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To extract lithium from salt lake brine involves a process of separation and concentration. After separating lithium from brine, the lithium ion concentration is generally a few hundred mg/L which is far below the required 20-30 g/L (as Li+) before precipitation as lithium carbonate. The concentration step of a lithium enriched brine is crucial but highly energy-intensive. Spontaneous forward osmosis (FO) technology offers the possibility for concentrating lithium ions with low energy. Because the concentrating process involves both feed and draw solution with very high salinity, it is highly desirable to have a high performance FO membrane with a low structural parameter as well as a high rejection to ions. In this work, thin polyethylene separator supported FO (PE-FO) membranes were prepared and post-treated stepwise with benzyl alcohol (BA) and hydraulic compaction. The effect of the post-treatment on the FO performance was systematically analyzed. Excellent FO performance was achieved: the water flux and reverse salt flux selectivity were 66.3 LMH and 5.25 L/g, respectively, when the active layer is oriented towards the 0.5 M NaCl draw solution with deionized water as the feed. To the best of our knowledge, this FO flux is the highest ever reported in the open literature under similar test conditions. Applied in concentrating lithium enriched brine, the membrane showed superior water flux using saturated MgCl2 as draw solution. A new FO model was established to simulate the water flux during the concentration process with good agreement with the experimental results. The promising results using PE-FO membrane for lithium enrichment opens a new frontier for the potential application of FO membranes.

To extract lithium from salt lake brine involves a process of separation and concentration. After separating lithium from brine, the lithium ion concentration is generally a few hundred mg/L which is far below the required 20-30 g/L (as Li+) before precipitation as lithium carbonate. The concentration step of a lithium enriched brine is crucial but highly energy-intensive. Spontaneous forward osmosis (FO) technology offers the possibility for concentrating lithium ions with low energy. Because the concentrating process involves both feed and draw solution with very high salinity, it is highly desirable to have a high performance FO membrane with a low structural parameter as well as a high rejection to ions. In this work, thin polyethylene separator supported FO (PE-FO) membranes were prepared and post-treated stepwise with benzyl alcohol (BA) and hydraulic compaction. The effect of the post-treatment on the FO performance was systematically analyzed. Excellent FO performance was achieved: the water flux and reverse salt flux selectivity were 66.3 LMH and 5.25 L/g, respectively, when the active layer is oriented towards the 0.5 M NaCl draw solution with deionized water as the feed. To the best of our knowledge, this FO flux is the highest ever reported in the open literature under similar test conditions. Applied in concentrating lithium enriched brine, the membrane showed superior water flux using saturated MgCl2 as draw solution. A new FO model was established to simulate the water flux during the concentration process with good agreement with the experimental results. The promising results using PE-FO membrane for lithium enrichment opens a new frontier for the potential application of FO membranes.

Low-cost and fouling resistant microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes for wastewater treatment has been a challenging task when balancing the membrane cost and performance stability. Herein, a low-cost polyethylene (PE) lithium-ion battery separator was explored as a potential solution. To tackle the intrinsic hydrophobic character which incurs severe fouling, a novel cascade process of plasma treatment plus zwitterion grafting was designed: first oxygen plasma to endow oxygen-containing groups for hydrophilicity and supply “grafting sites”, and grafting zwitterion 3-[[3-(trimethoxysilane)-propyl] amino] propane-1-sulfonic acid (TMAPS) for robust fouling resistance. The membranes were analyzed by water contact angle, Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Challenged by two typical foulants, e.g., humic acid (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), the zwitterion grafted membrane showed the best antifouling performance. Oxygen plasma treated PE membrane presented a better performance towards HA than to BSA. The Resistance-in-Series model revealed that the plasma-treated membrane showed improvement in reversible resistance but not in irreversible resistance. Migration of hydrophobic PE segment to the surface due to the low glass transition temperature was attributed to the low fouling resistance of the plasma-treated membrane. However, the zwitterion-grafted membrane led to stabilized hydrophilicity and inhibited the hdrophobic-hydrophobic interaction between the membrane and foulant, thus resulting to significantly improved flux recovery and low irreversible fouling rate. This study clarified that oxygen plasma alone is not sufficient to provide sufficient fouling resistance, but grafting with zwitterion provides stable hydrophilicity and fouling resistance.

The discovery of plasmid-mediated tet(X) variants and efflux pump gene tmexCD1-toprJ1 conferring bacteria resistance to tigecycline has compromised glycylcycline as the last line of defense against infection, which poses serious threat to public health. Herein, real-time quantitative PCR was used to detect the abundance of seven tigecycline resistance genes (TRGs), including six tet(X) variants and tmexCD1-toprJ1, and insertion sequences ISCR2 and IS26. Then, the concentrations of nine antibiotics were quantified in fecal samples collected from 157 livestock farms in four Chinese provinces. TRGs, especially tet(X4), tmexCD1-toprJ1, and insertion sequences ISCR2 and IS26, were more abundant in chicken feces than in pig and cattle feces, suggesting the greater risk for the propagation of TRGs in chicken feces. Positive correlations (ρ = 0.3741–0.8275, P < 0.0001) between ISCR2/IS26 and TRGs (except tet(X1)) further demonstrated that ISCR2 mediates the transfer of tet(X3), tet(X4), and tet(X5) and that IS26 plays a certain role for the mobilization of tet(X4) and tmexCD1-toprJ1. Tetracyclines had no positive correlation with the abundance of TRGs (except tet(X1)), meanwhile florfenicol and tiamulin were positively correlated with TRGs. However, further research is needed to confirm whether or not florfenicol and tiamulin are potential driving factors of TRG accumulation.

Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) is a zoonotic pathogen that causes bovine and human tuberculosis. Dendritic cells play a critical role in initiating and regulating immune responses by promoting antigen-specific T-cell activation. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)-COX signaling is an important mediator of inflammation and immunity and might be involved in the pathogenesis of M. bovis infection. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the character of PGE2 in the differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells induced by infected dendritic cells (DCs). Murine bone marrow-derived DCs were pre-infected with M. bovis and its attenuated strain M. bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Then, the infected DCs were co-cultured with naïve CD4+ T cells with or without the cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor indomethacin. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis and protein detection showed that PGE2/COX-2 signaling was activated, shown by the upregulation of PGE2 production as well as COX-2 and microsomal PGE2 synthase (mPGES1) transcription in DCs specifically induced by M. bovis and BCG infection. The further co-culture of infected DCs with naïve CD4+ T cells enhanced the generation of inflammatory cytokines IL-17 and IL-23, while indomethacin suppressed their production. Following this, the differentiation of regulatory T cells (Treg) and Th17 cell subsets was significantly induced by the infected DCs rather than uninfected DCs. Meanwhile, M. bovis infection stimulated significantly higher levels of IL-17 and IL-23 and the differentiation of Treg and Th17 cell subsets, while BCG infection led to higher levels of TNF-α and IL-12, but lower proportions of Treg and Th17 cells. In mice, M. bovis infection generated more bacterial load and severe abnormalities in spleens and lungs, as well as higher levels of COX-2, mPGE2 expression, Treg and Th17 cell subsets than BCG infection. In conclusion, PGE2/COX-2 signaling was activated in DCs by M. bovis infection and regulated differentiation of Treg and Th17 cell subsets th

Dogs are the most phenotypically diverse mammalian species, and they possess more known heritable disorders than any other non-human mammal. Efforts to catalog and characterize genetic variation across well-chosen populations of canines are necessary to advance our understanding of their evolutionary history and genetic architecture. To date, no organized effort has been undertaken to sequence the world's canid populations. The Dog10K Consortium (http://www.dog10kgenomes.org) is an international collaboration of researchers from across the globe who will generate 20× whole genomes from 10 000 canids in 5 years. This effort will capture the genetic diversity that underlies the phenotypic and geographical variability of modern canids worldwide. Breeds, village dogs, niche populations and extended pedigrees are currently being sequenced, and de novo assemblies of multiple canids are being constructed. This unprecedented dataset will address the genetic underpinnings of domestication, breed formation, aging, behavior and morphological variation. More generally, this effort will advance our understanding of human and canine health., QC 20220616

BACKGROUND: Differentiation of lymphocytes is frequently accompanied by cell cycle changes, interplay that is of central importance for immunity but is still incompletely understood. Here, we interrogate and quantitatively model how proliferation is linked to differentiation in CD4+ T cells. RESULTS: We perform ex vivo single-cell RNA-sequencing of CD4+ T cells during a mouse model of infection that elicits a type 2 immune response and infer that the differentiated, cytokine-producing cells cycle faster than early activated precursor cells. To dissect this phenomenon quantitatively, we determine expression profiles across consecutive generations of differentiated and undifferentiated cells during Th2 polarization in vitro. We predict three discrete cell states, which we verify by single-cell quantitative PCR. Based on these three states, we extract rates of death, division and differentiation with a branching state Markov model to describe the cell population dynamics. From this multi-scale modelling, we infer a significant acceleration in proliferation from the intermediate activated cell state to the mature cytokine-secreting effector state. We confirm this acceleration both by live imaging of single Th2 cells and in an ex vivo Th1 malaria model by single-cell RNA-sequencing. CONCLUSION: The link between cytokine secretion and proliferation rate holds both in Th1 and Th2 cells in vivo and in vitro, indicating that this is likely a general phenomenon in adaptive immunity.

We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa.

We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa.

We present an Aboriginal Australian genomic sequence obtained from a 100-year-old lock of hair donated by an Aboriginal man from southern Western Australia in the early 20th century. We detect no evidence of European admixture and estimate contamination levels to be below 0.5%. We show that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of an early human dispersal into eastern Asia, possibly 62,000 to 75,000 years ago. This dispersal is separate from the one that gave rise to modern Asians 25,000 to 38,000 years ago. We also find evidence of gene flow between populations of the two dispersal waves prior to the divergence of Native Americans from modern Asian ancestors. Our findings support the hypothesis that present-day Aboriginal Australians descend from the earliest humans to occupy Australia, likely representing one of the oldest continuous populations outside Africa

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010): L21702, doi:10.1029/2010GL044893., The western tropical Pacific gives birth to 23 tropical cyclones annually, bringing torrential rainfall to mountainous islands across Oceania resulting in a global sediment production hotspot, in which many rivers have great hyperpycnal potential. By using a temperature (T) and salinity (S) profiler, we observed anomalously warm, low salinity turbid water at 3000–3700 m depths in seas ∼180 km off southwestern Taiwan immediately after Typhoon Morakot in 2009. This 250m-thick bottom-hugging water occupies ∼2400 km2, and contains 0.15% freshwater, suggesting a remarkably high fraction (6–10%) of event rainfall from southwestern Taiwan. These characteristics indicate the turbid water originated from shallow coastal waters via hyperpycnal flow. Apparently, sediment produced from the land during tropical cyclones open an “express gate” to convey heat and freshwater vertically to the deep ocean basin subsequently warming the deep water from the bottom up., Funded by China (973 Program, 2009CB421200 and the program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities, B07034) and Taiwan (NSC 98‐2116‐M‐001‐005; Academia Sinica Thematic Program AFOBi).

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010): L21702, doi:10.1029/2010GL044893., The western tropical Pacific gives birth to 23 tropical cyclones annually, bringing torrential rainfall to mountainous islands across Oceania resulting in a global sediment production hotspot, in which many rivers have great hyperpycnal potential. By using a temperature (T) and salinity (S) profiler, we observed anomalously warm, low salinity turbid water at 3000–3700 m depths in seas ∼180 km off southwestern Taiwan immediately after Typhoon Morakot in 2009. This 250m-thick bottom-hugging water occupies ∼2400 km2, and contains 0.15% freshwater, suggesting a remarkably high fraction (6–10%) of event rainfall from southwestern Taiwan. These characteristics indicate the turbid water originated from shallow coastal waters via hyperpycnal flow. Apparently, sediment produced from the land during tropical cyclones open an “express gate” to convey heat and freshwater vertically to the deep ocean basin subsequently warming the deep water from the bottom up., Funded by China (973 Program, 2009CB421200 and the program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities, B07034) and Taiwan (NSC 98‐2116‐M‐001‐005; Academia Sinica Thematic Program AFOBi).

Objective: Restoring intracellular cGMP and inducing NO-synthesis attenuates ischemia-associated early pulmonary allograft dysfunction. Phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE), predominantly expressed in lung tissue, plays a pivotal role in modulating the cGMP/NO-synthase pathway in endothelial and epithelial cells. In this study, we evaluate the effect of employing sildenafil (Viagra®), a specific inhibitor of PDE-5, to counteract ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in a single lung transplantation model of extended ischemia. Methods: Donor animals (weight matched outbred pigs, 28-35 kg) in the treatment group (I) (n = 5) were injected with 0.7 mg sildenafil/kg into the pulmonary artery (PA) prior to inflow occlusion. For perfusion, Perfadex®, containing 0.7 mg sildenafil/l was used, and the graft stored at 1 °C in the perfusion solution. After 24 h ischemia, unilateral left lung transplantation was performed. Starting at reperfusion, group I received continuous sildenafil (0.7 mg sildenafil/kg), over 6 h. Except for the sildenafil application, the control group (II) (n = 4) was treated identically (PGE1 was injected into the PA). One hour after reperfusion, the right main bronchus (MB) and right PA were occluded. Over the next 5 h, cardiopulmonary parameters (systemic aterial, PA, central venous, left atrial pressure, pCO2, pO2) were measured, including extravascular lung water (EVLW). Thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance assay (TBARS) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) analysis from lung tissue were run. Results: All recipients of group I survived the 6-h reperfusion period; in contrast, all control animals died within 1-2 h after occlusion of the right side. In comparison to a marked rise in pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) in group II (>1000 dyne s cm−5), PVR in group I remained stable, moderately elevated from baseline (baseline: 150-180 dyne s cm−5 vs endpoint: 1000 dyne s cm−5). EVLW in group I did not increase during reperfusion (baseline: 6.75 ± 1.4 mg/kg vs endpoint: 6.7 ± 1

The rice Xa21 gene, which confers resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae race 6, was isolated by positional cloning. Fifty transgenic rice plants carrying the cloned Xa21 gene display high levels of resistance to the pathogen. The sequence of the predicted protein, which carries both a leucine-rich repeat motif and a serine-threonine kinase-like domain, suggests a role in cell surface recognition of a pathogen ligand and subsequent activation of an intracellular defense response. Characterization of Xa21 should facilitate understanding of plant disease resistance and lead to engineered resistance in rice.

The rice Xa21 gene, which confers resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae race 6, was isolated by positional cloning. Fifty transgenic rice plants carrying the cloned Xa21 gene display high levels of resistance to the pathogen. The sequence of the predicted protein, which carries both a leucine-rich repeat motif and a serine-threonine kinase-like domain, suggests a role in cell surface recognition of a pathogen ligand and subsequent activation of an intracellular defense response. Characterization of Xa21 should facilitate understanding of plant disease resistance and lead to engineered resistance in rice.