Micellar- and polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration for heavy metal and sulfate removal from aqueous solutions

Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) and polymer-enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) show potential as promising techniques to remove dissolved ions from wastewater, but they remain inadequately understood. In this thesis, the MEUF removal of copper, nickel, and cobalt ions from aqueous solutions was investigated. The effect of surfactant-to-metal (S/M) ratio and pH on MEUF performance (i.e., metal rejection rate and permeate flux) were examined to obtain the preferred operational conditions. A resampling-based artificial neural network (ANN) modeling was proposed as a promising tool to predict the MEUF performance and to reveal the importance of process parameters. The model-predicted values showed good agreement with experimental data (R² > 0.99). S/M ratio and pH had relatively greater contributions to the system performance, whereas sampling time contributed less. A high MEUF efficiency (Rejection > 99%) was achieved. To optimize the system performance and to observe the interactions among operational parameters, the statistical-based response surface methodology (RSM) was used to overcome the drawbacks of the commonly used one-factor-at-a-time method. The thesis is the first study to use an RSM method based on a Box-Behnken design to examine nickel ion removal in a MEUF system while combine with an ANN model. The generated RSM models described the relationship between each performance indicator (nickel rejection rate or permeate flux) and process variables (transmembrane pressure, feed nickel concentration, feed surfactant concentration, and membrane molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of the membrane). Both RSM and ANN methods adequately described the performance indicators within the examined ranges of the process variables. Next, the thesis targets on sulfate ions, a dissolved anion of increasing concern but not tackled in the MEUF/PEUF field. The thesis is the first study to use MEUF and PEUF to remove sulfate ions as the target component from aqueous solutions. It is also the first to examine the adsorption mechanism of sulfate to surfactant/polymer in such systems. Both MEUF and PEUF were found technically viable to remove sulfate from aqueous streams, with the highest rejection rate (Rejection > 99%) found in dilute sulfate solutions. Further, adsorption equilibrium and kinetics studies show that Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics can describe the adsorption process. This thesis adds knowledge to the existing MEUF/PEUF techniques by improving system operation, conducting system optimization, and exploring new components (i.e., sulfate ions) that can be removed. It also provides treatment information and potentially facilitates reservoir souring control and mining wastewater treatment

Effect of topical application of two Polygala tenuifolia species decoction on guinea pig skin

Purpose: To investigate the effect of the topical decoction of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. and Polygala sibirica L. on a guinea pig model of sore and ulcer.Method: A guinea pig model of sore and ulcer was produced by Staphylococcus aureus, and 80 guinea pigs were evenly divided into eight groups, consisting of five males and five females in each group. Another 10 (5 male and 5 female) guinea pigs were used as the control group. The corresponding liquid medicine was applied to the ulcer site of the animals in each group, and administered the medicine for 6h daily with a continuous applicator for 12 d. Lysozyme content in serum was measured to determine its effects on body tissue morphology.Results: Compared with the control group, the sore skin score of guinea pigs in each dose group of decoction of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. and Polygala sibirica L. was significantly decreased. The skin showed apparent positive pathological changes and serum lysozyme concentration increased significantly (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Decoctions of the two Polygala tenuifolia species exert a good therapeutic effect on the guinea pig model of sore and ulcer for topical use.Keywords: Polygala species, Topical application, Guinea pig, Skin diseases, Lysozyme, Decoctio

2009

ABSTRACT © F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o n BCL2 translocations are more frequently found in the GCB subtype, whereas 18q21 locus amplification is more common in the ABC subtype of DLBCL. 3, Design and Methods Patients We studied 327 cases of previously untreated de novo DLBCL, diagnosed between January 2002 and October 2009, and collected as part of the International DLBCL Rituxan-CHOP Consortium Program Study. These cases were analyzed for Bcl-2 protein expression, and BCL2 and MYC gene abnormalities, and gene expression profiling (GEP) was performed. All cases were reviewed by a group of hematopathologists (SMM, MAP, MBM, AT, and KHY), and the diagnoses were confirmed based on World Health Organization classification criteria. Patients with transformation from low grade lymphoma, those with composite follicular lymphoma, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, primary cutaneous and primary central nervous system DLBCL were excluded from the analysis due to the unique biological features of these types of lymphoma. All patients were adults who were negative for human immunodeficiency virus and had sufficient clinical data and clinical follow-up. Patients in this study were treated with R-CHOP (n=291, 89%) or R-CHOP-like regimens (n=36, 11%; CHOP scheme adopting different anthracyclines i.e. novantrone or epirubicin). All patients with advanced stage disease received six (92%) or eight (8%) cycles, every 21 days, with or without radiotherapy for residual disease or initial bulky disease; localized cases received at least three cycles followed by radiotherapy or six cycles without radiotherapy. The current study was approved by each of the participating centers' Institutional Review Boards, and the overall collaborative study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, USA. Immunohistochemistry for Bcl-2 and cut-off determination Bcl-2 protein expression was evaluated in all patients using a monoclonal anti-Bcl-2 antibody (Clone-124, Dako, Carpinteria, CA, USA) and standard immunohistochemical methods. The formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue slides underwent deparaffinization and heat-induced antigen retrieval techniques. An endogenous biotin-blocking kit (Ventana) was used to decrease background staining. Following antigen retrieval and primary antibody incubation, the reaction was completed in a Ventana ES instrument using a diaminobenzidine immunoperoxidase detection kit (Ventana). Immunoreactivity was determined without knowledge of the patients' survival, clinical data, or GEP data. The samples were analyzed independently by a group of four hematopathologists/pathologists in addition to the hematopathologist of each of the contributing centers, and disagreements were resolved by joint review at a multi-headed microscope. An average of 300-400 cells in four to five fields were counted in the tissue microarray cores. A percentage of tumor cell staining ≥50% was considered positive after receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was implemented to assess the discriminatory accuracy of Bcl-2 protein in recognizing patients with different overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The 50% value was established from the analysis of the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) and had the maximum specificity and sensibility for OS and PFS discrimination in our patients (AUROC=0.564, P=0.017 for OS and AUROC=0.564, P=0.015 for PFS). 31 Gene expression profiling analysis RNA was extracted from 327 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples using a HighPure Paraffin RNA Extraction Kit (Roche Applied Science). Fifty nanograms of RNA were transcribed into cDNA, linearly amplified using the WT-Ovation™ FFPE System (Nugen), and biotin-labeled using FL-Ovation™ cDNA Biotin Module V2 (Nugen) in all cases. For GeneChip hybridization, 5 μg of WT-Ovation amplified cDNA were applied to HG-U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips (Affymetrix) and hybridized overnight. GeneChips were washed, stained, and scanned using the Fluidic Station 450 and GeneChip Scanner 3000 (Affymetrix) according to the manufacturer's recommendations. For data analysis and classification, the microarray DQN (trimmed mean of differences of perfect match and mismatch intensities with quantile normalization) signals were generated and normalized to the quantiles of beta distribution with parameters p=1.2 and q=3 as previously described. 32 A Bayesian model was also utilized to determine the class probability. The classification model was built on the 47 paired formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sample dataset previously generated with a confidence rate of 90-100% in fresh frozen tissue and 92-100% in formalin-fixed, paraffinembedded tissue. The same methodology developed during this study has been validated and demonstrated to be applicable by using the LLMPP dataset in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database GSE#10846 that has 181 CHOP-treated and 233 R-CHOP-treated DLBCL patients with fresh-frozen samples. 3, Validation set To validate our observations in predicting survival in an independent series of cases, we analyzed a second group of 120 archival DLBCL cases studied similarly to the first cohort except for MYC analysis that was not available (GCB 49%, ABC 40%, unclassified 11%; BCL2 translocations in 18%; Bcl-2 overexpression in 54%). All these patients had been treated with R-CHOP and the same selection criteria as those for the first cohort were applied. The clinical characteristics at presentation of the patients in the validation set were not significantly different from those of the patients in the test set. Statistical analysis Following pre-defined criteria, 33 PFS was measured from the time of diagnosis to the time of progression or death from any cause. OS was measured from the time of diagnosis to last followup or death from any cause. Only patients with a follow-up of longer than 12 months were included in the survival analysis. The actuarial probabilities of PFS and OS were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method, and differences were compared using the log-rank test. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used for multivariate analysis. The χ 2 test or Mann-Whitney test was applied to assess differences between variables. The interobserver agreement for FISH was assessed using the κ statistic; a κ value of >0.75 implied excellent agreement. All statistical calculations, except for ROC and the κ statistic which were performed with SPSS 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), were conducted using StatView (Abacus Concepts, Berkeley, CA, USA). Results Patients' characteristics and outcome The median age of the patients at diagnosis was 62 years (range, 18-86). Their clinical characteristics are reported in BCL2 and MYC genes in the subgroups defined by gene expression profiling Sixty patients (18.3%) had DLBCL with BCL2 gene translocations, and 50 (15.3%) had BCL2 gene amplifications. The presence of BCL2 translocations was not associated with any clinical prognostic variable at diagnosis, except for Ann Arbor Stage (70% versus 49% with stage III-IV, P=0.004), as shown in The OS and PFS rates of patients with BCL2 translocations were similar to those of patients without BCL2 translocations, irrespectively of MYC status. When we restricted the analysis to the GCB subtype, patients with BCL2 translocations alone, in the absence of MYC breaks, had a significantly worse outcome than GCB patients without BCL2 translocations (3-year PFS of 53% versus 76%, respectively; P=0.0002). The outcome of patients with BCL2 rearranged GCB subtype was similar to that of the patients with the ABC subtype of DLBCL (52%, P=0.30), but still better than that of the patients with double hit lymphomas (P<0.0001, The presence of MYC breaks alone in the 19 patients without concomitant BCL2 translocations was not associated with impaired PFS (P=0.70) or OS (P=0.66) in the whole cohort, but was associated with inferior OS (P=0.03), but not PFS (P=0.22), in patients with GCB-DLBCL (only 9 with isolated MYC breaks). As shown in BCL2 gains were not prognostic in any of the subgroups of patients. Particular consideration of high-level amplifications was of no additional prognostic value. Bcl-2 protein expression, clinical characteristics, fluorescence in situ hybridization and gene expression profiling None of the common clinical characteristics of our patients at the time of presentation was significantly associated with Bcl-2 protein expression except age, with older patients more often being Bcl-2 positive (≥60 years old, P=0.02). Bcl-2 protein expression in GEP-and FISHdefined subgroups is shown in © F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o n patients without the BCL2 translocation (range, 0-100%; median 60%). Bcl-2 protein expression was significantly associated with worse PFS (P=0.01) and OS (P=0.02) in the whole cohort, but when patients were divided according to GEPdefined subtypes, we observed that higher Bcl-2 expression was associated with significantly inferior PFS in the GCB subgroup (P=0.04), but not in the ABC subgroup (P=0.57), as shown in Multivariate analysis Multivariate analysis of all 137 patients with the GCB subtype of DLBCL showed that BCL2 translocations (HR 0.40, 95% CI: 0.18-0.89; P=0.02), but not Bcl-2 expression (HR 1.01, 95% CI: 0.45-2.21; P=0.98), MYC breaks (HR 0.25, 95% CI: 0.10-0.59; P=0.001), and IPI score (HR 0.41, 95% CI: 0.20-0.84; P=0.01), were independently associated with patients' outcome. Results were not modified after each molecular feature was computed with age as a continuous parameter. C. Visco et al. 258 haematologica | 2013; 98(2) Overall survival Progression-free survival Four-hundred and forty-four genes were found to be differentially expressed (>1.5 fold and P<0.005) in DLBCL patients with or without BCL2 translocations including both GCB and ABC subtypes. In the GCB group, however, only 43 genes were differentially expressed among patients with and without BCL2 translocations ( Interestingly, a number of genes overexpressed in the BCL2 translocated group are involved in the control of angiogenesis and the inflammatory response (AIMP1, PPIA, and ALOX), while others are involved in promoting apoptosis or regulating B-cell signaling (STK17A, RAL-GPS2, NCOA3, STRBP, and ZNF117). 35-37 C. Visco et al. 260 haematologica | 2013; 98(2) © F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o n Discussion We addressed the clinical impact of BCL2 aberrations and their relationship to Bcl-2 protein expression in a large series of patients with DLBCL homogeneously treated with R-CHOP, with known MYC gene status and molecularly characterized according to GEP analysis. We were able to establish the role of the BCL2 gene in different subtypes of DLBCL, irrespectively of concomitant MYC aberrations. We found that isolated BCL2 translocations, in the absence of MYC breaks, were associated with a poor outcome in the subset of patients with GCB-DLBCL, and that the prognosis of these patients was similar to that of patients with ABC-DLBCL. The concomitant presence of MYC breaks (double hit lymphoma) further worsened the outcome of these patients. The role of Bcl-2 protein expression appeared dependent on its association with BCL2 translocations, as outlined by multivariate analysis and survival curves As determined by FISH break apart probe analysis, the overall frequency of BCL2 translocations in de novo DLBCL was 18.3%. The BCL2 translocations were almost exclusively associated with GCB-DLBCL, found in 34.5% of cases The impact of BCL2 translocations on survival in our series could not be explained by differences in the clinical features of the patients because there was no association between the presence of BCL2 translocations and IPI risk groups (P=0.90, A C B FIGURE A COLORI SOLO ONLINE © F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o n with isolated BCL2 or MYC lesions. Confirming previous findings, In this series, Bcl-2 protein was overexpressed in half of the patients with GCB-DLBCL and in 72% of patients with ABC-DLBCL 18,39 However, Bcl-2 overexpression had prognostic value only in the GCB subtype, as already observed by others in the era of R-CHOP therapy. Iqbal et al. 22 Secondly, Bcl-2 protein expression in Iqbal's study was significantly associated with adverse clinical prognostic factors (stage III-IV, elevated lactate dehydrogenase, high IPI risk group) in GCB-DLBCL, which was not the case in our study. Finally, no mention was made about exclusion of possibly confounding DLBCL subtypes such as double hit lymphoma, primary cutaneous or primary central nervous system DLBCL. We also acknowledge that different findings in the literature regarding BCL2 rearrangements or protein expression could very well be related to lack of uniformity between different studies in terms of Bcl-2 staining and scoring. Moreover, patients' characteristics in the different series, differences in the management of the cases as they were not in clinical trials, data collection regarding outcome, and sometimes short follow-up times may also have contributed to different results. Our GEP analysis revealed that patients with BCL2 translocations substantially differed with respect to important recurrent oncogenic events, which may contribute to the adverse outcome of the subgroup of GCB-DLBCL patients with BCL2 translocations. Up-regulation of the BCL11A gene occurred exclusively in the group of patients with BCL2 translocations We confirm that the outcome of GCB-DLBCL patients should be interpreted in the context of abnormalities of the MYC and BCL2 genes. While the MYC rearrangement is quite rare, it is rarely found as the sole genetic abnormality, and its clinical relevance is mainly related to a double hit mechanism, BCL2 rearrangements are present in a considerable fraction of patients with the GCB subtype who have similar outcomes to those of patients with the ABC subtype. Our results confirm that the GCB and ABC subtypes of DLBCL have distinct pathogeneses, and support the rationale for further classification of different subgroups. © F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o n Funding CV is a hematologist supported by Sa

Development of Advanced Composting Technologies for Municipal Organic Waste Treatment in Small Communities in Newfoundland and Labrador

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is one of the major fractions of the solid waste in Canada. From 2002 to 2008, Canadian municipal solid waste disposal has increased from 769 kilograms to 777 kilograms per capita. Among the provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) has one of the highest waste disposal levels per capita in the country. According to the Multi Materials Stewardship Board (MMSB), it is estimated that more than 400,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) materials are generated each year in this province and organic waste makes up as much as 30% of all waste generated. To properly manage MSW generated, the Provincial Solid Waste Management Strategy has been identified in 2002, aiming to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills by 50 per cent. Composting has been regarded as an efficient and effective way to deal with the organic waste and helps work toward achieving the provincial 50 per cent waste reduction goal. It also creates rich organic soil that can enhance lawns and gardens. Therefore, MSW composting has been listed as one of the six new environmental standards applied to new waste management systems in NL. However, NL comprises more than 200 small communities without access to the central composting facility. For those areas, small-scale composting technologies are desired to manage their MSW so as to reduce collection and transport costs and eliminate the other environmental contamination during transportation. Composting is a biological process that is affected by chemical and physical factors. The lack of understanding of the complexity of biological, chemical, and physical processes can result in malfunction of a composting system. The microbial and physicochemical environment in composting can be affected by the diversity of microbial population, temperature, bulking agent, aeration, and chemical properties of raw material such as the C/N ratio and moisture content. Interactions among biological, chemical, and physical factors are crucial to the comprehensive understanding of the composting process, and thus viable for process control and system optimization. This project aims at developing composting technologies applicable to northern communities in NL, and conducting system optimization to increase the composting efficiency and improve compost quality. Six composting reactors (50×20×25 cm) were designed and manufactured. Six mixers were installed in each reactor. An inlet was designed to provide air through a vacuum pump. A perforated plate with holes was installed for air distribution in the system. The exhaust gas was monitored by a gas monitoring system and then discharged into a flask containing H2SO4 solution (1 M) to absorb the NH3. To prevent heat loss, heat insulating layers were designed and applied to cover the reactor thoroughly. Reactors were filled with food waste as raw material. Factorial design was applied, with sixteen runs conducted, to optimize the operational factors including moisture content, aeration, bulking agent, and C/N ratio. Each composting run lasts 30 days. The effect of main factors and their interactions on composting process was investigated by measuring temporal variations of enzyme activities (dehydrogenase, β-glucosidase, and Phosphomonoesterase), germination index (GI), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), temperature, moisture, ash content, oxygen uptake rate (OUR), and C/N ratio during composting. Experimental results showed that the breakdown of organic matter by microbial activities led to increase in the temperature of the composting material. As composting progresses, the amount of degradable matter decreased and the temperature declined. When most of the organic matter was consumed, the temperature in the reactor dropped to the ambient temperature. The OUR can express biological activities during composting and biological stability at the end of composting. The OUR values showed strong correlation with temperature. The maximum OUR was observed concurrently with the maximum temperature. The pH value was low at the first stage due to the accumulation of organic acids, and increased gradually while organic acids were consumed by microorganisms. The EC values increased in all runs as a result of cation concentration increment. Moisture content showed descending trends in all runs due to the evaporation under high temperature. As a result of decomposition of organic matter by composting, the organic matter decreased and ash content increased in all runs. Although the GI data showed notable fluctuation during composting, it started to increase at the end of the composting process. In most of the runs, the peaks of dehydrogenase activity as an indicator of biological activity were observed with the maximum temperature and OUR value simultaneously. The β-glucosidase activity showed with high values at the themophilic phase and after the temperature drop. In addition, high activity of phosphomonoesterase accrued during the thermophilic phase. Results of the factorial design indicated that aeration rate, moisture content, and bulking agents affect the maximum temperature significantly. Aeration rate has significant influence on the maximum OUR. The C/N ratio and the interaction between aeration rate and bulking agent have major impact on GI. Moisture content is an important factor affecting the cumulative dehydrogenase and the β-glucosidase activity. The C/N ratio influences the β-glucosidase activity as well. The output of this research can help to design the small-scale composting system for MSW management in small communities in NL, and provide a solid base of technical and scientific knowledge for system operation

Performance of locally available bulking agents in Newfoundland and Labrador during bench-scale municipal solid waste composting

Background: Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) has one of the highest waste disposal rates in Canada and it has 200 small communities without access to central composting facilities. During Municipal solid waste (MSW) composting, the selection of bulking agents is critical. Bench-scale composting systems plus locally available bulking agents are thus desired for economic and effective MSW management in NL communities. This study evaluated the performance of locally available bulking agents (i.e., NL sawdust and peat) during MSW composting in a bench-scale system. Physiochemical (temperature, oxygen uptake rate, pH, electrical conductivity, moisture and ash content, and C/N ratio) and biological (enzyme activities and germination index) parameters were monitored to evaluate compost maturity and stability. Results: In peat composting, higher temperature for a longer duration was observed, indicating more effective pathogen removal and sterilization. High enzyme activities of dehydrogenase, β-glucosidase, and phosphodiesterase in the third week of composting imply high microbial activity and high decomposition rate. The low C/N ratio for compost product implies acceptable stability states. In sawdust composting, higher temperature and oxygen uptake rate (OUR) were observed in the third week of composting, and higher enzyme activities in the second week. Sawdust composting generated a higher germination index, indicating higher maturity. Conclusions: Both sawdust and peat are effective bulking agents for the bench-scale composting. The choice of a bulking agent for a particular community depends on the availability of the agent and land in the region, convenience of transportation, price, and the expected quality of the compost product

From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards Future Strategies and a Decision Support Framework for Oil Spill Preparedness and Response in Offshore Newfoundland and Labrador

As a major energy source worldwide, oil products are increasingly produced and consumed. Despite progress in reducing spillage through a variety of technological and regulatory measures, along with improving industry practices, oil spills continue to occur. On a daily basis, hundreds to thousands of spills are likely to occur worldwide in many different types of environments such as on land, at sea, and in inland freshwater systems. Multiple sources of spillage are involved, such as tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as through a variety of processes of transportation, refining, storage and utilization of refined petroleum products and their by-products. Spills occur for diverse reasons including structural failures, operational errors, weather-related events, earthquakes, human negligence, and even vandalism or terrorism. The biggest contributor to oil pollution in the world’s oceans (some 45%) is operational discharges from tankers. Most oil spill occurrences (72%) are on a small scale and the overall amount of these small spills accounts for less than 1% of the total spillage. The largest spills (over 30 tonnes) rarely occur (0.1% of incidents) yet involve nearly 60% of the total amount spilled. The project’s objective was to gain insight to current methodologies and technologies in oil spill response and countermeasures and to formulate a new strategic and decision making framework for supporting oil spill diagnosis, warning and emergency response in a cost-efficient and environmental friendly manner. The cold weather and harsh offshore conditions in Newfoundland and Labrador and their effects will be considered in the study. The main objectives of the research included: • Collect and analyze background information and data of historical oil spills and associated environmental, economic and societal impacts as well as relevant policies and regulations • Review current offshore oil spill response and countermeasure protocols and practices • Review the natural and social conditions, spill prevention, monitoring and analysis, assessment and modeling, and response and clean-up technologies, as well as their effectiveness and suitability in harsh environments prevailing in NL offshore areas • Identify knowledge gaps and technical challenges in offshore oil spill, monitoring, analysis, modeling, responses, and countermeasures particularly in harsh environmental conditions • Formulate a general decision making framework for integrating methods and techniques during oil spill monitoring, early warning, assessment, simulation, response and cleanup processes • Recommend oil spill management strategies and disclose the research and development needs particularly for NL offshore industry and regulatory authorities. Based on the comprehensive review, this study made general recommendations to help guide research and development efforts in oil spill response and countermeasures from the aspects of impact assessment, regulations and coordination, monitoring and analysis, modeling and prediction, preparedness and response, countermeasures, and decision making. Some special recommendations given to future investment and R&D efforts in order to address the identified knowledge gaps and technical challenges associated with the NL’s harsh offshore environment include: • Uncertainties associated with the weather and ocean conditions and the impacts on spill modeling and response decision making; • Integration of monitoring, assessment, simulation and optimization into offshore oil spill response decision making; • Capability of existing technologies in harsh environments and novel technologies customized with the specific characteristic of NL offshore oil spills; and • Adaptation of long-term contingency plans, management strategies, on-site response decision, and operational technologies to harsh environmental conditions

Micellar-Enhanced Ultrafiltration to Remove Nickel Ions: A Response Surface Method and Artificial Neural Network Optimization

Nickel ions from aqueous solutions were removed by micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF), using the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a chelating agent. Process variables and indicators were modeled and optimized by a response surface methodology (RSM), using the Box–Behnken design (BBD). The generated quadratic models described the relationship between a performance indicator (nickel rejection rate or permeate flux) and process variables (pressure, nickel concentration, SDS concentration, and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO)). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that both models are statistically significant. To remove 1 mM of nickel ions, the optimal condition for maximum nickel removal and flux were: pressure = 30 psi, CSDS = 10.05 mM, and MWCO = 10 kDa, resulting in a rejection rate of 98.16% and a flux of 119.20 L/h∙m2. Experimental verification indicates that the RSM model could adequately describe the performance indicators within the examined ranges of the process variables. An artificial neural network (ANN) modelling followed to predict the MEUF performance and validate the RSM results. The obtained ANN models showed good fitness to the experimental data

Effects of Early Intervention with Maternal Fecal Microbiota and Antibiotics on the Gut Microbiota and Metabolite Profiles of Piglets

We investigated the effects of early intervention with maternal fecal microbiota and antibiotics on gut microbiota and the metabolites. Five litters of healthy neonatal piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire, nine piglets in each litter) were used. Piglets in each litter were orally treated with saline (CO), amoxicillin treatment (AM), or maternal fecal microbiota transplantation (MFMT) on days 1⁻6, with three piglets in each treatment. Results were compared to the CO group. MFMT decreased the relative abundances of Clostridium sensu stricto and Parabacteroides in the colon on day 7, whereas the abundance of Blautia increased, and the abundance of Corynebacterium in the stomach reduced on day 21. AM reduced the abundance of Arcanobacterium in the stomach on day 7 and reduced the abundances of Streptococcus and Lachnoclostridium in the ileum and colon on day 21, respectively. The metabolite profile indicated that MFMT markedly influenced carbohydrate metabolism and amino acid (AA) metabolism on day 7. On day 21, carbohydrate metabolism and AA metabolism were affected by AM. The results suggest that MFMT and AM discriminatively modulate gastrointestinal microflora and alter the colonic metabolic profiles of piglets and show different effects in the long-term. MFMT showed a location-specific influence on the gastrointestinal microbiota