Study on the Effect of Regional Water Pollution—Take Huaxi River in Chongqing as an Example

Water pollution management plays a crucial role in China’s ecological environment development. It has evolved from being solely the responsibility of the government to a collaborative effort involving multiple entities. This paper presents findings from a field survey conducted around the collaborative capacity and effectiveness of wastewater treatment in Huaxi River, Chongqing. The study collected 427 valid questionnaires and employed SPSS26.0 software and AMOS24.0 software, utilizing structural equation modelling and regression analysis to verify the relationship between the variables. The results highlight that synergy mechanism acts as a mediating variable between synergy capability and synergy governance effect, underscoring the role of mechanism in the relationship between capability and governance effect. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of enhancing synergistic capacity and synergistic mechanism to effectively promote synergistic governance effect in the water pollution management of Huaxi River in Chongqing. This can be achieved by improving the abilities of multiple stakeholders in managing water pollution, enhancing cooperation among parties, and encouraging participation of social organizations, the public, and enterprises in the management process to achieve sustainable development of ecological civilization

Estimated divergence times of Hirsutella (asexual morphs) in Ophiocordyceps provides insight into evolution of phialide structure

Abstract Background Hirsutella Pat genus, the asexual morphs of the Ophiocordyceps Sung, is globally distributed entomopathogenic fungi, which infect a variety of arthropods, mites and nematodes. The fungal species also have shown potential application in the field of biological control, bio-medicine and food development. Although these fungi are synonymized under Ophiocordyceps, formal taxonomic assignments remain necessary for classification of species in Hirsutella. However, due to the heterogeneity and complexity of Hirsutella genus, more detailed taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses are required to address the following subjects: (1) the relationships between the phialide morphological characteristics and phylogenetic information of Hirsutella with asexual morphs, (2) the origin and evolution of the phialide structure, and (3) host specificity and fungal pathogenicity. Results Five typical phialide structures are summarized, in which the variation in phialide characteristics overlaps well with phylogenetic information. A new member of the special twisted neck clade in the Hirsutella-like group, Ophiocordyceps retorta, was reported based on these analyses. The molecular clock calibration analysis based on one fossil record revealed that Hirsutella (asexual morph) species originated from a common ancestor approximately 102 million years ago (Mya) (Early Cretaceous, Lower Albian) and then resolved into two major lineages. One lineage was typically phialidic, which was a larger shape, including H. guyana, H. nodulosa and H. sinensis clades (86.9 Mya, 95% highest posterior density (HPD): 69.1–101.4 Mya). Another main lineage of the phialides was more diversified and smaller than the former, which included H. citriformis and H. thompsonii clades (71.9 Mya, 95% HPD: 41.8–99.6 Mya). Conclusions Our results showed that certain phialide characteristics of Hirsutella were phylogenetically informative for two groups of taxa. The differentiation of the phialides structures in the major clades demonstrated a clear evolutionary path of Hirsutella (asexual morph) species, which exhibited two trends depending on the host size. Fungi in one of the groups displayed elongated conidiogenous cells with increased complexity of auxiliary structures from the mycelia. The species in another group reduced the volume of phialides and spores, which might be due to an energy-efficient strategy. These results suggested that a common origin allowed for diversification of given clades into separate niches. The distinct parallel evolutionary path combined with the specific phialides structure might result in the host specificity of Hirsutella (asexual morphs). A direct relationship between Hirsutella (asexual morphs) and the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction was not found, which suggested that the diversity of phialides is more likely to be caused by long-term environmental adaptation and evolution rather than dramatic extinction events. This evolutionary result might correspond to the background of important biological and geological events in the late Cretaceous occurring near the divergence times of Hirsutella (asexual morphs)

Additional file 1: of Estimated divergence times of Hirsutella (asexual morphs) in Ophiocordyceps provides insight into evolution of phialide structure

Table S1. GenBank accession numbers for sequences used in the phylogenetic analysis of Hirsutella (asexual morph). Table S2. Morphological comparison among Ophiocordyceps retorta and its related species. (DOC 86 kb

The Fabrication of Ga2O3/ZSM-5 Hollow Fibers for Efficient Catalytic Conversion of n-Butane into Light Olefins and Aromatics

In this study, the dehydrogenation component of Ga2O3 was introduced into ZSM-5 nanocrystals to prepare Ga2O3/ZSM-5 hollow fiber-based bifunctional catalysts. The physicochemical features of as-prepared catalysts were characterized by means of XRD, BET, SEM, STEM, NH3-TPD, etc., and their performances for the catalytic conversion of n-butane to produce light olefins and aromatics were investigated. The results indicated that a very small amount of gallium can cause a marked enhancement in the catalytic activity of ZSM-5 because of the synergistic effect of the dehydrogenation and aromatization properties of Ga2O3 and the cracking function of ZSM-5. Compared with Ga2O3/ZSM-5 nanoparticles, the unique hierarchical macro-meso-microporosity of the as-prepared hollow fibers can effectively enlarge the bifunctionality by enhancing the accessibility of active sites and the diffusion. Consequently, Ga2O3/ZSM-5 hollow fibers show excellent catalytic conversion of n-butane, with the highest yield of light olefins plus aromatics at 600 °C by 87.6%, which is 56.3%, 24.6%, and 13.3% higher than that of ZSM-5, ZSM-5 zeolite fibers, and Ga2O3/ZSM-5, respectively

High anal swab viral load predisposes adverse clinical outcomes in severe COVID-19 patients

ABSTRACTTo identify the association between the kinetics of viral load and clinical outcome in severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients, a retrospective study was performed by involved 188 hospitalized severe COVID-19 patients in the LOTUS China trial. Among the collected 578 paired throat swab (TS) and anal swab (AS) samples, viral RNA was detected in 193 (33.4%) TS and 121 (20.9%) AS. A higher viral RNA load was found in TS than that of AS, with means of 1.0 × 106 and 2.3 × 105 copies/ml, respectively. In non-survivors, the viral RNA in AS was detected earlier than that in survivors (median of 14 days vs 19 days, P = 0.007). The positivity and viral load in AS were higher in non-survivors than that of survivors at week 2 post symptom onset (P = 0.006). A high initial viral load in AS was associated with death (OR 1.368, 95% CI 1.076–1.741, P = 0.011), admission to the intensive care unit (OR 1.237, 95% CI 1.001–1.528, P = 0.049) and need for invasive mechanical ventilation (OR 1.340, 95% CI 1.076–1.669, P = 0.009). Our findings indicated viral replication in extrapulmonary sites should be monitored intensively during antiviral therapy