Effect of hydraulic retention time on the electro-bioremediation of nitrate in saline groundwater

Bioelectrochemical systems (BES) have proven their capability to treat nitrate-contaminated saline groundwater and simultaneously recover value-added chemicals (such as disinfection products) within a circular economy-based approach. In this study, the effect of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) on nitrate and salinity removal, as well as on free chlorine production, was investigated in a 3-compartment BES working in galvanostatic mode with the perspective of process intensification and future scale-up. Reducing the HRT from 30.1 +/- 2.3 to 2.4 +/- 0.2 h led to a corresponding increase in nitrate removal rates (from 17 +/- 1 up to 131 +/- 1 mgNO3--N L-1d-1), although a progressive decrease in desalination efficiency (from 77 +/- 13 to 12 +/- 2 %) was observed. Nitrate concentration and salinity close to threshold limits indicated by the World Health Organization for drinking water, as well as significant chlorine production were achieved with an HRT of 4.9 +/- 0.4 h. At such HRT, specific energy consumption was low (6.8 center dot 10-2 +/- 0.3 center dot 10-2 kWh g-1NO3--Nremoved), considering that the supplied energy supports three processes simultaneously. A logarithmic equation correlated well with nitrate removal rates at the applied HRTs and may be used to predict BES behaviour with different HRTs. The bacterial community of the bio-cathode under galvanostatic mode was dominated by a few populations, including the genera Rhizobium, Bosea, Fontibacter and Gordonia. The results provide useful information for the scale-up of BES treating multi-contaminated groundwater

Rural regional governance in the United States: the case of the Resource Conservation and Development Program

Rural governance has drawn considerable attention from both local government officials and scholars in the United States since the early 1990s. It is touted as a way to mitigate the limitations of the traditional government unit-based approaches to problem solving and decision making and to foster partnerships across both jurisdictional boundaries and sectors (public, private, and nonprofit). Established in 1962, the Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides a unique model of rural regional governance. Acting as a coalition of governments, private businesses, individuals, and interest groups, the RC&D program provides the flexibility needed to deal with issues at the appropriate spatial scale. It incorporates aspects of both grassroots and governmental organizations and can bring together local interests and expertise with governmental policy and support in service provision, problem solving, and economic development. The approach does not necessarily entail loss of power on the part of the state, but it does provide a mechanism for local people to exercise their agency, to tackle their problems, and to decide which elements of their lives they want to sustain

Uma nova esp\ue9cie de Pera (Peraceae) end\ueamica de Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil / A new species of Pera (Peraceae) endemic to Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Volume: 61Start Page: 77End Page: 8

On the Way towards Fourth-Generation Mobile: 3GPP LTE and LTE-Advanced

Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is the new standard recently specified by the 3GPP on the way towards fourth-generation mobile. This paper presents the main technical features of this standard as well as its performance in terms of peak bit rate and average cell throughput, among others. LTE entails a big technological improvement as compared with the previous 3G standard. However, this paper also demonstrates that LTE performance does not fulfil the technical requirements established by ITU-R to classify one radio access technology as a member of the IMT-Advanced family of standards. Thus, this paper describes the procedure followed by the 3GPP to address these challenging requirements. Through the design and optimization of new radio access techniques and a further evolution of the system, the 3GPP is laying down the foundations of the future LTE-Advanced standard, the 3GPP candidate for 4G. This paper offers a brief insight into these technological trends

Global/local motion planning based on Dynamic Trajectory Reconfiguration and Dynamical Systems for Autonomous Surgical Robots

This paper addresses the generation of collision-free trajectories for the autonomous execution of assistive tasks in Robotic Minimally Invasive Surgery (R-MIS). The proposed approach takes into account geometric constraints related to the desired task, like for example the direction to approach the final target and the presence of moving obstacles. The developed motion planner is structured as a two-layer architecture: a global level computes smooth spline-based trajectories that are continuously updated using virtual potential fields; a local level, exploiting Dynamical Systems based obstacle avoidance, ensures collision free connections among the spline control points. The proposed architecture is validated in a realistic surgical scenario

Migration and range use of Asian Houbara Bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii breeding in the Gobi Desert, China, revealed by satellite tracking

Four adult male Asian Houbara Bustards Chlamydotis macqueenii were caught on their breeding grounds in the Gobi Desert of China and tracked by satellite from July 2000 for from 5 months to > 3.5 years. Wintering areas were identified for two individuals, one on the Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan border in the Amur-Darya valley, the second at the Iran/Turkmenistan border. One individual used the same wintering and breeding areas for three consecutive years. Overall departure dates from breeding grounds ranged from 29 September to 14 October, with arrival on wintering quarters from 23 October to 7 November. Birds left their wintering grounds between 2 and 21 March and reached their breeding areas between 11 and 21 April. The mean overall migration distance was 3935 km (sd = +/- 229, n = 9). Houbara Bustards mainly followed steppe areas to migrate avoiding the highest elevations of the Himalayan massif and travelling 267 km/day on average. Pre-breeding migration lasted longer than post-breeding and included more and longer stopovers. The Taukum Desert and Jungar Basin are critical areas for migration of eastern Houbara populations. Breeding range, used for 5.5 months, was 274 km(2) (sd = +/- 53, n = 4), whereas wintering range, used for around 4 months a year, was 76 km(2) (sd = +/- 22, n = 3). Range use pattern appeared similar for Asian Houbara released in central Saudi Arabia, but differed from the African Houbara Bustard. More investigations are required to determine the effects of food availability and meteorological conditions on the migration pattern and on the use of stopovers by Asian Houbara Bustards

Pakistan Cotton Biophysical Survey, 2013

To study the efficiency of genetically modified cotton markets in Pakistan, a series of household surveys were designed and implemented in 2013. Aside from the four rounds of household surveys, the research team also designed a biophysical survey. The purpose of the biophysical survey was to measure the presence and expression level of Cry protein in farmers’ fields. The plot selected to collect tissue samples to be tested was the “main” cotton plot identified in the household surveys implemented in 2013-14. The collection, tests, and analysis of the cotton tissue (leaves and bolls) was led by the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), and the National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB), Islamabad, in collaboration with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Innovative Development Studies. Two different tests were carried out. The first one was the strip test that test for the presence or absence of the Cry1Ac protein. The second was the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that quantifies the expression level of this protein. Two rounds of tests were conducted, the first at approximately 70 days after sowing (DAS) and the second at approximately 120 DAS. The resultant dataset combines information from 593 sampled households with corresponding plant tissue diagnostics from 70 DAS, as well as information from 589 sampled households with corresponding diagnostics from 120 DAS. </p