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

Antibiotic resistance in wastewater: Occurrence and fate ofEnterobacteriaceaeproducers of Class A and Class C β-lactamases

Antibiotics have been intensively used over the last decades in human and animal therapy and livestock, resulting in serious environmental and public health problems, namely due to the antibiotic residues concentration in wastewaters and to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This study aimed to access the contribution of some anthropological activities, namely urban household, hospital and a wastewater treatment plant, to the spread of antibiotic resistances in the treated wastewater released into the Mondego River, Coimbra, Portugal. Six sampling sites were selected in the wastewater network and in the river. The ampicillin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae of the water samples were enumerated, isolated and phenotypically characterized in relation to their resistance profile to 13 antibiotics. Some isolates were identified into species level and investigated for the presence of class A and class C -lactamases. Results revealed high frequency of resistance to the -lactam group, cefoxitin (53.5%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid combination (43.5%), cefotaxime (22.7%), aztreonam (21.3) cefpirome (19.2%), ceftazidime (16.2%) and to the non--lactam group, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazol (21.1%), tetracycline (18.2%), followed by ciprofloxacin (14.1%). The hospital effluent showed the higher rates of resistance to all antibiotic, except two (chloramphenicol and gentamicin). Similarly, higher resistance rates were detected in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent compared with the untreated affluent. Regarding the multidrug resistance, the highest incidence was recorded in the hospital sewage and the lowest in the urban waste. The majority of the isolates altogether are potentially extended-spectrum -lactamases positive (ESBL(+)) (51.9%), followed by AmpC(+) (44.4%) and ESBL(+)/AmpC(+) (35.2%). The most prevalent genes among the potential ESBL producers were blaOXA (33.3%), blaTEM (24.1%) and blaCTX-M (5.6%) and among the AmpC producers were blaEBC (38.9%), blaFOX (1.9%) and blaCIT (1.9%). In conclusion, the hospital and the WWTP activities revealed to have the highest contribution to the spread of multidrug resistant bacteria in the study area. Such data is important for future management of the environmental and public health risk of these contaminants. This is the first embracing study in the water network of Coimbra region on the dissemination of antibiotic resistance determinants. Moreover, it is also the first report with the simultaneous detection of multiresistant bacteria producers of AmpC and ESBLs -lactamases in aquatic systems in Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of an enhanced service for medication review with follow up in Swiss community pharmacies: Pre-post study protocol.

In Switzerland, 20,000 people are hospitalized each year as result of drug related problems (DRPs). The sources of DRPs can be related to patients' behavior (i.e., wrong administration) or to health processes (i.e., drug-drug interaction). No community pharmacy (CP) service focus on DRPs related to patients' behavior is currently recognized or remunerated in Switzerland. A medication review with follow up (MRF) has been developed to evaluate prescription and non-prescription medication. To evaluate the impact of MRF service for the identification and management DRPs associated to patients' behavior and to describe pharmaceutical interventions carried out through MRF. A pre-post intervention study with a cluster design and one intervention group will be carried out in CPs in the canton of Vaud (Switzerland) for 15 months. Volunteer pharmacists will be trained on the identification and management of DRPs related to patients' behavior. After training, they will include randomly selected adults taking four or more chronic drugs prescribed for at least three months prior to recruitment. Then, they will conduct three pharmacist-patient face-to-face consultations at 6-month intervals. Tasks will be differentiated by pharmacy technician or pharmacist to triage expired medication or to manage DRPs in a structured manner, respectively. The primary outcome is the identification of DRPs associated to patients' behavior. Secondary outcomes are to assess patients' medication knowledge, number of expired medications, interventions carried out by pharmacists and pharmacists' satisfaction. The study will begin in April 2023 in 19 to 35 pharmacies that will recruit at least 162 patients. A sub analysis will be carried out for patients with 65 years old or over. The MRF intervention features a training designed for an enhanced evaluation of patient's behavior towards their medication. The study will allow the assessment and management of DRPs in Swiss CPs with the support of the local health authorities and pharmacist association. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05348538

Development of Smart Meter to Monitor Real Time Energy Consumption for Sustainability

This study constructed a Smart Energy Meter where energy consumption can be viewed by the consumers based on rreal time using data from smart meters. Its goals are to increase productivity, make readings more precise, and take less time to determine an individual residence's energy consumption. The device is made up of the PZEM-016 AC Energy Meter, RS-485 UART Serial Converter, NodeMCU ESP8266, Blynk IoT Application, Arduino Uno R3, and LCD Arduino Keypad Module Shield Board. The PZEM-016 is used in this smart energy meter to measure voltage, current, power, frequency, power factor, and energy consumption. Because it lacks its own display, an RS-485 was utilized to communicate with the NodeMCU and Arduino Uno. The NodeMCU sends the parameters to Blynk IoT App as long as it is connected to a fixed mobile WiFi. The Blynk will then display a real-time measurement of the parameters. The Arduino Uno is programmed to display the parameters to the LCD Keypad Module. The device was tested in an actual household. The researchers conducted 48-hour observation on the household where the energy displayed in the Blynk IoT App and the LCD display matches at approximately 9 kWh which is the same as the actual energy meter of the house that is 9kWh. The device is also tested on different appliances which resulted in the same energy consumption in both the Blynk IoT App and LCD display with the ratings of the appliances. The device was found functional

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

Cryogenic characterisation and modelling of commercial SiC MOSFETs

Two commercial 1.2 kV SiC MOSFETs have been extensively characterised from 30 to 320 K. The temperature dependence of their I/V characteristics, threshold voltage, and breakdown voltage has been examined and are presented in this paper. Overall, the measured characteristics of both devices demonstrate very similar temperature dependencies and it is shown that below ~100 K any further decrease in temperature has little effect on any of the tested characteristics. Increasing temperature beyond 100 K results in a decrease in drain current for a given drain-source and gate-source voltage, a decrease in threshold voltage, and an increase in breakdown voltage. Successful attempts have been made to model the results of these tests by applying theories found in the literature

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)

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