Water Quality Analysis Laboratory Procedures Syllabus

Introduction: The 1976 edition of Methods of Chemical Analysis of Water and Wastes describes chemical analytical procedures to be sued in Water Quality Office (WQO) laboratoires. The methods were chose through the combined efforts of the Regional Analytical Quality Control (AQC) Coordinators, Laboratory Quality Control Officers, and other senior chemicsts in both federal and state laboratories. Method selection was based on the following criteria: 1. The method should measure the desired constitutent with precision and accuracy suffiecient to meet the data needs of WQO in the presence of the interferences normally encountered in polluted waters. 2. The procedures should utilize the equipment and skillso normally available in the typical water pollution control laboratory. 3. The selected methods are in use in many laboraties or have been sufficiently tested to establish their validity. 4. The mthods should be sufficiently rapid to permit routine use for the examination of a large number of samples. Except where noted under scope and Application for each constituent, the methods can be used for the measurement of the indicated constituent in both water and wastewaters and in oboth saline and fresh water samples. Instrumental methods have been selected in preference to manual procedures because of the improved speed, precision, and accuracy. Procedures for the Technicon AutoAnalyzer have been included for laboratories having this equipment available. Precision and accuracy statements have been derived from interlaboratory studies conducted by the Methods and Performance Activity, Analytical Quality Control Laboratory, WQO; the American Society for Testing Materials; or the Analytical Reference Service of the Public Health Service, DHEW. Specific instructions for the handling and preservation of samples cannot be given because of the wide variability in types of samples and local sampling situations. However, certain general principles should be followed. Wherever possible, the sampling program should be designed to provide for the shortest possible interval between sample collection and analysis. Positive steps should be taken to maintain both the concentration and the physical state of the constituents to be measureed

Suspended and Dissolved Solids Effects on Freshwater Biota: A Review

It is widely recognized that suspended and dissolved solids in lakes, rivers, streams, and reservoirs affect water quality. In this report the research needs appropriate to setting freshwater quality criteria or standards for suspeneded solids (not including bedload) and dissolveed solids are defined by determining the state of our knowledge from a critical review of the recent literature in this field. Common literature sources and computer searching routines were used as an initial source of information followed by detailed journal searches. Although some 185 journal articles, government reports, and other referecnes were cited herein (about 45 percent publicshed since 1974) and many other reports (about 300 citation) were reviewed, there is a dearth of quantitative information on the response of freshwater biota, especially at the community level, to suspended and dissolved solids. Consequently, the major research need was defined as the development and-or application of concepts of community response to suspended and dissolved solids concentrations and loads. These concepts need to be applied especially to the photosynthetic lebel and the microfauna and macrofauna levels. Fish studies are of lower priority since more and better research has been reported for these organisms. In addition, the role of suspended solids in transporting toix substances (organics, heavy metals), aesthetic evaluation of suspened solids in aquatic ecosystems and dissolved solids in drinking water, and economic aspects of dissolved solids in municipal-industrial water were defined as research needs

Utah Surface Impoundment Assessment Report

Executive Summary: The Surface Impoundment Assessment process presented an organized consistent systme for evaluating potential threats to groundwater resources from surface impoundments of wastes. This assessment established a data base which locates wastes surface impoundments in Utah and assesses the majority of these impoundments with this prescribed system (Appendix F). This data base may be used to identify surface impoundments in Utah which may create problems with regard to groundwater contamination. Data Summary: The potential hazards of the surface impoundments assessed to groundwater is based on two values established during the assessment procedure. These values are identified as the pollution potential and the health hazard of the sruface impoundment. The pollution potential rating is based on the first four steps of the assessment procedure. out of the 711 impoundments assessed during this study 154 impoundments, of 22 percent of these impoundment, exhibited a pollution potential value high enough to be of concern (greater than 19 assessment units). The health hazard ratin gis based on the proximity of an impoundment to a water well and the anticipated direction of movement of the waste plume. Out of the 154 impoundments exhibility high pollution potentials, 35 impoundments, or 23 percent of these impoundments, also exhibilited a health hazard rating which may be cause for concern (Case A). These 35 impoundments exhibility a combination of a high pollution potential and health hazard values are located on 13 sites. They represent sites from every category studied. These sites may pose a threat to groundwater supplies as identified by the assessment process. The assessment data are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4. There have been instances of groundwater contamination in Utah. On e of these instances has been documented through legal action. These instances are discussed in Chapter 6. State Program for Protecting Groundwater: The Utah State Board of Health is a body politic recommended by the Governor and approved by the Utah Senate that serves as the regulatory authority for the State Department of Health (Holt, 1979). Regulatory and enforcement authroity is vested in the State Board of Health by Section 26-15-5 of the Utah Cose Annotated, 1953, as amended. Additional regulatory committees have been authorized by state law to promulgate rules for the control of specific health or environmental programs as have been deemed necessary with increasing demands on the state\u27s natural resources and environmental protection programs. The state water pollution control organziation consists of the Dibision of Environmental Health within the State Health Department (Pitkin, 1979). The Division of Environmental Health includes Bureaus of Water Pollution Control, Public Water Supply, and Solid Waste Management, each working under separate state legislative authority and under separate federal acts: The Federal Clean Water Act, and Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The organization of the state environment health programs is currently under review by a state appointed reorganization committee. Therefore, this organication may change within the near future (Dalley, 1980). Under present State Health Department policy, the Bureau of Water Pollution Control has been designated as the lead agency for conductin gthe permitting and operational requirements for pits, ponds and lagoons and for the construction of facilities for the containment of sludges from water and sewage treatment plants (Holt, 1979). It should be understood, howeber, that a dual regulatory responsibility exists between the Bureaus of Water Pollution Control and Solid Waste Mangement for control and disposal of sewage and wastewater sludges. The Bureau of Solid Waste Management presently assumes a significant role in establishing policy for the management of sewage and water treatment sludge. Conclusions and Recommendations: At the present time, no specific groundwater program exists in the State Division of Health. Therefore, responsibility for the protection of groundwater is also shared by the state agencies mentioned above. A staff would be necessary to achieve protection of drinking water supplies by addressing specific needs within this state. One area requiring attention is enforcement of existing laws. In order to adequately enforce these laws there is a need for increased public education and manpower within the state (Georgeson, 1979a; Gray 1979; Pitkin, 1979a; Thompson, 1979). The enforcement interpretation of these laws must allow enough flexibility to prevent illegal actions. For example, the closure of a small dump may promote illegal actions. For example, the closure of a small dump may promote illegal dumping (Gray, 1979). Enforcement capabilities require an adequate data base, monitoring program, and staff expertise. Inadequacies exist in baseline groundwater quality data (Pitkin, 1979a) and hydrogeology data (Georgeson, 1979a) especially in remote areas of the state. Also, more quality data are needed on the wastes being treated (Maxwell, 1979). Increased monitoring is necessary to create an adequate data base and to identify problems before public complaints call attention to them

Profiling invasive Plasmodium falciparum merozoites using an integrated omics approach

The symptoms of malaria are brought about by blood-stage parasites, which are established when merozoites invade human erythrocytes. Our understanding of the molecular events that underpin erythrocyte invasion remains hampered by the short-period of time that merozoites are invasive. To address this challenge, a Plasmodium falciparum gamma-irradiated long-lived merozoite (LLM) line was developed and investigated. Purified LLMs invaded erythrocytes by an increase of 10–300 fold compared to wild-type (WT) merozoites. Using an integrated omics approach, we investigated the basis for the phenotypic difference. Only a few single nucleotide polymorphisms within the P. falciparum genome were identified and only marginal differences were observed in the merozoite transcriptomes. By contrast, using label-free quantitative mass-spectrometry, a significant change in protein abundance was noted, of which 200 were proteins of unknown function. We determined the relative molar abundance of over 1100 proteins in LLMs and further characterized the major merozoite surface protein complex. A unique processed MSP1 intermediate was identified in LLM but not observed in WT suggesting that delayed processing may be important for the observed phenotype. This integrated approach has demonstrated the significant role of the merozoite proteome during erythrocyte invasion, while identifying numerous unknown proteins likely to be involved in invasion

Treatment of Chronic Asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum Infection Does Not Increase the Risk of Clinical Malaria Upon Reinfection.

: Chronic asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections are common in endemic areas and are thought to contribute to the maintenance of malaria immunity. Whether treatment of these infections increases the subsequent risk of clinical episodes of malaria is unclear. : In a 3-year study in Mali, asymptomatic individuals with or without P. falciparum infection at the end of the 6-month dry season were identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and clinical malaria risk was compared during the ensuing 6-month malaria transmission season. At the end of the second dry season, 3 groups of asymptomatic children were identified: (1) children infected with P. falciparum as detected by rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) who were treated with antimalarials (n = 104), (2) RDT-negative children whose untreated P. falciparum infections were detected retrospectively by PCR (n = 55), and (3) uninfected children (RDT/PCR negative) (n = 434). Clinical malaria risk during 2 subsequent malaria seasons was compared. Plasmodium falciparum-specific antibody kinetics during the dry season were compared in children who did or did not harbor asymptomatic P. falciparum infections. : Chronic asymptomatic P. falciparum infection predicted decreased clinical malaria risk during the subsequent malaria season(s); treatment of these infections did not alter this reduced risk. Plasmodium falciparum-specific antibodies declined similarly in children who did or did not harbor chronic asymptomatic P. falciparum infection during the dry season. : These findings challenge the notion that chronic asymptomatic P. falciparum infection maintains malaria immunity and suggest that mass drug administration during the dry season should not increase the subsequent risk of clinical malaria.<br/

Index Construction for Multiple Objective Analysis of Land and Water Use in a High Mountain Watershed

Comprehensive planning is an elusive ideal. The practical planner must sort the relevant information from the vast amounts of data that modern technology can collect. The objective of this study was to use the Upper Blackfoot watershed in the mountains of Southeastern Idaho as an arena for developing methods for construction, refinement, and application of indices needed to design land and water management schemes, compare alternatives, and influence the public in their uses of the area. A total of 21 uses were examined on 242 land units of a 160 square-mile area ranging in elevation from 6300 to 9000 feet and where the principal activities of grazing, lumbering, mining, and recreation can only be undertaken in the summer after the snow has melted. The indices considered were a reasonability index for screening out unreasonable uses at the start of the planning process, an index of use intensity for estimating an amount for reasonable uses, and an index for estimating the utility of the amount of use made from the public viewpoint. Data were collected on 42 attributes for the 343 land units and used in a linear programming model to maximize 1) economic benefits from use of the area and 2) minimize environmental disturbance. The resolution in the available use data limited the model solution to allocating uses among 18 larger land units. The primary factor limiting the modeling, however, was the lack of information for defining the interactions among the uses. The analysis provides a framework for classifying and identifying interactions beginning with the simplest case of simultaneous use by two uses in near proximity. The contribution of the study was a framework for analysis and the identification of the needs for research on the physical interactions among simultaneous uses, the perceived interactions of simultaneous users, and characterization of attributes for defining the quality of an area for a use

HIV subtype is not associated with dementia among individuals with moderate and advanced immunosuppression in Kampala, Uganda

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are a common neurological manifestation of HIV infection. A previous study suggested that HIV dementia may be more common among patients with subtype D virus than among those with subtype A virus among HIV+ individuals with advanced immunosuppression. We conducted a study to evaluate the frequency of HIV dementia, and the association of HIV dementia with HIV subtype and compartmentalization among HIV+ individuals with moderate and advanced immunosuppression (CD4 lymphocyte count >150 cells/μL and < 250 cells/μL)

Simultaneous Host-Pathogen Transcriptome Analysis during Granulibacter bethesdensis Infection of Neutrophils from Healthy Subjects and Patients with Chronic Granulomatous Disease

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) from patients with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) fail to produce microbicidal concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to mutations in NOX2. Patients with CGD suffer from severe, life-threatening infections and inflammatory complications. Granulibacter bethesdensis is an emerging Gram-negative pathogen in CGD that resists killing by PMN of CGD patients (CGD PMN) and inhibits PMN apoptosis through unknown mechanisms. Microarray analysis was used to study mRNA expression in PMN from healthy subjects (normal PMN) and CGD PMN during incubation with G. bethesdensis and, simultaneously, in G. bethesdensis with normal and CGD PMN. We detected upregulation of antiapoptotic genes (e.g., XIAP and GADD45B) and downregulation of proapoptotic genes (e.g., CASP8 and APAF1) in infected PMN. Transcript and protein levels of inflammation- and immunity-related genes were also altered. Upon interaction with PMN, G. bethesdensis altered the expression of ROS resistance genes in the presence of normal but not CGD PMN. Levels of bacterial stress response genes, including the ClpB gene, increased during phagocytosis by both normal and CGD PMN demonstrating responses to oxygen-independent PMN antimicrobial systems. Antisense knockdown demonstrated that ClpB is dispensable for extracellular growth but is essential for bacterial resistance to both normal and CGD PMN. Metabolic adaptation of Granulibacter growth in PMN included the upregulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase. Pharmacological inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase by triphenylbismuthdichloride was lethal to Granulibacter. This study expands knowledge of microbial pathogenesis of Granulibacter in cells from permissive (CGD) and nonpermissive (normal) hosts and identifies potentially druggable microbial factors, such as pyruvate dehydrogenase and ClpB, to help combat this antibiotic-resistant pathogen.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by American Society for Microbiology and can be found at: http://iai.asm.org

Evidence That Two ATP-Dependent (Lon) Proteases in Borrelia burgdorferi Serve Different Functions

The canonical ATP-dependent protease Lon participates in an assortment of biological processes in bacteria, including the catalysis of damaged or senescent proteins and short-lived regulatory proteins. Borrelia spirochetes are unusual in that they code for two putative ATP-dependent Lon homologs, Lon-1 and Lon-2. Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiologic agent of Lyme disease, is transmitted through the blood feeding of Ixodes ticks. Previous work in our laboratory reported that B. burgdorferi lon-1 is upregulated transcriptionally by exposure to blood in vitro, while lon-2 is not. Because blood induction of Lon-1 may be of importance in the regulation of virulence factors critical for spirochete transmission, the clarification of functional roles for these two proteases in B. burgdorferi was the object of this study. On the chromosome, lon-2 is immediately downstream of ATP-dependent proteases clpP and clpX, an arrangement identical to that of lon of Escherichia coli. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Lon-1 and Lon-2 cluster separately due to differences in the NH2-terminal substrate binding domains that may reflect differences in substrate specificity. Recombinant Lon-1 manifested properties of an ATP-dependent chaperone-protease in vitro but did not complement an E. coli Lon mutant, while Lon-2 corrected two characteristic Lon-mutant phenotypes. We conclude that B. burgdorferi Lons -1 and -2 have distinct functional roles. Lon-2 functions in a manner consistent with canonical Lon, engaged in cellular homeostasis. Lon-1, by virtue of its blood induction, and as a unique feature of the Borreliae, may be important in host adaptation from the arthropod to a warm-blooded host