Assessment of different factors on the influence of glass wool concentration for detection of main swine viruses in water samples.

Viruses existed in wastewaters might pose a biosecurity risk to human and animal health. However, it is generally difficult to detect viruses in wastewater directly as they usually occur in low numbers in water. Therefore, processing large volumes of water to concentrate viruses in a much smaller final volume for detection is necessary. Glass wool has been recognized as an effective material to concentrate multiple in water, and in this study, we assessed the use of glass wools on concentrating pseudorabies virus (PRV), African swine fever virus (ASFV), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in water samples. The influence of pH values, water matrix, water volume, filtration rate, temperature on the effect of the method concentrating these viruses for detection was evaluated in laboratory. Our results revealed that glass wool was suitable for the concentration of above-mentioned viruses from different water samples, and demonstrated a good application effect for water with pH between 6.0-9.0. Furthermore, glass wool also showed a good recovery effect on concentrating viral nucleic acids and viral particles, as well as living viruses. In addition, combining use of glass wool with skim milk, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-NaCl, or ultracentrifuge had good effects on concentrating ASFV, PRV, and PEDV. Detection of wastewater samples (n = 70) collected from 70 pig farms in 13 regions across Hubei Province in Central China after glass-wool-concentration determined one sample positive for ASFV, eighteen samples positive for PRV, but no sample positive for PEDV. However, these positive samples were detected to be negative before glass wool enrichment was implemented. Our results suggest that glass wool-based water concentration method developed in this study represents an effective tool for detecting viruses in wastewater.

Agent-based Modeling to Evaluate Human-Environment Interactions in Community Flood Risk Mitigation.

This article deals with household-level flood risk mitigation. We present an agent-based modeling framework to simulate the mechanism of natural hazard and human interactions, to allow evaluation of community flood risk, and to predict various adaptation outcomes. The framework considers each household as an autonomous, yet socially connected, agent. A Beta-Bernoulli Bayesian learning model is first applied to measure changes of agents' risk perceptions in response to stochastic storm surges. Then the risk appraisal behaviors of agents, as a function of willingness-to-pay for flood insurance, are measured. Using Miami-Dade County, Florida as a case study, we simulated four scenarios to evaluate the outcomes of alternative adaptation strategies. Results show that community damage decreases significantly after a few years when agents become cognizant of flood risks. Compared to insurance policies with pre-Flood Insurance Rate Maps subsidies, risk-based insurance policies are more effective in promoting community resilience, but it will decrease motivations to purchase flood insurance, especially for households outside of high-risk areas. We evaluated vital model parameters using a local sensitivity analysis. Simulation results demonstrate the importance of an integrated adaptation strategy in community flood risk management.

Longitudinal Surveillance and Risk Assessment of Resistance in Escherichia coli to Enrofloxacin from A Large-Scale Chicken Farm in Hebei, China.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of resistance phenotype and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes (PMQRs) in Escherichia coli (E. coli) during enrofloxacin (ENR) administration in different breeding cycles. In 2020, 983 strains of E. coli were isolated from different samples in different cycles at the broiler farm with the largest single batch of slaughter capacity in Hebei Province, China. All samples were from chicken, environmental, and human sources. The sensitivity of the isolates to various antibiotics was determined by broth microdilution method. The findings of this study include: (1) the total isolation rate of E. coli in the four cycles was 63.83% (983/1540); (2) the average resistance rate of E. coli from 1-day-old chickens to enrofloxacin was as high as 75% in each cycle, and with the use of enrofloxacin, the resistance rate of E. coli from chickens gradually increased to 100%; (3) 107 strains of E. coli randomly selected from different cycles and sources demonstrated the multi-drug resistance phenotypes. The highest resistance rate was doxycycline (100%), and the lowest was erythromycin (54.21%); (4) the detection rate of PMQRs of E. coli from chickens in different cycles were always higher than that from environmental and human. In particular, the PMQRs pollution rate of chicken seedlings in each cycle were generally higher than that of other sources; (5) We used SPSS software to analyze the Kendall rank correlation of the experimental data. The resistance of E. coli isolated from this farm to ciprofloxacin (CIP) may increase along with the increase of resistance to enrofloxacin (Kendall's tau-b = 0.190, p = 0.021). All these data highlight the serious problem of bacterial resistance in this farm. Therefore, it is urgent to provide guidance for the prevention and control of colibacillosis and drug resistance in this farm.

Performance assessment of a portable nephelometer for outdoor particle mass measurement.

The availability of portable nephelometers has improved assessment of exposure to atmospheric particles at a high resolution regarding space and time. However, nephelometer performance has seldom been evaluated for outdoor measurements, especially in Chinese cities. During 37 days of measurements at four outdoor sites in Shanghai, we assessed a popular nephelometer called SidePak (TSI Inc., USA) for PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 mass measurements and compared them to US federal reference methods (FRMs) based on different measurement principles. The nephelometer showed high measurement precision and stability and was strongly correlated with FRMs, making it superior to the portable light scattering monitors reported in the past and thus indicating the maturity of this principle. The nephelometer measurements overestimated all those of FRMs by a factor of two, which is higher than in evaluations in other international cities. This overestimation showed a descending order for PM1.0 (2.9-fold), PM2.5 (2.2-fold) and PM10 (1.9-fold) relative to the FRMs of tapered element oscillating microbalance or beta attenuation combined with nephelometry, based on whole samples. Sites that are far from direct pollution sources showed very good agreement between the nephelometer and FRMs for PM2.5 mass measurements, while, by comparison, the roadside site showed a lower SidePak/FRM PM2.5 ratio, which is likely due to higher abundance of elemental carbon in roadside particles. Relative humidity (RH) was shown to be a key factor that distorted the measurement of the nephelometer. An empirical formula incorporating an RH adjustment developed to correct the nephelometer could produce a reasonable result, even across the various sites. This study demonstrates the great potential of the nephelometer for outdoor particle mass measurements, but for accurate and comparable data, a site-specific calibration is strongly recommended before using.