Quantitative study of activated sludge population structure

A quantitative study of the population structure of activated sludge is an important component of biological wastewater treatment control. However, in the studying of live samples of the activated sludge, some complications arise, in particular, associated with the relatively short time of the subsample suitability. A subsample is the part of the sample that is placed on a glass slide and in which organisms are counted. The issue of optimization of counts of organisms with large amplitude of population density is considered. The results of counting ciliated protozoa in activated sludge were described. The samples were counted in 45 sub-samples of 25 µl each. An average of 10 counts was required to achieve high reliability in determining population densities with more than or equal to 1 specimen per 25 µl in sub-samples. For small population densities (less one specimen per 25 µl) of free-swimming, crawling, and sessile ciliates, 30 counts are necessary. When the density of colonial protozoan populations is established, the number of counts should be increased to 40, especially when colonies with significant differences in the number of zooids are found

Semi-automatic conversion of BioProp semantic annotation to PASBio annotation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Semantic role labeling (SRL) is an important text analysis technique. In SRL, sentences are represented by one or more predicate-argument structures (PAS). Each PAS is composed of a predicate (verb) and several arguments (noun phrases, adverbial phrases, etc.) with different semantic roles, including main arguments (agent or patient) as well as adjunct arguments (time, manner, or location). PropBank is the most widely used PAS corpus and annotation format in the newswire domain. In the biomedical field, however, more detailed and restrictive PAS annotation formats such as PASBio are popular. Unfortunately, due to the lack of an annotated PASBio corpus, no publicly available machine-learning (ML) based SRL systems based on PASBio have been developed. In previous work, we constructed a biomedical corpus based on the PropBank standard called BioProp, on which we developed an ML-based SRL system, BIOSMILE. In this paper, we aim to build a system to convert BIOSMILE's BioProp annotation output to PASBio annotation. Our system consists of BIOSMILE in combination with a BioProp-PASBio rule-based converter, and an additional semi-automatic rule generator.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our first experiment evaluated our rule-based converter's performance independently from BIOSMILE performance. The converter achieved an F-score of 85.29%. The second experiment evaluated combined system (BIOSMILE + rule-based converter). The system achieved an F-score of 69.08% for PASBio's 29 verbs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our approach allows PAS conversion between BioProp and PASBio annotation using BIOSMILE alongside our newly developed semi-automatic rule generator and rule-based converter. Our system can match the performance of other state-of-the-art domain-specific ML-based SRL systems and can be easily customized for PASBio application development.</p

Ratio of abundances of ciliates behavioral groups as an indicator of the treated wastewater impact on rivers

A method for assessing the degree of impact of wastewater treatment plant discharge on receiving rivers was proposed, based on the structural indicators of the population of ciliated protozoa. It was shown that the ratio of attached, crawling and free-swimming forms in bottom sediments changes under the influence of discharge. In the points subject to organic pollution, the share of attached filter-feeding bacteriovorous ciliates increases in the assemblage of ciliated protozoa. The proposed Attached Form Index (AFI) takes this ratio into account. The use of AFI makes it possible to assess the restructuring of the assemblage of ciliated protozoa under the influence of point sources of pollution, to establish a zone of negative influence of runoff, to assess the degree of restoration of the aquatic ecosystem, as the influence of the pollution source weakened

Orzęski anaerobowe w osadzie czynnym

Występowanie wielu gatunków orzęsków beztlenowych w osadzie czynnym oczyszczalni ścieków pracujących w warunkach aerobowych było do tej pory stosunkowo rzadkie. W przypadku orzęsków beztlenowych, ich obecność traktowano jako sygnał informujący o pogorszeniu jakości osadu czynnego lub występowanie sytuacji zagrożenia dla tlenowego procesu biologicznego oczyszczania ścieków. Rozwój technologii biologicznego oczyszczania ścieków w celu zapewnienia skutecznego usuwania związków węgla, azotu oraz fosforu, doprowadził do uruchomienia nowej generacji oczyszczalni z bioreaktorami pracującymi w naprzemiennych warunkach beztlenowych, niedotlenionych i tlenowych. Wraz ze zmianą technologii powstaje pytanie co do konieczności zmian w rozumieniu i interpretacji miejsca i znaczenia orzęsków anaerobowych w zespołach osadu czynnego oraz ich roli jako indykatorów procesów oczyszczania ścieków. Regularne występowanie w osadzie czynnym, pochodzącym ze zmodyfikowanych oczyszczalni, obligatoryjnych lub fakultatywnych gatunków orzęsków anaerobowych, może być ważnym wskaźnikiem bilansu oraz zrównoważenia kolejnych faz procesu oczyszczania ścieków. W oparciu o przeprowadzone badania osadu czynnego z 15 oczyszczalni zlokalizowanych w Polsce można stwierdzić, że częstotliwość występowania orzęsków anaerobowych jest niska. W sumie zidentyfikowano 10 obligatoryjnych i fakultatywnych gatunków anaerobowych. W zmieniających się warunkach tlenowych/ anoksycznych /anaerobowych najczęściej obserwowane były H. discolor, A. uncinata, A. cicada, C. polypinum, E. coronata, L. lamella, P. rouxi, V. aquadulcis, P. elongatа. Rozwój badań w zakresie ekologii orzęsków anaerobowych, występujących w oczyszczalniach ścieków oraz w różnych systemach laboratoryjnych, pozwoli rozszerzyć możliwości interpretacji ich roli podczas oczyszczania ścieków metodą osadu czynnego oraz określić ich potencjał jako indykatorów odnośnie występujących warunków procesowych w nowoczesnych oczyszczalniach do zintegrowanego usuwania węgla azotu i fosforu

Spatial Distribution of Ciliate Assemblages in a Shallow Floodplain Lake with an Anaerobic Zone

The spatial distribution of ciliate assemblages was studied in a shallow floodplain lake with a sharp division of space by oxygen conditions. The surface zone occupied by the “carpet” of Lemna trisulca and L. minor was characterized by a large daily amplitude of oxygen content with periodic exceeding of 100% of saturation; the underlying water layer was characterized by microaerobic conditions throughout most of the year, with seasonal deviations towards oxygen-free conditions (in winter and mid-summer) or increased oxygen content (before freezing and after ice melt); stable oxygen-free conditions were maintained in the bottom layer of water and at the bottom of the lake. There were 111 species of ciliated protozoa recorded in the lake. The ciliated protozoa were clearly structured and formed three almost non-overlapping assemblages in terms of species composition, which retained their isolation during all seasons of the year. On the basis of the analysis performed using the R indicspecies package, species of ciliated protozoa were identified as indicators of conditions with different oxygen regimes, which are determined by the level of organic pollution and the distribution of photosynthetic organisms

The Ground Beetles Assemblage in a Gradient of Habitats Varying Degrees of Humidity

У роботі представлено результати досліджень структури асамблеї турунів та просторового поширення їх популяцій в умовах волого листяного лісу і системи ярів сформованих струмками у межах водозбірної площі р. Битиця, правої притоки першого порядку річки Псел (басейн Дніпра, Сумська обл.). На обстеженій території існує асамблея турунів, що під впливом зовнішніх факторів поділяється на дві динамічні варіанти – стабільну, яка локалізується на плакорі, та не стабільну – в ярах з тимчасовими струмками.The results of study of the structure ground beetles assemblage and the spatial distribution of their populations in humid deciduous woods and ravines systems within the catchment area of River Bytycia (tributary of Psel, Dnieper basin) in the Sumy Region are presented. The carabid assemblage divided into two dynamic groups within the investigated area: the stable group which localized in the forest at heights, and the unstable group – in the brooklet ravines