A hybrid constructed wetland for organic-material and nutrient removal from sewage: Process performance and multi-kinetic models

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd A pilot-scale hybrid constructed wetland with vertical flow and horizontal flow in series was constructed and used to investigate organic material and nutrient removal rate constants for wastewater treatment and establish a practical predictive model for use. For this purpose, the performance of multiple parameters was statistically evaluated during the process and predictive models were suggested. The measurement of the kinetic rate constant was based on the use of the first-order derivation and Monod kinetic derivation (Monod) paired with a plug flow reactor (PFR) and a continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR). Both the Lindeman, Merenda, and Gold (LMG) analysis and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) method were employed for identifying the relative importance of variables and their optimal multiple regression (MR). The results showed that the first-order–PFR (M2) model did not fit the data (P > 0.05, and R2 0.5). The pollutant removal rates in the case of M1 were 0.19 m/d (CODCr) and those for M3 were 25.2 g/m2∙d for CODCr and 2.63 g/m2∙d for NH4-N. By applying a multi-variable linear regression method, the optimal empirical models were established for predicting the final effluent concentration of five days' biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and NH4-N. In general, the hydraulic loading rate was considered an important variable having a high value of relative importance, which appeared in all the optimal predictive models

Phosphate Adsorption by Silver Nanoparticles-Loaded Activated Carbon derived from Tea Residue.

This study presents the removal of phosphate from aqueous solution using a new silver nanoparticles-loaded tea activated carbon (AgNPs-TAC) material. In order to reduce costs, the tea activated carbon was produced from tea residue. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of impregnation ratio of AgNPs and TAC, pH solution, contact time, initial phosphate concentration and dose of AgNPs-AC on removing phosphate from aqueous solution. Results show that the best conditions for phosphate adsorption occurred at the impregnation ratio AgNPs/TAC of 3% w/w, pH 3, and contact time lasting 150 min. The maximum adsorption capacity of phosphate on AgNPs-TAC determined by the Langmuir model was 13.62 mg/g at an initial phosphate concentration of 30 mg/L. The adsorption isotherm of phosphate on AgNPs-TAC fits well with both the Langmuir and Sips models. The adsorption kinetics data were also described well by the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models with high correlation coefficients of 0.978 and 0.966, respectively. The adsorption process was controlled by chemisorption through complexes and ligand exchange mechanisms. This study suggests that AgNPs-TAC is a promising, low cost adsorbent for phosphate removal from aqueous solution

Status of water use and potential of rainwater harvesting for replacing centralized supply system in remote mountainous areas: a case study.

The failure of the centralized water supply system forced XY community to become more dependent on uncertain and unstable water sources. The results of surveying 50 households showed that 89.18% of total households depended on water collected from rivers, which contributed 58.3% of the total water volume used for the domestic demands. The average water volume consumed was 19.5 liters/person/day (l/p/d), and 86.5% of households used more than one source; 13.5% of households collected water only from rivers, and 45.94% of families had rainwater harvesting (RWH) for their activities (domestic water demand); however, RWH only provided 9.9% of total water consumption. In this study, basic methods were applied to calculate the storage tanks necessary to balance the water deficit created by drought months. Three levels of water demand (14, 20, and 30 l/p/d) can be the best choices for RWH; for a higher demand (40 and 60 l/p/d), small roof area (30-40 m2), and many people (six to seven) per family, RWH might be impractical because of unsuitable rainfall or excessively large storage tanks

Comparative study about the performance of three types of modified natural treatment systems for rice noodle wastewater

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd In this study, three semi-pilot scale systems (vertical flow constructed wetland, multi-soil layering, and integrated hybrid systems) for treating real rice noodle wastewater were operated parallelly for the first time in a tropical climate at a loading rate of 50 L/(m2·d) for more than 7 months to determine the optimal conditions and to compare their treatment performance. The results demonstrated that these systems were appropriate for the removal of organics, suspended solids, and total coliform (Tcol). The highest reductions in chemical oxygen demand (CODCr, 73.2%), phosphorus (PO4-P, 54%), and Tcol (4.78 log MPN/100 mL inactivation) were obtained by the integrated hybrid system, while the highest removal efficiencies of ammonium (NH4-N, 60.64%) and suspended solids (80.49%) were achieved in the vertical-flow-constructed wetland and multi-soil layering systems respectively

A mini-review on the impacts of climate change on wastewater reclamation and reuse

© 2014 Elsevier B.V. To tackle current water insecurity concerns, wastewater reclamation and reuse have appeared as a promising candidate to conserve the valuable fresh water sources while increasing the efficiency of material utilization. Climate change, nevertheless, poses both opportunities and threats to the wastewater reclamation industry. Whereas it elevates the social perception on water-related issues and fosters an emerging water-reuse market, climate change simultaneously presents adverse impacts on the water reclamation scheme, either directly or indirectly. These effects were studied fragmentally in separate realms. Hence, this paper aims to link these studies for providing a thorough understanding about the consequences of the climate change on the wastewater reclamation and reuse. It initially summarizes contemporary treatment processes and their reuse purposes before carrying out a systematic analysis of available findings

Medical physics aspects of cancer care in the Asia Pacific region

Medical physics plays an essential role in modern medicine. This is particularly evident in cancer care where medical physicists are involved in radiotherapy treatment planning and quality assurance as well as in imaging and radiation protection. Due to the large variety of tasks and interests, medical physics is often subdivided into specialties such as radiology, nuclear medicine and radiation oncology medical physics. However, even within their specialty, the role of radiation oncology medical physicists (ROMPs) is diverse and varies between different societies. Therefore, a questionnaire was sent to leading medical physicists in most countries/areas in the Asia/Pacific region to determine the education, role and status of medical physicists

Induction of cell cycle arrest and inflammatory genes by combined treatment with epigenetic, differentiating, and chemotherapeutic agents in triple-negative breast cancer

Background: A combination of entinostat, all-trans retinoic acid, and doxorubicin (EAD) induces cell death and differentiation and causes significant regression of xenografts of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Methods: We investigated the mechanisms underlying the antitumor effects of each component of the EAD combination therapy by high-throughput gene expression profiling of drug-treated cells. Results: Microarray analysis showed that entinostat and doxorubicin (ED) altered expression of genes related to growth arrest, inflammation, and differentiation. ED downregulated MYC, E2F, and G2M cell cycle genes. Accordingly, entinostat sensitized the cells to doxorubicin-induced growth arrest at G2. ED induced interferon genes, which correlated with breast tumors containing a higher proportion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. ED also increased the expression of immune checkpoint agonists and cancer testis antigens. Analysis of TNBC xenografts showed that EAD enhanced the inflammation score in nude mice. Among the genes differentially regulated between the EAD and ED groups, an all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA)-regulated gene, DHRS3, was induced in EAD-treated xenografts. DHRS3 was expressed at lower levels in human TNBC metastases compared to normal breast or primary tumors. High expression of ED-induced growth arrest and inflammatory genes was associated with better prognosis in TNBC patients. Conclusions: Entinostat potentiated doxorubicin-mediated cell death and the combination induced inflammatory signatures. The ED-induced immunomodulation may improve immunotherapy. Addition of ATRA to ED may potentiate inflammation and contribute to TNBC regression. © 2018 The Author(s)

Search for CP violation in D+→ϕπ+ and D+s→K0Sπ+ decays

A search for CP violation in D + → ϕπ + decays is performed using data collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV. The CP -violating asymmetry is measured to be (−0.04 ± 0.14 ± 0.14)% for candidates with K − K + mass within 20 MeV/c 2 of the ϕ meson mass. A search for a CP -violating asymmetry that varies across the ϕ mass region of the D + → K − K + π + Dalitz plot is also performed, and no evidence for CP violation is found. In addition, the CP asymmetry in the D+s→K0Sπ+ decay is measured to be (0.61 ± 0.83 ± 0.14)%

A search for the decay modes B+/- to h+/- tau l

We present a search for the lepton flavor violating decay modes B+/- to h+/- tau l (h= K,pi; l= e,mu) using the BaBar data sample, which corresponds to 472 million BBbar pairs. The search uses events where one B meson is fully reconstructed in one of several hadronic final states. Using the momenta of the reconstructed B, h, and l candidates, we are able to fully determine the tau four-momentum. The resulting tau candidate mass is our main discriminant against combinatorial background. We see no evidence for B+/- to h+/- tau l decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on each branching fraction at the level of a few times 10^-5.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Evidence for an excess of B -> D(*) Tau Nu decays

Based on the full BaBar data sample, we report improved measurements of the ratios R(D(*)) = B(B -> D(*) Tau Nu)/B(B -> D(*) l Nu), where l is either e or mu. These ratios are sensitive to new physics contributions in the form of a charged Higgs boson. We measure R(D) = 0.440 +- 0.058 +- 0.042 and R(D*) = 0.332 +- 0.024 +- 0.018, which exceed the Standard Model expectations by 2.0 sigma and 2.7 sigma, respectively. Taken together, our results disagree with these expectations at the 3.4 sigma level. This excess cannot be explained by a charged Higgs boson in the type II two-Higgs-doublet model. We also report the observation of the decay B -> D Tau Nu, with a significance of 6.8 sigma.Comment: Expanded section on systematics, text corrections, improved the format of Figure 2 and included the effect of the change of the Tau polarization due to the charged Higg