Removal of Trace Contaminants from Wastewater Effluents Using Local Adsorbents

Wastewater reclamation must ensure removal of residual pollutants to a high degree so as to make the water acceptable for the designated reuse. There has been a growing interest worldwide to employ cost-effective treatment methods for polishing secondary treatment wastewater effluents. Carbon adsorption has proved to be an effective method for effluent polishing but treatment costs are relatively high. AI-Ain wastewater treatment plant at Zakher has a design capacity of 54,000 m3/day and incorporates preliminary treatment, followed by extended aeration and dual-media filtration for effluent polishing before water reuse in irrigation. The chemical quality of the treated effluent produced at Zakher treatment plant has yet to be determined. Of primary importance are the trace organic contaminants (e.g. phenols) that adversely affect the effluent quality and suitability for reuse. After the chemical contaminants are quantitatively identified it is essential to determine adequate methods for further polishing of the effluent by utilizing locally available adsorbents. For this purpose, Palm Date Kernel Activated Carbon (PDKAC), a locally made adsorbent, has been used for the adsorption of compounds (phenol, aniline, and methylene blue) in batch tests at 25°C and adsorbent particle size ≤ 75 µm. This must be investigated and the results of this study can be helpful in developing an economically viable method for removal of residual pollutants from wastewater effluents. If recommended water quality standards can be met, the treated water can be utilized for other municipal, industrial and agricultural purposes. The removal of trace contaminants from wastewater effluent using local adsorbents has been investigated using adsorption techniques. The experimental results have indicated that the PDKAC has high selectivity for adsorbing phenol \u3e aniline \u3e methylene blue. The experimental isotherm data were fitted by both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models. The results revealed the potential use of PDKAC as a low-cost adsorbent

Primary renal lymphoma

A 62-year-old male patient presented with right flank pain and right renal mass on CT scan. Patient left against medical advice and had nephrectomy done elsewhere. Histopathology revealed a diffuse large cell B-cell lymphoma. Patient presented again, with disseminated disease and was started on chemotherapy. Although a rare disorder, missing primary renal lymphoma as one of the causes of renal mass can lead to disseminated disease and unnecessary nephrectomy, in spite of chemotherapy being standard management

EFFECT OF STRESS ON FEMALE TEACHERS’ PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS AT SECONDARY LEVEL

Stress can be a painful condition of a person; it may be internal or external. This paper investigates and describes the effect of stress on female teacher’s performance in private schools at secondary level. The objectives of the study were to identify the causes of stress and investigate the effect of stress on female teacher’s performance. The study was descriptive and quantitative in nature. Research based on the survey method. Population of the study was 218 private secondary schools in city Faisalabad. Using the random sampling technique, 50 schools were selected at secondary level and 400 female teachers were included in this study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied on the data. It was founded that the female teachers at private sector facing high level of stress. It is concluded that teachers of private secondary schools cope on their level of stress using the different stress management strategies

Solid Waste Management Challenges and Possible Solution in Kabul City

Most developing nations face energy production and supply problems. This is also the case of Afghanistan whose generating capacity does not meet its energy demand. This is due in part to high security and risk caused by war which deters foreign investments and insufficient internal revenue. To address the issue above, this paper would like to suggest an alternative and affordable way to deal with the energy problem. That is by converting Solid Waste to energy. As a result, this approach tackles the municipal solid waste issue (potential cause of several diseases), contributes to the improvement of the quality of life, local economy, and so on. While addressing the solid waste problem in general, this paper samples specifically one municipality which is District-12, one of the 22 districts of Kabul city. Using geographic information system (GIS) technology, District-12 is divided into nine different zones whose municipal solid waste is respectively collected, processed, and converted into electricity and distributed to the closest area. It is important to mention that GIS has been used to estimate the amount of electricity to be distributed and to optimally position the production plant

Government special education’s principals’ perceptions about total quality management (TQM in education): A qualitative research

The service sector is a rapidly changing sector and this dynamic culture offers a challenge for the service companies to lead or to actually survive in this competitive environment. As the education sector is a part of the overall service industry, this raises the need for a strong framework to reach for high quality service in the education sector. Though, adoption of TQM in the educational institutions is of common practice in the Western world, however, the history of TQM adoption in the Pakistani educational institutions generally and in special education’s institutions is still struggling to get its due status. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of special education’s principals about TQM and its implementation along with other unexplored views about TQM. In doing so, this qualitative study was conducted in special education’s institutes. 15 principals were interviewed. After collecting the data, standard qualitative data analysis procedure was applied to understand the perceptions of the principals about TQM. The results of this study show that in institutes of special education TQM is still a vague concept and there is still room for improvement that influences the level of TQM practices in these institutions

Causes of Dropout Rate at Primary Level in Pakistan

The study was designed to investigate the causes of dropout at primary level in Pakistan. Descriptive research method was adopted by using both quantitative and qualitative techniques for data collection. The study sought to get the opinion of education managers, teachers, parents and community members on various factors causing high dropout at primary level. Data was collected from 208 education managers and 291 primary school teachers. Twelve districts and 96 schools across the country were included in the sample. Moreover, focus group discussion was held with community members and parents in each sample school and district to solicit their opinion about causes of dropout. All the possible factors causing dropout were grouped into socio-economic factors, physical factors, geographical factors, teacher related factors, family related factors, teaching learning material related factors, administrative related factors, child related factors, and facilities in schools related factors

Atypical involvement of central nervous system in classic Hodgkin lymphoma: A case report

Background: Hodgkin lymphoma is a systemic disease that commonly involves the cervical, supraclavicular, and mediastinal lymph nodes. The involvement of central nervous system in Hodgkin lymphoma is extremely rare, and diagnosis is usually established using distinct morphological and immunohistochemical staining on the tissue biopsied. Extranodal presentation of HL is a rare occurrence. It has been evident that prognosis is encouraging in patients with disease that is limited to just central nervous system initially or as relapse, compared with involvement of multiple sites of relapse.Case presentation: We herein report a case of a 35-year-old South-East Asian male with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma. The patient developed a parotid gland lesion, cervical lymphadenopathy with significant weight loss, and intermittent night sweats. Along with spread to the central nervous system, there was a high suspicion of tuberculosis. Upon biopsy of his cervical lymph node, the patient was confirmed to have Hodgkin lymphoma. Immediate treatment began with six cycles of chemotherapy consisting of adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine. The patient received three cycles of chemotherapy consisting of ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide but then was lost to follow-up. Five years later, the patient suffered a road traffic accident. Upon work-up, a right parietal space-occupying lesion with moderate cerebral edema and midline shift was found on computed tomography of the brain. The patient underwent resection of the space-occupying lesion of brain, with features consistent with classical Hodgkin lymphoma on histopathology examination. It is crucial for such lesions to be investigated meticulously to rule out any secondary disease process.Conclusion: Relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma with central nervous system involvement is relatively rare with just over two dozen cases reported to date and is observed infrequently in developing nations. Therefore, space-occupying lesion should always be investigated, and biopsy of such lesions is gold standard to establish diagnosis. With timely appropriate therapy, complete remission can be achieved. However, large-scale studies would be prudent to explore the presentation, survival, and treatment options for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma involving the central nervous system

Coping styles and depression among patients with solid organ cancers attending two tertiary care hospitals of Karachi: a cross sectional study.

Cancer undoubtedly affects patients in all aspects. Cancer diagnosis is a stressful event and coping is the primary mechanism used to adjust and counteract the stress. This study aims to assess the coping styles and prevalence of depression among solid organ cancer patients during treatment phase, attending two tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among solid organ cancer patients at Aga Khan University Hospital and Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center. Coping and depression were assessed by Brief COPE and Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) 20 respectively. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit 488 patients. Coping styles are reported as mean ± SD. Prevalence has been computed for depression and Chi-square test is used to assess the relationship of depression with different variables. Correlation was assessed for coping styles and depression. The frequently used coping styles were active coping, acceptance, religion and self-distraction. 48.4% depression was estimated among patients. The significantly positive correlation of depression was found with active coping, planning, self-blame, venting, use of emotional support and substance use. While depression correlated negatively with acceptance, religion, self-distraction and humor. Depression was significantly associated with study sites, age, socioeconomic quintiles, past history of hospitalization and substance use. Our research addressed the missing element of mental health in oncology. Depression is a common mental ailment and often the initial manifestation towards deterioration of mental health. Each cancer patient copes differently which either promotes or hinders their fighting spirit. Hence, mental health screening and counseling are recommended in the treatment protocol of cancer patients. Also, support group interventions can help cancer patients to cope effectively

A Study of the Organizational Stress among Public Sector Secondary School Teachers in Punjab

The aim of the study was to find out the factors which create stress among public sector secondary school teachers to determine the stressors being faced by the secondary school teachers. The study was related to the secondary schools of public sector in Punjab. Punjab province is comprised of 9 divisions. Due to limited time and resources, the study was delimited to public sector secondary schools of Lahore division. The study adopted descriptive survey design using a sample of 1000 teachers drawn from 100 secondary schools from public sector in Lahore division. From each school 10 teachers were randomly selected. One rating scale was developed to collect data for the study. The percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test were applied as descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the collected data. In the light of the results and conclusions of the study, it may be recommended that unwanted sounds and noise may be minimized in the school environment, trainings be imparted to the staff, workload should be equally distributed and necessary facilities should be provided at schools