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The treatment of rural sewage has become an important part of environmental protection. In this study, a novel waterwheel-rotating biological contactor (WRBC) system, with intensified biofilm and high-shock load resistance, was applied to treat rural sewage. When the COD concentration of actual sewage fluctuated between 79–530 mg/L, the COD removal efficiency was 41.3–94.5%, and the NH4+-N removal efficiency always reach 100% with actual sewage. The TN removal efficiency changed between 14.3–86.2%, which was greatly affected by the water intake. The effluent TN concentration ranged from 5 to 14 mg/L, which meets the emission requirements. It maintained an absolute effluent stability when the change rates of influent loads (N or COD) varied from −60% to 100%. The biofilm morphology and the composition of extracellular polymeric substances were evaluated based on SEM and FTIR spectra. The results showed that the -NH2 group content increased compared with the inoculated sludge, and the biofilm formed more uneven compact clusters after the treatment of actual sewage. Based on 16SrRNA high-throughput sequencing techniques, the bacterial diversity and microbial community structure of the WRBC system over time was revealed. This study may help guide optimization strategies for more effective pollutant removal in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: As global demand for animal protein increases, the entire animal production system is gradually moving towards intensification. The aquaculture industry is growing rapidly, but it is vulnerable to disease and environmental stress, resulting in aquaculture losses. Antioxidant supplementation in diets can improve the resistance of fish to environmental stress, which is an important measure to reduce the loss of the aquaculture industry. Alpha-lipoic acid (α-LA) is considered to be a "general antioxidant" or "ideal antioxidant" which has a strong antioxidant capacity. In this study, juvenile hybrid groupers were fed a diet supplemented with α-LA for 56 days. The results indicated that the addition of 0.4 and 0.6 g/kg α-LA to the diet inhibited the growth performance of juvenile hybrid groupers. Furthermore, 1.2 g/kg α-LA could reduce the blood lipid level, improve hepatocyte damage, and increase the antioxidant enzyme activity of the liver. In addition, transcriptome results indicated that dietary α-LA significantly affected the pathway related to immune function (the JAK/STAT signaling pathway, prolactin signaling pathway, and antigen processing and presentation) and glucose homeostasis (glycolysis/gluconeogenesis). We aimed to investigate the effects of dietary alpha-lipoic acid (α-LA) on the growth performance, serum biochemical indexes, liver morphology, antioxidant capacity, and transcriptome of juvenile hybrid groupers (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus♀ × Epinephelus polyphekadion♂). Four experimental diets supplemented with 0 (SL0), 0.4 (L1), 0.6 (L2), and 1.2 (L3) g/kg α-LA were formulated and fed to three replicates of juvenile hybrid grouper (24.06 ± 0.15 g) for 56 d. The results indicated that dietary 0.4 and 0.6 g/kg α-LA significantly decreased the weight gain rate in juvenile hybrid groupers. Compared with SL0, the content of total protein in the serum of L1, L2, and L3 increased significantly, and alanine aminotransferase decreased significantly. The content of albumin in the serum of L3 increased significantly, and triglyceride, total cholesterol, and aspartate aminotransferase decreased significantly. In addition, the hepatocyte morphology in L1, L2, and L3 all showed varying degrees of improvement, and the activities of glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase in the liver of L2 and L3 were significantly increased. A total of 42 differentially expressed genes were screened in the transcriptome data. KEGG showed that a total of 12 pathways were significantly enriched, including the pathway related to immune function and glucose homeostasis. The expression of genes (ifnk, prl4a1, prl3b1, and ctsl) related to immune were significantly up-regulated, and the expressions of gapdh and eno1 genes related to glucose homeostasis were significantly down-regulated and up-regulated, respectively. In summary, dietary supplementation of 0.4 and 0.6 g/kg α-LA inhibited the growth performance of juvenile hybrid groupers. A total of 1.2 g/kg α-LA could reduce the blood lipid level, improve hepatocyte damage, and increase the hepatic antioxidant enzyme activity. Dietary α-LA significantly affected the pathway related to immune function and glucose homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear factor erythroid-2 related factor 2 (Nrf2) plays a pivotal role in cytoprotection against both endogenous and exogenous stresses. Here, we establish a novel molecular link between Nrf2, nuclear receptor small heterodimer partner (SHP; NROB2), lipogenic genes, and hepatic lipid homeostasis. Deletion of Nrf2 ([Nrf2.sup.-/-]) in mice resulted in a reduced liver weight, a decrease in fatty acid content of hepatic triacylglycerol, as well as concomitant increases in the levels of serum VLDL-triglyceride (TG), HDL cholesterol, and ketone bodies at 6 mo of age. Liver weight and hepatic TG content were consistently lower in [Nrf2.sup.-/-] mice upon a high-fat challenge. This phenotype was accompanied by downregulation of genes in lipid synthesis and uptake and upregulation of genes in lipid oxidation in older [Nrf2.sup.-/-] mice. Interestingly, SHP expression was induced with age in [Nrf2.sup.+/+] mice but decreased by Nrf2 deficiency. Forced expression and activation of Nrf2 by Nrf2 activators consistently induced SHP expression, and Nrf2 was identified as a novel activator of the SHP gene transcription. We also identified PPAR-[gamma] Fas, Scd1, and Srebp-1 as direct targets of Nrf2 activation. These findings provide evidence for a role of Nrf2 in the modulation of hepatic lipid homeostasis through transcriptional activation of SHP and lipogenic gene expression. transcription factors; nuclear receptors; hepatic lipid homeostasis doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00322.2010.

Optimization of schemes for black-start is one of the most important factors determining the speed of power system restoration after either a global blackout or a local outage. In this paper a novel method employing the entropy weight-based decision-making theory is proposed for this application. By using the method for the decision making in black start, the subjective weights acquired from knowledge and experience of experts could be used in conjunction with the objective weights (entropy weighs) deduced from some closely related indices. Obviously, the developed method can greatly improve the performance in power system restoration by overcoming the shortcomings of conventional methods that only use either the subjective or the objective weights. Furthermore, the proposed method is applicable in power systems with different levels of black-start experience for assisting the optimal black-start decision making. It is shown that the proposed method is suitable for power systems with different levels of black-start experience. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EY.1943-7897.0000023 CE Database subject headings: Electric power; Decision making; Entropy methods. Author keywords: Power system blackout and restoration; Black start; Decision making; Entropy weight.

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella michiganensis (CRKM) and Klebsiella oxytoca (CRKO) strains have occasionally been reported to cause severe infections. However, SIM-producing K. michiganensis strains have never been described. In this study, we phenotypically and genetically characterized 6 CRKM and CRKO strains isolated over the past 10 years at a Chinese tertiary hospital. All six strains were positive for the mCIM test, and five were positive for the MBL test. Carbapenemase-encoding genes (blaKPC, blaNDM, blaVIM, blaIMP, blaOXA-23, blaOXA-24, blaOXA-51, and blaOXA-58) and another 12 resistance genes were screened by PCR, and blaKPC, blaNDM, and blaIMP were identified in five strains. However, the CRKM strain KM41, which was resistant to IPM and MEM with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 4 µg/ml and 16 µg/ml, respectively, had positive mCIM and MBL results but lacked the eight carbapenemase-encoding genes. Whole-genome sequencing of the KM41 strain revealed more than 20 drug resistance genes; in particular, blaSIM-1, blaOXA-1, blaCTX-M-14, qnrS, aac(6′)-Ib-cr, aadA17, and aar-3 were found to be located in a single plasmid. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of a K. michiganensis strain coharboring blaSIM-1, blaOXA-1, blaCTX-M-14, qnrS, and aac(6′)-Ib-cr in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a neural-fuzzy technology-based classifier for the recognition of power quality disturbances. The classifier adopts neural networks in the architecture of frequency sensitive competitive leaning and learning vector quantization (LVQ). With given size of codewords, the neural networks are trained to determine the optimal decision boundaries separating different categories of disturbances. To cope with the uncertainties in the involved pattern recognition, the neural network outputs, instead of being taken as the final classification, are used to activate the fuzzy-associative-memory (FAM) recalling for identifying the most possible type that the input waveform may belong to. Furthermore, the input waveforms are preprocessed by the wavelet transform for feature extraction so as to improve the classifier with respect to recognition accuracy and scheme simplicity. Each subband of the transform coefficients is then utilized to recognize the associated disturbances. Index Terms--Fuzzy associative memory (FAM), neural networks, pattern recognition, power quality disturbances, wavelet transform.