Effects of weather and air pollution on outpatient visits for insect-and-mite-caused dermatitis: an empirical and predictive analysis.

BACKGROUND: Dermatitis caused by insects and mites, diagnosed as papular urticaria or scabies, is a common skin disease. However, there is still a lack of studies about the effects of weather and air pollution on outpatient visits for this disease. This study aims to explore the impacts of meteorological and environmental factors on daily visits of dermatitis outpatients. METHODS: Analyses are conducted on a total of 43,101 outpatient visiting records during the years 2015-2020 from the largest dermatology specialist hospital in Guangzhou, China. Hierarchical cluster models based on Pearson correlation between risk factors are utilized to select regression variables. Linear regression models are fitted to identify the statistically significant associations between the risk factors and daily visits, taking into account the short-term effects of temperatures. Permutation importance is adopted to evaluate the predictive ability of these factors. RESULTS: Short-term temperatures have positive associations with daily visits and exhibit strong predictive abilities. In terms of total outpatients, the one-day lagged temperature not only has a significant impact on daily visits, but also has the highest median value of permutation importance. This conclusion is robust across most subgroups except for subgroups of summer and scabies, wherein the three-day lagged temperature has a negative effect. By contrast, air pollution has insignificant associations with daily visits and exhibits weak predictive abilities. Moreover, weekdays, holidays and trends have significant impacts on daily visits, but with weak predictive abilities. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that short-term temperatures have positive associations with daily visits and exhibit strong predictive abilities. Nevertheless, air pollution has insignificant associations with daily visits and exhibits weak predictive abilities. The results of this study provide a reference for local authorities to formulate intervention measures and establish an environment-based disease early warning system.

Magnetic ZIF-8-Based Mimic Multi-enzyme System as a Colorimetric Biosensor for Detection of Aryloxyphenoxypropionate Herbicides.

In the present study, a magnetic mimic multi-enzyme system was developed by encapsulating the aryloxyphenoxypropionate (AOPP) herbicide hydrolase QpeH and alcohol oxidase (AOx) in zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) nanocrystals with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNPs) to detect AOPP herbicides. The structural, protein loading capacity and loading ratio, porosity, and magnetic properties of QpeH/AOx@mZIF-8 were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, nitrogen sorption, and vibrating sample magnetometry. An AOPP herbicide colorimetric biosensor made with QpeH/AOx@mZIF-8 had the highest sensitivity toward quizalofop-P-ethyl (QpE) with a limit of detection of 8.2 µM. This system was suitable to detect two other AOPP herbicides, including fenoxaprop-P-ethyl (FpE) and haloxyfop-P-methyl (HpE). The practical application of the biosensor was verified through quantitative analysis of QpE residues in industrial wastewater and field soils. Furthermore, QpeH/AOx@mZIF-8 exhibited excellent long-term storage stability (at least 50 days), easy separation by magnet, and reusability (at least 10 cycles), supporting its promising role in simple and low-cost detection of AOPP herbicides in real environmental samples.

Fabrication and characterization of purified esterase-embedded zeolitic imidazolate frameworks for the removal and remediation of herbicide pollution from soil.

The fragility and high cost of enzymes represent critical challenges limiting their practical application in the removal of pesticides. Herein, an aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicide-hydrolyzing enzyme, QpeH, was purified via one-step affinity chromatography and embedded into two types of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) through biomimetic mineralization. The catalytic activity towards the herbicide quizalofop-P-ethyl, the loading capacity and efficiency of the resulting two composites, QpeH@ZIF-10 with cruciate flower-like morphology and QpeH@ZIF-8 with rhombic dodecahedral morphology, were compared. Both composites had excellent stability and reusability after 10 reuse cycles, with QpeH@ZIF-10 having a better performance. More importantly, when applied for the removal of quizalofop-P-ethyl pollution in the watermelon field, QpeH@ZIF-10 (88%) showed a remarkably improved degradation efficiency compared to QpeH@ZIF-8 (84%) despite the latter having a greater loading capacity. Finally, the use of QpeH@ZIF composites was shown to recover the bacterial community in soil. This work provides a new insight into the low-cost synthesis of nanobiocatalysts combining simple purified enzymes and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for the remediation of pesticide-contaminated soils.

How Internal Marketing Drives Employees' Internal Relationship Quality of Service Organizations Between Mainland China and Taiwan: The Moderating Roles of Internal Relationship Investment and Leader-Member Exchange.

Recently, issues of human resource management gradually attract a lot of attention from organizational behavior scholars, thus how to effectively improve service employees' job attitude and performance to meet the needs of stakeholders is one of the key issues in internal marketing. Based on the perspective of internal marketing, the study transforms the relevant factors applied to maintaining external customer relations into internal employee-oriented factors, so as to increase the understanding of the relationship between internal service recovery and internal relationship quality (IRQ). This study aims to explore (1) whether internal service recovery enhances IRQ; (2) whether internal relationship investment (IRI) positively moderates relationship between internal service recovery and IRQ; and (3) whether effectiveness of internal service recovery differentiates under different exchange relationship (high/low quality leader-member exchange). In this study, a total of 206 Mainland China and 250 Taiwanese participants were collected. In this study, a variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed to test the proposed hypothesizes and conduct comparative analysis. Empirical results in both samples show that internal service recovery has positive and significant effects on IRQ; internal relationship investment and leader-member exchange (LMX) positively and significantly moderate the relationship between internal service recovery and IRQ. Finally, based on the results, this study provides some discussions, suggestions and managerial implications for future studies in organizational management.

Alterations of functional and structural connectivity in patients with brain metastases.

Metastases are the most prevalent tumors in the brain and are commonly associated with high morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested that brain tumors can induce a loss of functional connectivity and alter the brain network architecture. Little is known about the effect of brain metastases on whole-brain functional and structural connectivity networks. In this study, 14 patients with brain metastases and 16 healthy controls underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We constructed functional connectivity network using rs-fMRI signal correlations and structural connectivity network using DTI tractography. Graph theoretical analysis was employed to calculate network properties. We further evaluated the performance of brain networks after metastases resection by a simulated method. Compared to healthy controls, patients with brain metastases showed an altered "small-world" architecture in both functional and structural connectivity networks, shifting to a more randomness organization. Besides, the coupling strength of functional-structural connectivity was decreased in patients. After removing nodes infiltrated by metastases, aggravated disruptions were found in both functional and structural connectivity networks, and the alterations of network properties correlated with the removed hubs number. Our findings suggest that brain metastases interfere with the optimal network organization and relationship of functional and structural connectivity networks, and tumor resection involving hubs could cause a worse performance of brain networks. This study provides neuroimaging guidance for neurosurgical planning and postoperative assessment of brain metastases from the aspect of brain networks.

Two dcm Gene Clusters Essential for the Degradation of Diclofop-methyl in a Microbial Consortium of Rhodococcus sp. JT-3 and Brevundimonas sp. JT-9.

The metabolism of widely used aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides has been extensively studied in microbes. However, the information on the degradation of diclofop-methyl (DCM) is limited, with no genetic and biochemical investigation reported. The consortium L1 of Rhodococcus sp. JT-3 and Brevundimonas sp. JT-9 was able to degrade DCM through a synergistic metabolism. To elaborate the molecular mechanism of DCM degradation, the metabolic pathway for DCM was first investigated. DCM was initially transformed by strain JT-3 to diclofop acid and then by strain JT-9 to 2-(4-hydroxyphenoxy) propionic acid as well as 2,4-dichlorophenol. Subsequently, the two dcm gene clusters, dcmAE and dcmB1B2CD, involved in further degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol, were successfully cloned from strain JT-3, and the functions of each gene product were identified. DcmA, a glutathione-dependent dehalogenase, was responsible for catalyzing the reductive dehalogenation of 2,4-dichlorophenol to 4-chlorophenol, which was then converted by the two-component monooxygenase DcmB1B2 to 4-chlorocatechol as the ring cleavage substrate of the dioxygenase DcmC. In this study, the overall DCM degradation pathway of the consortium L1 was proposed and, particularly, the lower part on the DCP degradation was characterized at the genetic and biochemical levels.

A key esterase required for the mineralization of quizalofop-p-ethyl by a natural consortium of Rhodococcus sp. JT-3 and Brevundimonas sp. JT-9.

A natural consortium, named L1, of Rhodococcus sp. JT-3 and Brevundimonas sp. JT-9 was obtained from quizalofop-p-ethyl (QE) polluted soil. The consortium was able to use QE as a sole carbon source for growth and degraded 100mgL-1 of QE in 60h. Strain JT-3 initiated the catabolism of QE to quizalofop acid (QA), which was used by strain JT-9 as carbon source for growth and to simultaneously feed strain JT-3. A novel esterase EstS-JT, which was responsible for the transformation of QE to QA and essential for the mineralization of QE by the consortium, was cloned from strain JT-3. EstS-JT showed low amino acid identity to other reported esterases from esterase family VIII and represents a new member of this family. The deduced amino acid sequence contained the esterase family VIII conserved motifs S-X-X-K, YSV and WAG. The purified recombinant EstS-JT displayed maximal esterase activity at 35°C and pH 7.5. An inhibitor assay, site-directed mutagenesis and 3D modeling analysis revealed that S64, K67 and Y175 were essential for catalysis and probably comprised the catalytic center of EstS-JT. Additionally, EstS-JT had broad substrate specificity and was capable of hydrolyzing p-nitrophenyl esters (C2-C8) and various AOPP herbicides.

Novel degradation pathway and kinetic analysis for buprofezin removal by newly isolated Bacillus sp.

Given the intensive and widespread application of the pesticide, buprofezin, its environmental residues potentially pose a problem; yet little is known about buprofezin's kinetic and metabolic behaviors. In this study, a novel gram-positive strain, designated BF-5, isolated from aerobic activated sludge, was found to be capable of metabolizing buprofezin as its sole energy, carbon, and nitrogen source. Based on its physiological and biochemical characteristics, other aspects of its phenotype, and a phylogenetic analysis, strain BF-5 was identified as Bacillus sp. This study investigated the effect of culture conditions on bacterial growth and substrate degradation, such as pH, temperature, initial concentration, different nitrogen source, and additional nitrogen sources as co-substrates. The degradation rate parameters, qmax, Ks, Ki and Sm were determined to be 0.6918 h(-1), 105.4 mg L(-1), 210.5 mg L(-1), and 148.95 mg L(-1) respectively. The capture of unpublished potential metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis has led to the proposal of a novel degradation pathway. Taken together, our results clarify buprofezin's biodegradation pathway(s) and highlight the promising potential of strain BF-5 in bioremediation of buprofezin-contaminated environments.

Construction and analysis of an intergeneric fusion from Pigmentiphaga sp. strain AAP-1 and Pseudomonas sp. CTN-4 for degrading acetamiprid and chlorothalonil.

Pseudomonas sp. CTN-4 degrades chlorothalonil (CTN) but not acetamiprid (AAP), and Pigmentiphaga sp. strain AAP-1 degrades AAP but not CTN. A functional strain, AC, was constructed through protoplast fusion of two parental strains (Pseudomonas sp. CTN-4 and Pigmentiphaga sp. strain AAP-1) in order to simultaneously improve the degradation efficiency of AAP and CTN. Fusant-AC with eight transfers on plates containing two antibiotics and CTN was obtained. For the purpose of identifying and confirming the genetic relationship between fusant-AC and its parents, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) analysis were performed. In toto, RAPD fingerprint analysis produced 194 clear bands with 9 primers, which not only had bands in common with strains CTN-4 and AAP-1, but also had its own novel fusant-specific bands. The genetic similarity indices between fusant-AC and parental strains CTN-4 and AAP-1 were 0.40 and 0.69, respectively. The result of SEM indicated that the cell morphology of fusant-AC differed from both its parents. The fusant strain AC possesses a strong capability for AAP and CTN degradation. At AAP concentration (50-300 mg L(-1)), the degradation was achieved within 5 h. At the initial dose of 50 and 100 mg L(-1) CTN, the percentages reached 96 and 91 % over a 36-h incubation period. The present study indicates that the protoplast-fusion technique may have possible applications in environmental pollution control.

The isolation and characterization of the novel chlorothalonil-degrading strain Paracoccus sp. XF-3 and the cloning of the chd gene.

Chlorothalonil (CTN) is one of the most widely used fungicides and is often detected in the environment. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of a novel CTN-degrading bacterial strain XF-3 from long-term CTN-contaminated sites and identify it as a strain of the Paracoccus sp. The isolate could utilise CTN as the sole source of carbon and energy for growth. The optimal pH and temperature for degradation by XF-3 were 7.0 and 30°C, respectively. The CTN degradation gene was cloned by PCR. Although the results of a BLAST sequence search indicated that this gene has a 99% similarity with chd (a gene encoding the CTN hydrolytic dehalogenase), its hydrolytic efficiency for CTN was slightly greater than the chd from strain CTN-3. This is the first report of this gene from the genus Paracoccus. Therefore, there is a practical significance and a potential value of the isolated novel strain, XF-3.

Co-metabolic biodegradation of acetamiprid by Pseudoxanthomonas sp. AAP-7 isolated from a long-term acetamiprid-polluted soil.

An AAP-degrading bacterium, AAP-7, was isolated from AAP-polluted soil. AAP-7 was identified as Pseudoxanthomonas sp. on the basis of the comparative analysis of 16S rDNA sequences. The strain was able to transformate more than 80% AAP by means of co-metabolism and degraded AAP via hydrolysis or demethylation to form (E)-3-(((6-chloropyridin-3yl)methyl)(methyl)amino)acrylonitrile and N-((6-chloropyridin-3yl)methyl)-N-methylprop-1-en-2-amine, both of which transformed into ultimate product, which was 1-(6-chloropyridin-3yl)-N-methylmethanamine. A novel degradation pathway was proposed based on these metabolites. AAP could be transformed with a maximum specific degradation rate, half-saturation constant and inhibit constant of 1.775/36 h, 175.3 mg L(-1), and 396.5 mg L(-1), respectively, which proved that the degradation rate of AAP could be restrained at high AAP concentration. This paper highlights a significant potential use of co-metabolic cultures of microbial cells for the cleanup of AAP-contaminated soil.

Survival of GFP-tagged Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 in chlorimuron-ethyl-contaminated soil and its effects on the indigenous microbial community.

The recently isolated bacterial strain Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 can degrade high concentrations of chlorimuron-ethyl (up to 1000 mg L(-1)), indicating its potential for the bioremediation of soil contaminated with high levels of chlorimuron-ethyl. In this study, Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 was tagged with green fluorescent protein gene (gfp) to track its survival in soil. Subsequently, degradation activity of the gfp-tagged strain and its effects on indigenous microbial community were analyzed. Results showed the cell numbers of Rhodococcus sp. D310-1::gfp in non-sterilized soil maintained at 8.5 × 10(4) cells g(-1) dry soil 45 days after inoculation of 7.74 × 10(6) cells g(-1) dry soil and approximately 49% of chlorimuron-ethyl was removed. However, The cell numbers of Rhodococcus sp. D310-1::gfp in sterilized samples increased gradually to 7.85 × 10(7) cells g(-1) dry soil and approximately 78% of chlorimuron-ethyl was removed. PCR-DGGE demonstrated that inoculation of this gfp-tagged strain in chlorimuron-ethyl-contaminated soil has negligible impact on the community structure of bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi. These results indicate that Rhodococcus sp. D310-1 is effective for the remediation of chlorimuron-ethyl-contaminated soil and also provides valuable information about the behavior of the inoculant population during bioremediation, which could be directly used in the risk assessment of inoculant population and optimization of bioremediation process.

Microbial degradation of acetamiprid by Ochrobactrum sp. D-12 isolated from contaminated soil.

Neonicotinoid insecticides are one of the most important commercial insecticides used worldwide. The potential toxicity of the residues present in environment to humans has received considerable attention. In this study, a novel Ochrobactrum sp. strain D-12 capable of using acetamiprid as the sole carbon source as well as energy, nitrogen source for growth was isolated and identified from polluted agricultural soil. Strain D-12 was able to completely degrade acetamiprid with initial concentrations of 0-3000 mg · L(-1) within 48 h. Haldane inhibition model was used to fit the special degradation rate at different initial concentrations, and the parameters q max, K s and K i were determined to be 0.6394 (6 h)(-1), 50.96 mg · L(-1) and 1879 mg · L(-1), respectively. The strain was found highly effective in degrading acetamiprid over a wide range of temperatures (25-35 °C) and pH (6-8). The effects of co-substrates on the degradation efficiency of acetamiprid were investigated. The results indicated that exogenously supplied glucose and ammonium chloride could slightly enhance the biodegradation efficiency, but even more addition of glucose or ammonium chloride delayed the biodegradation. In addition, one metabolic intermediate identified as N-methyl-(6-chloro-3-pyridyl)methylamine formed during the degradation of acetamiprid mediated by strain D-12 was captured by LC-MS, allowing a degradation pathway for acetamiprid to be proposed. This study suggests the bacterium could be a promising candidate for remediation of environments affected by acetamiprid.

Construction and analysis of an intergeneric fusant able to degrade bensulfuron-methyl and butachlor.

Rhodococcus sp. BX2 degrades bensulfuron-methyl but not butachlor, and Acinetobacter sp. LYC-1 degrades butachlor but not bensulfuron-methyl. Functional strains were constructed through protoplast fusion of Rhodococcus sp. BX2 and Acinetobacter sp. LYC-1 to generate fusants with an improved ability to simultaneously degrade bensulfuron-methyl and butachlor. Initial identification and stability tests of the fusants were performed. Three fusants with eighth transfer on plates containing two antibiotics and two herbicides were obtained. F1 also grew well in an inorganic salt solution containing bensulfuron-methyl and butachlor. F1 was characterized by its parents' morphological and physio-biochemical features. F1 not only had bands in common with BX2 and LYC-1, but also had its own specific bands analyzed by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA. The genetic similarity indices between F1 and BX2 and F1 and LYC-1 were 0.507 and 0.470, respectively. The percentages bensulfuron-methyl and butachlor degradation by F1 in an inorganic salt solution supplemented with 100 mg/L bensulfuron-methyl and 100 mg/L butachlor were 65.35 and 62.41 %, respectively, and the percentages in soil contaminated with 10 mg/kg bensulfuron-methyl and 10 mg/kg butachlor with an inoculum size of 5 % at 34 °C and at a pH of 7.5 after 35 days were 63.74 and 61.53 %, respectively. It was demonstrated that F1 could simultaneously degrade bensulfuron-methyl and butachlor.

[Identification and biological characterization of an acetonitrile degrading strain].

OBJECTIVE: To identify and characterize an acetonitrile degrading strain BX2, thus to assess its potentials in the treatment of acetonitrile containing wastewater. METHODS: By means of phenotype and physio-biochemical characterization as well as phylogenetic analysis, we identified strain BX2. The optimum culture conditions of the strain were studied with single factor test, and the degradation of acetonitrile under the optimal growth conditions was determined. Additionally, NaCl tolerance was investigated. RESULTS: The phenotype and physio-biochemical characteristics of strain BX2 were similar to those of Rhodococcus sp.. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA, gyrB and secA1 gene suggested strain BX2 was the closest relative of Rhodococcus rhodochrous with 99.37%, 99.29% and 97.87% sequence similarity respectively. The optimal conditions for cell growth were 35 degrees C, initial pH 7.5, and 1% inoculum. Under these conditions, the degradation rate of acetonitrile was 95.87% (800mg/L) within 16 h. Strain BX2 was able to grow in defined medium containing NaCl up to 6%. CONCLUSION: Strain BX2 was identified as Rhodococcus rhodochrous and named Rhodococcus rhodochrous BX2. It showed great environmental adaptation and high capability of degrading acetonitrile.