Patellar luxation in dogs

Patellar luxation is a common orthopedic problem in dogs. Medial luxation is more common than lateral luxation and is usually diagnosed in dogs of small breed. Diagnosis is based on clinical evidence of patellar instability; however, diagnostic imaging is required to assess the amount of skeletal deformity and then the most appropriate method of treatment. Surgical options include both soft tissue and osseous techniques, however, in most of the cases, a combination of more procedures is used to achieve the correction of the luxation. Complication rate is generally low and the most common complications include reluxation and implant-associated complications. Prognosis is generally favorable, with most of the dogs returning to normal limb function. This article describes patellar luxation features in dogs, including clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment options available

A Multiproduct Biorefinery Approach for the Production of Hydrogen, Methane and Volatile Fatty Acids from Agricultural Waste

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Microalgae Cultivation on Anaerobic Digestate of Municipal Wastewater, Sewage Sludge and Agro-Waste

Microalgae are fast-growing photosynthetic organisms which have the potential to be exploited as an alternative source of liquid fuels to meet growing global energy demand. The cultivation of microalgae, however, still needs to be improved in order to reduce the cost of the biomass produced. Among the major costs encountered for algal cultivation are the costs for nutrients such as CO2, nitrogen and phosphorous. In this work, therefore, different microalgal strains were cultivated using as nutrient sources three different anaerobic digestates deriving from municipal wastewater, sewage sludge or agro-waste treatment plants. In particular, anaerobic digestates deriving from agro-waste or sewage sludge treatment induced a more than 300% increase in lipid production per volume in Chlorella vulgaris cultures grown in a closed photobioreactor, and a strong increase in carotenoid accumulation in different microalgae species. Conversely, a digestate originating from a pilot scale anaerobic upflow sludge blanket (UASB) was used to increase biomass production when added to an artificial nutrient-supplemented medium. The results herein demonstrate the possibility of improving biomass accumulation or lipid production using different anaerobic digestates. \ua9 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Energy Monitoring And Benchmarking In Wastewater Treatment Plants Using The ENERWATER Approach

One of the higher costs of wastewater services is the energy consumption. The total electricity consumption in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) corresponds to about 1% of the total electricity consumption per year of a country (Cao et al., 2011). In order to compare WWTPs having different processes and scheme configurations, the most useful methodology is energy efficiency measurement using benchmarking procedures (Parena et al., 2002). However, the available audit methodologies do not support well the decisions of the water utilities in order to best target their actions to improve the energy efficiency. Traditionally, energy consumption of a WWTP has been simplistically reported using global KPIs such as kWh/m3 (Mizuta and Shimada, 2010) or kWh/PE (Krampe, 2013; Balmer, 2000). As WWTPs are composed by several stages, each one with a different function, the use of specific KPIs for each treatment stage or function is more appropriate (Longo et al., 2016). A standard methodology is required in order to carry out the energy audit in WWTPs (Tao et al., 2009). Horizon2020 ENERWATER project (www.enerwater.eu ) deals, inter alia, with development of a standard methodology for continuously assessing, labelling and improving the overall performance of WWTPs. The objective of this study is to illustrate the application of the ENERWATER methodology to three real wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The ENERWATER methodology considers two approaches for the determination of energy consumption in WWTPs, namely Rapid Audit and Decision Support. The Rapid Audit allows for a quick estimation of the water treatment energy index (WTEI) based on existing information such as historical data pertaining to energy use records along with influent and effluent quality values. The Decision Support requires intensive monitoring across a WWTP of energy usage and water quality parameters that provides an accurate and detailed calculation of WTEI for each stage as well as its overall value for the plant. For the sake of brevity only the results of the Rapid Audit methodology will be presented here

Ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater by ion exchange: Development and application of a procedure for sorbent selection

Ion exchange represents one of the most promising processes for ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater (MWW). However, most previous studies on ammonium ion exchange did not optimize the process or evaluate its robustness under real operational conditions. This experimental study aimed at (i) developing a procedure for the selection of a sorbent for selective ammonium removal/recovery from MWW, (ii) validating the procedure by applying it to several sorbents, (iii) performing a preliminary optimization and robustness assessment of ammonium removal/recovery with the selected sorbent. The application of the procedure to natural and synthetic zeolites and a cation exchange resin confirmed that batch isotherm tests need to be integrated by continuous-flow tests. The selected sorbent, a natural mixture of Chabazite and Phillipsite, resulted in high performances in terms of cation exchange capacity (33 mgN gdry resin-1), ammonium operating capacity (5.2 mgN gdry resin-1), ammonium recovery yield (78-91%) and selectivity towards ammonium. The process performances resulted stable during 7 adsorption/desorption cycles conducted with MWW treatment plant effluents in a 60-cm column. The switch to a highly saline effluent produced in a hotspot of seawater intrusion did not determine significant changes in performances. Contact time was reduced to 6 min without any decrease in performances. Potassium – well tolerated by crops – was selected as the regenerating agent, in the perspective to produce a desorbed product to be re-used as fertilizer. The study shows that Chabazite/Phillipsite has a high capacity to recover ammonium from MWW in a circular economy approach

The Calibration of Some Stochastic Volatility Models Used in Mathematical Finance

Stochastic volatility models are used in mathematical finance to describe the dynamics of asset prices. In these models, the asset price is modeled as a stochastic process depending on time implicitly defined by a stochastic differential Equation. The volatility of the asset price itself is modeled as a stochastic process depending on time whose dynamics is described by a stochastic differential Equation. The stochastic differential Equations for the asset price and for the volatility are coupled and together with the necessary initial conditions and correlation assumptions constitute the model. Note that the stochastic volatility is not observable in the financial markets. In order to use these models, for example, to evaluate prices of derivatives on the asset or to forecast asset prices, it is necessary to calibrate them. That is, it is necessary to estimate starting from a set of data the values of the initial volatility and of the unknown parameters that appear in the asset price/volatility dynamic Equations. These data usually are observations of the asset prices and/or of the prices of derivatives on the asset at some known times. We analyze some stochastic volatility models summarizing merits and weaknesses of each of them. We point out that these models are examples of stochastic state space models and present the main techniques used to calibrate them. A calibration problem for the Heston model is solved using the maximum likelihood method. Some numerical experiments about the calibration of the Heston model involving synthetic and real data are presented

Clinical efficacy of Curcuvet and Boswellic acid combined with conventional nutraceutical product: An aid to canine osteoarthritis

Introduction Osteoarthritis is a progressive degenerative joint disease which is high prevalent in dogs. In the late stage of the disease, it determines chronic neuropathic pain which leads to reduced quality-of-life in affected patients. To date it has not yet been identified a specific treatment, but it has been proved that nutraceutical and dietary supplements may play an important role in controlling inflammation and pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate, by the use of force plate gait analysis, the clinical efficacy of Boswellia and Curcuvet® combined with conventional nutraceutical therapy compared with conventional nutraceutical alone in dogs affected by osteoarthritis. Materials and methods Twenty client-owned dogs, over 12 months old and 20 kg of body-weight, with a confirmed diagnosis of Osteoarthritis, were included in this randomized, double-blinded study. The dogs were randomly divided into two groups: the first group (A) received a conventional nutraceutical (consisted in a preparation of glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, fish-oil containing 80% of omega 3-fatty acid, vitamin C and E, saccharomyces Cerevisiae) with a combination of acid boswellic and Curcuvet®, while the second group (B) received a conventional nutraceutical. All the enrolled dogs underwent a washout period before starting the treatment with nutraceuticals products which were the only admitted treatment over the study period. A full orthopaedic and neurologic examination, and force plate gait analysis were performed before starting the treatment, at 45, 90, and 60 days post-treatment. Ground reaction forces were recorded and analyzed. Results Twenty dogs were enrolled in the study. In both groups there was an increasing values of ground reaction forces. These results might indicate that both nutraceutical products determined a better condition in terms of pain feeling but that effect is much more visible after 60 days from the end of the administration in treated group. Discussion In conclusion Curcuvet in combination with Boswellic acid could be considered a valid aid in a multimodal treatment for canine osteoarthritis

Energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants. Overview of the literature and critical discussion of energy data

3rd IWA Specialized International Conference Ecotechnologies for Wastewater Treatment 2016 (ecoSTP16). Cambridge, UK, 27-30 jun 2016In response to strong growth in energy intensive wastewater treatment, public agencies and industry began to explore and implement measures to ensure achievement of the target indicated in the 2020 Climate and Energy Package. However, in the absence of fundamental and globally recognized approach evaluating wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) energy performance, these policies could be economically wasteful. This paper gives an overview of the literature of WWTPs energy-use performance. Energy key performance indicators (KPIs) found are presented and critically assessed, pointing out the limits to their validity. Data from more than 430 WWTPs, together with the methods for synthesizing the information is presented. The assessment of a large data sample provided some evidence about the effect of the plant size, dilution factor and flowrate. The technology choice, plant layout and country of location were seen as important elements that contributed to the large variability observe

Monitoring and diagnosis of energy consumption in wastewater treatment plants. A state of the art and proposals for improvement

In response to strong growth in energy intensive wastewater treatment, public agencies and industry began to explore and implement measures to ensure achievement of the targets indicated in the 2020 Climate and Energy Package. However, in the absence of fundamental and globally recognized approach evaluating wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) energy performance, these policies could be economically wasteful. This paper gives an overview of the literature of WWTP energy-use performance and of the state of the art methods for energy benchmarking. The literature review revealed three main benchmarking approaches: normalization, statistical techniques and programming techniques, and advantages and disadvantages were identified for each one. While these methods can be used for comparison, the diagnosis of the energy performance remains an unsolved issue. Besides, a large dataset of WWTP energy consumption data, together with the methods for synthesizing the information, are presented and discussed. It was found that no single key performance indicators (KPIs) used to characterize the energy performance could be used universally. The assessment of a large data sample provided some evidence about the effect of the plant size, dilution factor and flowrate. The technology choice, plant layout and country of location were seen as important elements that contributed to the large variability observed