The current status of small-scale desalination (produced water capacity 100 m³/day or less) is reviewed to provide an overview of the market segment. The use of energy-recovery devices in this market segment is also reviewed. We find that the Middle East accounts for the largest market share worldwide at present, and reverse osmosis is overwhelmingly dominant among the desalination technologies adopted. Implementation of energy-recovery devices at small scale is rare, which leads to relatively high energy consumption for small-scale seawater reverse osmosis desalination systems.

The three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum has a significantly greater amount of information than the single-stage scanning fluorescence spectrum. At the same time, the parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis and neural network method can help explore the fluorescence characteristics further, thus could be used to analyse multiple sets of three-dimensional matrix data. In this study, the PARAFAC analysis and the self-organizing mapping (SOM) neural network method are firstly introduced comprehensively. They are then adopted to extract information of the three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum data set for fluorescence characteristics analysis of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in Taihu Lake water. Forty water samples with DOM species were taken from different seasons with the fluorescence information obtained through three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum analysis, PARAFAC analysis and SOM analysis. The PARAFAC analysis results indicated that the main fluorescence components of dissolved organic matter in Taihu Lake water were aromatic proteins, fulvic acids, and dissolved microorganisms. The SOM analysis results showed that the fluorescence characteristics of the dissolved organics in Taihu Lake varied seasonally. Therefore, the combined method of three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum analysis, PARAFAC and SOM analysis can provide important information for characterization of the fluorescence properties of dissolved organic matter in surface water bodies.

To investigate the dynamic characteristics of total suspended solids (TSS) and their particle-bound heavy metals in a first flush, the runoff sampling together with its flow rate measuring was conducted for three rainfall events at outfalls of highway in Shanghai from June to September 2007. Field samples were analyzed to determine the concentrations of TSS and particle-bound heavy metals, such as Zn, Pb, and Cu. Results show that the wash off behavior of TSS under varying runoff rate condition can be explained by different antecedent dry weather period (ADWP). Contribution of fine fraction (45 μm). When the runoff flow increased obviously, a significant contribution of the coarse fraction was observed for a certain rainfall events with long antecedent dry weather condition. The changes of total metals concentration and particle-bound metal concentrations were strongly dependent on the TSS variation. TSS was generally well correlated with most particulate-bound heavy metals. Of the heavy metals, the concentration of Zn was found considerably high and that of Pb was significantly low at North Zhongshan 2 Road, in Shanghai, China, but they are still within the range reported in the literature. Fluctuation of heavy metal contents in the coarse fraction during a first flush period was more significant compared with that in the fine fraction. The results will assist in the development of effective control strategies to minimize heavy metals and solids in highway runoff.

Cadmium (Cd), which is considered an endocrine disruptor, has been linked to the onset of breast cancer (BC). Our recent study demonstrated that Cd-induced BC progression has a strong correlation with miR-374c-5p dysregulation. The aim of our work was to investigate other potential miRNAs involved in Cd-induced BC cell proliferation and metastasis. In our study, the miRNA profiles of Cd-treated T-47D cells (10 μM, 72 h) were analyzed by miRNA-seq, and our results confirmed that miR-3614-5p was the top downregulated miRNA. Moreover, miR-3614-5p mimic transfection significantly decreased the proliferative ability, migration and invasive ability of BC cell lines (T-47D and MCF-7). Furthermore, we analyzed the overlapping genes from our RNA-seq data and predicted targets from the mirDIP database, and twelve genes (ALDH1A3, FBN1, GRIA3, NOS1, PLD5, PTGER4, RASGRF2, RELN, RNF150, SLC17A4, TG, and TXNRD1) were identified as potential binding targets of miR-3614-5p in the current model. Nonetheless, only miR-3614-5p inhibition caused an increase in TXNRD1 expression upon Cd exposure in T-47D and MCF-7 cell lines. Importantly, luciferase reporter assays further verified that miR-3614-5p suppressed the expression of TXNRD1 by directly binding to the 3'-untranslated region (UTR), and TXNRD1 inhibition significantly repressed the proliferation and metastasis capacity of BC cells upon Cd exposure. Together, our findings demonstrated that Cd exposure repressed the expression of miR-3614-5p, thus activating TXNRD1 expression, which promoted the abnormal proliferation and metastasis of BC cells.