Biodegradation of Sewage Wastewater Using Autochthonous Bacteria

The performance of isolated designed consortia comprising Bacillus pumilus, Brevibacterium sp, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa for the treatment of sewage wastewater in terms of reduction in COD (chemical oxygen demand), BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) MLSS (mixed liquor suspended solids), and TSS (total suspended solids) was studied. Different parameters were optimized (inoculum size, agitation, and temperature) to achieve effective results in less period of time. The results obtained indicated that consortium in the ratio of 1 : 2 (effluent : biomass) at 200 rpm, 35°C is capable of effectively reducing the pollutional load of the sewage wastewaters, in terms of COD, BOD, TSS, and MLSS within the desired discharge limits, that is, 32 mg/L, 8 mg/L, 162 mg/L, and 190 mg/L. The use of such specific consortia can overcome the inefficiencies of the conventional biological treatment facilities currently operational in sewage treatment plants

Biological AOX removal of pulp mill plant effluent by Pseudomonas Aeruginosa – Bench study

Discharge of adsorbable organic halides (AOX) into the water bodies has resulted into many health and environmental problems such as endocrine disruption, aquatic toxicity, bioaccumulation and carcinogenicity. The already known physical, chemical and electrochemical methods are not economically viable for the control of water pollution. So this paper focuses on the biological reduction of AOX from pulp and paper mill effluent using isolated bacteria. The isolated bacteria were screened and finally Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain 1 was used further. The effect of various parameters such as, bacterial cell concentration, surface washing of bacterial cell and agitation were investigated and it was found that to some extend every parameter has resulted in the reduction of AOX from the effluent. It was inferred that the three time washed pellet inoculated in the ratio of 1:1 (sample: pellet) and incubated at 150 rpm at 37°C for 24h has resulted in 78% of AOX removal

Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy Fosters Students’ Critical Thinking About Writing

Convinced of the power of PBL to promote students’ critical thinking as demonstrated by its application across disciplines, we designed a series of problems for students in a second-year writing course. We collected samples of their writing before and after implementation of the problems. We were concerned about whether PBL pedagogy would negatively influence second-year students’ writing. However, our preliminary findings suggest that students’ critical thinking about writing improved with the use of PBL pedagogy

Production of alkaline pectinase by bacteria (Cocci sps.) isolated from decomposing fruit materials

Bacterial production of commercial enzymes, including pectinase, has always been the industrial choice. Two decomposing fruit materials (apple and oranges) were enriched to isolate pectinase producing bacteria and were screened for their pectinolytic activity. The best producer (O1, i.e. Orange 1) was characterized as Cocci sp. and studied for pectinase activity. The culture conditions were optimized for maximum enzyme production by isolate O1 and was found to be 350C at an alkaline pH of 8.0 with 120 rpm agitation (supporting aerobic conditions) and 72 hours of incubation time and required surfactant for achieving maximum enzyme activity of 13.96 U/ml in crude enzyme extracts. The study provides a strong bacterial candidate for potential industrial production of pectinase

AN INTRODUCTION TO HEAVY METAL POLLUTION AND DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES AVAILABLE FOR REMEDIATION

This paper revises the fundamental facts about potentially toxic elements belonging to the group of heavy metals. The study highlights the ongoing soil pollution status affected by these non-biodegradable elements, the basic characteristics of these metals that make them toxic, their mode of accumulation in different trophic levels, their toxic effect on human beings and the probable remediation technologies being used to remediate soils contaminated with heavy metal when the pollution problem has evolved. The technologies focused on solidification, soil washing, soil flushing, electro-kinetic remediation and phytoremediation are presented. The choice of the technology to be used for remediation depends on the condition of the soil and the extent of contamination. Conventional electro-kinetics is the most effective and rapid technology, but on the scale of ecosystem restoration, phytoremediation is an eco-friendly, green and cost-effective solution

Study of relationship between umbilical cord blood hemoglobin percentage and perinatal asphyxia

Background: Perinatal asphyxia may be caused by perinatal anemia. The pathophysiology and neurodevelopment effects are theoretically different from other causes of fetal asphyxia. Severe asphyxia can occur in infants around the time of birth by various reasons. The aim of this study to find the relationship between cord blood hemoglobin and perinatal asphyxia.Methods: This was a retrospective comparative study in department of OBG In tertiary care health centre. Umbilical cord blood samples were collected from 100 newborns with asphyxia at birth as study group and 100 newborns with non asphyxia as control group. Hemoglobin was measured colorimetrically.Results: This study finds that maximum number of patients in both the control and study group had hemoglobin in the range of 16.3-17.3 gm/dl. The difference was not statistically significant. P value>0.05.Conclusions: Hematological changes observed early after delivery can determine the duration of hypoxemia (acute versus chronic) Perinatal anemia causing moderate to severe perinatal asphyxia is associated with a higher risk for neonatal mortality. All survivors with perinatal anemia, however, showed no abnormalities in neurodevelopment in contrast to children who were born asphyxiated due to various another causes. The underlying pathophysiological mechanism for the favorable NDO in the perinatal anemia group needs further elucidation

Outcomes and analysis of fetomaternal elements and delivery strategies with neonatal respiratory distress

Background: Perinatal asphyxia is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Perinatal asphyxia occurs in association with different maternal and fetal determinants. However, the relation of associated factors with perinatal asphyxia is not well studied. The aim of this study was to determine the association of maternofetal factors and mode of delivery with perinatal asphyxia in a tertiary care centre.Methods: This was a retrospective comparative study conducted in department of OBG in tertiary care health centre. A total 200 newborns were selected for study out of which100 newborns were with asphyxia at birth as study group and 100 non asphyxiated newborns were taken as control group. Maternal factor like age, parity, gestational age and fetal factor like weight at birth and mode of delivery were studied to established association on perinatal asphyxia.Results: Maternal factor like age, parity, gestational age had not significant relationship with perinatal asphyxia. Maximum number of babies delivered in both control and the study group were in the range of 2.6 to 3kg.In this study birth weight did not have significant relationship with perinatal asphyxia. Proportions of LSCS was comparatively higher in the study group though. The delivery mode did not have any statistically significant influence on the newborns affliction with birth asphyxia (p>0.05).Conclusions: Findings of this study highlight the need for the better obstetrical care and awareness of the possible presence of the risk factors of PNA (perinatal asphyxia) among mothers and fetus, so that the incidence and complications of PNA could be prevented or at least appropriately managed. It can reduce the high incidence of morbidity and mortality due to birth asphyxia.

Bioremediation of Agro-Based Pulp Mill Effluent by Microbial Consortium Comprising Autochthonous Bacteria

Small-scale agro-based pulp and paper mills are characterized as highly polluting industries. These mills use Kraft pulping process for paper manufacturing due to which toxic lignified chemicals are released into the environment. Lack of infrastructure, technical manpower, and research and development facilities restricts these mills to recover these chemicals. Therefore, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the emanating stream is quite high. For solving the above problem, four bacteria were isolated from the premises of agro-based pulp and paper mill which were identified as species of Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Pannonibacter, and Ochrobacterum. These bacteria were found capable of reducing COD up to 85%–86.5% in case of back water and 65-66% in case of back water : black liquor (60 : 40), respectively, after acclimatization under optimized conditions (pH 6.8, temperature 35°C, and shaking 200 rpm) when the wastewater was supplemented with nitrogen and phosphorus as trace elements

A sustainable approach for synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticle by Aloe barbadensis and its application in photocatalytic decolouration of commercial dyes.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) biosynthesis is gaining popularity since it is environmentally safe and can withstand a wide range of environmental conditions. The widely known medicinal herb Aloe barbadensis was employed to create ZnONPs in this work. XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), EDAX (Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis), and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) were also used to characterise the produced ZnONPs. In XRD, the produced ZnONPs revealed crystalline character, with an average size of 30 50 nm. TEM was used to determine spherical morphology. Under ultraviolet irradiation, the photocatalytic decolorization of Sudan IV, Crystal Violet (CV), and Acridine Orange (AO) by biogenic produced ZnONPs was studied. Using all three dyes (10-50 ppm) throughout a 4-hour incubation time, the produced ZnONPs showed 100% photocatalytic decolorization activity    &nbsp

BioRadBase: A database for bioremediation of radioactive waste

Radioactive waste from different sectors such as nuclear energy, health care and food has become a discernible part of our environment. Several dumping methods are in routine practice to dispose radioactive wastes. Huge chemical and energy input in various skillful physico-chemical methods has limited their use while biological methods exploring the potential of micro-organisms could be a promising and eco-friendly approach to remediate radioactive pollutants. Bio-transformation, bio-accumulation and bio-sorption are key processes that have been tried for radionuclide remediation. BioRaDBase is the first database dedicated to micro-organisms which have been explored or engineered to remediate radioactive waste from the environment. The database serves as a comprehensive knowledgebase to search bacteria and fungi which have the ability to transform radioactive waste. This database would be a useful tool for the development of new bio-remediation technologies to clean up radioactive waste from the environment. The information in database has been managed under five classes, that is, type of radioactive waste, micro-organisms, genus listing, literature and waste management. The entries are also linked to external databases such as National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), providing wide background information. Beside these, under the news section of the database, a user can connect to dedicated organizations working on issues like environmental protection, nuclear energy and radionuclide dumping. BioRaDBase can be accessed at http://biorad.igib.res.in.Keywords: Bioremediation of radioactive waste (BioRaDBase), radionuclides, biotransformation, biocrystallization, radioisotope, nuclear wast