Rethinking Sanitation: Lessons and Innovation for Sustainability and Success in the New Millennium

human development, water, sanitation

Liquid level sensor utilising a long period fiber grating

We propose here a liquid level sensor using a long period fiber grating (LPFG) in which direct liquid level measurement is carried out by utilising an LPFG, 100mm in length and a periodicity of 1mm. The LPFG was exposed to liquids with varying levels and the wavelength shift of a selected loss band of the transmission spectra was monitored using a broadband light source and an optical spectrum analyzer. The mechanism of this LPFG sensor is based on the fact that the effective Refractive Index (RI) of a cladding mode is directly dependant on the RI of the surrounding medium, be it air, or in this case water and petrol. As the surrounding RI changes, so does the phase matching condition of the LPFG. The result for the level change of the liquid with a specific RI is both a shift in wavelength and a change in the attenuation level of the selected loss band. For the selected loss band, continuous wavelength shifts of 9.5 nm and 25 nm for 100 mm of water and petrol level change have been observed respectively, with sub-millimetre accuracy

Low cost faecal sludge dewatering and carbonisation for production of fuel briquettes

Globally, there is an increasing demand for energy to support development needs. The challenge of inadequate energy resources is more pronounced in developing countries/ regions like the Sub Saharan Africa. The quench for energy resources has translated into environmental degradation contributing to climate change. The waste industry is also growing with corresponding increase in population and urbanization. Most of the wastes especially municipal and domestic wastes contribute to global warming. This study sought to devise means of utilizing some waste streams like faecal sludge to partly address the energy deficiency in developing countries, but also trigger studies in similar line. The application of the findings in the study will also solve public health and sanitation issues in urban or peri-urban areas. In this paper, one will find effective and efficient means of dewatering and carbonizing faecal sludge to produce fuel briquettes for cooking

Development of low-cost decentralized faecal sludge treatment system for resource recovery

Uganda has a largest population using onsite sanitation facilities. In Kampala Capital city over 90% use onsite sanitation. The situation is even worse where some towns have no sewer line and no faecal sludge disposal sites. The Ministry of Water and environment has clustered some towns within a radius of <35km to have a common dumping site. With the current few wastewater treatment plants in the country, this intervention would require more 36 faecal sludge plants to be constructed across the country. The current conventional plants seem very costly and at times underutilised because very few serious entrepreneurs would move all the distance to a safe disposal site. As a result there is illegal dumping in bushes. Water For People has developed sustainable sanitation business model right from capture structures through emptying with gulpers, transport with tricycles, pick-ups to low cost decentralised faecal sludge treatment (DEFAST) and Reuse of faecal sludge (FS) as briquettes, feeds, Vermicompost/compost, Biochar

Analysis of pit latrine microbiota reveals depth-related variation in composition, and key parameters and taxa associated with latrine fill-up rate

Funding statement This research received financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (grant number OPP52641 to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). AWW and JP were supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 098051]. AWW and the Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, receive core funding support from the Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and In review Analysis Service (RESAS). UZI is funded by NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/L011956/1) and further supported by EPSRC (EP/P029329/1 and EP/V030515/1). CQ is funded through an MRC fellowship (MR/M50161X/1) as part of the MRC Cloud Infrastructure for Microbial Bioinformatics consortium (MR/L015080/1). Acknowledgements In review Pit latrine microbiota associated with depth and fill-up rate. We would like to thank all the field and laboratory teams and to all the pit latrine owners who participated in this study. We also thank Paul Scott, Richard Rance and members of the Wellcome Sanger Institute's sequencing team for generating 16S rRNA gene data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stage-Specific Inhibition of MHC Class I Presentation by the Epstein-Barr Virus BNLF2a Protein during Virus Lytic Cycle

gamma-herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) persists for life in infected individuals despite the presence of a strong immune response. During the lytic cycle of EBV many viral proteins are expressed, potentially allowing virally infected cells to be recognized and eliminated by CD8+ T cells. We have recently identified an immune evasion protein encoded by EBV, BNLF2a, which is expressed in early phase lytic replication and inhibits peptide- and ATP-binding functions of the transporter associated with antigen processing. Ectopic expression of BNLF2a causes decreased surface MHC class I expression and inhibits the presentation of indicator antigens to CD8+ T cells. Here we sought to examine the influence of BNLF2a when expressed naturally during EBV lytic replication. We generated a BNLF2a-deleted recombinant EBV (ΔBNLF2a) and compared the ability of ΔBNLF2a and wild-type EBV-transformed B cell lines to be recognized by CD8+ T cell clones specific for EBV-encoded immediate early, early and late lytic antigens. Epitopes derived from immediate early and early expressed proteins were better recognized when presented by ΔBNLF2a transformed cells compared to wild-type virus transformants. However, recognition of late antigens by CD8+ T cells remained equally poor when presented by both wild-type and ΔBNLF2a cell targets. Analysis of BNLF2a and target protein expression kinetics showed that although BNLF2a is expressed during early phase replication, it is expressed at a time when there is an upregulation of immediate early proteins and initiation of early protein synthesis. Interestingly, BNLF2a protein expression was found to be lost by late lytic cycle yet ΔBNLF2a-transformed cells in late stage replication downregulated surface MHC class I to a similar extent as wild-type EBV-transformed cells. These data show that BNLF2a-mediated expression is stage-specific, affecting presentation of immediate early and early proteins, and that other evasion mechanisms operate later in the lytic cycle