Factors Influencing Treatment Completion of Involuntary Groups

This qualitative study explores factors that influence treatment completion of involuntary clients. Eight professionals who have substantial experience facilitating groups with domestic abuse, substance abuse, DWI, and general offender rehabilitation programs were recruited for participation. Through semi structured interviews, professionals reflected on the factors they believed contributed to attrition and interventions they implemented to improve retention. Thematic content analysis informed by grounded theory generated several themes associated with treatment completion. Motivation, readiness, stage of change, mental health and chemical dependency were individual factors believed to influence completion. While, housing, employment, transportation, child-care, program cost, program time, program length, closed, and open group formats were noteworthy environmental factors. Engagement and facilitator bias were discussed in terms of the impact on retention. Implications for social work practice suggest the need for pre-group orientation, knowledge of Trans theoretical stages of change, and Motivational Interviewing skills to effectively work with treatment resistant clients

Factors Influencing Treatment Completion of Involuntary Groups

This qualitative study explores factors that influence treatment completion of involuntary clients. Eight professionals who have substantial experience facilitating groups with domestic abuse, substance abuse, DWI, and general offender rehabilitation programs were recruited for participation. Through semi structured interviews, professionals reflected on the factors they believed contributed to attrition and interventions they implemented to improve retention. Thematic content analysis informed by grounded theory generated several themes associated with treatment completion. Motivation, readiness, stage of change, mental health and chemical dependency were individual factors believed to influence completion. While, housing, employment, transportation, child-care, program cost, program time, program length, closed, and open group formats were noteworthy environmental factors. Engagement and facilitator bias were discussed in terms of the impact on retention. Implications for social work practice suggest the need for pre-group orientation, knowledge of Trans theoretical stages of change, and Motivational Interviewing skills to effectively work with treatment resistant clients

PROBABILITAS BANGKITAN PERJALANAN BERBASIS AKTIVITAS DARI KAWASAN PERUMAHAN DI KOTA KUPANG

Generally, trip generation is based on activities from the household. Each household member, of course, has different travel destinations in a household, there will be several trips that are caused by the activity. This study is aimed at determining the factors that influence the trip generation and predict the magnitude of trip generation originating from residential areas based on activities in Kupang city. Travel activities were divided into three categories i.e. work activities, school activities and other activities. Data collection was done by distributing questionnaires to 444 households through random sampling technique. Based on the calibration of the modelling results with multinomial logit regression analysis, the factors that significantly influence trip generation from residential areas were the number of family members who did activities, the average distance travelled and the average travel time. The probability of trip generation was predicted to be 55.48% for work activities, 25.61% for school activities and 18.90% for other activities

Methane recovery efficiency in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) treating sulphate-rich urban wastewater: Evaluation of methane losses with the effluent

The present paper presents a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) as a sustainable approach for urban wastewater treatment at 33 and 20 C, since greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and energy recovery is enhanced. Compared to other anaerobic systems, such as UASB reactors, the membrane technology allows the use of biogas-assisted mixing which enhances the methane stripping from the liquid phase bulk. The methane saturation index obtained for the whole period (1.00 ± 0.04) evidenced that the equilibrium condition was reached and the methane loss with the effluent was reduced. The methane recovery efficiency obtained at 20 C (53.6%) was slightly lower than at 33 C (57.4%) due to a reduction of the treatment efficiency, as evidenced by the lower methane production and the higher waste sludge per litre of treated wastewater. For both operational temperatures, the methane recovery efficiency was strongly affected by the high sulphate concentration in the influent wastewater.This research work has been supported by the Spanish Research Foundation (CICYT Projects CTM2008-06809-C02-01 and CTM2008-06809-C02-02) and the Comunidad Valenciana Regional Government (GVACOMP2009-285), which are gratefully acknowledged.Gimenez, J.; Martí, N.; Ferrer, J.; Seco, A. (2012). Methane recovery efficiency in a submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor (SAnMBR) treating sulphate-rich urban wastewater: Evaluation of methane losses with the effluent. Bioresource Technology. 118:67-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.05.019S677211

Estimation of Biological Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand for Combined Sewer Systems Using Synchronous Fluorescence Spectra

Real-time monitoring of water quality for sewer system is required for efficient sewer network design because it provides information on the precise loading of pollutant to wastewater treatment facilities and the impact of loading on receiving water. In this study, synchronous fluorescence spectra and its first derivatives were investigated using a number of wastewater samples collected in sewer systems in urban and non-urban areas, and the optimum fluorescence feature was explored for the estimation of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations of sewer samples. The temporal variations in BOD and COD showed a regular pattern for urban areas whereas they were relatively irregular for non-urban areas. Irrespective of the sewer pipes and the types of the areas, two distinct peaks were identified from the synchronous fluorescence spectra, which correspond to protein-like fluorescence (PLF) and humic-like fluorescence (HLF), respectively. HLF in sewer samples appears to be associated with fluorescent whitening agents. Five fluorescence characteristics were selected from the synchronous spectra and the first-derivatives. Among the selected fluorescence indices, a peak in the PLF region (i.e., Index I) showed the highest correlation coefficient with both BOD and COD. A multiple regression approach based on suspended solid (SS) and Index I used to compensate for the contribution of SS to BOD and COD revealed an improvement in the estimation capability, showing good correlation coefficients of 0.92 and 0.94 for BOD and COD, respectively

Anti-cyanobacterial activity of Moringa oleifera seeds

Filtrates from crushed Moringa oleifera seeds were tested for their effects on growth and Photosystem II efficiency of the common bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. M. aeruginosa populations exhibited good growth in controls and treatments with 4- and 8-mg crushed Moringa seeds per liter, having similar growth rates of 0.50 (±0.01) per day. In exposures of 20- to 160-mg crushed Moringa seeds L−1, growth rates were negative and on average −0.23 (±0.05) .day−1. Presumably, in the higher doses of 20- to 160-mg crushed seeds per liter, the cyanobacteria died, which was supported by a rapid drop in the Photosystem II efficiency (ΦPSII), while the ΦPSII was high and unaffected in 0, 4, and 8 mg L−1. High-density populations of M. aeruginosa (chlorophyll-a concentrations of ∼270 µg L−1) were reduced to very low levels within 2 weeks of exposure to ≥80-mg crushed seeds per liter. At the highest dosage of 160 mg L−1, the ΦPSII dropped to zero rapidly and remained nil during the course of the experiment (14 days). Hence, under laboratory conditions, a complete wipeout of the bloom could be achieved. This is the first study that yielded evidence for cyanobactericidal activity of filtrate from crushed Moringa seeds, suggesting that Moringa seed extracts might have a potential as an effect-oriented measure lessening cyanobacterial nuisance

Value-Added Products Derived from Waste Activated Sludge: A Biorefinery Perspective

Substantial research has been carried out on sustainable waste activated sludge (WAS) management in the last decade. In addition to the traditional approach to reduce its production volume, considering WAS as a feedstock to produce bio-products such as amino acids, proteins, short chain fatty acids, enzymes, bio-pesticides, bio-plastics, bio-flocculants and bio-surfactants represents a key component in the transformation of wastewater treatment plants into biorefineries. The quality of these bio-products is a key factor with respect to the feasibility of non-conventional WAS-based production processes. This review provides a critical assessment of the production process routes of a wide range of value-added products from WAS, their current limitations, and recommendations for future research to help promote more sustainable management of this under-utilised and ever-growing waste stream

Whole proteome analyses on Ruminiclostridium cellulolyticum show a modulation of the cellulolysis machinery in response to cellulosic materials with subtle differences in chemical and structural properties

Lignocellulosic materials from municipal solid waste emerge as attractive resources for anaerobic digestion biorefinery. To increase the knowledge required for establishing efficient bioprocesses, dynamics of batch fermentation by the cellulolytic bacterium Ruminiclostridium cellulolyticum were compared using three cellulosic materials, paper handkerchief, cotton discs and Whatman filter paper. Fermentation of paper handkerchief occurred the fastest and resulted in a specific metabolic profile: it resulted in the lowest acetate-to-lactate and acetate-to-ethanol ratios. By shotgun proteomic analyses of paper handkerchief and Whatman paper incubations, 151 proteins with significantly different levels were detected, including 20 of the 65 cellulosomal components, 8 non-cellulosomal CAZymes and 44 distinct extracytoplasmic proteins. Consistent with the specific metabolic profile observed, many enzymes from the central carbon catabolic pathways had higher levels in paper handkerchief incubations. Among the quantified CAZymes and cellulosomal components, 10 endoglucanases mainly from the GH9 families and 7 other cellulosomal subunits had lower levels in paper handkerchief incubations. An in-depth characterization of the materials used showed that the lower levels of endoglucanases in paper handkerchief incubations could hypothetically result from its lower crystallinity index (50%) and degree of polymerization (970). By contrast, the higher hemicellulose rate in paper handkerchief (13.87%) did not result in the enhanced expression of enzyme with xylanase as primary activity, including enzymes from the xyl-doc cluster. It suggests the absence, in this material, of molecular structures that specifically lead to xylanase induction. The integrated approach developed in this work shows that subtle differences among cellulosic materials regarding chemical and structural characteristics have significant effects on expressed bacterial functions, in particular the cellulolysis machinery, resulting in different metabolic patterns and degradation dynamics.This work was supported by a grant [R2DS 2010-08] from Conseil Regional d'Ile-de-France through DIM R2DS programs (http://www.r2ds-ile-de-france.com/). Irstea (www.irstea.fr/) contributed to the funding of a PhD grant for the first author. The funders provided support in the form of salaries for author [NB], funding for consumables and laboratory equipment, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Omics Services provided support in the form of salaries for authors [VS, MD], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors [NB, VS, MD] are articulated in the 'author contributions' section.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio