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A novel waterfall aeration biofilm reactor integrated with a constructed wetland (WABR-CW) system was developed to meet the challenge of decentralized wastewater treatment with a focus on nutrient removal. In a lab-scale experiment of 70 days, the WABR-CW showed a high removal efficiency for COD (85-98 %), NH4+-N (100 %), TN (60-90 %) and TP (85 %-95 %), even when different organic loading rates (OLR) were used. The CW was responsible for improving the overall performance in view of an increased nutrient removal. The CW offers denitrification capacity when the OLR is not optimal for the WABR. Based on the lab-scale experiment, a pilotscale WABR-CW was built and tested for aquaculture wastewater treatment and reuse. A total of 63 m3 wastewater was treated of which 56.7 m3 was reused. Furthermore, the microbial structure of the WABR-CW system was investigated. A metabolic analysis highlighted the N and C metabolic pathways and functional genes distribution in the WABR-CW system. Next generation sequencing not only linked the pollutants removal performance and microbial encoding genes but also disclosed the potential ability of WABR-CW to treat more polluted and more complex wastewater. The outcomes of this study provide scale-up results and a better understanding of the functioning of the WABR-CW.

We evaluated the potential role of maternal serum levels of neutrophils in the first trimester of pregnancy in the prediction of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).This prospective cohort study enrolled singleton pregnant women before gestational weeks 16 and evaluated them until delivery. Among the 1467 pregnant women who performed prenatal care before 14 weeks of gestation in the cohort, a total of 731 were eligible for the final analysis. The associations between neutrophil counts, white blood cell count, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, and GDM (assessed by a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test between 24 and 28 weeks) were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression.Neutrophil count outperformed the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and white blood cell count in predicting GDM occurrence. We applied a smoothing function and found that neutrophil count was associated with both fasting blood glucose (FBG) (The results indicated an association between higher neutrophil levels and GDM occurrence.

Background: Previous studies reported that N-myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) was upregulated in various cancer tissues and decreased expression of miR-188-3p and miR-133b could suppress cell proliferation, metastasis, and invasion and induce apoptosis of cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanism of NRDG1 involved in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumorigenesis is still unknown. Methods: The expressions of miR-188-3p, miR-133b, and NRDG1 in HCC tissues and cells were quantified by qRT-PCR and Western blot. MTT assay and transwell invasion assay were performed to evaluate cell growth and cell migration, respectively. Luciferase reporter assay were performed to determine whether miR-188-3p and miR-133b could directly bind to NRDG1 in HCC cells. Results: The results showed that NRDG1 was upregulated and these 2 microRNAs were downregulated in HCC tissues. NRDG1 was negatively correlated with miR-188-3p and miR-133b in HCC tissues. MiR-188-3p and miR-133b were demonstrated to directly bind to 3′UTR of NRDG1 and inhibit its expression. Upregulation of miR-188-3p and miR-133b reduced NRDG1 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines, which consequently inhibited cell growth and cell migration. Conclusions: Our finding suggested that miR-188-3p and miR-133b exert a suppressive effect on hepatocellular carcinoma proliferation, invasion, and migration through downregulation of NDRG1.

A low-cost and high-efficiency waterfall aeration biofilm reactor (WABR) combined with a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was established to treat wastewater with a C/N ratio of 50. Three WABR-SBR systems with different fillers were used. In the stable operation phase, the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand was R1 (approximately 99%), R2 (97–99%), and R3 (96–99%); the effluent concentration of NH4+-N was 0.5 mg/L without nitrite or nitrate accumulation. High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that the dominant phyla in the microbial community structure were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes. Quantitative PCR was used to quantify the nitrification and denitrification gene expressions (Nitrobacter, nirS, and nirK) to evaluate the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification processes. Both anammox and denitrifying bacteria were abundant. Metagenomic annotation of genes that revealed the metabolic pathways of carbohydrates, amino acids, and the two dominant enzymes (GH and GT) provide valuable information for microbial ecology analysis.

China’s economy adopts an extensive growth method. This economic growth method relies on resource input, which consumes huge energy and causes excessive pressure on resources and the environment. The economic growth rate of Fujian Province ranks among the highest in the country in recent years, and its energy consumption is still on the high side. Industrial enterprises, especially the manufacturing industry, account for the majority of energy consumption. In order to ensure the sustainable development of enterprises and society, the government needs to make plans for energy conservation and consumption reduction, policy support and enterprise energy conservation and consumption reduction measures to promote energy conservation and consumption reduction in the whole society, and strive to achieve coordinated development of economic growth and environmental protection.