Biofloc technology promotes dense microbial communities that remove nitrogenous waste and suppress pathogens, but the combined effects of salinity and carbon-nitrogen source selection on biofloc maturation and disease mitigation remain unclear. We evaluated two salinity levels (5 ppt and 25 ppt) and two carbon-nitrogen source combinations (rice straw with ammonium chloride or brown sugar with shrimp feed) in a 60-day biofloc trial. Under low salinity (5 ppt), the rice straw and ammonium chloride treatment reduced ammonia to undetectable levels by day 17 and nitrite to zero by day 40, while also establishing a stable, functionally diverse microbial community. When this mature biofloc was transferred abruptly to 15 ppt and 25 ppt, nitrite was again removed to zero within four days. Pre-inoculation of shrimp tanks with mature biofloc suppressed nitrite accumulation and lowered Vibrio loads in the hepatopancreas and gut, yielding a survival rate of 41% under natural infection compared with 0% in the control. In a Vibrio harveyi challenge, biofloc-treated groups achieved 90-93% survival versus 40-57% in non-inoculated groups and exhibited reduced tissue damage alongside increased abundance of beneficial Bacillus. Pre-stocking biofloc inoculation markedly reduces Vibrio infection risk and enhances shrimp survival, offering a cost-effective, eco-friendly strategy for improving water quality and biosecurity in high-density shrimp culture.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can bioaccumulate and may increase the risk of cancer development. Clinical studies report that cholestyramine treatment lowers serum PFAS concentrations, but the molecular energetics, interactions and underlying mechanisms of PFAS exchange with the resin remain incompletely understood. Here, we present a quantum perspective to define the mechanism of PFAS anion exchange with cholestyramine. Quantum chemistry calculations, including density functional theory (DFT), were used to evaluate chloride exchange for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), and 6:2 fluorotelomer carboxylic acid (6:2 FTCA) at an isolated ammonium site and in an extended styrene-divinylbenzene model. Single-site ion pairing did not make exchange with chloride thermodynamically favorable. Adding the divinylbenzene backbone lowered electronic exchange energies for all four PFAS, whereas the Gibbs free-energy effect varied among compounds. Energy decomposition analysis showed that electrostatic attraction was the largest stabilizing contribution, while added backbone contacts altered dispersion, exchange correlation and Pauli contributions. For PFOA, changing the bound state continuum from water to 1-octanol produced little net change in exchange free energy. Three separately seeded 10 ns molecular dynamics trajectories of a hydrated pVBTMA12 oligomer showed persistent PFOA contact with changing headgroup and tail environments, although global structural convergence was not established. Together, these results support a molecular mechanism in which electrostatic ion pairing and PFAS backbone contacts jointly influence anion exchange favorability in simplified cholestyramine models. This mechanistic framework provides testable hypotheses for PFAS sequestration and identifies aromatic contact area and ammonium site geometry as design variables for future resin optimization. These findings connect quantum level interaction energetics with experimentally testable strategies for developing improved PFAS sequestrants. Computational data and code are archived in Zenodo, and a web-based graphical user interface tool is available online.

Boron carbide in a hydrogenous polymer is a standard thermal-neutron shield. Under a preliminary cross-section estimate, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) reaches the absorption of high-density polyethylene carrying 10 wt% B4C with 6.2 wt%, and so needs less filler and less coupling agent. Whether an aminosilane coupling agent is inert toward such a matrix was examined computationally. Substitution and HCl elimination by the pendant amine at a backbone C-Cl unit were located as verified transition states for free and grafted models, sampled conformationally and compared over a range of dielectric environments. The semiempirical GFN2-xTB and GFN1-xTB methods favor elimination through the zero-point advantage of a synchronous proton transfer. Dispersion-corrected hybrid density functional theory (DFT) does not: its elimination transition state is asynchronous, the zero-point advantage falls from 16 to 7 kJ mol-1, and substitution is favored by 12 to 19 kJ mol-1 (single transition-state conformers, mixed DFT/GFN2-xTB Hessians). The semiempirical prediction of dominant elimination is therefore unreliable; the coupling agent most likely reacts with PVC mainly by N-alkylation, although no product ratio for a real composite follows. At the DFT level, the half-life of a grafted amine at 453 K is on the order of hours to days, an order-of-magnitude estimate for an idealized bimolecular encounter. The minor elimination channel leaves allylic C-Cl bonds 76.5 kJ mol-1 weaker than the backbone. For PVC-matrix shields, non-basic methacryloxypropyl and glycidoxypropyl silanes, which carry no nucleophilic nitrogen, are the safer choice where amine-induced HCl loss and ammonium chloride formation at the interface are to be avoided, as far as the amine-mediated pathways studied here are concerned.

Noncentrosymmetric (NCS) materials with intrinsic chirality are highly desirable for diverse symmetry-dependent functional applications, yet their rational construction remains challenging because asymmetric building units frequently undergo centrosymmetric packing during crystallization. Herein, we develop a Jahn-Teller distortion-enabled interfacial chemical recognition strategy to realize the chiral hybrid halides (R/S-3AP)BiCl5 crystallizing in the chiral NCS space group P212121. The stereochemically active 6s2 lone pair of Bi3+ induces anisotropic distortion of the [BiCl6] octahedra, creating chemically differentiated chloride acceptor sites. Meanwhile, the chiral 3-aminopyrrolidine cations (3AP2+) exhibit two chemically distinct nitrogen centers with differentiated protonation behaviors, producing pyrrolidinium and ammonium N-H donors with distinct hydrogen-bonding capabilities. The stronger donor ability of exocyclic ammonium (NH3+) sites enables preferential N-H···Cl interactions with chloride sites possessing enhanced acceptor characteristics, establishing a chemically complementary organic-inorganic interface. This directional donor-acceptor recognition regulates chiral cation orientations and promotes chirality transfer from molecular units to the extended crystalline framework. This work demonstrates that coupling Jahn-Teller distortion-mediated acceptor regulation with protonation-dependent donor differentiation provides an effective strategy for programming directional interfacial chemical recognition and translating local structural asymmetry into macroscopic chiral ordering in NCS crystals.

Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient whose availability in agricultural systems is influenced by geochemical, pedological, and anthropogenic factors. The study aimed to investigate the effects of soil erosion, land-use, and management practices on the bioavailability and redistribution of selenium within a soil-plant continuum in a highland agricultural landscape in Nandi County, Kenya. A stratified sampling approach was applied across three plots representing distinct land-use management practices and varying soil erosion rates. Selenium concentrations were measured both in soils and crops (maize, beans, and pumpkin) collected from the experimental sites. Total and bioavailable Se concentrations in soils were evaluated using a mixed acid digestion (HF, HNO3, and H2O2) and an ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) extraction, respectively, followed by ICP-MS analysis. Structural equation modelling and regression analyses revealed that soil pH (β = - 0.41, p < 0.001), organic matter (β = 0.29, p < 0.01), and total Se (β = 0.30, p < 0.001) significantly influenced bioavailable Se, although plant uptake showed weak correlation. Temporal comparisons showed a significant increase in bioavailable Se in Plot 3 from 6.74 µg kg[-1] (2021) to 10.03 µg kg[-1] (2023), representing a 42% rise. In contrast, Plot 1 experienced a significant decline (p < 0.05) from 14.72 µg kg[-1] to 9.56 µg kg[-1] over the same period, linked to an increase in erosion rate by 0.58 t ha[-1] yr[-1]. Maize showed significantly higher Se accumulation in Plot 1 (187 µg kg[-1]) compared to Plot 3 (87 µg kg[-1]) (p < 0.05), while beans and pumpkin showed no significant differences across plots (p > 0.05). These findings suggest that appropriate land management and erosion mitigation may help maintain soil Se bioavailability, while targeted agronomic strategies could be considered to enhance crop Se concentrations. However, the relatively low Se concentrations observed in several crops suggest a potential concern regarding Se adequacy, and assessment of dietary intake and human biomarkers would be required to establish nutritional risk.

The present study was carried out to enhance the iron content of the fresh-cut French beans through vacuum impregnation (VI). For fortification, five iron salts, namely, ammonium ferrous sulphate, ferrous sulphate, ferric pyrophosphate, anhydrous ferric chloride and ferric ammonium citrate were tested as fortificant. Fresh-cut green French beans were dipped in variable concentrations (0.025%, 0.05% and 0.1%) of the iron salts for imbibitions at different time periods (5, 10 and 15 min) under atmospheric pressure. On basis of least colour change and maximum iron absorption, ammonium ferrous sulphate at 0.025% was selected for further study. For VI, different levels of vacuum pressure (50, 75 and 100 mmHg), vacuum time (5, 10 and 15 min) and ascorbic acid (0, 0.5 and 1%) were evaluated for iron impregnation through Box-Behnken design. Maximum iron infusion in fresh-cut beans was achieved at 50 mmHg vacuum pressure, 6 min vacuum time and 0% ascorbic acid. At optimized condition, iron content of the bean increased by 64.05%. The infused beans were stable for a week at 6 ± 1 °C without any discolouration and were microbiologically safe for consumption. Overall, the present study demonstrated that VI has the potential to develop iron fortified fresh-cut ready-to-use French beans.

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and ammonia are valuable intermediate compounds generated during anaerobic digestion and are attractive targets for circular carbon and nitrogen management. Selective separation from ion-rich waste streams remains challenging because of the complexity of the waste-based mixture. Here, we develop a hybrid bipolar membrane electrodialysis-hollow fiber membrane contactor (BPMED-HFMC) system that enables simultaneous recovery and electrochemically controlled fractionation of VFAs while corecovering ammonia without the need for costly external acid or base inputs. In BPMED, electromigration separates charged VFA carboxylates and ammonium. The bipolar membrane (BPM) then generates acid and base in situ, which converts the concentrated VFA carboxylates and ammonium into volatile neutral forms. In parallel, HFMC units then recover VFAs and ammonia as distinct product streams via membrane-mediated gas-liquid transport. We demonstrate that the anion exchange membrane selectivity is in the order acetate > propionate > butyrate > valerate, which correlated strongly with the hydrodynamic radius of the VFAs (R2 = 0.96-0.99). During treatment of synthetic anaerobic digestate in the BPMED-HFMC system, acetate selectivity over chloride increased to ∼10 and resulting in a VFA product stream >600 mM (∼71% acetate) at 60 A m-2. The specific energy consumption was 0.19-0.21 kWh mol-1 (VFA + NH3) across current densities of 20-60 A m-2, ∼50% lower than an HFMC-only control, with electricity and chemical costs of ∼1.6 cents mol-1.

Sodium (Na) and potassium (K) have comparable crustal abundances and similar physicochemical properties. However, due to the predominance of NaCl over KCl in natural salinity, most studies on plant salt responses have focused on NaCl, leaving responses to KCl salinity largely unexplored. To compare plant responses to Na and K salts, the euhalophyte Salicornia europaea was grown under equimolar (100 mM) NaCl and KCl treatments. NaCl salinity enhanced plant dry biomass, succulence, water relations, and the accumulation of organic osmolytes, whereas KCl salinity induced defence responses, lignin deposition, and caused complete plant mortality within 7 weeks. The levels of signalling molecules (H2O2, NO, and H2S) showed distinct patterns between NaCl and KCl treatments. Genes involved in ion compartmentation (HKT1, NHX1, SOS1, and VHA-A) were upregulated only under NaCl salinity. Moreover, NaCl reduced cellular ammonium levels, whereas KCl led to its accumulation, accompanied by declines in amino acid and protein contents, suggesting a disruption of ammonium assimilation under KCl stress. Comparative studies involving two glycophytes and four halophytes revealed that whereas glycophytes exhibited similar or less growth inhibition under KCl than NaCl, halophyte growth was severely inhibited by KCl but stimulated by NaCl. Notably, ammonium accumulation patterns differed between the two plant types; being higher under NaCl in glycophytes, but higher under KCl in halophytes. Overall, despite the chemical similarity between Na+ and K+ ions, our findings demonstrate that K fails to activate adaptive signalling pathways to salt stress, highlighting ion-specific mechanisms underlying halophyte tolerance to NaCl salinity.

The development of environmentally friendly, efficient and low-cost adsorbents for water purification is of great importance. In this study, cellulose microspheres (CM) with controllable size were prepared by a phase separation method and successfully modified with 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CHPTAC) to obtain positively charged functionalized cellulose microspheres (QCM). The QCM can adsorb typical anionic pollutants (Cr(VI)) and cationic pollutants (RhB). The maximum adsorption capacity of QCM for Cr(VI) was 3.97 mg g[-1] (pH = 5, 45 °C), which conformed to the pseudo-secondary kinetics and Langmuir model, indicating that the process was a spontaneous heat-absorbing on a single molecular layer. The maximum adsorption capacity of RhB was 33.32 mg g[-1] (pH = 7, 15 °C), which conformed to the pseudo-primary kinetics and Langmuir model, and the adsorption process was a spontaneous exothermic monolayer. The adsorption mechanism demonstrated the key role of quaternary ammonium groups in enhancing the adsorption performance. In addition, QCM was renewable and retained more than 95% of adsorption efficiency after three cycles. The above results indicated that QCM had good adsorption performance and structural stability for the removal of heavy metals and dyes from wastewater.

ClC-7 is a lysosomal 2Cl[-]/1H[+] antiporter essential for normal lysosomal function. PIKfyve-generated PI(3,5)P2 negatively regulates ClC-7 activity, and gain-of-function mutations (e.g., Y715C) that abolish this regulation cause severe genetic disorders. At the cellular level, these variants induce extensive endolysosomal vacuolization accompanied by impaired autophagic flux; however, the precise molecular mechanism driving vacuole enlargement remained elusive. Here, we report that prominent vacuole formation in cells expressing ClC-7 gain-of-function variants is closely associated with a marked intracellular ammonium accumulation. Furthermore, vacuole enlargement was attenuated by an ammonium scavenger and accelerated by exogenous glutamine or ammonium chloride, while pharmacological glutaminase inhibition suppressed both vacuole size and ammonium accumulation. Pharmacological inhibition of PIKfyve likewise induced vacuolization and ammonium accumulation, both of which were suppressed by ClC-7 knockout. Using a newly modified lipid-probe, we found that unlike PIKfyve inhibition, PI(3,5)P2 is maintained on ClC-7 gain-of-function vacuoles. The formation of vacuoles induced by the overexpression of SNX10, which downregulates PI(3,5)P2 synthesis, or by expression of a gain-of-function ClC-6 mutant was also accompanied by a marked accumulation of cellular ammonium. Additionally, cells overexpressing ClC-3 or ClC-5 exhibited vacuolization associated with cellular ammonium accumulation under the control of the accessory protein TMEM9. The impairment of autophagic flux triggered by either ClC-7 gain-of-function expression or PIKfyve inhibition was restored by glutaminase inhibition. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that glutamine-derived ammonium drives endolysosomal vacuolization and autophagic dysfunction downstream of the PIKfyve-ClC-7 axis, identifying glutaminase inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy for associated genetic disorders.

Salmonella enterica bacteriophages are increasingly studied for bacterial biocontrol and applied microbiology. However, reliable downstream characterization depends strongly on how the phage material is purified and concentrated. This study compared five preparation strategies for a Salmonella bacteriophage: sucrose density gradient centrifugation, cesium chloride gradient centrifugation, ultrafiltration followed by lyophilization, ultrafiltration followed by ammonium sulfate precipitation, and ultrafiltration followed by trichloroacetic acid precipitation. The preparations were assessed for infectious phage recovery, total protein concentration, SDS-PAGE protein profiles, an exploratory molecular weight-based comparison with a reference phage dataset, and targeted real-time PCR screening for selected virulence-associated determinants. Ultrafiltration followed by ammonium sulfate precipitation gave the highest infectious phage recovery among the infectivity-preserving workflows and produced a consistent eight-band SDS-PAGE profile. Trichloroacetic acid precipitation produced a similar banding pattern but was considered mainly a protein precipitation method because of its denaturing effect. Cesium chloride gradient centrifugation gave the most complex SDS-PAGE profile, while ultrafiltration followed by lyophilization gave the least resolved one. Several bands fell within the molecular-mass ranges reported for proteins of related Salmonella phages, but matching by molecular mass alone cannot identify the proteins, which would require LC-MS/MS. Targeted real-time PCR did not detect sopE, sspH1, sseI, or sopE2. Under the conditions tested, ultrafiltration followed by ammonium sulfate precipitation gave the highest infectious recovery and a consistent SDS-PAGE pattern; these results describe how the workflows behaved here rather than showing that one method is generally superior. KEY POINTS: • Five workflows were compared for Salmonella phage purification. • Ammonium sulfate precipitation gave the highest infectious recovery. • Selected virulence-associated genes were not detected by qPCR.

The resource utilization of MSW incineration fly ash is constrained by its high chloride content, calcium loss during washing, and the environmental risk of residual heavy metals. This study proposes a multistage pretreatment integrating carbonation, ball milling, ultrasonication, and CO2-coupled washing to balance dechlorination, calcium retention, and heavy metal stabilization. Citric acid (CA), ammonium bisulfate (AB), and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) were selected as washing agents and evaluated on carbonated fly ash. For the investigated fly ash, results demonstrated that carbonation provided the foundational calcium fixation, while ball milling physically disrupted particle agglomerates to expose encapsulated chlorides, with 60 min selected as the milling duration. Ultrasonication for 10 min further reduced soluble chloride contents in heavily carbonated fly ash residues to 0.72%, 0.79%, and 0.81%, respectively, with calcium loss rates of 14.30%, 10.81%, and 12.08%. However, EDTA washing caused severe remobilization of Pb, Zn, Cu, and Cd. Further coupling ball milling and ultrasonication with in-situ CO2 sparging (20 min for CA and 10 min for AB) improved the overall treatment performance. The lowest soluble chloride content (0.71%) was obtained with CA, whereas AB achieved the lowest calcium loss (8.87%). All heavy metal leaching concentrations in CA and AB residues met the regulatory limits. Risk assessment code analysis indicated that AB generally resulted in lower environmental risks than CA, although Cd remained the primary residual concern. Overall, the coupled treatment alleviated the trade-offs among chloride removal, calcium retention, and heavy metal stabilization, thereby improving the resource recovery potential of treated fly ash.

To design sustainable catalytic reaction media, we tested the gelling ability of glucono-based ammonium ionic liquids toward deep eutectic solvents, obtaining a new class of materials called "iono-eutectogels". Gelators differed in spacer length and side chain tethered to the cation and were chosen for their previously assessed low cyto- and ecotoxicity. Deep eutectic solvents were composed by cholinium chloride and various hydrogen-bond donors. Supramolecular gels, obtained in cholinium chloride/urea, were characterized, measuring their gel-sol transition temperatures and critical gelation concentrations. Their rheological properties were investigated by frequency- and strain-sweep measurements, revealing a thixotropic behavior. The morphology of the gels was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The gel phases were tested as confined reaction media for the aldol reaction involving p-nitrobenzaldehyde and cyclohexanone, with l-proline as the organocatalyst. Under optimized conditions, we verified if the reaction proceeded "on gel" or "in gel". Furthermore, the reusability of the gel phase was tested. The data collected show that iono-eutectogels allow one to perform the reaction with better performance compared to the deep eutectic solvent solution. The best system was reused for at least four times, with a modest loss in conversion and yield but without significant changes in both diastereomeric and enantiomeric ratios.

Mixed semiclathrate hydrates (SCHs) incorporating various guest molecules exhibit high latent heat and allow precise control of the melting temperatures, making them promising materials for cold energy storage applications. The compositional uniformity and thermal properties of tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) + tetra-n-butylammonium chloride (TBAC) mixed SCHs were evaluated via dual-energy X-ray computer tomography (DECT), microdifferential scanning calorimetry (μDSC), digital microscopy, and ion chromatography. DECT indicated that the tetragonal mixed SCHs are homogeneous solids, whereas the orthorhombic mixed SCHs with high or low-Br content are heterogeneous. The DSC curve of the tetragonal mixed SCHs exhibited a single endothermic peak, whereas those of the orthorhombic mixed SCHs showed split peaks. The orthorhombic mixed SCH dissociated in two stages, consistent with the split DSC peaks. The Br[-] content of the orthorhombic mixed SCH was higher than that of tetragonal SCH. The orthorhombic mixed SCHs exhibit high latent heats (227-231 J g[-1]) as phase change materials, with melting temperatures around 283-285 K. These values are higher than other SCHs formed from a single guest molecule with melting temperatures below 289 K, making them suitable for cold energy storage in air-conditioning systems.

The simultaneous separation of therapeutic insulin analogues by capillary electrophoresis (CE) remains challenging because of their high structural similarity and their tendency to adsorb onto the capillary surface. This study investigated the applicability of cyclodextrin (CD) derivatives as selectivity-modifying additives for the CE separation of human insulin and five therapeutic insulin analogues using five-layer poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)/poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PDADMAC/PSS)2.5 and four-layer (PDADMAC/PSS)2 successive multiple ionic-polymer layer (SMIL)-coated capillaries under acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. A broad range of CD derivatives was systematically evaluated under optimized background electrolyte conditions. Under acidic conditions, neutral and predominantly uncharged CD derivatives improved separation selectivity, with carboxyethyl-β-CD providing the most favorable discrimination within the critical insulin lispro-human insulin-insulin aspart migration group. In contrast, highly charged anionic CD derivatives disrupted the PDADMAC-terminated coating and could not be applied. The PSS-terminated coating remained stable under alkaline conditions, enabling the evaluation of both neutral and anionic CD derivatives. Under these conditions, the migration order of the insulin species was completely reversed, while several CD derivatives further modulated the relative spacing of neighboring peaks. The use of organic modifiers produced system-dependent effects on separation selectivity and peak shape. These findings demonstrate that the appropriate selection of CD derivatives and SMIL coating strategy provides an effective approach for modulating selectivity in the CE separation of structurally related therapeutic peptides.