Tracing sources of oilfield wastewater based on excitation-emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy coupled with chemical pattern recognition techniques.

In order to prevent the illegal discharge of oilfield wastewater, this work proposed excitation-emission matrix fluorescence (EEMF) spectroscopy coupled with two kinds of chemical pattern recognition methods for tracing the sources of oilfield wastewater. The first pattern recognition method was built from the relative concentrations extracted by alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) based on partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) algorithm, and the other one was modeled based on strictly multi-way partial least squares-discriminant analysis (N-PLS-DA). Both methods showed good discrimination abilities for oilfield wastewater samples from three different sources. The total recognition rates of the training and prediction sets are 100%, the values of sensitivity and selectivity are 1. This study showed that EEMF spectroscopy combined with chemical pattern recognition techniques could be used as a potential tool for tracing the sources of oilfield wastewater.

Age, preoperative higher serum cortisol levels, and lower serum acetylcholine levels predict delirium after percutaneous coronary intervention in acute coronary syndrome patients accompanied with renal dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study is to investigate the incidence and risk factors of delirium after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients accompanied with renal dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective and cohort study, performed in a medical center from July 2014 to June 2017, which enrolled ACS patients accompanied with renal dysfunction who were treated with PCI. Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the incidence and risk factors of delirium. RESULTS: Data were analyzed from 119 patients. The 7-day incidence of delirium after PCI in ACS patients accompanied with renal dysfunction was 15.97% (n = 19/119). The binary logistic regression analysis results indicate that age (odd ratio [OR] 1.463; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.070-2.001; P = 0.017), preoperative higher serum cortisol (COR) (OR 1.025; 95% CI 1.002-1.048; P = 0.030), and lower serum acetylcholine (Ach) (OR 0.965; 95% CI 0.937-0.993; P = 0.016) were significant differences in delirium and nondelirium groups. CONCLUSIONS: Age, preoperative higher serum COR levels, and lower serum Ach levels were independent risk factors for delirium after PCI in ACS patients accompanied with renal dysfunction.

Intracellular DNA sensing pathway of cGAS-cGAMP is decreased in human newborns and young children.

Newborns are highly susceptible to DNA virus infections, which may result from the characteristics of neonatal innate immune systems. Here we analyzed for the first time the development of innate immune sensing and signaling of intracellular DNA virus infection in human newborns and young children. Both mRNA and protein expression of cGAS, an intracellular DNA sensor, were shown to be significantly reduced in neonatal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). In addition, cGAS expression in neonatal PBMCs could be induced upon herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) or interferon-α (IFNα) stimulation. Furthermore, production of the second messenger cGAMP and activation of the transcriptional factor IRF3 was severely decreased in neonatal cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMCs) or PBMCs compared with adults. In contrast, the downstream signaling STING-TBK1-IRF3 appeared to be functional in neonatal PBMCs, as demonstrated by the fact that IRF3 phosphorylation and IFNß production in these cells could be activated by cGAMP. Intriguingly, decreased expression of cGAS in neonatal cells can be rescued by DNA demethylation, with concomitant enhancement in IFNß induction by HSV-1. Thus, cGAS restoration or STING stimulation by small molecules during infancy might improve the age-dependent susceptibility to DNA virus infection.

Red blood cell count as an indicator of microvascular complications in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Rheological disorders of red blood cells (RBC) and decreased RBC deformability have been involved in the development of diabetic microangiopathy. However, few studies have evaluated the association of RBC count with microvascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of RBC count with microvascular complications in patients with T2DM. METHODS: This study involved 369 patients with T2DM: 243 with one or more microvascular complications and 126 without microvascular complications. Anticoagulated blood was collected and analyzed in an automated blood cell counter. The presence of risk factors for microvascular complications was determined. RESULTS: The proportion of patients with microvascular complications increased as the RBC count decreased (P < 0.001). After adjustment for known risk factors for microvascular complications by logistic regression analysis, lower quartiles of RBC count were associated with a higher risk of microvascular complications compared with the reference group composed of the highest quartile (first quartile, odds ratio 4.98, 95% confidence interval 1.54-6.19, P = 0.008; second quartile, odds ratio 3.21, 95% confidence interval 1.17-5.28, P = 0.024). CONCLUSION: A decreased RBC count is associated with microvascular complications in Chinese patients with T2DM. The RBC count is a potential marker to improve further the ability to identify diabetic patients at high risk of microvascular complications.

Emodin, a naturally occurring anthraquinone, ameliorates experimental autoimmune myocarditis in rats.

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart and a major cause of dilated cardiomyopathy that can lead to heart failure and sudden death in young adults. Giant cell myocarditis is a severe heart disease of unknown causes and is defined histopathologically as diffuse myocardial necrosis with multinucleated giant cells in the absence of sarcoid-like granulomata. Giant cell myocarditis is often studied using a model of experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) in rats. Emodin is an important component of traditional Chinese herb rhubarb, and has well-documented anti-inflammatory effect. The current study determined the potential efficacy of emodin using a rat model of EAM. Male Lewis rats (6 weeks of age) were immunized on days 0 and 7 with a porcine cardiac myosin at both footpads to induce EAM. Simultaneously with the immunization, rats received emodin (50 mg/kg/day) or distilled water by intragastric administration for 3 weeks (8 animals/group). Likewise, eight animals were immunized with adjuvant alone and treated with distilled water. The immunization significantly enlarged the hearts due to inflammatory lesions. Emodin treatment significantly improved left ventricular (LV) function and reduced the severity of myocarditis, as reflected by echocardiographic and histopathological examination. Emodin treatment decreased the serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-1ß. Nuclear factor-κBp65 (NF-κBp65), a rapid-response transcription factor that regulates proinflammatory cytokines, in the myocardial tissue was also suppressed in the treated rats. In conclusion, emodin could ameliorate EAM, at least in part, by decreasing the production of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1ß.

[Removal of organic pollutants by adsorption cooperated with biodegradation in BAC].

The determination measure for distribution of NOM removal by two mechanisms in BAC was established. In this method, the change in DOC and BDOC of inflow and effluent was used to evaluate the distribution and to determinate the effect of the different ozone doses on the adsorption and biodegradation in BAC. The ozonation increased the concentration of BDOC in 0.12 - 0.54 mg/L with ozone dose of 2 - 8 mg/L and BAC filtration decreased concentration of BDOC to 0.23 - 0.31 mg/L. Moreover the biodegradation distribution to remove the organic pollutants increased from 46% to 89% with ozone dose of 2 - 8 mg/L.

[Determination for optimal ozone dose in O3-BAC].

The ozonation can increase biodegradability of water and the biofilter after ozonation can increase biostability of water. The result shows that with different doses of ozone between 2 and 8 mg/L, ozonation can increase AOC-P17, AOC-NOX and BDOC by 20.9%-85.5%, 42.1%-158.2% and 21.4%-84.4%, respectively. The optimum ozone dose for maximum AOC and BDOC formation is 3 mg/L. In the test, the AOC of effluent from BAC is lower than 50 microg/L (acetate-C). The AOC concentration is between 35.9 and 46.6 microg/L (acetate-C), and the effluent belongs to biostability.

[Nitrification and denitrification in BACF for treating high ammonia source water].

A high ammonia micropolluted source water advanced treatment for ammonia removal by biological activated carbon filter was tested. The removal rate of ammonia was high than 95% when influent concentration was under 1.0 mg/L. The removal rate decreased with the influent concentration increased when the ammonia concentration was in range of 1.5 - 4.9 mg/L and the influent DO was under 10 mg/L, and the minimum removal rate was about 30%. The key factor of restrict nitrification in BACF was the influent DO. When the influent ammonia concentration was high, the DO in water was depleted quickly by nitrify and hetetrophic bacteria in 0.4 m deep of filter and the filter layer was divided to aerobic zone and anoxic zone. The denitrification was occurred in the anoxic zone, and because of very low concentration of electron donor led to accumulation of the denitrification intermediates such as NO2-. Aerobic bacteria was existed in the anoxic zone.

Biological pretreatment of Yellow River water.

Bio-ceramic filter(BF) and moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) were used for biological pretreatment of Yellow River water in this study. The BF only had slight advantage over MBBR for TOC and ammonia removal. However, like UV254, the average removal rate of THMFP in the BF was much higher than that in the MBBR. UV254 removal did not show obvious correlation with trihalomethane formation potential (THMFP) removal. Hexachlorocyclohexane could be effectively removed in both BF and MBBR. As for diatom and cyanobateria removal the MBBR had better performance than the BF, which was contrary to the average chlorophyll-a ( Chl-a) removal rate. The proposal was made in this study that biological flocculation and sedimentation of sloughed biofilm should play a more important role on algae removal in the MBBR than in the BF. The BF and MBBR could effectively remove microcystins. Moreover, MBBR could be a promising technology for biological pretreatment.

Occurrence of haloacetic acids in drinking water in certain cities of China.

OBJECTIVE: Since haloacetic acids (HAAs), which are nonvolatile and of high carcinogenic risk, are common species of chlorinated disinfection by-products(DBPs) in drinking water, and little has been known in China, it is necessary to make a survey about the kinds and levels of HAAs in drinking water of the nation. METHOD: HAAs were analyzed using gas chromatography with electron capture detector(GC/ECD) and relatively complex pretreatment process of sample was applied. Five main cities in different areas of China were chosen in the survey. RESULTS: Studies showed that the main species of HAAs in drinking water in China were DCAA and TCAA, ranging from 0.4 microg/L to 12.85 microg/L and from 0.56 microg/L to 10.98 microg/L, respectively. MBAA and DBAA were also detected in one city, ranging from 2.20 microg/L to 4.95 microg/L and 1.10 microg/L to 2.81 microg/L, respectively. Therefore, the contents of HAAs varied, usually no more than 25 microg/L. Based on the acquired data to date, it is known that the concentrations of HAAs in drinking water in China were surely under the limits of Sanitary Standard for Drinking Water Quality (China, 2001). CONCLUSION: A wider survey of HAAs in drinking water should be conducted throughout the nation to get adequate data and information, the ultimate aim of which is to control HAAs pollution and keep the balance between microbiological safety insurance and chemical risk control, minimize the formation of DBPs and ensure the safety of water supply at the same time.

[Comparison on the performance of biostyr and bio-ceramic filter used for biological pretreatment of raw water].

A new biological filter called biostyr using biostyrene as media to purify raw water was compared with the widely studied bio-ceramic filter. The raw water was taken from a reservoir located in Northern China. It was shown this new biological filter could obviously improve the raw water quality. As far as the raw water investigated in this study was concerned, the removal percentage of COD(Mn), NH4+-N in the filter was 5%-20%, 80%-95%, respectively, and turbidity of the raw water decreased correspondingly, which indicated the feasibility that this filter could be applied in the field of biological pretreatment of raw water. It was also shown that under the uniform operating conditions, the performance of this new filter on the removal of contaminants, especially organics and turbidity, was slightly inferior to the bio-ceramic filter and would be more remarkably affected adversely by backwashing than bioceramic filter.

Gas phase trichloroethylene removal at low concentration using activated carbon fiber.

The breakthrough adsorption behaviors of gas phase trichloroethylene in a packed bed of activated carbon fibers (ACF) were investigated. The specific surface area of the ACF was 600 m2/g, 1400 m2/g and 1600 m2/g, respectively, and the concentration of trichloroethylene ranged from 270 mg/m3 to 2700 mg/m3. Results showed that the capacity of adsorption increased with increasing specific surface area, the relationship between the logarithms of 10% breakthrough time and concentration was approximately linear over the experimental range, the breakthrough time decreased with increasing temperature and humidity. The breakthrough curves at different inlet concentration or different temperature can be predicted by several simple theoretical models with good agreements.

Modification on the conventional procedure to measure AOC in drinking water.

Additional phosphorus will be introduced to water sample if the conventional procedure is used to measure assimilable organic carbon (AOC) in drinking water. It has been shown that there are the cases that phosphorus is the limiting nutrient for microbial growth in drinking water. The measured value of AOC would not be able to indicate appropriately the regrowth potential of bacteria in this case. The conventional procedure used to measure AOC was modified to avoid the introduction of additional phosphorus to water sample in this study. It was shown that it was feasible to measure AOC in water using the modified procedure. Furthermore, the measured value of AOC determined by the modified procedure could indicate appropriately the regrowth potential of bacteria in drinking water despite either organics or phosphorus was the limiting nutrient for bacterial regrowth.

Temperature effect on aerobic denitrification and nitrification.

Nitrogen loss without organic removal in biofilter was observed and its possible reason was explained. A lower hydraulic loading could improve aerobic denitrification rate. Aerobic denitrification was seriously affected by low temperature(below 10 degrees C). However, nitrification rate remained high when the temperature dropped from 15 degrees C to 5 degrees C . It seemed the autotrophic biofilm in BAF could alleviate the adverse effect of low temperature.

Phosphorus limitation in biofiltration for drinking water treatment.

Bacterial growth potential (BGP) method and two parallel pilot-scale biofilters were used to investigate phosphorus limitation and its effect on the removal of organic matters in biofiltration for drinking water treatment. Addition of phosphorus can substantially increase the BGPs of the samples. Its effect was equivalent to that of addition of a mixture of various inorganic nutrients including phosphorus. The biofilter with phosphate added into its influent performed a higher biological stability of the effluent and a higher COD(Mn) removal than the control filter. These results suggested that phosphorus was the limiting nutrient in the biofiltration and the removal efficiency of organic matters could be improved by adding phosphate into the influent.

Improving removal efficiency of organic matters by adding phosphorus in drinking water biofiltration treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate phosphorus limitation and its effect on the removal efficiency of organic matters in drinking water biological treatment. METHODS: Bacterial growth potential (BGP) method and a pair of parallel pilot-scale biofilters were used for the two objectives, respectively. RESULTS: The addition of phosphorus could substantially increase the BGPs of the water samples and the effect was stronger than that of the addition of carbon. When nothing was added into the influents, both CODMn removals of the parallel biofilters (BF1 and BF2) were about 15%. When phosphate was added into its influent, BF1 performed a CODMn removal, 6.02 percentage points higher than the control filter (BF2) and its effluent had a higher biological stability. When the addition dose was < 20 micrograms.L-1, no phosphorus pollution would occur and there was a good linear relationship between the microbial utilization of phosphorus and the removal efficiency of organic matters. CONCLUSIONS: Phosphorus was a limiting nutrient and its limitation was stronger than that of carbon. The addition of phosphate was a practical way to improve the removal efficiency of organic matters in drinking water biological treatment.

Research development of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water in China.

More and more importance has been attached to the problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) since 1960s. This article elaborates the recent research progress of EDCs in water and the trends in the near future in China.

Phosphorus limitation on bacterial regrowth in drinking water.

Assimilable organic carbon (AOC) test and bacterial regrowth potential (BRP) analysis were used to investigate the effect of phosphorus on bacterial regrowth in the drinking water that was made from some raw water taken from a reservoir located in northern China. It was shown that AOC of the drinking water samples increased by 43.9%-59.6% and BRP increased by 100%-235% when 50 microg/L PO4(3-)-P(as NaH2 PO4) was added alone to the drinking water samples. This result was clear evidence of phosphorus limitation on bacteria regrowth in the drinking water. This investigation indicated the importance of phosphorus in ensuring biological stability of drinking water and offered a novel possible option to restrict microbial regrowth in drinking water distribution system by applying appropriate technologies to remove phosphorus efficiently from drinking water in China.