Adsorption of fluorobenzene onto granular activated carbon: Isotherm and bioavailability studies

The adsorption of a recalcitran fluoroaromatic compound, fluorobenzene (FB), onto granular activated carbon (GAC) was evaluated. The respective isotherm was obtained and the Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich–Peterson models were fitted to the experimental data, with the Redlich–Peterson model giving the best fitting. Freundlich model also provided a good fit but the Langmuir model could not adequately fit the experimental data, especially at high FB concentrations. Maximal adsorption capacity of FB onto GAC was foundto be 388 mg of FB per gram of GAC. The reversibility of the adsorption of FB onto GAC was investigated, both in the absence and presence of microorganisms. Abiotic desorption of FB occurred to a small extent (between 3% and 22%, for amounts of FB initially adsorbed to the GAC between 37 and 388 mg g 1), and bioregeneration of GAC was shown to occur when the matrix was exposed to a FB degrading culture, with 58–80% of the adsorbed FB being biodegraded. A residual amount of FB showed not to be bioavailable, suggesting that part of the adsorbed FB may be irreversibly bound. The fraction of the non-bioavailable FB increased at higher amounts of adsorbed FB, from 19% to 33%. The results indicate that the GAC employed in this study has a good capacity to adsorb FB and that bioregeneration of this matrix is a feasible process

Bacterial community dynamics in horizontal flow constructed wetlands with different plants for high salinity industrial wastewater polishing

This study is focused on the diversity of bacterial communities from two series of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (CW) polishing high salinity tannery wastewater. Each series was planted with Arundo donax or Sarcocornia sp. in a substrate composed by expanded clay and sand. Chemical and biochemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies were similar in each series, varying between 58 and 67% (inlet COD 218 ± 28 mg L−1) and 60 and 77% (inlet BOD5 37 ± 6 mg L−1), respectively. High numbers of culturable bacteria were obtained from substrate and root samples – 5.75 × 106-3.95 × 108 CFU g−1 recovered on marine agar and 1.72 × 107-8.46 × 108 CFU g−1 on nutrient agar. Fifty bacterial isolates were retrieved from the CW, related phylogenetically to Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, α-, β-, and γ-Proteobacteria. Changes in the bacterial communities, from roots and substrate of each series, related to the plant species, hydraulic loading rates and along CW operation were examined using denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The clustering analysis suggested that a diverse and distinct bacterial community inhabits each series, which was related to the type of plant present in each CW.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Recurrent duplications of the annexin A1 gene (ANXA1) in autism spectrum disorders

Validating the potential pathogenicity of copy number variants (CNVs) identified in genome-wide studies of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) requires detailed assessment of case/control frequencies, inheritance patterns, clinical correlations, and functional impact. Here, we characterize a small recurrent duplication in the annexin A1 (ANXA1) gene, identified by the Autism Genome Project (AGP) study

Assessment of plasma chitotriosidase activity, CCL18/PARC concentration and NP-C suspicion index in the diagnosis of Niemann-Pick disease type C: A prospective observational study

Background: Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is a rare, autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in either the NPC1 or NPC2 genes. The diagnosis of NP-C remains challenging due to the non-specific, heterogeneous nature of signs/symptoms. This study assessed the utility of plasma chitotriosidase (ChT) and Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 18 (CCL18)/pulmonary and activation-regulated chemokine (PARC) in conjunction with the NP-C suspicion index (NP-C SI) for guiding confirmatory laboratory testing in patients with suspected NP-C. Methods: In a prospective observational cohort study, incorporating a retrospective determination of NP-C SI scores, two different diagnostic approaches were applied in two separate groups of unrelated patients from 51 Spanish medical centers (n = 118 in both groups). From Jan 2010 to Apr 2012 (Period 1), patients with =2 clinical signs/symptoms of NP-C were considered ''suspected NP-C'' cases, and NPC1/NPC2 sequencing, plasma chitotriosidase (ChT), CCL18/PARC and sphingomyelinase levels were assessed. Based on findings in Period 1, plasma ChT and CCL18/PARC, and NP-C SI prediction scores were determined in a second group of patients between May 2012 and Apr 2014 (Period 2), and NPC1 and NPC2 were sequenced only in those with elevated ChT and/or elevated CCL18/PARC and/or NP-C SI =70. Filipin staining and 7-ketocholesterol (7-KC) measurements were performed in all patients with NP-C gene mutations, where possible. Results: In total across Periods 1 and 2, 10/236 (4%) patients had a confirmed diagnosis o NP-C based on gene sequencing (5/118 4.2%] in each Period): all of these patients had two causal NPC1 mutations. Single mutant NPC1 alleles were detected in 8/236 (3%) patients, overall. Positive filipin staining results comprised three classical and five variant biochemical phenotypes. No NPC2 mutations were detected. All patients with NPC1 mutations had high ChT activity, high CCL18/PARC concentrations and/or NP-C SI scores =70. Plasma 7-KC was higher than control cut-off values in all patients with two NPC1 mutations, and in the majority of patients with single mutations. Family studies identified three further NP-C patients. Conclusion: This approach may be very useful for laboratories that do not have mass spectrometry facilities and therefore, they cannot use other NP-C biomarkers for diagnosis

Actas de las V Jornadas ScienCity 2022. Fomento de la Cultura Científica, Tecnológica y de Innovación en Ciudades Inteligentes

ScienCity es una actividad que viene siendo continuada desde 2018 con el objetivo de dar a conocer los conocimientos y tecnologías emergentes siendo investigados en las universidades, informar de experiencias, servicios e iniciativas puestas ya en marcha por instituciones y empresas, llegar hasta decisores políticos que podrían crear sinergias, incentivar la creación de ideas y posibilidades de desarrollo conjuntas, implicar y provocar la participación ciudadana, así como gestar una red internacional multidisciplinar de investigadores que garantice la continuación de futuras ediciones. En 2022 se recibieron un total de 48 trabajos repartidos en 25 ponencias y 24 pósteres pertenecientes a 98 autores de 14 instituciones distintas de España, Portugal, Polonia y Países Bajos.Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología-Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; Consejería de la Presidencia, Administración Pública e Interior de la Junta de Andalucía; Estrategia de Política de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Huelva; Cátedra de Innovación Social de Aguas de Huelva; Cátedra de la Provincia; Grupo de investigación TEP-192 de Control y Robótica; Centro de Investigación en Tecnología, Energía y Sostenibilidad (CITES

Solving the assignment of customers to trucks and visit days in a periodic routing real-world case1

Introduction: This work proposes a model and two heuristic algorithms to assign customers to trucks and visit days as a first phase in the solution of a real-world routing problem, which is closely related to the PVRP (Periodic Vehicle Routing Problem), but a strategic decision of the company imposes the additional constraint that every customer must always be visited by the same truck. Methods: The proposed model will group the customers that are visited the same day by the same truck as close as possible by means of centroid-based clustering. The first proposed heuristic has a constructive stage and three underlying improvement heuristics, while the second uses an exact linear programming algorithm. Results: The algorithms are evaluated by instances taken from the literature and generated, taking into account the characteristics presented in the real-world case. © 2018, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. All rights reserved

FRÅN UPPDRAG TILL LEDARSKAPSHANDLINGAR - En narrativ intervjustudie om hur fem specialpedagoger formar sitt ledarskap på gymnasiet

Syftet med den här studien är att genom specialpedagogers berättelser bilda kunskap om vilka ledarskapshandlingar som finns i deras uppdrag. Vidare avser studien att ta reda på hur dessa ledarskapshandlingarna används i skolans utvecklingsarbete. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter är narrativ metod och socialkonstruktivistisk teori. Med narrativ metod möjliggörs att lyssna in och analysera berättelser som människor väljer att berätta utifrån sin erfarenhet. Socialkonstruktivismen handlar om vårt sätt att förklara världen utifrån subjektiva uppfattningar, som skapats genom social interaktion, och på så sätt kan vi reflektera över våra handlingar. Viktiga teoretiska begrepp är ledarskapshandlingar, "requisite variety", "sensemaking" samt arbets- och utvecklingsorganisation. Studiens resultat vilar på kvalitativa intervjuer, där fem specialpedagoger på gymnasienivå har berättat utifrån sina livsvärldar om deras uppdrag, skolutveckling och om ledarskap. I analysprocessen har den hermeneutiska cirkeln och en tematisk analysmodell använts. Resultatet visar på att specialpedagogernas ledarskapshandlingar finns inom deras uppdrag, som de utformat dem i samverkan med ledning och skolpersonal. Skolledningens ledarskap bildar specialpedagogernas förutsättningar för att synliggöra och medvetandegöra deras ledarskapshandlingar, så att det kom-mer elever, lärare och skolan till gagn. I skolutvecklingsarbetet bidrar dessa le-darskapshandlingar till att föra skolans utvecklingsarbete framåt och skapar framgångsfaktorer för elevers måluppfyllelse. I specialpedagogernas närmande i att leda på samtliga nivåer har de en utökad kompetens inom specialpedagogik, och erfarenheter av ledarskap både från sin lärarbakgrund och kompetens-utveckling. De håller sig även uppdaterade om senaste rönen i forskning inom det specialpedagogiska fältet. Sammantaget bidrar detta till att de får legitimitet av skolledning och lärarkollegor, att de utökar skolorganisationens förmåga att hantera elevernas mer komplexa lärmiljö och att integrera arbets- och ut-vecklingsorganisationen på skolorna