Hilbert Space of Isomorphic Representations of Bosonized Chiral QCD2QCD_2

We analyse the Hilbert space structure of the isomorphic gauge non-invariant and gauge invariant bosonized formulations of chiral $QCD_2$ for the particular case of the Jackiw-Rajaraman parameter $a = 2$. The BRST subsidiary conditions are found not to provide a sufficient criterium for defining physical states in the Hilbert space and additional superselection rules must to be taken into account. We examine the effect of the use of a redundant field algebra in deriving basic properties of the model. We also discuss the constraint structure of the gauge invariant formulation and show that the only primary constraints are of first class.Comment: LaTeX, 19 page

Environmental impact and biological removal processes of pharmaceutically active compounds: The particular case of sulfonamides, anticonvulsants and steroid estrogens

Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) have recently received wide attention in the scientific community due to their extensive consumption for human health and consequent discharge to the environment. Release of PhACs into the environment, even in trace amounts, can cause serious environmental damage. This has become a major concern and their removal from water sources is a priority. Although a few PhACs are efficiently removed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), others remain recalcitrant, and their release is causing damage. In this review, the current state of the art on the biological removal processes of sulfonamide sulfamethoxazole (SMX), the anticonvulsant carbamazepine (CBZ), and steroid estrogens 17-estradiol (E2) and 17-ethinylestradiol (EE2) are discussed, along with their environmental impact. Other systems beyond activated sludge, such as membrane bioreactors, enzymatic membrane reactors, fungi treatments and hybrid systems are also becoming of major interest and are being evaluated for the removal of these compounds. Future perspectives are addressed.Cristiano Leal is recipient of a fellowship supported by a doctoral advanced training (call NORTE-69-2015-15) funded by the European Social Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469 unit, COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Maternal antibodies from mothers of children with autism alter brain growth and social behavior development in the rhesus monkey.

Antibodies directed against fetal brain proteins of 37 and 73 kDa molecular weight are found in approximately 12% of mothers who have children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but not in mothers of typically developing children. This finding has raised the possibility that these immunoglobulin G (IgG) class antibodies cross the placenta during pregnancy and impact brain development, leading to one form of ASD. We evaluated the pathogenic potential of these antibodies by using a nonhuman primate model. IgG was isolated from mothers of children with ASD (IgG-ASD) and of typically developing children (IgG-CON). The purified IgG was administered to two groups of female rhesus monkeys (IgG-ASD; n=8 and IgG-CON; n=8) during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Another control group of pregnant monkeys (n=8) was untreated. Brain and behavioral development of the offspring were assessed for 2 years. Behavioral differences were first detected when the macaque mothers responded to their IgG-ASD offspring with heightened protectiveness during early development. As they matured, IgG-ASD offspring consistently deviated from species-typical social norms by more frequently approaching familiar peers. The increased approach was not reciprocated and did not lead to sustained social interactions. Even more striking, IgG-ASD offspring displayed inappropriate approach behavior to unfamiliar peers, clearly deviating from normal macaque social behavior. Longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging analyses revealed that male IgG-ASD offspring had enlarged brain volume compared with controls. White matter volume increases appeared to be driving the brain differences in the IgG-ASD offspring and these differences were most pronounced in the frontal lobes

Characterisation of activated sludge abnormalities by image analysis and multivariate statistics

The ability to distinguish between different types of abnormalities affecting wastewater activated sludge systems, by means of image analysis and chemometrics methodologies, was studied in the current work. Three experiments were performed in a pilot plant activated sludge system, during periods ranging from 47 to 85 days each, in a total of 108 samples, reflecting filamentous bulking, zoogleal bulking and pin point flocs conditions. These samples were further analyzed for the determination of image analysis parameters and of the most commonly surveyed operating parameters. Regarding the image analysis methodology three aliquots of each sample were visualized by bright field and fluorescence microscopy, and a total of 150 images per sample were acquired. These images were then treated by image processing software allowing the study of the contents and morphology of aggregated and filamentous bacteria, resulting in the determination of parameters reflecting the aggregates size distribution, filamentous to aggregated biomass ratio, and biomass viability. A Principal Components Analysis was then carried out on the obtained data to identify each studied conditions, with cross-validation (CV) as the criterion to determine the optimal number of significant components. Although the optimal number of principal components, obtained by the CV method, was found to be 7, explaining 91.9 % of the data variability, it was found that the use of the 2 first principal components (explaining 61.2 % of the data variability) allowed to clearly identify all three conditions (pin point flocs, filamentous and zoogleal bulking). In fact, the samples score plot in these two principal components presented three distinct and non-overlapping zones, reflecting the three different studied conditions. Furthermore, it allowed for the identification and exclusion of 5 outliers within the dataset. Analysing the loading contribution for these 2 first principal components, it was evident the preponderance of the aggregates size distribution and of the filamentous to aggregated biomass ratio, reflecting the importance of these two groups of parameters in the identification and enlightenment of activated sludge abnormalities

Distinção de fenómenos de bulking em lamas activadas por técnicas de análise de imagem

No corrente trabalho pretendeu-se detectar e identificar diferentes tipos de perturbações em lamas activadas (bulking filamentoso, bulking viscoso e crescimento de flocos pin point) por técnicas de processamento e análise de imagem. Para o efeito foram determinados os parâmetros operacionais sólidos suspensos totais (SST) e índice volumétrico de lamas (IVL), assim como diversos parâmetros morfológicos (conteúdo e morfologia da biomassa agregada e filamentosa), obtidos por análise de imagem. Os resultados obtidos permitiram o esclarecimento das diferentes inter-relações presentes entre cada uma das condições estudadas e os parâmetros que caracterizaram a biomassa microbiana, assim como a aferição do parâmetro operacional IVL, a partir da caracterização da biomassa

Monitoring filamentous bulking and pin-point flocs in a lab-scale activated sludge system using image analysis

Activated sludge processes are the most frequently used techniques regarding biological wastewater treatment. However, depending on the process operation conditions, several malfunctions could take place, in which filamentous bulking and deflocculation processes, such as pin-point flocs, are the most common problems, causing the sludge settling ability decrease and effluent quality deterioration. Bright field Image analysis is nowadays considered a powerful tool to quantitatively characterize aggregated and filamentous bacteria. Furthermore, the use of epifluorescent staining techniques, coupled to image analysis, presents a promising method to determine bacteria gram nature and viability. Encouraged by the success of image analysis procedures over the last years, the present work studied a lab-scale activated sludge system, under operation conditions causing filamentous bulking and pin-point flocs phenomena. Sludge settling ability and turbidity values were measured verifying the nature of the settling problem. COD contents, as well as nitrogen contents, in terms of N-NH4+, N-NO3- and N-NO2-, were surveyed in the feeding effluent, reactor bulk and settler. Regarding the biomass characterization, four major morphological descriptors groups were studied, covering free filamentous bacteria contents, aggregates contents, aggregates size and aggregates morphology. With respect to the aggregates characterization, these were divided in 3 classes (large, intermediate and small aggregates) according to their size. Percentages of gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, viable and damaged bacteria were also evaluated based on fluorescent image analysis. Finally, the raw resulting data was fed into a multivariate statistical analysis, in order to enlighten the relationships between the obtained image analysis information and operational parameters. An improvement of the sludge morphological characterisation was found by combining fluorescent and bright field image analysis procedures. Furthermore, the results obtained during the monitoring period indicate that automated image analysis can help clarifying the nature of the events within the aeration tank, when the system is submitted to disturbances

Automatic identification of activated sludge disturbances and assessment of operational parameters

Activated sludge systems are prone to be affected by changes in operating conditions leading to problems such as pinpoint flocs formation, filamentous bulking, dispersed growth, and viscous bulking. These problems are often related with the floc structure and filamentous bacteria contents. In this work, a lab-scale activated sludge system was operated sequentially obtaining filamentous bulking, pinpoint floc formation, viscous bulking and normal conditions. Image processing and analysis techniques were used to characterize the contents and structure of aggregated biomass and the contents of filamentous bacteria. Further principal component and decision trees analyses permitted the identification of different conditions from the collected morphological data. Furthermore, a partial least squares analysis allowed to estimate the sludge volume index and suspended solids key parameters. The obtained results show the potential of image analysis procedures, associated with chemometric techniques, in activated sludge systems monitoring.The authors acknowledge the financial support to D.P.M. through the post-doctoral grant SFRH/BPD/82558/2011 and to the Project PTDC/EBB-EBI/103147/2008 both funded by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portugal) and Fundo Social Europeu (FSE)

Improved image analysis procedures for monitoring activated sludge systems with filamentous bulking

Activated sludge systems are frequently used in wastewater treatment plant. This process is the most suitable and studied system. However, several problems are being always detected, such as filamentous bulking. Filamentous bulking is typically caused by an overabundance of filamentous organisms that interfere with the settling and compaction process. This phenomenon can be studied and related with settling parameters by automated image analysis using different microscopy acquisitions. However, by using these standard image analysis procedures some relevant information about the state of the sludge is enclosed. Conventional routines, using monochrome images are not suitable to detect the filamentous bacteria which are gram-positive or gram-negative. Moreover, the traditional image acquisition methodologies are not capable to detect both viable and damaged bacteria present within the sludge. Presently, the gram-stain evaluation is performed by visual inspection and manual counting using a microscope which is a tedious procedure. Also, to overcome the lack of viability information, an epifluorescence staining method composed with two nucleic acid-binding stains can be used. For this study, a lab-scale activated sludge reactor was monitored during 100 days through image analysis information and the operational parameters were modified inducing filamentous bulking. Morphological changes were investigated by using new acquisition methods such as epifluorescence staining LIVE/DEAD® BacLight™ Bacterial Viability Kit, the LIVE BacLight™ Bacterial Gram Stain Kit and the traditional bright field. The overall results revealed an improvement of the sludge morphological characterisation, combining these new image analysis procedures with the conventional routines