Publications by authors named "Yong-Qing Gao"

The prevalence and accumulation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) were frequently detected in biological wastewater treatment processes, which might cause potential health crisis to human. In present study, the fates of ARGs during two different aerobic granular sludge (AGS) cultivation processes were investigated. The results showed that traditional AGS (T-AGS) cultivation process and enhanced AGS (E-AGS) cultivation process had significant differences (P < 0.

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Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) could be cultivated from only flocs (called normal granulation (NG) process) or mixture of flocs and crushed AGS (called enhanced granulation (EG) process), which might lead to different system performances such as granulation speed and pollutants removal efficiencies. However, the differences of mechanisms between NG and EG processes at microbial community level are still unknown. In this study, the NG and EG processes were implemented successively in a pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with certain amounts of additional carbon sources.

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The hippocampus is a crucial pathological node for minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) and it is associated with various cognitive impairments. Investigations on alterations involving hippocampal morphology and functional connectivity (FC) in MHE are limited. This study aimed to simultaneously evaluate hippocampal volume and FC alterations and their association with cognitive decline in MHE.

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Whole-brain functional network analysis is an emerging methodology for exploring the mechanisms underlying hepatic encephalopathy (HE). This study aimed to identify the brain subnetwork that is significantly altered within the functional connectome in minimal HE (MHE), the earliest stage of HE. The study enrolled 19 cirrhotic patients with MHE and 19 controls who underwent the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive assessment based on the Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES).

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Liver cirrhosis commonly induces brain structural impairments that are associated with neurological complications (e.g., minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE)), but the topological characteristics of the brain structural network are still less well understood in cirrhotic patients with MHE.

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: The aim of this study was to evaluate microstructural changes of major white matter (WM) tracts in patients with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). : Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were obtained from 24 subjects with subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD), including 13 subjects with VCI-no dementia (VCIND) and 11 subjects with normal cognition (as a control group). A tract-based spatial statistics approach was performed to investigate WM microstructure in VCIND by integrating multiple indices including fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), which are intra-voxel metrics, and local diffusion homogeneity (LDH), which is an inter-voxel metric.

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Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was cultivated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). In this study, AGS was broken during the formation process and then mature AGS formed again. The microbial community dynamics during two sludge granulation processes were investigated using high-throughput sequencing to reveal the dominant bacteria beneficial to AGS formation.

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In this study, domestic sewage was utilized to cultivate aerobic granular sludge (AGS) in a simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal (SNPR) system. The bacterial population dynamics during the aerobic sludge granulation were investigated to reveal the granulation mechanisms using Illumina MiSeq PE300 high-throughput sequencing. Quantitative real time polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were used to investigate shifts in the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs).

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The effects of chronic EtOH consumption, associated or not with thiamine deficiency (TD), on cognitive impairment, oxidative damage, and β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide accumulation in the brain were investigated in male C57BL/6 mice. We established an alcoholic mouse model by feeding an EtOH liquid diet, a TD mouse model by feeding a thiamine-depleted liquid diet, and an EtOH treatment associated with TD mouse model by feeding a thiamine-depleted EtOH liquid diet for 7 weeks. The learning and memory functions of the mice were detected through the Y-maze test.

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This study mainly investigated the ameliorative effect of lotus seedpod proanthocyanidins (LSPC) and the mechanism underlying such effect on cognitive impairment and brain aging induced by d-galactose. Aging mice induced by d-galactose (150 mg/kg, sc injection daily for 6 weeks) were chosen for the experiment. LSPCs (30, 60, and 90 mg/kg, ig) were provided after d-galactose injection.

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Introduction: Smoking prevalence among the medical students is high in China. Therefore, understanding the smoking motivations of medical students is crucial for smoking control, but currently there are no scales questionnaires customized for probing the smoking motivations of medical students. This aim of study was to test and modify a questionnaire for investigating smoking motivations among medical students.

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Background: The commonest genetic form of juvenile or early adult onset macular degeneration is Stargardt Disease (STGD) caused by recessive mutations in the gene ABCA4. However, high phenotypic and allelic heterogeneity and a small but non-trivial amount of locus heterogeneity currently impede conclusive molecular diagnosis in a significant proportion of cases.

Methods: We performed whole exome sequencing (WES) of nine putative Stargardt Disease probands and searched for potentially disease-causing genetic variants in previously identified retinal or macular dystrophy genes.

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In order to improve the nitrogen removal efficiency and to achieve the sludge reduction in traditional wastewater treatment plants, a combined hydrolysis-anoxic-oxic (H-A-O) pilot-scaled reactor was used in this study to investigate the possibility and validity of using excess activated sludge (EAS) fermentation liquids to enhance the nitrogen removal. The results clearly showed that sludge acidification rate in fermentation reactor can reach to 43.2%.

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Nitrite and nitrate have been generally recognized to have an inhibitory effect on metabolism of denitrifiers. The nitrite inhibition on nitrate reduction under various pH conditions and the cross effect of the both electron acceptors on each other were investigated through a series of batch tests by using a biological nutrient removal (BNR) sludge. The results showed that the nitrate reduction activity had a much stronger relationship with the free nitrous acid (FNA) than that of nitrite concentration, suggesting that FNA, rather than nitrite is likely the actual inhibitor on nitrate reduction.

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Study was conducted by use of the mixed organism of activated sludge and suspended biofilm coexisting in a hybrid biological reactor (HBR) system for simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorous removal. The experimental results showed that, DO and COD/TN were the main factors affected the effluent. The maximum phosphorous releasing rate (the rate of PO4(3-)-P concentration at releasing end to the initial PO4(3-)-P concentration) was 249%, TN removal efficiency was 80.

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In order to increase the efficiency of nitrogen removal by endogenous denitrification, and to realize the excess activated sludge reduction in the traditional wastewater treatment process, this investigation proposes a hydrolysis/anoxic/oxic (H/A/O) process utilizing nitrogen removal with excess activated sludge reduction. The experimental equipment for continuous treatment of domestic wastewater was set up and the pilot experiment was conducted. The results showed that, without adding external carbon sources and alkalinity, the removal efficiency of COD, NH4+-N and TN were higher than 90%, 95% and 75%, respectively, under the condition that the hydraulic retention time was 10 h and the backflow ratio of nitrification liquor was 300%, the COD of influent between 220-410 mg/L, the NH4+-N of influent between 36-58 mg/L.

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Purpose: SP4 is a transcription factor abundantly expressed in retina that binds to the GC promoter region of photoreceptor signal transduction genes. We have previously shown that SP4 may be involved in the transcriptional activation of these genes alone or together with other transcription factors such as SP1, neural retina leucine zipper protein (NRL), and cone-rod homeobox gene (CRX). Since mutations in NRL and CRX are involved in inherited retinal degenerations, SP4 was considered a good candidate for mutation screening in patients with this type of diseases.

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Objective: To evaluate the effect of the parent-to-child and teacher-to-child models used in the Snack Risk Factor Intervention Project for Children (SRFIPC) to change the snack pattern of children.

Methods: Using the community-based intervention trail, nutrition education was implemented based on the parent-to-child and teacher-to-child models among 2102 pre-school children aged 4-6 years in 8 day-care centres of Hefei City, Anhui Province. Data on snack consumption of young children was obtained using a snack behaviour questionnaire.

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Objective: To identify genes responsible for cone dystrophies and determine the functional consequences of their underlying mutations.

Design: Case-control study.

Participants: Two hundred forty unrelated patients diagnosed with cone dystrophy, cone-rod dystrophy, macular dystrophy, macular degeneration, or Stargardt disease, 95 control individuals, and 2 unrelated families with a distinctive type of cone dystrophy.

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