Circulating inflammatory cytokines and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

Background: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) pose a significant risk to maternal and fetal well-being; however, the etiology and pathogenesis of HDP remain ambiguous. It is now widely acknowledged that inflammatory response and the immune system are closely related to HDP. Previous research has identified several inflammatory cytokines are associated with HDP. This study applied Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to further assess causality. Methods: Patients with HDP who participated in the MR analysis presented with four types of HDP: pre-eclampsia or eclampsia (PE); gestational hypertension (GH); pre-existing hypertension complicating pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (EH); and pre-eclampsia or poor fetal growth (PF). A two-sample MR analysis was used to analyze the data in the study. The causal relationship between exposure and outcome was analyzed with inverse variance weighting (IVW), MR Egger, weighted median, weighted mode, and simple mode methods, where IVW was the primary method employed. Results: Our MR analysis demonstrated a reliable causative effect of Interleukin-9 (IL-9) and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) on reducing HDP risk, while macrophage inflammatory protein 1-beta (MIP1b), Interleukin-13 (IL-13), and Interleukin-16 (IL-16) were associated with promoting HDP risk. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that IL-9, MIF, MIP1b, IL-13, and IL-16 may be cytokines associated with the etiology of HDP, and that a number of inflammatory cytokines are probably involved in the progression of HDP. Additionally, our study revealed that these inflammatory cytokines have causal associations with HDP and may likely be potential therapeutic targets for HDP.

Online learning resource recommendation method based on multi-similarity metric optimization under the COVID-19 epidemic.

With the continuous COVID-19 pneumonia epidemic, online learning has become a normal choice for many learners. However, the problems of information overload and knowledge maze have been aggravated in the process of online learning. A learning resource recommendation method based on multi similarity measure optimization is proposed in this paper. We optimize the user score similarity by introducing information entropy, and use particle swarm optimization algorithm to determine the comprehensive similarity weight, and determine the nearest neighbor user with both score similarity and interest similarity through secondary screening in this method. The ultimate goal is to improve the accuracy of recommendation results, and help learners learn more effectively. We conduct experiments on public data sets. The experimental results show that the algorithm in this paper can significantly improve the recommendation accuracy on the basis of maintaining a stable recommendation coverage.

The degradation of dissolved organic matter in black and odorous water by humic substance-mediated Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycle under redox fluctuation.

In nature, the hydroxyl radical (•OH) is produced during the anaerobic-aerobic transition when groundwater level fluctuates. In addition, the •OH is also detected in iron-bearing clay minerals and iron oxides during the redox process. Goethite is one of the most stable iron oxides involved in biogeochemical cycles. In this study, the coexisting humic acid (HA) enhanced the generation of Fe(II) during the iron reduction process and accelerated the generation of •OH in the redox process of goethite. The organic contaminants in black and odorous water were decomposed by constructing an iron-reducing bacteria-HA-Fe(II)/Fe(III) reaction system under anaerobic-aerobic alternation. The results demonstrated that in the anaerobic stage, HA could promote the reduction and dissolution of goethite through the complexation effect and electron shuttle mechanism, as well as significantly strengthening the iron reduction process in water. Under aerobic conditions, Fe(II) in the reaction system would activate O2 to generate •O2-. The •OH, formed by Fe (II) and •O2- via Fenton reaction and Haber-Weiss mechanism, oxidized dissolved organic matter (DOM) in water. The characterization of DOM by three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy (3DEEM) indicated that after four redox fluctuations, the organic contaminants in water samples were effectively degraded. Generally, this study provides new approaches and insights into the biogeochemical cycling of Fe and C elements and water pollution remediation at the anoxic-anoxic interface.

Effects of light source and inter-species mixed culture on the growth of microalgae and bacteria for nutrient recycling and microalgae harvesting using black odorous water as the medium.

To achieve the sustainable and effective removal efficiency of nutrients in black odorous water, light source, inter-species microalgae mixed culture, and the harvesting effect were all explored. The results showed that under a LED light source, the addition of interspecific soluble algal products (SAP) promoted the growth of Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pluvialis) M1, and its maximum specific growth rate was 1.76 times that of H. pluvialis cultivated alone. That was due to the hormesis effect between the two kinds of microalgae, the SAP produced by Scenedesmus could stimulate the growth of H. pluvialis. The algae and bacteria symbiotic system with black odorous water as the medium showed excellent performance to treat nutrients, where the concentration of ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) and total phosphorus (TP) (0.84, 0.23 mg/L) met the requirements of landscape water. The microbial diversity analysis revealed that the introduction of microalgae changed the dominant species of the bacterial community from Bacteroidota to Proteobacteria. Furthermore, timely microalgae harvesting could prevent water quality from deteriorating and was conducive to microalgae growth and resource recycling. The higher harvest efficiency (98.1%) of H. pluvialis was obtained when an inoculation size of 20% and 0.16 g/L FeCl3 were provided.

The performance of co-immobilized strains isolated from activated sludge combined with Scenedesmus quadricauda to remove nutrients and organics in black odorous water.

In this study, three bacteria were isolated from activated sludge (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, and Dietzia maris). After that, isolated strains and Scenedesmus quadricauda that could degrade refractory organics, as co-immobilization species, were prepared gel beads to treat black odorous water. Under the optimized conditions, the removal rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) reached 94.36%, 95.7%, 91.22% and 95.27%, respectively, and organics (including aromatic proteins and microbial-by-product-like compounds) were also significantly removed. Microbial analysis reveals that the community structure had a significant difference before and after treatment, and the main dominant at the genus level was transformed from Nitrospirillum (approximately 18.03%) to Flavobacterium (approximately 17.64%). This study also found that the immobilized gel beads have excellent stability and reusability, which provided a feasible and robust bioremediation strategy for the treatment of actual black-odor water.

Multirole Regulations of Interfacial Polymerization Using Poly(acrylic acid) for Nanofiltration Membrane Development.

Effective control of monomer diffusion and reaction rate is the key to achieving a controlled interfacial polymerization (IP) and a high-performance nanofiltration (NF) membrane. Herein, an integration of multirole regulations was synchronously realized using poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as an active additive in a piperazine (PIP) aqueous phase. Thanks to synergistic interactions, including hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interaction, and covalent bonding between PAA and PIP molecules, together with the increased viscosity of the solution, PIP diffusion was rationally controlled. Moreover, interfacial polycondensation was also restrained via the modestly reduced pH of the aqueous solution. These contribute to the formation of a thinner, looser, more hydrophilic, and higher negatively charged PAA-decorated polyamide selective layer with a unique nanostrand-nodule morphology. The harvested NF-PAA/PIP membrane showed an ∼70% rise in water permeability (up to 23.5 L·m-2·h-1·bar-1) while retaining high Na2SO4 and dye rejections. Furthermore, the optimized NF-PAA/PIP membrane presented a superior fouling resistance capability for typical pollutants, as well as long-term stability during successive filtration. Thus, this work offers a straightforward and impactful approach to regulating IP and promoting NF membrane properties.

Removing organic matters from reverse osmosis concentrate using advanced oxidation-biological activated carbon process combined with Fe3+/humus-reducing bacteria.

The high-concentration wastewater produced in the industrial reverse osmosis (RO) process contains a large amount of refractory organic matters, which will have serious impacts on the natural environment and human health. Among them, contaminants can be transformed by humus-reducing bacteria based on humus. In this study, O3- assisted UV-Fenton method was applied as pretreatment. Biological activated carbon (BAC) technology in which humus-reducing bacteria were the dominant bacteria, enhanced by electron donor and Fe3+, was used to dispose of RO concentrate (ROC). The results showed that water treatment process combining oxidation with biological filtration had a positive effect on the removal of stubborn contaminants in ROC. The system was strengthened by adding electron donor and Fe3+, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency was up to 80.1%. However, when the removal efficiency of UV254 absorbing pollutants reached optimal value (87.3%), that means only Fe3+ was added.

Comparing the performance of various nanofiltration membranes in advanced oxidation-nanofiltration treatment of reverse osmosis concentrates.

Reverse osmosis (RO) technique plays an important role in the treatment of secondary biochemical effluent. However, the reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC) with high salinity and organic pollutants generated from this process remains a challenge to be tackled. The O3-assisted UV-Fenton advanced oxidation process (AOP) as a pretreatment for the nanofiltration (NF) was used to treat the ROC of industrial wastewater. The optimal removal rates of COD and UV254 were 80.4 and 77.4%, respectively. In the NF process, four types of commercial NF membranes (NF90 (Dow, USA), DK (GE, USA), NT101, and NT103 (NADIR, Germany)) were used to treat the AOP effluent. The effects of operating pressure and feed temperature on ion rejection were investigated. The results show that NF90 and NT103 membranes had better rejections to monovalent ions, while DK and NT101 membranes could effectively separate monovalent and divalent ions and their ion rejections decreased with the increase of feed temperature. With the NF90 membrane, the highest TDS removal rate of 89.65% was obtained at the operating pressure of 1.2 MPa.

Promotion by humus-reducing bacteria for the degradation of UV254 absorbance in reverse-osmosis concentrates pretreated with O3-assisted UV-Fenton method.

The primary pollutants in reverse-osmosis concentrates (ROC) are the substances with the UV absorbance at 254 nm (UV254), which is closely related to humic substances that can be degraded by humus-reducing bacteria. This work studied the degradation characteristics of humus-reducing bacteria in ROC treatment. The physiological and biochemical characteristics of humus-reducing bacteria were investigated, and the effects of pH values and electron donors on the reduction of humic analog, antraquinone-2, 6-disulfonate were explored to optimize the degradation. Furthermore, the O3-assisted UV-Fenton method was applied for the pretreatment of ROC, and the degradation of UV254 absorbance was apparently promoted with their removal rate, reaching 84.2% after 10 days of degradation by humus-reducing bacteria.

A novel nanofiltration membrane inspired by an asymmetric porous membrane for selective fractionation of monovalent anions in electrodialysis.

The present study describes the synthesis of new nanofiltration membranes inspired by asymmetric porous membranes used as monovalent anion selective membranes for electro-membrane separation. The membrane surface was firstly modified, by deposition of a mussel-inspired "bio-glue" polydopamine (PDA) layer, and subsequently a compact polyamide layer was polymerized on the surface of the membrane's active layer. The chemical constitution and structure of these modified porous membranes were explored by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface roughness and hydrophilicity of the membranes were explored by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle measurements, respectively. In addition, the electrochemical properties of the surface of the modified membranes were analyzed in terms of membrane surface resistance and zeta potential values. As for the performance of these modified porous membranes, this was investigated by measuring the permselectivity of a Cl-/SO4 2- system. The obtained results show that the new membranes exhibit an enhanced monovalent anion permselectivity, which is in agreement with the improved membrane surface properties. Furthermore, membranes modified by the addition of a PDA layer and a dense polyamide active layer lead to a significant improvement in selectivity , compared with a conventional interfacial polymerization modified membrane . The excellent performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effect of the compact PDA layer and negatively charged interfacial polymerization layer, dependent on the sieving and electrostatic repulsion, respectively. Thus, this process is promising for the further development of porous monovalent selective anion exchange membranes.

Synthesis and characterization of TiO2/graphene oxide nanocomposites for photoreduction of heavy metal ions in reverse osmosis concentrate.

In this study, graphene oxide (GO), titanium dioxide (TiO2) and TiO2/GO nanocomposites were synthesized as the catalysts for photoreduction of endocrine disrupting heavy metal ions in reverse osmosis concentrates (ROC). The morphology, structure and chemical composition of these catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis, Barrett-Joyner-Halenda, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The photocatalytic experiments showed that TiO2/GO nanocomposites exhibit a higher photoreduction performance than pure TiO2 and GO. Under the optimal conditions, the removal rates of Cd2+ and Pb2+ can reach 66.32 and 88.96%, respectively, confirming the effectiveness of photoreduction to reduce the endocrine disrupting heavy metal ions in ROC resulted from the combined adsorption-reduction with TiO2/GO nanocomposites.

Microwave assisted esterification of acidified oil from waste cooking oil by CERP/PES catalytic membrane for biodiesel production.

The traditional heating and microwave assisted method for biodiesel production using cation ion-exchange resin particles (CERP)/PES catalytic membrane were comparatively studied to achieve economic and effective method for utilization of free fatty acids (FFAs) from waste cooking oil (WCO). The optimal esterification conditions of the two methods were investigated and the experimental results showed that microwave irradiation exhibited a remarkable enhanced effect for esterification compared with that of traditional heating method. The FFAs conversion of microwave assisted esterification reached 97.4% under the optimal conditions of reaction temperature 60°C, methanol/acidified oil mass ratio 2.0:1, catalytic membrane (annealed at 120°C) loading 3g, microwave power 360W and reaction time 90min. The study results showed that it is a fast, easy and green way to produce biodiesel applying microwave irradiation.

Kinetics of esterification of acidified oil with different alcohols by a cation ion-exchange resin/polyethersulfone hybrid catalytic membrane.

Hybrid catalytic membranes consisting of cation ion-exchange resin particles (CERP) and polyethersulfone (PES) were prepared by immersion phase inversion and used as heterogeneous catalysts for the esterification of acidified oil with methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol. The membranes were characterized by ion exchange capacity and swelling degree tests. The membranes were annealed at different temperatures to improve catalytic activity and membranes annealed at 393 K had the highest catalytic activity. Butanol allowed the highest free fatty acids (FFAs) conversion of 95.28% since it has better miscibility than the other alcohols which strengthened mass and heat transfer. Furthermore, pseudo-homogeneous kinetic models of the esterification of acidified oil with the four alcohols were established according to the experimental data. The kinetic models can well predict the FFA conversion.

Preparation and characterization of the organic-inorganic hybrid membrane for biodiesel production.

A novel organic-inorganic hybrid membrane as heterogeneous acid catalyst for biodiesel production was prepared from zirconium sulfate (Zr(SO4)2) and sulfonated poly(vinyl alcohol) (SPVA). The structure and properties of the hybrid catalytic membrane were investigated by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermogravimetry (TG), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The catalytic performance of the hybrid membranes was tested by the esterification of the acidified oil with methanol. It was found that the Zr(SO4)2 particles were better dispersed in SPVA matrix as a result of the stronger interaction between Zr(SO4)2 and SPVA compared with Zr(SO4)2/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hybrid membrane. Esterification results showed that the conversions of free fatty acid (FFA) in acidified oil were 94.5% and 81.2% for Zr(SO4)2/SPVA and Zr(SO4)2/PVA catalytic membranes, respectively. The stability of Zr(SO4)2/SPVA catalytic membrane is superior to Zr(SO4)2/PVA catalytic membrane.