Eliminació autòtrofa de nitrogen d'aigües residuals: Tendències futures

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Química, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2014-2015, Tutor: Isaac Fernández RodríguezAnaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) is considered one of the most promising alternative processes for the conventional nitrification and denitrification. It is an efficient and cost effective process; environmentally sustainable and provides many advantages compared with the conventional process such as lower sludge production, lower oxygen demand, no requirement of an external carbon source and the lower N2O gas emission. It is performed by an autotrophic bacteria of the order of Planctomycetales called Anammox bacteria (characterized with low growth rate). The process can be done either with a single stage, two stages or three stages. In the single stage process there is an interaction between the aerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria and the anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria in the same reactor. The most common systems used are the granular and the biofilm systems, where the ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB) grow in the outer layer. In this process the space is reduced and the maintenance and operational cost are also reduced. In the two-stage process there is firstly a partial nitrification where the nitrite is produced and afterwards there is an Anammox reactor where the nitrite and the remaining ammonium are converted to dinitrogen. This process has more control of the dissolved oxygen and it is ease to optimize. The three-stage process is composed of a pretreatment stage (where the biodegradable organic substances are removed), primary stage (where the partial nitrification occurs) and finally the Anammox process. Compared with sidestream full-scale application, the mainstream is more challenging since the out-selection of nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and heterotrophic denitrifiers is more difficult. The application of the process in the sidestream of the wastewater treatment plants has been developed positively and is a mature technology, implemented in more than a hundred full-scale plants. Not being the same for the mainstream application, that still has some key factors that concern its performance..

SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines and the Skin

Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; 2019-nCoV; Skin reactions; VacinesCoronavirus SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; 2019-nCoV; Reacciones cutáneas; VacunasCoronavirus SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; 2019-nCoV; Reaccions cutànies; VacunesVaccines against the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2, which are the first to be used in humans against any coronavirus, were developed and produced in record time. Dermatologic adverse effects appeared during clinical trials and have also been described in the population since approval. Just as descriptions and categorization of skin manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 proved important for understanding the disease itself, characterizing the effects of vaccines may also further that goal. This paper reviews the properties of the different types of vaccines currently available and under development and describes how they interact with the immune system and the clinical signs they may cause. We focus on dermatologic adverse effects reported to date and recommendations for managing them

Esade Guíame!: starting point of the wellinformed company

The Esade Guíame! business and sector-specific information portal is presented. This portal aims to inform and educate the business community and academia on how to identify and obtain economic and sector-specific information, a vital part of decision-making. A description of the portal’s mission and objectives is provided, along with its target audience, value, origins, evolution and main contents. Also included are its main challenges for the future and an analysis of its value chain, based on a combination of personnel, processes and design

Transmissibility, hospitalization, and intensive care admissions due to omicron compared to delta variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Catalonia: A cohort study and ecological analysis

COVID-19; Cohorts; SeverityCOVID-19; Cohorts; GravetatCOVID-19; Cohortes; GravedadPurpose: We aim to compare the severity of infections between omicron and delta variants in 609,352 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases using local hospitalization, vaccination, and variants data from the Catalan Health Care System (which covers around 7. 8 million people). Methods: We performed a substitution model to establish the increase in transmissibility of omicron using variant screening data from primary care practices (PCP) and hospital admissions. In addition, we used this data from PCP to establish the two periods when delta and omicron were, respectively, dominant (above 95% of cases). After that, we performed a population-based cohort analysis to calculate the rates of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions for both periods and to estimate reduction in severity. Rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated and stratified by age and vaccination status. In a second analysis, the differential substitution model in primary care vs. hospitals allowed us to obtain a population-level average change in severity. Results: We have included 48,874 cases during the delta period and 560,658 during the omicron period. During the delta period, on average, 3.8% of the detected cases required hospitalization for COVID-19. This percentage dropped to 0.9% with omicron [RR of 0.46 (95% CI: 0.43 to 0.49)]. For ICU admissions, it dropped from 0.8 to 0.1% [RR 0.25 (95% CI: 0.21 to 0.28)]. The proportion of cases hospitalized or admitted to ICU was lower in the vaccinated groups, independently of the variant. Omicron was associated with a reduction in risk of admission to hospital and ICU in all age and vaccination status strata. The differential substitution models showed an average RR between 0.19 and 0.50. Conclusion: Both independent methods consistently show an important decrease in severity for omicron relative to delta. The systematic reduction happens regardless of age. The severity is also reduced for non-vaccinated and vaccinated groups, but it remains always higher in the non-vaccinated population. This suggests an overall reduction in severity, which could be intrinsic to the omicron variant. The fact is that the RR in ICU admission is systematically smaller than in hospitalization points in the same direction.MC received funding from la Caixa Foundation ID 100010434, under agreement LCF/PR/GN17/50300003. MC, CP, and SA received funding from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and FEDER, with the project PGC2018-095456-B-I00

Teragnosis in vivo: Innovación nanomédica fomentada por la convergencia de tecnologías emergentes

El creciente desarrollo y la mejora en cuanto a innovación de dispositivos basados en la convergencia de tecnologías emergentes ha dado lugar a un uso cada vez mayor de los nanosensores en la comunidad biomédica. Sin embargo, los nanosensores implantables aún tienen que afrontar ciertos retos como la biocompatibilidad y la seguridad de datos. En este artículo se abordan el progreso y los principales desafíos para esta clase de dispositivos nanomédicos y se analizan además las principales aplicaciones médicas con especial énfasis en la teragnosis, término que integra el concepto de diagnosis y terapia en un mismo dispositivo. De este modo, se traza el proceso desde la investigación aplicada hasta la comercialización del producto, que es cuando el retorno social puede ser estimado. Finalmente, se contempla la gestión de la tecnología dentro de un ecosistema de innovación, cuya cadena de valor incluye una integración multidisciplinaria y el flujo del conocimiento

Schools as a Framework for COVID-19 Epidemiological Surveillance of Children in Catalonia, Spain: A Population-Based Study

COVID-19; Niño; EscuelasCOVID-19; Nen; EscolesCOVID-19; Child; SchoolsObjective: We describe and analyze the childhood (<18 years) COVID-19 incidence in Catalonia, Spain, during the first 36 weeks of the 2020-2021 school-year and to compare it with the incidence in adults. Methods: Data on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests were obtained from the Catalan Agency for Quality and Health Assessment. Overall, 7,203,663 SARS-CoV-2 tests were performed, of which 491,819 were positive (6.8%). We collected epidemiological data including age-group incidence, diagnostic effort, and positivity rate per 100,000 population to analyze the relative results for these epidemiological characteristics. Results: Despite a great diagnostic effort among children, with a difference of 1,154 tests per 100,000 population in relation to adults, the relative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 for <18 years was slightly lower than for the general population, and it increased with the age of the children. Additionally, positivity of SARS-CoV-2 in children (5.7%) was lower than in adults (7.2%), especially outside vacation periods, when children were attending school (4.9%). Conclusions: A great diagnostic effort, including mass screening and systematic whole-group contact tracing when a positive was detected in the class group, was associated with childhood SARS-CoV-2 incidence and lower positivity rate in the 2020-2021 school year. Schools have been a key tool in epidemiological surveillance rather than being drivers of SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Catalonia, Spain.This study was partially supported by the Direcció General de Recerca i Innovació en Salut (DGRIS), Catalan Health Ministry, Generalitat de Catalunya through Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)

Surveillance of Daughter Micronodule Formation Is a Key Factor for Vaccine Evaluation Using Experimental Infection Models of Tuberculosis in Macaques

Tuberculosis (TB) is still a major worldwide health problem and models using non-human primates (NHP) provide the most relevant approach for vaccine testing. In this study, we analysed CT images collected from cynomolgus and rhesus macaques following exposure to ultra-low dose Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) aerosols, and monitored them for 16 weeks to evaluate the impact of prior intradermal or inhaled BCG vaccination on the progression of lung disease. All lesions found (2553) were classified according to their size and we subclassified small micronodules (<4.4 mm) as 'isolated', or as 'daughter', when they were in contact with consolidation (described as lesions ≥ 4.5 mm). Our data link the higher capacity to contain Mtb infection in cynomolgus with the reduced incidence of daughter micronodules, thus avoiding the development of consolidated lesions and their consequent enlargement and evolution to cavitation. In the case of rhesus, intradermal vaccination has a higher capacity to reduce the formation of daughter micronodules. This study supports the 'Bubble Model' defined with the C3HBe/FeJ mice and proposes a new method to evaluate outcomes in experimental models of TB in NHP based on CT images, which would fit a future machine learning approach to evaluate new vaccines

Design of a Customized multipurpose nano-enabled implantable system for in-vivo theranostics

The first part of this paper reviews the current development and key issues on implantable multi-sensor devices for in vivo theranostics. Afterwards, the authors propose an innovative biomedical multisensory system for in vivo biomarker monitoring that could be suitable for customized theranostics applications. At this point, findings suggest that cross-cutting Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) could improve the overall performance of the system given that the convergence of technologies in nanotechnology, biotechnology, micro&nanoelectronics and advanced materials permit the development of new medical devices of small dimensions, using biocompatible materials, and embedding reliable and targeted biosensors, high speed data communication, and even energy autonomy. Therefore, this article deals with new research and market challenges of implantable sensor devices, from the point of view of the pervasive system, and time-to-market. The remote clinical monitoring approach introduced in this paper could be based on an array of biosensors to extract information from the patient. A key contribution of the authors is that the general architecture introduced in this paper would require minor modifications for the final customized bio-implantable medical device

Conserved bacterial-binding peptides of the scavenger-like lymphocyte receptor CD6 protect from mouse experimental sepsis

Sepsis is an unmet clinical need constituting one of the most important causes of death worldwide, a fact aggravated by the appearance of multidrug resistant strains due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics. Host innate immune receptors involved in pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) recognition represent a source of broad-spectrum therapies alternative or adjunctive to antibiotics. Among the few members of the ancient and highly conserved scavenger receptor cysteine-rich superfamily (SRCR-SF) sharing bacterial-binding properties there is CD6, a lymphocyte-specific surface receptor. Here, we analyze the bacterial-binding properties of three conserved short peptides (11-mer) mapping at extracellular SRCR domains of human CD6 (CD6.PD1, GTVEVRLEASW; CD6.PD2 GRVEMLEHGEW; and CD6.PD3, GQVEVHFRGVW). All peptides show high binding affinity for PAMPs from Gram-negative (lipopolysaccharide; Kd from 3.5 to 3,000 nM) and Gram-positive (lipoteichoic acid; Kd from 36 to 680 nM) bacteria. The CD6.PD3 peptide possesses broad bacterial-agglutination properties and improved survival of mice undergoing polymicrobial sepsis in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Accordingly, CD6.PD3 triggers a decrease in serum levels of both pro-inflammatory cytokines and bacterial load. Interestingly, CD6.PD3 shows additive survival effects on septic mice when combined with Imipenem/Cilastatin. These results illustrate the therapeutic potential of peptides retaining the bacterial-binding properties of native CD6