Local Structure and Crystallization Transformation of Hydrous Ferric Arsenate in Acidic H2O-Fe(III)-As(V)-SO42- Systems: Implications for Acid Mine Drainage and Arsenic Geochemical Cycling.

Hydrous ferric arsenate (HFA) is a common thermodynamically metastable phase in acid mine drainage (AMD). However, little is known regarding the structural forms and transformation mechanism of HFA. We investigated the local atomic structures and the crystallization transformation of HFA at various Fe(III)/As(V) ratios (2, 1, 0.5, 0.33, and 0.25) in acidic solutions (pH 1.2 and 1.8). The results show that the Fe(III)/As(V) in HFA decreases with decreasing initial Fe(III)/As(V) at acidic pHs. The degree of protonation of As(V) in HFA increases with increasing As(V) concentrations. The Fe K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure and X-ray absorption near-edge structure results reveal that each FeO6 is linked to more than two AsO4 in HFA precipitated at Fe(III)/As(V) < 1. Furthermore, the formation of scorodite (FeAsO4·2H2O) is greatly accelerated by decreasing the initial Fe(III)/As(V). The release of As(V) from HFA is observed during its crystallization transformation process to scorodite at Fe(III)/As(V) < 1, which is different from that at Fe(III)/As(V) ≥ 1. Scanning electron microscopy results show that Oswald ripening is responsible for the coarsening of scorodite regardless of the initial Fe(III)/As(V) or pH. Moreover, the formation of crystalline ferric dihydrogen arsenate as an intermediate phase at Fe(III)/As(V) < 1 is responsible for the enhanced transformation rate from HFA to scorodite. This work provides new insights into the local atomic structure of HFA and its crystallization transformation that may occur in AMD and has important implications for arsenic geochemical cycling.

Novel cow dung-doped sludge biochar as an efficient ozone catalyst: Synergy between graphitic structure and defects induces free radical pathways.

A composite material, cow dung-doped sludge biochar (Zn@SBC-CD), was synthesized by one-step pyrolysis using ZnCl2 as an activating agent and applied to a catalytic ozonation process (COP) for methylene blue (MB) removal. SEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and BET analyses were performed to characterize the biochar (BC) catalysts. Zn@SBC-CD had high graphitization degree, abundant active sites and uniform distribution of Zn on its surface. Complete removal of MB was achieved within 10 min, with a removal rate much higher than that of ozone alone (32.4%), implying the excellent ozone activation performance of Zn@SBC-CD. The influence of experimental parameters on MB removal efficiency was examined. Under the optimum conditions in terms of ozone dose 0.04 mg/mL, catalyst dose 400 mg/L and pH 6.0, COD was completely removed after 20 min. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis revealed radical and non-radical pathways were involved in MB degradation. The Zn@SBC-CD/O3 system generated superoxide anion radicals (•O2-), which were the main active species for MB removal, through adsorption, transformation, and transfer, Furthermore, Zn@SBC-CD exhibited good reusability and stability in cycling experiments. This study provides a novel approach for the utilization of cow dung and sludge in synthesis of functional biocatalysts and application in organic wastewater treatment.

Spatial separation of nitrifiers and denitrifiers promotes selection and enrichment of polyhydroxyalkanoates storing mixed cultures fed by crude glycerol and propionate wastewater.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) recovery from industrial wastewater has been highlighted as a promising strategy for a circular bioeconomy. However, the high and varying level of nitrogen in wastewater makes enrichment of mixed microbial culture (MMC) low efficiency. In this study, spatial separation of nitrifiers and denitrifiers was adopted by adding biocarriers in MMC and decreasing the sludge retention time (SRT) to accelerate the enrichment of PHA-storing MMC fed by mixed wastewater containing glycerol and propionate. Nitrifiers and denitrifiers were sustained on biocarriers, obtaining a high total inorganic nitrogen removal and allowing a more efficient selective pressure of a high carbon and nitrogen ratio (C/N) under low SRT conditions. The maximum PHA cell content and relative abundance of PHA-storing bacteria were increased to 60.51 % (SRT 6 d) and 49.62 % (SRT 6 d) with the decrease of SRT, respectively. This study demonstrates an efficient way to highly enrich PHA-storing MMC from crude glycerol, which provide a relevant technical support for high-efficiency enrichment of PHA-storing bacteria in low C/N wastewater.

Distribution and removal pathways of heavy metals during the operation of sludge treatment wetlands.

ABSTRACTThe distribution and removal pathways of heavy metals within different sludge treatment wetlands (STWs) during different running periods in Northeast China have not been well studied. In this study, we examined three STWs, i.e. an STW with aeration tubes only (unit 1; U1), an STW with reeds and aeration tubes (unit 2; U2), and an STW with reeds only (unit 3; U3). The results showed that the levels of Cu as well as Zn accumulated faster within STW residual sludge, whereas the levels of Cd, Cr, Ni, and Pb accumulated more slowly and decreased slightly over time. The removal rates of heavy metals from the influent sludge by STWs ranged from 64.5% (Cr) to 92.2% (Zn). Reeds removed heavy metals from the STWs by direct absorption, and Zn was highly enriched in the reeds. The presence of reeds also promoted the spreading of heavy metals to the substrate layer and improved the removal of heavy metals in STWs. The mass of each heavy metal accumulated within the residual sludge of U2 and U3 was lower than that of U1, indicating that reeds could facilitate the removal of heavy metals. The STWs removed heavy metal mainly by substrate adsorption, and the mass percentage of heavy metals accumulated in the substrate ranged from 35.8 to 63.6%.

Reversibly growing crosslinked polymers with programmable sizes and properties.

Growth constitutes a powerful method to post-modulate materials' structures and functions without compromising their mechanical performance for sustainable use, but the process is irreversible. To address this issue, we here report a growing-degrowing strategy that enables thermosetting materials to either absorb or release components for continuously changing their sizes, shapes, compositions, and a set of properties simultaneously. The strategy is based on the monomer-polymer equilibrium of networks in which supplying or removing small polymerizable components would drive the networks toward expansion or contraction. Using acid-catalyzed equilibration of siloxane as an example, we demonstrate that the size and mechanical properties of the resulting silicone materials can be significantly or finely tuned in both directions of growth and decomposition. The equilibration can be turned off to yield stable products or reactivated again. During the degrowing-growing circle, material structures are selectively varied either uniformly or heterogeneously, by the availability of fillers. Our strategy endows the materials with many appealing capabilities including environment adaptivity, self-healing, and switchability of surface morphologies, shapes, and optical properties. Since monomer-polymer equilibration exists in many polymers, we envision the expansion of the presented strategy to various systems for many applications.

Enhanced artificial nitrogen fixation efficiency induced by construction of ternary TiO2/MIL-88A(Fe)/g-C3N4 Z-scheme heterojunction.

Herein, a ternary TiO2/MIL-88A(Fe)/g-C3N4 heterojunction is successfully constructed through a facile hydrothermal strategy for enhancing solar energy harvesting and efficiency of catalytic nitrogen reduction induced by enlarged light absorption range, increasing interfacial charge transfer ability and desirable stability. Under the simulated sunlight irradiation, the N2 fixation experiment shows that the yield of NH3 reaches 1084.31 µmol/(g·h) over the TiO2/MIL-88A(Fe)/g-C3N4 photocatalyst, and the yield is significantly enhanced, which is 33.68 and 13.94 times that is higher than the pure TiO2 and g-C3N4, respectively. In a mean time, the excellent performance of the photocatalytic N2 fixation over the ternary TiO2/MIL-88A(Fe)/g-C3N4 is verified based on density function theory calculation and the decisive step over the composite is investigated by calculating Gibbs free energies of nitrogen reduction paths. The performance enhancement mechanism of TiO2/MIL-88A(Fe)/g-C3N4 is speculated, which indicates that the hybridized three-component system presents a desirable Z-scheme band alignment, resulting in the improvement of separation and transfer efficiency of photoinduced charge carriers. The article shows a new and high-efficiency TiO2/MIL-88A(Fe)/g-C3N4 photocatalysis for excellent nitrogen reduction ability.

Incidence and factors influencing neck shortening after screw fixation of femoral neck fractures with the femoral neck system.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of postoperative femoral neck shortening in patients with femoral neck fractures fixed with femoral neck system screws (FNS) and to explore the factors influencing femoral neck shortening. METHOD: To retrospectively analyze the data of 113 patients with femoral neck fractures admitted to the Second Hospital of Fuzhou City, affiliated with Xiamen University, between December 2019 and January 2022. Of these, 87 patients were followed up for more than 12 months, 49 men and 38 women: 36 cases of Garden I and II fractures and 51 cases of Garden III and IV fractures, to record the patient's hip Harris score at 12 months postoperatively. Patients were divided into femoral neck shortening group and femoral neck no shortening group according to their regular postoperative follow-up radiographic measurements. To count the incidence of femoral neck shortening, a comparison of postoperative complication rates and hip Harris scores between the two groups was made. Statistical comparison of the two groups and a multifactorial logistic regression analysis were also performed to analyze the factors affecting femoral neck shortening. RESULTS: All 87 patients were followed up for more than 12 months after surgery. In 34 of these cases, neck shortening occurred, and the incidence rate was 39.1%. 15 cases of severe shortening, incidence of 17.2%; fracture healing 84 cases, fracture healing rate of 96.5%. The hip Harris score was 83.99 (81.95, 89.20) in the neck shortening group at 12 months postoperatively, 90.87 (87.95, 94.80) for the group without neck shortening; the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.01). 32 cases of fracture healing in the neck shortening group at 12 months after surgery, fracture healing rate of 94.1%; 52 cases healed without neck shortening group, fracture healing rate of 98.1%. The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P = 0.337). High incidence of neck shortening after FNS fixation of femoral neck fractures, cortical comminution of the severed end, fracture fractionation and quality of reduction were significantly correlated with neck shortening. CONCLUSION: High incidence of postoperative neck shortening after internal fixation of femoral neck fractures with the femoral neck system, the cortical comminution, the type of fracture, and the quality of fracture reduction are the influencing factors; femoral neck shortening can affect postoperative hip function, but does not affect fracture healing.

A halophilic aerobic-heterotrophic strain Halomonas venusta SND-01: Nitrogen removal by ammonium assimilation and heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification.

Nitrogen (N) removal from high-salinity wastewater is a major challenge. The aerobic-heterotrophic nitrogen removal (AHNR) process has been demonstrated to be feasible for treating hypersaline wastewater. In this study, Halomonas venusta SND-01, a halophilic strain capable of performing AHNR, was isolated from saltern sediment. The strain achieved ammonium, nitrite, and nitrate removal efficiencies of 98%, 81%, and 100%, respectively. The N balance experiment suggests that this isolate removes N mainly via assimilation. Various functional genes related to N metabolism were found in the genome of the strain, establishing a complex AHNR pathway that includes ammonium assimilation, heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification, and assimilatory nitrate reduction. Four key enzymes in the N removal process were successfully expressed. The strain exhibited high-adaptability under C/N ratios of 5-15, salinities of 2%-10% (m/v), and pH of 6.5-9.5. Therefore, the strain shows high potential for treating saline wastewater with different inorganic N compositions.

Research trends of platelet-rich plasma therapy on knee osteoarthritis from 2011 to 2021: A review.

BACKGROUND: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been widely used to alleviate osteoarthritis of the knee, and research results are abundant. However, there are no bibliometric reports in publications in this field. Therefore, the current status of PRP for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee from 2011 to 2021 was analyzed using Citespace 6.1.R2 software. METHODS: Publications regarding PRP treating Knee Osteoarthritis between 2011 and 2021 were extracted from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace was used to analyze the number of publications, countries, institutions, journals, authors, cited references, and keywords by using standard bibliometric indicators. RESULTS: A total of 988 publications were searched from 2011 to 2021. In the last decade, the number of publications has increased in the field. Brian J. Cole was the author with the most output, with 31 relevant articles, and Giuseppe Filardo ranked first in cited authors. Am J Sport Med was the most cited journal. In this field, the most prolific country is the United States and the most prolific institution is Rush University. An article published by Sandeep Patel ranked first in cited references with 118 citations. "Randomized controlled trial" was the most bursting keyword and other more popular keywords about PRP for knee osteoarthritis: "hyaluronic acid," "double-blind," and "mesenchymal stem cell." CONCLUSION: This bibliometric study provides a decade of current clinical research on PRP for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee, which can help researchers understand the hot spots in the field and provide a new direction for their research.

Kinetics and mechanisms of enhanced ammonia abatement under synchronous process of electrochemistry and adsorption.

As a kind of common nitrogen pollutants, ammonia seriously pollutes water and soil environments and threatens human health. The treatment of water contaminated with ammonia was carried out in an electrochemical-adsorption system (ECAS). This paper discusses the capacity, kinetics, and mechanism of ammonia electrosorption, which is accurately described by a pseudo-first-order model, indicating that physical adsorption is the dominating mechanism. A high adsorption capacity of 4.086 mg N/g was attributed to the formation of a large number of adsorption sites and the highly acidic nature of dealumination of zeolites during electrolysis. Fast directional migration of ammonia in the electric field weakened the negative effect of boundary layer on adsorption and accelerated adsorption procedure. Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller measurements and scanning electron microscopy indicated that the formation of new channels and surface erosion, which resulted in a large surface area and pore volume of zeolites and a low resistance towards ion migration. As a whole, this study achieved efficient ammonia removal without the addition of chemical reagents to avoid secondary pollution.

Performance enhancement, membrane fouling mitigation and eco-friendly strategy by electric field coupled membrane bioreactor for treating mariculture wastewater.

An eco-friendly strategy for mariculture wastewater treatment using an electric field attached membrane bioreactor (E-MBR) was evaluated and compared with a conventional membrane bioreactor (C-MBR). The removal efficiencies of total nitrogen (TN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) increased significantly and the membrane fouling rate reduced by 44.8% in the E-MBR. The underlying mechanisms included the enriched nitrifiers and denitrifiers, the enhanced salinity-resistance, the increased activities and upregulated genes of key enzymes involved in nitrification and denitrification for improving the performance of mariculture wastewater treatment, and the enriched extracellular polymeric substance (EPS)-degrading genera, the downregulated EPS biosynthesis genes, the repressed biofilm-forming bacteria, the enhanced zeta potential absolute value and the generated H2O2 for membrane fouling mitigation by electrical stimulation. Compared with the C-MBR, the energy consumption, carbon emissions, and nitrogen footprint were reduced. These findings provide novel insights into mariculture wastewater treatment using an applied electric field.

Development and Validation of a Novel Ferroptosis-Related LncRNA Signature for Predicting Prognosis and the Immune Landscape Features in Uveal Melanoma.

Background: Ferroptosis is a newly iron-dependent mode of programmed cell death that is involved in a variety of malignancies. But no research has shown a link between ferroptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (FRLs) and uveal melanoma (UM). We aimed to develop a predictive model for UM and explore its potential function in relation to immune cell infiltration. Methods: Identification of FRLs was performed using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and FerrDb databases. To develop a prognostic FRLs signature, univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were used in training cohort. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to assess the reliability of the risk model. The immunological functions of FRLs signature were determined using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Immunological cell infiltration and immune treatment were studied using the ESTIMATE, CIBERSORT, and ssGSEA algorithms. Finally, in vitro assays were carried out to confirm the biological roles of FRLs with known primer sequences (LINC00963, PPP1R14B.AS1, and ZNF667.AS1). Results: A five-genes novel FRLs signature was identified. The mean risk score generated by this signature was used to create two risk groups. The high-risk score UM patients had a lower overall survival rate. The area under the curve (AUC) of ROC and K-M analysis further validated the strong prediction capacity of the prognostic signature. Immune cells such as memory CD8 T cells, M1 macrophages, monocytes, and B cells showed a substantial difference between the two groups. GSEA enrichment results showed that the FRLs signature was linked to certain immune pathways. Moreover, UM patients with high-risk scores were highly susceptible to several chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin, imatinib, bortezomib, and pazopanib. Finally, the experimental validation confirmed that knockdown of three identified lncRNA (LINC00963, PPP1R14B.AS1, and ZNF667.AS1) suppressed the invasive ability of tumor cells in vitro. Conclusion: The five-FRLs (AC104129.1, AC136475.3, LINC00963, PPP1R14B.AS1, and ZNF667.AS1) signature has effects on clinical survival prediction and selection of immunotherapies for UM patients.

DMF-Based Large-Grain Spanning Cu2 ZnSn(Sx ,Se1- x )4 Device with a PCE of 11.76.

A main concern of the promising DMF-based Cu2 ZnSn(Sx ,Se1- x )4 (CZTSSe) solar cells lies in the absence of a large-grain spanning structure, which is a key factor for high open-circuit voltage (Voc ) and power conversion efficiency (PCE). A new strategy to achieve CZTSSe large-grain spanning monolayer is proposed, by taking advantage of the synergistic optimization with a Cu2+ plus Sn2+ redox system and pre-annealing temperatures. A series of structural, morphological, electrical, and photoelectric characterizations are employed to study the effects of the pre-annealing temperatures on absorber qualities, and an optimized temperature of 430 â„ƒ is determined. The growth mechanism of the large-grain spanning monolayer and the effect of redox reaction rate are carefully investigated. Three types of absorber growth mechanisms and a concept of critical temperature are proposed. The devices based on this large-grain spanning monolayer suppress the recombination of carriers at crystal boundaries and interfaces. The champion device exhibits a high Voc (>500 mV) and PCE of 11.76%, which are both the maximum values among DMF-based solar cells at the current stage.

Thermal Conductivity of Amorphous NbOx Thin Films and Its Effect on Volatile Memristive Switching.

Metal-oxide-metal (MOM) devices based on niobium oxide exhibit threshold switching (or current-controlled negative differential resistance) due to thermally induced conductivity changes produced by Joule heating. A detailed understanding of the device characteristics therefore relies on an understanding of the thermal properties of the niobium oxide film and the MOM device structure. In this study, we use time-domain thermoreflectance to determine the thermal conductivity of amorphous NbOx films as a function of film composition and temperature. The thermal conductivity is shown to vary between 0.86 and 1.25 W·m-1·K-1 over the composition (x = 1.9 to 2.5) and temperature (293 to 453 K) ranges examined, and to increase with temperature for all compositions. The impact of these thermal conductivity variations on the quasistatic current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and oscillator dynamics of MOM devices is then investigated using a lumped-element circuit model. Understanding such effects is essential for engineering functional devices for nonvolatile memory and brain-inspired computing applications.

Therapeutic implications of nanodrug and tissue engineering for retinal pigment epithelium-related diseases.

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), as a single layer of cells that performs multiple functions posteriorly in the eye, is a promising target site for the prevention and treatment of several clinical diseases, including proliferative diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, chorionic neovascularization, and retinitis pigmentosa. In recent decades, several nanodrug delivery platforms and tissue-engineered RPE have been widely developed to treat RPE-related diseases. This work summarizes the recent advances in nanoplatforms and tissue engineering scaffolds developed in these fields. The diseases associated with pathological RPE and their common therapy strategies are first introduced. Then, the recent progress made with a variety of drug delivery systems is presented, with an emphasis on the modification strategies of nanomaterials for targeted delivery. Tissue engineering-mediated RPE transplantation for treating these diseases is subsequently described. Finally, the clinical translation challenges in these fields are discussed in depth. This article will offer readers a better understanding of emerging nanotechnology and tissue engineering related to the treatment of RPE-related diseases and could facilitate their widespread use in experiments in vivo and in clinical applications.

D-Lactic acid production from agricultural residues by membrane integrated continuous fermentation coupled with B vitamin supplementation.

BACKGROUND: D-Lactic acid played an important role in the establishment of PLA as a substitute for petrochemical plastics. But, so far, the D-lactic acid production was limited in only pilot scale, which was definitely unable to meet the fast growing market demand. To achieve industrial scale D-lactic acid production, the cost-associated problems such as high-cost feedstock, expensive nutrient sources and fermentation technology need to be resolved to establish an economical fermentation process. RESULTS: In the present study, the combined effect of B vitamin supplementation and membrane integrated continuous fermentation on D-lactic acid production from agricultural lignocellulosic biomass by Lactobacillus delbrueckii was investigated. The results indicated the specific addition of vitamins B1, B2, B3 and B5 (VB1, VB2, VB3 and VB5) could reduce the yeast extract (YE) addition from 10 to 3 g/l without obvious influence on fermentation efficiency. By employing cell recycling system in 350 h continuous fermentation with B vitamin supplementation, YE addition was further reduced to 0.5 g/l, which resulted in nutrient source cost reduction of 86%. A maximum D-lactate productivity of 18.56 g/l/h and optical purity of 99.5% were achieved and higher than most recent reports. CONCLUSION: These findings suggested the novel fermentation strategy proposed could effectively reduce the production cost and improve fermentation efficiency, thus exhibiting great potential in promoting industrial scale D-lactic acid production from lignocellulosic biomass.

Improvement of sludge characteristics and mitigation of membrane fouling in the treatment of pesticide wastewater by electrochemical anaerobic membrane bioreactor.

Electrochemical anaerobic membrane bioreactor attracted attention due to stable treatment quality with low footprint, and draw solute has significant effect on the sludge characteristics and membrane fouling performance. In this pilot-scale study, an electrochemical anaerobic membrane bioreactor (E-AnMBR) was proposed for treating pesticide wastewater at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs), demonstrating that E-AnMBR was superior on improvement of sludge characteristics and mitigation of membrane fouling, compared with the conventional anaerobic membrane bioreactor (C-AnMBR). E-AnMBR reduced sludge yield by 41.2 ± 6.7% and the SVI was significantly decreased by 32.5±13.8%. The accumulation of VFA in E-AnMBR was slighter than that of C-AnMBR, and the minimum average VFA was 255±6 mg/L. The methane yield of E-AnMBR (0.22-0.29 L CH4/g CODremoved) was 1.2-1.4 times than that of C-AnMBR. The EPS contents in suspended and attached sludge of E-AnMBR were significantly reduced by 41.8 ± 3.3% and 77.4 ± 14.5% than that of C-AnMBR, respectively. These results suggested that E-AnMBR has lower sludge disposal pressure, higher stability and methane recovery potential. Not only that, E-AnMBR successfully reduced membrane resistance, delaying the fouling rate by 31.0-38.5%. Finally, the linear relationship between EPS characteristics and membrane pollution was determined.

Long non-coding RNA terminal differentiation-induced non-coding RNA regulates cisplatin resistance of choroidal melanoma by positively modulating extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 via sponging microRNA-19b-3p.

In the present study, we aimed to investigate the role of long non-coding RNA terminal differentiation-induced non-coding RNA (TINCR) in cisplatin (DDP) resistance of choroidal melanoma (CM) and the potential molecular mechanisms. CM and non-CM tissues were collected from 60 CM patients. DDP-resistant CM cells were obtained by selection with linearly increased DDP treatment. The expression levels of TINCR, microR-19b-3p (miR-19b-3p), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK-2) were detected by quantitative real-time PCR. Cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8) assay was utilized to detect chemosensitivity and cell viability. Flow cytometry analysis was performed to detect apoptotic cells. The protein levels of Bax, Bcl-2, cleaved-caspase-3, ERK-2, and nuclear factor-kappa B p65 were measured by Western blot. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and dual-luciferase reporter assays were performed to determine the relationship among TINCR, miR-19b-3p, and ERK-2. The results showed that the levels of TINCR and ERK-2 were markedly increased in DDP-resistant CM tissues and cells, while miR-19b-3p level was significantly reduced. TINCR knockdown reduced DDP resistance and cell viability and promoted cell apoptosis, while TINCR overexpression exhibited opposite effects. TINCR and ERK-2 were direct targets of miR-19b-3p. Further experiments revealed that TINCR enhanced DDP resistance in CM cells by regulating the miR-19b-3p/ERK-2/NF-kb axis. Taken together, our study revealed a critical role of TINCR in regulating DDP resistance in CM and suggested that TINCR is a potential cisplatin-resistant CM therapeutic target.

Disruption of PIKFYVE causes congenital cataract in human and zebrafish.

Congenital cataract, an ocular disease predominantly occurring within the first decade of life, is one of the leading causes of blindness in children. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of congenital cataract remain incompletely defined. Through whole-exome sequencing of a Chinese family with congenital cataract, we identified a potential pathological variant (p.G1943E) in PIKFYVE, which is located in the PIP kinase domain of the PIKFYVE protein. We demonstrated that heterozygous/homozygous disruption of PIKFYVE kinase domain, instead of overexpression of PIKFYVEG1943E in zebrafish mimicked the cataract defect in human patients, suggesting that haploinsufficiency, rather than dominant-negative inhibition of PIKFYVE activity caused the disease. Phenotypical analysis of pikfyve zebrafish mutants revealed that loss of Pikfyve caused aberrant vacuolation (accumulation of Rab7+Lc3+ amphisomes) in lens cells, which was significantly alleviated by treatment with the V-ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin A1 (Baf-A1). Collectively, we identified PIKFYVE as a novel causative gene for congenital cataract and pinpointed the potential application of Baf-A1 for the treatment of congenital cataract caused by PIKFYVE deficiency.

The responses of activated sludge to membrane cleaning reagent H2O2 and protection of extracellular polymeric substances.

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is evaluated as a potential replacement for chlorine to control biofouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). However, H2O2 might diffuse into the mixed liquor and damage microorganisms during membrane cleaning. This study comprehensively analyzed the impacts of H2O2 on microbes. Key enzymes involved in phenol biodegradation were inhibited with H2O2 concentration increased, and thus phenol degradation efficiency was decreased. Increase of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) indicated more severe cell rupture with H2O2 concentration increased. At the same H2O2 concentration, Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) extraction further led to inhibiting the activity of key enzymes, decreasing phenol degradation efficiency, and enhancing LDH release and ROS production, demonstrating that the existence of EPS moderated the adverse impacts on microbes. Spectroscopic characterization revealed the increase of H2O2 decreased tryptophan protein-like substances, protein-associated bonds and polysaccharide-associated bonds. Hydroxyl and amide groups in EPS were attacked, which might lead to the consumption of H2O2, indicated EPS protect the microorganism through sacrificial reaction with H2O2.