Microbial denitrification characteristics of typical decentralized wastewater treatment processes based on 16S rRNA sequencing

Despite the widespread application of decentralized wastewater treatment (WWT) facilities in China, relatively few research has used the multi-media biological filter (MMBF) facilities to investigate the microorganism characteristics. This study utilizes 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technology to examine the microbial biodiversity of a representative wastewater treatment (WWT) system in an expressway service area. The pathways of nitrogen removal along the treatment route were analyzed in conjunction with water quality monitoring. The distribution and composition of microbial flora in the samples were examined, and the dominant flora were identified using LEfSe analysis. The FAPROTAX methodology was employed to investigate the relative abundance of genes associated with the nitrogen cycle and to discern the presence of functional genes involved in nitrogen metabolism. On average, the method has a high level of efficiency in removing COD, TN, NH3-N, and TP from the effluent. The analysis of the microbial community identified a total of 40 phyla, 111 classes, 143 orders, 263 families, and 419 genera. The phyla that were predominantly observed include Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria, Nitrospirae, Bacteroidetes. The results show that the system has achieved high performance in nitrogen removal, the abundance of nitrification genes is significantly higher than that of other nitrogen cycle genes such as denitrification, and there are six nitrogen metabolism pathways, primarily nitrification, among which Nitrospirae and Nitrospira are the core differentiated flora that can adapt to low temperature conditions and participate in nitrification, and are the dominant nitrogen removal flora in cold regions. This work aims to comprehensively investigate the diversity and functional properties of the bacterial community in decentralized WWT processes

(−)-Epigallocatechin gallate alleviates chronic unpredictable mild stress-induced depressive symptoms in mice by regulating the mTOR autophagy pathway and inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation

Depression is a global public health issue that is widely studied due to the large number of people it affects and its serious consequences. Clinical studies have shown that regular tea consumption may reduce depression risk. (−)-Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the main tea polyphenol, was observed to alleviate depression, but the underlying mechanism has not been elucidated. In this study, chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) was used to induce depression-like behavior in mice, and behavioral tests, such as sucrose preference test and forced swim test, were performed. Then, ELISA, western blot and QT-PCR tests were used to assess the expression of the key components of the NLRP3 inflammasome and its downstream inflammatory effectors (e.g., IL-1β, IL-18), autophagy markers (Beclin-1, LC3, P62) and apoptosis markers (Bax, Bcl-2) in mouse brain tissues. Changes in serum lipid levels were also assessed. EGCG alleviated CUMS-induced depression-like behavioral changes in mice, reduced activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, inhibited the mTOR signaling pathway, restored autophagy levels, reduced apoptosis marker expression and attenuated abnormal changes in blood lipid levels. Our study demonstrates that EGCG exerts antidepressive effects through multiple mechanisms, providing new insight into the pathological mechanism of depression and laying the foundation for the development of new therapeutic measures

Strongly supported pathways of lineage movement and histograms of the total number of location state transitions of DENV-1–3 in Asia for 1956 to 2015.

<p>(A) Strongly supported state transitions, indicating migration of DENV-1–3 lineages among discrete locations. The size of points corresponds to the number of geographic connections. The colored lines represent statistical support for a given viral movement pathway. Only those viral lineage movements supported with a BF > 6 are shown. (B) Number of expected transitions into and out of each country per serotype. Error bars represent 95% BCIs.</p

Centrality measures of the air passenger network and number of state transitions.

<p>(A) Scatterplot of centrality measures for the air travel network based on degree and betweenness. The “degree” centrality of a given country (node) refers to the number of airlines linking it in the airline network, and the “betweenness” centrality of a given country measures the extent to which a country lies on routes between other countries in airline network (see <a href="http://www.plosntds.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005694#sec002" target="_blank">Methods</a>). The size of each point corresponds to the number of expected Markov jump transitions (including both importations and exportations). (B) Net Markov jump counts, summed across all 3 DENV serotypes. For each country, we summarize the average net Markov jumps (jumps to—jumps from) and their 95% credible intervals. The estimates are ordered from the lowest to highest number of net jumps.</p

Avian influenza H5N1 viral and bird migration networks in Asia

The spatial spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 and its long-term persistence in Asia have resulted in avian influenza panzootics and enormous economic losses in the poultry sector. However, an understanding of the regional long-distance transmission and seasonal patterns of the virus is still lacking. In this study, we present a phylogeographic approach to reconstruct the viral migration network. We show that within each wild fowl migratory flyway, the timing of H5N1 outbreaks and viral migrations are closely associated, but little viral transmission was observed between the flyways. The bird migration network is shown to better reflect the observed viral gene sequence data than other networks and contributes to seasonal H5N1 epidemics in local regions and its large-scale transmission along flyways. These findings have potentially far-reaching consequences, improving our understanding of how bird migration drives the periodic reemergence of H5N1 in Asia

Addendum: Using Satellite Data for the Characterization of Local Animal Reservoir Populations of Hantaan Virus on the Weihe Plain, China. Remote Sens. 2017, 9, 1076

After publication of the research paper[...

Using Satellite Data for the Characterization of Local Animal Reservoir Populations of Hantaan Virus on the Weihe Plain, China

Striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius) are the main host for the Hantaan virus (HTNV), the cause of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in central China. It has been shown that host population density is associated with pathogen dynamics and disease risk. Thus, a higher population density of A. agrarius in an area might indicate a higher risk for an HFRS outbreak. Here, we surveyed the A. agrarius population density between 2005 and 2012 on the Weihe Plain, Shaanxi Province, China, and used this monitoring data to examine the relationships between the dynamics of A. agrarius populations and environmental conditions of crop-land, represented by remote sensing based indicators. These included the normalized difference vegetation index, leaf area index, fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation, net photosynthesis (PsnNet), gross primary productivity, and land surface temperature. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to detect the possible causal relationship between PsnNet, A. agrarius population density and HFRS risk. The results showed that A. agrarius was the most frequently captured species with a capture rate of 0.9 individuals per hundred trap-nights, during 96 months of trapping in the study area. The risk of HFRS was highly associated with the abundance of A. agrarius, with a 1–5-month lag. The breeding season of A. agrarius was also found to coincide with agricultural activity and seasons with high PsnNet. The SEM indicated that PsnNet had an indirect positive effect on HFRS incidence via rodents. In conclusion, the remote sensing-based environmental indicator, PsnNet, was highly correlated with HTNV reservoir population dynamics with a 3-month lag (r = 0.46, p &lt; 0.01), and may serve as a predictor of potential HFRS outbreaks

Growing airline networks in Asia.

<p>(A) Number of nodes (countries belonging to the Asian air transport network), the number of airlines, and total passenger flow in the Asian air transport network between 1982–2012. Records are not available for the period 1983–1991, so dashed lines represented imputed missing values obtained by linear interpolation. (B) Passenger flux in Asia in 1982, 2000 and 2012. The size of each node corresponds to the degree centrality of the country in the airline network. Color coded lines represent the volume of air passenger flux. Node colors correspond to the countries indicated on the right-hand side of the figure. Black points indicate countries for which no virus sequence was included in the genetic analyses. China shares one of the busiest Asian flight routes with Japan, which is indicated by an asterisk.</p