Impact of microecological agents on water environment restoration and microbial community structures of trench system in a Baiyangdian wetland ecosystem.

AIMS: To evaluate the effects of periodic application of effective microorganism (EM) bacteria and calcium peroxide on water environment restoration of a trench wetland ecosystem and its impact on microbiota in water and sediment. METHODS AND RESULTS: The EM bacteria and calcium peroxide were alternately sprayed into the trench water, and changes in the physicochemical indices of water and sediment, and in microbiota structure were subsequently investigated. Alternately spraying of calcium peroxide and EM bacteria improved the water quality, especially in terms of the dissolved oxygen and transparency of water body, and could further reduce the levels of total nitrogen, total phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen. At the same time, the microbiota structure of the water body was significantly changed by spraying with calcium peroxide and EM bacteria, and the relative abundances of Pseudanabaena, Legionellaceae, Planktothrix, Planctomyces, Phenylobacterium, Rhodobacter, Rhodoferax and Aquirestis were significantly increased. However, there was no significant effect on the physicochemical indexes and microbiota composition of the sediment. CONCLUSIONS: The water quality of the Baiyangdian trench could be significantly restored by regular sprinkling of calcium peroxide and EM bacteria. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDY: The results provide an effective technical method for the restoration of trench wetland water.

Functional constipation is associated with alterations in thalamo-limbic/parietal structural connectivity.

BACKGROUND: Functional constipation (FCon) is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) with a high prevalence in clinical practice. Previous studies have identified that FCon is associated with functional and structural alterations in the primary brain regions involved in emotional arousal processing, sensory processing, somatic/motor-control, and self-referential processing. However, whether FCon is associated with abnormal structural connectivity (SC) among these brain regions remains unclear. METHODS: We selected the brain regions with functional and structural abnormalities as seed regions and employed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with probabilistic tractography to investigate SC changes in 29 patients with FCon and 31 healthy controls (HC). KEY RESULTS: Results showed lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the fibers connecting the thalamus, a region involved in sensory processing, with the amygdala (AMY), hippocampal gyrus (HIPP), precentral (PreCen) and postcentral gyrus (PostCen), supplementary motor area (SMA) and precuneus in patients with FCon compared with HC. FCon had higher mean diffusivity (MD) and radial diffusivity (RD) in the thalamus connected to the AMY and HIPP. In addition, FCon had significantly increased RD of the thalamus-SMA tract. Sensation of incomplete evacuation was negatively correlated with FA of the thalamus-PostCen and thalamus-HIPP tracts, and there was a negative correlation between difficulty of defecation and FA of the thalamus-SMA tract. CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCES: These findings reflected that FCon is associated with alterations in SC between the thalamus and limbic/parietal cortex, highlighting the integrative role of the thalamus in brain structural network.