The recovery potential and utilization pathway of chemical energy from wastewater pollutants during wastewater treatment in China.

Research on the potential for chemical energy recovery and the optimization of recovery pathways in different regions of China is still lacking. This study aimed to address this gap by evaluating the potential and optimize the utilization pathways for chemical energy recovery in various regions of China for achieving sustainable wastewater treatment. The results showed that the eastern and northeastern regions of China exhibited higher chemical energy levels under the existing operating conditions. Key factors affecting chemical energy recovery included chemical oxygen demand removal (ΔCOD), treatment scale, and specific energy consumption (µ) of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Furthermore, the average improvement in the chemical energy recovery rate with an optimized utilization pathway was approximately 40% in the WWTPs. The use of the net-zero energy consumption (NZE) model proved effective in improving the chemical energy recovery potential, with an average reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reaching next to 95% in the investigated WWTPs.

Quantitative evaluation on the characteristics of activated sludge granules and flocs using a fuzzy entropy-based approach.

Activated sludge granules and flocs have their inherent advantages and disadvantages for wastewater treatment due to their different characteristics. So far quantitative information on their evaluation is still lacking. This work provides a quantitative and comparative evaluation on the characteristics and pollutant removal capacity of granules and flocs by using a new methodology through integrating fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, accelerating genetic algorithm and entropy weight method. Evaluation results show a higher overall score of granules, indicating that granules had more favorable characteristics than flocs. Although large sized granules might suffer from more mass transfer limitation and is prone to operating instability, they also enable a higher level of biomass retention, greater settling velocity and lower sludge volume index compared to flocs. Thus, optimized control of granule size is essential for achieving good pollutant removal performance and simultaneously sustaining long-term stable operation of granule-based reactors. This new integrated approach is effective to quantify and differentiate the characteristics of activated sludge granules and flocs. The evaluation results also provide useful information for the application of activated sludge granules in full-scale wastewater treatment plants.

Influence of fat and muscle on sit-ups in female college students / 解剖学报

Objective To explore the influence of muscle and fat distribution on sit-up ability of female college students. Methods A total of 1560 female students majoring in non-physical education in a Guangxi University were randomly selected. Body composition was measured by the bioresistance antibody component meter. According to the National Physical Health Test Standard, the height, weight and sit-ups of female college students were measured. The students were divided into four groups according to the score of sit-ups:0, P<0.05). Compared with other parameters, the correlation coefficient between trunk muscle mass and sit-ups was the largest. Conclusion The distribution of fat and muscle has different effects on sit-up ability. Female college students' sit-up ability is greatly affected by subcutaneous fat and trunk muscle, and has nothing to do with visceral fat.

Characterization of the mRNA profile in ejaculated spermatozoa from healthy fertile men / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the complexity of mRNA in the ejaculated sperm from healthy fertile men.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Semen samples were collected from 10 healthy fathers. The swim-up method was adopted to purify the sperm from possible contamination of somatic cells and the spermatozoal total RNA extracted by Trizol was used for SAGE library analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A totle of 21 052 SAGE raw tags were sequenced from 877 clones and 2 712 unique tags that occurred at least twice in the library were given further analysis. 19.7% of the unique tags had no match in the existing SAGE map, representing novel genes. Molecular function analysis revealed 67% of unique tags related to protein binding or nucleic acid binding categories, 41% to catalytic activity, 13% to message transducer activity, and 10% to transporter, structural and transcription regulator activity, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There exists a complex repertoire of mRNAs in the ejaculated spermatozoa from fertile men.</p>