Evaluation of green waste, green waste compost and cow dung as amendments for white wine distillers' grains vermicomposting.

The application of organic additives is an efficient strategy to promote the vermicomposting of organic wastes. This study investigated the changes in earthworm growth, nutrients, enzyme activities, microbial composition, and seedling growth during 60 days of vermicomposting of white wine distillers' grains (WWDG) mixed (50:50, w/w) with green waste (GW), green waste compost (GWC), or cow dung (CD). Our data showed that GW, GWC, and CD addition significantly enhanced the survival rate (73.33%-89.17%), growth, and reproduction of earthworms compared to the control treatment. The degradation rate of TOC, the increasing rate of nutriments (total N, total P, total K, available P, available K, humic acid, NH4+, NO3-), and the germination index were significantly higher in the additive treatments than in the control treatment. Dehydrogenase, phosphatases, and urease activities were significantly elevated in the vermicompost amended with additives. The additives remarkably stimulated bacteria, such as Streptomyces, Steroidobacter, Bacillus, Luteibacter, and Rhodanobacter, etc., which were closely related to the biocontrol of phytopathogens and the decomposing recalcitrant substances. Moreover, additives significantly promoted the generation and growth parameters of tomato and lettuce seedlings when compared with the control. In summary, these results indicated that all three additives facilitated the vermicomposting of WWDG and improved the compost quality by enhancing earthworm and enzyme activities as well as altering compost bacterial community, especially when the GWC addition yields the best compost quality and shows strong potential for future application. This study developed a new method for improving WWDG utilization rate and it will promote organic waste recycling in China.

Biochar improves compost humification, maturity and mitigates nitrogen loss during the vermicomposting of cattle manure-maize straw.

Maintaining humidification and inhibiting nitrogen losses during vermicomposting process have emerged to be key factors for high-quality productions. Previous data have showed outstanding functions of biochar addition in improving vermicomposting quality. In this study, the influence of bamboo biochar (BB) and rice husk biochar (RHB) addition on compost maturity, humification and nitrogen loss was evaluated in the vermicomposting of cattle manure and maize straw. Results revealed that BB or RHB amendment improved organic matter decomposition, enhanced humification and maturity of compost, particularly in the 10% BB treatment, which exerted the highest humic acids content and GI value. Furthermore, BB or RHB addition significantly reduced nitrogen losses, in which the volatilization of NH3 and N2O were reduced by 24.93%-66.23% and 14.91%-55.12%. The fewest nitrogen loss was detected in the treatment of 10% BB. Biochar inhibited nirK, nirS but promoted AOB-amoA, nosZ expression; fewer N2O producing bacteria (Pseudomonas, Devosia, Luteimonas genus) were observed in the biochar treatment, and thereby decreased the N2O emission. Therefore, 10% BB addition for co-vermicomposting cattle manure and maize straw is an efficient way to increase humification, maturity, and reduce nitrogen loss, and future applications following this strategy is believed to generate better productions.

Evaluation of the Playing Time Benefits of Foreign Players in the Big-5 European Football Leagues.

To explore the benefits that foreign players bring to their clubs, this study used foreign players in the Big-5 European leagues (2013/2014-2017/2018 seasons) as samples and constructed a benefit model based on playing time and game points to evaluate the contribution of foreign players to their clubs in different leagues. The results showed the following: 1) from the 2013/2014 season to the 2017/2018 season, foreign players in the Bundesliga had the highest playing time benefits (PTBs) (0.526 ± 0.012), followed by foreign players in La Liga (0.523 ± 0.014), the Premier League (0.518 ± 0.011), Serie A (0.500 ± 0.012) and Ligue 1 (0.486 ± 0.011); 2) foreign players from South America had the highest PTBs in the Big-5 leagues, while those from Africa had the lowest PTBs. However, among the different leagues, there were no significant differences in the PTBs of foreign players from the same continent; 3) PTBs of foreign players in the forward position were lower than those of foreign players in the defender position; 4) the country that produced foreign players in the Big-5 leagues with the highest total PTBs was Brazil, followed by Argentina, Spain and France. Additionally, the top 15 countries by total PTBs qualified for either the 2014 or the 2018 World Cup Final.