Applying performance indices in plantwide modelling for a comparative study of wastewater treatment plant operational strategies

Achievement of good effluent quality is always the main goal for wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) systems. However, these WWTPs have developed further objectives that include efficient design and strategic control options, with the prospect of their conversion into waste resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) that operate on reduced energy costs. With all these aspects becoming an intrinsic part of waste treatment, mathematical models that simulate WWTP unit processes are becoming of increasing relevance for the achievement of WRRF goals (including good effluent quality, low energy costs and nutrient recovery). It is expected that these mathematical models will benefit potential future applications of automation process control, which have also been developing rapidly with the availability of more reliable and affordable sensors. However, simulated automation control strategies require a thorough evaluation protocol to ensure their viability prior to being adopted as efficient operation control measures. This study considers the comparison of different control strategies implemented on a standard WWTP layout, for plant optimization. The initial task was to define performance indices, effluent quality index (EQI) and operation cost index (OCI), based on a previous investigation by the International Water Association (IWA) benchmark simulation modelling (BSM) task group. These performance indices were then used to evaluate the following strategies: (i) adding a fermentation tank, (ii) dosing flocculant and (iii) implementing a balancing tank. A control strategy was only assumed to be effective with improvement or maintenance of effluent quality. Overall, the evaluation exercise proved to be useful for providing expert advice on efficiency of proposed waste treatment system layouts, towards determination of the best configuration of future WRRFs. For instance, it was notable that significant organic strength is needed for removal of nutrients recycled back from the anaerobic digestion (AD) system into the activated sludge (AS) – hence alternate methods to put the nutrient-rich outflow from the AD system to good use are required.Keywords: WWTP control strategy, activated sludge, performance index, plant wide modellin

The development of a three phase plant-wide mathematical model for sewage treatment

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.To aid in finding the most cost effective methods for the design and operation of wastewater treatment plants, for minimization of energy consumption and cost while maximizing nutrient recovery and improving effluent quality, the purpose of this project is to develop three phase (aqueous-gas-solid) steady state and dynamic mathematical models for the anaerobic and aerobic digestion of sludge; including waste activated sludge (WAS) produced by biological excess phosphorus removal (BEPR) plants, within a plant-wide setting

Biodegradability of wastewater and activated sludge organics in anaerobic digestion

The investigation provides experimental evidence that the unbiodegradable particulate organics fractions of primary sludge and waste activated sludge calculated from activated sludge models remain essentially unbiodegradable in anaerobic digestion. This was tested by feeding the waste activated sludge (WAS) from three different laboratory activated sludge (AS) systems to three separate anaerobic digesters (AD). Two of the AS systems were Modified Ludzack – Ettinger (MLE) nitrification-denitrification (ND) systems and the third was a membrane University of Cape Town (UCT) ND and enhanced biological P removal system. One of the MLE systems and the UCT system were fed the same real settled wastewater. The other MLE system was fed raw wastewater which was made by adding a measured constant flux (gCOD/d) of macerated primary sludge (PS) to the real settled wastewater. This PS was also fed to a fourth AD and a blend of PS and WAS from settled wastewater MLE system was fed to a fifth AD. The five ADs were each operated at five different sludge ages (10–60d). From the measured performance results of the AS systems, the unbiodegradable particulate organic (UPO) COD fractions of the raw and settled wastewaters, the PS and the WAS from the three AS systems were calculated with AS models. These AS model based UPO fractions of the PS and WAS were compared with the UPO fractions calculated from the performance results of the ADs fed these sludges. For the PS, the UPO fraction calculated from the AS and AD models matched closely, i.e. 0.30 and 0.31. Provided the UPO of heterotrophic (OHO, fE_OHO) and phosphorus accumulating (PAO, fE_PAO) biomass were accepted to be those associated with the death regeneration model of organism "decay", the UPO of the WAS calculated from the AS and AD models also matched well - if the steady state AS model fE_OHO = 0.20 and fE_PAO = 0.25 values were used, then the UPO fraction of the WAS calculated from the AS models deviated significantly from those calculated with the AD models. Therefore in plant wide wastewater treatment models the characterization of PS and WAS as defined by the AS models can be applied without modification in AD models. The observed rate limiting hydrolysis/acidogenesis rates of the sludges are listed

Freely falling 2-surfaces and the quasi-local energy

We derive an expression for effective gravitational mass for any closed spacelike 2-surface. This effective gravitational energy is defined directly through the geometrical quantity of the freely falling 2-surface and thus is well adapted to intuitive expectation that the gravitational mass should be determined by the motion of test body moving freely in gravitational field. We find that this effective gravitational mass has reasonable positive value for a small sphere in the non-vacuum space-times and can be negative for vacuum case. Further, this effective gravitational energy is compared with the quasi-local energy based on the $(2+2)$ formalism of the General Relativity. Although some gauge freedoms exist, analytic expressions of the quasi-local energy for vacuum cases are same as the effective gravitational mass. Especially, we see that the contribution from the cosmological constant is the same in general cases.Comment: 11 pages, no figures, REVTeX. Estimation of the effective mass of small spheres in non-vaccum spacetime and Schwarzschild spacetime are added. The negativity of the latter is discusse

Mechanism of the Regulation of Organic Cation/Carnitine Transporter 1 (SLC22A4) by Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Transcriptional Factor RUNX1 and Inflammatory Cytokines

ABSTRACT: Recently, it was reported that the organic cation/carnitine transporter 1 (OCTN1, SLC22A4) is associated with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Crohn's disease. OCTN1 in humans is expressed in synovial tissues of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore octn1 in mice is expressed in inflamed joints with collagen-induced arthritis, a model of human arthritis, but not in the joints of normal mice. OCTN1 should be involved in the inflammatory disease and in the present study, the regulatory mechanism of OCTN1 expression was characterized using the human fibroblast-like synoviocyte cell line MH7A, derived from RA patients. A luciferase-reporter gene assay and gel shift assay demonstrated that RUNX1, which is an essential hematopoietic transcription factor associated with acute myeloid leukemia and is related to RA and Sp1, is involved in the regulation of OCTN1 promoter activity. Inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1␤ and tumor necrosis factor-␣ increased the expression of OCTN1 mRNA. Furthermore, overexpression of nuclear factor-B (NF-B) activated promoter activity of OCTN1. These results clearly demonstrate that expression of OCTN1 is regulated by various factors, including RUNX1, inflammatory cytokines, and NF-B, all of which are also related to the pathogenesis of RA. Further studies on the physiological substrate(s) of OCTN1 should be done to clarify the roles of OCTN1 in these diseases

Matside Medical Aid during Judo Competition in Japan

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Vasorelaxant activity of indole alkaloids from Tabernaemontana dichotoma.

The aim of this study was to search for bioactive natural products from medicinal plants targeting vasorelaxant activity and we found the methanol extract from bark of Tabernaemontana dichotoma showed vasorelaxant activity on rat aorta. We isolated eight indole alkaloids including 10-methoxyalstonerine (1), a new macroline type indole alkaloid, from bark of T. dichotoma. These were respectively identified as 10-methoxyaffinisine (2), lochnerine (3), cathafoline (4), (−)-alstonerine (5), 19,20-dehydro-10-methoxytalcarpine (6), alstonisine (7), and alstonal (8) based on spectroscopic analysis. Among them, sarpagine type (2 and 3), akuammiline type (4), and macroline oxindole type (7 and 8) showed potent vasorelaxant activity. Mechanism of action on vasorelaxant activity of 10-methoxyaffinisine (2), cathafoline (4), and alstonisine (7) was clarified. Effects of 10-methoxyaffinisine (2), cathafoline (4), and alstonisine (7) were partially mediated the NO release from endothelial cells. Furthermore, 10-methoxyaffinisine (2) and alstonisine (7) attribute to the inhibitory effect of VDC and ROC, and cathafoline (4) have inhibitory effect on Ca2+ influx via ROC. In addition, 10-methoxyaffinisine (2) as a major compound from bark of T. dichotoma showed hypotensive effect on normotensive rats in vivo

Polyamine metabolism is involved in adipogenesis of 3T3-L1 cells

Polyamines spermidine and spermine are known to be required for mammalian cell proliferation and for embryonic development. Alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) a limiting enzyme of polyamine biosynthesis, depleted the cellular polyamines and prevented triglyceride accumulation and differentiation in 3T3-L1 cells. In this study, to explore the function of polyamines in adipogenesis, we examined the effect of polyamine biosynthesis inhibitors on adipocyte differentiation and lipid accumulation of 3T3-L1 cells. The spermidine synthase inhibitor trans-4-methylcyclohexylamine (MCHA) increased spermine/spermidine ratios, whereas the spermine synthase inhibitor N-(3-aminopropyl)-cyclohexylamine (APCHA) decreased the ratios in the cells. MCHA was found to decrease lipid accumulation and GPDH activity during differentiation, while APCHA increased lipid accumulation and GPDH activity indicating the enhancement of differentiation. The polyamine-acetylating enzyme, spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SSAT) activity was increased within a few hours after stimulus for differentiation, and was found to be elevated by APCHA. In mature adipocytes APCHA decreased lipid accumulation while MCHA had the opposite effect. An acetylpolyamine oxidase and spermine oxidase inhibitor MDL72527 or an antioxidant N-acetylcysteine prevented the promoting effect of APCHA on adipogenesis. These results suggest that not only spermine/spermidine ratios but also polyamine catabolic enzyme activity may contribute to adipogenesis

Apelin Deficiency Accelerates the Progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the selective loss of motor neurons. Recent studies have implicated that chronic hypoxia and insufficient vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-dependent neuroprotection may lead to the degeneration of motor neurons in ALS. Expression of apelin, an endogenous ligand for the G protein-coupled receptor APJ, is regulated by hypoxia. In addition, recent reports suggest that apelin protects neurons against glutamate-induced excitotoxicity. Here, we examined whether apelin is an endogenous neuroprotective factor using SOD1G93A mouse model of ALS. In mouse CNS tissues, the highest expressions of both apelin and APJ mRNAs were detected in spinal cord. APJ immunoreactivity was observed in neuronal cell bodies located in gray matter of spinal cord. Although apelin mRNA expression in the spinal cord of wild-type mice was not changed from 4 to 18 weeks age, that of SOD1G93A mice was reduced along with the paralytic phenotype. In addition, double mutant apelin-deficient and SOD1G93A displayed the disease phenotypes earlier than SOD1G93A littermates. Immunohistochemical observation revealed that the number of motor neurons was decreased and microglia were activated in the spinal cord of the double mutant mice, indicating that apelin deficiency pathologically accelerated the progression of ALS. Furthermore, we showed that apelin enhanced the protective effect of VEGF on H2O2-induced neuronal death in primary neurons. These results suggest that apelin/APJ system in the spinal cord has a neuroprotective effect against the pathogenesis of ALS