Evolutionary diversification of acyl-CoA synthetases underpins hydrophobic barrier formation across diverse tomato tissues and beyond.

The transition of plants from aquatic to terrestrial environments required effective barriers against water loss and UV damage. The plant cuticle, a hydrophobic barrier covering aerial surfaces, emerged as a critical innovation, yet how its biosynthesis is regulated in specialized structures remains poorly understood. This study identifies two long-chain acyl-CoA synthetases, SlLACS1 and SlLACS2, that exhibit both distinct and overlapping functions in cuticle formation across tomato tissues.

Biochar amendment and water level optimization enhance nitrogen removal and reduce NO emissions in vertical flow constructed wetlands via metagenomic analysis.

To explore how biochar influences nitrogen cycling in unsaturated, capillary, and saturated zones of partially saturated vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs), three parallel VFCWs were established to examine the effects of biochar's better water holding capacity on nitrogen removal and NO emissions. Microbial mechanisms involved were studied by conducting ETS activity, metagenomic sequencing and performing high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA. Results indicated that the combination of adding 40 % biochar and maintaining water level of 45 cm facilitated TN removal and suppressed NO emissions, achieving TN removal efficiency of 73.

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis with severe gastrointestinal intolerance: A case report and literature review.

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is a rare gastrointestinal disease characterized by eosinophilic infiltration of the gastrointestinal mucosa, muscle layer, or serosal layer. Gastrointestinal symptoms, laboratory tests, imaging, and endoscopy can provide important diagnostic basis for eosinophilic gastroenteritis, but the final diagnosis needs to be confirmed via pathological biopsy. We herein report the case of a middle-aged woman with abdominal pain for 5 days, which was aggravated for 1 day.

Exploration of ammonia stripping coupled adsorption-membrane filtration process for treating kitchen waste biogas slurry.

The potential contamination of biogas slurry generated from the anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste (KW) poses a considerable challenge to its safe and effective utilization as a fertilizer. To tackle this problem, a novel route termed "AS-BC" was developed, integrating ammonia stripping (AS), biochar adsorption, and ceramic membrane filtration (CMF) for comprehensive pollutant mitigation. A stepwise optimization was carried out, comparing biochar adsorption investigation, the AS process, and the combined AS + CMF process.

Sustainable management of riverine NO emission baselines.

The riverine NO fluxes are assumed to linearly increase with nitrate loading. However, this linear relationship with a uniform EF is poorly constrained, which impedes the NO estimation and mitigation. Our meta-analysis discovered a universal NO emission baseline (EF = k/[NO ], k = 0.

Study on Bioactive Components of Aromatic (Freyn) K. Schum by Solvent Fractionation.

This study evaluated the antioxidant activity of the methanol extract from aromatic (Freyn) K. Schum. by fractionating it with different solvents, aiming to provide theoretical evidence for the development of products related to aromatic (Freyn) K.

Phosphorus removal in surface flow treatment wetlands for domestic wastewater treatment: Global experiences, opportunities, and challenges.

Treatment Wetlands (TWs) are widely used for the treatment of domestic wastewater, with an increasing emphasis on provision of multiple co-benefits. However, concerns remain regarding achieving stringent phosphorus (P) discharge limits, system robustness and resilience, and associated guidance on system design and operation. Typically, where P removal is intended with a passive TW, surface flow (SF) systems are the chosen design type.

LightCF-Net: A Lightweight Long-Range Context Fusion Network for Real-Time Polyp Segmentation.

Automatically segmenting polyps from colonoscopy videos is crucial for developing computer-assisted diagnostic systems for colorectal cancer. Existing automatic polyp segmentation methods often struggle to fulfill the real-time demands of clinical applications due to their substantial parameter count and computational load, especially those based on Transformer architectures. To tackle these challenges, a novel lightweight long-range context fusion network, named LightCF-Net, is proposed in this paper.

Treatment of pharmaceutical industry wastewater for water reuse in Jordan using hybrid constructed wetlands.

Developing cost-efficient wastewater treatment technologies for safe reuse is essential, especially in developing countries simultaneously facing water scarcity. This study developed and evaluated a hybrid constructed wetlands (CWs) approach, incorporating tidal flow (TF) operation and utilising local Jordanian zeolite as a wetland substrate for real pharmaceutical industry wastewater treatment. Over 273 days of continuous monitoring, the results revealed that the first-stage TFCWs filled with either raw or modified zeolite performed significantly higher reductions in Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD, 58 %-60 %), Total Nitrogen (TN, 32 %-37 %), and Phosphate (PO, 46 %-64 %) compared to TFCWs filled with normal sand.

Effects of nanobubble water on digestate soaking hydrolysis of rice straw.

This study investigated the performance of combined nanobubble water (NW) and digestate in the soaking hydrolysis process. Two types of NW (CONW and ONW) with digestate were used to soak rice straw for 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 days. During soaking process, the volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentration in the treatment with ONW and digestate for 3 days (ONW-3 d) reached 7179.

Constructed wetlands as nature-based solutions in managing per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): Evidence, mechanisms, and modelling.

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as newly regulated micropollutants, characterised by extreme recalcitrance and environmental toxicity. Constructed wetlands (CWs), as a nature-based solution, have gained widespread application in sustainable water and wastewater treatment and offer multiple environmental and societal benefits. Despite CWs potential, knowledge gaps persist in their PFAS removal capacities, associated mechanisms, and modelling of PFAS fate.

Immediate postpartum cessation of tenofovir did not increase risk of virological or clinical relapse in highly viremic pregnant mothers with chronic hepatitis B infection.

Background & Aims: Peripartum prophylaxis (PP) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is the standard of care to prevent mother-to-child transmission of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection in mothers who are highly viremic. We investigated the maternal and infant outcomes in a large Chinese cohort of TDF-treated CHB pregnant participants.

Methods: In this prospective study, treatment-naive mothers with CHB and highly viremic (HBV DNA ≥200,000 IU/ml) but without cirrhosis were treated with TDF at 24-28 weeks of pregnancy.

DTONet a Lightweight Model for Melanoma Segmentation.

With the further development of neural networks, automatic segmentation techniques for melanoma are becoming increasingly mature, especially under the conditions of abundant hardware resources. This allows for the accuracy of segmentation to be improved by increasing the complexity and computational capacity of the model. However, a new problem arises when it comes to actual applications, as there may not be the high-end hardware available, especially in hospitals and among the general public, who may have limited computing resources.

Enhanced bioelectroremediation of heavy metal contaminated groundwater through advancing a self-standing cathode.

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) contamination in groundwater poses a substantial global challenge due to its high toxicity and extensive industrial applications. While the bioelectroremediation of Cr(VI) has attracted huge attention for its eco-friendly attributes, its practical application remains constrained by the hydrogeochemical conditions of groundwater (mainly pH), low electron transfer efficiency, limitations in electrocatalyst synthesis and electrode fabrication. In this study, we developed and investigated the use of N, S co-doped carbon nanofibers (CNFs) integrated on a graphite felt (GF) as a self-standing cathode (NS/CNF-GF) for the comprehensive reduction of Cr(VI) from real contaminated groundwater.

Processes and mechanisms in remediation of aqueous chromium contamination by sulfidated nano-scale zerovalent iron (S-nZVI): Experimental and computational investigations.

Sulfidated nano-scale zerovalent iron (S-nZVI) has emerged as an advanced functional nanomaterial for efficiently remediating Cr(VI) contamination in aqueous environments. However, there is an insufficient understanding of its coherent process, removal pathway, and hydrochemical reactive mechanisms, presenting potential challenges for its future environmental applications. To address this gap, this study successfully synthesized S-nZVI through a chemical precipitation method and effectively applied it for the removal of Cr(VI).

DSP-KD: Dual-Stage Progressive Knowledge Distillation for Skin Disease Classification.

The increasing global demand for skin disease diagnostics emphasizes the urgent need for advancements in AI-assisted diagnostic technologies for dermatoscopic images. In current practical medical systems, the primary challenge is balancing lightweight models with accurate image analysis to address constraints like limited storage and computational costs. While knowledge distillation methods hold immense potential in healthcare applications, related research on multi-class skin disease tasks is scarce.

Micropollutant rejection by nanofiltration membranes: A mini review dedicated to the critical factors and modelling prediction.

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes, extensively used in advanced wastewater treatment, have broad application prospects for the removal of emerging trace organic micropollutants (MPs). The treatment performance is affected by several factors, such as the properties of NF membranes, characteristics of target MPs, and operating conditions of the NF system concerning MP rejection. However, quantitative studies on different contributors in this context are limited.

Assessing the efficacy and mechanisms of glycol-contaminated water treatment through floating treatment wetlands.

The growing concerns surrounding water pollution and the degradation of ecosystems worldwide have led to an increased use of nature-based solutions (NbSs). This study assessed the feasibility of using floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) as an NbS to treat propylene glycol-contaminated water and quantitatively investigated different removal pathways. With an environmentally relevant concentration of propylene glycol (1,250 mg/L), FTWs containing Acorus calamus and mixed species demonstrated the highest average glycol mass removal efficacy (99%), followed by Carex acutiformis (98%), Juncus effusus (93%), and the control group without plants (10%) after 1 week.

Effect of reactor operation modes on mitigating antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and methane production from hydrothermally-pretreated pig manure.

Numerous efforts have been made to enhance the performance of anaerobic digestion (AD) for accelerating renewable energy generation, however, it remains unclear whether the intensified measures could enhance the proliferation and transmissions of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the system. This study assessed the impact of an innovative pig manure AD process, which includes hydrothermal pretreatment (HTP) and a two-stage configuration with separated acidogenic and methanogenic phases, on biomethane (CH) production and ARGs dynamics. Results showed that HTP significantly increase CH production from 0.

Unignorable enzyme-specific isotope fractionation for nitrate source identification in aquatic ecosystem.

Nitrate contamination in aquatic systems is a widespread problem across the world. The isotopic composition (δN, δO) of nitrate and their isotope effect (ε, ε) can facilitate the identification of the source and transformation of nitrate. Although previous researches claimed the isotope fractionations may change the original δN/δO values and further bias identification of nitrate sources, isotope effect was often ignored due to its complexity.

China 6 EGR gasoline vehicles without a GPF may struggle to meet the potential SPN10 limit.

Particles larger than 10 nm from engine exhaust are gaining global concerns. In light of this, to investigate how EGR affects gasoline vehicle SPN10 (solid particles larger than 10 nm) emissions, seven gasoline vehicles (hybrid or conventional) were studied experimentally. The results revealed that EGR vehicles risk failing the current limit (6 * 10 #/km) more than those without EGR if the cut-off size was tightened from 23 nm to 10 nm.