Plant viruses traveling without passport.

All plant viruses were thought to encode in its genome a movement protein that acts as a "passport," allowing active movement within the host. A new study in PLOS Biology characterizes the first plant virus that can colonize its host without encoding this protein.

Associations of altered leukocyte DDR1 promoter methylation and childhood trauma with bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior in euthymic patients.

Altered DNA methylation (DNAm) patterns of discoidin domain receptor 1 (DDR1) have been found in the blood and brain of patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and the brain of patients with bipolar disorder (BD). Childhood trauma (CT) is associated with changes in DNAm that in turn are related to suicidal behavior (SB) in patients with several psychiatric disorders. Here, using MassARRAY® technology, we studied 128 patients diagnosed with BD in remission and 141 healthy controls (HCs) to compare leukocyte DDR1 promoter DNAm patterns between patients and HCs and between patients with and without SB. Additionally, we investigated whether CT was associated with DDR1 DNAm and mediated SB. We found hypermethylation at DDR1 cg19215110 and cg23953820 sites and hypomethylation at cg14279856 and cg03270204 sites in patients with BD compared to HCs. Logistic regression models showed that hypermethylation of DDR1 cg23953820 but not cg19215110 and CT were risk factors for BD, while cg14279856 and cg03270204 hypomethylation were protective factors. In patients, CT was a risk factor for SB, but DDR1 DNAm, although associated with CT, did not mediate the association of CT with SB. This is the first study demonstrating altered leukocyte DDR1 promoter DNAm in euthymic patients with BD. We conclude that altered DDR1 DNAm may be related to immune and inflammatory mechanisms and could be a potential blood biomarker for the diagnosis and stratification of psychiatric patients.

Understanding the influence of the bioaerosol source on the distribution of airborne bacteria in hospital indoor air.

The composition and concentration of airborne microorganisms in hospital indoor air has been reported to contain airborne bacteria and fungi concentrations ranged 101-103 CFU/m3 in inpatients facilities which mostly exceed recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO). In this work, a deeper knowledge of the performance of airborne microorganisms would allow improving the designs of the air-conditioning installations to restrict hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). A solution containing Escherichia coli (E. coli) as a model of airborne bacteria was nebulized using the Collison nebulizer to simulate bioaerosols in various hospital areas such as patients' rooms or bathrooms. Results showed that the bioaerosol source had a significant influence on the airborne bacteria concentrations since 4.00 102, 6.84 103 and 1.39 104 CFU mL-1 were monitored during the aerosolization for 10 min of urine, saliva and urban wastewater, respectively. These results may be explained considering the quite narrow distribution profile of drop sizes around 1.10-1.29 µm obtained for urban wastewater, with much vaster distribution profiles during the aerosolization of urine or saliva. The airborne bacteria concentration may increase up to 107 CFU mL-1 for longer sampling times and higher aerosolization pressures, causing several cell damages. The cell membrane damage index (ID) can vary from 0 to 1, depending on the genomic DNA releases from bacteria. In fact, the ID of E. coli was more than two times higher (0.33 vs. 0.72) when increasing the pressure of air flow was applied from 1 to 2 bar. Finally, the ventilation air flow also affected the distribution of bioaerosols due to its direct relationship with the relative humidity of indoor air. Specifically, the airborne bacteria concentration diminished almost below 3-logs by applying more than 10 L min-1 during the aerosolization of urine due to their inactivation by an increase in their osmotic pressure.

Cleaning technologies integrated in duct flows for the inactivation of pathogenic microorganisms in indoor environments: A critical review of recent innovations and future challenges.

Pathogenic microorganisms are a major concern in indoor environments, particularly in sensitive facilities such as hospitals, due to their potential to cause nosocomial infections. This study evaluates the concentration of airborne bacteria and fungi in the University Hospital Complex of Albacete (Spain), comparing the results with recent literature. Staphylococcus is identified as the most prevalent bacterial genus with a percentage distribution of 35%, while Aspergillus represents the dominant fungal genus at 34%. The lack of high Technology Readiness Levels (TRL 6, TRL 7) for effective indoor air purification requires research efforts to bridge this knowledge gap. A screening of disinfection technologies for pathogenic airborne microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi is conducted. The integration of filtration, irradiation or and (electro)chemical gas treatment systems in duct flows is discussed to enhance the design of the air-conditioning systems for indoor air purification. Concerns over microbial growth have led to recent studies on coating commercial fibrous air filters with antimicrobial particles (silver nanoparticles, iron oxide nanowires) and polymeric materials (polyaniline, polyvinylidene fluoride). Promising alternatives to traditional short-wave UV-C energy for disinfection include LED and Far-UVC irradiation systems. Additionally, research explores the use of TiO2 and TiO2 doped with metals (Ag, Cu, Pt) in filters with photocatalytic properties, enabling the utilization of visible or solar light. Hybrid photocatalysis, combining TiO2 with polymers, carbon nanomaterials, or MXene nanomaterials, enhances the photocatalytic process. Chemical treatment systems such as aerosolization of biocidal agents (benzalkonium chloride, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide or ozone) with their possible combination with other technologies such as adsorption, filtration or photocatalysis, are also tested for gas disinfection. However, the limited number of studies on the use of electrochemical technology poses a challenge for further investigation into gas-phase oxidant generation, without the formation of harmful by-products, to raise its TRL for effectively inactivating airborne microorganisms in indoor environments.

Electrochemical Technologies to Decrease the Chemical Risk of Hospital Wastewater and Urine.

The inefficiency of conventional biological processes to remove pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) in wastewater is leading to their accumulation in aquatic environments. These compounds are characterized by high toxicity, high antibiotic activity and low biodegradability, and their presence is causing serious environmental risks. Because much of the PhCs consumed by humans are excreted in the urine, hospital effluents have been considered one of the main routes of entry of PhCs into the environment. In this work, a critical review of the technologies employed for the removal of PhCs in hospital wastewater was carried out. This review provides an overview of the current state of the developed technologies for decreasing the chemical risks associated with the presence of PhCs in hospital wastewater or urine in the last years, including conventional treatments (filtration, adsorption, or biological processes), advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs).

Biodegradability improvement of clopyralid wastes through electrolysis using different diamond anodes.

The use of boron-doped (BDDs) anodes for efficient removal of complex organic molecules, such as organochlorine compounds, is well stated in the literature. However, the role of the different characteristics of this anode on the transformation of these type of contaminants into more biodegradable molecules is a topic of interest that need to be clarified when aimed an efficient combination of an electrochemical system as a previous step to biological treatment. In this work, improvement in the biodegradability of synthetic wastes polluted with clopyralid, as an organochlorine model compound, is studied after electrolysis with different BDDs in the presence of the two most common supporting electrolytes (containing sulfate or chloride ions). For that, clopyralid removal, mineralization, aromatics intermediates, short-chain carboxylic acids, and inorganic ions were monitored. Improved results were found in sulfate media for BDD with 200 ppm, capable of removing 88.7% of contaminants and 85% of TOC, resulting in an improvement in biodegradability of almost 7-fold compared to the initial sample. These findings point out that lower doping levels are preferable when coupling studied technologies.

Resistance to tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus in melon is controlled by a major QTL located in chromosome 11.

KEY MESSAGE: Identification of three genomic regions and underlying candidate genes controlling the high level of resistance to ToLCNDV derived from a wild melon. SNP markers appropriated for MAS management of resistance. Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) is a bipartite begomovirus that severely affects melon crop (Cucumis melo) in the main production areas of Spain since 2012. In this work, we evaluated the degree of resistance of four accessions (two belonging to the subsp. agrestis var. momordica and two to the wild agrestis group) and their corresponding hybrids with a susceptible commercial melon belonging to the subsp. melo (Piel de Sapo, PS). The analysis using quantitative PCR (qPCR) allowed us to select one wild agrestis genotype (WM-7) with a high level of resistance and use it to construct segregating populations (F 2 and backcrosses). These populations were phenotyped for symptom severity and virus content using qPCR, and genotyped with different sets of SNP markers. Phenotyping and genotyping results in the F 2 and BC1s populations derived from the WM-7 × PS cross were used for QTL analysis. Three genomic regions controlling resistance to ToLCNDV were found, one major locus in chromosome 11 and two additional regions in chromosomes 12 and 2. The highest level of resistance (no or mild symptoms and very low viral titer) was obtained with the homozygous WM-7WM-7 genotype at the major QTL in chromosome 11, even with PSPS genotypes at the other two loci. The resistance derived from WM-7 is useful to develop new melon cultivars and the linked SNPs selected in this paper will be highly useful in marker-assisted breeding for ToLCNDV resistance in melon.

Removal of oxyfluorfen from ex-situ soil washing fluids using electrolysis with diamond anodes.

In this research, firstly, the treatment of soil spiked with oxyfluorfen was studied using a surfactant-aided soil-washing (SASW) process. After that, the electrochemical treatment of the washing liquid using boron doped diamond (BDD) anodes was performed. Results clearly demonstrate that SASW is a very efficient approach in the treatment of soil, removing the pesticide completely by using dosages below 5 g of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) per Kg of soil. After that, complete mineralization of organic matter (oxyflourfen, SDS and by-products) was attained (100% of total organic carbon and chemical oxygen demand removals) when the washing liquids were electrolyzed using BDD anodes, but the removal rate depends on the size of the particles in solution. Electrolysis of soil washing fluids occurs via the reduction in size of micelles until their complete depletion. Lower concentrations of intermediates are produced (sulfate, chlorine, 4-(trifluoromethyl)-phenol and ortho-nitrophenol) during BDD-electrolyzes. Finally, it is important to indicate that, sulfate (coming from SDS) and chlorine (coming from oxyfluorfen) ions play an important role during the electrochemical organic matter removal.

Geotechnical behaviour of low-permeability soils in surfactant-enhanced electrokinetic remediation.

Electrokinetic processes provide the basis of a range of very interesting techniques for the remediation of polluted soils. These techniques consist of the application of a current field in the soil that develops different transport mechanisms capable of mobilizing several types of pollutants. However, the use of these techniques could generate nondesirable effects related to the geomechanical behavior of the soil, reducing the effectiveness of the processes. In the case of the remediation of polluted soils with plasticity index higher than 35, an excessive shrinkage can be observed in remediation test. For this reason, the continued evaporation that takes place in the sample top can lead to the development of cracks, distorting the electrokinetic transport regime, and consequently, the development of the operation. On the other hand, when analyzing silty soils, in the surroundings of injection surfactant wells, high seepages can be generated that give rise to the development of piping processes. In this article methods are described to allow a reduction, or to even eliminate, both problems.

Making sense of DSM-5 mania with depressive features.

OBJECTIVE: The assessment of the depressive component during mania has become critical for the accurate diagnosis of mixed states, which were defined very narrowly in the past classification systems before Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). The aim of this study was to compare socio-demographic, clinical and therapeutic characteristics, as well as clinical and functional outcomes, between manic patients with and without mixed features to validate the relevance of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) mixed specifier. METHODS: This is a subanalysis of a multicentre naturalistic study MANía Aguda y COnsumo de Recursos (acute mania and health resource consumption [MANACOR]) on the burden of mania in bipolar patients from four hospitals in Catalonia (Spain). The sample consisted of 169 adult patients presenting a manic episode and systematically assessed during a 6-month period. RESULTS: A total of 27% (n = 46/169) of manic patients showed mixed features. Total number of episodes (p = 0.027), particularly depressive and mixed, was greater in manic patients with mixed features, as well as depressive onset (p = 0.018), suicide ideation (p = 0.036), rapid cycling (p = 0.035) and personality disorders (p = 0.071). In contrast, a higher percentage of pure manic subjects were inpatients (p = 0.035), started the illness with mania (p = 0.018) and showed family history of bipolar disorder (p = 0.037), congruent psychotic symptoms (p = 0.001) and cannabis use (p = 0.006). At baseline, pure manic patients received more risperidone (p = 0.028), while mixed patients received more valproate (p = 0.049) and antidepressants (p = 0.005). No differences were found in syndromic recovery at the end of the study. However, depressive change was higher in the mixed group (p = 0.010), while manic change was higher in the pure manic group (p = 0.029). At the end of follow-up, the group with mixed features showed a significant trend towards higher psychosocial dysfunction. CONCLUSION: A total of 27% of manic patients showed mixed features. Groups differed regarding clinical characteristics, course of illness, psychosocial functioning, prescribed treatment and symptom progress. Depressive symptoms in mania should be routinely assessed and considered to guide treatment.

Remediation of soils contaminated with methomyl using electrochemically produced gaseous oxidants.

This prospective work focuses on the use of two different gaseous oxidants (chlorine dioxide and ozone) to remediate soil polluted with methomyl in two different applications: ex-situ and in-situ. In the first, the soil washing is integrated with the bubbling of the oxidant, while in the second, the gas was introduced by a perforated pipe located sub-superficially. Regarding the soil washing treatment, results demonstrate that direct use of ozone is not very efficient, although an important improvement is obtained following activation with hydrogen peroxide or UV light. In contrast, chlorine dioxide exhibited complete methomyl depletion from the soil, although with higher energy consumption and technical complexity compared to ozone. The direct dosing of the gaseous oxidants in perforated pipes is effective, achieving methomyl removals of 7.8 % and 9.2 % using ozone and chlorine dioxide, respectively. In these cases, soil conditions are not significantly modified, which becomes an important advantage of the technology as compared with other electrochemically assisted soil remediation process, in which large regions of the treated soil are affected by important changes in the pH or by depletion of ions. This lower impact makes these novel technologies more promising for further evaluations.

Treatment of Organics in Wastewater Using Electrogenerated Gaseous Oxidants.

This work focuses on the comparison of the performance of direct electrochemical oxidation with indirect electrolysis mediated by gaseous oxidants in the treatment of diluted wastewater. To do this, energy consumptions of the electrolysis using mixed metal oxide (MMO) electrodes are compared with those required for the production and use of chlorine dioxide in the degradation of methomyl contained in aqueous solutions. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the mediated oxidation process and that this process is competitive with direct oxidation. The oxidants are produced under optimized conditions using the same anodic material applied for the direct degradation of organics, thus avoiding efficiency losses associated with mass transfer limitations in the degradation of dilute organic solutions. Thus, using the ClO2 gaseous oxidant, a concentration of 0.1 mM of methomyl from a solution containing 500 mL is completely removed with an energy consumption as low as 50 Wh. The application of the same energy to a direct electrolytic process for treating the same wastewater can only reach less than half of this removal. These findings may have a very important application in the use of electrochemical technology to achieve the remediation of persistent pollutants in wastewater, where their low concentrations typically make direct processes very inefficient.

Cork barriers for the remediation of soils polluted with lindane.

The in-situ removal of lindane from spiked soil was studied using cork barriers combined with electrokinetic and ohmic heating soil remediation processes. Both vertical and horizontal cork barriers have been evaluated to retain pollutants mobilized by electro-osmotic flow or volatilized by ohmic heating. Moreover, the addition of surfactant solutions in electrolyte wells has been evaluated to promote the dragging of lindane by electrokinetic fluxes. Results indicated that the drag of lindane by liquid flows is not as important as expected, opposite to what happened with the dragging by gaseous flows. The retention of gaseous lindane was also confirmed in adsorption tests carried out in a column packed with cork granules. The addition of surfactant had a very limited effect on the mobility of lindane, and dragging of this species to the electrode wells or to a permeable reactive barrier. On the contrary, the reactivity of lindane during the electrochemical treatments is relevant due to the electrokinetic basic front promoting the in-situ conversion of lindane into less chlorinated pollutants.

Combining Soil Vapor Extraction and Electrokinetics for the Removal of Hexachlorocyclohexanes from Soil.

This paper focuses on the evaluation of the mobility of four hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers by soil vapor extraction (SVE) coupled with direct electrokinetic (EK) treatment without adding flushing fluids. SVE was found to be very efficient and remove nearly 70 % of the four HCH in the 15-days of the tests. The application of electrokinetics produced the transport of HCH to the cathode by different electrochemical processes, which were satisfactorily modelled with a 1-D transport equation. The increase in the electric field led to an increase in the transport of pollutants, although 15 days was found to be a very short time for an efficient transportation of the pollutants to the nearness of the cathode. Loss of water content in the vicinity of the cathode warns about the necessity of using electrokinetic flushing technologies instead of simple direct electrokinetics. Thus, results point out that direct electrokinetic treatment without adding flushing fluids produced low current intensities and ohmic heating that contributes negatively to the performance of the SVE process. No relevant differences were found among the removal of the four isomers, neither in SVE nor in EK processes.

Advanced oxidation and a metrological strategy based on CLC-MS for the removal of pharmaceuticals from pore & surface water.

In this work, it is studied the photolysis, electrolysis, and photo-electrolysis of a mixture of pharmaceutics (sulfadiazine, naproxen, diclofenac, ketoprofen and ibuprofen) contained in two very different types of real water matrices (obtained from surface and porewater reservoirs), trying to clarify the role of the matrix on the degradation of the pollutants. To do this, a new metrological approach was also developed for screening of pharmaceuticals in waters by capillary liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (CLC-MS). This allows the detection at concentrations lower than 10 ng mL-1. Results obtained in the degradation tests demonstrate that inorganic composition of the water matrix directly influences on the efficiency of the drugs removal by the different EAOPs and better degradation results were obtained for experiments carried out with surface water. The most recalcitrant drug studied was ibuprofen for all processes evaluated, while diclofenac and ketoprofen were found to be the easiest drugs for being degraded. Photo-electrolysis was found to be more efficient than photolysis and electrolysis, and the increase in the current density was found to attain a slight improvement in the removal although with an associated huge increase in the energy consumption. The main reaction pathways for each drug and technology were also proposed.

Further Molecular Diagnosis Determines Lack of Evidence for Real Seed Transmission of Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus in Cucurbits.

Begomoviruses (family Geminiviridae) cause serious diseases in many crop families. Since 2013, the Spanish isolate of tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) has been a limiting factor for cucurbits production in the Mediterranean basin, forcing farmers to adapt new management and control techniques. Although it is well-known that begomoviruses are naturally transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, the capacity of these viruses to be vertically transmitted through seeds remains controversial. Clarifying the potential ToLCNDV seed transmission is essential to understand the epidemiology of this threating-for-cucurbits virus and to design appropriate control strategies. We assessed ToLCNDV distribution in the leaves, flowers and seeds of the infected plants of susceptible Cucumis melo accessions and toleration to the infected genotypes of Cucurbita moschata by conventional and quantitative PCR. We analyzed whether the viral particle was transmitted to offspring. We also evaluated ToLCNDV presence in commercial seeds of cucurbits (zucchini (Cucurbita pepo), melon (C. melo), cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)) and in their progenies. As the assayed seedlings remained symptomless, we increased the reliability and accuracy of detection in these samples by searching for replicative forms of ToLCNDV by combining Southern blot hybridization and rolling-circle amplification (RCA). However, integral genomic DNA was not identified in the plants of offspring. Although the seedborne nature of ToLCNDV was confirmed, our results do not support the transmission of this virus from contaminated seeds to progeny.

Sustainable integrated process for cogeneration of oxidants for VOCs removal.

This study upgrades the sustainability of environmental electrochemical technologies with a novel approach consisting of the in-situ cogeneration and use of two important oxidants, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and Caro's acid (H2SO5), manufactured with the same innovative cell. This reactor was equipped with a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) to generate cathodically H2O2, from oxygen reduction reaction, a boron doped diamond (BDD) electrode to obtain H2SO5, via anodic oxidation of dilute sulfuric acid, and a proton exchange membrane to separate the anodic and the cathodic compartment, preventing the scavenging effect of the interaction of oxidants. A special design of the inlet helps this cell to reach simultaneous efficiencies as high as 99% for H2O2 formation and 19.7% for Caro's acid formation, which means that the cogeneration reaches efficiencies over 100% in the uses of electric current to produce oxidants. The two oxidants' streams produced were used with different configurations for the degradation of three volatile organic compounds (benzene, toluene, and xylene) in a batch reactor equipped with a UVC-lamp. Among different alternatives studied, the combination H2SO5/H2O2 under UVC irradiation showed the best results in terms of degradation efficiency, demonstrating important synergisms as compared to the bare technologies.

New diamond coatings for a safer electrolytic disinfection.

In this work, a new coating of boron-doped diamond ultra-nanocrystalline (U-NBDD), tailored to prevent massive formation of perchlorates during disinfection, is evaluated as electrode for the reclaiming of treated secondary wastewater by the electrochemically assisted disinfection process. Results obtained are compared to those obtained by using a standard electrode (STD) that was evaluated as a standard in previous research showing outstanding performance for this application. First tests were carried out to evaluate the chlorine speciation obtained after the electrolysis of synthetic chloride solutions at two different ranges of current densities. Concentrations of hypochlorite obtained using the U-NBDD anode at 25 mA cm-2 were 1.5-fold higher, outperforming STD anode; however, at 300 mA cm-2, an overturn on the behavior of anodes occurs where the amount of hypochlorite produced on STD anode was 1.5-fold higher. Importantly, at low current density the formation of chlorates and perchlorates is null using U-NBDD. Then, the disinfection of the real effluent of the secondary clarifier of a municipal wastewater treatment facility is assessed, where inactivation of Escherichia coli is achieved at low charge applied per volume electrolyzed (0.08 A h L-1) at 25 mA cm-2 using the U-NBDD. These findings demonstrate the appropriateness of the strategy followed in this work to obtain safer electro-disinfection technologies for the reclaiming of treated wastewater.

Enhancement of the Green H2 Production by Using TiO2 Composite Polybenzimidazole Membranes.

This study reports the hydrogen production using TiO2 based composite polybenzimidazole membranes through the SO2 depolarized electrolysis that requires lower energy input than the direct water electrolysis. Composite membranes prepared and studied in this work showed very promising results in terms of proton conductivity, chemical stability, and crossover. Thus, a reduction in SO2 crossover was observed with the increase of the concentration of TiO2, obtaining reductions as high as 42% with the 3.0 wt% TiO2-PBI membrane at 120 °C. Higher hydrogen production rates and Faradaic efficiencies were achieved by all the composite membranes, with an optimum for the 1.0 wt% TiO2-PBI membrane (with this membrane, the production of hydrogen increased a 53% at 110 °C and a 49% at 120 °C as compared with the standard PBI membrane), demonstrated the benefit of the use of composite membranes with respect to the standard one for green hydrogen production.