Treatment of sanitary sewer overflow with fixed media bioreactors

Fixed media bioreactors (biofilters) are a promising and proven technology used for wastewater treatment in unsewered rural areas. As an on-site treatment system, it cart potentially provide high treatment efficiency with a relatively low cost and maintenance. This research expanded the application of fixed media bioreactors and tested their feasibility in the treatment of sanitary sewer overflows (SSO) at high hydraulic loading of 0.2 m/h. Sand, peat, and textile (felt) were used as media to treat simulated 6-h peak flows for a 25-year SSO event in the city of Columbus, Ohio. The influent SSO was a mixture of primary sludge from a wastewater treatment plant diluted with tap water. The efficiency of treatment was measured as changes in the concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total suspended solids (TSS). Sand as a filter medium had the best removal of organic matter with average 84% reduction of BOD5 and 90% of COD. The TSS removal was more than 90% in all media. Peat and felt were,somewhat more efficient than the sand in the TSS removal. The media type and influent BOD5 concentration were two major factors that impacted the treatment of BOD5 (p<0.007). For the treatment of COD, significant factors were media type, influent concentration, and time course of loading in each SSO event (ps <= 0.001)

Perustuslainmukainen perustulokokeilu : Perustulokokeilun arviointia perustuslain ja kansainvälisten ihmisoikeussopimusten valossa

Pääministeri Juha Sipilän hallitusohjelmaan sisältyy kirjaus perustulon kokeilusta. Kokeilun toteuttaminen edellyttää erityissääntelyä. Perustulokokeilua koskevan lain tulee olla Suomen perustuslain ja kansainvälisten ihmisoikeusvelvoitteiden mukainen, jotta se voidaan säätää tavallisessa lainsäätämisjärjestyksessä. Perustuslakivaliokunnan lausuntokäytännöstä voidaan summata keskeiset vaatimukset, jotka kokeilulain tulee täyttää. Näitä ovat lailla säätämisen vaatimus, säännösten täsmällisyys ja tarkkarajaisuus, tavoitteen hyväksyttävyys erityisesti perusoikeuksien kannalta, kokeilun tarpeellisuus, valittujen kokeilualueiden (tai muiden määreiden) tarkoituksenmukaisuus, kokeilun määräaikaisuus, kokeilun eriarvoistavan vaikutuksen kohtuullisuus (suhteellisuus), oikeusturva ja kokeilun tulosten selvittämis- ja arviointivelvoite. Sanotun lisäksi perustulokokeilun suunnittelussa ja toteuttamisessa tulee ottaa huomioon myös sosiaalisten perusoikeuksien perustuslaillinen suoja, ja siksi perustulon euromääräistä tasoa arvioitaessa on otettava huomioon myös kansainvälisistä ihmisoikeuksista johtuvat vaatimukset, sekä muun muassa tutkimustieto nykyisen vähimmäisturvan ja perusturvan riittämättömyydestä. Nykyisen perusturvan vähimmäistasot osoittavat vähimmäistason myös kokeiltavalle perustulolle, sikäli kuin jälkimmäisellä on tarkoitus korvata edellisiä, joskin tähän perusturvan tasoon kohdistuu selkeitä korotuspaineita

Volatile emission from strawberry plants is induced by mite and leaf beetle feeding and methyl jasmonate

We have studied the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from young strawberry plants, cultivars Polka and Honeoye, after feeding by several strawberry herbivores under laboratory conditions. VOC profile of strawberry plants is highly dominated by green leaf volatiles (GLVs), which are released also due to mechanical damage. Our results reveal that strawberry has potential for inducible VOC defence, and this encourages testing the attractiveness of these strawberry VOCs to predatory mites

Novel Data Acquisition System for Silicon Tracking Detectors

We have developed a novel data acquisition system for measuring tracking parameters of a silicon detector in a particle beam. The system is based on a commercial Analog-to-Digital VME module and a PC Linux based Data Acquisition System. This DAQ is realized with C++ code using object-oriented techniques. Track parameters for the beam particles were reconstructed using off-line analysis code and automatic detector position alignment algorithm. The new DAQ was used to test novel Czochralski type silicon detectors. The important silicon detector parameters, including signal size distributions and signal to noise distributions, were successfully extracted from the detector under study. The efficiency of the detector was measured to be 95 %, the resolution about 10 micrometers, and the signal to noise ratio about 10.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 6 pages, LaTeX, 5 eps figures. PSN TUGP00

Improvement in organophosphorus hydrolase activity of cell surface-engineered yeast strain using Flo1p anchor system

Organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) hydrolyzes organophosphorus esters. We constructed the yeast-displayed OPH using Flo1p anchor system. In this system, the N-terminal region of the protein was fused to Flo1p and the fusion protein was displayed on the cell surface. Hydrolytic reactions with paraoxon were carried out during 24 h of incubation of OPH-displaying cells at 30°C. p-Nitrophenol produced in the reaction mixture was detected by HPLC. The strain with highest activity showed 8-fold greater OPH activity compared with cells engineered using glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor system, and showed 20-fold greater activity than Escherichia coli using the ice nucleation protein anchor system. These results indicate that Flo1p anchor system is suitable for display of OPH in the cell surface-expression systems

Stimulation of colonic motility by oral PEG electrolyte bowel preparation assessed by MRI : comparison of split vs single dose

Peer reviewe

Carbon balance of a grazed savanna grassland ecosystem in South Africa

Tropical savannas and grasslands are estimated to contribute significantly to the total primary production of all terrestrial vegetation. Large parts of African savannas and grasslands are used for agriculture and cattle grazing, but the carbon flux data available from these areas are limited. This study explores carbon dioxide fluxes measured with the eddy covariance method for 3 years at a grazed savanna grassland in Welgegund, South Africa. The tree cover around the measurement site, grazed by cattle and sheep, was around 15 %. The night-time respiration was not significantly dependent on either soil moisture or soil temperature on a weekly temporal scale, whereas on an annual timescale higher respiration rates were observed when soil temperatures were higher. The carbon dioxide balances of the years 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 were 85 +/- 16, 67 +/- 20 and 139 +/- 13 gCm(-2) yr(-1), respectively. The yearly variation was largely determined by the changes in the early wet season fluxes (September to November) and in the mid-growing season fluxes (December to January). Early rainfall enhanced the respiratory capacity of the ecosystem throughout the year, whereas during the mid-growing season high rainfall resulted in high carbon uptake.Peer reviewe

Long-term follow up of families with pathogenic NFKB1 variants reveals incomplete penetrance and frequent inflammatory sequelae

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsNuclear factor κ light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) family of evolutionarily conserved transcription factors are involved in key cellular signaling pathways. Previously, hypogammaglobulinemia and common variable immunodeficiency (CVID)-like phenotypes have been associated with NFKB1 variants and loss-of-function NFKB1 variants have been reported as the most common monogenic cause for CVID among Europeans. Here, we describe a Finnish cohort of NFKB1 carriers consisting of 31 living subjects in six different families carrying five distinct heterozygous variants. In contrast to previous reports, the clinical penetrance was not complete even with advancing age and the prevalence of CVID/hypogammaglobulinemia was significantly lower, whereas (auto)inflammatory manifestations were more common (42% of the total cohort). At current stage of knowledge, routine genetic screening of asymptomatic individuals is not recommended, but counseling of potential adult carriers seems necessary.Peer reviewe

Insect herbivory dampens Subarctic birch forest C sink response to warming

Climate warming is anticipated to make high latitude ecosystems stronger C sinks through increasing plant production. This effect might, however, be dampened by insect herbivores whose damage to plants at their background, non-outbreak densities may more than double under climate warming. Here, using an open-air warming experiment among Subarctic birch forest field layer vegetation, supplemented with birch plantlets, we show that a 2.3 degrees C air and 1.2 degrees C soil temperature increase can advance the growing season by 1-4 days, enhance soil N availability, leaf chlorophyll concentrations and plant growth up to 400%, 160% and 50% respectively, and lead up to 122% greater ecosystem CO2 uptake potential. However, comparable positive effects are also found when insect herbivory is reduced, and the effect of warming on C sink potential is intensified under reduced herbivory. Our results confirm the expected warming-induced increase in high latitude plant growth and CO2 uptake, but also reveal that herbivorous insects may significantly dampen the strengthening of the CO2 sink under climate warming. Warming is expected to increase C sink capacity in high-latitude ecosystems, but plant-herbivore interactions could moderate or offset this effect. Here, Silfver and colleagues test individual and interactive effects of warming and insect herbivory in a field experiment in Subarctic forest, showing that even low intensity insect herbivory strongly reduces C sink potential