Effect of Pretreatment on the Enhancement of Biodegradation of Olive Mill Effluent for Treatment in an Anaerobic Cross-Flow Filter Reactor

In this study, various chemical and advanced oxidation processes were tested for enhancement of anaerobic biodegradation of olive mill effluent (OME). The experiments were carried out in a 20 L lab-scale ACF reactor packed with cross-flow filter material made of water-resistant cardboard with a specific surface area of ~300 m2 m–3. The ACF reactor was operated at chosen OLR conditions and fed with different pre-treated OME samples for 240 days (717 days in total). All pretreatment options used in this study improved the anaerobic biological degradation in terms of COD, phenolics and color removal efficiencies. Best effluent quality (5700±250 mg COD per liter) was obtained by using the Fenton process as a pre-treatment. This effluent value is still higher than the official discharge limit for COD (4000 mg COD per liter) in Turkey. Therefore, additional final treatment (e.g. membrane filtration) may be required before discharging into the sewer line

Schedulability analysis of synchronization protocols based on overrun without payback for hierarchical scheduling frameworks revisited

In this paper, we revisit global as well as local schedulability analysis of synchronization protocols based on the stack resource policy (SRP) and overrun without payback for hierarchical scheduling frameworks based on fixed-priority preemptive scheduling (FPPS). We show that both the existing global and local schedulability analysis are pessimistic, present improved analysis, and illustrate the improvements by means of examples

Effect of demographic features on morphometric variables of the knee joint: Sample of a 20 to 40-year-old Turkish population

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI), age, and sex and morphological risk factors that may cause internal knee injuries. The magnetic resonance images of 728 participants who met the inclusion criteria and had a mean age of 34.4?±?6.8 years were analyzed retrospectively. Demographic differences were analyzed by measuring 17 morphological parameters known to be associated with internal knee injuries. Men had a higher anterior cruciate ligament length (ACLL), anterior cruciate ligament width, (ACLW) lateral femoral condylar width (LFCW), medial femoral condylar width (MFCW), lateral femoral condylar depth (LFCD), distal femoral width (DFW), and intercondylar femoral width (IFW) than women (P?<?.05). By contrast, the medial meniscus bone angle (MMBA) was lower in men than in women (P?<?.05). Women aged 31 to 40 years had a lower Insall-Salvati index (ISI) and lateral tibial posterior slope (LTPS) than those aged 21 to 30 years (P?<?.05), whereas men aged 31 to 40 years had a lower ISI than those aged 21 to 30 years (P?<?.05). Women with BMI???30 had a higher LFCW and MFCW but a lower ISI than those with BMI?<?30 (P?<?.05). Men with BMI???30 had a higher LFCW, MFCW, DFW, and MMBA than those with BMI?<?30 (P?<?.05). The use of value ranges structured according to demographic characteristics, rather than a single value range for all patient groups, may contribute to the evaluation and treatment of the morphological features that are thought to be effective in the development of internal knee injuries. These values may also shed light on future radiological risk scoring systems and artificial intelligence applications in medicine. Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc

Pion wave functions from holographic QCD and the role of infrared renormalons in photon-photon collisions

In this article, we calculate the contribution of the higher-twist Feynman diagrams to the large-$p_T$ inclusive single pion production cross section in photon-photon collisions in case of the running coupling and frozen coupling approaches within holographic QCD. We compare the resummed higher-twist cross sections with the ones obtained in the framework of the frozen coupling approach and leading-twist cross section. Also, we show that in the context of frozen coupling approach a higher-twist contribution to the photon-photon collisions cross section is normalized in terms of the pion electromagnetic form factor.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0709.2072 by other author

Zinc supplementation decreases total thyroid hormone concentration in small ruminants

The effect of dietary zinc (Zn) supplementation on plasma Zn and serum thyroid hormones was evaluated in healthy male Merino lambs and Angora goats. A total of 12 lambs and 12 goats were divided into two equal groups as control and Zn groups in separate experiments. The lambs and goats of the control groups were fed basal rations alone. The Zn contents of these rations prepared for lambs and goats were 40 mg/kg and 35 mg/kg in dry matter (DM), respectively. Both species of animals in the Zn groups were fed a basal ration supplemented with zinc sulphate adjusted to 250 mg Zn/kg diet in DM. The feeding trial lasted for 12 weeks in lambs and 8 weeks in goats. Blood samples were taken from the jugular vein at 4-week intervals. Both animal species in the Zn groups had higher plasma Zn values than the controls throughout the experimental period, except in the 4th week in goats. However, the levels of serum total thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) were lower in the lambs and goats of the Zn groups, except in the 4th week, as compared to those in the controls. Moreover, serum total thyroid hormone levels of the goats were higher at the 4th week than at the 8th week. Although there was a decrease in the levels of free thyroxine and triiodothyronine of both small ruminant species in the Zn groups when compared to the controls, these alterations were not statistically significant. These results may show that zinc supplementation to the diet at this dose reduces total thyroid hormone levels in small ruminants but does not yet impair the euthyroid status of the organism

A minimally altruistic refinement of Nash equilibrium

We introduce a minimal notion of altruism and use it to refine Nash equilibria in normal form games. We provide three independent existence proofs, relate minimally altruistic Nash equilibrium to other equilibrium concepts, conduct an in-depth sensitivity analysis, and provide examples where minimally altruistic Nash equilibrium leads to improved predictions. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Antioxidant α-tocopherol/γ-cyclodextrin–inclusion complex encapsulated poly(lactic acid) electrospun nanofibrous web for food packaging

α-Tocopherol (α-TC) and α-TC/cyclodextrin (CD)–inclusion complex (IC) incorporated electrospun poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibers (NF) were developed via electrospinning (PLA/α-TC–NF and PLA/α-TC/γ-CD–IC–NF). The release of α-TC into 95% ethanol (fatty food simulant) was much greater from PLA/α-TC/γ-CD–IC–NF than from PLA/α-TC–NF because of the solubility increase in α-TC; this was confirmed by a phase-solubility diagram. 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging assay shows that PLA/α-TC–NF and PLA/α-TC/γ-CD–IC–NF had 97% antioxidant activities; this value was expected to be high enough to inhibit lipid oxidation. PLA/α-TC–NF and PLA/α-TC/γ-CD–IC–NF were tested directly on beef with the thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) method, and the nanofibers displayed a lower TBARS content than the unpackaged meat sample. Thus, active packaging significantly enhanced the oxidative stability of the meat samples at 4 °C. In conclusion, PLA/α-TC/γ-CD–IC–NF was shown to be promising as an active food-packaging material for prolonging the shelf life of foods. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44858. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Microalgae immobilized by nanofibrous web for removal of reactive dyes from wastewater

In this study, we have developed microalgae immobilized by polysulfone nanofibrous web (microalgae/PSU-NFW) for the removal of reactive dyes (Remazol Black 5 (RB5) and Reactive Blue 221 (RB221). Here, an electrospinning technique was used to produce polysulfone nanofibrous web (PSU-NFW) as a free-standing material on which microalgae Chlamydomona reinhardtii was immobilized on PSU-NFW. The decolorization capacities of microalgae/PSU-NFW were significantly higher than that of pristine PSU-NFW. The decolorization rate for RB5 was calculated as 72.97 ± 0.3% for microalgae/PSU-NFW, whereas it was 12.36 ± 0.3% for the pristine PSU-NFW. In the case of RB221 solution, decolorization rates were achieved as 30.2 ± 0.23 and 5.51 ± 0.4% for microalgae/PSU-NFW and pristine PSU-NFW, respectively. Reusability tests revealed that microalgae/PSU-NFW can be used in at least three successive decolorization steps in which the decolorization rate of the RB5 was found to be 51 ± 0.69% after the third reuse step. These results are promising and therefore suggest that microalgae/PSU-NFW could be applicable for the decolorization of dyes because of their versatility and reusability. © 2015 American Chemical Society