Remarkable increase in the detection and molecular characterization of adenovirus F41 in children with acute gastroenteritis in Japan, 2017-2023.

Human adenovirus (HAdV) is one of the causative viruses of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children worldwide. Species F is known to be enteric adenovirus (genotypes 40 and 41) detected in stool samples. In Japan, we conducted an epidemiological study and molecular characterization of HAdV before and after the COVID-19 pandemic from 2017 to 2023. Among 821 patients, HAdV was detected in 118 AGE cases (14.4%). During a period of 6 years, the HAdV detection rates for each year were relatively low at 3.7% and 0%, in 2017-2018, and 2020-2021, respectively. However, the detection rate increased to remarkably high rates, ranging from 13.3% to 27.3% in the other 4-year periods. Of these HAdV-positive strains, 83.1% were F41 genotypes and 16.9% were other genotypes (A31, B3, C1, C2/C6, and C5). Phylogenetic analyses of the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the full-length hexon gene demonstrated that HAdV-F41 strains were comprised of three clades, and each clade was distributed across the study period from 2017 to 2023. Analysis of deduced amino acid sequences of the hexon gene of the representative HAdV-F41 strains from each clade revealed numerous amino acid substitutions across hypervariable regions (HVRs) from HVR-1 to HVR-7, two insertions in HVR-1 and HVR-7, and two deletions in HVR-1 and HVR-2 of the hexon gene compared to those of the prototype strain, particularly, those of clade 3 HAdV-F41 strains. The findings suggested that the HAdV-F41 of each clade was stable, conserved, and co-circulated for over two decades in Japan.

Fabrication of high performance Ti/SnO2-Nb2O5 electrodes for electrochemical textile wastewater treatment.

Textile wastewater contains many organic compounds and colors that affect aquatic life and human health when discharged into the environment. High coloration due to excess dyes entering the wastewater causes coloration to the receiving water stream, affects the photosynthesis process of aquatic species, and adversely affects the landscape. SnO2-based electrodes have been extensively used in electrochemical water treatment, but their low durability decreases the pollutant treatment ability. Therefore, it is necessary to add another stable oxide to improve the performance and stability of SnO2 electrodes. This study aims to fabricate Ti/SnO2-Nb2O5 electrodes for the textile wastewater treatment using the electrochemical oxidation method. Different molar ratios of SnO2:Nb2O5 coating were prepared using the sol-gel method and then coated on the Ti substrates for calcination in 60 min at 500 °C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to determine the surface and electrochemical properties of Ti/SnO2-Nb2O5 electrodes. The SEM images show that SnO2-Nb2O5 electrode surfaces have the appearance of typical cracking structures of mixed metal oxides electrodes. The XRD spectrum show the SnO2 peaks of facet (110), (101), (200), (301), (321) and Nb2O5 peaks of facet (001), (002), (100), (101), (102) on Ti substrates. Furthermore, the specific surface area of the Ti/SnO2-Nb2O5 electrode ranges from 37.354 m2/g (SnO2:Nb2O5 = 9:1) to 71.885 m2/g (SnO2:Nb2O5 = 1:9). The electrochemical properties of SnO2:Nb2O5 electrodes showed high oxygen, chlorine evolution potential and high organic pollutant degradation in textile wastewater with COD removal at 83 %, decolorization at 74 % and the generation of many free radicals such as HO•, H2O2, O3, Cl2. The results demonstrate that the Ti/SnO2-Nb2O5 electrode with the mole ratio of 3:7 is the best in textile wastewater treatment with the longest service life (39 h).