Development and Deployment of a Bioreactor for the Removal of Sulfate and Manganese from Circumneutral Coal Mine Drainage

Surface mining, in the form of contour mining and mountain-top removal, is a common means for retrieving coal in the Appalachian Coal Belt region of Kentucky. Overburden or excess spoil generated by these two methods is placed in valley fills. Traditionally Constructed fills have been shown to adversely impact headwater ecosystems via stream burial and through alterations to the hydrology, sediment supply, water quality and biological composition of downstream reaches. Mine drainages emanating from the toe of valley fills often contain elevated levels of total dissolved solids and heavy metals. Drainage chemistry from Guy Cove, a valley fill located in eastern Kentucky, exhibited a mean pH of 6.5 and Fe, Mn and SO4 concentrations of 1.5, 14, and 1264 mg L-1, respectively. The objective of this research was to develop an anaerobic bioreactor for the purpose of reducing Mn and SO4 concentrations in the mine drainage. Development began with batch experiments that tested five different organic carbon sources and five different inorganic substrates. A synthetic mine drainage with a pH of 6.2 and Mn and SO4 concentrations of 90 and 1,500 mg/L, respectively, was used in the experiment. Manganese and SO4 removal varied widely between treatment matrices, with removal rates \u3c 10 to 100% for Mn and \u3c 10 to \u3e 80% for SO4. The substrate sources which provided the most treatment were hardwood mulch and biosolids combined with creek sediment. Subsequent experiments were performed using the synthetic mine drainage in small bioreactors (55 liter plastic tanks) filled with creek sediment with either hardwood mulch or biosolids, each replicated three times. Over a 65 day treatment period \u3e 90% of the Mn and 70% of the SO4 was removed. There were no statistical differences between the two organic substrates. Using this information, in-situ bioreactors consisting of two 5,500 liter plastic septic tanks filled with creek sediment, hardwood mulch and manure compost were installed at Guy Cove. Mine drainage was collected in a sump and conveyed through the inline bioreactors by gravity. Gate valves were used to control flow through the bioreactors. After a 10-month monitoring period, the in-situ bioreactors removed 12, 11, and 64% of Mn, SO4 and Fe from the drainage, respectively. Results from the field differed greatly from those observed under controlled laboratory conditions. Efforts to improve the efficiency of the in-situ bioreactors are underway

Lecithin : cholesterol acyltransferase: symposium on 50 years of biomedical research from its discovery to latest findings

LCAT converts free cholesterol to cholesteryl esters in the process of reverse cholesterol transport. Familial LCAT deficiency (FLD) is a genetic disease that was first described by Kaare R. Norum and Egil Gjone in 1967. This report is a summary from a 2017 symposium where Dr. Norum recounted the history of FLD and leading experts on LCAT shared their results. The Tesmer laboratory shared structural findings on LCAT and the close homolog, lysosomal phospholipase A2. Results from studies of FLD patients in Finland, Brazil, Norway, and Italy were presented, as well as the status of a patient registry. Drs. Kuivenhoven and Calabresi presented data from carriers of genetic mutations suggesting that FLD does not necessarily accelerate atherosclerosis. Dr. Ng shared that LCAT-null mice were protected from diet-induced obesity, insulin resistance, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Dr. Zhou presented multiple innovations for increasing LCAT activity for therapeutic purposes, whereas Dr. Remaley showed results from treatment of an FLD patient with recombinant human LCAT (rhLCAT). Dr. Karathanasis showed that rhLCAT infusion in mice stimulates cholesterol efflux and suggested that it could also enhance cholesterol efflux from macrophages. While the role of LCAT in atherosclerosis remains elusive, the consensus is that a continued study of both the enzyme and disease will lead toward better treatments for patients with heart disease and FLD.Peer reviewe

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum