Modeling nutrient removal and energy consumption in an advanced activated sludge system under uncertainty

Activated sludge models are widely used to simulate, optimize and control performance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). For simulation of nutrient removal and energy consumption, kinetic parameters would need to be estimated, which requires an extensive measurement campaign. In this study, a novel methodology is proposed for modeling the performance and energy consumption of a biological nutrient removal activated sludge system under sensitivity and uncertainty. The actual data from the wastewater treatment plant in Slupsk (northern Poland) were used for the analysis. Global sensitivity analysis methods accounting for interactions between kinetic parameters were compared with the local sensitivity approach. An extensive procedure for estimation of kinetic parameters allowed to reduce the computational effort in the uncertainty analysis and improve the reliability of the computational results. Due to high costs of measurement campaigns for model calibration, a modification of the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty method was applied considering the location of measurement points. The inclusion of nutrient measurements in the aerobic compartment in the uncertainty analysis resulted in percentages of ammonium, nitrate, ortho-phosphate measurements of 81%, 90%, 78%, respectively, in the 95% confidence interval. The additional inclusion of measurements in the anaerobic compartment resulted in an increase in the percentage of ortho-phosphate measurements in the aerobic compartment by 5% in the confidence interval. The developed procedure reduces computational and measurement efforts, while maintaining a high compatibility of the observed data and model predictions. This enables to implement activated sludge models also for the facilities with a limited availability of data

Negativity and quantum discord in Davies environments

We investigate the time evolution of negativity and quantum discord for a pair of non-interacting qubits with one being weakly coupled to a decohering Davies--type Markovian environment. At initial time of preparation, the qubits are prepared in one of the maximally entangled pure Bell states. In the limiting case of pure decoherence (i.e. pure dephasing), both, the quantum discord and negativity decay to zero in the long time limit. In presence of a manifest dissipative dynamics, the entanglement negativity undergoes a sudden death at finite time while the quantum discord relaxes continuously to zero with increasing time. We find that in dephasing environments the decay of the negativity is more propitious with increasing time; in contrast, the evolving decay of the quantum discord proceeds weaker for dissipative environments. Particularly, the slowest decay of the quantum discord emerges when the energy relaxation time matches the dephasing time.Comment: submitted for publicatio

Enhanced Visual Temporal Resolution in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Cognitive functions that rely on accurate sequencing of events, such as action planning and execution, verbal and nonverbal communication, and social interaction rely on well-tuned coding of temporal event-structure. Visual temporal event-structure coding was tested in 17 high-functioning adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mental- and chronological-age matched typically-developing (TD) individuals using a perceptual simultaneity paradigm. Visual simultaneity thresholds were lower in individuals with ASD compared to TD individuals, suggesting that autism may be characterised by increased parsing of temporal event-structure, with a decreased capability for integration over time. Lower perceptual simultaneity thresholds in ASD were also related to increased developmental communication difficulties. These results are linked to detail-focussed and local processing bias

Identification of Metabolites in the Normal Ovary and Their Transformation in Primary and Metastatic Ovarian Cancer

In this study, we characterized the metabolome of the human ovary and identified metabolic alternations that coincide with primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and metastatic tumors resulting from primary ovarian cancer (MOC) using three analytical platforms: gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) using buffer systems and instrument settings to catalog positive or negative ions. The human ovarian metabolome was found to contain 364 biochemicals and upon transformation of the ovary caused changes in energy utilization, altering metabolites associated with glycolysis and β-oxidation of fatty acids—such as carnitine (1.79 fold in EOC, p<0.001; 1.88 fold in MOC, p<0.001), acetylcarnitine (1.75 fold in EOC, p<0.001; 2.39 fold in MOC, p<0.001), and butyrylcarnitine (3.62 fold, p<0.0094 in EOC; 7.88 fold, p<0.001 in MOC). There were also significant changes in phenylalanine catabolism marked by increases in phenylpyruvate (4.21 fold; p = 0.0098) and phenyllactate (195.45 fold; p<0.0023) in EOC. Ovarian cancer also displayed an enhanced oxidative stress response as indicated by increases in 2-aminobutyrate in EOC (1.46 fold, p = 0.0316) and in MOC (2.25 fold, p<0.001) and several isoforms of tocopherols. We have also identified novel metabolites in the ovary, specifically N-acetylasparate and N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate, whose role in ovarian physiology has yet to be determined. These data enhance our understanding of the diverse biochemistry of the human ovary and demonstrate metabolic alterations upon transformation. Furthermore, metabolites with significant changes between groups provide insight into biochemical consequences of transformation and are candidate biomarkers of ovarian oncogenesis. Validation studies are warranted to determine whether these compounds have clinical utility in the diagnosis or clinical management of ovarian cancer patients

Using time perception to explore implicit sensitivity to emotional stimuli in autism spectrum disorder

Establishing whether implicit responses to emotional cues are intact in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is fundamental to ascertaining why their emotional understanding is compromised. We used a temporal bisection task to assess for responsiveness to face and wildlife images that varied in emotional salience. There were no significant differences between an adult ASD and comparison group, with both showing implicit overestimation of emotional stimuli. Further, there was no correlation between overestimation of emotional stimuli and autistic traits in undergraduate students. These data do not suggest a fundamental insensitivity to the arousing content of emotional images in ASD, or in individuals with a high degree of autistic traits. The findings have implications for understanding how emotional stimuli are processed in ASD

Perinatal Asphyxia Affects Rat Auditory Processing: Implications for Auditory Perceptual Impairments in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Perinatal asphyxia, a naturally and commonly occurring risk factor in birthing, represents one of the major causes of neonatal encephalopathy with long term consequences for infants. Here, degraded spectral and temporal responses to sounds were recorded from neurons in the primary auditory cortex (A1) of adult rats exposed to asphyxia at birth. Response onset latencies and durations were increased. Response amplitudes were reduced. Tuning curves were broader. Degraded successive-stimulus masking inhibitory mechanisms were associated with a reduced capability of neurons to follow higher-rate repetitive stimuli. The architecture of peripheral inner ear sensory epithelium was preserved, suggesting that recorded abnormalities can be of central origin. Some implications of these findings for the genesis of language perception deficits or for impaired language expression recorded in developmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders, contributed to by perinatal asphyxia, are discussed

Typical auditory-motor and enhanced visual-motor temporal synchronization in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The perception of subsecond durations in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (hereafter ‘autism’; n=25 Experiment 1, n=21 Experiment 2) and matched typical adults (n=24 Experiment 1, n=22 Experiment 2) was examined by requiring participants to perform an action in time with auditory (Experiment 1) or visual (Experiment 2) events. Individuals with autism performed comparably to typical participants in the auditory task and exhibited less temporal error relative to their typical counterparts in the visual task. These findings suggest that perception of subsecond intervals is intact in autism, if not enhanced. Results support recent Bayesian theories of enhanced visual-perceptual precision in people with autism, and extend empirical support into the precision of subsecond temporal estimates