Analysis of Nucleoporin 107 Overexpression and Its Association with Prognosis and Immune Infiltration in Lung Adenocarcinoma by Bioinformatics Methods.

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has high morbidity and mortality. Current studies indicate nucleoporin 107 (NUP107) is involved in the construction of nuclear pore complex, and NUP107 overexpression contributes to the growth and development in most types of cancers, but its effect in LUAD has not been elucidated. Methods: Differences in NUP107 expression were investigated using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and multiple Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data sets. Enrichment analysis were implemented to probe the NUP107 function. The association of NUP107 with the degree of immune cell infiltration was investigated by the TIMER database, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA), and ESTIMATE. The association of NUP107 expression with tumor mutation burden (TMB), TP53, and immune checkpoint was analyzed. Single-cell RNA sequencing data were used to detect NUP107 expression in different cell clusters. Finally, we performed real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) to prove the difference of NUP107 expression. Results: NUP107 was overexpressed in LUAD and mainly expressed in cancer stem cell (CSC). Overexpression of NUP107 in LUAD suggested a poorer prognosis. Functional enrichment analysis pointed out that NUP107 was mainly linked to the regulation of cell cycle. Both immune cell infiltration and TMB were found to be in connection with NUP107. Cases in the group with high NUP107 expression had poorer immune infiltration, but had higher expression of immune checkpoints, TMB, and proportion of TP53 mutations. Conclusion: NUP107 is a sensitive diagnostic and prognostic factor for LUAD and may be involved in tumor progression through its effects on cell cycle and immune infiltration.

Effects of earthworms on surface clogging characteristics of intermittent sand filters.

Intermittent sand filters (ISFs) are effective and economical in treating wastewater, but they are easy to clog up. To explore a feasible and simple method to alleviate clogging, two pilot-scale ISFs were constructed, one of which contained earthworms and the other did not. During the operation, the effects of earthworms on the hydraulic behaviour of ISFs were investigated. The results showed that both ISFs exhibited good performance in wastewater treatment. However, they showed different hydraulic characteristics although operated at the same organic loading rate (approximately 300 g m(-2) d(-1)). The ISF without earthworms clogged only after 53 d operation, and was partially recovered after 7 d resting, but after that, clogging occurred again, and more rapidly than the initial clogging event (40 d). However, water on the medium surface of the ISF with earthworms was not observed during the whole experiments. In addition, 11-13% of effective porosity and 0.015-0.026 cm s(-1) of infiltration rate were measured in the upper 20 cm of the ISF at the end of the experiments. The facts demonstrated that earthworms played a positive role in alleviating clogging and earthworms fed filter could alleviate surface clogging effectively.

EDTA and electricity synergetic catalyzed Fe(3+)/H2O2 process for amoxicillin oxidation.

Three oxidation processes for amoxicillin wastewater pretreatment such as Electro-Fe(3+)(EDTA)/H2O2 (EDTA: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), Fe(3+)(EDTA)/H2O2 and Electro-Fe(3+)/H2O2 were simultaneously discussed at pH of 7.0 (+/-0.1). It was found that the above processes could achieve 78%, 64%, 33% chemical oxygen demand (COD(cr)) removal, and 86%, 70%, 47% amoxicillin degradation respectively. Moreover, the results of biodegradability (biological oxygen demand (BOD(5))/COD(cr) ratio) showed that the Electro-Fe(3+)(EDTA)/H2O2 process was a promising way to pretreat antibiotic wastewater due to the biodegradability of the effluent improved to 0.48 compared with the cases of Fe(3+)(EDTA)/H2O2 (0.40) and Electro-Fe(3+)/H2O2 process (0.12). Therefore, it was reasonable to note that EDTA and electricity showed synergetic effect on the oxidation process. Additionally, infrared spectra (IR) were applied to concisely propose a potential degradation way of amoxicillin. The characteristic changes of H2O2 and EDTA in the oxidation process were also investigated in detail.

The probable metabolic relation between phosphate uptake and energy storages formations under single-stage oxic condition.

To investigate the possible biochemical metabolisms for excess phosphate uptake in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with single-stage oxic process, which was reported using glucose as the sole carbon source previously, glucose and acetate were fed to two SBRs as the sole carbon source, respectively. The changes of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), glycogen and the removal of phosphorus were compared between two SBRs. It was observed that the phosphorus removal efficiency was 91.8-94.4% with glucose, and 23.3-28.5% with acetate, although the former showed much lower accumulations/transformations of PHAs. Instead, the former showed a much higher transformation of glycogen. The facts suggested that glycogen could replace PHAs to supply energy for phosphate uptake under the single-stage oxic condition. Furthermore, the possible biochemical metabolisms were proposed to describe the relation between phosphate uptake and energy storages formations under such a single-stage oxic process. Such a process may serve as a prototype for the development of alternative biological and chemical options for phosphate removal from wastewaters.

Excess nitrogen accumulation in activated sludge in sequencing batch reactor with a single-stage oxic process.

It was occasionally found that a significant nitrogen loss in solution under neutral pH value in a sequencing batch reactor with a single-stage oxic process using synthetic wastewater, and then further studies were to verify the phenomenon of nitrogen loss and to investigate the pathway of nitrogen removal. The result showed that good performance of nitrogen removal was obtained in system. 0-7.28 mg L(-1) ammonia, 0.08-0.38 mg L(-1) nitrite and 0.94-2.12 mg L(-1) nitrate were determined in effluent, respectively, when 29.85-35.65 mg L(-1) ammonia was feeding as the sole nitrogen source in influent. Furthermore, a substantial nitrogen loss in solution (95% of nitrogen influent) coupled with a little gaseous nitrogen increase in off-gas (7% of nitrogen influent) was determined during a typical aerobic phase. In addition, about 322 mg nitrogen accumulation (84% of nitrogen influent) was detected in activated sludge. Based on nitrogen mass balance calculation, the unaccounted nitrogen fraction and the ratio of nitrogen accumulation in sludge/nitrogen loss in solution were 14.6 mg (3.7% of nitrogen influent) and 0.89, respectively. The facts indicated that the essential pathway of nitrogen loss in solution in this study was excess nitrogen accumulation in activated sludge.