Assessment of water quality in distribution networks through the lens of disinfection by-product rules

Disinfection with chlorine is a common practice to ensure secured drinking water, but results in  potentially harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs), when excess chlorination is done. The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has established Stage 1 and Stage 2 disinfection by-product Rules (DBP rules) to control DBP exposure. A modified version of the Canadian Council of Ministries of the Environment water quality index (CCME WQI) is used to assess water quality. CCME WQI is a  globally accepted index to assess water quality, but is too generic to be used for DBP rules. The study developed a scheme to make the index suitable for DBP rules. A scoring method based on an analytic  hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to assign weights based on DBP rules. A previously modified CCME WQI (Islam et al., 2014) is adapted along with the weights to perform the assessment at the distribution network (DN). A case study was performed on 7 sampling stations in a Québec City DN. The spatial water quality variations are presented using kriging – a geostatistical method, which identifies the regions with relatively poor water quality and highlights the potential locations for re-chlorination points. The proposed assessment formulation is flexible to handle situations with limited data, which makes it especially suited to smaller municipalities.Keywords: CCME water quality index, Stage 1 DBP Rule, Stage 2 DBP Rule, chlorinatio

Enseignante de soutien pédagogique spécialisé [SPS] dans le canton de Neuchâtel :: une identité professionnelle en mouvement

Comment définir son métier dans un contexte en mutation ? Depuis plusieurs années maintenant, les pratiques de scolarisation des enfants en situation de handicap évoluent. D’une classe séparée en institution à une intégration dans les classes de leur quartier, les cadres légaux et les réflexions pédagogiques engendrent de nouvelles pratiques pour les enseignants et les enseignants spécialisés. Amenés à redéfinir leur métier, ces derniers doivent trouver leur place entre les attentes et les enjeux d’une école qui tente de mettre en place les jalons d’une scolarité plus inclusive. Ce travail cherche à comprendre quels sont les enjeux d’un tel processus en faisant l’hypothèse qu’une meilleure compréhension de ceux-ci permet une meilleure intervention sur le terrain. En passant en revue les éléments qui composent le métier d’enseignant spécialisé dans le contexte du soutien pédagogique spécialisé [SPS] tel qu’il existe dans le canton de Neuchâtel, cette recherche met en évidence la complexité d’un métier en mutation

Age-related differences on event-related potentials and brain rhythm oscillations during working memory activation

Previous functional imaging studies have pointed to the compensatory recruitment of cortical circuits in old age in order to counterbalance the loss of neural efficiency and preserve cognitive performance. Recent electroencephalographic (EEG) analyses reported age-related deficits in the amplitude of an early positive-negative working memory (PNwm) component as well as changes in working memory (WM)-load related brain oscillations during the successful performance of the n-back task. To explore the age-related differences of EEG activation in the face of increasing WM demands, we assessed the PNwm component area, parietal alpha event-related synchronization (ERS) as well as frontal theta ERS in 32 young and 32 elderly healthy individuals who successfully performed a highly WM demanding 3-back task. PNwm area increased with higher memory loads (3- and 2-back>0-back tasks) in younger subjects. Older subjects reached the maximal values for this EEG parameter during the less WM demanding 0-back task. They showed a rapid development of an alpha ERS that reached its maximal amplitude at around 800ms after stimulus onset. In younger subjects, the late alpha ERS occurred between 1,200 and 2,000ms and its amplitude was significantly higher compared with elders. Frontal theta ERS culmination peak decreased in a task-independent manner in older compared with younger cases. Only in younger individuals, there was a significant decrease in the phasic frontal theta ERS amplitude in the 2- and 3-back tasks compared with the detection and 0-back tasks. These observations suggest that older adults display a rapid mobilization of their neural generators within the parietal cortex to manage very low demanding WM tasks. Moreover, they are less able to activate frontal theta generators during attentional tasks compared with younger person

Data set for the proteomic inventory and quantitative analysis of chicken eggshell matrix proteins during the primary events of eggshell mineralization and the active growth phase of calcification

This research was funded by the French National Research Agency ANR (ANR-13-BSV6-0007-01, ANK-13-BSV6-0007-02 and ANK-13-BSV6-0007-05). The high resolution mass spectrometer was financed (SMHART project, 35069) by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Conseil Regional du Centre, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), ARN acknowledges funding through Grants CGL2011-25906 (Ministerio de Economia, Spain).Chicken eggshell is a biomineral composed of 95% calcite calcium carbonate mineral and of 3.5% organic matrix proteins. The assembly of mineral and its structural organization is controlled by its organic matrix. In a recent study [1], we have used quantitative proteomic, bioinformatic and functional analyses to explore the distribution of 216 eggshell matrix proteins at four key stages of shell mineralization defined as: (1) widespread deposition of amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC), (2) ACC transformation into crystalline calcite aggregates, (3) formation of larger calcite crystal units and (4) rapid growth of calcite as columnar structure with preferential crystal orientation. The current article detailed the quantitative analysis performed at the four stages of shell mineralization to determine the proteins which are the most abundant. Additionally, we reported the enriched GO terms and described the presence of 35 antimicrobial proteins equally distributed at all stages to keep the egg free of bacteria and of 81 proteins, the function of which could not be ascribed.French National Research Agency (ANR) ANR-13-BSV6-0007-01 ANK-13-BSV6-0007-02 ANK-13-BSV6-0007-05European Union (EU) 35069Region Centre-Val de LoireFrench National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Inserm)Ministerio de Economia, Spain CGL2011-2590

Metagenomic Analysis Indicates that Stressors Induce Production of Herpes-Like Viruses in Coral \u3cem\u3ePorites compressa\u3c/em\u3e

During the last several decades corals have been in decline and at least one-third of all coral species are now threatened by extinction. Coral disease has been a major contributor to this threat, but little is known about the responsible pathogens. To date most research has focused on bacterial and fungal diseases; however, viruses may also be important for coral health. Using a combination of empirical viral metagenomics and real-time PCR, we show that Porites compressa corals contain a suite of eukaryotic viruses, many related to the Herpesviridae. This coral-associated viral consortium was found to shift in response to abiotic stressors. In particular, when exposed to reduced pH, elevated nutrients, and thermal stress, the abundance of herpes-like viral sequences rapidly increased in 2 separate experiments. Herpes-like viral sequences were rarely detected in apparently healthy corals, but were abundant in a majority of stressed samples. In addition, surveys of the Nematostella and Hydra genomic projects demonstrate that even distantly related Cnidarians contain numerous herpes-like viral genes, likely as a result of latent or endogenous viral infection. These data support the hypotheses that corals experience viral infections, which are exacerbated by stress, and that herpes-like viruses are common in Cnidarians

alpha-Tocopherol Acetate Attenuates Mitochondrial Oxygen Consumption and Maintains Primitive Cells within Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Population

We present here the data showing, in standard cultures exposed to atmospheric O-2 concentration, that alpha-tocopherol acetate (alpha-TOA) has a positive impact on primitive cells inside mesenchymal stromal cell (MstroC) population, by maintaining their proliferative capacity. alpha-TOA decreases the O-2 consumption rate of MStroC probably by impacting respiratory chain complex II activity. This action, however, is not associated with a compensatory increase in glycolysis activity, in spite of the fact that the degradation of HIF-1 alpha was decreased in presence of alpha-TOA. This is in line with a moderate enhancement of mtROS upon alpha-TOA treatment. However, the absence of glycolysis stimulation implies the inactivity of HIF-1 alpha which might - if it were active - be related to the maintenance of stemness. It should be stressed that alpha-TOA might act directly on the gene expression as well as the mtROS themselves, which remains to be elucidated.This is the peer reviewed version of the paper: Loncarić, D., Rodriguez, L., Debeissat, C., Touya, N., Labat, V., Villacreces, A., Bouzier-Sore, A.-K., Pasquet, J.-M., de la Grange, P. B., Vlaski-Lafarge, M., Pavlović, S., & Ivanović, Z. (2021). Alpha-Tocopherol Acetate Attenuates Mitochondrial Oxygen Consumption and Maintains Primitive Cells within Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Population. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, 17(4), 1390–1405.[ https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-020-10111-9]Related to published version: [https://imagine.imgge.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/1491

Multistate Comparison of Attractants for Monitoring Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in Blueberries and Caneberries

Drosophila suzukii Matsumara, also referred to as the spotted wing drosophila, has recently expanded its global range with significant consequences for its primary host crops: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, and strawberries. D. suzukii populations can increase quickly, and their infestation is difficult to predict and prevent. The development of effective tools to detect D. suzukii presence in new areas, to time the beginning of activity within a crop, to track seasonal activity patterns, and to gauge the effectiveness of management efforts has been a key research goal. We compared the efficiency, selectivity, and relationship to fruit infestation of a range of commonly used homemade baits and a synthetic formulated lure across a wide range of environments in 10 locations throughout the United States. Several homemade baits were more efficient than apple cider vinegar, a commonly used standard, and a commercially formulated lure was, in some configurations and environments, comparable with the most effective homemade attractant as well as potentially more selective. All alternative attractants also captured flies between 1 and 2 wk earlier than apple cider vinegar, and detected the presence of D. suzukii prior to the development of fruit infestation. Over half the Drosophila spp. flies captured in traps baited with any of the attractants were not D. suzukii, which may complicate their adoption by nonexpert users. The alternative D. suzukii attractants tested are improvement on apple cider vinegar and may be useful in the development of future synthetic lure

Corrigendum to: Management of Tricuspid Regurgitation: The Role of Transcatheter Therapies

Fabian Nietlispach, Michel Zuber and Francesco Maisano Heart Valve Clinic, University Hospital of Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerlan

The assessment of population exposure to chlorination by-products: a study on the influence of the water distribution system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The relationship between chlorination by-products (CBPs) in drinking water and human health outcomes has been investigated in many epidemiological studies. In these studies, population exposure assessment to CBPs in drinking water is generally based on available CBP data (e.g., from regulatory monitoring, sampling campaigns specific to study area). Since trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) are the most documented CBP classes in drinking water, they are generally used as indicators of CBP exposure.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this paper, different approaches to spatially assign available THM and HAA concentrations in drinking water for population exposure assessment purposes are investigated. Six approaches integrating different considerations for spatial variability of CBP occurrence within different distribution systems are compared. For this purpose, a robust CBP database (i.e., high number of sampling locations selected according to system characteristics) corresponding to nine distribution systems was generated.</p> <p>Results and conclusion</p> <p>The results demonstrate the high impact of the structure of the distribution system (e.g., presence of intermediary water infrastructures such as re-chlorination stations or reservoirs) and the spatial variability of CBPs in the assigned levels for exposure assessment. Recommendations for improving the exposure assessment to CBPs in epidemiological studies using available CBP data from water utilities are also presented.</p