190 research outputs found
Diversity of culturable nocardioform actinomycetes from wastewater treatment plants in Spain and their role in the biodegradability of aromatic compounds
[EN] Currently, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are mainly focusing on reduction of biological oxygen demand and on the removal of nutrients. However, there are microorganisms that interfere with the process. In this environment, there is a large diversity of microorganisms that have not been studied in detail and that could provide real and practical solutions to the foaming problems. Among such microorganisms, Gram-positive actinomycete bacteria are of special interest because they are known for producing secondary metabolites as well as chemically diverse compounds and for their capacity to degrade recalcitrant pollutants. Three different media were chosen to isolate actinomycetes from 28 WWTPs in Spain. A total of 189 activated sludge samples were collected; 126 strains were isolated and identified to belong to 1 suborder, i.e. Corynebacterineae, and 7 genera, i.e. Corynebacterium, Dietzia, Gordonia, Mycobacterium, Rhodococcus, Tsukamurella and Williamsia. Furthermore, 71 strains were capable of biodegrading at least 1 aromatic product, and that 27 of them amplified for catA gene. The results of this research help us understand the complexity of the foam-forming microbial populations in Spain and it shows that WWTPs can be a good source of microorganisms that can degrade phenol or naphthalene.This work was supported by grants from Entidad Publica de Saneamiento de Aguas Residuales (EPSAR) de la Comunitat Valenciana.Soler Hernández, A.; García Hernández, J.; Zornoza-Zornoza, AM.; Alonso Molina, JL. (2017). Diversity of culturable nocardioform actinomycetes from wastewater treatment plants in Spain and their role in the biodegradability of aromatic compounds. Environmental Technology. 39(2):172-181. https://doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2017.1296897S17218139
Study of 16 Portuguese activated sludge systems based on filamentous bacteria populations and their relationships with environmental parameters
A survey in 16 activated sludge waste water treatment plants (WWTP) was conducted to contribute to the knowledge of the environmental parameters that determine the composition of the filamentous community. A total of 128 samples of mixed liquor from municipal WWTP were collected during 2 years, and 22 filamentous morphotypes were identified. The most frequent and abundant filamentous bacteria were, in both cases and by this order, type 0041/0675, type 0092, Microthrix parvicella and 1851, nocardioforms and Haliscomenobacter hydrossis. Concerning dominance, type 1851 was the most frequently dominant morphotype, followed by M. parvicella and types 0092 and 0041/0675. These were also, and by this order, the dominant morphotypes during bulking occurrences. Significant correlations were obtained between the abundance of filamentous bacteria and environmental parameters, but multivariate statistical analysis only confirmed the correlation between type 0092 and Sludge Volume Index (SVI), emphasizing the association of this filament with bulking. The discussion of the results in light of published works was complicated by the random use of terms such as frequency, abundance, and dominance with different and often unclear meanings. This reinforces the need of clarifying these terms when discussing the causes of filamentous overgrowth in WWTP.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Community fund FEDER, through Program COMPETE, in the ambit of the Projects
FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007025 (PTDC/AMB/68393/2006), PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013, RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462), and the Project BBioEnv - Biotechnology and
Bioengineering for a sustainable world,REF. NORTE-07-0124-
FEDER-000048, co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do
Norte (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER. PhD grant SFRH/BD/64848/200
The Italian data on SARS-CoV-2 infection in transplanted patients support an organ specific immune response in liver recipients
Introduction: The study of immune response to SARSCoV-2 infection in different solid organ transplant settings represents an opportunity for clarifying the interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system. In our nationwide registry study from Italy, we specifically evaluated, during the first wave pandemic, i.e., in non-vaccinated patients, COVID-19 prevalence of infection, mortality, and lethality in liver transplant recipients (LTRs), using non-liver solid transplant recipients (NL-SOTRs) and the Italian general population (GP) as comparators. Methods: Case collection started from February 21 to June 22, 2020, using the data from the National Institute of Health and National Transplant Center, whereas the data analysis was performed on September 30, 2020.To compare the sex- and age-adjusted distribution of infection, mortality, and lethality in LTRs, NL-SOTRs, and Italian GP we applied an indirect standardization method to determine the standardized rate. Results: Among the 43,983 Italian SOTRs with a functioning graft, LTRs accounted for 14,168 patients, of whom 89 were SARS-CoV-2 infected. In the 29,815 NL-SOTRs, 361 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were observed. The geographical distribution of the disease was highly variable across the different Italian regions. The standardized rate of infection, mortality, and lethality rates in LTRs resulted lower compared to NL-SOTRs [1.02 (95%CI 0.81-1.23) vs. 2.01 (95%CI 1.8-2.2); 1.0 (95%CI 0.5-1.5) vs. 4.5 (95%CI 3.6-5.3); 1.6 (95%CI 0.7-2.4) vs. 2.8 (95%CI 2.2-3.3), respectively] and comparable to the Italian GP. Discussion: According to the most recent studies on SOTRs and SARS-CoV-2 infection, our data strongly suggest that, in contrast to what was observed in NL-SOTRs receiving a similar immunosuppressive therapy, LTRs have the same risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, mortality, and lethality observed in the general population. These results suggest an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in LTRS that is different from NL-SOTRs, probably related to the ability of the grafted liver to induce immunotolerance
A Measurement of the CMB Temperature Power Spectrum and Constraints on Cosmology from the SPT-3G 2018 TT/TE/EE Data Set
We present a sample-variance-limited measurement of the temperature power
spectrum () of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using observations of
a field made by SPT-3G in 2018. We report
multifrequency power spectrum measurements at 95, 150, and 220GHz covering the
angular multipole range . We combine this
measurement with the published polarization power spectrum measurements from
the 2018 observing season and update their associated covariance matrix to
complete the SPT-3G 2018 data set. This is the first analysis to
present cosmological constraints from SPT , , and power spectrum
measurements jointly. We blind the cosmological results and subject the data
set to a series of consistency tests at the power spectrum and parameter level.
We find excellent agreement between frequencies and spectrum types and our
results are robust to the modeling of astrophysical foregrounds. We report
results for CDM and a series of extensions, drawing on the following
parameters: the amplitude of the gravitational lensing effect on primary power
spectra , the effective number of neutrino species
, the primordial helium abundance , and the
baryon clumping factor due to primordial magnetic fields . We find that the
SPT-3G 2018 data are well fit by CDM with a
probability-to-exceed of . For CDM, we constrain the expansion
rate today to and the
combined structure growth parameter to . The SPT-based
results are effectively independent of Planck, and the cosmological parameter
constraints from either data set are within of each other.
(abridged)Comment: 35 Pages, 17 Figures, 11 Table
The Design and Integrated Performance of SPT-3G
SPT-3G is the third survey receiver operating on the South Pole Telescope
dedicated to high-resolution observations of the cosmic microwave background
(CMB). Sensitive measurements of the temperature and polarization anisotropies
of the CMB provide a powerful dataset for constraining cosmology. Additionally,
CMB surveys with arcminute-scale resolution are capable of detecting galaxy
clusters, millimeter-wave bright galaxies, and a variety of transient
phenomena. The SPT-3G instrument provides a significant improvement in mapping
speed over its predecessors, SPT-SZ and SPTpol. The broadband optics design of
the instrument achieves a 430 mm diameter image plane across observing bands of
95 GHz, 150 GHz, and 220 GHz, with 1.2 arcmin FWHM beam response at 150 GHz. In
the receiver, this image plane is populated with 2690 dual-polarization,
tri-chroic pixels (~16000 detectors) read out using a 68X digital
frequency-domain multiplexing readout system. In 2018, SPT-3G began a multiyear
survey of 1500 deg of the southern sky. We summarize the unique optical,
cryogenic, detector, and readout technologies employed in SPT-3G, and we report
on the integrated performance of the instrument.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to ApJ
A Measurement of Gravitational Lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background Using SPT-3G 2018 Data
We present a measurement of gravitational lensing over 1500 deg of the
Southern sky using SPT-3G temperature data at 95 and 150 GHz taken in 2018. The
lensing amplitude relative to a fiducial Planck 2018 CDM cosmology is
found to be , excluding instrumental and astrophysical
systematic uncertainties. We conduct extensive systematic and null tests to
check the robustness of the lensing measurements, and report a minimum-variance
combined lensing power spectrum over angular multipoles of , which
we use to constrain cosmological models. When analyzed alone and jointly with
primary cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectra within the CDM
model, our lensing amplitude measurements are consistent with measurements from
SPT-SZ, SPTpol, ACT, and Planck. Incorporating loose priors on the baryon
density and other parameters including uncertainties on a foreground bias
template, we obtain a constraint on using the SPT-3G 2018 lensing data alone, where
is a common measure of the amplitude of structure today and
is the matter density parameter. Combining SPT-3G 2018 lensing
measurements with baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data, we derive parameter
constraints of , , and Hubble constant
km s Mpc. Using CMB anisotropy and lensing measurements from
SPT-3G only, we provide independent constraints on the spatial curvature of
(95% C.L.) and the dark energy density
of (68% C.L.). When combining SPT-3G
lensing data with SPT-3G CMB anisotropy and BAO data, we find an upper limit on
the sum of the neutrino masses of eV (95% C.L.)
Broadband, millimeter-wave antireflection coatings for large-format, cryogenic aluminum oxide optics
We present two prescriptions for broadband (∼77−252GHz), millimeter-wave antireflection coatings for cryogenic, sintered polycrystalline aluminum oxide optics: one for large-format (700 mm diameter) planar and plano–convex elements, the other for densely packed arrays of quasi-optical elements—in our case, 5 mm diameter half-spheres (called “lenslets”). The coatings comprise three layers of commercially available, polytetrafluoroethylene-based, dielectric sheet material. The lenslet coating is molded to fit the 150 mm diameter arrays directly, while the large-diameter lenses are coated using a tiled approach. We review the fabrication processes for both prescriptions, then discuss laboratory measurements of their transmittance and reflectance. In addition, we present the inferred refractive indices and loss tangents for the coating materials and the aluminum oxide substrate. We find that at 150 GHz and 300 K the large-format coating sample achieves (97±2)% transmittance, and the lenslet coating sample achieves (94±3)% transmittance
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