Comparison of different intensive triglyceride-lowering therapies in patients with hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to investigate the clinical value of emergent triglyceride (TG)-lowering therapies for hyperlipidemic acute pancreatitis (HLAP). METHODS: 126 HLAP patients were assigned randomly to receive either conventional treatment (CT), normal saline (NS) alone, or continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) as an intensive TG-lowering therapy. TG levels, clinical outcomes, and inflammatory biomarkers were compared among the three groups. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics did not differ significantly among the groups. CVVH removed TG from the plasma and achieved its target TG (<500 mg/dL) in approximately 25 h, compared to 40 h in the NS alone group and no targeted effect within 48 h in the CT group (P < 0.05). Although the majority of clinical outcomes did not differ significantly, an unexpectedly higher incidence of organ failure occurred in the CVVH group compared to the others. Hospital costs, severe AP patients and length of stay were significantly higher in the CVVH group compared to the other groups (P < 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Early CVVH lowers TG levels more efficiently than NS alone or CT therapy, but is not superior in terms of clinical outcomes and costs. NS also lowers TG levels and is significantly less costly than the other two treatments. Further multicenter studies are needed to determine the feasibility of NS alone treatment for HLAP patients.

Achieving robust nitritation in a modified continuous-flow reactor: From micro-granule cultivation to nitrite-oxidizing bacteria elimination.

In this study, a modified continuous-flow nitrifying reactor was successfully operated for rapid cultivation of micro-granules and achieving robust nitritation. Results showed that sludge granulation with mean size of ca. 100 µm was achieved within three weeks by gradually increasing settling velocity-based selection pressure from 0.48 to 0.9 m/hr. Though Nitrospira like nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were enriched in the micro-granules with a ratio between ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and NOB of 5.7%/6.5% on day 21, fast nitritation was achieved within one-week by gradually increasing of influent ammonium concentration (from 50 to 200 mg/L). Maintaining ammonium in-excess was the key for repressing NOB in the micro-granules. Interestingly, when the influent ammonium concentration switched back to 50 mg/L still with the residual ammonium of 15-25 mg/L, the nitrite accumulation efficiency increased from 90% to 98%. Experimental results suggested that the NOB repression was intensified by both oxygen and nitrite unavailability in the inner layers of micro-granules. Unexpectedly, continuous operation with ammonium in excess resulted in overproduction of extracellular polysaccharides and overgrowth of some bacteria (e.g., Nitrosomonas, Arenimonas, and Flavobacterium), which deteriorated the micro-granule stability and drove the micro-granules aggregation into larger ones with irregular morphology. However, efficient nitritation was stably maintained with extremely high ammonium oxidation potential (> 50 mg/g VSS/hr) and nearly complete washout of NOB was obtained. This suggested that smooth and spherical granule was not a prerequisite for achieving NOB wash-out and maintaining effective nitritation in the granular reactor. Overall, the micro-granules exhibited a great practical potential for high-rate nitritation.

Achieving high-rate partial nitritation with aerobic granular sludge at low temperatures.

Partial nitritation is necessary for the implementation of the mainstream anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation) process in wastewater treatment plants. However, the difficulty in outcompeting nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) at mainstream conditions hinders the performance of partial nitritation. The present work aimed to develop a high-rate partial nitritation process for low-ammonium wastewater treatment at low temperatures by seeding aerobic granules. Experimental results suggested that both stratified structure of nitrifiers developed in the granules and sufficient residual ammonium concentration (18-35 mg N L-1) in the bulk liquid contributed to efficient NOB repression. With the hydraulic retention time progressively shortened from 1.0 to 0.17 h, the influent nitrogen loading rate of the partial nitritation process reached 6.8 ± 0.4 kg N m-3 d-1 even at 10-15 °C. The high concentration (7.5 gVSS L-1) and activity (0.48 g N g-1 VSS d-1 at 11 °C) of granular sludge made the reactor possess an overcapacity evaluated by the ratio between the actual ammonium oxidation rate of the granules and their maximum potential. The overcapacity helped the reactor to face the adverse effect of decreasing temperatures. Overall, this work indicated the great potential of applying aerobic granules to achieve high-rate partial nitritation at mainstream conditions. Moreover, anammox bacteria with a relative abundance of 2.8% was also identified in the partial nitritation granules at the end of this study, suggesting that the granules provided a habitable niche for anammox bacteria growth. Note that these results cannot fully relate to the treatment of real domestic/municipal wastewater, they are a source of important information increasing the knowledge about low temperature partial nitrification.

Two-stage partial nitritation-anammox process for high-rate mainstream deammonification.

Increasing information supported that achieving high-rate mainstream deammonification through two-stage partial nitritation (PN)-anammox process should be a better option than through single-stage process. However, direct experimental evidence was limited so far. Herein, a two-stage PN-anammox process was successfully operated for nitrogen removal from low-strength wastewater in winter. Influent shift from synthetic wastewater to actual anaerobically pretreated sewage had little impact on the process performance. Promising nitrogen removal rates (NRRs) of 0.28-0.07 kg N m-3 d-1 with an average effluent concentration of 5.2 mg TN L-1 were achieved for the anaerobically pretreated sewage treatment at 15-7 °C. Moreover, nearly all the degradable COD in the pretreated sewage was steadily removed in the first-stage PN reactor, despite the varied influent COD concentrations of 22-78 mg L-1 and the operating temperature decrease, suggesting the positive role of the first-stage PN in protecting anammox bacteria. The low temperature seemingly was the only deterministic factor inhibiting the anammox activity, and hence made the anammox reaction to be the rate-limiting step for nitrogen removal in the two-stage PN-anammox process. Unexpectedly, nearly all the anammox bacteria remained active at low temperatures with the process actual anammox activity reached about 76-85% of their maximum potential, implying that higher NRRs would be easily realized through bioaugmentation or enrichment of anammox bacteria. Overall, the present investigation provides direct and valuable information for implementing the two-stage PN-anammox process to treat mainstream municipal wastewater. A control strategy was also proposed to optimize the operation of the two-stage mainstream deammonification process.

Single-stage autotrophic nitrogen removal process at high loading rate: granular reactor performance, kinetics, and microbial characterization.

For the possible highest performance of single-stage combined partial nitritation/anammox (PNA) process, a continuous complete-mix granular reactor was operated at progressively higher nitrogen loading rate. The variations in bacterial community structure of granules were also characterized using high-throughput pyrosequencing, to give a detail insight to the relationship between reactor performance and functional organism abundance within completely autotrophic nitrogen removal system. In 172 days of operation, a superior total nitrogen (TN) removal rate over 3.9 kg N/(m3/day) was stable implemented at a fixed dissolved oxygen concentration of 1.9 mg/L, corresponding to the maximum specific substrate utilization rate of 0.36/day for TN based on the related kinetics modeling. Pyrosequencing results revealed that the genus Nitrosomonas responsible for aerobic ammonium oxidation was dominated on the granule surface, which was essential to offer the required niche for the selective enrichment of anammox bacteria (genus Candidatus Kuenenia) in the inner layer. And the present of various heterotrophic organisms with general functions, known as fermentation and denitrification, could not be overlooked. In addition, it was believed that an adequate excess of ammonium in the bulk liquid played a key role in maintaining process stability, by suppressing the growth of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria through dual-substrate competitions.

Cultivation and characteristics of partial nitrification granular sludge in a sequencing batch reactor inoculated with heterotrophic granules.

The aim of this study was to develop a simple operation strategy for the cultivation of partial nitrification granules (PNGs) treating an autotrophic medium. For this strategy, aerobic granular sludge adapted to high concentration organics removal was seeded in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with a height/diameter ratio of 3.8, and the ratio of organics to the ammonia nitrogen-loading rate (C/N ratio) in the influent was employed as the main control parameter to start up the partial nitrification process. After 86 days of operation, the nitrite accumulation rate reached 1.44 kg/(m3 day) in the SBR, and the removal efficiency of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) was over 95 %. The PNGs showed a dense and compact structure, with an excellent settling ability, a typical extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) composition, and a high ammonia oxidation activity. The high-throughput pyrosequencing results indicated that the microbial community structure in the granules was significantly influenced by the C/N ratio, and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), including the r-strategist Nitrosomonas and k-strategist Nitrosospira genre, which accounted for approximately 40 % of the total biomass at the end of operation. The effective suppression of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) growth was attributed to oxygen competition on the granular surface among functional bacteria, as well as the high free ammonia or free nitrous acid concentrations during the aeration period.

Waste iron scraps promote anammox bacteria to resist inorganic carbon limitation.

The anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process is adversely affected by the limitation of inorganic carbon (IC). In this research, a new technique was introduced to assist anammox biomass in counteracting the adverse effects of IC limitation by incorporating waste iron scraps (WIS), a cheap and easily accessible byproduct of lathe cutting. Results demonstrated that reducing the influent IC/TN ratio from 0.08-0.09 to 0.04 resulted in a 20 % decrease in the nitrogen removal rate (NRR) for the control reactor, with an average specific anammox activity (SAA) of 0.65 g N/g VSS/day. Nevertheless, the performance of the WIS-assisted anammox reactor remained robust despite the reduction in IC supply. In fact, the NRR and SAA of the WIS-assisted reactor exhibited substantial improvements, reaching approximately 1.86 kg/(m3·day) and 0.98 g N/g VSS/day, respectively. These values surpassed those achieved by the control reactor by approximately 39 % and 51 %, respectively. The microbial analysis confirmed that the WIS addition significantly stimulated the proliferation of anammox bacteria (dominated by Candidatus Kuenenia) under IC limitation. The anammox gene abundances in the WIS-assisted anammox reactor were 3-4 times higher than those in the control reactor. Functional genes prediction based on the KEGG database revealed that the addition of WIS significantly enhanced the relative abundances of genes associated with nitrogen metabolism, IC fixation, and central carbon metabolism. Together, the results suggested that WIS promoted carbon dioxide fixation of anammox species to resist IC limitation. This study provided a promising approach for effectively treating high ammonium-strength wastewater using anammox under IC limitation.

Response of nitritation granules to anaerobically pre-treated municipal wastewater at low temperatures in a continuous-flow reactor.

Achieving mainstream nitritation with aerobic granules is attractive based on increasing evidence but generally treating artificial low-ammonium wastewater. Real municipal wastewater is much more complex in composition, the behavior of the nitritation granules would be different when treating real municipal wastewater. Herein, the response of nitritation granules to influent shift from artificial low-ammonium (35-40 mg/L) wastewater to anaerobically pre-treated municipal wastewater (MWWpre-treated) was investigated at low temperatures. Results showed that MWWpre-treated caused the outgrowth of filamentous bacteria on the granule surface and developed into finger-like structures, which in turn resulted in the decrease of the overall granular sludge settleability. Batch-tests and microbial analysis indicated the functional and microbial differentiation between the newly formed fluffy exterior and the original compact granule. The fluffy exterior was dominated by genus Flavobacterium (66.6%) and primarily functioned as COD removal, whereas the nitrifiers (mainly Nitrosomonas) were still located in the compact core and performed nitritation. Moreover, the heterotrophs-dominated fluffy exterior hindered the oxygen transfer towards nitrifiers located in the compact granule and thereby facilitated the stable NOB repression in the granule particularly at low temperatures (<10 °C). Finally, gradual recovery of the granular sludge morphology and settleability occurred after the influent reverted to synthetic low-ammonium wastewater. Overall, this work demonstrated that the feeding of MWWpre-treated only caused morphological changes of the nitritation granules, but its structural and functional stability could be maintained stably.

A new concept of waste iron recycling for the enhancement of the anammox process.

As a by-product of industry, waste iron scraps (WIS) are low-cost and widely available, which was potential for the development of iron-assisted anammox. In this study, the feasibility of adding WIS to enhance the nitrogen removal of the anammox process (also called WIS-assisted anammox) was demonstrated. Results indicated that the WIS-assisted anammox reactors performed a 15-35% higher nitrogen removal efficiency than that of the control. Compared to the sludge from the control, the sludge from the WIS-assisted anammox reactors had a higher iron content (78-113 g kg-1 SS) and a better specific anammox activity (10.8-15.5 mg N g-1 VSS h-1). The enhanced growth of the anammox bacteria (related to Ca. Kuenenia stuttgartiensis with 99% similarity) in the WIS-assisted anammox reactors was also confirmed by high-throughput sequencing and qPCR. Furthermore, the functional genes predicted by PICRUSt2 revealed a higher level of hydroxylamine oxidoreductase (hao)-like proteins expression of the biomass from the WIS-assisted anammox reactors, implying that the hydroxylamine-related anammox pathway was promoted. Additionally, the observation of cytoplasmic nitrate reductase (narG), copper-containing nitrite reductase (nirK), and nitric oxide reductase (norB) suggested that the introduction of WIS might promote the denitrification ability. This was correlated to the lower ΔNO3-/ΔNH4+ ratio observed in these WIS-assisted anammox reactors. Overall, the WIS-assisted anammox offers a sustainable nitrogen removal process for wastewater treatment with waste iron recycling.

Rapid initiation of a single-stage partial nitritation-anammox process treating low-strength ammonia wastewater: Novel insights into biofilm development on porous polyurethane hydrogel carrier.

Media-supported biofilm is a powerful strategy for growth and enrichment of slow-growing microorganisms. In this study, a single-stage nitritation-anammox process treating low-strength wastewater was successfully started to investigate the biofilm development on porous polyurethane hydrogel carrier. Suspended biomass migration into the carrier and being entrapment by its internal interconnected micropores dominated the fast initial colonization stage. Both surface-attached growth and embedded growth of microbes occurred during the following accumulation stage. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of mature biofilm indicated that ammonium-oxidizing bacteria located at the outer layers featured a surface-attached growth, while anammox microcolonies housed in the inner layers proliferated as an embedded-like growth. In this way, the growth rate of anammox bacteria (predominated by Candidatus Kuenenia) could be 0.079 d-1. The anammox potential of the biofilm reactor reached 1.65 ± 0.3 kg/m3/d within two months. This study provides novel insights into nitritation-anammox biofilm formation on the porous polyurethane hydrogel carrier.

Enhancing the in-situ enrichment of anammox bacteria in aerobic granules to achieve high-rate CANON at low temperatures.

In this study, a high-rate CANON (Complete Autotrophic Nitrogen-removal Over Nitrite) process was started up successfully by enhancing the in-situ enrichment of anammox bacteria in aerobic granules at conditions relevant for mainstream wastewater treatment. Firstly, to provide nitrite for anammox bacteria growth efficient nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) repression was rapidly achieved and stably maintained. Both low dissolved oxygen (DO) and ammonium concentrations ratio (DO/NH4+ <0.15) and selective washing-out of NOB-preferred smaller particles at short hydraulic retention time (HRT, 25-15 min) contributed to the NOB repression. Then the stepwise down-regulating DO concentrations from 2.8 to 1.2 mg/L enhanced the enrichment of anammox bacteria in the aerobic granules. The enriched anammox species was dominated by Ca. Brocadia sapporoensis with the estimated growth rate of 0.008-0.013 d-1 at 15 °C. Chloroflexi and Chlorobi-affiliated bacteria were also significantly enriched in the granules, which may benefit the anammox bacteria activity and growth. At the end of this study, the average total nitrogen removal rate and efficiency of the granular CANON process respectively reached 1.26 kg N·m-3·d-1 and 68% treating low-strength ammonium (∼50 mg N·L-1) wastewater under such aggressive conditions (DO = 0.8-1.5 mg/L, HRT< 1.0 h, and T = 15 °C). Overall, the aerobic granules provided a habitable niche for the proliferation and almost complete retention of the anammox bacteria. This study provides a roadmap for in-situ starting up of high-rate CANON process for mainstream wastewater treatment with aerobic granules as inoculum.

The in situ catalytic oxidation of sulfamethoxazole via peroxydisufate activation operated in a NG/rGO/CNTs composite membrane filtration.

Metal-free carbonaceous composite membranes have been proven to effectively drive novel in situ catalytic oxidation for the degradation of organic pollutants via persulfates activation. In this study, nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) was employed as a modifier to enhance the catalytic activity of the carbon mats by assembly with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the top of a nylon supporter. The morphology and performance of the NG/rGO/CNTs composite membrane were compared to those obtained without the addition of NG (rGO/CNTs). Owing to the larger nanochannels for water delivery and stronger hydrophobicity on the surface, the NG/rGO/CNTs composite membrane shows a superior low-pressure filtration performance in favor of energy-saving operation. For the in situ catalytic oxidation of the NG/rGO/CNTs composite membrane through the activation of peroxydisufate (PDS), the average removal rate of sulfamethoxazole (SMX), one of frequently detected sulfonamide antibiotics in water, can reach 21.7 mg·m-2·h-1 under continuous filtration mode, which was 17% more rapid than that of the rGO/CNTs, resulting in significant detoxifying of the oxidation intermediates. Owing to the addition of NG into the carbon mats, the reactive nitrogen-doped sites identified by X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), such as pyridinic and graphitic N, played important roles in PDS activation, while both the radical and non-radical pathways were involved in in situ catalytic oxidation. According to the experimental evidence of the effects that solution environment has on the SMX removal and transmembrane pressure, the NG/rGO/CNTs composite membrane shows a relatively high resistance to changes in the solution pH, chloride ion inhibition, and background organics fouling. These results suggest a new approach to the application of activated persulfate oxidation in water treatment, such that improvements to the reaction stability warrant further investigation.

Tuning electron transfer by crystal facet engineering of BiVO4 for boosting visible-light driven photocatalytic reduction of bromate.

Removal of bromate (BrO3-) has gained increasing attention in drinking water treatment process. Photocatalysis technology is an effective strategy for bromate removal. During the photocatalytic reduction of bromate process, the photo-generated electrons are reductive species toward bromate reduction and photo-generated holes responsible for water oxidation. In this study, the monoclinic bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) single crystal was developed as a visible photocatalyst for the effective removal of bromate. The as-synthesized BiVO4 photocatalyst with optimized {010} and {110} facets ratio could achieve almost 100% removal efficiency of BrO3- driven by visible light with a first-order kinetic constant of 0.0368 min-1. As demonstrated by the electron scavenger experiment and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the exposed facets of BiVO4 should account for the high photocatalytic reduction efficiency. Under visible light illumination, the photo-generated electron and holes were spatially transferred to {010} facets and {110} facets, respectively. The BiVO4 single crystal photocatalyst may serve as an attractive photocatalyst by virtue of its response to the visible light, spatially charge transfer and separation as well as high photocatalytic activity, which will make the removal of BrO3- in water much easier, more economical and more sustainable.

Insight into how high dissolved oxygen favors the startup of nitritation with aerobic granules.

To elucidate how high dissolved oxygen (DO) favors the startup of nitritation with aerobic granular sludge, two granular reactors were operated under low (1-2 mg O2·L-1) and high DO (3-5 mg O2·L-1) conditions with similar effluent ammonium concentrations (>20 mg N·L-1). The results showed that though nitritation with an average nitrite accumulation ratio of above 95% was finally achieved in both reactors, a five-fold start-up time (eleven weeks) was required for the low DO reactor compared to the high DO reactor. Moreover, the nitritation performance was positively correlated with the extent of nitrifiers stratification in granules. The faster startup of nitritation under high DO conditions mainly resulted from the faster formation of well-stratified nitrifiers, with ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) dominating granule surface. High DO operation combined with sufficient ammonium supply ensured the faster growth of AOB, which should provide a competitive advantage to AOB in competing for habitable space (i.e., granule surface). Besides, the lower porosity, larger size, and more active extracellular polymeric substances (particularly proteins) production of granules was observed under the high DO condition. Overall, these findings supported the proposition that the switch from mixed to stratified distribution of nitrifiers in granule was primarily driven by their competition for habitable space rather than by oxygen-limitation.

[Start-up and Optimization of Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal in ABR-MBR Coupling Process].

The feasibility of the denitrifying phosphorus removal process in the ABR-MBR system with no sludge reflux and high concentration of seeding activated sludge (25 g ·L-1, in MLSS) in the ABR was investigated. The characteristics of the microbial community in the denitrifying phosphorus removal compartment were also evaluated. The denitrifying phosphorus removal function was achieved by gradually increasing the reflux ratio (R) from 0% to 200%. During the stable operation, the average removal rates of COD, PO43--P, and TN in the system were 88.28%, 54.45%, and 61.93%, respectively. When the influent loading rate, NOx--N reflux ratio, and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of ABR and MBR were 0.8 kg ·(m3 ·d)-1, 150%, and 9 h and 3.3 h, respectively, the average VFA concentration of 80.58 mg ·L-1, ρ(NO2--N)/ρ(NO3--N) reflux ratio of 1.68, and PO43--P and TN removal rates of 64.94% and 62.95% were obtained. The short-cut nitrification denitrifying phosphorus removal was achieved in the ABR-MBR system. Batch tests showed that denitrifying phosphorus removal bacteria (DPAOs) were the main functional bacteria in the ABR, with anaerobic phosphorus release and anoxic phosphorus uptake of 3.73 mg ·L-1 and 10.22 mg ·L-1, respectively. High throughput sequencing results showed that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla in the phosphorus removal compartment, accounting for 23.49%-53.66% and 16.55%-21.78% of the total phyla, respectively. Thauera, Thiothrix, Pseudomonas, norank_ f_Rhodocyclaceae, and unclassification_ f_Rhodocyclaceae in Proteobacteria, and Sphingobacteriales in Bacteroidetes were the potential denitrifying phosphorus removal microorganisms.

Comparing nitrite-limited and ammonium-limited anammox processes treating low-strength wastewater: Functional and population heterogeneity.

Biomass segregation between granules/biofilm and flocs is widespread in anammox-based processes. The segregation of biomass allows for easy control of processes stability. The goal of this study is to understand the biomass segregation in two anoxic anammox reactors respectively operated in nitrite-limited (RNO2) and ammonium-limited (RNH4) modes treating low-strength wastewater at 20 °C. Results showed that size-based biomass segregation was developed in both reactors. But the functional and population heterogeneity was more significant in the ammonium-limited anammox reactor. The activity and abundance of anammox bacteria in large granules were significantly higher than that in flocs under the ammonium-limited conditions. The large granules played a major role in nitrogen removal in RNH4. By contrast, both large granules and small flocs contributed significantly to the nitrogen loss in the nitrite-limited anammox reactor, since a large number of anammox bacteria existed in both granules and flocs. Besides, a number of Nitrospira-like NOB were also detected in both anoxic anammox reactors, which primarily inhabited in flocs seemingly droved by the availability of oxygen. But the abundance of Nitrospira in RNH4 was much higher than that in RNO2. All these results suggested that selective flocs removal would be necessary for RNH4 to improve its anammox performance but non-essential for RNO2. The two anammox reactors shared the predominant anammox species with the closest relative to Ca. Brocadia sp. 40 (98%). Unexpectedly, the anammox species grew faster in RNH4. But the microbial diversity and evenness was much greater in RNO2, suggesting its higher functional stability.

[Rapid Achievement of Nitrifying Micro-granular Sludge and Its Nitritation Function].

The rapid achievement of nitrifying micro-granular sludge and its nitritation function was studied in a continuously operated internal-loop airlift reactor seeding with floccular sludge. Results showed that the sludge micro-granulation was almost realized within three weeks by gradually reducing the hydraulic retention time from 5 h to 2.5 h. The color of the sludge first changed from yellowish-brown to creamy white, and then changed to pale yellow during the micro-granulation process. The settleability of the sludge first changed from good to bad, and then recovered to good. The value of the sludge settling velocity (SV) at SV5 and SV30 were both equal to 4%-5%, while SVI30 and SVI5 were both around 12-13 mL·g-1. The average size of the obtained nitrifying micro-granular sludge was 134 µm on day 27. Nearly 70% of the nitrifying micro-granular sludge was maintained in a relatively narrow range of 59-163 µm, thus indicating the largely homogeneous diameter distribution of these micro-granules. After sludge micro-granulation, the nitritation function was achieved within one week by progressively increasing the influent NH4 concentrations from 50 mg·L-1to 200 mg·L-1. The NO2- accumulation ratio and the nitritation loading rate reached up to 90% and 1.34 kg·(m3·d)-1, respectively. The high level of residual NH4 concentration in the effluent, or the low ratio of dissolved oxygen (DO) to NH4+-N concentrations (0.03-0.09), should be the primary cause of the rapid achievement of nitritation in the micro-granular sludge reactor.

Lack of association between CYP11B2 -344T/C polymorphism and transient ischemic attack in a Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether the CYP11B2 -344T/C polymorphism is correlated with transient ischemic attack (TIA) susceptibility. METHODS: We recruited 100 TIA patients and 100 control subjects and analyzed the CYP11B2 -344T/C polymorphism using restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). RESULTS: The frequency in TIA patients and controls was 42% compared with 48% for TT genotypes, 51% compared with 45% for TC genotypes, and 7% compared with 7% for CC genotype, respectively. Allele frequencies in TIA patients and controls were 67.5% compared with 70.5% for T-allele and 32.5% compared with 29.5% for C-allele, respectively. No association between the CYP11B2 -344T/C polymorphism and TIA was observed in all comparisons. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that there was no association between the CYP11B2 -344T/C polymorphism and TIA in a Chinese population.

[Performance and Microbial Characteristics of Ammonium-limited and Nitrite-limited ANAMMOX Systems].

The performance and microbial characteristics of ammonium-limited and nitrite-limited ANAMMOX reactors were studied in two continuously stirred tank reactors. The influent TN concentrations were controlled below 50 mg·L-1. The hydraulic retention time and water temperature were maintained at 2.0 h and 20℃, respectively. Results showed that though both ANAMMOX reactors demonstrated similar TN removal loading rates[0.45-0.5 kg·(m3·d)-1] and TN removal efficiencies (around 70%), the ΔNO3-/ΔNH4+ ratio of the ammonium-limited ANAMMOX reactor showed a faster upward trend. Batch tests and high-throughput sequencing results indicated that the ammonium-limited ANAMMOX reactor had more significant functional and population heterogeneity than the nitrite-limited ANAMMOX reactor. Candidatus_Brocadia was the predominant ANAMMOX bacteria in both reactors. The relative abundance of Candidatus_Brocadia in large granules (53.9%) was significantly higher than that in flocs (19.1%) under the ammonium-limited conditions, whereas only a small difference in relative abundance of Candidatus_Brocadia was observed between the granules (28.1%) and flocs (21.3%) in the nitrite-limited ANAMMOX reactor. Nitrospira-like NOB were detected in both ANAMMOX reactors, which primarily inhabited flocs, seemingly driven by the availability of oxygen. Moreover, the ammonium-limited (i.e., excess nitrite) conditions seemingly favored the growth of Nitrospira. Building upon these results, a control strategy for optimal operation of the ammonium-limited ANAMMOX reactor was proposed based on selective floc discharge.

[Realization Process of Nitritation and Changes in Sludge Characteristics in Granular Sludge Reactor for Low Strength Sewage Treatment].

The realization process of nitritation was studied in a CSTR reactor seeding with nitrification granular sludge to treat low ammonia sewage. During the operation period, the physical and chemical properties, the spatial distribution of functional microbes, and the activity of the granular sludge were also investigated to elaborate the main factors for the stability of nitritation. The results showed that nitritation can be successfully achieved and maintained by the cooperative controlling of nitrogen loading rate (NLR) and dissolved oxygen (DO) levels, and the nitrite accumulation rate was over 80%. The obtained nitritation granular sludge was brownish yellow, showing a smooth, full ellipsoid or sphere, and the microorganisms on the surface of the particles were mainly cocci; the average particle size was 1.3 mm, and the average sedimentation rate was 71.3 m·h-1. Batch tests showed that there was a significant stratified distribution structure in granular sludge (particle size >0.8 mm), the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) mainly occupied the surface space of the particles, and the nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were mainly distributed inside the particles. Flocs or small-size sludge (particle size<0.8 mm) and granular sludge (particle size >0.8 mm) exhibit different spatial distribution characteristics of microorganisms. In the granular sludge reactor, well stratification of the nitrifier guilds, high level of residual ammonia concentrations in effluent (15-33 mg·L-1), or low ratio between DO and NH4+-N concentrations (0.08-0.15) should be key influencing factors in the process of achieving nitritation.