Editorial: Bioaerosol emission characteristics and the epidemiological, occupational, and public health risk assessment of waste and wastewater management

Waste management industries are vital to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals suggested by World Health Organization. Besides SDGs achievement, also the circular economy is dependent on the waste sector. The circular economy intends to reuse existing resources instead of disposing of materials that are no longer useful. Thus, the circular economy is very dependent on an increased workforce dedicated to waste management. Nonetheless, while better waste management is being predicted as a critical contributor to reducing health outcomes and environmental negative impacts, the bioaerosols´ occupational exposure in the waste sector is being neglected leading to negative outcomes on workers’ health. The scientific community and stakeholders should be also aware of the foreseen increased exposure to microbes and antimicrobial resistance in different environments that will lead to a boost of exposure to bioaerosols in the waste sector, mainly due to climate change.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

JMJD3 promotes survival of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma subtypes via distinct mechanisms.

JMJD3 (Jumonji domain containing-3), a histone H3 Lys27 (H3K27) demethylase, has been reported to be involved in the antigen-driven differentiation of germinal center B-cells. However, insight into the mechanism of JMJD3 in DLBCL (Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) progression remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the subtype-specific JMJD3-dependent survival effects in DLBCL. Our data showed that in the ABC subtype, silencing-down of JMJD3 inhibited interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) expression in a demethylase activity-dependent fashion. IRF4 reciprocally stimulated expression of JMJD3, forming a positive feedback loop that promoted survival in these cells. Accordingly, IRF4 expression was sufficient to rescue the pro-apoptotic effect of JMJD3 suppression in the ABC, but not in the GCB subtype. In contrast, ectopic overexpression of BCL-2 completely offset JMJD3-mediated survival in the GCB DLBCL cells. In vivo, treatment with siRNA to JMJD3 reduced tumor volume concordant with increased apoptosis in either subtype. This suggests it is a common target, though the distinctive signaling axes regulating DCBCL survival offer different strategic options for treating DLBCL subtypes

Characteristics and formation mechanism of intestinal bacteria particles emitted from aerated wastewater treatment tanks

Aeration tanks in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are regarded as sources of bioaerosols, often containing particles and microbes. In this study, intestinal bacteria were investigated from biochemical reaction tanks (BRTs) of six municipal WWTPs. It was observed that 86 CFU/m3 of intestinal bacteria (in average) occurred in the BRTs installed surface aerator, which was higher than those adopted submerged aeration (67 CFU/m3 in average). 62.72% of fine particles were observed in the BRTs supplied oxygen by submerged aerator, while 75.73% of coarse particles emitted during surface aeration. Pseudomonas sp., Serratia sp. and Acinetobacter sp. were identified as pathogenic bacteria presented in the intestinal bacteria population and most of them existed initially in water or sludge, particularly in water surface. The emission level and particle size distribution were significantly correlated with aeration mode adopted by the WWTPs. The bioaerosols particles emitted from surface aeration process was higher than that from submerged aeration process. Meanwhile, the BRTs with submerged aerators released more fine particles, which can get into the alveoli and represented the potential challenge to human health. Canonical correspondence analysis results exhibited that population of intestinal bacteria had a positive correlation with aeration rate and water quality. As the intestinal bacteria in the bioaerosols emitted from the WWTPs may pose a potential risk to onsite operators, aeration tanks in WWTPs should be paid more attention as a source of intestinal bacterial emissions

Inhibition of PC cell-derived growth factor (PCDGF)/granulin-epithelin precursor (GEP) decreased cell proliferation and invasion through downregulation of cyclin D and CDK 4 and inactivation of MMP-2

BACKGROUND: PC cell-derived growth factor (PCDGF), also called epithelin/granulin precursor (GEP), is an 88-kDa secreted glycoprotein with the ability to stimulate cell proliferation in an autocrine fashion. In addition, some studies indicated that PCDGF participated in invasion, metastasis and survival of cancer cells by regulating cell migration, adhesion and proliferation. Yet the effects of PCDGF on proliferation and invasion of ovarian cancer cells in vitro and the mechanisms by which PCDGF mediates biological behaviors of ovarian cancer have rarely been reported. In the present study we investigated whether and how PCDGF/GEP mediated cell proliferation and invasion in ovarian cancer. METHODS: PCDGF/GEP expression level in three human ovarian cancer cell lines of different invasion potential were detected by RT-PCR and western blot. Effects of inhibition of PCDGF expression on cell proliferation and invasion capability were determined by MTT assay and Boyden chamber assay. Expression levels of cyclin D1 and CDK4 and MMP-2 activity were evaluated in a pilot study. RESULTS: PCDGF mRNA and protein were expressed at a high level in SW626 and A2780 and at a low level in SKOV3. PCDGF expression level correlated well with malignant phenotype including proliferation and invasion in ovarian cancer cell lines. In addition, the proliferation rate and invasion index decreased after inhibition of PCDGF expression by antisense PCDGF cDNA transfection in SW626 and A2780. Furthermore expression of CyclinD1 and CDK4 were downregulated and MMP-2 was inactivated after PCDGF inhibition in the pilot study. CONCLUSION: PCDGF played an important role in stimulating proliferation and promoting invasion in ovarian cancer. Inhibition of PCDGF decreased proliferation and invasion capability through downregulation of cyclin D1 and CDK4 and inactivation of MMP-2. PCDGF could serve as a potential therapeutic target in ovarian cancer

Evidence for the additions of clustered interacting nodes during the evolution of protein interaction networks from network motifs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High-throughput screens have revealed large-scale protein interaction networks defining most cellular functions. How the proteins were added to the protein interaction network during its growth is a basic and important issue. Network motifs represent the simplest building blocks of cellular machines and are of biological significance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we study the evolution of protein interaction networks from the perspective of network motifs. We find that in current protein interaction networks, proteins of the same age class tend to form motifs and such co-origins of motif constituents are affected by their topologies and biological functions. Further, we find that the proteins within motifs whose constituents are of the same age class tend to be densely interconnected, co-evolve and share the same biological functions, and these motifs tend to be within protein complexes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings provide novel evidence for the hypothesis of the additions of clustered interacting nodes and point out network motifs, especially the motifs with the dense topology and specific function may play important roles during this process. Our results suggest functional constraints may be the underlying driving force for such additions of clustered interacting nodes.</p

Effect of internal recycle ratio on the denitrification process and nirS-containing bacteria of an anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2/O) wastewater treatment process

Internal recycle (IR) ratio is an important operation parameter for the anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2O) wastewater treatment process. Three laboratory-scale A2O wastewater treatment processes with IR ratios 100%, 200%, and 300% were set up to study its influence on the denitrification process and nirS gene-containing bacteria. Results showed theremoval rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH4 +-N), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) increased at different levels as the IR rate augmented from 100% to 300%. NirS gene numbers were increased from 1.8×108 to 3.2×108 copies/g MLSS, which was positively correlated with the denitrification rate in anoxic areas. Moreover, similarities were observed in the community structures of denitrifying bacteria that contained the nirS gene under different operation modes. These results indicated that increasing the IR rate in the A2O treatment process could benefit nirS gene-containing bacteria and improve denitrification ability observably while maintaining the stability of the community structure of the system

Study of the Pattern Preparation and Performance of the Resistance Grid of Thin-Film Strain Sensors

The thin-film strain sensor is a cutting-force sensor that can be integrated with cutting tools. The quality of the alloy film strain layer resistance grid plays an important role in the performance of the sensor. In this paper, the two film patterning processes of photolithography magnetron sputtering and photolithography ion beam etching are compared, and the effects of the geometric size of the thin-film resistance grid on the resistance value and resistance strain coefficient of the thin film are compared and analyzed. Through orthogonal experiments of incident angle, argon flow rate, and substrate negative bias in the ion beam etching process parameters, the effects of the process parameters on photoresist stripping quality, etching rate, surface roughness, and resistivity are discussed. The effects of process parameters on etching rate, surface roughness, and resistivity are analyzed by the range method. The effect of substrate temperature on the preparation of Ni Cr alloy films is observed by scanning electron microscope. The surface morphology of the films before and after ion beam etching is observed by atomic force microscope. The influence of the lithography process on the surface quality of the film is discussed, and the etching process parameters are optimized