Evaluation of the Kinetics of Biologically Catalyzed Treatment and Regeneration of NOX Scrubbing Process Waters

A prototype apparatus was configured and operated to evaluate the efficacy of a process that integrates the absorption of nitric oxide in an aqueous solution of ferrous ethylenediamintetraacetic acid (Fe(II)EDTA) with biological treatment and regeneration of spent scrubber water. In addition to operation of a continuous-flow, closed-loop prototype process, a series of batch reactor tests were conducted to investigate the kinetics of microbially-catalyzed reduction of the nitrosyl adduct of ferrous EDTA and microbially-catalyzed reduction of oxidized ferric EDTA. Denitrifying and strictly anaerobic biomass from a municipal wastewater treatment process was cultivated using ethanol as the primary electron donor and nitrate and ferric EDTA as electron acceptors. Following 42-days of bioreactor start-up, nitric oxide (NO) scrubbed from a counter-current absorption tower replaced nitrate. After 27 days of aclimation, an 80-day period of steady state operation was observed. During steady state operation, mean NO scrubbing efficiency of 97.9% was achieved, process water oxidation/reduction potential (ORP) remained between -75 and -140 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl ref.), and generated biogas was 91% N2, by volume. Biomass in the prototype reactor was flocculent, and traveled throughout the closed-loop process. Because of the constant recirculation of washed-out biomass and low observed biomass yield (0.0393 g VSS/g COD), mass balance showed the prototype process sludge age to be 75.9 days. During steady state operation, biomass was extracted for kinetic batch analyses. Batch reactor kinetic tests revealed that both ferric EDTA and NO reduction proceed as a result of microbially-catalyzed reactions. Microbially-catalyzed reduction of ferric EDTA proceeds according to the Monod kinetic model, while strong inhibition of the microbially-catalyzed reduction of NO•Fe(II)EDTA was observed at ethanol concentrations above 0.33 g COD/l. Based on observed population parameters, including biomass yield, endogenous decay, and substrate utilization rate, the critical mean cell retention time below which wash out of a continuously-stirred bioreactor would occur was found to be 11.7 days and 51.4 days for NO reducers and ferric EDTA reducers, respectively. Experimental results provide insight into conditions required for the successful operation of a process for the biological treatment and regeneration of spent scrubber solution from a NOX absorption process

Perception and Language: Using the Rorschach with People with Aphasia

This study explored the use of the Rorschach with eight individuals diagnosed with mild to moderate fluent or non-fluent types of aphasia to consider the extent to which the Rorschach captured aspects of language impairment not otherwise probed by traditional neurolinguistic measures. A ninth participant, with Wernicke’s aphasia, produced non-scorable responses and was therefore left out of all analyses. Of primary interest was whether the Rorschach, historically understood as a projective psychological instrument, would allow individuals living with language impairment to recognize, retrieve and coherently express words that reflected their thoughts. At the same time, this study sought to explore how the ambiguous nature of Rorschach inkblots could be leveraged together with traditional neuropsychological and linguistic measures, to provide insight into the relationship between perception, thought, psychological process and language - a multimethod assessment approach to describe the complex phenomena surrounding aphasia. This study demonstrated that individuals with reduced language function were able to provide responses to inkblots presented in a Rorschach assessment that were sufficient in number and quality to allow scoring and interpretation. Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficients were calculated for WAB-R AQ score, CLQT Language Functions Domain Scores, the Rorschach cognitive processing simplicity, complexity scores and, the thought and perception EII and severe cognitive scores. Correlations among neurolinguistic and Rorschach cognitive processing and thought and perception variables, indicate a clear and intuitive relationship between these different measures. Finally, participants were administered a confrontation naming task in which a series of 10 black and white line drawings representing images of the most popular responses for each of the 10 Rorschach cards were presented. Results from that task confirmed that study participants could accurately retrieve the word for the most common responses, suggesting that object naming is not a limitation in the population of individuals with mild to moderate aphasia. Although differences between small groups of individuals with fluent and non-fluent aphasia could not be validated with significance testing, descriptive analyses showed some differences in means and standard deviations of Rorschach variable scores between the two groups. Specifically, individuals in the non-fluent aphasia group, who had more impairment in language ability, provided more vague responses, were typically only able to provide one defining characteristic of the blot (i.e., blends), and produced more communicative distortions (as measured by the thought and perception variables) than compared to individuals in the fluent aphasia group. The participant group, as a whole, produced a high degree of vague responses, was found to produce more simplistic descriptions of the blot, and typically only produced one defining characteristic of the blot (i.e., blends) - as compared to the neurotypical population. This study shows that the Rorschach can be administered to a population of individuals with mild to moderate fluent or non-fluent aphasia to generate scoreable results, with named objects comparable to those in norms derived from a neurotypical population. Limited amount and quality of supporting description of those named objects provided by the participants, however, limits the utility of the Rorschach from a psychological assessment perspective. In light of the dependence of this instrument on verbal ability, future studies might consider modified application of the Rorschach with administration that allows non-verbal responses (e.g., drawing, picture taking) as a means of supplementing participant verbal responses – to develop a richer understanding of the individual’s perception, and insight into their psychological state

A volta da Criança Cancerosa ao Seio da Família

Palestra publicada nos resumos do evento: The American Câncer Society's National Conference On Human Values & Câncer - JUNE 22-24, 1972, que relata a experiência de uma criança com câncer no retorno ao meio familiar

A Project Lifetime Approach to the Management of Induced Seismicity Risk at Geologic Carbon Storage Sites

The geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) is one method that can help reduce atmospheric CO2 by sequestering it into the subsurface. Large-scale deployment of geologic carbon storage, however, may be accompanied by induced seismicity. We present a project lifetime approach to address the induced seismicity risk at these geologic storage sites. This approach encompasses both technical and nontechnical stakeholder issues related to induced seismicity and spans the time period from the initial consideration phase to postclosure. These recommendations are envisioned to serve as general guidelines, setting expectations for operators, regulators, and the public. They contain a set of seven actionable focus areas, the purpose of which are to deal proactively with induced seismicity issues. Although each geologic carbon storage site will be unique and will require a custom approach, these general best practice recommendations can be used as a starting point to any site-specific plan for how to systematically evaluate, communicate about, and mitigate induced seismicity at a particular reservoir

The strain-rate sensitivity of high-strength high-toughness steels.

The present study examines the strain-rate sensitivity of four high strength, high-toughness alloys at strain rates ranging from 0.0002 s-1 to 200 s-1: Aermet 100, a modified 4340, modified HP9-4-20, and a recently developed Eglin AFB steel alloy, ES-1c. A refined dynamic servohydraulic method was used to perform tensile tests over this entire range. Each of these alloys exhibit only modest strain-rate sensitivity. Specifically, the strain-rate sensitivity exponent m, is found to be in the range of 0.004-0.007 depending on the alloy. This corresponds to a {approx}10% increase in the yield strength over the 7-orders of magnitude change in strain-rate. Interestingly, while three of the alloys showed a concominant {approx}3-10% drop in their ductility with increasing strain-rate, the ES1-c alloy actually exhibited a 25% increase in ductility with increasing strain-rate. Fractography suggests the possibility that at higher strain-rates ES-1c evolves towards a more ductile dimple fracture mode associated with microvoid coalescence