Search

As high-temperature-resistant inorganic fibers, Al 2 O 3 fibers possess high-temperature resistance, high-temperature oxidation resistance, and chemical stability, and thus are suitable for applications such as high temperature catalysis and filtration. However, their shortcomings, such as high brittleness and high fracturability, limit their applications. In this study, a flexible Al 2 O 3 /aramid composite felt was prepared by introducing aramid fibers into Al 2 O 3 fiber filaments, and the flexibility of the prepared composite felt was improved by using needle punching. The influence of the Al 2 O 3 /aramid doping ratio on the thermal insulation performance of the composite felt was explored. The findings showed that as the Al 2 O 3 /aramid doping ratio increased, the thermal insulation performance of the composite felt improved, whereas its thermal conductivity decreased. At room temperature of 25 °C and with an Al 2 O 3 /aramid doping ratio of 12:1, the thermal conductivity of the composite felt reached its minimum value of 0.0306 W m−1 K−1, while its compression and fracture moduli became 0.4 MPa and 21.5 GPa, respectively. The thermal-insulation mechanism of the composite felt was also explored in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As high-temperature-resistant inorganic fibers, Al 2 O 3 fibers possess high-temperature resistance, high-temperature oxidation resistance, and chemical stability, and thus are suitable for applications such as high temperature catalysis and filtration. However, their shortcomings, such as high brittleness and high fracturability, limit their applications. In this study, a flexible Al 2 O 3 /aramid composite felt was prepared by introducing aramid fibers into Al 2 O 3 fiber filaments, and the flexibility of the prepared composite felt was improved by using needle punching. The influence of the Al 2 O 3 /aramid doping ratio on the thermal insulation performance of the composite felt was explored. The findings showed that as the Al 2 O 3 /aramid doping ratio increased, the thermal insulation performance of the composite felt improved, whereas its thermal conductivity decreased. At room temperature of 25 °C and with an Al 2 O 3 /aramid doping ratio of 12:1, the thermal conductivity of the composite felt reached its minimum value of 0.0306 W m−1 K−1, while its compression and fracture moduli became 0.4 MPa and 21.5 GPa, respectively. The thermal-insulation mechanism of the composite felt was also explored in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better suppress low-frequency vibrations of flexible manipulators induced by the rotation of motors and eccentricity, a novel type of tuned particle damper (TPD) is designed by combining the advantages of classical dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) and particle dampers (PD). Compared to traditional DVAs, this TPD can reduce additional mass and effectively broaden the frequency band of the DVA. Firstly, an equivalent theoretical model is established to describe the frequency tuning principle of the designed TPD. Based on the theory of a single particle damper, the equivalent damping and stiffness of the particles are calculated through an approximate approach. Then, a three-degree-of-freedom vibration model of the manipulator system with the TPD is built, and the dynamical characteristic of the primary resonance for the coupled system are analyzed by the perturbation method. Finally, the experimental platform is set up to verify the theoretical results. A manipulator is applied to test the low-frequency vibration absorption of the designed TPD, and the vibration suppression effect is discussed both in theoretical analysis and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research proposes a novel type of variable stiffness tuned particle damper (TPD) for reducing vibrations in boring bars. The TPD integrates the developments of particle damping and dynamical vibration absorber, whose frequency tuning principle is established through an equivalent theoretical model. Based on the multiphase flow theory of gas-solid, it is effective to obtain the equivalent damping and stiffness of the particle damping. The dynamic equations of the coupled system, consisting of a boring bar with the TPD, are built by Hamilton's principle. The vibration suppression of the TPD is assessed by calculating the amplitude responses of the boring bar both with and without the TPD by the Newmark-beta algorithm. Moreover, an improvement is proposed to the existing gas-solid flow theory, and a comparative analysis of introducing the stiffness term on the damping effect is presented. The parameters of the TPD are optimized by the genetic algorithm, and the results indicate that the optimized TPD effectively reduces the peak response of the boring bar system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive dynamic vibration absorber (ADVA) is designed for low-frequency vibration suppression. The leaf springs are applied as the tuning stiffness elements. The principle of variable stiffness is analyzed to obtain the effective range of the first natural frequency variation. A classic simply supported manipulator is selected as the controlled system. The coupled dynamic model of the manipulator-ADVA system is built to obtain the maximum damping efficiency and the vibration absorption capacity of the designed ADVA. An experimental platform is set up to verify the theoretical results. It is revealed that the ADVA can adjust the first natural frequency on a large scale by changing the curvature of the leaf springs. The amplitude of the manipulator is reduced obviously with the installation of the designed ADVA. Finally, based on the short-time Fourier transformation (STFT), a stepwise optimization algorithm is proposed to achieve a quick tuning of the natural frequency of the ADVA so that it can always coincide with the frequency of the prime structure. Through the above steps, the intelligent frequency tuning of the ADVA is realized with high vibration absorption performance in a wide frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A. fumigatus elevates TLR-4 expression during infection. • Quercetin inhibits A. fumigatus -induced inflammatory responses by regulating TLR-4 pathway. • Quercetin plays a protective role in mouse A. fumigatus keratitis by inhibiting fungal growth, mycelium formation, fungal spore adhesion, and macrophage infiltration. • It lays the foundation for our future research on poly(quercetin), a polymer material that fights fungi by increasing corneal penetration. To investigate the antifungal and anti-inflammatory effects of quercetin in Aspergillus fumigatus (A. fumigatus) keratitis. Draize eye test was performed in mice to evaluate the toxicity of quercetin, and the antifungal effects on A. fumigatus were assessed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), propidium iodide uptake, and adherence assay. In fungal keratitis (FK) mouse models, immunostaining was performed for investigating toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) expression and macrophage infiltration. Real-time PCR, ELISA, and Western blot were used to evaluate the expression of pro-inflammatory factors IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6 in infected RAW264.7 cells. Cells were also treated with TLR-4 siRNA or agonist CRX-527 to investigate mechanisms underlying the anti-inflammatory activity of quercetin. Quercetin at 32 μM was non-toxic to corneal epithelial and significantly inhibited A. fumigatus growth and adhesion, and also altered the structure and reduced the number of mycelia. Quercetin significantly reduced macrophage infiltration in the mouse cornea, and attenuated the expression of TLR-4 in the corneal epithelium and stroma of mice with keratitis caused by A. fumigatus. In RAW264.7 cells infected by A. fumigatus , quercetin downregulated TLR-4 along with pro-inflammatory factors IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6. RAW cells with TLR-4 knockdown had reduced expression of factors after A. fumigatus infection, which was decreased even further with quercetin treatment. In contrast, cells with CRX-527 had elevated inflammatory factors compared to control, which was significantly attenuated in the presence of quercetin. Quercetin plays a protective role in mouse A. fumigatus keratitis by inhibiting fungal load, disrupting hyphae structure, macrophage infiltration, and suppressing inflammation response in macrophages via TLR-4 mediated signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several biological enhancements were implemented in the aerobic tank to address the challenges of treating expressway service sewage (ESS) with low-carbon and high-ammonia nitrogen using A/O-MBR technology, aiming to improve TN removal efficiency and reduce excessive sludge production. A novel moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) inoculated with heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacteria was developed for ESS, and the results showed that HN-AD bacteria significantly improved TN removal efficiency, with an increase of 65% compared to the traditional activated sludge system. High-throughput sequencing revealed that Bacteroidotas contributed significantly to MBBR denitrification, and the genes nirK and nosZ played a significant role in denitrification. The HN-AD biofilm-forming MBBR achieved the transition of ESS treatment from "normal-sludge" mode to the more environmentally-friendly "low-sludge" and "no-sludge" modes by reducing the sludge concentration. [Display omitted] • Bioaugmentation methods compared for low carbon, high nitrogen sewage treatment. • Bacterial biofilm carrier increases TN removal by 35% compared to sludge carrier. • Pure HN-AD biofilm in MBBR achieves simultaneous NH 4 +-N and TN removal aerobically. • Bacteroidota is essential for aerobic denitrification in pure HN-AD biofilm MBBR. • NirK and nosZ are essential genes for aerobic denitrification in pure biofilm MBBR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation technique can provide reliable communication in time-varying channels. Due to the dispersive characteristics of underwater acoustic channels, this paper proposes an OTFS-IM underwater acoustic communication system based on Hamming distance optimization to reduce the impact of dispersion in underwater acoustic communication. Firstly, the OTFS-IM underwater acoustic communication system is introduced, which introduces index modulation into the Delay–Doppler (DD) domain to make the OTFS system have stronger anti-Delay–Doppler capability. In contrast, since there is index sequence redundancy in a specific index combination, a Hamming distance optimization model is used to eliminate the redundant combination in the specific index combination sequence and further improve the bit error rate performance of the system. In addition, the Hamming distance optimized OTFS-IM underwater acoustic communication system is verified by simulation analysis. The results show that the proposed Hamming distance optimized OTFS-IM can achieve more reliable bit error rate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A HN-AD bacterium, Alcaligenes faecalis TF-1 was isolated from landfill leachate. • NH 4 +-N tolerance of the strain TF-1 reached 2000 mg·L−1 with 65% of NH 4 +-N removal. • 52.87% of NH 4 +-N removal was realized under 70 g·L−1 salinity and 919.20 mg·L−1 NH 4 +-N. • The optimum C/N, pH and carbon source of the strain were 16, 7 and sodium citrate. • HN-AD pathway of TF-1 was revealed: NH 4 +-N → NH 2 OH → NO → N 2 O → N 2. A novel heterotrophic nitrifying bacterium with high salt and high ammonia nitrogen tolerance, Alcaligenes faecalis TF-1, was isolated from the leachate of a landfill. The verification of nitrogen removal efficiency of different nitrogen sources and PCR amplification electrophoresis results showed that the HN-AD pathway of the strain TF-1 was NH 4 + → NH 2 OH → NO → N 2 O → N 2. The results of parameter optimization showed that the optimal nitrogen removal conditions were as follows: sodium citrate as carbon source, C/N = 16, pH = 7, and NH 4 +-N loading of 808.21 mg/L. The strain TF-1 could remove about 94.60% of ammonia nitrogen (1963.94 mg/L). The salinity tolerance range of the strain TF-1 was 0–70 g/L, and the removal efficiency was 52.87% at salinity 70 g/L and NH 4 +-N concentration 919.20 mg/L and 55.67% at pH = 10 and NH 4 +-N concentration 994.82 mg/L. The extreme environmental adaptability and remarkable nitrogen removal performance make this strain a promising candidate in leachate treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Osteopontin (OPN) expression is increased during the course of various chronic inflammatory diseases, including tuberculosis (TB). However, its prognostic value in TB management remains unclear. This study aimed to determine whether OPN could associate with other cytokines serving as a reliable biomarker for evaluating the effectiveness of early anti-TB treatments. Methods: Smear-positive pulmonary TB patients (n = 20) were recruited, and the plasma levels of OPN, IP-10, TNF-α, and IL-12 were measured by ELISA before initiation of anti-TB therapy and after sputum smear conversion. The C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were also tracked during anti-TB treatment. Results: OPN expression was significantly elevated in patients with smear-positive pulmonary TB, and was closely related with disease severity. Monitoring during the treatment course revealed that its expression, along with that of IFN-γ-induced protein 10 (IP-10), decreased significantly only after sputum smear conversion. Moreover, OPN levels positively correlated with CRP levels before and after anti-TB treatment. Furthermore, OPN markedly promoted IP-10 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Conclusion: Association between OPN and IP-10 may serve as a reliable prognostic indicator for improvement during the early treatment of pulmonary TB, and may help clinicians in tailoring an effective TB treatment regimen. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, research on modulated signal recognition using deep learning (DL) has achieved remarkable success, allowing automatic modulation recognition (AMR) to play a crucial role in modern communication systems. The emergence of the attention mechanism has then rapidly led to a wide range of applications in image classification and speech recognition, which proves the effectiveness of the attention mechanism. In this paper, the authors propose a network model feed‐forward Attention mechanism with Residuals networks and Long Short‐Term Memory (RLADNN) based on feed‐forward attention mechanism with Residuals networks (Resnet) and Long Short‐Term Memory (LSTM), which takes the advantage that the Attention mechanism can effectively solve some long‐term memory problems in [−20:18] signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) for the recognition of 11 modulated signals with different SNR, and effectively improves the recognition rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a convolutional neural network (CNN) based filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) system for underwater acoustic (UWA) communications. Different from traditional FBMC receivers that only detect the transmitted symbols after expliciting channel estimation and equalization, the proposed system takes a pre-trained CNN model as a receiver to recover the transmitted symbols directly and avoid the inherent imaginary interference. At the offline training stage, the CNN model takes the known transmitted data as the labels and the received data as input for iterative learning. At the testing stage, unlabeled received data are directly output to CNN to estimate the online transmitted symbols. The CNN based UWA FBMC system is analysed under various system parameters such as input permutations, convolution kernels and prototype filters, and sufficient communication data are generated according to the measured UWA channel impulse responses. Simulation results show that the proposed system achieves admirable performance for signal detection compared to the previous UWA FBMC system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ship radiated noise is an important information source of underwater acoustic targets, and it is of great significance to the identification and classification of ship targets. However, there are a lot of interference noises in the water, which leads to the reduction of the model recognition rate. Therefore, the recognition results of radiated noise targets are severely affected. This paper proposes a machine learning Dempster–Shafer (ML-DS) decision fusion method. The algorithm combines the recognition results of machine learning and deep learning. It uses evidence-based decision-making theory to realize feature fusion under different neural network classifiers and improve the accuracy of judgment. First, deep learning algorithms are used to classify two-dimensional spectrogram features and one-dimensional amplitude features extracted from CNN and LSTM networks. The machine learning algorithm SVM is used to classify the chromaticity characteristics of radiated noise. Then, according to the classification results of different classifiers, a basic probability assignment model (BPA) was designed to fuse the recognition results of the classifiers. Finally, according to the classification characteristics of machine learning and deep learning, combined with the decision-making of D-S evidence theory of different times, the decision-making fusion of radiated noise is realized. The results of the experiment show that the two fusions of deep learning combined with one fusion of machine learning can significantly improve the recognition results of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) datasets. The lowest fusion recognition result can reach 76.01%, and the average fusion recognition rate can reach 94.92%. Compared with the traditional single feature recognition algorithm, the recognition accuracy is greatly improved. Compared with the traditional one-step fusion algorithm, it can effectively integrate the recognition results of heterogeneous data and heterogeneous networks. The identification method based on ML-DS proposed in this paper can be applied in the field of ship radiated noise identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under α stable distribution impulse noise environment, the least mean p-power algorithm (LMP) cannot handle the instability of the algorithm well, due to the large amplitude of the input signal and the large number of useless small weight coefficients in the sparse channel, which delay the convergence speed of the algorithm. In this paper, we develop a new adaptive filtering algorithm, named the proportional normalization least mean p-power (PNLMP) adaptive filtering algorithm. We first introduce a step size control matrix to improve the overall convergence speed and convergence accuracy of the algorithm. Next, to reduce the influence of a large impulse response on the LMP algorithm, a high-order tongue-line function about error is introduced in the normalization processing. Finally, we extend the tongue-line function to ensure that the cost function can also switch freely between V-shaped and M-shaped. This new algorithm overcomes the problem that the traditional LMP algorithm is only applicable to a specific environment and solves the problem of slow convergence speed and low convergence accuracy. Under α stable distribution impulse noise environment, the simulations show that the PNLMP algorithm can improve the convergence speed and stronger system tracking capability compared with existing algorithms, overcoming the problems of slow overall convergence and low convergence accuracy in the traditional algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematologic malignancy with increased lethality. We focused on elucidating the role of Neratinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in the progression of AML and identify the potential mechanisms. Upon the treatment of Neratinib, autophagy suppressor 3‐methyladenine (3‐MA) and ferroptosis stimulator Erastin, the viability and proliferation of HL‐60 cells were evaluated by cell counting kit‐8 and 5‐Ethynyl‐20‐Deoxyuridine staining assays. A flow cytometer was to observe cell cycle and apoptosis. Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was tested via 2,7‐dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate assay. Additionally, malondialdehyde (MDA) content and Fe2+ activity were examined with commercial kits. LC3‐II expression was examined by using immunofluoresence staining. Western blot analysis ascertained the expression of proliferation, apoptosis, ferroptosis and autophagy‐associated proteins. It was noted that Neratinib notably mitigated cell viability and proliferation, cut down Ki67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression. Moreover, Neratinib hindered cell cycle at G0/G1 phase whereas exacerbated apoptosis. ROS, MDA and Fe2+ activities were elevated by Neratinib, coupled with the reduced glutathione peroxidase 4, ferritin heavy chain 1 expression and enhanced acyl‐CoA synthetase long‐chain family member 4 expression. Furthermore, Neratinib promoted autophagy of HL‐60 cells, evidenced by raised LC3‐II, ATG5, Beclin1 expression and lessened p62 expression. Importantly, 3‐MA eased the impacts of Neratinib on cell ferroptosis, proliferation and apoptosis, which were offset by further administration of Erastin. To conclude, Neratinib could suppress proliferation and promote apoptosis of HL‐60 cells through autophagy‐dependent ferroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Performance of MBBR inoculated with bacteria was improved by Acinetobacter sp. TAC-1. • TN removal rate was increased from 16 mg/L/h to 24 mg/L/h by the bioaugmentation. • 86.40% of TN in real swine wastewater was removed by bioaugmented MBBR within 24 h. • Bioaugmentation mechanism was revealed by the functional bacteria, enzyme and gene. To enhance the performance of moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) inoculated with heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacteria, bioaugmentation with Acinetobacter sp. TAC-1 was firstly employed and then the treatment performance for real swine wastewater was presented in this study. Results indicated that NH 4 +-N and TN removal rates of bioaugmented reactor were significantly improved from 16.53 mg/L/h and 16.15 mg/L/h to 24.58 mg/L/h and 24.45 mg/L/h, respectively. The efficient removal performance (NH 4 +-N 95.01%, TN 86.40%) for real swine wastewater was achieved within 24 h. Microbial analysis indicated that the composition of functional bacteria varied with the introduction of Acinetobacter sp. TAC-1, especially the abundance of Acinetobacter , Paracoccus and Rhodococcus related to the nitrogen removal. Furthermore, bioaugmentation with Acinetobacter sp. TAC-1 increased abundance of enzymes and functional genes (nirS, nirK and norZ) corresponding to denitrification that may be responsible for the enhanced nitrogen removal performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel method to solve the unit commitment (UC) problem by solving a sequence of increasingly tight continuous relaxations based on the techniques of reformulation and lift-and-project (L&P). After projecting the power output of unit onto [0, 1], the continuous relaxation of the UC problem can be tightened with the reformulation techniques. Then, a tighter model which is called L&P-TMIP is established by strengthening the continuous relaxation of the feasible region of the tight UC problem iteratively using L&P. High-quality suboptimal solutions can be obtained from the solutions of the relaxation for this tight model. The simulation results for realistic instances that range in size from 10 to 200 units over a scheduling period of 24 h show that the proposed tight relaxation method is competitive with general-purpose mixed integer programming solvers based methods for large-scale UC problems due to the excellent performance and the good quality of the solutions it generates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To improve the low pollutant removal efficiency of traditional biological methods for treating livestock and poultry breeding wastewater under a relatively low temperature, a rotating biological contactor (RBC) inoculated with heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacteria was designed. A quick start-up process and a well removal performance had been achieved in the novel RBC. To elucidate the anti-load shock ability of the novel RBC, the effects of C/N ratio on nitrogen removal and microbial assemblage were focused under a low temperature (12 ± 2 °C). Results showed that the highest NH 4 +-N and TN removal efficiency were 99.57 ± 0.31% and 68.41 ± 0.52%. Microbial diversity analysis based on high throughput sequencing technique showed that Arcobacter and Flavobacterium with an increasing relative abundance were the key to ensure high nitrogen removal efficiently at a low C/N ratio and temperature. Moreover, nitrogen transferring pathways of the novel RBC was revealed and dissimilatory nitrate reduction and denitrification were the main pathways. The excellent pollutant removal performance demonstrates that the novel RBC is a promising process to effectively treat wastewater with low C/N ratio and low temperature. [Display omitted] • Rotating biological contactor (RBC) started up by HN-AD bacteria has been proposed. • A short start-up time and a high nitrogen removal efficiency were achieved. • Impact of C/N ratio on pollutant removal and microbial assemblage were evaluated. • Arcobacter and Flavobacterium played a key role at low C/N ratio and temperature. • DNRA and denitrification were the main nitrogen transferring pathways in the H-RBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HN-AD bacteria and microalgae firstly combined to construct a novel symbiotic system. • The optimal volume ratio was 1/3 and TN and TP removal increased by 28.9% and 67.6%. • Ammonia tolerance of algae increased to 500 mg/L and gas–water ratio decreased to 50. • Halomonas and Rhodocyclaceae play key roles in nitrogen and phosphorus removal. • NarG, narH and narL genes are the main nitrogen removal genes of key HN-AD bacteria. A novel symbiotic system combined by heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) mixed bacteria and Chlorella pyrenoidosa was firstly proposed to resolve the poor tolerance and nitrogen removal performance of traditional symbiotic system for treating high ammonia biogas slurry. Results showed that the volume ratio of bacteria to algae had significant effects on nitrogen removal efficiency, microbial community structure, functional bacteria and genes. The optimal ratio was 1/3, and the average removal efficiency of TN and TP increased by 28.9% and 67.6% respectively, compared to those of HN-AD bacteria. High-throughput sequencing indicated nitrogen removal was jointly completed by HN-AD and heterotrophic denitrification. HN-AD bacteria Halomonas and Pseudomonas played a key role in nitrogen removal, and Rhodocyclaceae and Paracoccus took an important part in phosphorus removal. According to the functional gene prediction, the total relative abundance of nitrogen removal genes (0.0127%) and narG, narH and narL genes (0.0054%) were highest in 1/3 system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Operation parameter for MBBR firstly inoculated with HN-AD bacteria was optimized. • Nitrogen removal efficiency of PVA gel was double that of K1 at low C/N ratios. • PVA gel was beneficial to the growth of oligotrophic and HN-AD bacteria. • HN-AD bacteria Paracoccus and Acinetobacter played a key role at low C/N ratios. • DNRA and denitrification were the main nitrogen transforming pathway. To operate the moving bed biofilm reactor inoculated with HN-AD bacteria (B-MBBR) instead of activated sludge for livestock and poultry breeding wastewater (LPBW) disposal in most efficient manner, nitrogen removal (NR) efficiency and microbial composition of two MBBRs with different carrier types under various C/N ratios were explored. Results indicated that the performance on NR greatly various in different carrier types under various C/N ratios. Attributing to the bacterial protection provided by the porous structure of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel, MBBR using PVA gel as the carrier exhibited a more stable NR performance (range from 78.05% to 83.76%) versus that using Kaldnes (K1) as the carrier (range from 78.05% to 83.76%). Besides, microbial analysis indicated that MBBR with PVA gel as the carrier is conducive to the growth of oligotrophic and HN-AD bacteria (Paracoccus and Acinetobacter), and the highest relative abundance was 16.37% at C/N ratio of 6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health concern worldwide. Previous studies have demonstrated that IL-17 plays an important role in initial immune response and is involved in both immune-mediated protection and pathology following infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). However, the alterations and regulation of plasma IL-17 level during TB treatment remain unclear. Moreover, the cell type responsible for the production of IL-17 in TB patients requires further study.Methods: A total of 20 acid-fast bacilli smear-positive (AFB-positive) pulmonary TB patients and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers were included in our study. Blood samples were collected in heparinized tubes at the time of diagnosis (AFB-positive group) and 3 weeks after the initiation of therapy, when the sputum smear conversion (AFB-negative group) occurred, followed by symptomatic improvement. IL-17 levels and IL-17-producing cells in PBMCs were detected. Lymphocyte populations in the peripheral blood between the AFB-positive and AFB-negative groups were compared by flow-cytometry. A549 cells, a cell line of alveolar epithelial cells, were applied to determine the extent of the pathological damage mediated by IL-17 following MTB infection. Recombinant human IL-10 was used to investigate the regulation of IL-17 expression after sputum smear conversion in AFB-positive pulmonary TB patients.Results: Plasma IL-17 level were elevated in patients with sputum AFB-positive pulmonary TB, but substantially decreased after TB treatment and smear conversion. Our data indicate that NKT-like cells might be the main source of IL-17, in addition to conventional T cells in AFB-positive pulmonary TB patients. The secretion of IL-17 may be suppressed by regulatory T (Treg) cells and IL-10 during TB treatment. Moreover, the IL-17 levels were positively correlated to both the C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Therefore, IL-17 was capable of alveolar epithelial cell damage following MTB infection.Conclusion: The increase in the frequency of Treg cells and IL-10 levels was associated with a decrease in IL-17 in patients receiving TB treatment. Thus, IL-10 and Tregs may function to inhibit immune-mediated pathology in TB patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation mechanism of parameters on microorganisms and carbon source metabolism of solid carbon source simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) process is not clear. In this paper, the effects of dissolved oxygen (DO) and biodegradable polymer (BDPs) types ((Polycaprolactone, PCL) and (Polybutylene succinate, PBS)) on treatment performance and microbial characteristics were investigated. The results show that the total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency of SND process using PBS and PCL as fillers reached 93.02% and 97.28% under optimal parameter of DO 5 mg/L, respectively. The dominant genus with nitrogen removal performance in the PCL carbon source system are Hydrogenophaga and Acidovorax , and the main genus in the PBS system are Acidovorax and unclassified_Comamonadaceae. The co-metabolic network in PCL is more complex and easier to be regulated by DO. The BDPs types mainly affect the co-metabolic network with nodes of Thiothrix and Chryseomicrobium , ultimately leading to changes in the community structure. By comparison, BDPs types have a more significant impact on community structure than DO under low DO conditions (1 and 2 mg/L), but not under high DO condition(5 mg/L). Further, the distribution of functional enzymes may conflict between nitrification and carbon source degradation under high DO condition. Controlling the DO within the range of 2 mg–5 mg can further improve carbon source utilization efficiency. [Display omitted] • DO 5 mg/L and PCL are more conducive to solid carbon source SND process. • DO affects the microbial community of the PCL system through a co-metabolic network. • Differences in PBS and PCL systems are mainly determined by metabolic networks. • Carbon source metabolism pattern of PBS and PCL is established at enzyme level. • Controlling DO within the range of 2 mg–5 mg can improve nitrification efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) performance of the aeration solid-phase denitrification (SPD) process and improve the operating efficiency, aeration SPD process using polybutanediol succinate as carbon source was optimized and the process was bioaugmented with heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification bacteria for the treatment of real wastewater. The results showed that after bioaugmentation, the total nitrogen removal efficiency of the aeration SPD process increased by 50.46 % under condition of dissolved oxygen (DO) 3 mg/L. According to Illumina MiSeq sequencing and correlation analyses, the microbial community can perform SND under the conditions of DO 5 mg and HRT 6 h, but is susceptible to DO. Bioaugmentation mainly affected the carbon source metabolic network with heterotrophic bacteria Methyloversatilis , Thiothrix , and norank_Lentimicrobiaceae as nodes to change the community structure, thereby improving the performance of the functional microbial community. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis suggested that narB , narG , narH , nirK and narI were the key genes involved in the response to bioaugmentation. This work provides new insights for the application of the SPD process in wastewater treatment. [Display omitted] • The effect of DO on aeration SPD system was more significant than that of HRT. • After bioaugmentation, aeration SPD process TN removal rate increased by 50.46 %. • HN-AD bioaugmentation improved the abundance of Leucobacter and Hydrogenophaga. • Methyloversatilis and norank_Lentimicrobiaceae caused community structural changes. • HN-AD bioaugmentation could improve the abundance of denitrification-related genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]