The variation of five antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs)-tetG, tetW, tetX, sul1, and intI1-in a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant with A(2)O-MBR system was studied. The concentrations of five resistance genes both in influent and in membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluent decreased as sul1 > intI1 > tetX > tetG > tetW, and an abundance of sul1 was statistically higher than three other tetracycline resistance genes (tetG, tetW, and tetX) (p < 0.05). The concentrations of five ARGs in the influent were all higher in spring (median 10(5.81)-10(7.32) copies mL(-1)) than they were in other seasons, and tetW, tetX, and sul1 reached its lowest concentration in autumn (10(4.61)-10(6.81) copies mL(-1)). The concentration of ARGs in wastewater decreased in the anaerobic effluent and anoxic effluent, but increased in the aerobic effluent, and then sharply declined in the MBR effluent. The reduction of tetW, intI1, and sul1 was all significantly positively correlated with the reduction of 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) in the wastewater treatment process (p < 0.01). The concentration of ARGs (copies mg(-1)) in sludge samples increased along the treatment process, but the abundance of five ARGs (ratio of ARGs to 16S rDNA) remained the same from anaerobic to anoxic to aerobic basins, while an increment ratio in MBR was observed for all ARGs.

The interfacial interaction of the colloidal NPs in solution is closely related to the surface charge, which heavily influences the NP synthesis, colloidal stabilization and various applications. [2] In general, the inorganic core of colloidal NPs in solutions possess a net electric charge at the interface, which can attract dissolved heterogeneously-charged crystal-constituting ions and solvent molecules by electrostatic interaction, thus constructing the electrical double layer and rendering the NPs well-dispersed (Figure 1a). The presence of surface charge can also physically or chemically adsorb the dissolved molecules such as organic dyes at the NP interface, which restructures the energy dissipation pathways between the colloidal NPs and outside world. However, although much efforts had been devoted to understanding the interfacial interactions of NPs, comparable study taking into account the motion states of the particles is still rare. For example, the colloidal NPs could experience Brownian motion in stationary solution, flowing in fluid, as well as keeping static when being adhered on macroscopic objects, depending on the specific environments in applications such as biodetection, bioimaging, and printable electronics. [3] Albeit of its fundamental importance, the specific role of particle moving on the interfacial reactions of colloidal NPs is ambiguous up to now and as always been ignored for most cases.The sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy, a second-order nonlinear optical technique, has been proved to be powerful for probing the interfacial molecules in view of its inherent interface selectivity and high sensitivity. [4] In this work, combined in situ spectroscopies based on SFG and photoluminescence (PL) characterization were adopted to reveal the unprecedented effect of particle moving to the interfacial adsorption of colloidal fluoride nanocrystals in great detail. Comparative results of the proof-of-concept experiments for the ligand-free NaYF 4 :Yb,Er upconverting (UC) nanocrystals reveal that the particle moving in aqueous solution reversibly alter the surface charge. More importantly, it is found that the motion state of the NPs determines molecular arrangement of Rhodamine B (RhB) at the particle interface, which significantly affect the energy transfer from the colloidal NPs to the adsorbed dyes.

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To understand the transport and fate of antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater treatment plants, 12 resistance genes (ten tetracycline resistance genes, two sulfonamides genes) and class 1 integron gene (intI1) were studied in five wastewater treatment plants with different treatment processes and different sewage sources. Among these resistance genes, sulfonamides genes (sul1 and sul2) were of the most prevalent genes with detection frequency of 100%. The effluent water contained fewer types of resistance genes than the influent in most selected plants. The abundance of five quantified resistance genes (tetG, tetW, tetX, sul1, and intI1) decreased in effluent of plants treating domestic or industrial wastewater with anaerobic/aerobic or membrane bioreactor (MBR) technologies, but tetG, tetX, sul1, and intI1 increased along the treatment units of plants treating vitamin C production wastewater by anaerobic/aerobic technology. In plant treating cephalosporins production wastewater by UASB/aerobic process, the quantities of tetG, tetX, and sul1 first decreased in anaerobic effluent water but then increased in aerobic effluent water.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of high fat diet and excessive compressive mechanical force on temporomandibular joint. In vivo, a mouse model of temporomandibular joint compressive loading device was used. A high fat diet mouse model and a combined mouse model intraperitoneally treated with or without simvastatin were used in the study. The pathological changes of mandibular condylar cartilage were assessed by Safranin-O staining. The IL-1β, MMP-3, leptin expression changes in the cartilage were detected by immunohistochemistry. In vitro, the mandibular condylar chondrocytes were treated with or without L-1β and simvastatin. The mRNA expression level of matrix MMPs and leptin were assessed. Both excessive compressive mechanical force and high fat diet induced obesity caused TMJ osteoarthritis-like changes and increased expression of IL-1β, MMP-3, and leptin. These pathological changes were much more serious when the two interventions were exerted together, while simvastatin could obviously alleviate these changes. The mRNA expression of MMP-3, MMP-13, and leptin increased in the IL-1β treated chondrocytes treated with IL-1β, and decreased with simvastatin treatment. The development of temporomandibular joint pathological changes could be caused by the excessive compressive mechanical force and high fat diet induced obesity.

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Microplastics (MPs) have generated worldwide attention due to their global distribution in the environment, and their potential harmful effects on human and animal health. To analyze MPs-related scientific publications from a global point of view, we created a bibliometric profile, by searching the Web of Science Core Collection database for the topic “microplastic* or (micro near/1 plastic*)”, in publications dated from 2004 to 2019. The results revealed an increasing trend in publication output, and identified contributions of different countries and their collaborations, as well as influential authors and productive journals in the field of MPs research. Using co-citation network analysis in VOSviewer, we mined cited references for knowledge bases about analytical methods, potential sources and spatial distributions of MPs, the impacts of MPs on organisms, and the interaction of MPs with contaminants, as well as microorganisms. We also identified four global hotspots for MPs related research, using author keywords co-occurrence network analysis of all extracted publications, as well as Essential Science Indicators highly cited papers from Clarivate Analytics. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for ongoing MPs-related research, which may be of intrigue and awesome noteworthiness for relevant researchers.

Background and Aim We aim to evaluate the effect of smartphone education on the bowel preparation quality of patients undergoing colonoscopy by meta‐analysis. Methods Randomized controlled trials using smartphones to educate patients on bowel preparation for colonoscopy were screened from the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases from inception to August 31, 2021. After extracting the data, Review Manager software was used for meta‐analysis. Results A total of 12 randomized controlled trials with 4165 patients were included in the meta‐analysis. There were 2060 patients in the smartphone group, including 1784 patients with adequate bowel preparation, with a rate of 86.6%, and 2105 patients in the control group, including 1614 patients with adequate bowel preparation, with a rate of 76.7%, and pooled risk ratio (RR) was 1.15 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07–1.23, P < 0.01). Eight included studies reported the adenoma detection rate. The adenoma detection rate in the smartphone group was 26.2%, and the rate in the control group was 19.3%, with an RR of 1.29 (95% CI: 1.03–1.62, P < 0.05). Conclusion Using smartphones to educate patients on bowel preparation for colonoscopy improved the quality of bowel preparation and increased the adenoma detection rate.