Start-up of Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation ( Anammox ) from Conventional Return Activated Sludge in Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) Reactor for Autotrophic Nitrogen Removal from Wastewater

A bench-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was applied to start-up the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) process from conventional return activated sludge. The reactor was operated for approximately 170 days and was fed synthetic wastewater containing mainly nitrite (NO2 ) − and ammonium (NH4 ) + as main substrates. After 106 days of operation, the first evidence of Anammox activity was detected in the reactor by simultaneous consumption of − 2 NO and + 4 NH coupled to the production of nitrate (NO3 ) − . The start-up period of the Anammox UASB reactor was within 4.5 months. During the course of the start-up period, three distinct stages were distinguished: cell lysis, Anammox cultivation and finally the appearance and enrichment of Anammox bacteria. On the basis of the results, it seems that the successful cultivation of Anammox bacteria in this study was probably due to the capacity of UASB reactor in retaining Anammox biomass and the inherent properties of the activated sludge

Global impact and clinical management of severe respiratory syndrome coronovirus-2 (COVID-19)

Coronaviruses are enveloped non-segmented positive-sense RNA viruses belonging to the family Coronaviridae and the order Nidovirales and broadly distributed in humans and other mammals. The recommendations for the management of COVID-19 are mentioned in a lot of Updated Literature such as in The "L. Spallanzani" National Institute for the Infectious Diseases. These recommendations are considered as expert's opinions, which may be modified according to newly produced literature data. In addition, Chloroquine and its derivative, hydroxychloroquine, have a long history as safe and inexpensive drugs for use in malaria-endemic regions and as daily treatments for autoimmune diseases, with the most common side effect being eye damage after long-term use (Kapoor and Kapoor 2020).  Although previous studies have revealed that chloroquine has therapeutic activity against viruses, including human corona virus OC43 in animal models and SARS-CoV in cell culture studies. we proposed that from natural Medicine the polyphenol compounds in olive leaf extracts were responsible for the stimulation of probiotic Microbes growth and metabolism and that olive leaf extracts ingested in human diet might have the same effect on desirable components of the intestinal microflora, Herbal medicines, plant products, and phototherapeutic have been widely used all over the world since ancient times.  Such as Orange, garlic, Bananas, and lemon have an effect on increasing the immune system. On the other hand; Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are a piece of evidence to treat the harmful responses arising from reactive oxygen species (ROS). Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are microbial agents which could be potentially used as an alternative to anti-viral to treat human infectious disease, especially influenza; there is a novel treatment by using magnetite nanoparticles as nanomedicine drug for Covid- 19

Analyzing the relationship between urbanization, food supply and demand, and irrigation requirements in Jordan

The landscape surrounding urban areas is often used as farmland. With the observed expansion of urban areas over the last decades and a projected continuation of this trend, our objective was to analyze how urbanization affects food supply and demand in The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. We used a chain of simulation models covering components of the atmosphere (climate simulations), biosphere (crop yield calculations), and anthroposphere (simulations of urban expansion and land-use change) to calculate the effect of farmland displacement on land and water resources (hydrosphere). Our simulations show that the displacement of farmland itself has hardly any effect on cropland demand, crop yields, or irrigation water requirements. These results indicate that Jordan has sufficient productive areas available to buffer effects of urban expansion on food production for the next decades. However, this picture changes dramatically once we include changes in socioeconomy and climate in our simulations. The isolated effect of climate change results in an expected increase in irrigation water requirements of 19 MCM by 2025 and 64 MCM by 2050. It furthermore leads to an increase in cropland area of 147 km2 by 2025 and 265 km2 by 2050. While the combined analysis of urban expansion, climate change, and socioeconomic change makes optimistic assumptions on the increase in crop yields by 2050, the results still indicate a pronounced effect on cropland demands (2700 km2) and a steep increase in irrigation water requirements (439 MCM). Our simulation results highlight the importance of high resolution, spatially explicit projections of future land changes as well as the importance of spatiotemporal scenario studies at the regional level to help improving water planning strategies.The research presented in this manuscript was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [contract 01LW0502]. We would like to thank our colleagues from IMK-559 IFU for providing the climate data without which this study would not have been possible. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that helped improve the quality of this manuscript.YesThis journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final

An empirical formula to estimate rainfall intensity in Kupwara region of Kashmir valley, J and K, India

Knowledge of rainfall extremes particularly their magnitude and frequency, as embodied in Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) relationships and IDF curves is fundamental to many engineering problems such as design of hydraulic structures, urban drainage system, water resources projects and many others. The objective of this study is to obtain IDF relationships and curves for the Kupwara region of Kashmir valley in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Three different frequency distributions namely the Gumbel distribution, the Pearson Type III distribution and the Log-Pearson Type III distribution were fitted to the rainfall data to obtain rainfall intensities for selected return periods (2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years) and durations (0.16, 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours). Regional constants in IDF relations were found using the Sherman Morrison method and results were compared based on the Chi-square goodness-of-fit test. Results obtained using all distributions showed a similar trend. However, the Pearson Type III distribution emerges to be the best fit for the rainfall data of the region. Results revealed that higher rainfall intensities have shorter durations. Maximum rainfall intensity 81.13 mm/hr as per the best fit relation occurs with a return period of 100 years for 0.16 hours duration

Performance evaluation of reverse osmosis brackish water desalination plant with different recycled ratios of retentate

YesReverse Osmosis (RO) process has become one of the most widely utilised technologies for brackish water desalination for its capabilities of producing high-quality water. This paper emphasis on investigating the feasibility of implementing the retentate recycle design on the original design of an industrial medium-sized multistage and multi-pass spiral wound brackish water RO desalination plant (1200 m³/day) of Arab Potash Company (APC) located in Jordan. Specifically, this research explores the impact of recycling the high salinity stream of the 1st pass (at different recycled percentages) to the feed stream on the process performance indicators include, the fresh water salinity, overall recovery rate, and specific energy consumption. The simulation is carried out using an earlier model developed by the same authors for the specified RO plant using gPROMS suits. This confirmed the possibility of increasing the product capacity by around 3% with 100% recycle percentage of the high salinity retentate stream