Treatment Of Low-Strength Industrial Wastewater Using Anaerobic Baffled Reactor

The performance of an anaerobic baffled reactor at the pilot scale, with a 100-L volume and six compartments, that is used to treat low-strength industrial wastewater (671.5±49.9 mg COD/L, 350.1±36.8 mg BOD5/L and 443.8±60.7 mg SO4-2/L) was studied. The reactor was started with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 25 h at 35 ºC, which was gradually reduced to 3.33 h. The best reactor performance was observed with an organic loading rate (OLR) and a sulfate loading rate (SLR) of 4.45 g COD/L.d and 3.32 g SO4-2/L.d, which was obtained at a HRT of 4 h. The COD and SO4-2 removal efficiencies were 78.6% and 89.2%, respectively. Additionally, the majority of the COD and SO4-2 removal occurred in the first compartment, up to 51.2% and 69.1%, respectively. Moreover, the pH in the first compartment was also the lowest. Subsequently, when the temperature was reduced to 20 ºC at a HRT of 4 h, the maximum removal efficiencies for COD and SO4-2 decreased to 59.4% and 66.1%, respectively. In this case, the highest COD and SO4-2 removal efficiencies were observed in the third and fourth compartments, respectively, and these compartments had lower pH values. This phenomenon indicates that decrease in temperature causes transference of the acidogenic phase toward subsequent reactor compartments. In addition, these findings further show the potential for sulfate removal of the acidogenic phas

Performance evaluation of tertiary treatment through ultrafiltration: Case study in Isfahan-industrial wastewater treatment plant

Aims: The aim of this study was the performance evaluation of ultrafiltration (UF) membrane process as an advanced treatment to secondary effluent quality improvement in Isfahan - Morchekhort Industrial Estate wastewater treatment plant. Materials and Methods: Membrane system used in this study included a flat sheet UF module of polysulfone with 0.1 µm pore size. The coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation (Coag, Floc, Sed) and rapid sand filtration in conjunction with granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration was used as pretreatment of secondary effluent. All test methods was obtained of standard method for the examination of water and wastewater. Results: The membrane system could decrease turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total hardness (TH), total coliform (TC), fecal coliform (FC), total nitrogen (TN) and Cl−, 24.5, 19, 48, 10.5, 94.5, 85.1, 15.4 and 1.01%, respectively. Conclusion: UF was able to improve chemical parameters of secondary effluent and meet national environmental standards. However, achievement to optimum operation of this system requires adequate pretreatments such as adding filter aid, sand filtration and GAC. The most part of suspended particles expressed by turbidity was removed within UF membrane, whereas only a little of organic substance expressed by COD or color and salt expressed by conductivity could be removed

Plasma leptin level is positively associated with blood pressure measures independent of gender and BMI

Background: Since the introduction of leptin, many studies suggest an important role for this hormone in obesity�related hypertension. However, in non-obese patients, there are controversial results regarding the possible role of leptin in essential hypertension especially in both sexes and different groups of body mass index (BMI). We aimed to evaluate the association of leptin and hypertension in both female and male gender. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted, recruiting 80 essential hypertensive patients and 80 healthy normotensive volunteers using convenience sampling method. Subjects without history of diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking, thyroid disease and insulin or corticosteroid use were included in two groups of normotensive and hypertensive subjects who were matched for age, sex and BMI. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), weight and height were measured for all subjects and a blood sample was obtained for measurement of leptin, fasting blood sugar and lipid profiles. Results: Leptin was significantly higher in hypertensive patients as compared to normotensive subjects in all study population and both male and female subgroups (p < 0.001). Statistically significant correlation was also found between leptin and both SBP and DBP in above-mentioned subgroups. In comparison of controlled and uncontrolled hypertensive patients, leptin was significantly higher in uncontrolled hypertensive patients (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Comparing two groups of hypertensive and normotensive subjects, leptin is found to be positively correlated with hypertension in both genders. Leptin level also tends to be higher in uncontrolled hypertensive patients which may indicate a possible role for leptin in mechanism of uncontrolled hypertension. © 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Construction and Quantitative Evaluation of a Dual Specific Promoter System for Monitoring the Expression Status of Stra8 and c-kit Genes.

Applications of genetic constructs with multiple promoters, which are fused with reporter genes and simultaneous monitoring of various events in cells, have gained special attention in recent years. Lentiviral vectors, with their distinctive characteristics, have been considered to monitor the developmental changes of cells in vitro. In this study, we constructed a novel lentiviral vector (FUM-M), containing two germ cell-specific promoters (Stra8 and c-kit), fused with ZsGreen and DsRed2 reporter genes, and evaluated its efficiency in different cells following treatments with retinoic acid and DMSO. Several cell lines (P19, GC-1 spg and HEK293T) were transduced with this vector, and functional capabilities of the promoters were verified by flow cytometry and quantitative RT-PCR. Our results indicate that FUM-M shows dynamic behavior in the presence and absence of extrinsic factors. A correlation was also observed between the function of promoters, present in the lentiviral construct and the endogenous level of the Stra8 and c-kit mRNAs in the cells. In conclusion, we recommend this strategy, which needs further optimization of the constructs, as a beneficial and practical way to screen chemical inducers involved in cellular differentiation toward germ-like cells