Research progress on iron homeostasis regulation and heart-related diseases

Iron is an indispensable trace element in mammals and performs several important physiological functions in the body.Dynamic equilibrium in iron metabolism exists.Iron uptake,storage,and output are in equilibrium as well.Several laboratory animal models have shown that iron deficiency and deposition can lead to a variety of functional disorders.Cardiac diseases caused by iron deposition in laboratory animal models are caused by abnormal oxidative stress,electrophysiological changes,iron metabolism-related gene defects,myocardial cell apoptosis,fibrosis,ferroptosis,and other causes.This review discusses the causes of heart disease related to iron deposition in laboratory animal models to illustrate further the impact of effective iron removal therapy on cardiac disease associated with iron deposition.In addition,this review demonstrates the possibility of elucidating the precise molecular mechanism of iron abnormality in heart diseases in experimental animal models and the feasibility of using iron abnormality as a target for developing new therapeutic drugs for the treatment of heart disease.

Extraction of metals from complex sulfide nickel concentrates by low-temperature chlorination roasting and water leaching

The recovery of valuable metals from complex sulfide concentrates was investigated via chlorination roasting followed by water leaching. A reaction process is proposed on the basis of previous studies and the results of our preliminary experiments. During the process, various process parameters were studied, including the roasting temperature, the addition of NH4Cl, the roasting time, the leaching time, and the liquid-to-solid ratio. The roasted products and leach residues were characterized by X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopy. Under the optimum condition, 95% of Ni, 98% of Cu, and 88% of Co were recovered. In addition, the removal of iron was studied in the water leaching stage. The results demonstrate that this process provides an effective approach for extracting multiple metals from complex concentrates or ores. © 2017, University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Application of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment in tropical and subtropical regions(2000–2013)

Constructed wetlands（CWs） have been successfully used for treating various wastewaters for decades and have been identified as a sustainable wastewater management option for developing countries. With the goal of promoting sustainable engineered systems that support human well-being but are also compatible with sustaining natural（environmental）systems, the application of CWs has become more relevant. Such application is especially significant for developing countries with tropical climates, which are very conducive to higher biological activity and productivity, resulting in higher treatment efficiencies compared to those in temperate climates. This paper therefore highlights the practice,applications, and research of treatment wetlands under tropical and subtropical conditions since 2000. In the present review, removal of biochemical oxygen demand（BOD） and total suspended solid（TSS） was shown to be very efficient and consistent across all types of treatment wetlands. Hybrid systems appeared more efficient in the removal of total suspended solid（TSS）（91.3%）, chemical oxygen demand（COD）（84.3%）, and nitrogen（i.e.,80.7% for ammonium（NH）4-N, 80.8% for nitrate（NO）3-N, and 75.4% for total nitrogen（TN））as compared to other wetland systems. Vertical subsurface flow（VSSF） CWs removed TSS（84.9%）, BOD（87.6%）, and nitrogen（i.e., 66.2% for NH4-N, 73.3% for NO3-N, and 53.3% for TN）more efficiently than horizontal subsurface flow（HSSF） CWs, while HSSF CWs（69.8%）showed better total phosphorus（TP） removal compared to VSSF CWs（60.1%）. Floating treatment wetlands（FTWs） showed comparable removal efficiencies for BOD（70.7%）,NH4-N（63.6%）, and TP（44.8%） to free water surface（FWS） CW systems.

Simultaneous denitrification and denitrifying phosphorus removal in a full-scale anoxic–oxic process without internal recycle treating low strength wastewater

Performance of a full-scale anoxic-oxic activated sludge treatment plant（4.0×10-5 m-3/day for the first-stage project） was followed during a year.The plant performed well for the removal of carbon,nitrogen and phosphorus in the process of treating domestic wastewater within a temperature range of 10.8℃ to 30.5℃.Mass balance calculations indicated that COD utilization mainly occurred in the anoxic phase,accounting for 88.2% of total COD removal.Ammonia nitrogen removal occurred 13.71% in the anoxic zones and 78.77% in the aerobic zones.The contribution of anoxic zones to total nitrogen（TN） removal was 57.41%.Results indicated that nitrogen elimination in the oxic tanks was mainly contributed by simultaneous nitrification and denitrification（SND）.The reduction of phosphorus mainly took place in the oxic zones,51.45% of the total removal.Denitrifying phosphorus removal was achieved biologically by 11.29%.Practical experience proved that adaptability to gradually changing temperature of the microbial populations was important to maintain the plant overall stability.Sudden changes in temperature did not cause paralysis of the system just lower removal efficiency,which could be explained by functional redundancy of microorganisms that may compensate the adverse effects of temperature changes to a certain degree.Anoxic-oxic process without internal recycling has great potential to treat low strength wastewater（i.e.,TN 〈 35 mg/L） as well as reducing operation costs.

Performance and recent improvement in microbial fuel cells for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal: A review

Microbial fuel cells（MFCs） have become a promising technology for wastewater treatment accompanying electricity generation. Carbon and nitrogen removal can be achieved by utilizing the electron transfer between the anode and cathode in an MFC. However,large-scale power production and high removal efficiency must be achieved at a low cost to make MFCs practical and economically competitive in the future. This article reviews the principles, feasibility and bottlenecks of MFCs for simultaneous carbon and nitrogen removal, the recent advances and prospective strategies for performance improvement, as well as the involved microbes and electron transfer mechanisms.

Fraying around the edges:negative effects of the invasive Tradescantia zebrina Hort.ex Bosse(Commelinaceae)on tree regeneration in the Atlantic Forest under different competitive and environmental conditions

Aims Invasive plants modify the structure and functioning of natural en-vironments and threat native plant communities.Invasive species are often favored by human interference such as the creation of arti-ficial forest edges.Field removal experiments may clarify if invasive plants are detrimental to native plant regeneration and how this is related to other local factors.We assessed the joint effect of envir-onment and competition with the invasive Tradescantia zebrina on tree species recruitment in an Atlantic Forest fragment.Methods We carried out the experimental study in the Iguaçu National Park,located in southern Brazil,using 30 plots distributed across five invaded sites during 6 months.We counted T.zebrina leaves and recorded the abundance and height of tree recruits over time under contrasting environmental(forest edge vs.forest interior)and removal(all aboveground biomass,only T.zebrina removal,and control)treatments.We analyzed the effects of environment and re-moval treatment using generalized linear mixed models.Important Findings The invasive species performed better at the forest edge than in the interior.The higher competitive pressure of T.zebrina led to higher mortality and lower height of tree recruits.Invader removal favored tree recruitment,especially in the forest interior.Our study shows that T.zebrina hampers woody species regeneration in tropical Atlantic Forests,especially at the forest edge.

Changes in soil faunal density and microbial community under altered litter input in forests and grasslands

Root and foliar litter inputs are the primary sources of carbon and nutrients for soil fauna and microorganisms,yet we still lack a quantitative assessment to evaluate the effects of root and foliar litter on various groups of soil organisms across terrestrial ecosystems.Here,we compiled 978 paired observations from 68 experimental sites to assess the directions and magnitudes of adding and removing foliar and root litter on the soil faunal density and microbial biomass that was evaluated by phospholipid fatty acids(PLFAs)across forests and grasslands worldwide.We found that litter addition had only a marginal effect on soil faunal density but significantly increased the soil total microbial-,fungal-and bacterial-PLFAs by 13%,14%,and 10%,respectively,across ecosystems,suggesting that the soil microbial community is more sensitive to carbon source addition than soil fauna,particularly in soils with low carbon to nitrogen ratios.In contrast,removing litter significantly decreased the soil faunal density by 17%but had few effects on soil microorganisms.Compared with foliar litter,root litter input had a more positive effect on the development of soil fungal taxa.The effect of both litter addition and removal on soil faunal density and microbial biomass did not differ between humid and arid regions,but a greater influence was observed in grasslands than in forests for soil microbial community.Our results highlight that the increasing litter production under a global greening scenario would stimulate microbial activity in grasslands more than in forests,and this stimulation would be greater for soil microbes than soil fauna.

Preparation and characterization of a novel microorganism embedding material for simultaneous nitrification and denitrification

A novel microorganism embedding material was prepared to enhance the biological nitrogen removal through simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. Polyvinyl alcohol （PVA）, sodium alginate （SA） and cyclodextrin （CD） were used to compose gel bead with embedded activated sludge. The effects of temperature, CD addition and concentrations of PYA and SA on nitrogen removal were evaluated. Results show that the gel bead with CD addition at 30℃contributed to the highest nitrogen removal efficiency and nitrogen removal rate of 85.4% and 2.08 mg·（L·h）^-1, respectively. Meanwhile, negligible NO3^- and NO2^- were observed, proving the occurrence of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. The High-Throughput Sequencing confirms that the microbial community mainly contained Comamonadaceae in the proportion of 61.3%. Overall, CD increased gel bead＇s porosity and resulted in the high specific endogenous respiration rate and high nitrogen removal efficiency, which is a favorable additional agent to the traditional embedding material.