Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons biodegradation using isolated strains under indigenous condition

The treatment and disposal of domestic sIudge is an expensive and environmentally sensitive problem. It is also a growing problem since sludge production will continue to increase as new wastewzter treatment plants are built due to population increase. The large volume of domestic sIudge produced had made it difficult for many countries including Malaysia to assure complete treatment of the sludge before discharging to the receiving environment. Domestic sludge contains diverse range of pollutants such as pathogen, inorganic and organic compounds. These pollutants are toxic, mutagenic or carcinogenic and may threaten human health. Iiilproper disposal and handling of sludge may pose serious impact to the environment especially on soil and water cycles. Previous studies on Malaysian domestic sludge only reported on bulk parameters and heavy metals. Thus, no study reported on organic micro pollutants, namely, polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Their recalcitrance and persistence make them problematic environmental contaminants. Microbial degradation is considered to be the primary mechanism of PAHs removal from the environment. Much has been reported on biodegradation of PAHs in several countries but there is a lack of information quantitative on this subject in Malaysia. This study is carried out to understand the nature of domestic sludge and to provide a better understanding on the biodegradation processes of PAHs. The methodology of this study comprised field activities, laboratory work and mathematical modelling. Field activities involved sampling of domestic sludge from Kolej Mawar, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor. Laboratory activities include seven phases of experimental works. First phase is characterization study of domestic sludge based on bulk parameters, heavy metals and PAHs. Second phase is enrichment and purification of bacteria isolated from domestic sludge using single PAHs and mixed PAHs as growth substrate. This was followed by identification of bacteria using BIOLOG system. The fourth phase focussed on turbidity test to monitor growth rate of the isolated bacteria. Preliminary degradation study involves optimization of the process at different substrate concentration, bacteria concentration, pH and temperature. The optimum conditions established from optimization study were used in degradation study. In biodegradation study, two experimental conditions were performed. These conditions include using bacteria isolated from single PAHs as substrate and bacteria isolated from mixed PAHs. Protein and pH tests were done during degradation study. Final activity is mathematical modelling of the biodegradation process. In general results on bulk parameters are comparable to previous studies. Zinc was the main compound with a mean concentration of 11 96.4 mglkg. PAHs were also detected in all of the samples, with total concentration between 0.72 to 5.36 mglkg dry weight for six PAHs. In the examined samples, phenanthrene was the main compound with a mean concentration of 1.0567 mglkg. The results fiom purification studies of bacteria strains sucessfull isolated 13 bacteria strains fiom single PAH substrate while three bacteria were isolated from the mixed PAHs substrate. Based on bacteria growth rates, only six strains grown on single PAHs and three strains grown on mixed PAHs were used for further studies. Results from the optimization study of biodegradation indicated that maximum rate of PAHs removal occurred at 100 mg~-' of PAHs, 10% bacteria concentration, pH 7.0 and 30°C. The results showed that bacteria grown on lower ring of PAHs are not able to grow on higher ring of PAHs. As for example Micrococcus diversus grown on napthalene as sole carbon source was unable to degrade other PAHs like acenapthylene, acenapthene, fluorene, phenanthrene and antlracene. In the case of bacteria isolated from mixed PAHs, the results showed that most of the napthalene was degraded by isolated strains with the highest average degradation rate followed by acenapthylene, acenapthene, fluorene, phenanthrene and anthracene. 377$3(53867$.$$1�781.8�781�$0,1$+ D4ff + c\,cpda~ition trends were observed in the study could be attributed to the different subsr , i,lo\~ir 'Led during isolation process. Interaction through cometabolism and synergistic ocolq bacteria strains isolated from single substrate. Thus, only synergistic interaction was oL, :a 77ed for bacteria isolated from mixed substrate. Corynebacterium urolyticum re\e;;ed I,, be the best strain in degrading PAHs. The experimental results have led to a model conccl~t desclibing I'AHs degradation

The impact of propagation environment and traffic load on the performance of routing protocols in ad hoc networks

Wireless networks are characterized by a dynamic topology triggered by the nodes mobility. Thus, the wireless multi-hops connection and the channel do not have a determinist behaviour such as: interference or multiple paths. Moreover, the nodes' invisibility makes the wireless channel difficult to detect. This wireless networks' behaviour should be scrutinized. In our study, we mainly focus on radio propagation models by observing the evolution of the routing layer's performances in terms of the characteristics of the physical layer. For this purpose, we first examine and then display the simulation findings of the impact of different radio propagation models on the performance of ad hoc networks. To fully understand how these various radio models influence the networks performance, we have compared the performances of several routing protocols (DSR, AODV, and DSDV) for each propagation model. To complete our study, a comparison of energy performance based routing protocols and propagation models are presented. In order to reach credible results, we focused on the notion of nodes' speed and the number of connections by using the well known network simulator NS-2.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, International Journal of Distributed and Parallel Systems (IJDPS) Vol.3, No.1, January 201

A survey of performance enhancement of transmission control protocol (TCP) in wireless ad hoc networks

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2011 Springer OpenTransmission control protocol (TCP), which provides reliable end-to-end data delivery, performs well in traditional wired network environments, while in wireless ad hoc networks, it does not perform well. Compared to wired networks, wireless ad hoc networks have some specific characteristics such as node mobility and a shared medium. Owing to these specific characteristics of wireless ad hoc networks, TCP faces particular problems with, for example, route failure, channel contention and high bit error rates. These factors are responsible for the performance degradation of TCP in wireless ad hoc networks. The research community has produced a wide range of proposals to improve the performance of TCP in wireless ad hoc networks. This article presents a survey of these proposals (approaches). A classification of TCP improvement proposals for wireless ad hoc networks is presented, which makes it easy to compare the proposals falling under the same category. Tables which summarize the approaches for quick overview are provided. Possible directions for further improvements in this area are suggested in the conclusions. The aim of the article is to enable the reader to quickly acquire an overview of the state of TCP in wireless ad hoc networks.This study is partly funded by Kohat University of Science & Technology (KUST), Pakistan, and the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan

On-demand Multipath Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks: A Comparative Survey

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is an infrastructure-less, self-organized and multi-hop network with a rapidly changing topology causing the wireless links to be broken at any time. Routing in such a network is challenging due to the mobility of its nodes and the challenge becomes more difficult when the network size increases. Due to the limited capacity of a multi-hop path and the high dynamics of wireless links, the single-path routing approach is unable to provide efficient high data rate transmission in MANETs. The multipath routing is the routing technique of using multiple alternative paths through a network. Furthermore, whenever a link failure is detected on a primary route, the source node can select the optimal route among multiple available routes. Therefore, the multipath routing approach is broadly utilized as one of the possible solutions to overcome the single-path limitation. Most of the multipath routing protocols are based on Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV). The objective of this paper is to provide a survey and compare sets of multipath routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks. This survey will motivate the design of new multipath routing protocols, which overcome the weaknesses identified in this paper