(1) Background: Prolonged coexposure to environmental contaminants is reportedly associated with adverse impacts on skin health. However, the collective effects of contaminant mixtures on psoriasis prevalence remain unclear. (2) Methods: A nationally representative cohort study was conducted using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2006 and 2009–2014. The association between contaminant exposures and psoriasis prevalence was analyzed through weighted quantile sum regressions, restricted cubic splines, and multivariable logistic regression. (3) Results: 16,453 participants and 60 contaminants in 8 groups were involved. After adjusting for demographics and comorbidities, exposure to urinary perchlorate, nitrate, and thiocyanate mixtures (OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.00–1.21) demonstrated a significant positive linear association with psoriasis prevalence. Ethyl paraben (OR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02–1.44) exhibited a significant positive correlation with psoriasis risk as an individual contaminant. The association between blood cadmium, lead, and mercury mixtures (OR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.00–1.21), urinary perchlorate, nitrate, and thiocyanate mixtures (OR: 1.16, 95% CI: 1.00–1.34), and psoriasis prevalence was more pronounced in the lower healthy lifestyle score subgroup. (4) Conclusions: Exposure to perchlorate, nitrate, and thiocyanate mixtures, and ethyl paraben was associated with an elevated psoriasis prevalence. Furthermore, the association between cadmium and lead and mercury mixtures as well as perchlorate, nitrate and thiocyanate mixtures, and psoriasis prevalence was more pronounced in individuals with less healthy lifestyles.

Digested residue remains after anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge (hereafter called anaerobic digested sludge, ADS) and needs further treatment to attain more sustainability. In this study, the compostability of ADS was assessed, focusing on the stability of organic matter and the fate of typical antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The results showed that ADS was not suitable as a fertilizer (reflected by a low germination index of 16.9%) due to very high concentrations of NH4+ and soluble total organic carbon. Composting post-treatment stabilized the ADS; the degradation efficiency of volatile total solids reached 18.5% within 37 d of composting. The physicochemical properties of the treated ADS indicated that a mature compost product was obtained. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of typical ARGs revealed that ARG abundance was reduced four-fold during ADS composting due to a reduction in the typical ARGs and low horizontal gene transfer in host microbes. The analysis of bacterial communities revealed that members of the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Chloroflexi are crucial for material transformation and ARG reduction during the ADS composting process. These results demonstrated that aerobic composting further stabilized the organic matter and reduced ARG abundance; therefore, it was found to be an effective method for ADS post-treatment. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study involved a comparison between mesophilic (MAD) and thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAD) of municipal sludge with high (10%) solids content; the reactor performance and the response of total and active microbial communities to changes in sludge properties were monitored. Both TAD and MAD were stably maintained. TAD performed better than MAD in biogas production and volatile total solids reduction upon feeding sludge 1. TAD was slightly inhibited by ammonia, whereas the performance of MAD was improved when sludge 2 was used as the feedstock. Alpha- and beta-diversity analyses revealed significant differences in the microbial community based on DNA and RNA datasets, indicating that not all microbes function in AD. The active microbial community diversity and composition in MAD and TAD were also driven by sludge properties. Moreover, MAD showed significantly higher richness and diversity of the active microbial community compared with TAD, regardless of changes in sludge properties.