CellGO: a novel deep learning-based framework and webserver for cell-type-specific gene function interpretation.

Interpreting the function of genes and gene sets identified from omics experiments remains a challenge, as current pathway analysis tools often fail to consider the critical biological context, such as tissue or cell-type specificity. To address this limitation, we introduced CellGO. CellGO tackles this challenge by leveraging the visible neural network (VNN) and single-cell gene expressions to mimic cell-type-specific signaling propagation along the Gene Ontology tree within a cell. This design enables a novel scoring system to calculate the cell-type-specific gene-pathway paired active scores, based on which, CellGO is able to identify cell-type-specific active pathways associated with single genes. In addition, by aggregating the activities of single genes, CellGO extends its capability to identify cell-type-specific active pathways for a given gene set. To enhance biological interpretation, CellGO offers additional features, including the identification of significantly active cell types and driver genes and community analysis of pathways. To validate its performance, CellGO was assessed using a gene set comprising mixed cell-type markers, confirming its ability to discern active pathways across distinct cell types. Subsequent benchmarking analyses demonstrated CellGO's superiority in effectively identifying cell types and their corresponding cell-type-specific pathways affected by gene knockouts, using either single genes or sets of genes differentially expressed between knockout and control samples. Moreover, CellGO demonstrated its ability to infer cell-type-specific pathogenesis for disease risk genes. Accessible as a Python package, CellGO also provides a user-friendly web interface, making it a versatile and accessible tool for researchers in the field.

Genetic mapping and functional analysis of a classical tassel branch number mutant Tp2 in maize.

Tassel branch number is a key trait that contributes greatly to grain yield in maize (Zea mays). We obtained a classical mutant from maize genetics cooperation stock center, Teopod2 (Tp2), which exhibits severely decreased tassel branch. We conducted a comprehensive study, including phenotypic investigation, genetic mapping, transcriptome analysis, overexpression and CRISPR knock-out, and tsCUT&Tag of Tp2 gene for the molecular dissection of Tp2 mutant. Phenotypic investigation showed that it is a pleiotropic dominant mutant, which is mapped to an interval of approximately 139-kb on Chromosome 10 harboring two genes Zm00001d025786 and zma-miR156h. Transcriptome analysis showed that the relative expression level of zma-miR156h was significantly increased in mutants. Meanwhile, overexpression of zma-miR156h and knockout materials of ZmSBP13 exhibited significantly decreased tassel branch number, a similar phenotype with Tp2 mutant, suggesting that zma-miR156h is the causal gene of Tp2 and targets ZmSBP13 gene. Besides, the potential downstream genes of ZmSBP13 were uncovered and showed that it may target multiple proteins to regulate inflorescence structure. Overall, we characterized and cloned Tp2 mutant, and proposed a zma-miR156h-ZmSBP13 model functioning in regulating tassel branch development in maize, which is an essential measure to satisfy the increasing demands of cereals.

Case Report: Chronic hepatitis E in a hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient: The first report of hepatitis E virus genotype 4 causing chronic infection in a non-solid organ recipient.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the most important public health issues around the world, and chronic HEV infection has been reported in immunosuppressed individuals. This study reported a male case, with very severe aplastic anemia (AA), who developed chronic hepatitis E after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Abnormal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) appeared after HSCT and persisted for twenty-nine months. The case was seropositive for anti-HEV IgG and IgM after HSCT. Twenty-two months after HSCT, HEV RNA and antigen (Ag) testing were positive and persisted for five and seven months, respectively. Positive stains of HEV Ag were present in a liver biopsy sample. HEV Ag was present in bone marrow. The individual rapidly developed liver cirrhosis and was rescued by a regimen of oral ribavirin. These factors suggested there is a risk of HEV infection in HSCT recipients.

Mesenchymal stem cell-originated exosomal circDIDO1 suppresses hepatic stellate cell activation by miR-141-3p/PTEN/AKT pathway in human liver fibrosis.

Liver fibrosis is a common pathologic stage of the development of liver failure. It has showed that exosomes loaded with therapeutic circRNAs can be manufactured in bulk by exosome secreted cells in vitro, thus enabling personalized treatment. This study aimed to investigate the role of exosome-based delivery of circDIDO1 in liver fibrosis. Levels of genes and proteins were examined by qRT-PCR and Western blot. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle were analyzed by using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, EdU assay, and flow cytometry, respectively. The binding between circDIDO1 and miR-141-3p was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter, RNA pull-down and RIP assays. Exosomes were isolated by ultracentrifugation, and qualified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and Western blot. CircDIDO1 overexpression or miR-141-3p inhibition suppressed the proliferation, reduced pro-fibrotic markers, and induced apoptosis as well as cell cycle arrest in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) by blocking PTEN/AKT pathway. Mechanistically, circDIDO1 acted as an endogenous sponge for miR-141-3p, further rescue experiments showed that circDIDO1 suppressed HSC activation by targeting miR-141-3p. Extracellular circDIDO1 could be incorporated into exosomes isolated from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and transmitted to HSCs to restrain HSC activation. Clinically, low levels of serum circDIDO1 in exosome were correlated with liver failure, and serum exosomal circDIDO1 had a well diagnostic value for liver fibrosis in liver failure patients. Transfer of circDIDO1 mediated by MSC-isolated exosomes suppressed HSC activation through the miR-141-3p/PTEN/AKT pathway, gaining a new insight into the prevention of liver fibrosis in liver failure patients.

Characterization and genome analysis of two new Aeromonas hydrophila phages, PZL-Ah1and PZL-Ah8.

Aeromonas hydrophila (A. hydrophila) is an opportunistic pathogen of fish, humans, and livestock, and has a severe negative impact on aquaculture development. Phage therapy is considered an alternative strategy for controlling bacterial infections and contamination. In this study, we isolated and characterized the genomes of two A. hydrophila-specific phages, PZL-Ah1 and PZL-Ah8, which, based on transmission electron microscopy, were identified as members of the family Podoviridae. Both of these phages had a relatively narrow host range, with lytic activity against Aeromonas spp. strains. Whole-genome sequence analysis revealed that PZL-Ah1 and PZL-Ah8 have a double-stranded DNA genome of 38,641 bp and 40,855 bp in length, with a GC content of 53.68% and 51.89%, respectively. Forty-four open reading frames (ORFs) were predicted in PZL-Ah1, and 52 were predicted in PZL-Ah8. Twenty-eight (63.6%) ORFs in PZL-Ah1 and 29 (55.8%) ORFs in PZL-Ah8 were predicted to encode functional proteins with homologs in the NCBI database, while the remaining ORFs were classified as encoding hypothetical proteins with unknown functions. A comparison with known phage genes suggested that ORF 02, ORF 29, and ORF 04 of PZL-Ah1 and ORF 2 and ORF 4 of PZL-Ah8 are involved in host cell lysis. This study expands the phage genome database and provides good candidates for phage typing applications.

circNFIX facilitates hepatocellular carcinoma progression by targeting miR-3064-5p/HMGA2 to enhance glutaminolysis.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is acknowledged to be a fatal malignant cancer around the world. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) function as crucial regulators in the pathological procession of HCC. Here, we elucidated the biological function of a novel circRNA, circNFIX, in HCC tumorigenesis. qRT-PCR was performed to determine the expressions of circNFIX, miR-3064-5p, and HMGA2. circNFIX stability was evaluated after treatment with ribonuclease R. The growth and invasion of HCC cells were assessed by CCK8 and transwell assays. Protein levels were measured by Western blotting. The levels of glutaminolysis metabolites were evaluated by commercial kits. Dual-luciferase report assay, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay and RNA pull-down assay were performed for validating the interaction between miR-3064-5p and circNFIX/HMGA2. Tumor growth in vivo was detected using xenograft assay. Our results showed that circNFIX was remarkably up-regulated in HCC and was associated with a poor survival. Knockdown of circNFIX repressed proliferation, invasion and glutaminolysis of HCC cells. Moreover, circNFIX directly sponged miR-3064-5p to release HMGA2 expression, and thus conferred the malignant development of HCC. In conclusion, circNFIX serves as a competing endogenous RNA to accelerate HCC progression via regulating miR-3064-5p/HMGA2 axis, suggesting a therapeutic strategy for HCC intervention.

Effects of miR-103a-3p Targeted Regulation of TRIM66 Axis on Docetaxel Resistance and Glycolysis in Prostate Cancer Cells.

Objective: We aimed to study the expressions of miR-103a-3p and TRIM66 in prostate cancer (PCa) cells, explore the direct target genes of miR-103a-3p, and analyze the effects of miR-103a-3p targeted regulation of the TRIM66 axis on docetaxel (DTX) resistance and glycolysis of PCa cells. Methods: Human normal prostate cells and PCa cells were used to detect the expressions of miR-103a-3p and TRIM66 and analyze their relationship. DTX-resistant (DR) PCa cells were established and transfected with miR-103a-3p and TRIM66 plasmids. The MTT assay, the plate cloning assay, the wound healing assay, and the Transwell assay were used to detect cell viability, colony formation, cell migration, and cell invasion, respectively. Cell glycolysis was analyzed using a cell glycolysis kit. Results: The expression of miR-103a-3p was low and that of TRIM66 was high in PCa cells. MiR-103a-3p had a binding site with TRIM66, and the double luciferase report confirmed that they had a targeting relationship. Compared with the PCa group cells, the DTX-resistant group cells showed increased resistance to DTX. The resistance index was 13.33, and the doubling time of the DTX-resistant group cells was significantly longer than that of the PCa group cells. The DTX-resistant group showed more obvious low expression of miR-103a-3p and high expression of TRIM66. After the DTX-resistant group cells were transfected with miR-103a-3p and TRIM66 plasmids, the expression of miR-103a-3p increased significantly and that of TRIM66 decreased significantly. Upregulation of miR-103a-3p and interference with TRIM66 can inhibit the proliferation, metastasis, and glycolysis of DTX-resistant cells. Conclusion: The expression of miR-103a-3p was downregulated and that of TRIM66 was upregulated in the malignant progression of PCa, especially during DTX resistance. Upregulation of miR-103a-3p and interference with TRIM66 can inhibit DTX resistance and glycolysis of PCa cells. Targeting TRIM66 may provide potential application value in molecular therapy for PCa.

Spatiotemporal variability of glacier changes and their controlling factors in the Kanchenjunga region, Himalaya based on multi-source remote sensing data from 1975 to 2015.

Spatio-temporal behavior of glaciers in the Himalayas has varied greatly in response to reported climate warming and other modulating factors such as topography, debris cover, and glacier morphology. In this paper, 429 glaciers were examined in the Kanchenjunga region in the middle of the Himalayas. Geodetic methods, feature-based image matching, and multi-parametric integrated approaches were used to detect differences of glacier change and the dominant characteristics driving these differences based on digital elevation models (DEMs), Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI images, Envisat/ASAR and Sentinel-1 data. The results showed that the average change rates in glacier area and surface elevation in 1975-2015 were -0.18 ± 0.07% a-1 and - 0.32 ± 0.02 m a-1, respectively. The rates of areal shrinkage of glaciers and the glacier surface velocity on the northern side of the Himalayan crest were 1.25 and 1.7 times larger than those of the glaciers on the southern slopes, respectively, whereas the rates of glacier thinning were lower in the north than in the south. The temperature increase from 1975 to 2015 caused an overall widespread glacier retreat in the region. However, differences in the topography of the Kanchenjunga region led to spatial variability in glacier changes with discrepancies as large as several times. The features of individual glaciers, such as glacier size, debris cover, and development of ice-contact glacial lakes enhanced the local complexity of glacier change and elusive response behaviors of the glaciers to climate warming led by the different topographic conditions.

Toward Current Matching in Tandem Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

The tandem pn-type dye-sensitized solar cells (pn-DSCs) have received much attention in the field of photovoltaic technologies because of their great potential to overcome the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limitation that applies to single junction photovoltaic devices. However, factors governing the short-circuit current densities (Jsc) of pn-DSC remain unclear. It is typically believed that Jsc of the pn-DSC is limited to the highest one that the two independent photoelectrodes can achieve. In this paper, however, we found that the available Jsc of pn-DSC is always determined by the larger Jsc that the photoanode can achieve but not by the smaller one in the photocathode. Such experimental findings were verified by a simplified series circuit model, which shows that a breakdown will occur on the photocathode when the photocurrent goes considerably beyond its threshold voltage, thus leading to an abrupt increase in Jsc of the circuit. The simulation results also suggest that a higher photoconversion efficiency of the pn-DSCs can be only achieved when an almost equivalent photocurrent is achieved for the two photoelectrodes.

Use of solution-processed zinc oxide to prevent the breakdown in silver nanowire networks.

The electrical breakdown is a bottleneck preventing AgNW networks from being used in high-current electronics such as transparent heaters or similar applications. The process of failure confirms that Joule-heating plays a key role in the formation of cracks perpendicular to the voltage direction. To improve the transfer of Joule heating, solution-processed ZnO nanoparticles were deposited on a gravure printed AgNW random network with good transparency. The AgNW-ZnO nanocomposites show better heating uniformity at higher temperatures because of their improved thermal conductivity. A 57.7% higher power density was obtained without failure, as well as the improved maximum average temperature rise from 72.2 °C to 97.9 °C, after the AgNW was composited with ZnO. This work opens up a new method to study AgNW failures for applications in high-current electronics.

Efficiency above 12% for 1 cm2 Flexible Organic Solar Cells with Ag/Cu Grid Transparent Conducting Electrode.

With the rapid progress of organic solar cells (OSCs), improvement in the efficiency of large-area flexible OSCs (>1 cm2) is crucial for real applications. However, the development of the large-area flexible OSCs severely lags behind the growth of the small-area OSCs, with the electrical loss due to the large sheet resistance of the electrode being a main reason. Herein, a high conductive and high transparent Ag/Cu composite grid with sheet resistance <1 Ω sq-1 and an average visible light transparency of 84% is produced as the transparent conducting electrode of flexible OSCs. Based on this Ag/Cu composite grid electrode, a high efficiency of 12.26% for 1 cm2 flexible OSCs is achieved. The performances of large-area flexible OSCs also reach 7.79% (4 cm2) and 7.35% (9 cm2), respectively, which are much higher than those of the control devices with conventional flexible indium tin oxide electrodes. Surface planarization using highly conductive PEDOT:PSS and modification of the ZnO buffer layer by zirconium acetylacetonate (ZrAcac) are two necessary steps to achieve high performance. The flexible OSCs employing Ag/Cu grid have excellent mechanical bending resistance, maintaining high performance after bending at a radius of 2 mm.

A digital microfluidic diluter-based microalgal motion biosensor for marine pollution monitoring.

Marine pollution and monitoring have received more and more concern in recent years. Herein, a fully automatic whole-algae biosensor was designed for low-cost and fast detection of toxic contaminants in seawater. It consists of a digital microfluidic (DMF) diluter chip, an actuation element, a detector element, and a microalgae bioreporter. A feedback-control protocol based on charging-time compensation was introduced. It ensures precise actuation of the droplet with diverse salty concentrations and contents in the marine environment. The two-mixer cross-split dilution engine increases the accuracy of droplet dispensing and concentration diluting. By selecting motility of P. subcordiformis as the sensor signal, the developed biosensor showed good sensitivity and robustness for a wide range of salinity (10-37‰), temperature (0-25 °C), light levels (0-325 µmol photons m-2 s-1), and cell density factor (1.0-4.0). The biosensor responses were examined in the presence of copper, lead, phenol, and nonylphenol (NP). In all cases, toxic responses (i.e. dose-related inhibition of algal motion) were detected with the detection limits of 0.65  µmol.L-1, 1.90  µmol.L-1, 2.85 mmol.L-1, and 5.22  µmol.L-1 respectively. These results were obtained in a much shorter time (2 h for our biosensor vs. 24 h-10 d for growth inhibition test) and the data are consistent with previous classical studies. We thus developed a simple, rapid, and adaptable system for marine routine monitoring and early-warning detection for lab and on-site applications.

Trait ontology analysis based on association mapping studies bridges the gap between crop genomics and Phenomics.

BACKGROUND: Trait ontology (TO) analysis is a powerful system for functional annotation and enrichment analysis of genes. However, given the complexity of the molecular mechanisms underlying phenomes, only a few hundred gene-to-TO relationships in plants have been elucidated to date, limiting the pace of research in this "big data" era. RESULTS: Here, we curated all the available trait associated sites (TAS) information from 79 association mapping studies of maize (Zea mays L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.) lines with diverse genetic backgrounds and built a large-scale TAS-derived TO system for functional annotation of genes in various crops. Our TO system contains information for up to 18,042 genes (6345 in maize at the 25 k level and 11,697 in rice at the 50 k level), including gene-to-TO relationships, which covers over one fifth of the annotated gene sets for maize and rice. A comparison of Gene Ontology (GO) vs. TO analysis demonstrated that the TAS-derived TO system is an efficient alternative tool for gene functional annotation and enrichment analysis. We therefore combined information from the TO, GO, metabolic pathway, and co-expression network databases and constructed the TAS system, which is publicly available at http://tas.hzau.edu.cn . TAS provides a user-friendly interface for functional annotation of genes, enrichment analysis, genome-wide extraction of trait-associated genes, and crosschecking of different functional annotation databases. CONCLUSIONS: TAS bridges the gap between genomic and phenomic information in crops. This easy-to-use tool will be useful for geneticists, biologists, and breeders in the agricultural community, as it facilitates the dissection of molecular mechanisms conferring agronomic traits in an easy, genome-wide manner.

Computer-aided design of microfluidic resistive network using circuit partition and CFD-based optimization and application in microalgae assessment for marine ecological toxicity.

We present an automatic design process for microfluidic dilution network towards marine ecological toxicity assessment on microalgae. Based on the hydraulic-electric circuit analogy, we defined an abstract specification using computer-aided designing system. Several approaches, especially circuit partition, were applied to minimize design effort. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was exploited to convert the electrics specification to fabrication model. We automatically designed the combinational-mixing-serial dilution microfluidics to generate parallel stepwise gradients for mixing chemicals (binary/ternary/quaternary mixture) using the present algorithm. We critically discussed design rules and evaluated the microfluidic performance by colorimetric analysis. To examine whether these microfluidic chips can be used for toxicity test on microalgae, single and joint toxic effects of heavy metals (copper, mercury, zinc, and cadmium) were examined on line. In all cases, dose-related toxic responses were successfully detected. These results provided a solution for designing resistive network using circuit partition and CFD-based optimization and a route to develop a promising user-friendly alternative for microalgae bioassays as well as cell-based screening experiments in risk assessment.

Competing risks and cause-specific mortality in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Currently, there are no competing risk analyses of cause-specific mortality in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We estimated a cumulative incidence function for cause-specific mortality. The first nomogram for predicting cause-specific mortality was constructed using a proportional subdistribution hazard model, validated using bootstrap cross-validation, and evaluated with decision curve analysis. RESULTS: Sex, age, positive lymph node status, metastasis, surveillance, epidemiology, and end results historic stage, grade, and surgery strongly predicted cause-specific mortality. The discrimination performance of Fine-Gray models was evaluated using the c-index, which was 0.864. In addition, the calibration plot of the developed nomogram demonstrated good concordance between the predicted and actual outcomes. Decision curve analysis yielded a range of threshold probabilities (0.014-0.779) at which the clinical net benefit of the risk model was greater than that in hypothetical all-screening or no-screening scenarios. CONCLUSION: Our nomogram allows selection of a patient population at high risk for cancer-specific mortality and thus facilitates the design of prevention trials for the affected population.

Development of Microfluidic Dilution Network-Based System for Lab-on-a-Chip Microalgal Bioassays.

Because of the crucial ecological significance of microalgae, microalgal bioassays have become one of the most demanding tests from all classic aquatic toxicity tests in regulatory frameworks. However, conventional algal tests tend to be lab-intensive and time- and space-consuming, and they have not been utilized to their full potential for routine toxicity assessments. Microfluidics should be a user-friendly alternative. Particularly, dilution to generate gradients that are appropriate for screening experiments can be precisely attained by microfluidic network in a simple and cost-/time-/space-saving way. Here, we demonstrate a microfluidics series toward routine microalgal bioassays, including pretest, single, and joint toxicity test. The chip mainly consists of upstream dilution network (single serial dilution module (logarithmic/linear gradient generator) or multiple (binary/ternary/quaternary) mixing serial dilution module) and downstream diffusible culturing module. It allows the processes of chemical liquid dilution and diffusion, microscale microalgal culture, cell stimulation, and online screening to be integrated into a single device. Electric theorems with the aid of EDA (electronic design automation) simulation were innovatively introduced to minimize design effort for such systems. Using the device, microalgae were successfully cultured and stressed on-chip. The simple assay provides multibiological trait assessments of cell division rate, autofluorescence, esterase activity, and mobile capacity. This work showed promise in developing a high-throughput microfluidic platform for microalgal bioassays as well as lab-on-a-chip screening experiments in the cell-based quantitative assessment of environmental health risks.

Knockdown of LOXL1 inhibits TGF-ß1-induced proliferation and fibrogenesis of hepatic stellate cells by inhibition of Smad2/3 phosphorylation.

Liver fibrosis is pathological condition that seriously threatens human health. The lysyl oxidase (LOX) family has been reported to promote liver fibrosis. However, the effect of LOX-like 1 (LOXL1), a member of LOX family, on fibrogenesis of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) remains unknown. The current study aimed to investigate the role of LOXL1 in liver fibrosis and the potential mechanism. We found that the mRNA and protein levels of LOXL1 were increased in transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-ß1)-stimulated human hepatic stellate cell line LX-2. Knockdown of LOXL1 inhibited the proliferation of TGF-ß1-stimulated LX-2 cells. Knockdown of LOXL1 suppressed TGF-ß1-induced expression of metalloproteinase type 1 (TIMP1), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and collagen type I (Col-I), as well as phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3 in LX-2 cells. In addition, the cell proliferation and fibrogenesis mediated by TGF-ß1 stimulation and LOXL1 overexpression were abolished by knockdown of Smad2 and Smad3. Collectively, knockdown of LOXL1 suppressed cell proliferation and fibrogenesis in TGF-ß1-stimulated HSCs via regulating the phosphorylation of Smad2/3.

Silane-Capped ZnO Nanoparticles for Use as the Electron Transport Layer in Inverted Organic Solar Cells.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles are widely used as electron- transport layer (ETL) materials in organic solar cells and are considered to be the candidate with the most potential for ETLs in roll-to-roll (R2R)-printed photovoltaics. However, the tendency of the nanoparticles to aggregate reduces the stability of the metal oxide inks and creates many surface defects, which is a major barrier to its printing application. With the aim of improving the stability of metal oxide nanoparticle dispersions and suppressing the formation of surface defects, we prepared 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS)-capped ZnO (ZnO@APTMS) nanoparticles through surface ligand exchange. The ZnO@APTMS nanoparticles exhibited excellent dispersibility in ethanol, an environmentally friendly solvent, and remained stable in air for at least one year without any aggregation. The capping of the ZnO nanoparticles with APTMS also reduced the number of surface-adsorbed oxygen defects, improved the charge transfer efficiency, and suppressed the light-soaking effect. The thickness of the ZnO@APTMS ETL could reach 100 nm without an obvious decrease in the performance. Large-area APTMS-modified ZnO films were successfully fabricated through roll-to-roll microgravure printing and exhibited good performance in flexible organic solar cells. This work demonstrated the distinct advantages of this ZnO@APTMS ETL as a potential buffer layer for printed organic electronics.

Long-term effects of combined divalent copper and tetracycline on the performance, microbial activity and community in a sequencing batch reactor.

The long-term effects of combined divalent copper (Cu(II)) and tetracycline (TC) on the performance, microbial activity and community in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) were investigated. The addition of Cu(II), TC or mixed Cu(II)/TC caused the decrease of the organics and nitrogen removal efficiencies, and their decreased degrees were the lowest at the addition of mixed Cu(II)/TC. The increase of mixed Cu(II)/TC concentrations in the influent did not change the antagonistic effects between Cu(II) and TC on nitrifying and denitrifying activities. Nitrifiers had higher tolerances to Cu(II), TC and mixed Cu(II)/TC than denitrifiers. Compared to the addition of Cu(II) or TC alone, the microbial community richness was higher at the addition of mixed Cu(II)/TC, while the microbial community diversity was lower. The increased protein (PN) in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) was a protective response of bacteria to Cu(II), TC and mixed Cu(II)/TC.

Semiconductor Sensitized Solar Cells Based on BiVO4-Sensitized Mesoporous SnO2 Photoanodes.

Low cost, stable and visible-light-responsive bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) was used as the light absorbing material to fabricate a low bandgap oxide solar cell on mesoporous SnO2 photoanode. BiVO4 nanoparticles were grown on the mesoporous SnO2 films employing successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction process. The optimized BiVO4 solar cell shows an incident photon to current conversion efficiency of more than 60% at a wide range of visible region (350 nm-450 nm), leading to a power conversion efficiency of 0.56% at AM1.5, 100 mW x cm(-2). This result provides important insights into the low cost and robust oxide solar cells.