Comparative Evaluation of State-of-the-Art Semantic Segmentation Networks for Long-Term Landslide Map Production.

The production of long-term landslide maps (LAM) holds crucial importance in estimating landslide activity, vegetation disturbance, and regional stability. However, the availability of LAMs remains limited in many regions, despite the application of various machine-learning methods, deep-learning (DL) models, and ensemble strategies in landslide detection. While transfer learning is considered an effective approach to tackle this challenge, there has been limited exploration and comparison of the temporal transferability of state-of-the-art deep-learning models in the context of LAM production, leaving a significant gap in the research. In this study, an extensive series of tests was conducted to evaluate the temporal transferability of typical semantic segmentation models, specifically U-Net, U-Net 3+, and TransU-Net, using a 10-year landslide-inventory dataset located near the epicenter of the Wenchuan earthquake. The experiment results disclose the feasibility and limitations of implementing transfer-learning methods for LAM production, particularly when leveraging the power of U-Net 3+. Furthermore, following an assessment of the effects of varying data volumes, patch sizes, and time intervals, this study recommends appropriate settings for LAM production, emphasizing the balance between efficiency and production performance. The findings from this study can serve as a valuable reference for devising an efficient and reliable strategy for large-scale LAM production in landslide-prone regions.

Goniothalamin prevents lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury and inflammation via TLR-4/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Goniothalamin (GTN) is a natural compound isolated from Goniothalamus species. It is a potent anti-inflammatory agent. However, there is a paucity of scientific data about its toxicity. This study investigated GTN's anti-inflammatory mechanism and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung injury in mice. Mice were distributed into four groups and injected with GTN intraperitoneally (Dosage-50 and 100 mg/kg). We analyzed the wet/dry weight ratio, infiltrated inflammatory cell count, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and histopathological changes in the lung tissues of the mice. Results revealed GTN alleviated LPS-induced inflammation in mice. Western Blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques were used to investigate the effect of GTN on pro-inflammatory cytokines and proteins involved in the MAPK and nuclear factor-B (NF-κB) signaling pathways. Cytokines (macrophage migration inhibitory factor, interleukin [IL]-13, IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1ß) were inhibited by GTN. However, IL-10 was upregulated. Western blot analysis indicated that GTN suppressed the phosphorylation of jun N-terminal kinase, nuclear factor NF-kappa-B p65, I-kappa-B, extracellular signal-regulated kinases, NF-κB, and p38. GTN also suppressed the expression of TLR-4 protein, thereby, inhibiting MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways. Thus, GTN can effectively prevent and cure acute lung injury.

Carbon uptake bioenergetics of PAOs and GAOs in full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal systems.

This work analyzed, for the first time, the bioenergetics of PAOs and GAOs in full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) for the uptake of different carbon sources. Fifteen samples were collected from five full-scale WWTPs. Predominance of different PAOs, i.e., Ca. Accumulibacter (0.00-0.49%), Tetrasphaera (0.37-3.94%), Microlunatus phosphovorus (0.01-0.18%), etc., and GAOs, i.e., Ca. Competibacter (0.08-5.39%), Defluviicoccus (0.05-5.34%), Micropruina (0.17-1.87%), etc., were shown by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Despite the distinct PAO/GAO community compositions in different samples, proton motive force (PMF) was found as the key driving force (up to 90.1%) for the uptake of volatile fatty acids (VFAs, acetate and propionate) and amino acids (glutamate and aspartate) by both GAOs and PAOs at the community level, contrasting the previous understanding that Defluviicoccus have a low demand of PMF for acetate uptake. For the uptake of acetate or propionate, PAOs rarely activated F1, F0- ATPase (< 11.7%) or fumarate reductase (< 5.3%) for PMF generation; whereas, intensive involvements of these two pathways (up to 49.2% and 61.0%, respectively) were observed for GAOs, highlighting a major and community-level difference in their VFA uptake biogenetics in full-scale systems. However, different from VFAs, the uptake of glutamate and aspartate by both PAOs and GAOs commonly involved fumarate reductase and F1, F0-ATPase activities. Apart from these major and community-level differences, high level fine-scale micro-diversity in carbon uptake bioenergetics was observed within PAO and GAO lineages, probably resulting from their versatilities in employing different pathways for reducing power generation. Ca. Accumulibacter and Halomonas seemed to show higher dependency on the reverse operation of F1, F0-ATPase than other PAOs, likely due to the low involvement of glyoxylate shunt pathway. Unlike Tetrasphaera, but similar to Ca. Accumulibacter, Microlunatus phosphovorus took up glutamate and aspartate via the proton/glutamate-aspartate symporter driven by PMF. This feature was testified using a pure culture of Microlunatus phosphovorus stain NM-1. The major difference between PAOs and GAOs highlights the potential to selectively suppress GAOs for community regulation in EBPR systems. The finer-scale carbon uptake bioenergetics of PAOs or GAOs from different lineages benefits in understanding their interactions in community assembly in complex environment.

Glycine adversely affects enhanced biological phosphorus removal.

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is used extensively in full-scale wastewater treatment plants for the removal of phosphorus. Despite previous evidence showing that glycine is a carbon source for a certain lineage of polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) such as Tetrasphaera, it is still unknown whether glycine can support EBPR. We observed an overall adverse effect of glycine on EBPR using activated sludge from both full-scale wastewater treatment plants and lab-scale reactors harboring distant and diverse PAOs and glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs), including Candidatus Accumulibacter, Thiothrix, Tetrasphaera, Dechloromonas, Ca. Competibacter, and Defluviicoccus, among others. Glycine induced phosphorus (P) release under anaerobic conditions without being effectively taken up by cells. The induced P release rate correlated with glycine concentration in the range of 10 to 50 mg C/L. PAOs continued to release P in the presence of glycine under aerobic conditions without any evident P uptake. Under mixed carbon conditions, the occurrence of glycine did not seem to affect acetate uptake; however, it significantly reduced the rate of P uptake in the aerobic phase. Overall, glycine did not appear to be an effective carbon source for a majority of PAOs and GAOs in full-scale and lab-scale systems, and neither did other community members utilize glycine under anaerobic or aerobic conditions. Metatranscriptomic analysis showed the transcription of glycine cleavage T, P and H protein genes, but not of the L protein or the downstream genes in the glycine cleavage pathway, suggesting barriers to metabolizing glycine. The high transcription of a gene encoding a drug/metabolite transporter suggests a potential efflux mechanism, where glycine transported into the cells is in turn exported at the expense of ATP, resulting in P release without affecting the glycine concentration in solution. The ability of glycine to induce P release without cellular uptake suggests a way to effectively recover P from P-enriched waste sludge.