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In this study, wet oxidation of excess sludge from the caprolactam wastewater treatment process was investigated. The effects of reaction conditions, including sludge concentration, the amount of sludge, reaction temperature and time and the oxygen supply amount, were discussed. The highest removal rates of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and volatile suspended solid (VSS) that can be attained at 78.6 and 89.3% were acquired separately under 260 °C for 60 min with an initial oxygen gas pressure of 1.3 MPa. The sludge was hydrolyzed and oxidized under hydrothermal conditions, producing small molecule organic acids, such as acetic, formic and oxalic acids, as the main products, which could be used as carbon sources for wastewater treatment. These results indicated that wet oxidation provides a favourable and feasible alternative method for the treatment of excess sludge from the coal chemical industry.

Disturbance alters environmental conditions in forests. Plants growing in forests with different disturbance histories in diverse environments may adopt varying life history strategies, but few studies focus on this effect. This study comprehensively investigated plant biodiversity, biomass, and functional traits in subtropical forests with two different disturbance histories in east China to explore differences in life history strategies. Biodiversity was slightly higher in disturbed compared to conserved forests. Significantly higher biomass was measured in conserved relative to disturbed evergreen broadleaved forests ( P < 0.05). In conserved forests, leaf tissue density (LTD) was significantly higher and leaf thickness (LT), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), twig tissue density (TTD), twig dry matter content (TDMC), bark tissue density (BTD) and dry matter content (BDMC), and stem tissue density (STD) and dry matter content (SDMC) were significantly lower than in disturbed forests ( P < 0.05). In terms of associated plant biodiversity, biomass, and functional traits, conserved forests adopted a resource acquisition strategy, reducing biodiversity and developing multiple functional traits such as high leaf area and specific leaf area and low LT, LDMC, TTD, TDMC, BTD, BDMC, STD, and SDMC to support a high biomass accumulation rate. Disturbed forests adopted a resource conservation strategy, enhancing biodiversity and developing converse trait combinations to lower the rate of biomass accumulation. A comprehensive investigation of plant biodiversity, biomass, and functional traits and subsequent assessment of plant life history strategies in conserved and disturbed forests will aid investigations of regional biodiversity and carbon reserves, contribute data to the TRY and Chinese plant trait databases, and improve ecological management and restoration efforts in east China.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a common subtype of Richter transformation (RT) in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), accounting for 90–95% of all transformation cases. However, RT with isolated cerebral involvement is rare. Herein, we report the case of a 67-year-old man with DLBCL that transformed from CLL during obinutuzumab treatment. This patient developed RT with only central nervous system (CNS) involvement and no systemic features. After undergoing single-agent treatment with the CD20×CD3 bispecific antibody glofitamab, the patient regained consciousness and improved clinically. Although only one successful case has been presented, glofitamab may be considered a promising therapeutic option for patients with RT and isolated CNS involvement.

ABSTRACT This study examined the connectivity between the current suitable habitat and the core habitat for Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) in human‐dominated landscapes and aimed to provide a basis for future conservation strategies for black bear populations in China. We collected occurrence locations (N = 130) of Asiatic black bears from 2014 to 2023, with data sources spanning 12 provincial administrative regions and covering an area of about 3,010,000 km2. We predicted the distribution of suitable habitats for Asiatic black bears via the MaxEnt species distribution model using a combination of multiple environmental variables such as topography, vegetation, climate, and anthropogenic disturbances. We performed habitat corridor planning by using the least‐cost path model and circuit theory. The results suggested that (1) Asiatic black bears have a marked preference for mountainous environments with middle and high altitude (> 1000 m), high amounts of precipitation (> 200 mm), and dense vegetation, and they generally avoid areas of anthropogenic disturbance. (2) The suitable habitats for Asiatic black bears showed a highly fragmented pattern, mainly concentrated along the borders of Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, and Jiangxi (the Zhe–Gan Region), the borders of Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hunan (the Hu–Guang Region), and the borders of Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hubei, Guizhou, and Sichuan (the Chuan–Shaan Region). Of the predicted 372,483 km2 of suitable habitat, only 23.65% is currently covered by protected and conserved areas. (3) A comprehensive landscape connectivity analysis identified 79 core habitat patches encompassing a total area of 33,257 km2. Notably, only 29.29% of these patches are currently under protection. Furthermore, we delineated 79 potential least‐cost paths, each with an average length of 43.66 km, and identified pinch points along these pathways that could impede connectivity. To ensure the long‐term survival of Asiatic black bear populations, we recommend enhancing the protection and restoration efforts for the three core habitats and their associated potential connectivity pathways. This study reveals that suitable habitats for Asiatic black bears in China are highly fragmented, with poor connectivity between core habitats, making conservation efforts urgently needed. Using the MAXENT model, the study predicted the distribution of suitable habitats and planned potential low‐cost migration corridors, providing a crucial basis for future conservation strategies for black bear populations.

Background It is often difficult to obtain sufficient quantity of RNA molecules for gene expression profiling under many practical situations. Amplification from low-input samples may induce artificial signals. Results We compared the expression measurements of low-input mRNA samples, from 25 pg to 1000 pg mRNA, which were amplified and profiled by Smart-seq, DP-seq and CEL-seq techniques using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform, with those of the paired high-input (50 ng) mRNA samples. Even with 1000 pg mRNA input, we found that thousands of genes had at least 2 folds-change of expression levels in the low-input samples compared with the corresponding paired high-input samples. Consequently, a transcriptional signature based on quantitative expression values and determined from high-input RNA samples cannot be applied to low-input samples, and vice versa. In contrast, the within-sample relative expression orderings (REOs) of approximately 90% of all the gene pairs in the high-input samples were maintained in the paired low-input samples with 1000 pg input mRNA molecules. Similar results were observed in the low-input total RNA samples amplified and profiled by the Whole-Genome DASL technique using the Illumina HumanRef-8 v3.0 platform. As a proof of principle, we developed REOs-based signatures from high-input RNA samples for discriminating cancer tissues and showed that they can be robustly applied to low-input RNA samples. Conclusions REOs-based signatures determined from the high-input RNA samples can be robustly applied to samples profiled with the low-input RNA samples, as low as the 1000 pg and 250 pg input samples but no longer stable in samples with less than 250 pg RNA input to a certain degree.

Humic substances (HSs) occupy 80% of organic matter in soil and have been widely applied for soil remediation agents, potential battery materials, and adsorbents. Since the HS extraction rate is very low by microbial degradation in nature, artificial humification processes such as aerobic composting (AC) and hydrothermal treatment (HT) have attracted a great deal of attention as the most important strategies in HS production. This article aims to provide a state-of-the-art review on the development of conversion of biomass waste into HSs based on AC and HT for the first time in terms of mechanisms, characteristics of HSs’ molecular structure, and influencing factors. In addition, some differences based on the aforementioned information between AC and HT are reviewed and discussed in the conversion of biomass waste into HSs in a pioneering way. For biomass waste conversion, a feasible strategy on effective humification processes by combining AC with HT is proposed.

Indocalamus tessellatus , a broad-leaved bamboo species, holds significant economic and ecological value. However, the absence of a high-quality reference genome has constrained genetic and functional studies of this species. Here, we report a chromosome-scale genome assembly of I. tessellatus , constructed by integrating PacBio HiFi and Hi-C sequencing technologies. The final assembly is 2.89 Gb with a scaffold N50 of 117.66 Mb. BUSCO assessment against the poales_odb10 dataset revealed 99.0% completeness, indicating the high quality of the assembly. Additionally, a total of 41,765 protein-coding genes were predicted, offering a critical resource for functional annotation and comparative genomics. This reference genome establishes a foundation for studies on I. tessellatus biology, breeding, and conservation.

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a highly prevalent indolent lymphoma, and the risk of histological transformation is approximately 2–3% per year. Transformation of FL generally occurs in the same lineage (B cell lineage). Another rare form of disease progression is the transformation of neoplastic B-cells to another cell lineage such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The low incidence of B-myeloid transformation associated with poor prognosis hinders the establishment of model systems to identify molecular mechanisms. A 64-year-old woman was diagnosed with FL and achieved a satisfactory response after six cycles of R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone). Approximately one month after treatment terminated, the disease progressed to AML with an increased white blood cell count and abnormal coagulation. Interestingly, nucleotide sequence analysis of the genomic region encoding the immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable domain showed the possibility of homologous transformation from lymphoma to leukemia cells. Although the patient experienced transient improvement after undergoing treatment with one cycle of idarubicin and cytarabine combined with etoposide, she relapsed and died 8 days after venetoclax salvage therapy. Patient with B-myeloid transformation was associated with an aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis. Conventional strategies for treating histologically transformed AML were ineffective. However, treatment with a Bcl-2 inhibitor could serve as an option. Here we review the literature relevant to this rare histological transformation of FL.

Background The Connectivity Map (CMAP) database, an important public data source for drug repositioning, archives gene expression profiles from cancer cell lines treated with and without bioactive small molecules. However, there are only one or two technical replicates for each cell line under one treatment condition. For such small-scale data, current fold-changes-based methods lack statistical control in identifying differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in treated cells. Especially, one-to-one comparison may result in too many drug-irrelevant DEGs due to random experimental factors. To tackle this problem, CMAP adopts a pattern-matching strategy to build “connection” between disease signatures and gene expression changes associated with drug treatments. However, many drug-irrelevant genes may blur the “connection” if all the genes are used instead of pre-selected DEGs induced by drug treatments. Methods We applied OneComp, a customized version of RankComp, to identify DEGs in such small-scale cell line datasets. For a cell line, a list of gene pairs with stable relative expression orderings (REOs) were identified in a large collection of control cell samples measured in different experiments and they formed the background stable REOs. When applying OneComp to a small-scale cell line dataset, the background stable REOs were customized by filtering out the gene pairs with reversal REOs in the control samples of the analyzed dataset. Results In simulated data, the consistency scores of overlapping genes between DEGs identified by OneComp and SAM were all higher than 99%, while the consistency score of the DEGs solely identified by OneComp was 96.85% according to the observed expression difference method. The usefulness of OneComp was exemplified in drug repositioning by identifying phenformin and metformin related genes using small-scale cell line datasets which helped to support them as a potential anti-tumor drug for non-small-cell lung carcinoma, while the pattern-matching strategy adopted by CMAP missed the two connections. The implementation of OneComp is available at https://github.com/pathint/reoa . Conclusions OneComp performed well in both the simulated and real data. It is useful in drug repositioning studies by helping to find hidden “connections” between drugs and diseases.

With the simultaneous increase in wastewater generation and wastewater treatment rates in China, the annual production of residual sewage sludge (RSS) has been steadily rising, exceeding 70 million tons with an 80% moisture content. The sustainable resource utilization of RSS will be the predominant disposal method instead of sanitary landfilling in China. This review aimed to systematically analyze the major sustainable resource utilization technologies for RSS. Firstly, the basic characteristics of RSS in China were analyzed. A comparative analysis was conducted to assess the advantages, disadvantages, and applicability of three primary sustainable resource utilization technologies for RSS: building materials, energy utilization, and phosphorus recovery, aiming to provide clear insights for the development of future strategies. The research findings revealed that no single method can economically and environmentally address all challenges in the utilization of RSS resources. It is necessary to adopt appropriate resource utilization technologies according to the characteristics of RSS from wastewater treatment, achieving integration of pollution control and resource utilization. This review can provide scientific guidance for future sustainable utilization of RSS resources.