The role of microplastics in altering arsenic fractionation and microbial community structures in arsenic-contaminated riverine sediments

The ability of microplastics (MPs) to interact with environmental pollutants is of great concern. Riverine sediments, as sinks for multi-pollutants, have been rarely studied for MPs risk evaluation. Meanwhile, MPs generated from biodegradable plastics are questioning the safety of the promising materials. In this study, we investigated the effects of typical non-degradable polyethylene (PE) and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) MPs on sediment enzymes, arsenic (As) fractionation, and microbial community structures in As-contaminated riverine sediments. The results indicated that the presence of MPs (1% and 3%, w/w) led As transformed into more labile and bioavailable fractions in riverine sediments, especially under higher As and MPs levels. Analysis on microbial activities and community structures confirmed the strong potential of MPs in inhibiting microbial activities and shifting bacterial community succession patterns through enrichment of certain microbiota. Moreover, biodegradable PLA MPs presented stronger alterations in arsenic fractionation and microbial community structures than PE MPs did, which might be jointly attributed to adsorption behaviors, microbial alterations, and potential PLA degradation behaviors. The study indicated that MPs contamination increased As mobility and bioavailability, and shifted microbial communities in riverine sediments. Moreover, biodegradable MPs might lead to stronger microbial alterations and increases in As bioavailability, acting as a threat to ecological safety, which needed further exploration.

The Practical Haplotype Graph, a platform for storing and using pangenomes for imputation

MOTIVATION

Pangenomes provide novel insights for population and quantitative genetics, genomics, and breeding not available from studying a single reference genome. Instead, a species is better represented by a pangenome or collection of genomes. Unfortunately, managing and using pangenomes for genomically diverse species is computationally and practically challenging. We developed a trellis graph representation anchored to the reference genome that represents most pangenomes well and can be used to impute complete genomes from low density sequence or variant data.

RESULTS

The Practical Haplotype Graph (PHG) is a pangenome pipeline, database (PostGRES & SQLite), data model (Java, Kotlin, or R), and Breeding API (BrAPI) web service. The PHG has already been able to accurately represent diversity in four major crops including maize, one of the most genomically diverse species, with up to 1000-fold data compression. Using simulated data, we show that, at even 0.1X coverage, with appropriate reads and sequence alignment, imputation results in extremely accurate haplotype reconstruction. The PHG is a platform and environment for the understanding and application of genomic diversity.

AVAILABILITY

All resources listed here are freely available. The PHG Docker used to generate the simulation results is https://hub.docker.com/ as maizegenetics/phg:0.0.27. PHG source code is at https://bitbucket.org/bucklerlab/practicalhaplotypegraph/src/master/. The code used for the analysis of simulated data is at https://bitbucket.org/bucklerlab/phg-manuscript/src/master/. The PHG database of NAM parent haplotypes is in the CyVerse data store (https://de.cyverse.org/de/) and named /iplant/home/shared/panzea/panGenome/PHG_db_maize/phg_v5Assemblies_20200608.db.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Metal-organic frameworks as a good platform for the fabrication of multi-metal nanomaterials: design strategies, electrocatalytic applications and prospective

MOF-derived multi-metal nanomaterials are attracting numerous attentions in widespread applications such as catalysis, sensors, energy storage and conversion, and environmental remediation. Compared to the monometallic counterparts, the presence of foreign metal is expected to bring new physicochemical properties, thus exhibiting synergistic effect for enhanced performance. MOFs have been proved as a good platform for the fabrication of polymetallic nanomaterials with requisite features. Herein, various design strategies related to constructing multi-metallic nanomaterials from MOFs are summarized for the first time, involving metal nodal substitution, seed epitaxial growth, ion-exchange strategy, guest species encapsulation, solution impregnation and combination with extraneous substrate. Afterwards, the recent advances of multi-metallic nanomaterials for electrocatalytic applications, including oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), are systematically discussed. Finally, a personal outlook on the future trends and challenges are also presented with hope to enlighten deeper understanding and new thoughts for the development of multi-metal nanomaterials from MOFs.

Autophagy-Sirtuin1(SIRT1) Alleviated the Coronary Atherosclerosis (AS)in Mice through Regulating the Proliferation and Migration of Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) via wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β Signaling Pathway

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

SIRT1 was associated with AS risk and EPCs were reported to participate in the endothelial repair in Coronary Atherosclerosis (CAS). In this study, we explored the role of SIRT1 in AS mice and also its modulation in EPCs.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

ApoE-/-mice were fed on high-fat and high-glucose diet to establish the AS animal model with the normally-raised C57BL/6 mice as a control group. SIRT1 activator, SRT 2104 was injected intravenously into 5 ApoE-/-mice and its inhibitor Nicotinamide was injected in tail in another 5 ApoE-/-mice. Weight changes were recorded. Blood samples were taken from posterior orbital venous plexus and were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer. HE staining displayed the pathological conditions while Immunohistochemistry (IHC) evaluated the CD34+/VEGFR2+ relative density in the aorta tissues. EPCs were isolated from bone marrow and verified using immunofluorescence staining (IFS). The modulatory mechanism of SIRT1 in EPCs were studied by using RT-PCR, MTT, Western Blot and colony formation, scratch methods.

RESULTS

SIRT1 activator negatively regulated the weight and TC, TG and LDL levels, alleviated the lesion conditions and decreased the CD34+/VEGFR2+ density compared to the AS control. In vitro, SIRT1 activator promoted the proliferation and migration of EPCs and activated wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β signaling pathway. SIRT1 activator also inhibited the autophagy biomarkers ATG1 and LC3II. Furthermore, inhibitor of autophagy promoted SIRT1 expression and induced EPC proliferation, migration and activated wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β pathway. The suppression of the wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β pathway inhibited SIRT1 expression in EPCs, attenuated the proliferation and migration and promoted autophagy of EPCs.

CONCLUSION

SIRT1 activation might be protective in AS mice through autophagy inhibition in EPCs via wnt/β-catenin/GSK3β signaling pathway.

Recent advances in impacts of microplastics on nitrogen cycling in the environment: A review

Nitrogen cycling plays a decisive role in biogeochemistry, and largely depends on microbial driven nitrogen transformation. The environmental problems caused by microplastics are becoming more serious, and the analysis and control of its pollution in the environment have become a research hotspot in the field. The nitrogen transformation and nitrogen cycling in the environment are mainly driven by microorganisms in the environment, and the existence of microplastics can affect the microbial population, abundance and type, thus affecting the transformation of nitrogen. The effect of microplastics on microorganisms involved in nitrogen transformation is briefly described. This paper mainly reviews the research progress on the impacts of microplastics on nitrogen transformation and nitrogen cycling in water, soil, sediment and sewage sludge. Microplastic type, size and concentration can cause obvious difference in the impacts of microplastics on nitrogen transformation. Then, response and mechanism of microplastics to microorganism mediated nitrogen transformation and nitrogen cycling are introduced. Processes of nitrogen transformation are affected by interfering with microorganism diversity and structure, enzyme activities and related coding genes and oxygen flux. Additionally, additives released from microplastics can also affect the microbial activity. However, mechanisms of microplastics on environmental nitrogen transformation and nitrogen cycling are not fully understood due to the lack of relevant research. There are effective strategies to evaluate complex environmental systems, prolong action time, strengthen multi factor and multi-level research, and assist molecular biology and stable isotope technology. This review article can provide valuable insights into the impact of microplastics on microorganisms mediated nitrogen transformation processes and evaluate the impact on ecological and environmental health.

Pyrite-mediated advanced oxidation processes: Applications, mechanisms, and enhancing strategies

Proper treatment of wastewater is one of the key issues to the sustainable development of human society, and people have been searching for high-efficiency and low-cost methods for wastewater treatment. This article reviews recent studies about pyrite-mediated advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in removing refractory organics from wastewater. The basic information of pyrite and its characteristics for AOPs are first introduced. Then, the performance and mechanisms of pyrite-mediated Fenton oxidation, electro-Fenton oxidation, and persulfate oxidation processes are carefully reviewed and presented. Natural pyrite is an abundant low-cost heterogeneous catalyst for AOPs, and the slow release of Fe²⁺ and the self-regulation of solution pH are highlighted characteristics of pyrite-mediated AOPs. In AOPs, the interaction between Fe³⁺ and pyrite facilitates the Fe²⁺ regeneration and the Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ cycle. Making pyrite into nanoparticles, assisting by ultrasound and light irradiation, and adding exogenous Fe³⁺, organic chelating agents, or biochar is effective to enhance the performance of pyrite-mediated AOPs. Based on the analyses of those pyrite-mediated AOPs and their enhancing strategies, the future development directions are proposed in the aspects of toxicity research, mechanism research, and technological coupling.

Biofilm on microplastics in aqueous environment: Physicochemical properties and environmental implications

The excellent properties of plastics make them widely used all over the world. However, when plastics enter the environmental medium, microplastics will inevitably be produced due to physical, chemical and biological factors. Studies have shown that microplastics have been detected in terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric environments. In addition, the presence of microplastics will provide a new artificial adhesion substrate for biofilms. It has been proved that the formation of biofilms could significantly change some properties of microplastics. Some studies have found that microplastics attached with biofilms have higher environmental risks and eco-toxicity. Therefore, considering the widespread existence of microplastics and the ecological risks of microplastic biofilms, the physical and chemical properties of biofilms on microplastics and their impact on microplastics in aqueous environment are worth reviewing. In this paper, we comprehensively reviewed representative studies in this area. Firstly, this study reviews that the existence of biofilms could change the transport and deposition of microplastics. Subsequently, the presence of biofilms would enhance the ability of microplastics to accumulate pollutant, such as persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals and antibiotics. Moreover, the effect of biofilms on microplastics enrichment of harmful microorganisms is summarized. Finally, some future research needs and strategies are proposed to better understand the problem of biofilms on microplastics.

A critical review of biochar-based materials for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated environment: Applications and practical evaluations

The contamination of heavy metals (HMs) in the environment has aroused a global concern. The valid remediation of HM contaminated environment is a highly significant issue. As alternative to carbon materials, biochar has been vastly documented for the remediation of HM contaminated environment. However, there are some possible imperfections to meet the actual remediation tasks as the finite properties of raw biochar, and the remediation process is complex and unexpectedly. This review focuses on the progress made on environmental HM remediation by biochar-based materials within the past six years. The property analysis and key modifications of biochar are summarized inspired by their applicability or necessity for HM decontamination, and the environmental remediation as well as the implicated mechanisms are thoroughly elaborated from multiple pivotal sides. The evaluations of practical application associated with biochar amendment are also presented. Finally, some pertinent improvements and research directions are proposed. To our knowledge, this article is the first time to make a systematic summary on the reliability and practicability of biochar-based materials for environmental HM remediation, and critically pointed out the existing issues to facilitate the judicious design of biochar-based materials and understanding the research trends. It is also aims to provide reference for subsequent research and propel the practical applications.

The effect of UV exposure on conventional and degradable microplastics adsorption for Pb (II) in sediment

Plastic discharged into the environment would break down into microplastics (MPs). However, the possible impact of MPs on heavy metals in the aquatic sediment remains unknown. In order to evaluate the potential role of MPs as carriers of coexisting pollutants, the adsorption capacity of lead ions from sediment onto aged degradable and conventional MPs were investigated as a function of lead ions concentration, contact time, temperature, MPs dosage, aging time, and fulvic acid concentration. MPs were exposed to UV to obtain aged polyethylene (A-PE) and aged polylactic acid (A-PLA). The aging treatment increased the oxygen content, specific surface area and hydrophilicity of MPs. The adsorption capacity of A-PE for Pb(II) in sediment increased from 10.1525 to 10.4642 mg g^-1 with the increasing aging time. However, the adsorption capacity of A-PLA for Pb(II) in sediment decreased from 9.3199 to 8.7231 mg g^-1 with the increasing aging time. The adsorption capacity of MPs in sediment for Pb(II) was in the following order: A-PE > PLA > PE > A-PLA. Fulvic acid could promote the adsorption of Pb(II) by MPs in sediment. These results indicated that the aging process of the plastics in the environment would affect its role as a carrier of coexisting pollutants.

A highly accurate delta check method using deep learning for detection of sample mix-up in the clinical laboratory

OBJECTIVES

Delta check (DC) is widely used for detecting sample mix-up. Owing to the inadequate error detection and high false-positive rate, the implementation of DC in real-world settings is labor-intensive and rarely capable of absolute detection of sample mix-ups. The aim of the study was to develop a highly accurate DC method based on designed deep learning to detect sample mix-up.

METHODS

A total of 22 routine hematology test items were adopted for the study. The hematology test results, collected from two hospital laboratories, were independently divided into training, validation, and test sets. By selecting six mainstream algorithms, the Deep Belief Network (DBN) was able to learn error-free and artificially (intentionally) mixed sample results. The model's analytical performance was evaluated using training and test sets. The model's clinical validity was evaluated by comparing it with three well-recognized statistical methods.

RESULTS

When the accuracy of our model in the training set reached 0.931 at the 22nd epoch, the corresponding accuracy in the validation set was equal to 0.922. The loss values for the training and validation sets showed a similar (change) trend over time. The accuracy in the test set was 0.931 and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.977. DBN demonstrated better performance than the three comparator statistical methods. The accuracy of DBN and revised weighted delta check (RwCDI) was 0.931 and 0.909, respectively. DBN performed significantly better than RCV and EDC. Of all test items, the absolute difference of DC yielded higher accuracy than the relative difference for all methods.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicate that input of a group of hematology test items provides more comprehensive information for the accurate detection of sample mix-up by machine learning (ML) when compared with a single test item input method. The DC method based on DBN demonstrated highly effective sample mix-up identification performance in real-world clinical settings.

Transcriptomic Analysis and Novel Gene Pair-Based Signatures for Hepatitis B-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) misses the opportunity for surgery because it is not detected early. The molecular mechanism of hepatitis B-related liver cancer needs further understanding, and effective diagnostic and prognostic models are in urgent need. Expression profiles from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (LIHC) and GSE121248, GSE94660, GSE76724 and GSE14520 from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were obtained. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between normal and tumor HBV-related HCC samples. Gene pairs are generated by comparing the expression levels of every two DEGs. The diagnostic signature of pairs of DEGs was built using cross-validation Lasso and Best Subset Selection regression. Hub genes and significant modules were screened by Cytoscape, and potential drugs were predicted by DGIdb. The gene-pair based prognostic signature was established by Cox proportional hazards regression model. xCell and ssGSEA were utilized to reveal the cell composition and cancer hallmarks to get an elucidation for the risk. A total of 457 DEGs were screened. A powerful diagnostic signature of two pairs of DEGs was built and validated in TCGA-LIHC and GEO datasets repeatedly with assured performance. Ten Hub genes were screened out. The prognostic signature of four gene pairs had good efficacy both in training and validation cohorts, with stromal score and several hallmarks related to the increasing of risk. Taken together, the study provided sight into the molecular mechanism as well as a novel strategy for the early diagnosis and prognosis for HBV-related HCC.

AIR-Net: A novel multi-task learning method with auxiliary image reconstruction for predicting EGFR mutation status on CT images of NSCLC patients

Automated and accurate EGFR mutation status prediction using computed tomography (CT) imagery is of great value for tailoring optimal treatments to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, existing deep learning based methods usually adopt a single task learning strategy to design and train EGFR mutation status prediction models with limited training data, which may be insufficient to learn distinguishable representations for promoting prediction performance. In this paper, a novel multi-task learning method named AIR-Net is proposed to precisely predict EGFR mutation status on CT images. First, an auxiliary image reconstruction task is effectively integrated with EGFR mutation status prediction, aiming at providing extra supervision at the training phase. Particularly, we adequately employ multi-level information in a shared encoder to generate more comprehensive representations of tumors. Second, a powerful feature consistency loss is further introduced to constrain semantic consistency of original and reconstructed images, which contributes to enhanced image reconstruction and offers more effective regularization to AIR-Net during training. Performance analysis of AIR-Net indicates that auxiliary image reconstruction plays an essential role in identifying EGFR mutation status. Furthermore, extensive experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves favorable performance against other competitive prediction methods. All the results executed in this study suggest that the effectiveness and superiority of AIR-Net in precisely predicting EGFR mutation status of NSCLC.

LncRNA DCST1-AS1 regulated cell proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis in gastric cancer by targeting miR-605-3p

The article "LncRNA DCST1-AS1 regulated cell proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis in gastric cancer by targeting miR-605-3p", by Y.-Z. Su, M.-F. Cui, J. Du, B. Song, published in Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2020; 24 (3): 1158-1167-DOI: 10.26355/eurrev_202002_20167-PMID: 32096164, has been retracted by the authors since some experiment reagent in this article might be questionable (that may influence the accuracy of the final results). The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. https://www.europeanreview.org/article/20167.

Effects of virgin microplastics on the transport of Cd (II) in Xiangjiang River sediment

River sediments are considered as sinks of microplastics (MPs). Although numerous studies have been conducted on MPs pollution in river sediments, the impact of MPs on the environmental behavior of Cd (II) in river sediments is still unknown. In this work, the effects of six MPs (polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polymethyl methacrylate and polylactic acid) on the adsorption of Cd (II) by Xiangjiang River sediment and the transport of Cd (II) in sediment were studied. The results showed that the adsorption ability of sediment to Cd (II) decreased with the increase of the content of MPs in sediment. When the content of MPs in sediment increased to 10%, polypropylene had the greatest effect on the adsorption affinity of sediments to Cd (II). Moreover, the addition of MPs accelerated transport of Cd (II) in sediment, and the transport of Cd (II) in sediment increased with the increase of the content of MPs. The reason may be that after adding MPs, the adsorption capacity of sediment to Cd (II) decreases, and the mass transfer resistance of Cd (II) to sediment reduces, which leads to faster transport of Cd (II) in sediment. Especially, when the content of MPs in sediment increased to 10% (w/w), the saturation point of the breakthrough curve decreased by about 70 pore volumes. This work hopes to provide helpful views on the environmental behavior and risk assessment of Cd (II) in the presence of MPs.

Smoked cigarette butts: Unignorable source for environmental microplastic fibers

The pollution of microplastics and their potential environmental hazards have attracted considerable attention of the public. Cigarette butts, composed of cellulose acetate, are one of the most common plastic pollutants in the environment. Of all the litter that is discarded at will, cigarette butts are the most acceptable. Cigarette butts are dangerous pieces of plastic, but are usually not handled properly and consist of more than 15,000 detachable strands of plastic fiber. Discarded cigarette butts may be carried into rivers and lakes, and finally into the ocean. The plastic fibers will continuously release microplastic fibers into the environment. About 300,000 tons of potential microplastic fibers may enter the aquatic environment from this source per annum. Additionally, toxic substances, such as nicotine, carcinogenic tar, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, have strong toxic effect, which will cause serious damage to aquatic organisms. However, the mechanism and rate of microplastic fibers release from smoked cigarette butts and the joint toxicity of microplastic fibers and toxic pollutants to aquatic organisms are still in the initial stage. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of cigarette butts releasing microplastic fibers, the potential impact on the environment and possible measures to reduce the impacts of cigarette butt litter. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the potential sources of smoked cigarette butts as environmental fiber microplastics and the potential ecological effects of the released microplastic fibers on the ecosystem. In addition, some ways which could help to tackle problem of smoked cigarette butts pollution have also been proposed.

Evaluating the metabolic functional profiles of the microbial community and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) traits affected by the presence of carbon nanotubes and antimony in drained and waterlogged sediments

Antimony (Sb) is the ubiquitous re-emerging contaminant greatly accumulated in sediments which has been revealed risky to ecological environment. However, the impacts of Sb (III/V) on microbes and plants in sediments, under different water management with presence of engineering materials are poorly understood. This study conducted sequential incubation of sediments (flooding, draining and planting) with presence of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and Sb to explore the influence on microbial functional diversity, Sb accumulation and alfalfa traits. Results showed that water management and planting led to greater impacts of sediment enzyme activities and microbial community metabolic function and bioavailable Sb fractions (defined as sum of acid-soluble fraction and reducible fraction, F1 + F2). Available fractions of Sb (V) showed higher correlation to microbial metabolism (r = 0.933) than that of Sb (III) (r = -0.480) in planting stage. MWCNTs with increasing concentrations (0.011%, w/w) positively correlated to microbial community metabolic function in planting stage whereas resulted in decreasing of Sb (III/V) concentrations in alfalfa, although 0.01% MWCNT led to increase of Sb (V) and decrease of Sb (V) by 50.97% and 32.68% respectively. This study provided information for investigating combined ecological impacts of heavy metal and engineering materials under different water managing sediments.

Potential hazards of biochar: The negative environmental impacts of biochar applications

Biochar has been widely used as an environmentally friendly material for soil improvement and remediation, water pollution control, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and other purposes because of its characteristics such as a large surface area, porous structure, and abundant surface O-containing functional groups. However, some surface properties (i.e., (i) some surface properties (i.e., organic functional groups and inorganic components), (ii) changes in pH), and (iii) chemical reactions (e.g., aromatic C ring oxidation) that occur between biochar and the application environment may result in the release of harmful components. In this study, biochars with a potential risk to the environment were classified according to their harmful components, surface properties, structure, and particle size, and the potential negative environmental effects of these biochars and the mechanisms inducing these negative effects were reviewed. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the negative environmental impacts of biochar on soil, water, and atmospheric environments. It also summarizes various technical methods of environment-related risk detection and evaluation of biochar application, thereby providing a baseline reference and guiding significance for future biochar selection and toxicity detection, evaluation, and avoidance.

Neglected microplastics pollution in global COVID-19: Disposable surgical masks

There have been many studies on the microplastic pollution, influence and control mechanisms of different plastic products. The potential harm of microplastic pollution to the environment has been confirmed. With the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 in the world, disposable surgical masks as effective and cheap protective medical equipment have been widely used by the public. Disposable masks have been a new social norm, but they must have a sense of environmental responsibilities. The random disposal of masks may result in new and greater microplastic pollution, because masks made of polymer materials would release microplastics after entering the environment. Current results showed that masks are a potential and easily overlooked source of environmental microplastics. The release amount of microplastics in the static water by one mask was 360 items, and with the increase of vibration rate, the release amount also increased. The addition of organic solvents (detergent and alcohol) in water would increase the release of microplastics from masks. When the mask became fragments, the ability to release microplastic fibers into the environment was greatly improved due to the increase of exposure area. After two months of natural weathering, the masks become very fragile pieces and microplastics. A fully weathered mask could release several billions of microplastic fibers into the aquatic environment once these fragile fragments enter the water without reservation. The rapid growth of mask production and consumption and improper disposable is worrying. It is urgent to understand the potential environmental risks and significance of masks.

[Cognition and related factors on the use of HIV non-occupational post-exposure prevention among men who have sex with men]

Objective: To understand the cognition and related factors on the use of HIV non-occupational post-exposure prophylaxis (nPEP) among men who have sex with men (MSM). Methods: The snowballing method was applied to recruit research subjects who were ≥18 years old, had sex with men in the past three months, and were aware of nPEP in MSM groups in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Kunming from March 15 to April 14, 2019. Data on social demographics, behavioral characteristics, basic knowledge of nPEP, consultation, and using nPEP were collected through "i guardian Platform". The logistic regression model was used to analyze the related factors affecting the use of nPEP. Results: Among 1 809 investigated, 39.8% (720 persons) were aware of the basic knowledge of nPEP, 33.4% (605 persons) had consulted nPEP, and 15.0% (271 persons) had used nPEP. In addition, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that factors as whether to have sex with men infected with HIV in the last three months (OR=2.58, 95%CI: 1.64-4.07), the frequency of HIV testing in the past year (OR=2.47, 95%CI: 1.28-5.11), nPEP knowledge awareness (OR=0.70, 95%CI: 0.49-0.99), whether to consult nPEP (OR=70.98, 95%CI: 40.51-136.83) were related to the use of nPEP. Conclusions: MSM still have poor cognition of nPEP. It is necessary to strengthen the publicity and education of nPEP in MSM and promote the use of nPEP after HIV exposure as soon as possible.

The effects of biochar/compost for adsorption behaviors of sulfamethoxazole in amended wetland soil

Biochar and compost were two common amendments for the polluted soil. However, few studies were conducted to study the sorption of organic pollutants on combined biochar-compost and the relative adsorption mechanisms in mixed soil. The work had studied the adsorption and desorption behaviors of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) onto wetland soil after amended with biochar and/or compost. Moreover, the physicochemical and morphology properties of biochar/compost and amended soils were analyzed to discuss the relative adsorption mechanisms. Studies showed that the adsorption capacity of amended soils increased with the total amount of biochar or/and compost added, which was positively related to SOM, CEC, and EC of amended soils, but had nothing to do with the type of additives. Compared with the compost-treated treatments, the biochar-treated treatments generally achieved lower desorption rates, which also had demonstrated both different adsorption mechanisms. Pore filling and hydrophobic partitioning were the main adsorption mechanisms for biochar and compost, respectively. Though biochar owned developed pore structure, however, pore-filling of biochar was overwhelmingly weakened due to pore-blocking in mixed soils. Hence, in soil environment, compost is a kind of a more desirable amendment than biochar in absorbing and degrading organic pollutants.

The arsenic chemical species proportion and viral arsenic biotransformation genes composition affects lysogenic phage treatment under arsenic stress

When temperate phages and their hosts have a consistent interest, they are considered reciprocal. Based on the bacterium-phage collaboration, lysogenic phage treatment is a promising method to resist pollution through lysogenic phage reshaping indigenous microbial communities to maintain their ecological function under environmental stress. However, the potential factors affecting the establishment of bacterium-phage collaboration are still poorly understood. Here, lysogenic phages carrying arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs) were induced from the enriched arsenic-resistant microorganisms (from arsenic-contaminated sites). The diversity analysis of viral arsC and arsM demonstrated that arsM tended to proliferate rapidly under high arsenic levels, and the transduction of arsM might be the key to lysogenic phages to help the hosts relieve the stress of high arsenic. Microcosm experiments confirmed that with the increase of the As(III) content (0% to 50%, of 200 mg/kg total arsenic) in the soil, inoculation of lysogenic phages with both arsC and arsM resulted in more transduction of arsM (0.06 ± 0.007 to 0.23 ± 0.024 per 16S rRNA) among soil microorganisms. In contrast, inoculation of lysogenic phages carrying the only arsC transduces more arsC (0.12 ± 0.037 to 0.315 ± 0.051 per 16S rRNA) compare with the control. This article confirmed that different arsenic species proportions and different viral gene compositions could change the abundance of ABGs in the soil microbe, which might provide basic knowledge for further understanding of arsenic pollution control mediated by lysogenic phage.

Can incineration completely eliminate plastic wastes? An investigation of microplastics and heavy metals in the bottom ash and fly ash from an incineration plant

The content of (micro)plastics and heavy metals were investigated in the fly ash, bottom ash and surface soil samples from a municipal solid waste incinerate plant. The abundance of microplastics was 23, 171, and 86 particles/kg dw, respectively. The type of microplastics in fly ash was fiber, and the main type in bottom ash and soil samples was fragment (43.0% and 29.3%), followed by film (26.3% and 25.0%), foam (13.0% and 25.1%), and fiber (17.7% and 20.7%). Most of the microplastics had obvious tearing marks, with the protrusions and scratches on their surfaces. Several types of heavy metals such as Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb were adsorbed on the surface of microplastics. Additionally, the column test demonstrated that the microplastics and heavy metals in the bottom ash can be significantly dissolved out under the impact of external precipitation. Results also indicated that acid rain precipitation easily dissolved heavy metals into the water environment from the bottom ash without special treatment or protection. This paper investigated the combined migration of microplastics and heavy metals from the bottom ash, which can provide theoretical basis for further study of properly treating the bottom ash and exploring the environmental behavior.

[Analysis of the reported data of National Cervical Cancer Screening Program in Rural Areas in China from 2009 to 2018]

Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of the National Cervical Cancer Screening Program in Rural Areas (NCCSPRA) in China. Methods: Data were collected in the form of quarterly statistical tables reported by NCCSPRA counties in 30 provinces (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan province of China were not included into the NCCSPRA, and Tibet Autonomous Region carried out the program but did not reported the data) from 2009 to 2018. The women aged 35-64 years with sexual behavior and the identity (Hukou) of rural area in these project counties were included into the NCCSPRA, and women receiving hysterectomy for non-cervical cancer or non-cervical lesions were excluded. The following indicators were analyzed: the positive rates of different screening methods, the abnormality rates of colposcopy and histopathology, the detection rate of precancerous lesions, the detection rate of cervical cancer and the rate of early diagnosis. Results: A total of 85 041 490 women aged 35-64 in rural areas received free cervical cancer screening and diagnosis if necessary. On the whole, the abnormality rate of cytology, HPV testing, VIA/VILI, colposcopy and histopathology was 3.71%(2 567 610), 9.91%(331 158), 10.10%(1 167 930), 28.85%(1 420 847), and 21.20%(303 068) respectively. The detection rate of cervical precancerous lesions was 153.88/100 000, and increased from 106.85/100 000 in 2012 to 223.89/100 000 in 2018 (P<0.001). Regionally, the east (207.37/100 000) reached higher rate than the middle (177.65/100 000), and the middle higher than the west (108.65/100 000) (P<0.001). The detection rate of invasive cervical cancer was 21.58/100 000, and increased from 18.02/100 000 in 2012 to 26.54/100 000 in 2018 (P<0.001). Regionally, the middle of China (25.46/100 000) reached the higher rate than the east (19.62/100 000) and the west (19.30/100 000) (P<0.001). The rate of early detection was 91.24%(136 140), which increased from 89.60% (11 883)in 2012 to 92.80%(26 962) in 2018 (P<0.001). Regionally, the east of China (94.02%, 37 600) reached the higher rate than the middle(91.06%, 56 488), and the middle higher than the west (89.12%, 42 052) (P<0.001). Conclusions: There are obvious difference in terms of the detection rate of cervical precancerous lesions and the rate of early diagnosis reflecting cervical cancer screening capacity among the eastern, middle and western regions,which showed service inequity among different areas indirectly. The middle and western regions, especially the western regions, are still the focus of future works.