This research explores the impact of popularizing electric vehicles (EVs) on China's urban air pollution or contagion. With the rapid growth of the transportation industry and the increasing concern ...about air pollution, the Chinese administration has been promoting the use of EVs to mitigate the adverse effects of traditional gasoline-powered vehicles on the environment. Using empirical data collected from various cities in China, this study exploits a difference-in-differences approach to analyze the causal connection between the EV implementation and urban air quality. According to the findings, the increase in EV usage significantly and positively impacts reducing the concentration of air emissions such as PM2.5 and SO2. Moreover, the study also finds that the magnitude of the effect varies across different types of cities with varying levels of economic development and air pollution. This research provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of promoting EVs in reducing urban air pollution in China. It has important implications for policymakers and stakeholders in other countries.
Interactions between drugs and target proteins provide important information for the drug discovery. Currently, experiments identified only a small number of drug-target interactions. Therefore, the ...development of computational methods for drug-target interaction prediction is an urgent task of theoretical interest and practical significance. In this paper, we propose a label propagation method with linear neighborhood information (LPLNI) for predicting unobserved drug-target interactions. Firstly, we calculate drug-drug linear neighborhood similarity in the feature spaces, by considering how to reconstruct data points from neighbors. Then, we take similarities as the manifold of drugs, and assume the manifold unchanged in the interaction space. At last, we predict unobserved interactions between known drugs and targets by using drug-drug linear neighborhood similarity and known drug-target interactions. The experiments show that LPLNI can utilize only known drug-target interactions to make high-accuracy predictions on four benchmark datasets. Furthermore, we consider incorporating chemical structures into LPLNI models. Experimental results demonstrate that the model with integrated information (LPLNI-II) can produce improved performances, better than other state-of-the-art methods. The known drug-target interactions are an important information source for computational predictions. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated by cross validation and the case study.
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•eARGs was about 2 order of magnitude lower than iARGs in raw swine wastewater.•sul1 was predominant in eARGs of effluent and positively correlated with intI1.•eARG removals were ...similar between SMBR and conventional treatment process.•SMBR showed 0.63 log higher removals of iARG concentrations than A2O.•Microbial community structures were estimated with both iDNA and eDNA.
Swine wastewater is an important reservoir of spread antibiotic resistance to the environment. Intra- and extracellular antibiotic resistance genes (iARGs and eARGs) were quantified during two typical swine wastewater treatment processes including a sequencing membrane bioreactor (SMBR) at pilot-scale and anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A2O) at full-scale. The concentrations of iARGs and eARGs in raw wastewater were 3.42E+09 and 3.79E+07 copies/mL, respectively. The compositions were different between iARGs and eARGs. SMBR showed 0.63 log higher removals in the concentrations of iARG than A2O, while similar removal effects (3.01–3.44 log copies/mL) of eARGs were performed by the two processes. It suggested that membrane separation had advantages in the concentration removals of iARG rather than eARG. sul1 took the dominance in eARGs in effluent and had positive correlations with intI1, which indicated the risk of horizontal gene transfer of eARGs after wastewater discharge. Microbial community structures were estimated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing with both intra- and extracellular DNA (iDNA and eDNA). Compared between the effluent samples of the two treatment processes, microbial community structures estimated by iDNA had great differences, however which were similar for eDNA. Microbial community and water-quality parameters were the major influencing factors on ARG occurrences during swine wastewater treatment.
Nitrate built-up is a serious operational difficulty in one-stage partial nitritation anammox (PN/A) process. To investigate an effective method for in-situ restoration, hydroxylamine (NH2OH) and ...hydrazine (N2H4) of 2 mgN/L were dosed in PN/A process with nitrate built-up in a comparative study. NH2OH treatment showed better performances on TN removal and nitrate reduction than N2H4 and blank control. Through 104 days' addition of NH2OH, MRNN (mole ratio of NO3−-N production to NH4+-N removal) was decreased from 70% to 19.91%; TN removal was increased from 0.01 to 0.18 kgN/(m3 d). After stopping the chemical addition, nitrate rebounded for N2H4 treatment, but the restoration effect was stable and persistent for NH2OH. NH2OH addition resulted in a low reductive potential (−250 mV) and exerted strong inhibitions on nitrite oxidizing bacteria activities. Additionally, rapid enhancement of ammonia oxidizing bacteria activities, functional gene (hao) and Nitrosomonas gave rise to the restoration of PN/A with NH2OH addition.
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•NH2OH dosing showed better effects than N2H4 on in-situ restoration of PN/A process.•Nitrate rebounded in effluent after stopping N2H4 dosing.•NH2OH dosing caused a strong reductive potential (−250 mV) lasting for 210 min.•Rapid enhancement of AOB activities, hao and Nitrosomonas by NH2OH addition
The purpose of this study was to explore how liraglutide affects AD-like pathology and cognitive function in APP/PS1/Tau triple transgenic (3 × Tg) Alzheimer disease (AD) model mice. Male 3 × Tg mice ...and C57BL/6 J mice were treated for 8 weeks with liraglutide (300 μg/kg/day, subcutaneous injection) or saline. Levels of phosphorylated tau, neurofilaments (NFs), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in brain tissues were assessed with western blots. Fluoro-Jade-B labeling were applied to detect pathological changes. The Morris water maze (MWM) was used to assess the spatial learning and memory. Liraglutide decreased levels of hyperphosphorylated tau and NFs in 3 × Tg liraglutide-treated (Tg + LIR) mice, increased ERK phosphorylation, and decreased JNK phosphorylation. Liraglutide also decreased the number of degenerative neurons in the hippocampus and cortex of Tg + LIR mice, and shortened their escape latencies and increased their hidden platform crossings in the MWM task. Liraglutide did not significantly affect the animals’ body weight (BW) or fasting blood glucose. Liraglutide can reduce hyperphosphorylation of tau and NFs and reduce neuronal degeneration, apparently through alterations in JNK and ERK signaling, which may be related to its positive effects on AD-like learning and memory impairment.
A CFD–DEM-based liquid-particle two-phase flow erosion prediction model occurring over such pipeline connection as elbows, which takes the interaction of liquid–particle, particle–particle and ...particle–wall into account, is proposed in this study. The standard k−ε model is adopted for fluid turbulent flow, the standard wall functions for near-wall zone treatment, and the Hertz–Mindlin (no slip) model for particle–particle and particle–wall contact. Numerical simulations have been performed by combining CFD code ANSYS FLUENT with DEM code EDEM to predict the maximum erosion rate and location in 90°, 60° and 45° elbows with diameter 40mm. The fluid is water with inlet velocity 3m/s, and the particles are 150μm in diameter and 2650kg/m3 in density. While the maximum erosion rates of the three are found to be quite different, the maximum erosive locations have been indicated to be at or near the exit of the elbows. In addition, the effect of bend-angle on erosion, particle motion and flow field has been discussed.
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•The CFD–DEM-based erosion prediction model is presented.•Prediction of maximum erosion rate and location is carried out in elbows.•The maximum erosive locations are at or near the exit of the elbows.•Effect of bend-angle of elbows is discussed.
Oxidative damage plays a critical role in many diseases of the central nervous system. This study was conducted to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in the putative anti-oxidative effects ...of curcumin against experimental stroke. Oxygen and glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) was used to mimic ischemic insult in primary cultured cortical neurons. A rapid increase in the intracellular expression of NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase1 (NQO1) induced by OGD was counteracted by curcumin post-treatment, which paralleled attenuated cell injury. The reduction of phosphorylation Akt induced by OGD was restored by curcumin. Consequently, NQO1 expression and the binding activity of nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) to antioxidant response element (ARE) were increased. LY294002 blocked the increase in phospho-Akt evoked by curcumin and abolished the associated protective effect. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion for 60 minutes. Curcumin administration significantly reduced infarct size. Curcumin also markedly reduced oxidative stress levels in middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats; hence, these effects were all suppressed by LY294002. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that curcumin protects neurons against ischemic injury, and this neuroprotective effect involves the Akt/Nrf2 pathway. In addition, Nrf2 is involved in the neuroprotective effects of curcumin against oxidative damage.
The recognition and monitoring of marine ranching help to determine the type, spatial distribution and dynamic change of marine life, as well as promote the rational utilization of marine resources ...and marine ecological environment protection, which has important research significance and application value. In the study of marine ranching recognition based on high-resolution remote sensing images, the convolutional neural network (CNN)-based deep learning method, which can adapt to different water environments, can be used to identify multi-scale targets and restore the boundaries of extraction results with high accuracy. However, research based on deep learning still has problems such as rarely considering the feature complexity of marine ranching and inadequate discussion of model generalization for multi-temporal images. In this paper, we construct a multi-temporal dataset that describes multiple features of marine ranching to explore the recognition and generalization ability of the semantic segmentation models DeepLab-v3+ and U-Net (used in large-area marine ranching) based on GF-1 remote sensing images with a 2 m spatial resolution. Through experiments, we find that the F-score of the U-Net extraction results from multi-temporal test images is basically stable at more than 90%, while the F-score of DeepLab-v3+ fluctuates around 80%. The results show that, compared with DeepLab-v3+, U-Net has a stronger recognition and generalization ability for marine ranching. U-Net can identify floating raft aquaculture areas at different growing stages and distinguish between cage aquaculture areas with different colors but similar morphological characteristics.
Inflammation has an important role in ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury. Artesunate (ART) has anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory pharmacological activities, and it is used for various types of ...serious malaria, including cerebral malaria. ART maintains a high concentration in the brain but little is known about the neuroprotective effect of ART against brain I/R injury. We studied the neuroprotection of ART against brain I/R injury and its underlying mechanism. In this study, rats were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 h. After 24 h of reperfusion, neurological deficits, cerebrum water content, infarct volume, hematoxylin–eosin (H&E)-staining, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and proinflammatory cytokine levels were measured. Administration of 20, 40, 80, and 160 mg/kg ART intraperitoneally (i.p.) 10 min after MCAO significantly decreased brain water content and improved neurological deficits in a dose-dependent manner. An 80 mg/kg dosage was optimal. ART significantly reduced infarct volume, suppressed MPO activity and diminished the expressions of toll-like receptor (TLR)-4, MyD88, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-6 in the area of the ischemic cortex. The neuroprotective action of ART against focal cerebral I/R injury might be due to the attenuation of inflammation through the TLR-4/NF-κB pathway.
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•Anammox enrichment at full-scale with anammox activity of 0.41 kgN/(kgMLSS d).•TN removal rate increased from 0 to 0.59 kgN/(m3 d) with 261 days’ operation.•hzsA transcript responded ...immediately with low dose NaNO2 stimulation.•hzsA transcript was decreased by high dose NaAc inhibition (≥417 mgCOD/L).•Growth rate: hzsA gene 0.20 d−1, hzsA transcript 0.10 d−1, the activity 0.037 d−1.
Anammox process is a cost saving biological nitrogen removal process. The shortage of anammox inoculum restricts the full-scale application. In the present study, an anammox consortium enrichment was successfully achieved in a single-stage reactor at full-scale with working volume of 117 m3. The external dosing of sodium nitrite (NaNO2) and sodium acetate (NaAc) for the increase in TN removal was successively operated during 261 days’ experiment. Multiple low-dose of NaNO2 stimulated the immediate responses of amoA and hzsA transcripts, and the high growth rates of those genes. The mRNA/DNA ratio of hzsA was 127 at the initial nitrite treatment, with the increase in the copy number of hzsA (growth rate of 0.20 d−1), and mRNA/DNA ratio decreased to 2 through 75 days’ nitrite treatment. Low-dosage of NaAc (207002D333 mgCOD/L) was beneficial for anammox enrichment at both gene and transcript levels. The anammox bacteria took the dominance with the abundance of 17.76%. However, over-dosage of NaAc (417 mgCOD/L) gave rise to heterotrophs (Armatimonadetes_gp5, Thauera and Comamonas) and decreased the abundance of hzsA transcript and Candidatus Kuenenia. With 261 days’ operation, TN removal rate and efficiency increased from 0 to 0.59 kgN/(m3 d), and from 0% to 92%, respectively. The anammox activity reached 0.41 kgN/(kgMLSS d). The external dosage of NaNO2 and NaAc showed positive correlation with TN removal rate and hzsA trancripts.
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