Toluene Removal from Produced Water by Biofilm Granular Activated Carbon System

Over the last several decades, new strategies for oil and gas produced water disposal have been explored due to concern over increasing seismicity in areas surrounding deep well injection sites. A large area of research is focused on treating produced water for disposal or beneficial reuse. A major constituent in produced water is aromatic hydrocarbons which have high chemical stability and are resistant to conventional biological treatment. The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of a system utilizing biofilm growth on granular activated carbon (BIO-GAC) to remove toluene, an aromatic hydrocarbon common in produced water. Two lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors were operated in three experimental phases. A BIO-GAC reactor was inoculated with granular seed sludge from a UASB reactor at the Cedar Rapids, IA Water Pollution Control Facility and Filtrasorb 400 GAC from Calgon Carbon Co., PA. A biological (BIO) reactor was fed with the same granular seed sludge only with no GAC addition and was used as a control for experimentation. In phase I, the BIO-GAC and BIO reactors were fed with synthetic produced water to simulate real characteristics found in produced water across the United States. Operational conditions were identical for each reactor. The hydraulic residence time was 10 days, and a recirculation pump was used to achieve an upflow velocity of 1.25 m/h at which the sludge bed remained immobile at the bottom of the reactor. After 150 days of acclimation, both reactors had achieved COD removal rates around 80%. During this time, biofilm attachment on GAC particles in the BIO-GAC reactor was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging. Phase II involved adding toluene at a level consistent with average concentrations in produced water, 10 mg/L, to the feed water. Analysis by solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography (GC) found 99.9% toluene removal in all BIO-GAC effluent samples and an average 73.2±8.1% removal in the BIO reactor through 60 days. These results show significant difference between the two systems’ toluene removal abilities, with BIO-GAC clearly superior. The objective of phase III was to observe the effects of salinity on the performance of both reactors. Salinity started at 1% (10 g/L) in the influent feed and was subsequently increased by 1% every 7 days until a final level of 3%. Toluene removal rates in the BIO-GAC reactor remained steady at 99.9% throughout this phase. The BIO reactor, on the other hand, saw toluene removal of 85.5±2.8%, 64.2±7.0%, and 35.1±25.4% at 1%, 2%, and 3% salinity, respectively, displaying a clear decrease in performance. These results indicate salinity affected toluene removal performance in the BIO reactor, but also indicate the BIO-GAC reactor had a resistance to saline shock. The findings of this study demonstrate BIO-GAC’s ability to effectively treat produced water with high levels of toluene, even in hypersaline conditions. Moreover, removal rates of chemical oxygen demand (COD) remained steady at 80% throughout experimentation, indicating BIO-GAC systems have the ability to remove a wide range of constituents from produced water that would not be possible by BIO or GAC alone. Overall, the hybrid BIO-GAC system may be a solution to the produced water disposal problem by presenting a treatment process that can be easily adopted by professionals in the industry

A retrospective quasi-qualitative synthesis of the literature to identify and evaluate communication processes in community-campus partnerships to address health disparities

Background: Community-campus partnerships have been a major developing field of study in improving health outcomes to reduce health disparities. However, there is limited literature that evaluates communication strategies used to improve health outcomes among disadvantaged populations during the early stages of implementing community-campus partnerships. Objectives: Based on the Donabedian model, we conducted a retrospective quasi-qualitative synthesis of literature relating to the identification and evaluation of community engaged communication in community-campus partnerships to address health disparities. Data sources: All published peer-reviewed articles from 2001 to 2013 that addressed health disparities in community-campus partnerships were reviewed. Key word searches from PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Social SciSearch, ProQuest, and Communication and Mass Media Complete databases were performed. Design: Donabedian’s structure, process and outcome model was used to provide a framework for the inclusion and exclusion criteria of studies. Using a quasi-qualitative approach, qualitative and quantitative analysis were used to compare the relationship between studies and inferential statistics respectively. Themes were identified and described. Data were extracted on each study’s characteristic and application of components on the Donabedian model in community-campus partnerships. Results: Forty-two articles met the inclusion criteria. All articles described by using some part of the Donabedian model to improve health outcomes. However, there was great variability in the frequency of communication structures and processes used. We found that communication processes and strategies have an association with improving health outcomes, especially among disadvantaged and vulnerable populations (r = 0.863, p\u3c0.01). Conclusion: Community engaged communication processes and strategies are powerful tools to engage underserved populations. Consequently, under the premise of a community-campus partnership, well-conceived and implemented communication approaches greatly improve health outcomes in disadvantaged populations

Holding safely : guidance for residential child care practitioners and managers about physically restraining children and young people

Residential child care is intensive and at times very diffificult work. Staff in residential childcare, therefore, need training, advice, supervision and support in undertaking this demanding work, since they are often doing the hardest of social care jobs. This good practice guidance has been commissioned to assist practitioners in working out policies and practices for restraining children and young people where no other appropriate options are available

Use of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Preschool Refugees

Response to Intervention (RtI) is being applied to early childhood settings for the support of positive behavior and social development through the Pyramid Model (Fox, Carta, Strain, Dunlap & Hemmeter, 2010). This qualitative study assessed the use of the Pyramid Model for preschool aged refugee children living in a refugee resettlement community. Many young refugee children have experienced trauma (George, 2010) and some experience behavior and social challenges (Almqvist & Brandell-Forsberg, 1997). Twenty-five preschool service providers were interviewed about their use of the Pyramid Model for the support of preschool refugee students. Themes to be shared include how ECEs are implementing the practices outlined in the Pyramid Model along with strategies for adapting recommended practices to meet the needs of refugee families

Radio Number of Hamming Graphs of Diameter 3

For $G$ a simple, connected graph, a vertex labeling $f:V(G)\to \Z_+$ is called a \emph{radio labeling of $G$} if it satisfies |f(u)-f(v)|\geq\diam(G)+1-d(u,v) for all distinct vertices $u,v\in V(G)$. The \emph{radio number of $G$} is the minimal span over all radio labelings of $G$. If a bijective radio labeling onto $\{1,2,\dots,|V(G)|\}$ exists, $G$ is called a \emph{radio graceful} graph. We determine the radio number of all diameter 3 Hamming graphs and show that an infinite subset of them is radio graceful

Rationale, Design and Methods of Set the Rules : A Tailored Peer-to-Peer Health Information Intervention

Ensuring equitable access to health information is one strategy to promote health equity for underserved communities, especially for low-income African Americans (AAs). Childcare centers are one viable site to deliver health information to address this disparity. This paper describes the methods used in a community-based participatory research project with a childcare facility that aimed to reduce environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure among low-income AA children. Through collaboration and multiple data collection methods, partners identified communication strategies to overcome informational barriers. These initial findings indicated a peer-to-peer health information intervention, entitled “Set the Rules”, as the best strategy to increase awareness. The goal of the intervention was to build knowledge in reducing the harms of ETS exposure. Twelve community members were trained as parent leaders for the “Set the Rules” workshops and conducted workshops with parents. Even though there were barriers interfacing with all centers, parents that attended the workshop (n = 32) found the peer-to-peer intervention novel and quite helpful and will share the information learned with others. This intervention suggests that a childcare setting is a relevant space to increase access to health information to optimize child health outcomes. More research is necessary to determine if this intervention has salience in other childcare settings and across racial/ethnic groups

Early Childhood Special Education in a Refugee Resettlement Community: Challenges and Innovative Practices

There has been a significant increase in the number of children who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) who qualify for early childhood special education (ECSE) services (Banerjee & Guiberson, 2012). The current study investigates the challenges and innovative practices in the evaluation and (ECSE) services for preschool aged children who are refugees. Twenty-eight early childhood educators who work in a small refugee resettlement community participated in a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews resulting in themes regarding challenges and innovative practices. Challenges include: lack of validated assessments, wait time for evaluations, different cultural perspectives and family advocacy. Innovative practices include: assessing skills not dependent on language and including caregivers in evaluations. Implications for future research and teacher preparation are discussed