Learning from microorganisms: using new insights in microbial physiology for sustainable nitrogen management

Diverse nitrogen-transforming microorganisms with a widevariety of physiological properties are employed for biologicalnitrogen removal from wastewater. There are manytechnologies that achieve the required nitrogen dischargestandards; however, greenhouse gas emissions and energyconsumption constitute the bulk of the environmental footprintof wastewater treatment plants. In this review, we highlightcurrent and proposed approaches aiming to achieve moreenergy-efficient and environment-friendly biological nitrogenremoval, discuss whether new discoveries in microbialphysiology of nitrogen-transforming microorganisms could beused to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and summarizerecent advances in ammonium recovery from wastewater

Spin Two Glueball Mass and Glueball Regge Trajectory from Supergravity

We calculate the mass of the lowest lying spin two glueball in N=1 super Yang-Mills from the dual Klebanov-Strassler background. We show that the Regge trajectory obtained is linear; the 0++, 1-- and 2++ states lie on a line of slope 0.23 -measured in units of the conifold deformation. We also compare mass ratios with lattice data and find agreement within one standard deviation.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

ESTIMATION OF PARAMETERS AND SELECTION OF MODELS APPLIED IN ADSORPTION

The modeling of complex phenomena such as adsorption often requires the determination of parameters that cannot be directly measured and, therefore, must be estimated. An important point is related to the analysis of the inverse problem as a method of estimating parameters and selecting models. In view of this, this work aims to apply the Monte Carlo method via Markov Chains (MCMC) as a technique for solving the inverse problem of estimating fixed-bed adsorption parameters using analytical models proposed in the literature. In addition, this work aims to select the best model through the statistical metrics Akaike, corrected Akaike and Bayesian Information Criterion. The use of the Bayesian approach allowed the analysis of the convergence of the chains, as well as selected the best model to represent the experimental data obtained from the literature.

Ameliorative effects of salt resistance on physiological parameters in the halophyte Salicornia bigelovii torr. with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria

Salicornia bigelovii is a promising resource to cultivate under extreme climatic conditions of arid-desert regions. However, the production of Salicornia depends on the appropriate supplementation of nitrogen rich synthetic fertilizers. Application of specific halotolerant nitrogen-fixing bacteria associated with S. bigelovii could be an important practice for crop production in salt-affected regions. Seedlings of S. bigelovii were inoculated and developed with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (Klebsiella pnseumoniae) at different salinities (0 and 0.25 M NaCl) grown under in vitro conditions. The inoculation increased growth and physiological activity at a high salinity. The major benefits of inoculation were observed on total seedlings biomass (320 and 175 g at 0 and 0.25 M NaCl, respectively) and adjacent branches of stem biomass (150 and 85 g at 0 and 0.25 M NaCl, respectively). The inoculation with Klebsiella pneumoniae also significantly improved seedlings salinity tolerance compared to the noninoculated controls. In non-salinity conditions, the inoculated seedlings enhanced the CO2 fixation and O2 evolution. The non-inoculated controls were more sensitive to salinity than inoculated seedlings exposed to salinity, as indicated by several measured parameters. Moreover, inoculated seedlings had significantly increase on proline, phenolics content, but not significant in starch compared to noninoculated controls. In conclusion, K. pneumoniae inoculation mitigates the salinity effects and promotes the Salicornia growth.Keywords: Salicornia bigelovii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, halophyte, ecotype, stress salinity. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(34), pp. 5278-528

Una evaluación de la escala sobre el miedo a la COVID-19 en docentes filipinos profesionales.

The global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has enormously induced psychological impacts on humans like fear. Considering this particular concern, there is a need to test instruments used to measure such psychological impact. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19) Scale originally developed by Ahorsu et al. (2020). A sample of 1,060 K to 12 professional teachers from Mindanao, Philippines were selected to participate in the online survey. The preliminary analysis showed a high level of perceived fear of COVID-19 in the respondents of this study. The results of the series of tests are encouraging as the FCV-19 Scale generated a robust construct validity for both one- and two- factor structure models and a very high internal consistency complemented by strong inter-item correlations and item-total correlations. The results further supported the concurrent validity of the FCV-19 Scale with selected COVID-19-related characteristics significantly predicting fear of COVID-19. Overall, this paper provides an assessment of the fear of COVID-19 in a sample of professional teachers and the properties of the FCV-19 Scale in a particular context. The FCV-19 Scale, a seven-item scale, is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess the fear of COVID-19 of Filipino teachers.La crisis mundial de la enfermedad del coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) ha inducido enormemente impactos psicológicos en los humanos como el miedo. Teniendo en cuenta esta preocupación particular, existe la necesidad de probar los instrumentos utilizados para medir dicho impacto psicológico. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar las propiedades psicométricas de la Escala Miedo a COVID-19 (FCV-19) desarrollada originalmente por Ahorsu et al. (2020). Se seleccionó una muestra de 1.060 profesores profesionales de K a 12 de Mindanao, Filipinas, para participar en la encuesta en línea. El análisis preliminar mostró un alto nivel de miedo percibido a COVID-19 en los encuestados de este estudio. Los resultados de la serie de pruebas son alentadores ya que la Escala FCV-19 generó una validez de constructo robusta para modelos de estructura de uno y dos factores y una consistencia interna muy alta complementada por fuertes correlaciones entre ítems y correlaciones ítem-total. Los resultados respaldaron aún más la validez concurrente de la escala FCV-19 con características seleccionadas relacionadas con COVID-19 que predicen significativamente el miedo al COVID-19. En general, este artículo proporciona una evaluación del miedo al COVID-19 en una muestra de profesores profesionales y las propiedades de la Escala FCV-19 en un contexto particular. La escala FCV-19, una escala de siete ítems, es una medida válida y confiable que puede usarse para evaluar el miedo al COVID-19 de los maestros filipinos

Review on possible gravitational anomalies

This is an updated introductory review of 2 possible gravitational anomalies that has attracted part of the Scientific community: the Allais effect that occur during solar eclipses, and the Pioneer 10 spacecraft anomaly, experimented also by Pioneer 11 and Ulysses spacecrafts. It seems that, to date, no satisfactory conventional explanation exist to these phenomena, and this suggests that possible new physics will be needed to account for them. The main purpose of this review is to announce 3 other new measurements that will be carried on during the 2005 solar eclipses in Panama and Colombia (Apr. 8) and in Portugal (Oct.15).Comment: Published in 'Journal of Physics: Conferences Series of the American Institute of Physics'. Contribution for the VI Mexican School on Gravitation and Mathematical Physics "Approaches to Quantum Gravity" (Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Nov. 21-27, 2004). Updates to this information will be posted in http://www.lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu/~xavier.amador/anomalies.htm

Recent results on heavy-ion direct reactions of interest for 0νββ decay at INFN - LNS

Neutrinoless double beta decay of nuclei, if observed, would have important implications on fundamental physics. In particular it would give access to the effective neutrino mass. In order to extract such information from 0νββ decay half-life measurements, the knowledge of the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NME) is of utmost importance. In this context the NUMEN and the NURE projects aim to extract information on the NME by measuring cross sections of Double Charge Exchange reactions in selected systems which are expected to spontaneously decay via 0νββ. In this work an overview of the experimental challenges that NUMEN is facing in order to perform the experiments with accelerated beams and the research and development activity for the planned upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities is reported.Consejo Europeo de Investigación (ERC), Fondo Europeo Programa de investigación e innovación Horizonte 2020 de la Unión n.º 714625)

Psychometric properties of the PROMIS short form measures in a U.S. cohort of 961 patients with chronic hepatitis C prescribed direct acting antiviral therapy

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142957/1/apt14531.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142957/2/apt14531_am.pd