Validation of Dual Membrane Treatment for Indirect Potable Reuse

The Western Australia's Premier's Collaborative Research Program (PCRP) project 'Characterising Treated Wastewater for Drinking Purposes Following Reverse Osmosis Treatment' commenced in October 2005, to determine the potential risks of replenishing drinking water aquifers with MF/RO treated secondary wastewater from Perth?s wastewater treatment plants. A brief report on the project won the Michael Flynn Award for the best poster paper at Ozwater 10. The results included those published in Water, February 2010, by Rodriguez et al, entitled Efficiency of RO for removal of Chemical Contaminants. Consequently, this version has been drafted to cover the other aspects of the study, principally the identification of suitable indicators which could be used to validate treatment performance

The patriotism of gentlemen with red hair: European Jews and the liberal state, 1789–1939

European Jewish history from 1789–1939 supports the view that construction of national identities even in secular liberal states was determined not only by modern considerations alone but also by ancient patterns of thought, behaviour and prejudice. Emancipation stimulated unprecedented patriotism, especially in wartime, as Jews strove to prove loyalty to their countries of citizenship. During World War I, even Zionists split along national lines, as did families and friends. Jewish patriotism was interchangeable with nationalism inasmuch as Jews identified themselves with national cultures. Although emancipation implied acceptance and an end to anti-Jewish prejudice in the modern liberal state, the kaleidoscopic variety of Jewish patriotism throughout Europe inadvertently undermined the idea of national identity and often provoked anti-Semitism. Even as loyal citizens of separate states, the Jews, however scattered, disunited and diverse, were made to feel, often unwillingly, that they were one people in exile

Convergent and parallel evolution in life habit of the scallops (Bivalvia: Pectinidae)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We employed a phylogenetic framework to identify patterns of life habit evolution in the marine bivalve family Pectinidae. Specifically, we examined the number of independent origins of each life habit and distinguished between convergent and parallel trajectories of life habit evolution using ancestral state estimation. We also investigated whether ancestral character states influence the frequency or type of evolutionary trajectories.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We determined that temporary attachment to substrata by byssal threads is the most likely ancestral condition for the Pectinidae, with subsequent transitions to the five remaining habit types. Nearly all transitions between life habit classes were repeated in our phylogeny and the majority of these transitions were the result of parallel evolution from byssate ancestors. Convergent evolution also occurred within the Pectinidae and produced two additional gliding clades and two recessing lineages. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that byssal attaching gave rise to significantly more of the transitions than any other life habit and that the cementing and nestling classes are only represented as evolutionary outcomes in our phylogeny, never as progenitor states.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Collectively, our results illustrate that both convergence and parallelism generated repeated life habit states in the scallops. Bias in the types of habit transitions observed may indicate constraints due to physical or ontogenetic limitations of particular phenotypes.</p

Comparison of methods for the determination of biodegradable dissolved organic carbon in potable water supply: use of a novel biofilm

Potable water treatment in the state of Western Australia is challenged in many instances by the presence of high and variable levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particularly in surface water supplies. In recent years the effects of climate change on local sources, in combination with the ever-present requirement for on-going disinfection effectiveness and disinfection by-product regulation has driven the need for the development of innovative, sustainable processes for the removal of DOC. Extensive pilot plant studies over a number of years have demonstrated the effectiveness of biological filtration for cost-effectively managing a variety of high DOC source waters, consequently biofiltration is seen as a process of choice for organics removal in drinking water in Western Australia. Although there are a number of indicators for measuring the efficacy of organic carbon reduction across biological treatment processes (e.g., DOC concentration, SUVA, etc), none currently are able to reliably inform on the change in the ?non-refractory? organic carbon component of DOC (i.e. biodegradable dissolved organic carbon [BDOC]) which arises from microbiological metabolic activity in the biological treatment process. Knowledge of this parameter is of critical importance to the understanding of biological stability of the finished water entering a distribution system. We have therefore investigated a number of analytical procedures in order to develop a robust test method to accurately quantify this important aspect of biofilter performance. The paper reports a comparison between conventional and rapid methods for the determination of BDOC using immobilised biofilms enriched on deep aquifer water. Effective sample collection, preparation and method of analytical analysis, method validation using natural source water with and without addition of standard amounts of assimilable organic carbon (e.g. acetate), and reproducibility of test results are discussed