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With the development of modern breeding technology, the scale of dairy farming is becoming increasingly large, which leading to decoupling of planting and breeding. Hence, massive amounts of manure could not handled by traditional method in time, which caused serious environmental problems. Therefor, there is a urgent needs for industrialized treatment methods to treat cow manure for dairy farm industry. In order to expand the types of industrial treatment methods of cow manure, two types of industrialized cow manure based agriculture films were introduced in this research, manure slurry film (MSF) and manure paper film (MPF). Taking silage corn cultivation as an example, their feasibility were testified: the usage performances of the films were expanded by crop yield and soil physicochemical properties, and environmental impacts of the films was conducted by life cycle assessment (LCA). The results showed: (1) both MSF and MPF would decomposed in one growth period of silage maize, with MPF having better performance in temperature retention; (2) both MSF and MPF improved soil nutrients and agglomerate structures; (3) the yield of maize with MSF and MPF was increased from 62.6 t to 88.4 t and 84.6 t per hectare compared to control group; and (4) according to LCA, MPF had 39 % and 50 % lower average environment impact than PE film and MSF. In conclusion, manure based films could effectively promotes crop growth with lower environment impact compared with traditional methods, which thus might provide effective linkage strategies for coupling of planting and breeding., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

​Oil-filled submarine cables have come to dominate the reliable delivery of electrical power today, but oil leakages still remain a challenge. This work focuses on exploring the detection of dodecylbenzene (DDB) after leakage. DDB can be dispersed as small droplets in seawater, which the diameter of DDB droplets increased from 60 nm to 200 nm with the increase of the concentration from 10 ppm to 1000 ppm. Moreover, excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectra were employed to investigated the detection of DDB. DDB has characteristic fluorescence peaks located at λ Ex /λ Em  = 225/350 and 255/350. The FI o/w value of 50 ppm DDB was 28.869, which was significantly different from simulated seawater low as 1.3926. Contaminants such as metal ions (Cu 2+ , Cd 2+ , Zn 2+ ) and organic matter (tetracycline) do not significantly affect the qualitative identification of DDB by EEMs. This study suggests a research basis for exploring the way for detection of DDB., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The mitigation of methane (CH 4 ) emissions from livestock production is crucial to China's carbon neutrality. Here we established a high-spatiotemporal-resolution dataset of the country's livestock CH 4 emissions from 1990 to 2020 using four large-scale national livestock greenhouse gas inventory surveys. We estimate CH 4 emissions to be 14.1 ± 2.0 Mt in 2020 and to increase by 13% until 2030 despite CH 4 intensity per kg animal protein having decreased by 55% in the past 30 years. Approximately half of the emissions come from 13% of all Chinese counties. The technical CH 4 mitigation potential is projected to be 36 ± 8% (4.4-6.9 Mt CH 4 ) in 2030, and reducing food loss and waste could mitigate an additional 1.6 Mt of CH 4 . Overall, most CH 4 mitigation could be achieved by increasing animal productivity and coverage of lagoon storage at carbon prices below US$100 tCO 2 e -1 , being more cost-effective than livestock nitrous oxide mitigation in China., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Solid carbon can be transformed into activated char with higher reactivity through the activation process in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) to improve the Boudouard reaction. A new technology for reducing CO 2 , the activated-reduction technology, was proposed. In order to investigate the influence of relevant parameters (carbon dioxide addition, oxygen concentration, and O 2 /C) of the activation process on the physicochemical properties and reactivity of activated char, the experiments were carried out on a bench-scale CFB. The relationship between the parameters and the reactivity of activated char is explored. The result shows that compared with the raw coal, the pore structure of activated char is developed, the number of active sites increases, the degree of graphitization decreases, and higher reactivity is possessed. For the activation process, less of the O 2 /C and moderate oxygen concentration promote the increase in activated char reactivity, which is conducive to the reduction of CO 2 . The results of the correlation discussion show that the reactivity is difficult to be characterized by a single simple parameter. The reactive specific surface area ( RSSA ) obtained by multiplying the mesoporous specific surface area and I D3+D4 / I all has a good effect on describing the reactivity., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Animal slurry storage is an important ammonia (NH 3 ) emission source. Sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 )-modified vermiculite coverage is a new promising technology for controlling NH 3 emission from slurry storage. However, the underlying mechanisms in controlling the mitigation effect remain unclear. Here, a series of experiments to determine the effect of H 2 SO 4 on the modified vermiculite properties, floating persistence, and NH 3 mitigation effect was conducted. Results showed that abundant H 2 SO 4 and sulfate remained on the outer surface and in the extended inner pores of the vermiculite with acidifying H + concentrations higher than 5 M. An initial strong instantaneous acidification of surface slurry released rich carbon dioxide bubbles, strengthening cover floating performance. An acidification in the vermiculite cover layer and a good coverage inhibition interacted, being the two leading mechanisms for mitigating NH 3 during initial 40-50 days of storage. The bacterial-amoA gene dominated the conversion of NH 3 to nitrous oxide after 50 days of storage. Vermiculite with 5 M H + modification reduced the NH 3 emissions by 90 % within the first month of slurry storage and achieved a 64 % mitigation efficiency throughout the 84 days period. With the development of the aerial spraying equipment such as agricultural drones, acidifying vermiculite coverage hold promise as an effective method for reducing NH 3 emission while absorbing nutrients from liquid slurry storage tank or lagoon. This design should now be tested under field conditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Rumen fluid is a natural and green biocatalyst that can efficiently degrade biomass into volatile fatty acid (VFA) used to produce value-added materials. But the essence of high degradation efficiency in the rumen has not been fully analyzed. This study investigated the contribution of substrate structure and microbial composition to volatile fatty acid production in the fermentation of corn stover. The ball milled corn stover were innovatively applied to ferment with the rumen fluid collected at different digestion times. Exogeneous cellulase was also added to the ruminal fermentation to further reveal the inner mechanism. With prolonged digestion time, the microbial community relative abundance levels of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes increased from 29.98% to 72.74% and decreased from 51.76% to 22.11%, respectively. The highest VFA production of the corn stover was achieved via treatment with the rumen fluid collected at 24 h which was up to 9508 mg/L. The ball milled corn stover achieved high VFA production because of the more accessible substrate structure. The application of exogenous cellulase has no significant influence to the ruminal fermentation. The microbial community abundance contributed more to the VFA production compared with the substrate structures., Competing Interests: Author WZ was employed by China Huadian Engineering Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Zhang, Wang, Zhu and Dong.)

Microplastics have become an emerging threat to global ecosystems, and their efficient removal faces with serious challenges. Herein, this study introduced different hydrophilic polyaniline (PANIs) into chitin matrix to fabricate Chitin-PANIs sponge (ChPANIs) and investigated the relationship between PANIs dispersibility in chitin sponge matrix controlled by its hydrophilicity and adsorption effects on MPs. With the increase of PANIs' hydrophilicity (WCA from 153.9° to 32.8°), the removal efficiency of sponges to MPs increased from 84.0 % to 91.7 %. More hydrophilic PANIs can provide more contact surfaces and adsorption sites, which enhanced the electrostatic interactions to MPs and obtained excellent adsorption properties. The adsorption of MPs on ChPANIs accorded with the pseudo-first-order adsorption, suggesting that physical adsorption plays a dominant role. The adsorption process also conformed to Freundlich model, which displayed the MPs adsorption on ChPANI-PA could be multi-layer. The adsorption strength of ChPANIs was 0.7552, suggesting that it was a strong adsorbent. The ChPANIs also exhibited good mechanical properties and reusability, which its MPs removal efficiency just decreased from 91.7 % to 86.9 % during the five cycles. These findings expand the understanding of the adsorption mechanism analysis of MPs on sponge materials, and exist guiding significance for the design of adsorbed materials., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from animal houses and the corresponding hazard have raised increasing attention during recent years. In this study, a large-scale manure-belt laying hen house located in Beijing, China was selected as the experimental site for the study of the emission rates (ER) and chemical compositions of PM 2.5 and PM 10 in 3 seasons, namely, summer, autumn, and winter, to investigate their possible influences on ambient air quality and human health. The results showed that the mean ER from the hen house in summer, autumn, and winter were 9.0 ± 1.7, 2.4 ± 0.7, and 1.9 ± 0.7 mg hen -1 d -1 for PM 2.5 (P < 0.05), and 30.7 ± 1.1, 12.8 ± 1.5, and 10.9 ± 0.9 mg hen -1 d -1 for PM 10 (P < 0.05), respectively. Moreover, large amounts of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA) were observed inside the house in summer, accounting for 11.4 and 9.6% of indoor PM 2.5 and PM 10 mass, respectively, compared with the value of <1.4% in autumn and winter. Among the 31 detected elements in indoor PM, arsenic concentration exceeded the threshold set in legislation. Zn had a notably high concentration of 3,403 to 4,432 ng m -3 in indoor PM 10 , which was 28 to 71 times higher than that in ambient PM 10 . The findings suggest that the poultry-raising house emit PM 2.5 and PM 10 containing SIA and toxic heavy-metal elements such as As and Zn to the ambient with much more emissions in summer than in autumn and winter. Considering the increasing development of poultry-raising farming in China, the potential hazard derived from the exhaust of PM 2.5 and PM 10 should be focused on, especially during summer., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of life for patients with in-stent restenosis after interventional therapy of peripheral artery disease and the influencing factors., Methods: A total of 72 in-stent restenosis patients after interventional therapy of peripheral artery disease were enrolled, whose general data were obtained. SF-12 scale was used to evaluate the quality of life. Tilburg Frailty Scale was used to assess senile debilitation. Pittsburgh Quality Index Scale was used to evaluate sleep quality. Activity of Daily Living Scale was used to evaluate the self-care ability. The general data and in-stent restenosis-related indicators were compared between patients with low and high quality of life, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis was made on the factors affecting quality of life., Results: The average total quality of life score of 72 patients was 74.06±19.26 points. The gender, Fontaine stage and smoking, Activity of Daily Living Scale score, painless walking distance, senile debilitation score, sleep quality score, white blood cells, and C-reactive protein had significant differences between the two groups, respectively (p<0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the female gender, low Fontaine stage (OR=0.186), low senile debilitation score (OR=0.492), and high sleep quality score (OR=0.633) were the protective factors for high quality of life (all p<0.05), and the low Activity of Daily Living score (OR=1.282) was the risk factor for high quality of life (p<0.05)., Conclusion: Quality of life of in-stent restenosis patients after interventional therapy of peripheral artery disease is low. Gender, Fontaine stage, senile debilitation, sleep quality, and Activity of Daily Living score are the influencing factors of quality of life for in-stent restenosis patients.

Animal slurry storage is a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia (NH 3 ) emissions. pH is a basic but key factor that could pose great influence on gas emissions, but the simultaneous evaluation of its influence on GHG and NH 3 emissions and the understanding of its underlying mechanism are not enough. In this work, pH was adjusted between 5.5 and 10.0 by a step of 0.5 unit by adding lactic acid and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) properly and frequently to the stored slurry during a 43-day storage period. The cumulative NH 3 emissions were linearly correlated with the slurry pH, with R 2 being 0.982. Maintaining the slurry pH at 5.5-6.0 could reduce NH 3 emissions by 69.4%-85.1% compared with the non-treated group (CK). The pH ranges for maximum methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions were 7.5-8.5 and 6.5-8.5, respectively, and the slurry under pH 7.5-8.5 showed the highest GHG emissions. Acidification to pH 5.5 helped reduce the CH 4 , N 2 O, and total GHG emissions by 98.0%, 29.3%, and 81.7%, respectively; while alkalinization to pH 10.0 helped achieve the mitigation effects of 74.1%, 24.9%, and 30.6%, respectively. The Pearson's correlation factor between CH 4 and the gene copy of mcrA under different pH values was 0.744 (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the correlation factors between N 2 O and the gene copies of amoA, narG, and nirS were 0.644 (p < 0.05), 0.719 (p < 0.05), and 0.576 (p = 0.081), respectively. The gene copies of mcrA, amoA, narG, and nirS were maintained at the lowest level under pH 5.5. These results recommended keeping slurry pH lower than 5.5 with lactic acid can help control GHG and NH 3 emissions simultaneously and effectively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

High lipid, high nitrogen duck manure (DM) with high lipid, high lignocellulosic litter materials (LM) are the main wet biomass wastes from duck farms and both are naturally abundant carbon resources. The synthesis of duck farming biomass waste into carbon-rich materials for high value utilization by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), which can directly treat wet biomass, has not been investigated. In this study, the physicochemical properties of hydrochar derived from co-HTC of DM and LM and its carbon and energy recovery patterns were systematically investigated under multivariate conditions of raw materials ratios, solids contents, temperatures and residence times. The application of synchrotron-based near-edge X-ray adsorption fine structure technique (C K-edge NEXAFS) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to the hydrochar and hydrothermal liquid, respectively. At multiple interfaces provided an in-depth analysis of the important material transformations of the co-HTC process and the structure of the hydrochar. Extending residence time (180 min) and increasing LM ratio (M@4%) in co-HTC reaction of DM and LM is beneficial to achieve hydrochar containing higher carbon content (44.84%) at lower reaction temperatures (180 °C). The heating value (HHV) of the hydrochar ranges between 17.12 and 25.05 MJ/kg. The carbon recovery rate of the co-HTC of DM and LM all exceeded 55% and was more closely related to the carbon content of the hydrochar than to its yield. Additionally, the model ERR=0.97±0.01CRR+2.40±0.71 (R 2  = 0.99, P < 0.01) was developed to predict energy recovery rate (ERR) based on carbon recovery rate (CRR). Esters were an important intermediate during co-HTC of DM and LM, and the derived hydrochar consisted of a wide range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkanes and N-aromatic heterocycles as well as polyfuran, pyrrole and pyridine structures., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to investigate the frailty of patients with restenosis after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for peripheral arterial disease, explore the influencing factors, and determine its key factors to take targeted care measures and provide a basis for further interventional care. We recruited as many eligible subjects as possible and a total of 106 patients with restenosis after PTA for peripheral arterial disease in our hospital finished this study from January 2016 to August 2021. The Shorter 12-item version of health-related quality of life scale, Chinese Tilburg debility scale, Pittsburgh sleep quality index scale and activities of daily living score scale were used for investigation, and the independent influencing factors of patients' frailty were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The incidence of frailty in restenosis after PTA was 72.6%. Logistic regression analysis found that high levels of C-reactive protein (odds ratios [OR] = 1.080, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.012-1.153), diabetes (OR = 2.531, 95% CI 1.024-6.257) and advanced age (OR = 1.170, 95% CI 1.042-1.314) were risk factors for restenosis patients frailty, and higher scores of shorter 12-item version of health-related quality of life scale (OR = 0.889, 95% CI 0.813-0.973) was a protective factor for frailty in these patients. The incidence of debilitation in patients with restenosis after PTA for peripheral arterial disease is high, and high C-reactive protein levels, diabetes mellitus and advanced age are significantly associated with restenosis patients. Improving the quality of life of restenosis patients can reduce the occurrence of frailty., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

The gasification fly ash (GFA), a bulk industrial solid waste from coal gasification process, urgently needs to be effectively disposed. In order to use the GFA as porous carbon materials, fluidized activation experiments of the GFA from an industrial circulating fluidized bed (CFB) gasifier were conducted in a bench-scale CFB test rig, as well as steam activation experiments of GFA in a vertical tube furnace and theoretical analysis on the activation process. Due to the ultrafine particle size, the GFA faces a fluidization problem and auxiliary particles are needed to stabilize its fluidization. In the fluidized activation, the pore structure of GFA particles becomes developed in a seconds-level time (about 1.5 s). The specific surface area (S BET ) of activated GFA increases with temperature, maximally increasing by 48.9 % and reaching 204 m 2 /g. Steam activation experiments show that the GFA has an activation potential of 362 m 2 /g (S BET ) and the pore structure evolution of GFA can be quantified by carbon conversion ratio. Based on this, the fluidized activation of GFA is found in the stage of pore development. By appropriately increasing the carbon conversion ratio (below 40 %), the fluidized activation effect of GFA is expected to be improved. Theoretical analysis indicates for the GFA the features of ultra-fine particle size and well-developed pore structure greatly enhance the diffusion rate of active component into the particles. Under the strong diffusion effect, increasing temperature is a critical means to realize the rapid and effective activation of GFA in a finite time., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Humic acid (HA) in makeup water is one of the important safety issues of high-parameter power plants. Herein, the Zr-based metal-organic frameworks (NH 2 -UiO-66) was applied to remove humic acid in water. The mesoporous of NH 2 -UiO-66 was controlled by surfactants sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) to increase the adsorption of HA. The adsorption of HA at 25°C and pH 7 increased fast at the first 0.5 h and then gradually reached equilibrium after 10 h. The maximum adsorption capacity was 108.93 mg g -1 , which removal efficiency was high as 95.0%. The morphology and adsorption properties of NH 2 -UiO-66 were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface charge, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), N 2 adsorption-desorption, and adsorption test. The adsorption process of HA accorded with the pseudo-second-order kinetics, while the adsorption isotherm conformed to be the Langmuir model and the adsorption was proved to be monolayer adsorption. Adsorption was the spontaneous and endothermic process (ΔG°<0, ΔH°>0). The accessible surface area provided by mesopores on the 5 different Zr-MOFs was the reason for the enhanced HA adsorption capacity. These results provided useful information for effective HA removing and enhanced our understanding of the adsorption mechanism of HA on NH 2 -UiO-66., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Biogas digesters are commonly used to treat animal manure/slurry, and abundant digested slurry is generated during the digestion process. Gas emissions from digested and raw slurry may vary with the change in slurry parameters after digestion, but the mechanism is not well understood. Gas emissions from raw dairy slurry (RS) and digested dairy slurry (BS) during 98 days of storage were investigated in this study to evaluate the effects of anaerobic digestion on reactive nitrogen emissions from slurry storage. Results showed that much higher N 2 O and NO emission and lower NH 3 emission was achieved in BS than in RS. The mean gaseous emission of RS and BS accounted for 27.8% ± 6.9% and 17.1% ± 2.3% of the initial TN for NH 3 , 0.1% ± 0.1% and 3.5% ± 1.6% of the initial TN for N 2 O, and 0.0% ± 0.0% and 0.2% ± 0.0% of the initial TN for NO, respectively. Among all detected N 2 O-forming and reducing microbial genes, the abundance of amoA genes was the most closely related to N 2 O flux (r = 0.54, p < 0.01). More aerobic conditions occurred in BS, and dissolved oxygen (DO) increased to 0.4-1.6 mg L -1 after 35 days because the low organic matter of BS resulted in good infiltration of surface air into the slurry. The increased DO stimulated the growth of Nitrosomonas and the increase in amoA gene copies and contributed to the high N 2 O and NO emissions in BS through the nitrification process. Vulcanibacillus, Thauera, Castellaniella, and Thermomonas were the major denitrifying bacteria that occurred in BS and caused an incomplete denitrification process, which could be another reason for the increase in N 2 O and NO emissions from BS. Our study indicated that anaerobic digestion reduced the organic matter content of the slurry and caused an active microbial environment that facilitated the transformation of slurry N to N 2 O in BS storage, thus lowering the NH 3 emission compared with RS storage. Therefore, aside from NH 3 , N 2 O should also be preferentially mitigated during BS storage because N 2 O is a greenhouse gas with high global warming potential., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To investigate the current state of medication adherence among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in China and analyze the influencing factors., Patients and Methods: We recruited as many eligible subjects as possible and a total of 105 patients with IBD finished this cross-sectional survey. The General Information Questionnaire and Morisky Medication Adherence Scale were used as measurement instruments. The factors influencing the Morisky score were studied by multiple linear regression analysis., Results: The average Morisky score was 6.11 ± 1.93. Univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in Morisky scores among patients with different ages, education levels, disease types, medication administration methods, medication frequencies, disease understanding and knowledge learning frequencies (P < 0.05). Multiple stepwise linear regression analyses showed that medication frequency, medication administration method and disease understanding were important factors influencing the Morisky score (P < 0.001)., Conclusion: Our data confirmed that the medication adherence of IBD patients was poor, especially among patients taking oral medication, those taking medications with a high frequency and those with a low understanding of the disease. To reduce symptom recurrence and control the disease, medical staff should pay attention to the individual patient factors, simplify the medication regimens, formulate effective coping strategies for drug management support., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 Xu et al.)

Nearly one quarter of global meat production occurs in China, but a lack of detailed spatial livestock production data hinders ongoing pollution mitigation strategies. Here we generate high-resolution maps of livestock systems in China using over 480,000 farm surveys from 2007 to 2017, finding that China produced more livestock protein with fewer animals and less total pollution impact through better breeding, feeding and manure management in large-scale livestock farms. Hotspots of production can be observed across the North China Plain, Northeastern China and the Sichuan Basin. The Clean Water Act reduced manure nutrient losses to water by one third, but with limited changes to methane and ammonia emissions. Integrated production and consumption abatement measures costing approximately US$6 billion could further reduce livestock pollution by 2050, realizing benefits of up to US$30 billion due to avoided human health and ecosystem costs., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Ammonia (NH 3 ) emissions, the majority of which arise from livestock production, are linked to high concentration of PM 2.5 and lower air quality in China. NH 3 mitigation options were well studied at the small-scale (laboratory or pilot), however, they lack of a large-scale test in China. This study fills this crucial gap by evaluating the cost-benefit of pioneering NH 3 mitigation projects carried out for a whole county - Sheyang, Jiangsu province, China. Measures were implemented in 2019 following two distinct strategies, improved manure treatment for industrial livestock farms, and collection and central treatment for traditional livestock farms. Emission reductions of 16% were achieved in a short time. While this is remarkable, it falls short of expectations from small-scale studies. If measures were fully implemented according to purpose and meet expectations from the small scale, higher emission reductions of 42% would be possible. The cost benefit analysis presented in this study demonstrated advantages of central manure treatment over in-farm facilities. With improved implementation of mitigation strategies in industrial livestock farms, traditional livestock farms may play an increasing role in total NH 3 emissions, which means such farms either need to be included in future NH 3 mitigation policies or gradually replaced by industrial livestock farms. The study found an agricultural NH 3 reduction technology route suitable for China's national conditions (such as the "Sheyang Model")., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The problem of membrane fouling is a key factor restricting the application of the membrane bioreactor (MBR) in the partial nitrosation (PN) and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) processes. In this study, the pilot-scale continuous flow MBR was used to start up the partial nitrosation process in order to investigate the change trend of mid-transmembrane pressure (TMP) in the process of start-up, which was further explored to clarify the membrane fouling mechanism in the pilot-scale reactor. The results showed that the MBR system was in a stable operating condition during the partial nitrosation operation and that the online automatic backwash operation mode is beneficial in alleviating membrane fouling and reducing the cost of membrane washing. Particular attention was paid to the influence trend of free ammonia (FA)on membrane fouling, and it was found that the increase in FA concentration plays the most critical role in membrane fouling. The increase in FA concentration led to an increase in the extracellular polymer (EPS), dissolved microorganism product (SMP) and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) concentration. FA was extremely significantly correlated with EPS and SCOD, and the FA concentration was approximately 20.7 mg/L. The SCOD eff (effluent SCOD concentration) concentration was approximately 147 mg/L higher than the SCOD inf (influent SCOD concentration) concentration. FA mainly affects membrane fouling by affecting the concentration of EPS and SCOD.

Biogas digestate is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and could pose a high health risk to both human and animals if the host microorganisms of ARGs become aerosolized. The purpose of this study was to investigate the diversity and relative abundance characteristics of aerosol-loaded ARGs from biogas digestate during storage, and to explore whether the change of ARGs in biogas digestate directly affect the dispersion of aerosol-loaded ARGs. This study reported for the first time that 28 of 42 ARG subtypes detected in the biogas digestate could be dispersed to the atmosphere via aerosol dispersion in a lab-scale dynamic emission vessels experiment. The relative abundance or diversity of ARGs in aerosols were different from that in biogas digestate, and no significant correlation were observed between the relative abundance of ARGs in biogas digestate and aerosols. The dominant ARGs were tetracycline resistance genes in biogas digestate and β-lactam resistance genes in aerosols. The process of biogas digestate storage reduced the total relative abundance of targeted ARGs in biogas digestate, decreased by 0.35 copies/16S rRNA after 30 days of storage, but increased the abundance of some ARG subtypes, including tetM, tetX, tetQ, tetS, ermF and sul2. High-concerned ARGs, including NDM-1, mcr-1 and vancomycin resistance genes (including vanA, vanB, vanRA and vanSA), were found in biogas digestate, and NDM-1 and vanB were also detected in aerosols. These results indicated a potential risk of ARGs dispersion during biogas digestate storage. Further research on the dispersion of ARGs from biogas digestate is required to elucidate the emission mechanism and develop mitigation measures., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ultrafiltration (UF) can effectively remove large particles, suspended solids, and colloidal substances from anaerobic digestate. However, membrane fouling is a technical challenge in the purification of the digestate by UF. In this study, polyethersulfone (PES) membranes with four pore sizes (50.0, 20.0, 10.0 and 5.0 kDa) were employed to filter anaerobic digestate from swine manure. The effects of temperature, transmembrane pressure (TMP), and cross-flow velocity (CFV) on flux were investigated. The purification effects and fouling characteristics of the four membranes were analyzed. The results revealed that the increase of temperature and CFV can effectively promote UF separation efficiency, but as the TMP exceeded 3.0 bar, the flux increase rates of the four membranes were almost zero. The larger membrane pore size caused the faster flux increase with the increase in pressure. During the batch experiment, the 20.0 kDa membrane showed the lowest flux maintenance ability, while the 5.0 kDa showed the highest ability due to the smaller pore size. All four membranes can effectively remove tetracyclines residues. Elements C, O, and S were the major membrane foulant elements. The dominant bacteria orders of membrane fouling were Pseudomonadales , Xanthomonadales and Burkholderiales . Compared with tap water and citric acid, the membrane cleaning by NaOH and NaClO showed higher flux recovery rates. The 50.0 kDa membrane achieved the best cleaning effects under all cleaning methods.

Animal slurry storage is an important source of NH 3 emission which has raised a high attention regarding its influence on air quality and environment health. There is an urgent need to develop an efficient, green and safe technology for reducing NH 3 emission. This study introduced a novel method of reducing NH 3 emission from dairy slurry storage using H 2 SO 4 modified expanded vermiculite cover (H 2 SO 4 -VM1). Results showed that NH 3 mitigation of 87% was achieved in the treatment of H 2 SO 4 -VM1 during 77 days of slurry storage, which could be mainly caused by conversion of free NH 3 to NH 4 + in acidified slurry surface and vermiculite layer, the cover barrier for gases emissions, NH 4 + adsorption by vermiculite cover, and direct adsorption of free NH 3 in the vermiculite layer. The NH 3 mitigation of H 2 SO 4 -VM1 was comparable to that (90%) of the traditional method of H 2 SO 4 acidification for slurry storage (H 2 SO 4 -AC1). The N 2 O emission, H 2 S emission, and H 2 SO 4 consumption in H 2 SO-VM1 were 28, 93 and 39% lower than those in H 2 SO 4 -AC1, respectively. Economic cost calculated based on material input in H 2 SO-VM1 method was 0.40 USD m -2 slurry. It's suggested that H 2 SO 4 -VM1 can be a possible alternative for reducing NH 3 emissions from animal slurry storage., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nanofiltration (NF) or reverse osmosis (RO) process has been widely applied for concentrating nutrient in biogas digestate. However, efficient pretreatment is key to the sustainable operation of NF or RO. In this study, the combination of NF and RO for concentrating biogas digestate was compared using different pretreatments of hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane (HFUFM) and ceramic membrane (CUFM). Pilot-scale batch tests were conducted (500 L). CUFM showed a higher membrane flux than HFUFM (100 ~ 180 L·(m 2 ·h) -1 vs. 17 ~ 35 L·(m 2 ·h) -1 ), but they showed little impact on the NF + RO process. Membrane fluxes of NF and RO were 20 ~ 48 L·(m 2 ·h) -1 and 16 ~ 40 L·(m 2 ·h) -1 , respectively. In the RO permeates, the removal rates of total suspended solids (TSS), total solids (TS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), NH 4 + -N, and Cl - were above 91%. In the concentrates, TN and total potassium (TK) were concentrated by 1.60 and 2.00 folds in the NF stage, and by 2.10 and 2.30 folds in the RO stage. Further attention should be paid to the antibiotics risks in the concentrates before they are utilized as plant fertilizers.

This research proposes and demonstrates, for the first time, the utilization of swine manure as a complex feedstock to produce high-value medium chain fatty acids (MCFA). The two-stage anaerobic digestion (AD) carboxylates platform was adopted for the conversion of swine manure to short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and then SCFAs to MCFA (n-caproate, n-heptanoate, and n-caprylate) with ethanol supplementation. We defined the appropriate initial pH of 10.0 for SCFAs production with a carbon conversion rate of 71.2%, and acetate, propionate were the main products, which accounted for around 72.9% of the total SCFAs in the primary stage (I). Through the addition of ethanol, 61.3% of the converted carbon in the complex SCFAs solution was converted into MCFA (C6-C8) in the chain elongation stage (II), while only 6.7% was attributed to methane formation. The concentrations of n-caproate, n-heptanoate, and n-caprylate reached 8.6 g COD/L (3.9 g/L), 6.4 g COD/L (2.7 g/L), and 2.6 g COD/L (1.07 g/L), respectively. This study achieved a relatively higher concentration of n-heptanoate compared with past studies of MCFA from other feedstock. These findings demonstrated a new route for resource recovery and the operating parameters for producing MCFA from swine manure., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pollutant gases and particulate matters (PM) from livestock facilities can affect the health of animals and farm workers and lead to great social environmental risks. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the characteristics of ammonia (NH 3 ), nitrogen oxides (NO x ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and PM (including PM 2.5 and PM 10 ) in a 100,000-bird manure-belt layer house in suburb Beijing for three typical seasons of summer, autumn and winter. Indoor air was sampled at an exhaust fan of the mechanically ventilated commercial house. The monitored indoor concentrations of NH 3 , NO x , SO 2 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 were 3.7-5.0 mg m -3 , 17-58 μg m -3 , 0-11 μg m -3 , 100-149 μg m -3 and 354-828 μg m -3 , respectively. The indoor NH 3 concentrations were largely influenced by the manure removal frequency. The NO x and SO 2 were mainly sourced from the ambient air, and the NO x was also partly sourced from manure decomposition in summer. The indoor PM 2.5 and PM 10 were largely sourced from the ambient air and the indoor manure, respectively. The abundant indoor NH 3 caused significantly higher NH 4 + concentration in the indoor PM 10 (7.98 ± 9.04 μg m -3 ) than that in the ambient PM 10 (3.48 ± 3.52 μg m -3 ). Secondary inorganic ions (SO 4 2- , NO 3 - and NH 4 + ) totally contributed 5.7% and 14.6% to the indoor and ambient PM 2.5 , respectively; they contributed 2.8% and 8.9% to the indoor and ambient PM 10 , respectively. Organic carbon was the main component of the PM and accounted for 26.6% and 41.5% of the indoor PM 2.5 and PM 10 , respectively. Heavy metal elements (Zn, Cu and Cr) were likely transported from feed to manure and finally accumulated in the PM. Given the high emission potential, the air pollutants from animal production suggested potential risks for human health., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Pasteurisation pretreatment (PP) in combination with anaerobic digestion (PPAD) is one of the best ways for sterilisation of pathogenic microorganisms in manure. However, the effect of antibiotic residues in manure on PPAD has not been studied. This study investigated the function of PPAD on antibiotic removal and the effect of antibiotic on PPAD performance. Results demonstrated that chlortetracycline (CTC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) concentrations decreased from 17.236 and 183.446 to 0 and 17.348 mg/kg·TS using PPAD, respectively. PPAD for swine manure containing CTC and OTC increased methane production from 244.0 ± 7.6 to 254.0 ± 6.1 mL/g·VS and reduced technical digestion time (T 80 ) from 30 to 25 days compared with AD process. Moreover, PPAD affected only archaeal communities, whereas PP affected bacterial/archaeal communities. Thus, PPAD can be used to treat antibiotic-containing manure and reduce the negative effects of antibiotics., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

When tested as the cathode material for potassium-ion batteries, K2V3O8 delivers a highly reversible capacity of over 100 mA h g-1 in the voltage range of 1.5-4.5 V with 73% capacity retained after 50 cycles. Charge-discharge is achieved by a nontopotactic process between K2V3O8 and KV3O8 (ΔV ∼ -23.4%), causing the slow capacity decay.

Antibiotic and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been considered as emerging environmental contaminants and possess potential crisis to global public health. However, little is known about the differences between various configurations of two-stage combinations of constructed wetlands (CWs) on antibiotics and ARG removal from wastewater. In the study, three configurations of two-stage hybrid CWs (horizontal subsurface flow-down-flow vertical subsurface flow CWs, HF-DVF; horizontal subsurface flow-up-flow vertical subsurface flow CWs, HF-UVF; down-flow vertical subsurface flow-up-flow vertical subsurface flow CWs, DVF-UVF) were operated to evaluate their ability to remove high-concentration antibiotics (tilmicosin-TMS and doxycycline-DOC), ARGs (seven tet genes and three erm genes), intI 1, 16S rRNA, and nutrients from goose wastewater. The results showed that all three hybrid CWs could remove more than 98% of TMS and DOC from wastewater, without significant difference among treatments ( p > 0.05). For ARGs, DVF-UVF showed significantly higher removal efficiencies of intI 1, erm B, erm C, erm F, tet W, and tet G compared to HF-UVF ( p < 0.05), mainly because they might remove and arrest growth of bacteria. The relatively high removal efficiencies of NH 4 + -N, NO 3 - N, and NO 2 - -N were also observed from DVF-UVF, ranging from 87% to 95% ( p > 0.05), indicating that anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) might be established in the CWs. Our results demonstrate that the removal performances of antibiotics using two-stage hybrid CWs are not affected by the combined configuration, whereas the combination of DVF and UVF CWs perform better on the removal of ARGs and nutrients compared with HF-DVF and HF-UVF CWs.

Ammonia stripping is a pretreatment method for piggery biogas slurry, and the effectiveness of the method is affected by many factors. Based on the results of single-factor experiments, response surface methodology is adopted to establish a quadratic polynomial mathematical model relating stripping time, pH value and gas flow rate to the average removal rate of ammonia nitrogen to explore the interactions among various influencing factors, obtain optimized combined parameters for ammonia stripping, and carry out experimental verification of the parameters. The results show that when hollow polyhedral packing is adopted under operating conditions including a stripping time of 90 min, pH value of 11, gas flow rate of 28 m 3 /h, gas-liquid ratio of 2000 and temperature of 30 °C, the average removal rate of ammonia nitrogen in biogas slurry can reach approximately 73%. The experimental value is only 4.2% different from the predicted value, which indicates that analysis on the interaction among factors influencing ammonia stripping of biogas slurry and parameter optimization of the regression model are accurate and effective.

Broiler and layer productions are important ammonia (NH 3 ) emission sources in the livestock industry. Here, we present the first meta-analysis and integrated assessment of NH 3 emissions and mitigation potentials for typical broiler litter manure management system (MMS) and layer manure belt MMS based on data from 96 studies. A total of 10 integrated NH 3 emission factors (EFs) and the NH 3 mitigation efficiencies (MEs) of 14 available options were provided. The estimated NH 3 emissions from the baseline scenarios of the broiler litter MMS and the layer manure belt MMS were 84.1 ± 5.9 kg AU -1  yr -1 and 53.5 ± 15.8 kg AU -1  yr -1 , respectively. The NH 3 mitigation for the broiler litter MMS should be focused on the in-house stage, while the mitigation in the layer manure belt MMS should be focused on the outdoor and land application stages. The recommended NH 3 mitigation options for the in-house stage, the outdoor stage and the land application stage were acid scrubber (-92.5%), compost biofilter (-71.9%) and changing the manure surface application to incorporation (-83.0%), respectively. The recommended mitigation combinations of low crude protein (LCP) diet, acid scrubber, compost biofilter and manure incorporation achieved the highest NH 3 mitigation efficiency from both broiler litter MMS and layer manure belt MMS, by 89.3% and 84.8%, respectively. The results of this study have important implications for developing sustainable poultry production systems from the viewpoint of NH 3 mitigation. The environment issues such as the other reactive nitrogen emissions and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions should also be considered in the future., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) controls cell growth and metabolism in response to environmental and metabolic signals. Rapamycin robustly extends the lifespan in mammals and has clinical relevance in organ transplantation and cancer therapy but side effects include male infertility. Here, we report that chronic rapamycin treatment causes spermatogenic arrest in adult male mice due to defects in sex body formation and meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). Many sex chromosome-linked genes were up-regulated in isolated pachytene spermatocytes from rapamycin-treated mice. RNA-Seq analysis also identified mRNAs encoding the core piRNA pathway components were decreased. Furthermore, rapamycin treatment was associated with a drastic reduction in pachytene piRNA populations. The inhibitory effects of rapamycin on spermatogenesis were partially reversible, with restoration of testis mass and sperm motility within 2 months of treatment cessation. Collectively, we have defined an essential role of mTOR in MSCI and identified a novel function as a regulator of small RNA homeostasis in male germ cells.

Study Question: What is the physiological role of Rictor in spermatogenic cells?, Summary Answer: Germline expression of Rictor regulates spermatogonial differentiation and has an essential role in coordinating germ cells and Sertoli cells in maintaining intact cell-cell adhesion dynamics and cytoskeleton-based architecture in the seminiferous epithelium., What Is Known Already: The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) resides in its functions as the catalytic subunits of the structurally and functionally distinct mTORC1 and mTORC2 complexes. In the mammalian testis, mTORC1 regulates spermatogonial stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, whereas mTORC2 is required for Sertoli cell function. In contrast to mTORC1, mTORC2 has been much less well studied. Rictor is a distinct component of the mTORC2 complex., Study Design, Size, Duration: We investigated the effects of germ cell-specific ablation of Rictor on testicular development by using a mouse model of germline-specific ablation of Rictor., Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: We analyzed the in-vivo functions of Rictor through different methods including histology, immunofluorescent staining, chromosome spreads, blood-testis barrier (BTB) integrity assays and RNA sequencing., Main Results and the Role of Chance: Mutant mice did not show a defect in meiotic synapsis or recombination, but exhibited compromised spermatogonial differentiation potential, disorganized cell-cell junctions, impaired BTB dynamics and defective spermiogenesis. Concomitantly, RNA-seq profiling revealed that many genes involved in adhesion and migration were expressed inappropriately., Large Scale Data: RNA-seq data are published in the SRA database (PRJNA419273)., Limitations Reasons for Caution: A detailed analysis of the mechanisms underlying the phenotype needs further investigations., Wider Implications of the Findings: Our work provides previously unidentified in-vivo evidence that germline expression of Rictor plays a role in maintaining spermatogonial differentiation and cell-cell adhesion. These findings are important for understanding the regulation of spermatogenesis and have clinical implications for the effect of mTOR inhibitors on human fertility., Study Funding and Competing Interest(s): This study was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFA0500902), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31471228 and 31771653), Jiangsu Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (BK20150047), and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20140897, 14KJA180005 and 14KJB310004) to K.Z. The authors declare no competing or financial interests.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been applied to animal manure stabilization, and antibiotics is frequently found in animal manure. However, antibiotic degradation and microbial community structures during two-stage AD (acidification and methanogenesis) remain poorly understood. This experiments on two-stage anaerobic swine manure digesters were performed to investigate the degradation mechanisms and effects of chlortetracycline (CTC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) on microbial community structures. Results showed that acidification and methanogenesis showed good degradation performance for manure containing CTC and OTC at 60 and 40 mg/kg·TS, respectively. CTC and OTC were degraded by 59.8% and 41.3% in the acidogenic stage and by 76.3% and 78.3% in the methanogenic stage, respectively. CTC and OTC negatively affected bacterial community in methanogenic and acidogenic stages, respectively. They also adversely influenced the archaeal species in the methanogenic stage. Two-stage AD was proposed to treat manure containing antibiotics and to reduce the negative effects of antibiotics on AD., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Media depth (MD) and moisture content (MC) are two important factors that greatly influence biofilter performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effect of MC and MD on removing ammonia (NH 3 ), hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from swine barns. Biofiltration performance of different MDs and MCs in combination based on a mixed medium of wood chips and compost was monitored. A 3 × 3 factorial design was adopted, which included three levels of the two factors (MC: 45%, 55%, and 67% [wet basis]; MD: 0.17, 0.33, and 0.50 m). Results indicated that high MC and MD could improve NH 3 removal efficiency, but increase outlet N 2 O concentration. When MC was 67%, the average NH 3 removal efficiency of three MDs (0.17, 0.33, and, 0.50 m) ranged from 77.4% to 78.7%; the range of average H 2 S removal efficiency dropped from 68.1-90.0% (1-34 days of the test period) to 36.8-63.7% (35-58 days of the test period); and the average outlet N 2 O concentration increased by 25.5-60.1%. When MC was 55%, the average removal efficiency of NH 3 , H 2 S, and N 2 O for treatment with 0.33 m MD was 72.8 ± 5.9%, 70.9 ± 13.3%, and -18.9 ± 8.1%, respectively; and the average removal efficiency of NH 3 , H 2 S, and N 2 O for treatment with 0.50 m MD was 77.7 ± 4.2%, 65.8 ± 13.7%, and -24.5 ±12.1%, respectively. When MC was 45%, the highest average NH 3 reduction efficiency among three MDs was 60.7% for 0.5 m MD, and the average N 2 O removal efficiency for three MDs ranged from -18.8% to -12.7%. In addition, the pressure drop of 0.33 m MD was significantly lower than that of 0.50 m MD (p < 0.05). To obtain high mitigation of NH 3 and H 2 S and avoid elevated emission of N 2 O and large pressure drop, 0.33 m MD at 55% MC is recommended., Implications: The performances of biofilters with three different media depths (0.17, 0.33, and 0.50 m) and three different media moisture contents (45%, 55%, and 67% [wet basis]) were compared to remove gases from a swine barn. Using wood chips and compost mixture as the biofilters media, the combination of 0.33 m media depth and 55% media moisture content is recommended to obtain good reduction of NH 3 and H 2 S, and to simultaneously prevent elevated emission of N 2 O and large pressure drop across the media.

CYP19 is the single copy gene encoding for the estrogen synthetic enzyme aromatase. Alternate splicing of the promoter is the regulatory mechanism of this gene. In the brain, estrogen is synthesized in neuronal and glial cells and the gene is mainly regulated by the alternate promoter PI.f. The hormone produced in this vicinity has been associated with maintaining normal brain functions. Previously, epigenetic regulation has been shown in the promoters PII and I.3 of CYP19 in adipocytes. In the present study, the methylation of PI.f in CYP19 was examined in glial cells. Treatment of the hypomethylating agent 5-aza-2'deoxycytidine increased CYP19 mRNA species in U87 MG cells while little changes were observed in the other glia cell lines. As PI.f is also chiefly used in T98G cells with high expression of CYP19, the methylation statuses of the promoter in these two cell models were compared. Our results showed that treating U87 MG cells with 10 μM 5-aza-2'deoxycytidine significantly induced a ∼10-fold increase in CYP19 transcription and ∼80% increase in aromatase activity. In contrast, the same treatment did not change either endpoint in T98G cells. Further investigation illustrated the CpGs in PI.f were differentially methylated in the two cell lines; 63% and 37% of the 14 CpG sites were methylated in U87 MG and T98G cells respectively. In conclusion, this study illustrated that the brain-specific PI.f derived CYP19 expression can be regulated by DNA methylation., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Rapamycin is a clinically important drug that is used in transplantation and cancer therapy but which causes a number of side effects, including male infertility. Its canonical target, mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), plays a key role in metabolism and binds chromatin; however, its precise role in the male germline has not been elucidated. Here, we inactivate the core component, Raptor, to show that mTORC1 function is critical for male meiosis and the inactivation of sex chromosomes. Disruption of the Raptor gene impairs chromosomal synapsis and prevents the efficient spreading of silencing factors into the XY chromatin. Accordingly, mRNA for XY-linked genes remains inappropriately expressed in Raptor -deficient mice. Molecularly, the failure to suppress gene expression corresponded with deficiencies in 2 repressive chromatin markers, H3K9 dimethylation and H3K9 trimethylation, in the XY body. Together, these results demonstrate that mTORC1 has an essential role in the meiotic progression and silencing of sex chromosomes in the male germline, which may explain the infertility that has been associated with such inhibitors as rapamycin.-Xiong, M., Zhu, Z., Tian, S., Zhu, R., Bai, S., Fu, K., Davis, J. G., Sun, Z., Baur, J. A., Zheng, K., Ye, L. Conditional ablation of Raptor in the male germline causes infertility due to meiotic arrest and impaired inactivation of sex chromosomes., (© FASEB.)

Gaseous emissions from animal manure are considerable contributor to global ammonia (NH 3 ) and agriculture greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Given the demand to promote mitigation of GHGs while fostering sustainable development of the Paris Agreement, an improvement of management systems is urgently needed to help mitigate climate change and to improve atmospheric air quality. This study presents a meta-analysis and an integrated assessment of gaseous emissions and mitigation potentials for NH 3 , methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) (direct and indirect) losses from four typical swine manure management systems (MMSs). The resultant emission factors and mitigation efficiencies allow GHG and NH 3 emissions to be estimated, as well as mitigation potentials for different stages of swine operation. In particular, changing swine manure management from liquid systems to solid-liquid separation systems, coupled with mitigation measures, could simultaneously reduce GHG emissions by 65% and NH 3 emissions by 78%. The resultant potential reduction in GHG emissions from China's pig production alone is greater than the entire GHG emissions from agricultural sector of France, Australia, or Germany, while the reduction in NH 3 emissions is equivalent to 40% of the total NH 3 emissions from the European Union. Thus, improved swine manure management could have a significant impact on global environment issues.

The effects of free ammonia (FA) and dissolved oxygen (DO) on nitrite accumulation in the treatment of high ammonium wastewater and on the evolution of the microbial community were investigated. Under high DO conditions (3.75 ± 0.49 mg/L), FA as high as 10.61 ± 2.89 mg NH3/L maintained stable nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) of 84 % with NH4 (+)-N load of 2.05 kg N/(m(3) day) at sludge retention time (SRT) of 15-18 days. After 56 days of operation, Proteobacteria and Nitrosomonas were the dominant phylum and genus, respectively; Nitrosomonas increased from 21.14 to 54.57 %. By contrast, under relative low DO and low FA, nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) were nearly eliminated (NOB/AOB of 0; ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB)), and NAR of 94 % was achieved with lower NH4 (+)-N load of 0.48 kg N/(m(3) day). DO correlated with AOB and NOB abundance, and FA decreased NOB activity and the NOB/AOB ratio. In conclusion, high FA and high DO conditions are optimal for efficient nitrite accumulation.

The sulphate content of a system increases when strong-acid cationic exchange resins leak into a system or when sulphonic acid groups on the resin organic chain detach. To solve this problem, a dynamic cycle method was used in dissolution experiments of several resins under H2O2 or residual chlorine conditions. Results show that after performing dynamic cycle experiments for 120 hours under oxidizing environments, the SO4(2-) and total organic carbon (TOC) released by four kinds of resins increased with time, contrary to their release velocity. The quantity of released SO4(2-) increased as the oxidizing ability of oxidants was enhanced. Results showed that the quantity and velocity of released SO4(2-) under residual chlorine condition were larger than those under H2O2 condition. Data analysis of SO4(2-) and TOC released from the four kinds of resins by the dynamic cycle experiment revealed that the strength of oxidation resistance of the four resins were as follows: 650C>1500H>S200>SP112H.

A membrane bioreactor (MBR) was developed for the treatment of anaerobically digested swine wastewater and to investigate the effect of ammonium nitrogen concentration on biological nitrogen removal and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) community structures. The MBR achieved a high NH4(+)-N removal efficiency of 0.08 kgNMLSS(-1)d(-1) and removed 95% of the influent NH4(+)-N. The TN removal rate was highest of 82.62% at COD/TN and BOD5/TN ratios of 8.76 ± 0.30 and 3.02 ± 0.09, respectively. With the decrease in ammonium nitrogen concentrations, the diversity of the AOB community declined and showed a simple pattern of DGGE. However, the AOB population size remained high, with abundance of 10(7)-10(9) copies mL(-1). With the decrease of ammonium nitrogen concentrations, Nitrosomonas eutropha gradually disappeared, whereas Nitrosomonas sp. OZK11 showed constant adaptability to survive during each treatment stage. The selective effect of ammonium concentration on AOB species could be due to the affinity for NH4(+)-N. In this study, the changes of ammonium nitrogen concentrations in digested swine wastewater were found to have selective effects on the composition of AOB community, and biological nitrogen removal was improved by optimising the influencing parameters., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.)