Response of bacterial communities in desert grassland soil profiles to acid mine drainage pollution.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) causes serious environmental pollution, which imposes stresses on soil ecosystems. Therefore, it is critical to study the responses of soil bacterial communities to AMD pollution in ecologically fragile desert grasslands. Here, the bacterial community composition, structure, and assembly processes in vertical soil profiles of an AMD contaminated desert grassland were explored using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing.

[Effects of Acid Mine Drainage Leakage on Bacterial Communities in Desert Grassland Soil Profiles].

Acid mine drainage （AMD） is of great concern owing to its safety hazards and environmental risks. However, little is known about the effects of AMD leakage on soil physicochemical properties and bacterial communities in ecologically fragile desert steppe soils, especially in the soil profile. Therefore, an AMD-contaminated profile and clean profile were used as research objects respectively to investigate the effects of AMD on soil physicochemical properties and bacterial community composition, structure, and interactions in soil layers at different depths of desert grassland and, based on this, to analyze the driving factors of bacterial community changes.

Effects of acid mine drainage and sediment contamination on soil bacterial communities, interaction patterns, and functions in alkaline desert grassland.

Acid mine drainage and sediments (AMD-Sed) contamination pose serious ecological and environmental problems. This study investigated the geochemical parameters and bacterial communities in the sediment layer (A) and buried soil layer (B) of desert grassland contaminated with AMD-Sed and compared them to an uncontaminated control soil layer (CK). The results showed that soil pH was significantly lower and iron, sulfur, and electroconductivity levels were significantly higher in the B layer compared to CK.

Evaluation of soil heavy metals pollution and the phytoremediation potential of copper-nickel mine tailings ponds.

Heavy metal pollution in soils caused by mining has led to major environmental problems around the globe and seriously threatens the ecological environment. The assessment of heavy metal pollution and the local phytoremediation potential of contaminated sites is an important prerequisite for phytoremediation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the characteristics of heavy metal pollution around a copper-nickel mine tailings pond and screen local plant species that could be potentially suitable for phytoremediation.

Evaluating renal outcome of ANCA-associated renal vasculitis: comparative study of two histopathological scoring systems.

Objectives: Renal risk score (RRS) and chronicity score (CS) are both newly proposed tools to predict end stage renal disease (ESRD) which could be applicable in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated renal vasculitis patients. Their predictive value has not been fully studied and compared.

Methods: 252 patients with newly biopsy-proven ANCA-associated renal vasculitis were retrospectively studied at the Department of Nephrology, Ruijin Hospital, China.

Long-term effect of pH on denitrification: High pH benefits achieving partial-denitrification.

Partial-denitrification (nitrate to nitrite) can supply nitrite for anammox which can reduce organic matter consumption in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In order to achieve stable partial-denitrification, the effect of pH on denitrification were investigated for 420 days in three reactors with influent pH of 5.0, 7.

Achieving nitritation by treating sludge with free nitrous acid: The effect of starvation.

Side-stream sludge treatment using free nitrous acid (FNA) is a novel strategy to achieve nitritation in mainstream of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). To optimize nitritation, the effect of starvation on this strategy was investigated in this study. The results showed that pre-starvation, which is the starvation before FNA treatment, enhanced the resistance of sludge to FNA.

The inhibitory effects of free ammonia on ammonia oxidizing bacteria and nitrite oxidizing bacteria under anaerobic condition.

The free ammonia (FA) inhibition on ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) under anaerobic condition was investigated in this study. The results indicated that NOB was more sensitive to the FA anaerobic treatment than AOB. The FA anaerobic inhibition on nitrifier gradually heightened with the increase of FA concentration.

Achieving Mainstream Nitrogen Removal through Coupling Anammox with Denitratation.

Achieving maintream anammox is critical for energy-neutral sewage treatment. This study presents a new way to achieve mainstream anammox, which couples anammox with denitratation (nitrate reduction to nitrite) instead of nitritation (ammonium oxidation to nitrite). An anoxic/oxic (A/O) biofilm system treating systhetic domestic wastewater was used to demonstrate this concept for over 400 days.