Monitoring biological wastewater treatment processes: Recent advances in spectroscopy applications

Biological processes based on aerobic and anaerobic technologies have been continuously developed to wastewater treatment and are currently routinely employed to reduce the contaminants discharge levels in the environment. However, most methodologies commonly applied for monitoring key parameters are labor intensive, time-consuming and just provide a snapshot of the process. Thus, spectroscopy applications in biological processes are, nowadays, considered a rapid and effective alternative technology for real-time monitoring though still lacking implementation in full-scale plants. In this review, the application of spectroscopic techniques to aerobic and anaerobic systems is addressed focusing on UV--Vis, infrared, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Furthermore, chemometric techniques, valuable tools to extract the relevant data, are also referred. To that effect, a detailed analysis is performed for aerobic and anaerobic systems to summarize the findings that have been obtained since 2000. Future prospects for the application of spectroscopic techniques in biological wastewater treatment processes are further discussed.The authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and the project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) 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. The authors also acknowledge the financial support to Daniela P. Mesquita and Cristina Quintelas through the postdoctoral Grants (SFRH/BPD/82558/2011 and SFRH/BPD/101338/2014) provided by FCT - Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Representations of women milk donors on donations for the human milk bank

Abstract Human milk banks (HMBs) have difficulty maintaining and increasing their stocks, and the number of women enrolling as members remains low. The present qualitative study, based on social representation theory, aimed to understand women’s representations of the milk donation experience. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted in 2013. In total, 12 women aged 18 to 39 years old participated in the study. Most were primiparous, married or living with a partner, housewives, completed high school, and belonged to lower economic classes. Four categories emerged from the testimonies: human milk donation; representations about human milk banks (HMB); the importance of breastfeeding for the baby and for one's conceptualization as a mother; and prenatal care and donation awareness. The main reasons for donating were representations that value breastfeeding, human milk, and the donation act. These mothers had difficulties donating, but the rewarding feeling, the value of this practice, and the support they received from people important to them helped with the donation. The findings related to the value of the donation and breastfeeding provide ways to effectively encourage and motivate potential donors, achieving comprehensive care starting from the prenatal period

Plasmodial sugar transporters as anti-malarial drug targets and comparisons with other protozoa

Glucose is the primary source of energy and a key substrate for most cells. Inhibition of cellular glucose uptake (the first step in its utilization) has, therefore, received attention as a potential therapeutic strategy to treat various unrelated diseases including malaria and cancers. For malaria, blood forms of parasites rely almost entirely on glycolysis for energy production and, without energy stores, they are dependent on the constant uptake of glucose. Plasmodium falciparum is the most dangerous human malarial parasite and its hexose transporter has been identified as being the major glucose transporter. In this review, recent progress regarding the validation and development of the P. falciparum hexose transporter as a drug target is described, highlighting the importance of robust target validation through both chemical and genetic methods. Therapeutic targeting potential of hexose transporters of other protozoan pathogens is also reviewed and discussed

Decomposing & mapping neural systems onto general-purpose parallel machines

Simulations of neural systems on sequential computers are computationally expensive. For example, a single experiment for a typical financial application, e.g. exchange rate time series analysis, requires about ten hours of CPU time on a Sun workstation. Neural systems are, however inherently parallel, and would thus benefit from parallel implementations. Therefore, this thesis investigates the problem of decomposing and mapping neural systems onto general-purpose parallel machines. It presents a Mapping System capable of decomposing neural network systems, and mapping them onto a range of general-purpose parallel machines; both MIMD and SIMD. Firstly, taxonomies of neural network systems and parallel machines are provided, as well as descriptions of typical examples of both. Secondly, parallelism in neural systems and machines is analysed. The different types of parallelism exhibited by neural systems are identified. This allows a classification of neural systems on the basis of their parallelism and in accordance with their taxonomy. Parallel machines and the approaches to parallel programming are then analysed to identify the features of parallel machines involved in the mapping process. From this analysis of parallelism in neural systems and machines, the characteristics required for decomposing and mapping neural systems are identified, and a Mapping System for decomposing and mapping neural systems onto general-purpose parallel machines is described. The Mapping System consists of two modules; a machine independent Abstract Decomposition module, and a Machine Dependent Decomposition module. The Abstract Decomposition (AD) module describes a specification for neural systems. The AD specifies a finite set of schemes for decomposing neural systems according to the required exploitation of neural systems' parallelism; e.g. connection, neuron, cluster. The Machine Dependent Decomposition (MDD) analyses the decomposition schemes in conjunction with the features of parallel machines; e.g. processors' features, communications schemes, and specifies the most suitable mapping scheme to implement. To validate the Mapping System, prototype mapping software for MIMD machines has been implemented. The MIMD mapping software is able to automatically map static neural systems onto a 48- processor Parsys SN1000 Transputer machine. This mapping software was developed as part of the CEC-funded Esprit II Pygmalion Neurocomputing Project, and is incorporated in the Pygmalion Neural Network Environment. The Machine Dependent Decomposition (MDD) module is improved by the development of an analytical framework for evaluating the speedup of neural systems' mapping schemes, based on the integration of machine-dependent features with the alternative decomposition schemes. The various mapping schemes for the classical backpropagation neural systems were hand-coded onto a 64x64-processor Distributed Array of Processors (DAP). The analytical framework is then used to evaluate the speedups of the different mapping schemes. This shows that the expected speedups agree with the results obtained when implementing the mapping schemes. A formal specification for neural network systems which uses the Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN. 1) as the syntactic construct is then presented. The innovative use of ASN. l, previously dedicated to the specification of communication protocols by the Open System Interconnection, provides a formal basis for specifying neural systems and their parallelism. This thesis develops a solution for decomposing and mapping neural systems onto general-purpose parallel machines. Working top down, this thesis makes three major contributions: i) the innovative use of ASN. l as the notational support for specifying neural systems with explicit support for parallelism, ii) an analytical framework for evaluating the speedup of alternative neural system' mappings, and iii) a general-purpose Mapping System for mapping neural systems onto parallel machines

Chapter 6 Physical and aggregate properties

International audienceThe pollution load of water and wastewater is associated with the presence of floating, coarse, and particulate matters. This type of pollution is important because of its consequences in terms of deposition, clogging, anaerobic degradation, as well as its adsorption potential for metallic or organic compounds, or microorganisms. Colloidal and particulate matters in wastewater have great influence on the performance of wastewater treatment plants: each operation unit, such as settling, biological or chemical treatment, is affected by the phenomena of agglomeration or dispersion of colloids. Wastewater is often a mixture of organic and mineral pollutants. Four families of compounds usually describe the pollution fractions contained in urban wastewater: soluble fraction, colloidal fraction, supracolloidal fraction, and settleable fraction. The measurement of total suspended solids (TSS) includes supracolloids and settleable matter. The colloidal state is an intermediate phase between the solid state and the dissolved phase. UV spectrophotometry integrates different combined optical phenomena such as physical absorption and chemical absorption

Prevalence and risk factors for spontaneous bacterial pleuritis in cirrhotic patients with hydrothorax

AbstractBackgroundSpontaneous bacterial pleuritis is a high mortality complication in cirrhotic patients with hydrothorax.AimTo investigate the prevalence and risk factors for spontaneous bacterial pleuritis in cirrhotic patients with hydrothorax.MethodsAdult inpatients with liver cirrhosis and hydrothorax were enrolled. The severity of liver disease was assessed by the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. Pleural fluid was analyzed [pH, polymorphonuclear (PMN) leucocyte count, total protein level, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, glucose level, bacterial culture and cytology]. Spontaneous bacterial pleuritis was diagnosed by positive pleural fluid culture or, if negative, a pleural fluid PMN count >500cells/μL without radiographic evidence of pneumonia.ResultsOut of 98 cirrhotic patients with hydrothorax enrolled in the study; 14 (14.3%) fullfilled the criteria for the diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial pleuritis. Of those 14 patients; 9 were culture positive and 5 were culture negative. The other 84 did not have evidence of spontaneous bacterial pleuritis and were considered to have uncomplicated hydrothorax. Patients with spontaneous bacterial pleuritis had more severe liver diseases (MELD score), and higher rate of associated spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) and bacteraemia than patients with uncomplicated hydrothorax. Patients with spontaneous bacterial pleuritis had a significantly higher PMN count and a lower protein level in the pleural fluid.ConclusionThe prevalence of spontaneous bacterial pleuritis in the studied group of patients with hepatic hydrothorax was 14.3%. Patients with advanced liver disease, low pleural fluid protein, or SBP are at risk for spontaneous bacterial pleuritis