vector expressing the HIVconsvX immunogens could be readily incorporated with the other two vaccine modalities into a single regimen and that for specific vector combinations, mucosal CD8+ T-cell induction was enhanced synergistically by a combination of the intranasal and intramuscular routes of administration.DiscussionEncouraging safety and immunogenicity data from phase 1 human trials of ChAdOx1- and MVA-vectored vaccines for HIV-1, and PIV5-vectored vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory syncytial virus pave the way for combining these vectors for HIV-1 and other indications in humans

A Hybrid Wavelet de-noising and Rank-Set Pair Analysis approach for forecasting hydro-meteorological time series

Accurate, fast forecasting of hydro-meteorological time series is presently a major challenge in drought and flood mitigation. This paper proposes a hybrid approach, wavelet de-noising (WD) and Rank-Set Pair Analysis (RSPA), that takes full advantage of a combination of the two approaches to improve forecasts of hydro-meteorological time series. WD allows decomposition and reconstruction of a time series by the wavelet transform, and hence separation of the noise from the original series. RSPA, a more reliable and efficient version of Set Pair Analysis, is integrated with WD to form the hybrid WD-RSPA approach. Two types of hydro-meteorological data sets with different characteristics and different levels of human influences at some representative stations are used to illustrate the WD-RSPA approach. The approach is also compared to three other generic methods: the conventional Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) method, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) (BP-error Back Propagation, MLP-Multilayer Perceptron and RBF-Radial Basis Function), and RSPA alone. Nine error metrics are used to evaluate the model performance. Compared to three other generic methods, the results generated by WD-REPA model presented invariably smaller error measures which means the forecasting capability of the WD-REPA model is better than other models. The results show that WD-RSPA is accurate, feasible, and effective. In particular, WD-RSPA is found to be the best among the various generic methods compared in this paper, even when the extreme events are included within a time series

Association of eGFR-Related Loci Identified by GWAS with Incident CKD and ESRD

Family studies suggest a genetic component to the etiology of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD). Previously, we identified 16 loci for eGFR in genome-wide association studies, but the associations of these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for incident CKD or ESRD are unknown. We thus investigated the association of these loci with incident CKD in 26,308 individuals of European ancestry free of CKD at baseline drawn from eight population-based cohorts followed for a median of 7.2 years (including 2,122 incident CKD cases defined as eGFR <60ml/min/1.73m2 at follow-up) and with ESRD in four case-control studies in subjects of European ancestry (3,775 cases, 4,577 controls). SNPs at 11 of the 16 loci (UMOD, PRKAG2, ANXA9, DAB2, SHROOM3, DACH1, STC1, SLC34A1, ALMS1/NAT8, UBE2Q2, and GCKR) were associated with incident CKD; p-values ranged from p = 4.1e-9 in UMOD to p = 0.03 in GCKR. After adjusting for baseline eGFR, six of these loci remained significantly associated with incident CKD (UMOD, PRKAG2, ANXA9, DAB2, DACH1, and STC1). SNPs in UMOD (OR = 0.92, p = 0.04) and GCKR (OR = 0.93, p = 0.03) were nominally associated with ESRD. In summary, the majority of eGFR-related loci are either associated or show a strong trend towards association with incident CKD, but have modest associations with ESRD in individuals of European descent. Additional work is required to characterize the association of genetic determinants of CKD and ESRD at different stages of disease progression

A puzzle form of a non-verbal intelligence test gives significantly higher performance measures in children with severe intellectual disability

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Assessment of 'potential intellectual ability' of children with severe intellectual disability (ID) is limited, as current tests designed for normal children do not maintain their interest. Thus a <it>manual puzzle </it>version of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) was devised to appeal to the attentional and sensory preferences and language limitations of children with ID. It was hypothesized that performance on the book and manual puzzle forms would not differ for typically developing children but that children with ID would perform better on the puzzle form.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The first study assessed the validity of this puzzle form of the RCPM for 76 typically developing children in a test-retest crossover design, with a 3 week interval between tests. A second study tested performance and completion rate for the puzzle form compared to the book form in a sample of 164 children with ID.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the first study, no significant difference was found between performance on the puzzle and book forms in typically developing children, irrespective of the order of completion. The second study demonstrated a significantly higher performance and completion rate for the puzzle form compared to the book form in the ID population.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Similar performance on book and puzzle forms of the RCPM by typically developing children suggests that both forms measure the same construct. These findings suggest that the puzzle form does not require greater cognitive ability but demands sensory-motor attention and limits distraction in children with severe ID. Thus, we suggest the puzzle form of the RCPM is a more reliable measure of the non-verbal mentation of children with severe ID than the book form.</p

Common Gamma Chain Cytokines Promote Rapid In Vitro Expansion of Allo-Specific Human CD8+ Suppressor T Cells

Human CD8+ regulatory T cells, particularly the CD8+CD28− T suppressor cells, have emerged as an important modulator of alloimmunity. Understanding the conditions under which these cells are induced and/or expanded would greatly facilitate their application in future clinical trials. In the current study, we develop a novel strategy that combines common gamma chain (γc) cytokines IL-2, IL-7 and IL-15 and donor antigen presenting cells (APCs) to stimulate full HLA-mismatched allogeneic human CD8+ T cells which results in significant expansions of donor-specific CD8+CD28− T suppressor cells in vitro. The expanded CD8+CD28− T cells exhibit increased expressions of CTLA-4, FoxP3, and CD25, while down-regulate expressions of CD56, CD57, CD127, and perforin. Furthermore, these cells suppress proliferation of CD4+ T cells in a contact-dependent and cytokine-independent manner. Interestingly, the specificity of suppression is restricted by the donor HLA class I antigens but promiscuous to HLA class II antigens, providing a potential mechanism for linked suppression. Taken together, our results demonstrate a novel role for common γc cytokines in combination with donor APCs in the expansion of donor-specific CD8+CD28− T suppressor cells, and represent a robust strategy for in vitro generation of such cells for adoptive cellular immunotherapy in transplantation