Wetlands for wastewater treatment and subsequent recycling of treated effluent : a review

Due to water scarcity challenges around the world, it is essential to think about non-conventional water resources to address the increased demand in clean freshwater. Environmental and public health problems may result from insufficient provision of sanitation and wastewater disposal facilities. Because of this, wastewater treatment and recycling methods will be vital to provide sufficient freshwater in the coming decades, since water resources are limited and more than 70% of water are consumed for irrigation purposes. Therefore, the application of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation has much potential, especially when incorporating the reuse of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous, which are essential for plant production. Among the current treatment technologies applied in urban wastewater reuse for irrigation, wetlands were concluded to be the one of the most suitable ones in terms of pollutant removal and have advantages due to both low maintenance costs and required energy. Wetland behavior and efficiency concerning wastewater treatment is mainly linked to macrophyte composition, substrate, hydrology, surface loading rate, influent feeding mode, microorganism availability, and temperature. Constructed wetlands are very effective in removing organics and suspended solids, whereas the removal of nitrogen is relatively low, but could be improved by using a combination of various types of constructed wetlands meeting the irrigation reuse standards. The removal of phosphorus is usually low, unless special media with high sorption capacity are used. Pathogen removal from wetland effluent to meet irrigation reuse standards is a challenge unless supplementary lagoons or hybrid wetland systems are used

A low-cost, open-source autonomous surface vehicle as a multipurpose waste stabilization pond monitoring platform

Although waste stabilization ponds (WSPs) are widely used in developing countries, monitoring data on their operational performance are scarce. Traditional methods for monitoring in-pond conditions, i.e. conducting hand held measurements from a small boat or installing fixed sensor networks, are not straightforward to realize and create an unhealthy working environment for field workers. A promising technology for the safe and efficient collection of monitoring data is a compact autonomous surface vehicle (ASV), capable of autonomous navigation along a predefined trajectory based on geographic coordinates and measurements in different places and depths. In this practical paper, the development process, technical details and functional testing results of a low-cost ASV for WSP monitoring are presented. Commonly available construction materials and electronic components were used to assure affordability and reparability. The access to online tutorials and peer-support was crucial for assembling the open-source autopilot and datalogger. The ASV demonstrated satisfactory performance for both the autonomous navigation as well as the georeferenced data logging of measurements at a real-scale WSP in Paraguay. This study demonstrates how the adoption of open-source hardware and software offers the flexibility for the wastewater professionals to develop customized DIY solutions for specific monitoring applications and working environmentsstatus: publishe

GNAO1: a new gene to consider on early-onset childhood dystonia]

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Treatment of Experimental Brain Tumors with Trombospondin-1 Derived Peptides: an In Vivo Imaging Study

Antiangiogenic and antiproliferative effects of synthetic d-reverse peptides derived from the type 1 repeats of thrombospondin (TSP1) [1,2] were studied in rodent C6 glioma and 9L gliosarcomas. To directly measure tumor size and vascular parameters, we employed in vivo magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and corroborated results by traditional morphometric tissue analysis. Rats bearing either C6 or 9L tumors were treated with TSP1-derived peptide (d-reverse amKRFKQDGGWSHWSPWSSac, n=13) or a control peptide (d-reverse amKRAKQAGGASHASPASSac, n=12) at 10 mg/kg, administered either intravenously or through subcutaneous miniosmotic pumps starting 10 days after tumor implantation. Eleven days later, the effect of peptide treatment was evaluated. TSP1 peptide-treated 9L tumors (50.7±44.2 mm(3), n=7) and C6 tumors (41.3±34.2 mm(3), n=6) were significantly smaller than tumors treated with control peptide (9L: 215.7±67.8 mm(3), n=6; C6: 184.2±105.2 mm(3), n=6). In contrast, the in vivo vascular volume fraction, the mean vascular area (determined by microscopy), and the microvascular density of tumors were not significantly different in any of the experimental groups. In cell culture, TSP1, and the amKRFKQDGGWSHWSPWSSac peptide showed antiproliferative effects against C6 with an IC of 45 nM for TSP1. These results indicate that TSP1-derived peptides retard brain tumor growth presumably as a result of slower de novo blood vessel formation and synergistic direct antiproliferative effects on tumor cells. We also show that in vivo MR imaging can be used to assess treatment efficacy of novel antiangiogenic drugs non-invasively, which has obvious implications for clinical trials

THE NON-OPERATIVE MANAGEMENT OF PENETRATING INTERNAL JUGULAR VEIN INJURY

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to review the outcome of nonoperative treatment for penetrating internal jugular vein (IJ) injuries in a continuous series of prospectively identified, hemodynamically stable patients.MethodsAll penetrating neck injuries assessed from February 1, 2004, to August 31, 2004, were prospectively identified. Patients without an indication for urgent neck exploration underwent diagnostic assessment with multislice helical computed tomographic angiography with or without vascular ultrasonography. All IJ injuries with no other indication for surgical exploration were treated nonoperatively. All patients were discharged home and followed up for a minimum of 1 week to document outcomes.ResultsFrom 51 neck injuries penetrating the platysma, 7 required urgent neck exploration, during which 2 IJ injuries were ligated. Forty-four patients underwent multislice helical computed tomographic angiography. Eight IJ injuries (two gunshot wounds and six stab wounds) with no other indication for neck exploration were identified and managed nonoperatively. One external wound was in zone 1, five were in zone 2, one was in zone 3, and one traversed all three zones. The average length of stay was 4.5 days. At follow-up, ranging from 1 week to 5 months, all patients were asymptomatic, and no patient required delayed operation for IJ injury.ConclusionsIn hemodynamically stable patients with no other indication for exploration, the nonoperative management of penetrating jugular vein injuries should be considered as a safe alternative

Installation and use of a pavement monitoring system based on fibre Bragg grating optical sensors

The evolution of technological tools, namely affordable sensors for data collection, and the growing concerns about maintaining roads in adequate conditions have promoted the development of continuous pavement monitoring systems. This paper presents the installation and use of an innovative pavement monitoring system, which was developed to measure the effects of vehicle loads and temperature on the performance of a pavement structure. The sensors used are based on fibre Bragg grating optical technology, collecting data about the strains imposed in the pavement and the temperature at which those measurements are made. The site selection for the system’s installation and the essential installation details to ensure successful data collection are addressed. A calibration procedure was implemented by performing falling weight deflectometer tests and passing preweighed heavy vehicles over the sensors. In addition to validating the system installation, the results obtained in the calibration confirmed the importance of adequately choosing the distance between sensors. Differences of 50 mm in the position of the load may cause differences of about 20% to 25% in the resulting strains. These results confirmed the importance of increasing the sensor concentration in wheel paths. Furthermore, for loads between 25 kN and 65 kN, raising the temperature by 8 °C caused an increase of about 20% in the horizontal tensile strains measured in the pavement. In summary, it was possible to conclude that this innovative system is capable of capturing the effects of temperature and vehicle speed on the response of the pavement, which may be considered an advantage of this type of monitoring system when compared to those that are only used to determine the loads applied to the pavement or to characterise the type of vehicle.This research was funded by PORTUGAL 2020 through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the project “Rev@Construction—Digital Construction Revolution”, with reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046123, and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the PhD grant number 2022.14400.BD. This work was also partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), reference UIDB/04029/2020, the Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE, reference LA/P/0112/2020, and the R&D Unit ALGORITMI, reference UIDB/00319/2020