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Anammox bacteria are chemolithotrophic organisms growing on the conversion of ammonium and nitrite with bicarbonate as the sole carbon source. Meanwhile, anammox bacteria display a metabolic versatility to sustain their metabolism. However, there is less attention on the Fe0/Fe2+-dependent autotrophic denitrification by anammox consortia. In this study, the autotrophic nitrate reduction using different valence of iron (Fe0, Fe2+ and Fe0+ Fe2+, respectively) as electron donors by anammox consortia were firstly explored in continuous feeding mode. Results revealed anammox consortia showed high adaptability to the niche wherein containing nitrate and iron. They could generate nitrite and ammonium from iron-dependent nitrate reduction, and hence support their central metabolism. During 60-days operation, the maximum nitrate and total nitrogen removal efficiency reached 88.43% and 80.77%, respectively, with coexistence of Fe0 and Fe2+. The expression of key functional genes involved in nitrate reduction (including narG, napA and nrfA) in 16S rRNA level revealed the coupling of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to nitrite, dissimilatory nitrite reduction to ammonia (DNRA), and anammox processes possibly play pivotal role in nitrogen loss under Fe0/Fe2+ condition. Meanwhile, abiotic reduction by Fe0/Fe2+ also contributed nitrate reduction to provide nitrite and ammonium for anammox consortia. Activities of two vital enzymes hydrazine dehydrogenase (HDH) and nitrate oxidoreduetase (NAR) also inferred higher microbial activities with co-existence of Fe0 and Fe2+. The present study confirms and further extends the versatile metabolisms of Anammox consortia, also it can help to circumvent the accumulation of nitrate produced by anammox process itself and increase the quality of discharge.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most abundant internal mRNA modification in eukaryotes, plays a vital role in regulating adipogenesis. However, its underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. Here, we reveal that deletion of m6A demethylase FTO in porcine and mouse preadipocytes inhibits adipogenesis through JAK2-STAT3-C/EBPβ signaling. Mechanistically, FTO deficiency suppresses JAK2 expression and STAT3 phosphorylation, leading to attenuated transcription of C/EBPβ, which is essential for the early stage of adipocyte differentiation. Using dual-luciferase assay, we validate that knockdown of FTO reduces expression of JAK2 in an m6A-dependent manner. Furthermore, we find that m6A "reader" protein YTHDF2 directly targets m6A-modified transcripts of JAK2 and accelerates mRNA decay, which results in decreased JAK2 expression and inactivated JAK2-STAT3-C/EBPβ signaling, thereby inhibiting adipogenesis. Collectively, our results provide a novel insight into the molecular mechanism of m6A methylation in post-transcriptional regulation of JAK2-STAT3-C/EBPβ signaling axis and highlight the crucial role of m6A modification and its modulators in adipogenesis.

Swine enteric coronaviruses (SECoVs), including porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), and porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) have emerged and been prevalent in pig populations in China for the last several years. However, current traditional inactivated and attenuated PEDV vaccines are of limited efficacy against circulating PEDV variants, and there are no commercial vaccines for prevention of PDCoV and SADS-CoV. RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful tool in therapeutic applications to inhibit viral replication in vitro. In this study, we developed a small interfering RNA generation system that expressed two different short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) targeting the M gene of PEDV and SADS-CoV and the N gene of PDCoV, respectively. Our results demonstrated that simultaneous expression of these specific shRNA molecules inhibited expression of PEDV M gene, SADS-CoV M gene, and PDCoV N gene RNA by 99.7%, 99.4%, and 98.8%, respectively, in infected cell cultures. In addition, shRNA molecules significantly restricted the expression of M and N protein, and impaired the replication of PEDV, SADS-CoV, and PDCoV simultaneously. Taken together, this shRNAs expression system not only is proved to be a novel approach for studying functions of various genes synchronously, but also developed to test aspects of a potential therapeutic option for treatment and prevention of multiple SECoV infections., Highlights • Two potential targets of antiviral molecules for the treatment of three swine enteric coronaviruses replication are tested. • The multiple-shRNA expression vector was constructed to effectively inhibit PEDV, SADS-CoV, and PDCoV. • A shRNA-based multiple-resistance antiviral strategy, significantly affecting viral replication, was evaluated in vitro.

To achieve the simultaneous removal of NH4+-N and NO3−-N in F−-containing semiconductor wastewater by coupled S0-driven autotrophic denitrification and Anammox process, the effect of variable F− concentration on the Anammox process was investigated by batch experiments. The denitrifying ammonium oxidation (Deamox) reactor was then started-up to explore the feasibility of the coupling of Anammox and sulfur autotrophic denitrification (SADN) for the treatment of semiconductor wastewater. Short-term variation of F− concentration has an obviously effect on the activity of Anammox sludge, but didn't affect the nitrogen conversion rate. The activity of Anammox obviously decreased after long-term operation of the Deamox reactor when influent F− concentrations reached 552 mg/L. The sensitivity of Anammox bacteria to F− concentration is stronger than that of SADN bacteria. Total nitrogen removal efficiency of 98% and total nitrogen removal rate of 4.11 kg/(m3·d) were achieved in the Deamox reactor, when the F− was pre-treated by calcium ions. Moreover, the high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis indicated that variation in F− concentrations could influence the structure and functional of microbial communities in the Deamox process. Candidatus Kuenenia, Thiobacillus and Sulfurimonas were main functional bacteria that achieved symbiotic.

An efficient and stable combined denitrification-partial nitrification-Anammox process with a dual recycling system was used to remove nitrogen from mature landfill leachate. After 155 d of operation, the NO3− as the PN-Anammox byproduct was almost treated with biodegradable organic carbon in raw wastewater in a pre-denitrification reactor by external recycling system. When raw landfill leachate with NH4+-N concentration of 1900 mg/L was treated, an integrated reactor with airlift recycling was combined with the PN and Anammox reactions to efficiently remove NH4+ from the inflow. The total nitrogen concentration of effluent stabilized at 20 mg/L and total nitrogen removal efficiency was 99%. The maximum NO2− production rate in the aerobic zone was 2.2 kg/(m3·d) and the maximum nitrogen removal rate in the anaerobic zone was 21.4 kg/(m3·d). The most common phyla among the nitrification and the Anammox functional bacteria were Nitrosomonas, Candidatus Kuenenia, and Candidatus Brocadia after landfill leachate treatment.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most prevalent internal mRNA modification in eukaryotes. Loss of m6A demethylase FTO increases m6A levels and inhibits adipogenesis of preadipocytes. However, its underlying mechanism remains elusive. Here, we demonstrated that silencing FTO inhibited adipogenesis of preadipocytes through impairing cell cycle progression at the early stage of adipogenesis. FTO knockdown markedly decreased the expression of CCNA2 and CDK2, crucial cell cycle regulators, leading to delayed entry of MDI-induced cells into G2 phase. Furthermore, the m6A levels of CCNA2 and CDK2 mRNA were significantly upregulated following FTO knockdown. m6A-binding protein YTHDF2 recognized and decayed methylated mRNAs of CCNA2 and CDK2, leading to decreased protein expression, thereby prolonging cell cycle progression and suppressing adipogenesis. Our work unravels that FTO regulates adipogenesis by controlling cell cycle progression in an m6A-YTHDF2 dependent manner, which provides insights into critical roles of m6A methylation in adipogenesis.

The feasibility of using Feammox coupled with nitrate-dependent Fe(II) oxidizing (NAFO) to cause the simultaneous conversion of NH4+ and NO3− was explored by inoculation with Feammox sludge and the use Fe cycling as catalyst. After 61 days operation, the simultaneous conversion of NO3− and NH4+ occurred with the presence of interconversion between Fe(III) and Fe(II). The conversion ratio of NH4+ to NO3− stabilized at 0.9–1. The results of isotopic tracing and microbial diversity analysis indicated that NH4+ was first oxidized to NO2− by Fe(III), then NO3− was reduced to NO2− and N2 by the Fe(II) produced in Feammox process, and finally, the NO2− produced in NAFO process underwent an Anammox process with the remaining NH4+ to yield N2. The results showed the simultaneous continuous conversion process of NO3− and NH4+ with limited Fe as a catalyst was a coupled process of Feammox, Anammox, and NAFO under the anaerobic conditions.

The effects of salinity changes on nitrogen transformation efficiency and recoverability were studied by using a partial nitration (PN)- anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) integrated reactor. The changes of microbial community structure and population abundance during the increase and decrease of salinity were also analyzed by 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that when the salinity was increased to 1.35%, the combined PN-Anammox process achieved the maximum stimulated and total nitrogen removal rate (TNRR) arrived at 1.1kg/(m3·d). When the salinity was higher than 1.35%, the activities of AOB and Anammox bacteria began to be inhibited. When the salinity reached 2.4%, the TNRR decreased to 60%. TNRR was fast restored, when salinity was reduced to 0.11%. The genes of AOB and Anammox bacteria indicated that the TNRR of the reactor was restored after salinity inhibition, but the functional microbial community structure and abundance had relatively large, irreversible changes.

In this work, we report a method that the Si substrate is pre-treated in the atmosphere of high temperature AlN before the depositon of Al to improve the quality of GaN-on-Si, which is studied by few people. Compared to the untreated sample, the pre-treated one exhibits smoother surface morphology with a root mean square roughness (RMS) value of 0.580 nm and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of GaN (102) plane also decreases from 1484 arcsec to 1303 arcsec. Moreover, we give an explanation for the extra shoulder peaks in the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. This enhancement of quality and surface morphology of GaN can be attributed to the improvement of surface flatness of Si substrate, which contributes to the conversion of AlN to two-dimensional growth mode, leading to a smoother surface of GaN. And the reason for the improvement of Si substrate is also investigated in this work.

In this work, a novel nitrate (NO3−) reduction pathway by anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) biomass was firstly discovered with the intracellular carbon sources as the only electron donors. And the possible reaction mechanism was deduced to be intracellular dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) pathway according to the experimental results. In batch experiments, without any external electron donors, NO3−-N (about 50 mg/L) was reduced to N2 within 48 h, and a small amount of NO2−-N was detected (the maximum of 2 mg/L) with the anammox biomass concentration of 4400 mg/L. Acetylene (4.46 mmol/L) addition resulted in obvious NH4+ accumulation during NO3− degradation by anammox biomass, since acetylene mainly interfered in hydrazine (N2H4) generation from NH4+ and NO. Without HCO3− addition, the NO3−-N degradation rate was slower than that with HCO3− addition. Simultaneously, glycogen contents inside anammox biomass decreased to 133.22 ± 1.21 mg/g VSS and 129.79 ± 1.21 mg/g VSS with and without HCO3−, respectively, from 142.20 ± 0.61 mg/g VSS. In the long-term experiment, anammox biomass stably degraded NO3−-N without external electron donors addition, and the maximum removal efficiency of NO3−-N reached 55.4%. The above results indicated the anammox bacteria utilized the DNRA pathway to reduce NO3− to NO2− and further NH4+, then normal anammox metabolism would continue to convert the produced NO2− and NH4+ to N2. The intracellular stored carbon sources (e.g., glycogen) were supposed to be electron donors for NO3− degradation. This capability would enhance the viability and living space of anammox bacteria in different natural ecosystems, and make it plausible that complete nitrogen removal could be implemented only by the anammox process.

In the tip clearance flow, the dominant vortex is the tip leakage vortex (TLV), which has a significant impact on the hydraulic and cavitation performance of axial flow machinery. Thus, the suppression methods of the TLV are necessary in turbomachinery. Casing groove is an effective and economical technique among many control methods. However, its mechanism is still not completely understood. In order to reveal the effect mechanism of the casing groove on the TLV, numerical investigations of gap flow with groove configurations are carried out. A NACA0009 hydrofoil with tip gap is selected as the research object. Two typical groove types (vertical groove and horizontal groove) are applied on the solid wall respectively. Efforts are made to analyze the difference of velocity distributions between the two groove cases and the smooth wall case. Combing with the vortex stability theory, the suppression mechanisms of the two types of casing groove are distinguished and uncovered. For the vertical groove, the TLV intensity is reinforced via the secondary leakage vortex (SLV) at first, and then the supply of the axial momentum in the TLV center is cut off, leading to a less stable TLV. For the horizontal groove, the dissipation effect caused by viscosity on the TLV is strong, resulting in a weakened TLV.

A mathematic model was developed for describing the nitrogen and organic carbon removal via the simultaneous anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and heterotrophic denitrification (SAD) process. The model considered anammox bacteria, heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria, ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, and readily biodegradable carbon. The model parameters were calibrated by using the experimental data in the single batch reactors inoculated with anammox sludge of 190 mg-VSS/L and activated sludge of 110 or 220 mg-VSS/L for treating wastewater containing ammonium of 30 mg-N/L and nitrate of 40 mg-N/L. The rapid depletion of nitrate and acetate as the sole carbon source were observed in the reactor. Subsequently, the temporarily accumulated nitrite was removed with ammonium. The initial C/N ratio of 1.5–2.0 and the population ratio of heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria to anammox bacteria within 0.3–0.4 were suitable conditions for the batch SAD process. The sensitivity analysis of kinetic parameters revealed that the most influential parameters for the nitrogen and organic carbon removal were the half-saturation constants for nitrite of heterotrophic bacteria and anammox bacteria and the anoxic reduction factors of heterotrophic bacteria on the nitrate-reducing rate and the nitrite-reducing rate, which closely associated with nitrite accumulation in the SAD process.

This study investigated the inhibitory effects of Cd, Ag, Hg and Pb on Anammox biomass by batch experiments. Inhibition effects and recovery performance were monitored in sequence over 24 h and 72 h experimental runs. The IC50 (the 50% inhibitory concentration of nitrogen removal rate) values were calculated as follows: 11.16 ± 0.42 mg/L for Cd; 11.52 ± 0.49 mg/L for Ag; 60.35 ± 2.47 mg/L for Hg. Pb caused only 7.19% decrease on nitrogen removal rate (NRR) even at a dose of 40 mg/L. Hence, the order of the inhibitory effect was determined as Cd > Ag > Hg > Pb. Furthermore, the crude enzyme (hydrazine dehydrogenase) activity and heme c concentration were also depressed under heavy metals exposure. Among four metals, Cd and Hg could exert sustained toxicity on Anammox biomass, but mal-effects of Ag and Pb could resume to a large extent after removing these two metals within 96 h.

A novel turn-off fluorescent probe based on coumarin and imidazole moiety for extremely acidic conditions was designed and developed. The probe with pKa=2.1 is able to respond to very low pH value (below 3.5) with high sensitivity relying on fluorescence quenching at 460 nm in fluorescence spectra or the ratios of absorbance maximum at 380 nm to that at 450 nm in UV-vis spectra. It can quantitatively detect pH value based on equilibrium equation, pH=pKa-log[(Ix-Ib)/(Ia-Ix)]. It had very short response time that was less than 1 min, good reversibility and nearly no interference from common metal ions. Moreover, using (1)H NMR analysis and theoretical calculation of molecular orbital, we verified that a two-step protonation process of two N atoms of the probe leaded to photoinduced electron transfer (PET), which was actually the mechanism of the fluorescence quenching phenomenon under strongly acidic conditions. Furthermore, the probe was also applied to imaging strong acidity in bacteria, E.coli and had good effect. This work illustrates that the new probe could be a practical and ideal pH indicator for strongly acidic conditions with good biological significance.

Four shapes of Cu2O particles as sphere, cube, truncated octahedron and octahedron were prepared via glucose reduction of Cu(II) under alkaline condition. The products were characterized by XRD and SEM. The effects of the precursor (CuO, Cu(OH)2), reaction temperature and glucose concentration on morphology of Cu2O particles were investigated, and the mechanism of morphology control was discussed on the basic theory of crystal nucleation and growth. It is found that the Cu+ supersaturation is remarkably influenced by the precursor kind, reaction temperature and glucose concentration, and the morphology of Cu2O particles can be controlled by the Cu+ supersaturation.

Nitrogen-doped ZnO (ZnO:N) thin films with multi-buffer-layers, Mg0.1Zn0.9O / ZnO super-lattice structure, were grown on sapphire (0 0 0 1) by plasma-activated laser molecular beam epitaxy (L-MBE) using an atomic nitrogen source. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) measurement demonstrated that all the ZnO:N samples are (0 0 0 2) oriented and the residual strain along c-axial are effectively controlled. Room temperature (RT) Hall measurements indicate that the 200 °C sample shows a p-type behavior with a mobility of 4.08 cm2/V s and a carrier density of 1.47 × 1 0 17 cm−3. The 300 °C sample shows a weak p-type behavior with a mobility of 0.75 cm2/V s and a carrier density of 4.40 × 1 0 16 cm−3. However, the 200 °C sample is not stable and reverted back to n-type conductivity in about 5 days. The X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) of N1s display two peaks at 404 eV and 396 eV which are related to (N2)Oand NO, respectively. The 10 K low temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the 200 °C sample exhibits an acceptor bound exciton peak at 3.351 eV and a donor–acceptor pair (DAP) peak at 3.228 eV, associated with NO acting as acceptors.

The thin film transistors (TFTs) based on nitrogen doped zinc oxide (ZnO) were investigated by laser molecular beam epitaxy. The increase of ZnO films' resistivity by nitrogen doping was found and applied in enhancement mode ZnO-TFTs. The ZnO-TFTs with a conventional bottom-gate structure were fabricated on thermally oxidized p-type silicon substrate. Electrical measurement has revealed that the devices operate as an n-channel enhancement mode and exhibit an on/off ratio of 10(4). The threshold voltage is 5.15 V. The channel mobility on the order of 2.66 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) has been determined. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ribose methylation of eukaryotic rRNA is directed by box C/D small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), which pinpoint the nucleotide to be methylated in specific position within the rRNA sequence. Here, we report the identification of a novel double-guide C/D box snoRNA termed snR88 that directs methylation of two previously undetermined sites in 25S rRNA from the fission yeast. Knockout of the predicted TATA box of the snR88 gene resulted in the complete blocking of its expression, showing that snR88 is an independently transcribed gene and dispensable for yeast viability. The depletion of snR88 abolished 25S rRNA methylation at U2304 and U2497 simultaneously. Interestingly, an unusual pause of reverse transcription at U2495 was observed, which implies an unknown structure of 25S rRNA related to ribose methylation at U2497 in the fission yeast.

In this paper, we report on glancing-incidence X-ray analysis (GIXA) of ZnO thin films, ZnO/ZnMgO and ZnO/Au heterostructures grown by laser molecular beam epitaxy (L-MBE) on c-plane Al2O3 substrates. The surface and interface sensitivity of X-ray reflectivity (XRR) has been exploited to evaluate the surfaces and interfaces of ZnO-based structures. The presence of smooth interfaces is responsible for the observation of intensity oscillation in XRR, which is well correlated to the clear Pendellosung fringes in high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) measurements. In addition, the simulation of XRR data yields reliable and precise information of the layer thickness, the surface and interface roughness of each layer. The correlation of a smooth surface and high optical and structural quality is substantiated by time-integrated photoluminescence (TIPL) and XRD measurements of ZnO/ZnMgO heterostructure and ZnO thin films. The intense exciton-related emission, in contrast to a negligible deep-level radiation and the high c-axis orientation of ZnO films, indicates good optical and structural properties due to the superior surface and interface quality of our samples. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Novel spear-like ZnO nanowires with a length of 2 μm and a width of 0.26 μm were synthesized on p-Si (100) substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method without catalysts. The crystal structures and morphographies of the products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and high resolution field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS) demonstrated that the spear-like microstuctures consist of element Zn and O. It indicated that the shapes of the products strongly depend on the growth conditions. The optical properties of spear-like ZnO nanostructures were investigated by temperature-depended photoluminescence (PL) measurements and all of the observed emission lines were well fitted by the Varshni formula.

We investigate how the presence of hadronic matter affects the width and the decay pattern of ▭ as a function of temperature and density and what this means qualitatively for the experiments studying ▭ production in relativistic nuclear collisions. We determine quantitatively in two models how the natural hadronic width of ▭ increases in a hot hadronic gas.