Phosphorus removal from eutrophic waters with an aluminium hybrid nanocomposite

An excess of phosphorus (P) is the most common cause of eutrophication of freshwater bodies. Thus, it is imperative to reduce the concentration of P to prevent harmful algal blooms. Moreover, recovery of P has been gaining importance because its natural source will be exhausted in the near future. Therefore, the present work investigated the removal and recovery of phosphate from water using a newly developed hybrid nanocomposite containing aluminium nanoparticles (HPN). The HPN-Pr removes 0.80 ± 0.01 mg P/g in a pH interval between 2.0 and 6.5. The adsorption mechanism was described by a Freundlich adsorption model. The material presented good selectivity for phosphate and can be regenerated using an HCl dilute solution. The factors that contribute most to the attractiveness of HPN-Pr as a phosphate sorbent are its moderate removal capacity, feasible production at industrial scale, reuse after regeneration and recovery of phosphate.The authors acknowledge the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Project SFRH/BD/39085/2007 for the financial support

QoS-Aware Resource Allocation for Mobile IoT Pub/Sub Systems

International audienceIoT applications are usually characterized by large-scale demand and the widespread use of mobile devices. Similarly, performing interaction among application and system components in a decoupled and elastic way, and enforcing Quality of Service (QoS) usually also become issues. Hence, paradigms such as pub/sub on top of cloud resources represent a suitable strategy for application development. However, management of QoS-aware resource allocation for pub/sub systems remains challenging, especially when system peers connect in an intermittent way. In this paper, we propose a new approach for resource allocation focusing on end-to-end performance in face of peers' disconnections. We evaluate and demonstrate the benefits of our approach using simulations. QoS enforcement was achieved in almost all scenarios, and we have shown that our approach can help reasoning about efficient resource allocation

Cross-layer QoS-Aware Resource Allocation for IoT-Enabled Service Choreographies

International audienceResource allocation for distributed systems is a well-known approach to deal with quality of service requirements. However, existing approaches do not consider the effects of resource allocation at the different levels of a system, especially when considering the end-to-end behavior of distributed compositions such as service choreographies. Based on our previous research on the optimized and QoS-aware resource allocation for service choreographies and publish-subscribe brokers, we outline a novel approach that integrates the treatment of resource allocation at both levels in orderto yield a more precise control over end-to-end QoS. The paper presents an early architecture and discusses some of the main challenges towards realizing the approach

Chromosome Xq23 is associated with lower atherogenic lipid concentrations and favorable cardiometabolic indices

AbstractAutosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 × 10−72), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 cases and 591,247 controls (P = 1.7 × 10−4), and reduced odds for diabetes mellitus type 2 among 54,095 cases and 573,885 controls (P = 1.4 × 10−5). Although we observe an association with increased BMI, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI is reduced, bioimpedance analyses indicate increased gluteofemoral fat, and abdominal MRI analyses indicate reduced visceral adiposity. Co-localization analyses strongly correlate increased CHRDL1 gene expression, particularly in adipose tissue, with reduced concentrations of blood lipids.Abstract Autosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 × 10−72), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 cases and 591,247 controls (P = 1.7 × 10−4), and reduced odds for diabetes mellitus type 2 among 54,095 cases and 573,885 controls (P = 1.4 × 10−5). Although we observe an association with increased BMI, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI is reduced, bioimpedance analyses indicate increased gluteofemoral fat, and abdominal MRI analyses indicate reduced visceral adiposity. Co-localization analyses strongly correlate increased CHRDL1 gene expression, particularly in adipose tissue, with reduced concentrations of blood lipids

MicroRNA biogenesis and their functions in regulating stem cell potency and differentiation

Stem cells are unspecialized/undifferentiated cells that exist in embryos and adult tissues or can be converted from somatic differentiated cells. Use of stem cells for tissue regeneration and tissue engineering has been a cornerstone of the regenerative medicine. Stem cells are also believed to exist in cancer tissues, namely cancer stem cells (CSCs). Growing evidence suggests that CSCs are the culprit of cancer dormancy, progression and recurrence, and thus have recently received great attention. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of short, non-coding RNAs that regulate expression of a wide range of genes at a post-transcriptional manner. They are emerging as key regulators of stem cell behaviors. This mini review summarizes the basic biogenesis and mode of actions of miRNAs, recent progress and discoveries of miRNAs in cellular reprogramming, stem cell differentiation and cellular communication, as well as miRNAs in CSCs. Some potential of miRNAs in future biomedical applications and research pertaining to stem cells are briefly discussed

Phosphorus removal from synthetic and municipal wastewater using spent alum sludge

In the present study, phosphorus removal was studied using as coagulant spent alum sludge from a water treatment plant of EYDAP (Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company) and compared to alum (Al2(SO4)3•18H2O), iron chloride (FeCl3•7H2O), iron sulfate (Fe2(SO4)•10H2O) and calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) at a constant pH (equal to 6).The comparison was based on their efficiency to remove phosphorus in synthetic wastewater consisting of 10mg/L P as potassium dihydrogen phosphate and 50mg/L N as ammonium chloride. The experiments were carried out using a jar-test apparatus and the measurements were performed according to the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. Pure alum, iron chloride and iron sulfate were much more efficient in phosphorus removal than the spent alum sludge but in the case of calcium hydroxide, phosphorus removal was very low in pH=6. Specifically, orthophosphate were totally removed by alum using 15mg/L as Al, by alum sludge using 75mg/L as Al and by FeCl3•7H2O or Fe2(SO4)• 10H2O using 30mg/L of Fe while in the case of calcium hydroxide P removal was actually zero. pH measurements showed that the uptake of phosphates is associated to the release of OH ions in the solution and that the end of P uptake is accompanied by the stabilization of pH. Finally this spent alum sludge was tested on municipal wastewater and proved to be effective as apart from phosphorus it was shown to remove turbidity and COD.</jats:p

A Middleware-based Approach for QoS-aware Deployment of Service Choreography in the Cloud

International audienceNon-functional requirements specification for an application and definition of required resources for its deployment are activities commonly performed at ad hoc, which can cause quality of service degradation due to inefficient use of re-sources. This problem is even greater with applications formed by the composition of multiple services. Cloud com-puting emerges as an alternative to provision of the needed resources, which is usually done using local infrastructure in conjunction with external providers. However, efficient resource management mechanisms and policies for offering quality services in these environments are necessary. This work is a PhD proposal, where is presented a middleware-based approach for cloud resources management and their provisioning according with non-funcional requirements and with greater usability by the deployer. Use of models at run-time and choreography of services for higher abstraction, adaptability and decentralization of the running system is proposed. Using this approach applications running in cloud environments may work based on their immediate needs