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Heavy metal pollution of a mining-impacted river—the Wenyu River—and a short section of the river it joins, the Luo River, were investigated after heavy rainfall following a dry season in March 2015 and during a normal flow season in May 2015. Water samples were collected during these two periods, and sediment samples were obtained in May as the rain washed out the sediments in March. The results showed the following: (1) The Wenyu River was severely polluted by acid mine drainage from an open-pit molybdenum (Mo) mine, and the major pollutants in the water according to Chinese national standard values were acid (pH), sulfate, Cu, Zn, Mn, Ni, and Cd. The major pollutants in the sediment were Cu, Zn, and Cd, as indicated by the geoaccumulation index and potential ecological risk index. (2) The major pollutants in the water were naturally attenuated along the river and met the national standard values after joining the Luo River, except Mn in both water samples and Cd in the samples after rain in March. The major pollutants in the sediments showed an increasing tendency along the Wenyu River and Luo River. (3) The heavy rainfall following the prolonged dry season increased acid and heavy metal contamination in the river, which might be attributed to the dissolution of efflorescent salts and the weathering and erosion of mining residues. Thus, the first heavy rain following a dry season should receive particular attention from mining enterprises and regulators. Several mitigation options and recommendations are also discussed.

Substrate amendments composed of crab shell (CS) waste materials have been shown to significantly improve the longevity and performance of acid mine drainage (AMD) treatment systems containing spent mushroom compost (SMC), yet the development of key microbial populations within these systems has not been investigated. To better understand the effects of CS on microbial dynamics in these systems, clone libraries and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) were performed on materials from a laboratory-scale AMD treatment system containing SMC and 0 to 100% CS substrate after receiving a continuous flow of AMD for 148 days (428 pore volumes). The proportion of CS in the substrate positively correlated with the diversity of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and archaeal clones, but negatively correlated with fungal diversity. CS also impacted microbial community structure, as revealed in Unifrac significance and principal coordinate analysis tests. The column containing 100% CS substrate supported 7 different genera of SRB—the most ever observed in an AMD treatment system. Moreover, the copy numbers of functional genes representing fermenters, sulfate reducers, and chitin degraders increased with increasing proportions of CS. These observations agree well with the chemical performance data, further validating that by supporting more abundant key microbial groups, chitinous substrates may provide benefits for improving both the longevity and performance of AMD treatment systems, and may provide similar benefits for the treatment of other environmental contaminants that are amenable to anaerobic bioremediation.Key points• Crab shell improves the longevity and performance of acid mine drainage treatment.• The diversity of sulfate-reducing bacteria is enhanced with crab shell amendments.• Crab shell supports more abundant key microbial groups than spent mushroom compost.

The average share of nuclear energy in electricity production is expected to increase under the background of the global pursuit towards carbon neutrality. Conjugating with its rapid development, the wave of decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) of nuclear facilities is coming. The surface decontamination is a prerequisite to D&D, which will make it easier and reduce the volume of radioactive wastes. However, there are no comprehensive studies on the decontamination methods, which is not helpful for the sustainable development of nuclear energy and environment protection. Therefore, in this work, the current status and future trends of global energy and nuclear energy are first analyzed. Then, various decontamination approaches are comparatively studied, including cleaning mechanisms, application subjects, and intrinsic advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the criteria and factors for selecting a decontamination process, the challenges, and future studies are directed. Among the mechanical methods, laser-based cleaning is high-speed, having automation ability, and thus is promising, although it creates a dust and airborne contaminant hazard. In further studies, factors such as selecting a proper laser facility, optimizing operating parameters, and designing a high-efficiency dust collection system could be studied. Regarding the chemical method, chemical gels are good for decontaminating complex shapes and vertical and overhead surfaces. In addition, they can enhance other decon agents’ efficiency by improving contact time. However, the formulation of colloidal gels is complex and no gel type is useful for all contaminants. Therefore, novel and versatile gels need be developed to enlarge their application field. Combining various decontamination methods will often have better results and thus a reasonable and effective combination of these decontamination methods has become the main direction.

Mobile phones bring much convenience to college students' lives, but they also cause problems. Few studies have explored the effect of the fear of missing out (FoMO) on problematic mobile phone use among college students. This study tested the mediating effect of self-control in the relationship between FoMO and problematic mobile phone use. It also explored the moderating roles of perceived social support and future orientation in the relationship between these variables. A cross-sectional design was used in this study. Materials include the Fear of Missing Out Scale, Perceived Social Support Scale, Self-control Scale (Chinese version), Mobile Phone Addiction Index, and Consideration of Future Consequences Scale. Of 3606 participants, 3189 completed the questionnaire. SPSS 21 was used to analyze the mediation and moderation effects. The results showed that problematic mobile phone use was positively predicted by FoMO. The relationship between FoMO and problematic mobile phone use was partially mediated by self-control. When the scores of perceived social support and future orientation were high, the negative effect of FoMO on problematic mobile phone use was reduced. The negative effect of FoMO on problematic mobile phone use through self-control was moderated by perceived social support and future orientation.

The mass production of graphene oxide (GO) unavoidably elevates the chance of human exposure, as well as the possibility of release into the environment with high stability, raising public concern as to its potential toxicological risks and the implications for humans and ecosystems. Therefore, a thorough assessment of GO toxicity, including its potential reliance on key physicochemical factors, which is lacking in the literature, is of high significance and importance. In this study, GO toxicity, and its dependence on oxidation level, elemental composition, and size, were comprehensively assessed. A newly established quantitative toxicogenomic-based toxicity testing approach, combined with conventional phenotypic bioassays, were employed. The toxicogenomic assay utilized a GFP-fused yeast reporter library covering key cellular toxicity pathways. The results reveal that, indeed, the elemental composition and size do exert impacts on GO toxicity, while the oxidation level exhibits no significant effects. The UV-treated GO, with significantly higher carbon-carbon groups and carboxyl groups, showed a higher toxicity level, especially in the protein and chemical stress categories. With the decrease in size, the toxicity level of the sonicated GOs tended to increase. It is proposed that the covering and subsequent internalization of GO sheets might be the main mode of action in yeast cells.

Neutrophils, an essential innate immune cell type with a short lifespan, rely on continuous replenishment from bone marrow (BM) precursors. Although it is established that neutrophils are derived from the granulocyte-macrophage progenitor (GMP), the molecular regulators involved in the differentiation process remain poorly understood. Here we developed a random forest-based machine-learning pipeline, NeuRGI (Neutrophil Regulatory Gene Identifier), which utilized Positive-Unlabeled Learning (PU-learning) and neural network-based in silico gene knockout to identify neutrophil regulators. We interrogated features including gene expression dynamics, physiological characteristics, pathological relatedness, and gene conservation for the model training. Our identified pipeline leads to identifying Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase-4 ( MAP4K4 ) as a novel neutrophil differentiation regulator. The loss of MAP4K4 in hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors in mice induced neutropenia and impeded the differentiation of neutrophils in the bone marrow. By modulating the phosphorylation level of proteins involved in cell apoptosis, such as STAT5A, MAP4K4 delicately regulates cell apoptosis during the process of neutrophil differentiation. Our work presents a novel regulatory mechanism in neutrophil differentiation and provides a robust prediction model that can be applied to other cellular differentiation processes.

Background: Spatial working memory (SWM) deficit is a common problem in attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD), often correlating with the severity of ADHD symptoms and academic difficulties. Although previous studies have broadly described abnormal brain structural changes in ADHD, the potential changes in brain morphology in children with ADHD with SWM dysfunction are still uncharacterized. This cross-sectional study was used to elucidate the brain morphological alterations associated with SWM performance in boys with ADHD. Methods: Data for this investigation were retrieved from one public dataset. A cohort of 23 boys diagnosed with ADHD and an age-matched group of 23 healthy male controls were selected for the study. Participants were administered n-back SWM tasks, with task accuracy and response times recorded. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to quantify gray matter (GM) volume, thereby characterizing the brain morphological features in both the ADHD and healthy control groups. Linear or rank correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between GM volume and SWM task performance. Results: VBM analysis revealed significantly lower GM volume in the right middle cingulate cortex (MCC), left precuneus, and right retrosubicular region among boys with ADHD. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was observed between the GM volume of the right MCC and the accuracy of the 2-back SWM task under conditions of small reward and immediate feedback. Conclusion: The reduced GM volume in the right MCC, left precuneus, and right retrosubicular might have a potential impact on SWM performance in children with ADHD.

Dissolved oxygen (DO) plays an important role in the performance of biological wastewater treatment systems. This study investigated the effect of the DO concentration on nutrient removal performance and microbial community structure in side-stream activated sludge hydrolysis (SSH) and conventional anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (A2O) processes. The results showed that the change in DO had little effect on the removal performance of chemical oxygen demand (COD), and the removal efficiencies were about 90% for both reactors. Compared with the high DO level (4.1–6.9 mg/L), the A2O and SSH reactors had better nitrogen removal performance at low (0.5–2.2 mg/L) and moderate (2.2–3.9 mg/L) DO levels, with ammonia (NH4+-N) removal efficiencies of 88–89% and 89–91%, respectively, and total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies of 74–76% and 75–81%, respectively. Directly reducing the DO concentration from high to low reduced the phosphate removal efficiencies of the A2O and SSH reactors from 80.2% and 86.2% to 63.1% and 70.6%, respectively, while re-elevating the DO concentration to moderate levels significantly improved the phosphate removal efficiencies to 94.6% and 96.0%, respectively. Compared to the A2O reactor, the SSH reactor had more stable and better nutrient removal performance under different DO conditions, partly due to the additional carbon sources produced through the sludge fermentation in the side-stream reactor. The decrease in the DO concentration resulted in a decrease in the relative abundance of Acinetobacter but an increase in the relative abundance of Competibacter, potentially leading to the deterioration in phosphorus removal.

Objectives: Teachers’ intention understanding ability reflects their professional insight, which is the basis for effective classroom teaching activities. However, the cognitive process and brain mechanism of how teachers understand students’ action intention in class are still unclear. Methods: This study used event-related potential (ERP) technology to explore the cognitive neural differences in intention understanding ability among teachers with different levels of knowledge and experience. The experiment used the comic strips paradigm to examine the ability of expert and novice teachers to understand students’ normative and non-normative classroom actions under different text prompts (“how” and “why”). Results: The results revealed that in the late time window, expert teachers induced larger P300 and LPC amplitudes when they understood students’ classroom action intentions, while the N250 amplitudes induced by novice teachers in the early time window were significantly larger. In addition, for both types of teachers, when understanding the intentions behind students’ normative actions, the N250 amplitude was the most significant, while the P300 and LPC amplitudes were more significant for non-normative actions. Conclusions: This study found that teachers at varying professional development stages had different time processing processes in intention understanding ability, which supported teachers’ brain electrophysiological activities related to social ability.

Influenza susceptibility difference is a widely existing trait that has great practical significance for the accurate prevention and control of influenza. Here, we focused on the human susceptibility to the seasonal influenza A/H3N2 of healthy adults at baseline level. Whole blood expression data for influenza A/H3N2 susceptibility from GEO were collected firstly (30 symptomatic and 19 asymptomatic). Then to explore the differences at baseline, a suite of systems biology approaches - the differential expression analysis, co-expression network analysis, and immune cell frequencies analysis were utilized. We found the baseline condition, especially immune condition between symptomatic and asymptomatic, was different. Co-expression module that is positively related to asymptomatic is also related to immune cell type of naïve B cell. Function enrichment analysis showed significantly correlation with \"B cell receptor signaling pathway\", \"immune response-activating cell surface receptor signaling pathway\" and so on. Also, modules that are positively related to symptomatic are also correlated to immune cell type of neutrophils, with function enrichment analysis showing significantly correlations with \"response to bacterium\", \"inflammatory response\", \"cAMP-dependent protein kinase complex\" and so on. Responses of symptomatic and asymptomatic hosts after virus exposure show differences on resisting the virus, with more effective frontline defense for asymptomatic hosts. A prediction model was also built based on only baseline transcription information to differentiate symptomatic and asymptomatic population with accuracy of 0.79. The results not only improve our understanding of the immune system and influenza susceptibility, but also provide a new direction for precise and targeted prevention and therapy of influenza.