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Cadmium (Cd) contamination in rice has been a serious threat to human health. To investigate the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on the Cd translocation in rice, a controlled pot experiment was conducted. The results indicated that AMF significantly increased rice biomass, with an increase of up to 40.0%, particularly in root biomass by up to 68.4%. Notably, the number of prominent rice individuals also increased, and their plasticity was enhanced following AMF inoculation. AMF led to an increase in the net photosynthetic rate and antioxidant enzyme activity of rice. In the AMF treatment group, the Cd concentration in the rice roots was significantly higher (19.1%‒68.0%) compared with that in the control group. Conversely, the Cd concentration in the rice seeds was lower in the AMF treatment group, indicating that AMF facilitated the sequestration of Cd in rice roots and reduced Cd accumulation in the seeds. Path coefficients varied across different treatments, suggesting that AMF inoculation reduced the direct impact of soil Cd concentration on the total Cd accumulation in seeds. The translocation of Cd was consistently associated with simultaneous growth dilution and compensatory accumulation as a result of mycorrhizal effects. Our study quantitatively analyzed this process through path analysis and clarified the causal relationship between rice growth and Cd transfer under the influence of AMF.

A soy protein isolate (SPI) - sea buckthorn flavonoid emulsion was developed to study its effects on roasted lamb quality and heterocyclic amine (HAAs) precursors. The emulsion was stable with uniformly dispersed, well-encapsulated droplets averaging 0.1 to 10 μm. CLSM confirmed its good physical stability, small particle size, and uniform dispersion. FTIR the existence of hydrogen bond, hydrophobic interaction and physical adhesion between SPI and sea-buckthorn flavonoids. The emulsion improved lamb pellet texture by reducing chewiness and hardness, increasing adhesion, and decreasing browning. The emulsion-treated roasted mutton showed a 47.95-53.56 % increase in DPPH scavenging activity and MDA content reduction from 60.78 to 17.80 nmol/mg, indicating strong antioxidant activity and lipid oxidation inhibition. For both precursors and HAAs, there was a significant intensity of inhibition, where creatine decreased by about 44.91-68.34 %, glucose by 84.47 %-97.74 %, and the seven HAAs, Norharman, Harman, IQ, MeIQ, MeIQx, AαC, and PhIP, were inhibited by 79.64 %, respectively, 88.76 %, 65.07 %, 87.27 %, 96.16 %, 89.30 % and 49.44 %, respectively. This study aimed to develop a novel soy protein isolate-sea buckthorn flavonoid emulsion and evaluate its potential to improve roasted lamb quality while inhibiting the formation of harmful HAAs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Dynamic in vitro absorption systems and mechanistic absorption modeling via PBPK have both shown promise in predicting human oral absorption, although these efforts have been largely separate; this work aimed to integrate knowledge from these approaches to investigate the oral absorption of a RET inhibitor, pralsetinib, with BCS Class II properties. Tiny-TIM (TIM B.V., Weteringbrug​, The Netherlands) is a dynamic in vitro model with close simulation of the successive physiological conditions of the human stomach and small intestine. Tiny-TIM runs with pralsetinib were performed at doses of 200 mg and 400 mg under fasting conditions. Mechanistic modeling of absorption was performed in Simcyp V21 (Certara, Manchester, UK). Pralsetinib fasted bioaccessibility in the Tiny-TIM system was 63% at 200 mg and 53% at 400 mg; a 16% reduction at 400 mg was observed under elevated gastric pH. Maximum pralsetinib solubility from the small intestinal compartment in Tiny-TIM directly informed the supersaturation/precipitation model parameters. The PBPK model predicted a similar fraction absorbed at 200 mg and 400 mg, consistent with the dose proportional increases in observed pralsetinib exposure. Integrating dynamic in vitro systems with mechanistic absorption modeling provides a promising approach for understanding and predicting human absorption with challenging low solubility compounds., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflict of interest All authors declare no competing interests for this work. CB, FM, SC, DK, NK, YC JL and P-CC are employees of Genentech Inc, a member of the Roche Group and may hold stock or options. MJD is an employee of Roche Products Pty Ltd, a member of the Roche Group and may hold stock or options., (Copyright © 2024 American Pharmacists Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The effect of obesity on pregnancy outcomes of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) remains unclear. As such, a meta-analysis of recent studies was conducted to probe the effect of being overweight or obese on ART pregnancy outcomes in patients with PCOS. PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, Scopus and Web of Science were searched from inception to 22 July 2023 without language restrictions. The main indicators were: live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, spontaneous abortion rate and multiple pregnancy rate. Ten studies were analysed, with a combined sample size of 247,845. Among patients with PCOS undergoing ART who were overweight or obese, the live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, implantation rate and number of retrieved oocytes were lower than in normal-weight patients with PCOS, and the spontaneous abortion rate was higher than in normal-weight patients with PCOS. Obese patients with PCOS undergoing ART had a lower multiple pregnancy rate and a lower number of mature oocytes compared with normal-weight patients with PCOS. The data showed that, among patients with PCOS, being overweight or obese has a negative effect on ART pregnancy outcomes. This meta-analysis may inform guidelines for pregnancy with ART, and encourage overweight or obese patients with PCOS to lose weight., (Copyright © 2024 Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Synergistic remediation of heavy metal (HM) contaminated soil using beneficial microorganisms (BM) and plants is a common and effective in situ bioremediation method. However, the shortcomings of this approach are the low colonisation of BM under high levels of heavy metal stress (HMS) and the poor state of plant growth. Previous studies have overlooked the potential of biochar to mitigate the above problems and aid in-situ remediation. Therefore, this paper describes the characteristics and physicochemical properties of biochar. It is proposed that biochar enhances plant resistance to HMS and aids in situ bioremediation by increasing colonisation of BM and HM stability. On this basis, the paper focuses on the following possible mechanisms: specific biochar-derived organic matter regulates the transport of HMs in plants and promotes mycorrhizal colonisation via the abscisic acid signalling pathway and the karrikin signalling pathway; promotes the growth-promoting pathway of indole-3-acetic acid and increases expression of the nodule-initiating gene NIN; improvement of soil HM stability by ion exchange, electrostatic adsorption, redox and complex precipitation mechanisms. And this paper summarizes guidelines on how to use biochar-assisted remediation based on current research for reference. Finally, the paper identifies research gaps in biochar in the direction of promoting beneficial microbial symbiotic mechanisms, recognition and function of organic molecules, and factors affecting practical applications., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Diabetic vascular complications include diabetic macroangiopathy and diabetic microangiopathy. Diabetic microangiopathy is characterised by impaired microvascular endothelial function, basement membrane thickening, and microthrombosis, which may promote renal, ocular, cardiac, and peripheral system damage in diabetic patients. Therefore, new preventive and therapeutic strategies are urgently required. Sirt1, a member of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent histone deacetylase class III family, regulates different organ growth and development, oxidative stress, mitochondrial function, metabolism, inflammation, and aging. Sirt1 is downregulated in vascular injury and microangiopathy. Moreover, its expression and distribution in different organs correlate with age and play critical regulatory roles in oxidative stress and inflammation. This review introduces the background of diabetic microangiopathy and the main functions of Sirt1. Then, the relationship between Sirt1 and different diabetic microangiopathies and the regulatory roles mediated by different cells are described. Finally, we summarize the modulators that target Sirt1 to ameliorate diabetic microangiopathy as an essential preventive and therapeutic measure for diabetic microangiopathy. In conclusion, targeting Sirt1 may be a new therapeutic strategy for diabetic microangiopathy., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Non-classical secretory proteins are widely found in bacteria and have been extensively studied due to their important physiological roles. However, the relevant non-classical secretory mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we found that oxalate decarboxylase (Bacm OxDC) from Bacillus mojavensis XH1 belongs to non-classical secretory proteins. Its N-terminus showed high hydrophilicity, which was different from the conventional signal peptide. The truncation test revealed that the deletion of the N-terminus affects the structure resulting in its inability to cross the cell membrane. Further studies verified that the exported peptide YydF played an important role in the secretion process of Bacm OxDC. Experimental results on the secretion mechanism indicated that Bacm OxDC bound to the exported peptide YydF and they are translocated to the cell membrane together, after which Bacm OxDC caused cell membrane relaxation for transmembrane secretion. Thereafter, three recombinant proteins were successfully secreted with certain enzymatic activity by fusing Bacm OxDC as a guide protein with various target proteins. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that non-classical secretion mechanism in bacteria has been analyzed. The novel discovery may provide a reference and broaden the horizons of the secretion pathway and expression regulation of proteins., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Molecular simulation has been widely used to study microbial proteins' structural composition and dynamic properties, such as volatility, flexibility, and stability at the microscopic scale. Herein, this review describes the key elements of molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in molecular simulation; reviews the techniques combined with molecular simulation, such as crystallography, spectroscopy, molecular biology, and machine learning, to validate simulation results and bridge information gaps in the structure, microenvironmental changes, expression mechanisms, and intensity quantification; illustrates the application of molecular simulation, in characterizing the molecular mechanisms of interaction of microbial proteins with four different types of contaminants, namely heavy metals (HMs), pesticides, dyes and emerging contaminants (ECs). Finally, the review outlines the important role of molecular simulations in the study of microbial proteins for controlling environmental contamination and provides ideas for the application of molecular simulation in screening microbial proteins and incorporating targeted mutagenesis to obtain more effective contaminant control proteins., 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.)

Anammox community is the core of anammox process. The constancy of the anammox community determines the stability of the anammox process and the ability of withstand environmental impact. Community stability is influenced by the assembly and interaction mode of the community. This study aimed to explore the assembly, interaction mode, and stability of anammox community influenced by two siderophores (enterobactin and putrebactin) specific for Ca. Brocadia and Ca. Kuenenia as produced in our previous research. Siderophores improved the stability of the anammox community, among which vulnerability dropped by 30.02 % and 72.53 % respectively. Enterobactin and putrebactin altered the succession speed and assembly pattern of communities, with a respective increase of 9.77 % and 80.87 % in the deterministic process of anammox community assembly, respectively. Enterobactin and putrebactin reduced the dependence of Ca. Brocadia and Ca. Kuenenia on companion bacteria by 60 items and 27 items respectively. The affinity of different siderophore-Fe with bacterial membrane receptors caused variations in community reconstruction, with Ca. Brocadia and Ca. Kuenenia exhibiting the highest affinity with enterobactin-Fe (-11.4 kcal/mol) and putrebactin-Fe (-9.0 kcal/mol), respectively. This study demonstrated how siderophores can enhance the stability of anammox process by regulating assembly and interaction mode of anammox community, while also revealing the underlying molecular mechanisms., 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 B.V.)

Tsinling lenok trout (Brachymystax lenok tsinlingensis) is a typical cold water fish. High temperature has been shown to damage the liver of fish. However, few studies have investigated the liver apoptosis induced by high temperature stress in fish from the perspective of gene expression and metabolic function. Therefore, we investigated the changes caused by high temperature stress (24 °C) on the liver tissue structure, antioxidant capacity, liver gene expression, and the metabolome of tsinling lenok trout. The transcriptomic results showed that genes associated with apoptosis, such as CASP8, CASP3, PERK, Bcl-6 and TRAIL, were upregulated under high temperature stress. Metabolomic analysis showed that the metabolic pathway of nucleotide synthesis was significantly downregulated, while that of oxygen radical synthesis was significantly upregulated. Integrated analysis showed that after high temperature stress, immune-related signaling pathways in trout were activated and their apoptosis level increased, which might be related to hepatopancreas injury. In addition, abnormalities in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and mitochondrial function were observed, suggesting that functional hypoxia caused by high temperature might be involved fish cell apoptosis. These results provide new insights into the process of cell apoptosis in fish under high temperature stress., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Salt interference significantly affects the behavior of heavy metals in the environment. This study compared and analyzed the response process, migration, and transformation of cadmium (Cd) in the hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum (S. nigrum) under different NaCl levels to reveal the interference mechanisms of salt in plant remediation of Cd-contaminated soil. The results showed that Cd and salt stress significantly inhibited the growth of plants. The stress effect had more potent growth inhibition at the root than aboveground, thus inducing changes in the spatial configuration of the plants (decreased root-to-aboveground biomass ratio). Salt could activate Cd in plants, enhancing the inhibitory effect on plant growth. Salt increased Cd bioavailability due to the rhizosphere acidification effect, increasing plants' Cd accumulation. The Cd bioconcentration factor in plant roots peaked during the high Cd-high salt treatment (117.10), but the Cd accumulation of plants peaked during the high Cd-low salt treatment (233.04 μg plant -1 ). Salt additions and increased Cd concentrations enhanced root compartmentalization, inhibiting Cd transport to the aboveground. Changes in Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements confirmed that the functional groups in plants provided binding sites for Cd. These findings can help guide the phytoremediation of Cd contamination under saline soil 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 © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Biosurfactants from Pseudomonas spp. have been reported to exhibit antibacterial and anti-adhesive properties, but their role during meat spoilage remains unclear. In this study, the biosurfactant was isolated from an isolate of Pseudomonas fragi with strong spoilage potential, and its surface tension and emulsification ability were determined. The chemical and microbial characteristics of the biosurfactant-treated meat samples were periodically analyzed. The results demonstrated that the biosurfactant produced by P. fragi could reduce surface tension and showed good emulsification properties. For the in situ spoilage trials, biosurfactant from P. fragi changed the microbial diversity on meat, helping Pseudomonas establish a dominant position in the population. However, biosurfactant treatment caused chicken meat to exhibit a weaker spoilage state, as indicated by the growth of psychrophilic microorganisms, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN) and meat color. These results provide practical information for understanding the role of P. fragi biosurfactant during chilled meat storage., 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.)

Introduction: Trophoblast cells play an important role in embryo recognition and localization, as well as placental development during embryo implantation. Dysfunction of trophoblastic cells causes pathological changes that lead to insufficient recognition, positioning, and adhesion during embryo implantation, ultimately leading to embryo development has stopped., Methods: High-throughput sequencing was used to identify differentially expressed the mRNA and lncRNA in the villi tissue of pregnant women diagnosed with embryo cessation. In vitro implantation cell models, characteristic analysis, and bio information analysis confirmed that CLRN1-AS1 affected the adhesion function of trophoblast cells by influencing the chemokines CXCL10/CXCL11., Results: High throughput sequencing technology was used to identify 438 differentially expressed mRNAs and 41 lncRNAs. The three lncRNAs, namely CLRN1-AS1, USP27X-AS1, and AC104809.4, were screened by the mRNA-lncRNA network. In vitro implantation model suggested that all three lncRNAs could affect the adhesion between trophoblast cells, among which CLRN1-AS1 had the most significant effect. Characteristic analysis and correlation analysis showed that CLRN1-AS1 was closely related to the expression of six adhesion-related genes, LAMA1, FGL2, ITGB2, FBN1, EMP2, and PODN. Cell experiments and re-sequencing confirmed that CLRN1-AS1 could affect the adhesion ability of trophoblast cells to the extracellular matrix, and its process was related to the chemokine CXCL10/CXCL11., Discussion: These results constructed the network of mRNA-lncRNA and enrichment when embryonic development has stopped and found CLRN1-AS1 highly correlated to failure of embryo implantation, and revealed that CLRN1-AS1 modulates the adhesion ability of trophoblast cells to the extracellular matrix via the chemokines CXCL10/CXCL11 during the early stage of embryo implantation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Indole is an essential signal molecule in microbial studies. However, its ecological role in biological wastewater treatments remains enigmatic. This study explores the links between indole and complex microbial communities using sequencing batch reactors exposed to 0, 15, and 150 mg/L indole concentrations. A concentration of 150 mg/L indole enriched indole degrader Burkholderiales, while pathogens, such as Giardia, Plasmodium, and Besnoitia were inhibited at 15 mg/L indole concentration. At the same time, indole reduced the abundance of predicted genes in the "signaling transduction mechanisms" pathway via the Non-supervised Orthologous Groups distributions analysis. Indole significantly decreased the concentration of homoserine lactones, especially C 14 -HSL. Furthermore, the quorum-sensing signaling acceptors containing LuxR, the dCACHE domain, and RpfC showed negative distributions with indole and indole oxygenase genes. Signaling acceptors' potential origins were mainly Burkholderiales, Actinobacteria, and Xanthomonadales. Meanwhile, concentrated indole (150 mg/L) increased the total abundance of antibiotic resistance genes by 3.52 folds, especially on aminoglycoside, multidrug, tetracycline, and sulfonamide. Based on Spearman's correlation analysis, the homoserine lactone degradation genes which were significantly impacted by indole negatively correlated with the antibiotic resistance gene abundance. This study brings new insights into the effect of indole signaling on in biological wastewater treatment plants., 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.)

Understanding the dynamic changes of plant biomolecules is vital for exploring their mechanisms in the environment. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation has been widely used to study structural evolution and corresponding properties of plant biomolecules at the microscopic scale. Here, this review (i) outlines structural properties of plant biomolecules, and the crucial role of MD simulation in advancing studies of the biomolecules; (ii) describes the development of MD simulation in plant biomolecules, determinants of simulation, and analysis parameters; (iii) introduces the applications of MD simulation in plant biomolecules, including the response of the biomolecules to multiple stresses, their roles in corrosive environments, and their contributions in improving environmental health; (iv) reviews techniques integrated with MD simulation, such as molecular biology, quantum mechanics, molecular docking, and machine learning modeling, which bridge gaps in MD simulation. Finally, we make suggestions on determination of force field types, investigation of plant biomolecule mechanisms, and use of MD simulation in combination with other techniques. This review provides comprehensive summaries of the mechanisms of plant biomolecules in the environment revealed by MD simulation and validates it as an applicable tool for bridging gaps between macroscopic and microscopic behavior, providing insights into the wide application of MD simulation in plant biomolecules., 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.)

Research Question: Are QL1012 and Gonal-f® equivalent in women undergoing ovarian stimulation for assisted reproductive technology (ART)?, Design: This multicentre, randomized, assessor-blinded, phase-three trial was conducted at 13 centres in China. Eligible patients were infertile women; age 20-39 years; body mass index 18-30 kg/m 2 ; regular menstrual cycles; and indication for ART. After successful pituitary downregulation, patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive QL1012 or Gonal-f®, stratified by age (initial dose of 75-150 IU for women younger than 30 years, 150-225 IU for women aged 30-34 years and 225-300 IU for women aged ≥35 years, subcutaneously, once daily). The primary end point was the number of oocytes retrieved., Results: Between October 2018, and June 2019, 341 patients were included in the per-protocol set. The mean numbers of oocytes retrieved were 14.7 ± 7.0 in the QL1012 group (n = 169) and 13.4 ± 6.1 in the Gonal-f® group (n = 172). Adjusted by analysis of covariance model, the least-squares mean difference was 1.3 oocytes (95% CI -0.1 to 2.7; P = 0.0650), within the pre-defined equivalence margins of ±3.0. Similar results were observed in the full analysis set. Additionally, no statistical differences were found in secondary end points except oestradiol concentration (median 3948.0 pg/ml versus 3545.3 pg/ml; P = 0.0015). Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (12.4% versus 13.1 %) and other adverse events were similar between the two groups., Conclusions: Therapeutic equivalence and similar safety profiles were demonstrated between QL1012 and Gonal-f® in women undergoing ovarian stimulation for ART., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Microbial pellets technology has undergone extensive research recently and has increasingly matured, showing significant promise. However, the performance of microbial pellets cannot be predicted quickly by the current evaluating methods because they are complicated to operate, take a long time, and pose a risk to the environment. In this study, a representative microbial pellet, fungi-algae pellet, was selected as the research object. Eight evaluation parameters and four evaluation indices were chosen to construct the performance evaluation system of the fungal-algal pellets using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and weighting method. Combining the correlation analysis and expert opinion, we found that among the eight parameters selected, the adsorption saturation rate of mycelial pellets on algae had the most significant influence weight on the performance of fungi-algae pellet, followed by algal culture time and fungal incubation time. This research proposes and validates the Performance Evaluation Value (PEV) of fungi-algae pellet and its calculation method. We also discuss the effectiveness of this new evaluation system in saving time, cost, and emission reductions. The results of this paper enable the rapid evaluation of fungi-algae pellets and promote the better development of fungi-algae pellets technology and even other multi-microbial symbiotic pellet technologies., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

To clarify the mutual influence and inner processes between heavy-metal and pesticide pollutants, single copper and atrazine as well as binary mixtures were spiked in a system of aquatic Acorus tatarinowi Schott. The results show that: the total copper amount in roots was 23.31 and 41.46 times as much as those in leaves in single and co-contaminated copper pollution. In the solution, the copper removal reached equilibrium in 3 days. Atrazine raised plant-mediated copper removal by 20.69 % by calculating mass balance, and the increase in pH value and organic matter and the decrease of nitrate in solutions were key factors driving it. Correlation analysis demonstrated that the pH increase was mainly caused by the decline of nitrate and increases in organic matter in the solution. Hydroxyl units on the surface of organic matter in solutions provided binding sites for Cu 2+ , which was demonstrated by CO and OH peak position alterations in Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer. In turn, the root contained 2.56 and 2.04 times as much as atrazine in leaves in single and co-contaminated atrazine treatments. In the solution, atrazine removal became stable after 7 days. Cu 2+ inhibited the total accumulation of atrazine in plants by 12.5 %. Copper-induced biological phenol-like components in solution decreased the total atrazine accumulation in A. tatatinowii., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Efficient photo-Fenton removal of antibiotic effluent is a widely followed and significant attempt to deal with the growing environmental pollution. In this study, BiFeO 3 and lanthanum doped BiFeO 3 catalysts were synthesized via one-step hydrothermal method as hydrogen peroxide activator for mineralization of norfloxacin (NOR). Various characterization measurements were used to verify La was successfully doped into the lattice of perovskite and investigated the effect of La doping molar ratio on BiFeO 3 through the characterization of the morphology and physicochemical properties. The degradation experiment and reaction rate constants showed that the La-doped BiFeO 3 particle exhibited superior photo-Fenton catalytic performance to undoped BiFeO 3 . Especially, the degradation efficiency of 15% La-doped BiFeO 3 could reach up to 84.94%. And the first order kinetic constant of optimized conditions was 0.01638 min -1 , which was about 6.9 times than that of undoped BiFeO 3 .The influence of pH, oxidizer content and catalyst dosage in photo-Fenton reaction were investigated detailedly. Besides, the synthetic catalyst possessed favorable stability and reusability with little metal leaching after many cycles of use. Radical scavenger experiments and electron spin resonance tests were carried out to conclude that the ·OH and holes were regarded as the dominate active species in the catalytic process. The narrow band gap and excellent electron transfer efficiency were the key factors for La-doped BiFeO 3 to have high catalytic efficiency in the photo-Fenton system. Current works demonstrated the great promise of La-doped BiFeO 3 in the elimination of antibiotic organics., 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 Inc. All rights reserved.)

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is a vital strategy to enhance the phytoremediation of cadmium (Cd) pollution. However, the function of AMF was influenced by phosphorus (P) concentration. To reveal the effect of AMF on the Cd accumulation of host plants under different P concentrations and how the AMF and P interact, this study comparatively analyzed the regulatory effects of AMF on the Cd response, extraction, and transportation processes of Phragmites australis (P. australis) under different P levels, and explored its physiological, biochemical and molecular biological mechanisms. The study showed that AMF could induce different growth allocation strategies in response to Cd stress. Moreover, AMF promoted plant Cd tolerance and detoxification by enhancing P uptake, Cd passivation, Cd retention in the cell wall, and functional group modulation. Under P starvation treatments, AMF promoted Cd uptake by inducing Cd to enter the iron pathway, increased the transport coefficient by 493.39%, and retained Cd in stems. However, these effects disappeared following the addition of P. Additionally, AMF up-regulated the expression of ZIP, ZIP, and NRAMP genes to promote cadmium uptake at low, medium, and high phosphorus levels, respectively. Thus, the Cd response mechanism of the AMF-P. australis symbiotic system was P dose-dependent., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (DAMO) process uses methane as electron donor to reduce nitrate/nitrite to dinitrogen, which is a potentially efficient, low-cost and clean biological nitrogen removal technology. However, slow microbial growth rate severely limits the application of this promising process. In this study, a series hollow-fiber membrane biofilm reactor (HfMBR) was operated for 90 days to achieve rapid enrichment of these denitrifying methanotrophs. Finally, the highest relative abundance of denitrifying methanotrophic archaea and bacteria (DAMO archaea and bacteria) reached 47.5% and 11.3%, respectively. And the average abundance of DAMO archaea and bacteria increased 92.9 and 136.6 times respectively during the 90-day enrichment. High growth rate of DAMO archaea with a doubling time of 11.6 days was achieved in the second HfMBR according to quantitative PCR results. The results implied that dissolved oxygen would inhibit the growth of DAMO archaea, but the series HfMBR could effectively counteract this unfavorable factor. This work provided theoretical guidance for the rapid enrichment of denitrifying methanotrophs and contributed to the application of methane-dependent denitrification process., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Phytoremediation is a promising and sustainable technology to remediate the risk of heavy metals (HMs) contaminated soils, however, this way is limited to some factors contributing to slow plant growth and low remediation efficiency. As soil beneficial microbe, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) assisted phytoremediation is an environment-friendly and high-efficiency bioremediation technology. However, AMF-symbiotic formation and their functional expression responsible for HMs-polluted remediation are significantly influenced by edaphic fauna. Earthworms as common soil fauna, may have various effects on formation of AMF symbiosis, and exhibit synergy with AMF for the combined remediation of HMs-contaminated soils. For now, AMF-assisted phytoremediation incorporating earthworm coexistence is scarcely reported. Therefore, the main focus of this review is to discuss the AMF effects under earthworm coexistence. Effects of AMF-symbiotic formation influenced by earthworms are fully reviewed. Moreover, underlying mechanisms and synergy of the two in HMs remediation, soil improvement, and plant growth were comprehensively elucidated. Phenomenon of "functional synergism" between earthworms and AMF may be a significant mechanism for HMs phytoremediation. Finally, this review analyses shortcomings and prescriptions in the practical application of the technology and provides new insights into AMF- earthworms synergistic remediation of HMs-contaminated soils., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

To clarify the influence of organic pesticides on phytoremediation of potentially toxic metal elements, hydroponically-grown Acorus tatarinowii was used to repair copper pollution at six concentration levels with and without atrazine. Removal outcomes and processes exhibited asymmetry in an aquatic system. In plants, the addition of atrazine brought as much as 20.5% copper than control. Total amounts, percentage of protein or pectin combined copper and leaf: root ratio of copper were enhanced correspondingly. In solutions, cupric ions (Cu 2+ ) were eliminated as much as 95.6% in plant remediation system. Though atrazine resulted in a quarter more absorption equilibrium concentration, the absorption reaction rate half declined. Copper removal in the system was contributed by both bound copper in solution and plant accumulation, and atrazine magnified contribution weight of the later one. Concurrent copper decreased absolute and relative amounts of atrazine in A. tatarinowii, indicating the influence of copper was mainly to reduce atrazine uptake by A. tatarinowii rather than to change the transformation of atrazine in plants. Copper exhibited antagonistic effects with atrazine in term of plant biomass, photosynthesis and oxidative-related responses (malondialdehyde, Ca, Fe and Mn), which might give support to asymmetry interaction between copper and atrazine accumulation in A. tatarinowii., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Plants respond to various stresses by triggering the expression of genes that encode proteins involved in plant growth, fruit ripening, cellular protein homeostasis, and tolerance systems. sHSPs, a subfamily of heat shock proteins (HSPs), can be expressed in plants to inhibit abnormal aggregation of proteins and protect normal proteins by interacting with folding target proteins, protect cell integrity, and improve resistance under various adverse conditions. Thus, sHSPs have significant influences on seed germination and plant development. In this review, the classification, structure, and functions of sHSP family members in plants are systematically summarized, with emphasis on their roles in promoting fruit ripening and plant growth by reducing the accumulation of ROS, improving the survival rate of plants and the antioxidant activity, and protecting photosynthesis under biotic and abiotic stresses. Meanwhile, the production and regulatory mechanisms of sHSPs are described in detail. Heat shock factors, long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs), microRNA (miRNAs), and FK506 binding proteins are related to the production process of sHSPs. Molecular chaperone complex HSP70/100, plastidic proteins, and abscisic acid (ABA) are involved in the regulatory mechanisms of sHSPs. Besides, scientific efforts and practices for improving plant stress resistance have carried out the constitutive expression of sHSPs in transgenic plants in recent years. It is a powerful path for inducing the protective mechanisms of plants under various stresses. Therefore, exploring the role of sHSPs in the plant defense system paves a way for comprehensively unraveling plant tolerance in response to biotic and abiotic stress., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Indole and phenol often coexist in the coking wastewater, while the effects of phenol on microbial communities of indole metabolism were less explored. In this study, the microbial interactions within activated sludge microbial communities stimulated by indole (group A) or by indole and phenol (group B) were systematically investigated in sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). The results showed that the removal of indole was increased by adding phenol. By using high-throughput sequencing technology, it was found that α-diversity was reduced in both groups. According to the relative abundance analysis, the indole-degrading genus Comamonas was the core genus in both groups (33.94% and 61.40%). But another indole-degrading genus Pseudomonas was only enriched in group A with 12.22% relative abundance. Meanwhile, common aromatic degrading genus Dyella and Thermomonas were enriched only in group B. It was found that the relative abundance of cytochrome P450 and styrene degradation enzymes were increased in group B by PICRUSt analysis. Based on the phylogenetic molecular ecological networks (pMENs), module hub OTU_1149 (Burkholderia) was only detected in group B, and the positive interactions between the key functional genus Burkholderia and other bacteria were increased. This study provides new insights into our understanding of indole metabolism communities stimulated by phenol, which would provide useful information for practical coking wastewater treatment., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

With the advancement of small watershed governance in agricultural production process, soil toxic element pollution issue in watersheds constitutes a recent research hot spot. The Ashi River watershed is an agriculture-dominated small watershed which is exposed to toxic element sources, posing high risk of toxic element pollution to the planting areas. In this study, collection of soil samples was carried out along the periphery of the river network, and the soil physicochemical parameters and toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn) were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The geo-accumulation index (I geo ) and potential ecological risk index were used to evaluate the pollution degree, and the contents of As, Cd, and Zn in some sampling sites exceeded risk screening values. Moreover, soils closer to mining sources were found to be more polluted; (2) Redundancy analysis confirmed the contribution rate relationship between environmental factors and toxic elements. C/N ratio, total carbon (C), and total potassium (K) exhibited significant relationships with toxic elements (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05), respectively. Moreover, geographic locations (longitude, latitude, and elevation) showed significant impacts on toxic element contents (except for Cu); (3) The apportionment of toxic element pollution sources by using principal component analysis showed that Pb, Zn, Cu, and Cd were mainly related to mining activities, while As was closely related to insecticide and herbicide, and Cr was mainly related to soil parent material and electroplating factory; (4) Through the integrated resistance base surface and toxic element sources combined with minimum cumulative resistance model, the toxic element risk areas were identified. The middle reaches corresponded to the extremely high risk zone, which undeniably requires the strengthening of the environmental management., 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 © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this study, porous spherical carriers were fixed around the hollow fiber membrane module to mitigate membrane biofouling. Two MBRs (R1 without carriers, R2 with carriers) were operated for 31 days under identical operating conditions to investigate the effects of the carriers on the reactor performances, the production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), the level of N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs), and the microbial communities. The results showed that the presence of carriers in MBR was conducive to nitrogen removal and decreased the total membrane filtration resistance by about 1.7 times. Slower transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise-up, thinner bio-cakes, lower EPS production, and fewer tryptophan and aromatic proteins substances on the membrane surface were observed in R2. The polysaccharides secretion of EPS in bio-cakes was mainly regulated by C4-HSL and 3OC6-HSL in the presence of carriers. The microbial community analysis revealed that carriers addition reduced the relative abundance of EPS and AHL producing bacteria in the membrane bio-cakes and enriched the accumulation of functional bacteria conducive to nutrient removal in the mixed liquor. This study provided an in-depth understanding for the application of porous spherical carriers to alleviate membrane biofouling., 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 © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Comprehensive understanding of how the release of biochar-derived dissolved organic matter (BDOM) affects the immobilization of heavy metals when biochar (BC) is applied for long-term soil remediation is extremely important. In this study, BCs prepared under different pyrolysis temperatures were fractionated into residual BC (RBC), nano-sized BC (NBC), and BDOM, in order to clarify the contribution of BDOM for lead (Pb(II)) adsorption on BC and to explore the interfacial mechanisms. Results demonstrated that the adsorption capacity (Q e ) of Pb(II) on BC improved from 166.1 to 423.9 mg g -1 with the increase in the pyrolysis temperature from 350 to 800 °C. The sum of Q e of Pb(II) on NBC and RBC was lower than that on BC, due to the complexation between BDOM and Pb(II) rather than pH variance and cation exchange. Ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that fulvic-like substances as well as small molecules with low aromaticity in BDOM underwent favorable association with Pb(II) and got re-adsorbed on RBC. With the increase in the Pb(II) concentration, the contribution of van der Waals interaction for adsorption of BDOM350-Pb complexes was improved, whereas adsorption mechanism in BDOM800-Pb complexes was more dependent on ligand exchange. This study provides mechanistic insights into the impact of BDOM on Pb(II) immobilization, which can provide valuable information for the long-term remediation of Pb-contaminated soils using BC., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Certain metal ions can contribute to the functional microorganisms becoming dominant by stimulating their metabolism and activity. Therefore, Pseudomonas stutzeri T13 was used to investigate the impacts of biological stimulation with certain metal ions on aerobic denitrifying bacteria. Results showed that with the addition of 0.036 mmol/L Fe 3+ ions, the nitrogen-assimilation capacity of P. stutzeri T13 significantly increased by 43.99% when utilizing ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. Kinetic models were applied to analyze the role of Fe 3+ ions in the growth, and results indicated that increasing Fe 3+ ion concentrations decreased the decay rate. The maximum nitrate reduction rate increased from 9.55 mg-N L -1  h -1 to 19.65 mg-N L -1  h -1 with Fe 3+ ion concentrations increasing from 0.004 to 0.036 mmol/L, which was due to the increased level of napA gene transcription and activity of nitrate reductase. This study provides a theoretical foundation for further understanding of the mechanism of Fe 3+ ion stimulation of aerobic denitrification, benefiting the practicable application of aerobic denitrifiers., 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 © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Silver (Ag) nanocomposites were prepared via a facile and eco-friendly route using microbial extracellular polymer substances (EPSs) as green substrates for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol. Batch adsorption experiments demonstrated the binding of microbial EPSs to silver ions (Ag + ), which was promoted by UV light, as was evident in the kinetics and thermodynamics analyses. The assembly mechanism of Ag nanocomposites prepared using microbial EPSs in the presence of UV light was investigated using the spectral analysis. The results showed that Ag + was reduced and transformed into Ag 0 by the hemiacetal groups in the microbial EPSs, and that UV light accelerated the nucleation and growth of Ag 0 to form Ag nanoparticles (diameter about 12 nm), followed by loading on the surface of microbial EPSs. Catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol over Ag nanocomposites was almost completed within 60 s without stirring, and the kinetic rate constant (k) was 49.9 × 10 -3  s -1 . The recyclability test showed that Ag nanocomposites stably maintained the efficiency of catalytic reduction through five repeated reaction cycles. This work proved that Ag nanocomposites assembled using microbial EPSs have great catalytic activity in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, providing the green and efficient catalyst for the reduction of organic pollutants in the environment., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Magnetite-coating biochar (MBC) is a promising remediator for antibiotic contamination. Accurate models describing the sorption affinity are required to better understand the role of minerals. In this study, the presence of magnetite led to the improvements of oxygen-containing groups (i.e. C˭O) and regulation of π-systems within BC. Based on Dubinin-Ashtakhov (DA) model, the differences of site energy (E m ) and sorption heterogeneity (σ e *) led to the variances between sorption capacities of sulfonamides (SAs). The positive correlations between E m and the oxygen content or pore volume of MBCs indicated that π-π interactions, H-bonding, and pore-filling may act as the high energy sites. Moreover, σ e * was related to the distribution of magnetite on BC and their porosities. These results suggested that compared to BCs, the coating minerals improved the π-interaction assisted H-bonding and proton configuration of antibiotic when sorbing on MBC. The negative correlations between the E m of different SAs with their molecular sizes and solubilities resulted from steric effects and competition with water, which further confirmed the proposed high energy sites on MBCs. This study provided the insightful information of site energy distribution and understanding of fate and transport of organic pollutants on BC when the iron minerals were embedded or coated., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play an important role in improving plant tolerance and accumulation of zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd). The growth, physiology and absorption of elements and transport in Phragmites australis (P. australis) were investigated under Zn and Cd stress to identify the transport mechanisms of toxic trace elements (TE) under the influence of AMF. Thus, AMF were observed to alleviate the toxic effects of Zn and Cd on P. australis by increasing plant biomass and through different regulatory patterns under different TE concentrations. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) increased under Zn stress, and the activities of SOD, catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and APX significantly increased under high concentrations of Cd. AMF differ in their strategies of regulating the transport of different metals under TE stress. Under Zn stress, the concentration of Zn in P. australis decreased by 10-57%, and the effect on Zn translocation factor (TF Zn ) was concentration-dependent. AMF increased the TF Zn under low concentration stress, but decreased under high concentration stress. Under Cd stress, the concentration of Cd increased by as much as 17-40%, and the TF Cd decreased. AMF were also found to change the interaction of Zn×Cd. In the absence of AMF, Cd exposure decreased the Zn concentrations in P. australis at Zn 100 mg/L and Zn 300 mg/L , while it increased the contents of Zn at Zn 700 mg/L . The opposite trend was observed following treatment with AMF. However, regardless of the concentration of Cd, the addition of Zn decreased the concentration of Cd in both treatments in both the presence and absence of AMF. Under different TE stress conditions, the regulation of metal elements by AMF in host plants does not follow a single strategy but a trade-off between different trends of transportations. The findings of our study are important for applying AMF-P. australis systems in the phytoremediation of Zn-Cd co-contaminated ecosystems., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Facing low reactivity/selectivity of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in electro-Fenton (EF), N, S atoms were introduced into carbon-based cathode. "End-on" O 2 adsorption was achieved by adjusting electronic nature via N doping, while *OOH binding capability was tuned by spin density variation via S doping. Results showed the optimized N, S co-doped cathode presented a 42.47% improvement of H 2 O 2 accumulation (7.95 ± 0.02 mg L -1 cm -2 ). According to density functional theory (DFT), N, S co-doped structure favored the "end-on" O 2 adsorption as adsorption energy dropped to - 2.24 eV. Moreover, O-O/C-O bond lengths variation proved a possibility for *OOH desorption. The elaborated cathode was used in EF for sulfonamides (SAs) decay. A 100% removal rate of sulfadiazine (SDZ), sulfathiazole (STZ) and sulfadimethoxine (SDM) was achieved within 60 min, among which SDZ tended to be degraded easily. Because the absolute hardness (η) of those pollutants is ranked as follows: η SDM > η STZ > η SDZ . Degradation pathways were proposed based on the detected byproducts, along with toxicity was evaluated by ecological structure-activity relationship (ECOSAR) program. Results showed that toxic intermediates generated were reduced or even disappeared. EF with N, S co-doped cathode provides a promising process for antibiotics wastewater treatment., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Sialylation is the addition of sialic acids to the terminus of various glycoconjugates, and it is involved in many essential biological processes, such as cell adhesion, signal transduction, immune regulation, etc. The levels of sialylation in a cell are tightly regulated by two groups of enzymes, sialyltransferases (STs, responsible for sialylation) and sialidases (responsible for desialylation). Many studies have reported that the occurrence, development, and survival rates of tumors are significantly associated with STs' abnormal changes. In recent years, the morbidity and mortality rates of gynecological malignant tumors have been continuously rising, which has caused great harm to women's reproduction and health. Abnormal changes of STs in gynecological malignant tumor cell membranes cause the changes of expression of sialic acids, promoting cell migration and, eventually, leading to tumor metastasis. In this review, we outlined the biological characteristics of STs and summarized the expression profiles of 20 STs in different tumors via transcriptome data from Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) database. Moreover, STs' functions in four common gynecological tumors (ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, and gestational trophoblast tumor) were reviewed., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Rainbow trout are typical cold-water fish species. However, with the intensification of global warming, high temperatures have severely restricted the development of aquaculture during the summer. Understanding the molecular regulatory mechanisms of rainbow trout responses to heat stress will be beneficial for alleviating heat stress-related damage. In this study, we performed RNA-seq of liver tissues from rainbow trout under heat stress (24 °C) and control conditions (18 °C) to identify lncRNAs and target genes by strand-specific library. Changes in nonspecific immune parameters revealed that a strong stress response occurred in rainbow trout at 24 °C. More than 658 million filtered reads and 5916 lncRNAs were identified from six libraries. A total of 927 novel lncRNAs were identified, and 428 differentially expressed lncRNAs were screened with stringent thresholds. The RNA-seq results were verified by RT-qPCR. In addition, a regulatory network of lncRNA-mRNA functional interactions was constructed, and the potential antisense, cis and trans targets of lncRNAs were predicted. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses showed that many target genes involved in maintenance of homeostasis or adaptation to stress and stimuli were highly induced under heat stress. Several regulatory pathways were also found to be involved in heat stress, including the thyroid hormone signaling pathway, the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and the estrogen signaling pathway, among others. These results broaden our understanding of lncRNAs associated with heat stress and provide new insights into the lncRNA mediated regulation of the rainbow trout heat stress response., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The extracellular polymeric substances coating magnetic powders-supported nano zero-valent iron (nZVI@EPS@Fe 3 O 4 ) was synthesized, using reduction and adsorption to treat Sb(V) wastewater. The adsorption performance and mechanism were investigated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The adsorption capacity of nZVI@EPS@Fe 3 O 4 (79.56 mg/g at pH = 5) was improved compared to that of the original materials (60.74 mg/g). The spectral analysis shows that both nZVI and EPS@Fe 3 O 4 in nZVI@EPS@Fe 3 O 4 played an important role in reducing Sb(V) to Sb(III) and adsorbing Sb. The reducibility and adsorption capacity of nZVI@EPS@Fe 3 O 4 towards Sb(V) remained strong under aerobic condition (62% Sb(III), 79.56 mg/g), although they were slightly weaker than those under anaerobic condition (74% Sb(III), 91.78 mg/g). nZVI@EPS@Fe 3 O 4 showed good performance in regeneration experiments. nZVI@EPS@Fe 3 O 4 is promising as a cost-effective and highly efficient material for Sb(V)-contaminated water. This study is meaningful in understanding the redox behaviour of nZVI composites in aerobic and anaerobic conditions., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We propose an unconventional electro-Fenton (EF) system with a nickel-foam (Ni-F) cathode and tripolyphosphate (3-PP) electrolyte at near-neutral pH (EF/Ni-F-3-PP) to overcome pH restrictions in EF while preventing Ni-F corrosion. Response surface modelling was used to optimize the main operating parameters with a model prediction analysis (R 2  = 0.99): pH = 5.8, Fe 2+  = 3.0 mM and applied current = 349.6 mA. Among the three variables, the pH exerted the highest influence on the process. Under optimal conditions, 100 % of phenol removal was achieved in 25 min with a pseudo-first-order apparent rate constant (k app ) of 0.2 min -1 , 3.2-fold higher than the k app of EF/Ni-F with SO 4 2- electrolyte at pH 3. A mineralization yield of 81.5 % was attained after 2 h; furthermore, it was found that 3-PP enhanced H 2 O 2 accumulation by preventing bulk H 2 O 2 decomposition. Finally, toxicity evaluation revealed the formation of toxic by-products at the early stages of treatment, which were totally depleted after 2 h, demonstrating the detoxifying capacity of the system. In conclusion, this study shows for the first time the potential of Ni-F as a cathode for EF under near-neutral conditions, rendered possible by the 3PP electrolyte. Under these conditions, the Ni-F corrosion issue could be alleviated., 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.)

Aerobic denitrification is a novel biological nitrogen removal technology, which has been widely investigated as an alternative to the conventional denitrification and for its unique advantages. To fully comprehend aerobic denitrification, it is essential to clarify the regulatory mechanisms of intracellular electron transfer during aerobic denitrification. However, reports on intracellular electron transfer during aerobic denitrification are rather limited. Thus, the purpose of this review is to discuss the molecular mechanism of aerobic denitrification from the perspective of electron transfer, by summarizing the advancements in current research on electron transfer based on conventional denitrification. Firstly, the implication of aerobic denitrification is briefly discussed, and the status of current research on aerobic denitrification is summarized. Then, the occurring foundation and significance of aerobic denitrification are discussed based on a brief review of the key components involved in the electron transfer of denitrifying enzymes. Moreover, a strategy for enhancing the efficiency of aerobic denitrification is proposed on the basis of the regulatory mechanisms of denitrification enzymes. Finally, scientific outlooks are given for further investigation on aerobic denitrification in the future. This review could help clarify the mechanism of aerobic denitrification from the perspective of electron transfer., 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.)

The purpose of the ongoing trial is to improve care of older Veterans with chronic low back pain (CLBP, i.e., low back pain for ≥6 months on ≥ half the days). Current CLBP care is limited by being either overly spine-focused or non-specifically prescribed and both approaches frequently lead to suboptimal reduction in pain and improvement in function. Through prior studies we have laid the foundation for a patient-centered approach to care for older Veterans with CLBP in which the spine is a source of vulnerability but not the sole treatment target. The approach considers CLBP a geriatric syndrome, a final common pathway for the expression of multiple contributors rather than a disease of the spine. We describe here the rationale and design of a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of an older Veteran-centered approach to CLBP care in "Aging Back Clinics (ABCs)" compared with Usual Care (UC). Three hundred thirty Veterans age 65-89 with CLBP will be randomized to ABCs or UC and followed for 12 months after randomization. We will assess the impact of ABCs on our primary outcome of pain-associated disability with the Oswestry Disability Index at 6 and 12 months, and secondary outcomes of pain intensity, health-related quality of life, balance confidence, mobility and healthcare utilization. If shown efficacious, the approach tested in ABCs has the potential to transform the care of older adults with CLBP by improving the quality of life for millions, reducing morbidity and saving substantial healthcare costs., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

In this work, nitrogen-doped cathodes for high H 2 O 2 production and sulfathiazole (STZ) degradation in electro-Fenton (EF) systems were prepared by the carbonization of three carbon/nitrogen-enriched precursors. Among the cathodes elaborated from different precursors, the one using 1h-1,2,4-triazole-3,5-diamine as the precursor showed the best oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) ability with the normalized H 2 O 2 accumulation of 9.49 ± 0.03 mg L -1  h -1  cm -2 compared to the other two N-containing cathodes. The enhanced H 2 O 2 accumulation was attributed to the high electroactive surface area and pyrrolic N (60.45%) content. Regarding reactive oxygen species in the absence of Fe 2+ , aside from the H 2 O 2 , O 2 - and 1 O 2 were identified using spectroscopic techniques and chemical probes. As a result, a degradation and mineralization efficiency of 98.25 ± 0.14% and 70.57 ± 0.27% of STZ were attained in the 180-min treatment, mainly coming from the homogeneous OH from classical Fenton, anodic OH on BDD anode and direct/indirect oxidation of O 2 - and 1 O 2 . In addition, the plausible degradation pathway of STZ was proposed based on the density functional theory (DFT) combined with experimental data derived by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The frontier orbital theory and Fukui function theoretically suggested the vulnerable sites of STZ for different active species including OH, O 2 - and 1 O 2 . This study provides a new strategy for improving the ORR process and analyzing the generation and conversion of reactive oxygen species in the EF process., 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.)

A novel integrated system with quorum quenching (QQ) bacterium Burkholderia sp. ssn-2 bioaugmented graphene oxide/polypyrrole (GO/PPy) conductive polymercomposite membrane (CPM) in MBR with electric field (EMBR) was established. The integrated system exhibited the highest degradation efficiency for phenol (100%) and COD (93.2%-99.9%) during the 120 days operation. Membrane fouling in the integrated system was notably mitigated by the coupling effect of CPM + voltage and QQ bacterium ssn-2. The hydrophilicity and antibacterial activity of CPM inhibited the hydrophobic protein foulants adsorption, bacteria colonization and attachment on the CPM surface. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content was positively correlated with N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) concentration, and decreased with AHLs degradation by QQ bacterium ssn-2. The increased negative charge of EPS on the CPM surface augmented the electrostatic repulsion between the EPS and cathode CPM in the integrated system. Moreover, the coupling effect altered the microbial communities. A decreased AHLs concentration had a significantly negative correlation with QQ bacterium ssn-2 enrichment, which exhibited the dual effects of degrading phenol and AHLs, and enriching biopolymer-degrading genera Clostridium sensu strict and Acidovorax in the integrated system and on the CPM surface. This can lead to a decrease in the EPS content., 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.)

The mechanism of total nitrogen (TN) removal at aerobic condition in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has been one of the most popular research fields. However, the role of aerobic denitrification in TN removal was unclear because of the lack of stoichiometric coefficients and kinetic constants of aerobic denitrification bacterium. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the stoichiometry and kinetics of aerobic denitrification by using Pseudomonas stutzeri T13 as a model aerobic denitrification bacterium. Results indicated that strain T13 obtained the maximum yield coefficient (0.1098 mol biomass-N/mol COD) when using NH 4 + -N as the sole nitrogen source. This value decreased slightly (0.1077 mol biomass-N/mol COD) during aerobic denitrification, but was still higher than that of conventional denitrification. The half-saturation constants for ammonium, nitrate and nitrite ( [Formula: see text] , [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] ) of strain T13 were fitted based on the experimental data and were 2.72, 18.33 and 209.07 mg/L, respectively. The validity of the stoichiometric coefficients and kinetic constants was tested at two extra conditions and perfect fitting results were obtained. To our knowledge, this is the first time to report the stoichiometric coefficients and kinetic constants of aerobic denitrification. These parameters will be useful in modelling nitrogen removal performance in systems inoculated with aerobic denitrification bacterium. Moreover, this study could provide an experimental basis for further clarifying the mechanism of aerobic denitrification from a quantitative perspective., 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 © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The membrane antifouling and shifts of microbial communities of long-term electric field applied in MBR (EMBR) for treating phenol wastewater was systematically investigated. The increased voltage increased the phenol degradation rate and slowed down the TMP increase rate in EMBR (G1-G4: 1.65 × 10 - 3 -8.40 × 10 - 4 Mpa/d), indicated the enhancement of phenol treatment and mitigation of membrane fouling. Decrease of protein (PN)/polysaccharide (PS) in EPS increased the negative charge and decreased the hydrophobicity of sludge, thus abated its adsorption on membrane surface. The decrease of AHLs concentration attributed to the electrolysis of AHLs by the electro-generated H 2 O 2 . Besides, the AHLs had significantly negative correlation with QQ bacteria Rhodococcus and Stenotrophomonas enrichment and positive correlation with QS bacteria Aeromonas decrease in EMBRs, suggesting that coupling effects of voltage and QQ bacteria degraded AHLs, thus decreased EPS content which was positively correlated with AHLs concentration. Biopolymer-degrading genera (Clostridium sensu strict etc.) increased in EMBR and on membrane surface, while biofilm-forming genera (Pseudomonas etc.) decreased on membrane surface. These resulted in EPS content decrease and membrane antifouling., 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.)

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and earthworms independently enhance plant growth, heavy metal (HM) tolerance, and HM uptake, thus they are potential key factors in phytoremediation. However, few studies have investigated their interactions in HM phytoextraction by hyperaccumulators. This study highlights the independent and interactive effects of earthworms and AMF on Solanum nigrum. Plants inoculated with either AMF or earthworms exhibited ameliorated growth via enhancement of productivity, metal tolerance, and phosphorus (P) acquisition. Co-inoculation with both had more pronounced effects on plant biomass and P acquisition in shoots, but not in roots, and in Cd-polluted soils it significantly promoted (P < 0.05) shoot biomass (20.7-134.6 %) and P content (20.4-112.0 %). AMF and earthworms increased Cd accumulation in plant tissues, but only AMF affected Cd partitioning between shoots and roots. Although AMF decreased root-to-shoot translocation of Cd at high Cd levels, this was counterbalanced by earthworms. Both AMF and its combination with earthworms enhanced Cd phytoavailability by altering Cd chemical fractions and decreasing pH. Co-inoculation increased Cd removal amounts up to 149.3 % in 120 mg kg -1 Cd-spiked soils. Interactions between the two organisms were synergistic in Cd phytoextraction. Thus, earthworm-AMF-plant symbiosis potentially plays an essential role in phytoremediation of HM-polluted soils., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The physicochemical properties of gold nanorods were used to develop many methods and techniques of detecting heavy metals recently. In this paper, the feasibility of gold nanorods was studied to detect metal lead in agricultural soil. The effects of soil properties on the form change of lead in soil were explored by gold nanorod detection technology. The results showed that the humic acid significantly increased Pb mobility and ion state exchanging. It also increased the lead content of organic bound state and Fe-Mn oxides state. And the detection process by gold nanorods proved to be a more simple and convenient method., 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 © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The C/N ratio in wastewater differs in place and time and affects the nitrogen removal performance of wastewater treatment. However, studies have focused only on the direct relationship between C/N and nitrogen removal efficiency but disregarded the significant role of soluble microbial products (SMPs) as an intermediate electron station. In this work, the contribution of SMPs to TN removal for treating wastewater with different C/N in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was investigated to extend relevance from C/N-TN removal to C/N-SMP-TN removal. TN removal efficiency was improved by increasing the influent C/N. The relative contribution of SMPs increased from 15% (C/N = 2) to 54% (C/N = 8), including 25.5% via utilization-associated product (UAP)-dependent denitrification and 28.5% via biomass-associated product (BAP)-dependent denitrification. The direct contribution of influent organic substrates dramatically decreased from 85.1% to 46%. In addition, providing an anoxic phase effectively enhanced BAP-dependent denitrification and achieved an increment of the SMP absolute contribution from 20.3% to 43% at C/N = 8 with 6.7 mg/L of TN additionally removed. This work clarified the significant contribution of SMPs to the nitrogen removal process, particularly in treating wastewater with high C/N. It also presented a new strategy for improving nitrogen removal performance via SMP reclamation., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A self-immobilization method for microorganisms was developed based on fungal pellets. Generally, pellets have some problems such as cell leakage, cell loading limitation and low mechanical strength. Therefore, biochar was applied to overcome these disadvantages. Atrazine degradable microorganism Arthrobacter sp. ZXY-2 was immobilized by Aspergillus niger Y3 pellets. After adding biochar with optimal dosage (0.006 g biochar for 0.3 g pellets with ZXY-2), the self-immobilized biomixture (SIB) removed 50 mg /L atrazine rapidly within 1 h, which was 61% higher compared to pellets without biochar. The kinetic adsorption results showed that the biosorption of biochar by pellets followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The ATZ removal ability and reusability of SIB were significantly increased by biochar. The results showed that the addition of biochar could enhance the connection between ZXY-2 and pellets based carrier, and the favorable biodegradation pH of ZXY-2 changed to 6 and 10. Several analyses such as ζ-potential measurements, FTIR, XPS, SEM-EDS, and elemental analyses were performed to evaluate the mechanism of action of SIB. To enhance the ATZ degradation by single strain, Agrobacterium, sp WL-1 was isolated and added. The metabolic pathways and their function complementation were studied. Furthermore, a biomass integration model for wastewater treatment was proposed herein., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Soluble microbial products (SMPs), as secondary pollutants, comprise a dominant percentage of residual COD in effluents from biological wastewater treatment processes. They can also be regarded as substitute electron sources if the in-situ utilization of SMPs could be achieved. In this study, the fate of SMPs in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) treating artificial municipal sewage was investigated. Based on the regular SBR operation mode, a 3 h extension of anoxic phase was provided to promote SMP degradation. Meanwhile, the denitrification efficiencies achieved by adopting SMPs and influent organic substrates (IOSs) were compared to reveal the significant contribution of the in-situ utilization of SMP for nitrogen removal. Approximately 21.1 mg N/L of total nitrogen (TN) was removed over a single cyclic reaction, in which only 13.2 mg N/L was removed via IOS-dependent denitrification. The remaining 7.9 mg N/L of TN was realized via SMP-dependent denitrification, including 3.9 mg N/L by utilization-associated products and 4.0 mg N/L by biomass-associated products, which significantly contributed 37.4% of TN removal. The aromatic proteins, tryptophan-like proteins, polysaccharides and fulvic acids contained in SMP were the potential precursors of electron donors to support SMP-dependent denitrification process., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The microorganism Arthrobacter. ZXY-2 exhibits excellent degradation efficiency for atrazine in free cells. However, its poor fixability makes it hard to be kept and recycled in water. To conquer the problem, this work employed mycelial pellets of Aspergillus niger Y3 to immobilize ZXY-2, which formed a self-immobilized biomixture (SIB) to remove atrazine. SIB could completely degrade 57.3 mg/L atrazine within 10 h. The SIB exhibited the highest degradation efficiency at pH = 7 and 40 °C. Degradation of atrazine with initial concentrations of 57.3 mg/L and 17.5 mg/L was described well by zero and first-order reaction kinetics, respectively. The recycling experiments demonstrated that SIB could be recycled for 5 batches. The results of SEM, FT-IR, and zeta potential analysis showed that porous structure, functional groups, and electronegativity of SIB all contributed to its stable formation. Therefore, this study demonstrates that SIB could be formed stably and could remove atrazine efficiently., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)