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Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are key sources of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) that could influence the resistomes of microbial communities in various habitats of the receiving river ecosystem. However, it is currently unknown which habitats are most impacted and whether ARGs, like certain chemical contaminants, could be accumulated or enriched in the river ecosystem. We conducted a systematic metagenomic survey on the antibiotic resistomes of WWTP effluent, four riverine habitats (water, suspended particles, sediment, epilithic biofilm), and freshwater amphipod gut microbiomes. The impact of WWTP effluent on the downstream habitats was assessed in nine Swiss rivers. While there were significant differences in resistomes across habitats, the wastewater resistome was more similar to the resistome of receiving river water than to the resistomes of other habitats, and river water was the habitat most strongly impacted by the WWTPs effluent. The sulfonamide, beta-lactam, and aminoglycoside resistance genes were among the most abundant ARGs in the WWTP effluents, and especially aadA, sul1, and class A beta-lactamase genes showed significantly increased abundance in the river water of downstream compared to upstream locations (p< 0.05). However, this was not the case for the sediment, biofilm, and amphipod gut habitats. Accordingly, evidence for accumulation or enrichment of ARGs through the riverine food web was not identified. Our study suggests that monitoring riverine antimicrobial resistance determinants could be conducted using “co-occurrence” of aadA, sul1, and class A beta-lactamase genes as an indicator of wastewater-related pollution and should focus on the water as the most affected habitat.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are key sources of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) that could influence the resistomes of microbial communities in various habitats of the receiving river ecosystem. However, it is currently unknown which habitats are most impacted and whether ARGs, like certain chemical contaminants, could be accumulated or enriched in the river ecosystem. We conducted a systematic metagenomic survey on the antibiotic resistomes of WWTP effluent, four riverine habitats (water, suspended particles, sediment, epilithic biofilm), and freshwater amphipod gut microbiomes. The impact of WWTP effluent on the downstream habitats was assessed in nine Swiss rivers. While there were significant differences in resistomes across habitats, the wastewater resistome was more similar to the resistome of receiving river water than to the resistomes of other habitats, and river water was the habitat most strongly impacted by the WWTPs effluent. The sulfonamide, beta-lactam, and aminoglycoside resistance genes were among the most abundant ARGs in the WWTP effluents, and especially aadA, sul1, and class A beta-lactamase genes showed significantly increased abundance in the river water of downstream compared to upstream locations (p?

Overpotential distribution of lithium ion battery shows the force is applied to lithium ion over intercalation and deintercalation between active materials and electrolyte. This distribution determines irreversible degradation chemical reactions, lithium plating and solid electolyte interphase layer growing, occur or not for each interfacial areas. However, the calculation of the distribution requires large memory space, so most of industrial battery management system board cannot fit its requirement. To overcome this limitation, we introduce new analytic steady state solution for overpotential distribution so that online prognosis of lithium ion battery can be provided with industrial battery management system. Also, we estimate electrochemical parameters of end-of-life lithium ion batteries with different operated condition and apply it to our model to confirm that our model follows other reported degradation prognosis.

AbstractThis study investigates the effect of firm-specific news on the pricing of idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) in China. Using a sample of non-financial A-share listed firms from January 2006 to June 2018, we find that the predictive ability of IVOL is much weaker around firm announcements compared to that without news, suggesting that the limited arbitrage cannot disentangle the IVOL puzzle completely in the emerging market. Additionally, we investigate the effect of news sentiment on the predictive ability of IVOL and find that it is much stronger following bad news compared to good news. Finally, when we include the macroeconomic variables known to predict returns to adjust the systematic risk, we obtain novel findings that the negative premium of IVOL becomes insignificant, suggesting that the negative premium is time-varying with macroeconomy.

The performance of co-digestion via the combination of microalgae residues and wasted activated sludge (WAS) was evaluated in batch and semi-continuous type anaerobic digestion (AD) reactors. Simultaneously, AD with WAS alone (R1) and with the combination of raw microalgae and WAS (R2) were conducted, respectively. In batch tests, compared with R1(344 mL-CH4/g-VS), co-digestion of WAS with microalgae residues (R3) achieved 40% higher methane yield (498 mL-CH4/g-VS), while R2exhibited the lowest value of 148 mL-CH4/g-VS. The semi-continuous type R3digester reduced higher volatile solids (VS; 39%) at an organic loading rate of 1.0 kg-VS/m3d, producing the methane yield of 292 mL/g-VS d. The R3semi-continuous type digester had the highest concentrations of both total bacteria and archaea, showing a ratio of 1:1 among hydrogenotrophic and acetoclastic methanogens. The bacterial community was characterized as existence of the Lactobacillus genus as well as fermentative bacteria belonging to the Clostridia class syntrophically associated with hydrogenotrophic methanogens.

This research examines the impact of internationalization on small and medium enterprise (SME) survival, and the direct and moderating effects of technology resources and research and development (R&D) alliances. Our survey examination of 1,612 Korean SMEs reveals that sales internationalization is associated with better survival prospects, suggesting that failure risk does not increase with cross‐border sales. In addition, though technology resources provide no direct survival benefits, R&D intensity acts as a moderator in the internationalization‐to‐survival relationship. R&D alliances, on the other hand, are directly linked with survival but do not show a moderating effect. This supports the liabilities of newness and smallness view that external relationships can help counter survival threats but suggests that the accumulation of technology resources may be more important when firms seek international expansion.

This paper examines the range of application of strategic contingency theory. Its thesis is that as technologies and economies become more open to market forces, the tenets of contingency theory become increasingly relevant. The Korean economy seemed an ideal venue for testing this notion as it is very heterogeneous in the effectiveness of its technological regulation. Many Korean companies employing traditional technologies are able to benefit from government intervention, whereas most of those using emergent technolo gies — even in the same industry — are forced to compete internationally and are very much more subject to competitive market forces. We found that Korean companies using emergent technologies were more likely to do well if they heeded contingency prescriptions in making strategy: specifically, if they employed innovative and marketing differentiation strategies in uncertain environments and cost leadership strategies in stable contexts. On the other hand, companies that used traditional technologies were less apt to benefit from matching strategy to environment. In short, strategic contingency literature was found to apply more to businesses employing emergent technologies than to those using traditional technologies. Notions from institutional and contin gency theory and from the literature on cross-cultural management are used to interpret these findings.