Number of Births and Later-Life Depression in Older Adults: Evidence from China.

Previous studies on the number of births and the health of the elderly have been highly focused on physical health and used samples from developed countries. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the effect of the lifetime number of births on depression in Chinese older adults. We used panel data for men and women aged 50 and over from the 2013-2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.

Population migration, spread of COVID-19, and epidemic prevention and control: empirical evidence from China.

Background: This study applied the susceptible-exposed-infectious-removed (SEIR) model to analyze and simulate the transmission mechanisms of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China.

Methods: The population migration was embedded in the SEIR model to simulate and analyze the effects of the amount of population inflow on the number of confirmed cases. Based on numerical simulations, this study used statistical data for the empirical validation of its theoretical deductions and discussed how to improve the effectiveness of epidemic prevention and control considering population migration variables.

Effects of Fertility Behaviors on Depression Among the Elderly: Empirical Evidence From China.

Increased population aging is associated with increased incidence of depression among the elderly. Existing studies have shown that ill-advised fertility behaviors during their youth also affect the health of the elderly. However, insufficient attention has been paid to depression among elderly in China.

Comparative transcriptome analysis of fruiting body and sporulating mycelia of Villosiclava virens reveals genes with putative functions in sexual reproduction.

Sexual reproduction of heterothallic clavicipitaceous fungus Villosiclava virens (anamorph: Ustilaginoidea virens) generates ascospores, which is considered as primary infection source of rice false smut disease. However, little is known about the molecular underpinnings of sexual reproduction in V. virens.

Identification of pathogenicity-related genes in the rice pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens through random insertional mutagenesis.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) is becoming a popular effective system as an insertional mutagenesis tool in filamentous fungi. To gain more insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Ustilaginoidea virens, the causal agent of rice false smut disease, a T-DNA insertion mutant library of U. virens was established using ATMT.

De novo sequencing and transcriptome analysis of Ustilaginoidea virens by using Illumina paired-end sequencing and development of simple sequence repeat markers.

Ustilaginoidea virens is the causal agent of rice false smut, which is a rice disease of increasing importance worldwide that has caused with the quantitative and qualitative rice losses. However, research on the pathogenic mechanism of U. virens is limited.

Removal of endocrine-disrupting chemicals and conventional pollutants in a continuous-operating activated sludge process integrated with ozonation for excess sludge reduction.

Sludge ozonation is considered as a promising technology to achieve a complete reduction of excess sludge, but as yet its effects on the removal of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and conventional pollutants (i.e., COD, N and P) in the activated sludge process are still unclear.

A comparison of various rural wastewater treatment processes for the removal of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

The removal of six endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), including estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), 17α-ethinyl estradiol (EE2), bisphenol A (BPA) and 4-nonylphenol (NP), was investigated in 20 rural wastewater treatment facilities (WWTFs) located in a county of Zhejiang Province, China. These WWTFs adopted one of the four treatment processes: activated sludge (AS), constructed wetland (CW), stabilization pond (SP), and micro-power biofilm reactor (MP). Results indicate that all the six EDCs were detected in wastewater samples with NP showing a maximum detection frequency (97%) and a maximum influent concentration (5002 ng L(-1)).

Degradation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals during activated sludge reduction by ozone.

Ozonation has been considered to be an effective means for the reduction of excess sludge in recent years. However, it remains largely unknown whether hydrophobic organic micro-pollutants, which are originally adsorbed on activated sludge, will be released into wastewater upon ozonation because of sludge solubilization. This study investigated the degradation efficiencies of several typical endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during sludge ozonation, including estrone (E1), estriol (E3), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), bisphenol A (BPA), and 4-nonylphenol (NP).

Three non-aspartate amino acid mutations in the ComA Response regulator receiver motif severely decrease surfactin production, competence development and spore formation in Bacillus subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis strains produce a broad spectrum of bioactive peptides. The lipopeptide surfactin belongs to one wellknown class, which includes amphiphilic membrane-active biosurfactants and peptide antibiotics. Both the srfA promoter and the ComP-ComA signal transduction system are an important part of the factor that results in the production of surfactin.

[Sporulation, competence development and biopesticide activity of a Bacillus subtilis mutant].

Unlabelled: Bacillus subtilis Bs-916 has obvious effects against Rhizoctonia solani. We demonstrated that the mutant strain, M49 obtained by means of low energy ion implantation in strain Bs-916, which produces significantly lower levels of surfactin, had no obvious effects against R. solani.

Determination of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the liquid and solid phases of activated sludge by solid phase extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

The highly complex matrix of activated sludge in sewage treatment plants (STPs) makes it difficult to detect endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which are usually present at low concentration levels. To date, no literature has reported the concentrations of steroid estrogens in activated sludge in China and very limited data are available worldwide. In this work, a highly selective and sensitive analytical method was developed for simultaneous determination of two classes of EDCs, including estrone (E1), 17beta-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), 17 alpha-ethynylestradiol (EE2), 4-nonylphenol (NP) and bisphenol A (BPA), in the liquid and solid phases of activated sludge.

[Construction and function analysis of Bac operon mutants of bio-control strain Bacillus subtilis Bs-916].

Bacillus subtilis Bs-916 is an effective biocontrol agent in control rice sheath blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani. We identified and analyzed the operon Bac in Bs-916 responsible for synthesis of iturin-like lipopeptides. The research plays an important part in genetic engineered Bs-916 for further improving its bio-control activity.