Integrating the selection of PHA storing biomass and nitrogen removal via nitrite for the treatment of the sludge reject water

Integrating the selection of PHA storing biomass and nitrogen removal via-nitrite for the treatment of the sludge reject wate

The pion-pion Interaction in the rho Channel in Finite Volume

The aim of this paper is to investigate an efficient strategy that allows to obtain pi-pi phase shifts and rho meson properties from QCD lattice data with high precision. For this purpose we evaluate the levels of the pi-pi system in the rho channel in finite volume using chiral unitary theory. We investigate the dependence on the pi mass and compare with other approaches which use QCD lattice calculations and effective theories. We also illustrate the errors induced by using the conventional Luscher approach instead of a more accurate one recently developed that takes into account exactly the relativistic two meson propagators. Finally we make use of this latter approach to solve the inverse problem, getting pi-pi phase shifts from "synthetic" lattice data, providing an optimal strategy and showing which accuracy is needed in these data to obtain the $\rho$ properties with a desired accuracy.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, substantially modified with practical examples of use to lattice researchers, new comments and references adde

Electromagnetic corrections to light hadron masses

At the precision reached in current lattice QCD calculations, electromagnetic effects are becoming numerically relevant. We will present preliminary results for electromagnetic corrections to light hadron masses, based on simulations in which a $\mathrm{U}(1)$ degree of freedom is superimposed on $N_f=2+1$ QCD configurations from the BMW collaboration.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, The XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, June 14-19,2010, Villasimius, Sardinia Ital

Middle-upper arm circumference for nutritional surveillance in crisis-affected populations: Development of a method.

Background: The assessment of prevalence of acute malnutrition in under-five children is widely used for the detection of nutritional emergencies, planning interventions, advocacy, and programme monitoring and evaluation. Current nutritional surveillance systems have important limitations. The aim of this thesis was to develop a new method for nutritional surveillance to assess acute malnutrition prevalence using PROBIT Methods based on Middle-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC). Specific objectives were to: i) compare the appropriateness of MUAC versus other anthropometric measurements or indices to assess change in a population’s nutritional status; ii) Examine assumptions behind the proposed PROBIT Methods; and iii) Assess outcomes of the proposed PROBIT Methods using estimation and classification approaches. Methods: The first objective was achieved through a literature review. For the second objective, assumptions were tested on a database of 852 nutritional surveys including 668,975 children aged 6-59 months old. For the third objective, the Methods were assessed using data from 681,600 simulated surveys of eight different sizes. Results: MUAC was identified as the most appropriate anthropometric measure to detect short-term changes in the nutritional status of a population; and the main assumptions behind the proposed Methods were verified. The PROBIT methods had better precision in the estimation of acute malnutrition than the Classic Method for all sample sizes tested and a better coverage for smaller sample sizes, while having relatively little bias. The classification approach performed well with a threshold of 5% acute malnutrition. Conclusion: PROBIT Methods have a clear advantage in the assessment of acute malnutrition prevalence compared to the Classic Method. Their use would require much lower sample sizes and would enable great time- and resource-savings. There is great potential in their use in surveillance systems in order to produce timely and/or locally relevant prevalence estimates of acute malnutrition and to enable a swift and well-targeted response

Extracting Scattering Phase-Shifts in Higher Partial-Waves from Lattice QCD Calculations

L\"uscher's method is routinely used to determine meson-meson, meson-baryon and baryon-baryon s-wave scattering amplitudes below inelastic thresholds from Lattice QCD calculations - presently at unphysical light-quark masses. In this work we review the formalism and develop the requisite expressions to extract phase-shifts describing meson-meson scattering in partial-waves with angular-momentum l<=6 and l=9. The implications of the underlying cubic symmetry, and strategies for extracting the phase-shifts from Lattice QCD calculations, are presented, along with a discussion of the signal-to-noise problem that afflicts the higher partial-waves.Comment: 79 pages, 41 figure

A role for TSPO in mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis and redox stress signaling

The 18 kDa translocator protein TSPO localizes on the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). Systematically overexpressed at sites of neuroinflammation it is adopted as a biomarker of brain conditions. TSPO inhibits the autophagic removal of mitochondria by limiting PARK2-mediated mitochondrial ubiquitination via a peri-organelle accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here we describe that TSPO deregulates mitochondrial Ca2+ signaling leading to a parallel increase in the cytosolic Ca2+ pools that activate the Ca2+-dependent NADPH oxidase (NOX) thereby increasing ROS. The inhibition of mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake by TSPO is a consequence of the phosphorylation of the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC1) by the protein kinase A (PKA), which is recruited to the mitochondria, in complex with the Acyl-CoA binding domain containing 3 (ACBD3). Notably, the neurotransmitter glutamate, which contributes neuronal toxicity in age-dependent conditions, triggers this TSPO-dependent mechanism of cell signaling leading to cellular demise. TSPO is therefore proposed as a novel OMM-based pathway to control intracellular Ca2+ dynamics and redox transients in neuronal cytotoxicity