Élimination des colorants des eaux résiduaires de l'industrie textile par la bentonite et des sels d'aluminium

L'industrie textile utilise des colorants de synthèse toxiques qui polluent ses eaux résiduaires avec, parfois, des flux importants. Les procédés traditionnels les éliminent mal : ils sont peu iodégradables et la seule floculation, par exemple par des sels de fer, donne des résultats insuffisants. Or, en Algérie, la réutilisation agricole des eaux usées même industrielles est devenue une impérieuse nécessité. Le procédé proposé repose sur l'utilisation de sels d'aluminium ou, mieux encore, un polyhydroxyaluminium, associés à une bentonite de forage très fine présentant l'avantage d'être localement disponible et peu coûteuse. Quatre colorants ont été testés. Ils appartiennent à deux grandes familles : les colorants acides d'une part, Jaune Supranol 4GL et Vert Nylomine C8B et les colorants dispersifs d'autre part, Rouge Foron RDGL et Violet Foron S3RL. Les essais montrent que, si la bentonite seule ou les sels d'aluminium seuls présentent des efficacités insuffisantes, ces derniers du fait d'une mauvaise décantabilité des microflocs formés, l'association bentonite-aluminium permet d'éliminer les colorants en quasi totalité avec une excellente décantabilité. Les concentrations optimales à mettre en oeuvre sont relativement basses, de l'ordre de 13 mg/l de Al3+ et 250 mg/l de bentonite. Les coûts d'exploitation sont donc très raisonnables. Sur un effluent industriel réel, le procédé permet de passer d'une DCO de 770 mg/l à moins de 30 mg/l.The textile industry uses synthetic dyes, most of them being toxic. In Algeria, the agricultural reuse of treated wastewater, even of industrial origin, is becoming commonplace. It is therefore compulsory to drastically reduce pollutant fluxes. The presently operated conventional processes cannot meet the water quality requirements: bioelimination of dyes is negligible and flocculation with iron salts, as currently carried out in the SOITEX plant located in Tlemcen, Algeria, is not effective enough. The use of aluminum salts in the flocculation of such wastewaters is well known (FIESSINGER AND BERSILLON, 1977; LAHAV et al., 1978) but the resulting microflocs are not easily settleable. Bentonite, locally available at a low cost, can also eliminate micropollutants (LAHAV et al., 1978). Associated with polyhydroxyaluminum, it can reduce such compounds as benzene or toluene, favoring simultaneously the liquid-solids separation. This paper evaluates the treatability of dyes by bentonite associated with aluminum salts.All the runs were carried out in a 200 cm3 batch reactor, mechanically stirred and thermoregulated at 20·C. The main physico-chemical characteristics of the bentonite are given in Table 1. The flocculant was aluminum chloride, previously neutralized with sodium hydroxide (mass ratio OH-/Al=1.85). The solutions were used immediately or left to polymerize during 6 days leading to polyhydroxyaluminum PHAl (LAHAV et al., 1978). When the reactor was operated with bentonite and aluminum, the mass ratio Al/bentonite was maintained at 53.10-3 (KACHA, 1994). Four dyes belonging to two main families were tested: Supranol Yellow 4GL and Nylomine Green (acid dyes) and Foron Red RDGL and Foron Violet S3RL (dispersive dyes). Their concentrations were obtained by spectrophotometry.Bentonite alone does not induce a significant abatement excepted for low pH values around 4 (Figs. 1 and 2). Dye elimination appears to require a previous protonation step followed by cation exchange. The equilibrium can be modeled by a Freundlich equation (Fig. 3 and Table 2). The dyes can also be eliminated by aluminum salts alone (Fig. 4). The efficiency is then better with polyhydroxyaluminum, i.e. more than 90 % of the initial concentration is removed. Nevertheless, the dyes abatement probably results from an adsorption or chemical reaction on microflocs which are not easily settleable. By assuming that all the aluminum ions are precipitated as aluminum hydroxide, the equilibrium is modeled by the Langmuir equation which would indicate a monolayer adsorption (Fig. 5). When the reactor is operated with bentonite and aluminum salts, dye abatement is nearly complete and the liquid-solids separation is particularly efficient (Figs. 6 and 7). The best results are obtained with PHAl but the use of the monomer can be sufficient. The required concentrations are relatively low and the process is then economically feasible (Table 3). However, the experimental data can no longer be modeled by the Freundlich equation nor by the Langmuir equation. When the aluminum salts react alone with the dyes, the conductance displayed against the aluminum concentration shows two straight lines of different slopes (Fig. 8). The abscissa of the points where the slopes change are proportional to the initial dye concentration, suggesting a chemical reaction between the dye and the aluminum salts (Fig. 9). However, the final pH value lies at the limit value of aluminum hydroxide precipitation; an adsorption on aluminum hydroxide or an aluminum salt precipitation cannot then be assumed. In presence of bentonite, such changes of slope are not observed and, moreover, the final pH value does not correspond either to a precipitation value (Figs. 11 and 12). At this stage, a comprehensive mechanism cannot thus be proposed. However, the process using bentonite/PHAl is particularly efficient and easy to operate (Fig. 13 and Table 3). The results were confirmed with a true industrial effluent, the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of which was reduced from 770 mg/l to less than 30 mg/l (Fig. 14). As a matter of comparison, the actual process, which includes an activated sludge treatment followed by an iron sulfate/lime flocculation, leads to an effluent containing only 140 mgCOD/l

Stitching Life Together” A Capstone Project

Our Sophomore Scholars in Residence class, Longevity and Happiness, made a quilt for its capstone project. Each member of the class (15 students, 1 faculty) designed and then sewed together a 12 x 12 inch square, based on a particular person or theme from the course. Most of the squares depict the lives of individuals we met and interviewed over the year, including several from Canada, where we traveled for fall break to interview the exceptionally long-lived individuals in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. We also interviewed several individuals from Richmond, VA. Throughout the spring semester, we learned and practiced our sewing skills, bought fabric, visited quilting stores, and finally stitched together the squares to batting and backing to create our capstone quilt for its presentation as part of the 2018 Arts & Sciences Student Symposium. The quilt traveled to Nova Scotia in June 2018 as part of a Summer Research Fellowship project awarded to SSIR students Elizabeth Cooper, Mallory Haskins, and Peter Kade. These students returned to Lunenburg to conduct follow-up research based on their coursework in Longevity and Happiness, and shared the quilt with some of our interviewees from the trip to Nova Scotia in October 2018. The quilt will hang in Richmond Hall, Department of Psychology, University of Richmond.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/ssir-presentations-2018/1004/thumbnail.jp

Towards the design of an intensified coagulator

This study compares the hydrodynamics in three millimeter-scale continuous reactor geometries that can be easily used in laboratories and industries – a straight tube, a coiled tube and a Dean-Hex reactor – via numerical simulations and analyses the data in a way that is specifically relevant to coagulation processes, thereby offering insights for engineers to develop new coagulation reactors. A numerical approach based on Lagrangian particle tracking is presented to better understand the impact of the geometry and flow on properties that influence coagulation. The results show that the Dean-Hex meandering geometry provides narrower residence time and shear rate distributions, as well as higher mean average shear rates and Camp number distribution than the other geometries. This is attributed to the generation of transverse flows and radial mixing in the Dean-Hex reactor and suggests that a faster and more homogenous coagulation can be expected

Cromolyn Reduces Levels of the Alzheimer’s Disease-Associated Amyloid β-Protein by Promoting Microglial Phagocytosis

Amyloid-beta protein (Aβ) deposition is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Aβ deposition triggers both pro-neuroinflammatory microglial activation and neurofibrillary tangle formation. Cromolyn sodium is an asthma therapeutic agent previously shown to reduce Aβ levels in transgenic AD mouse brains after one-week of treatment. Here, we further explored these effects as well as the mechanism of action of cromolyn, alone, and in combination with ibuprofen in APPSwedish-expressing Tg2576 mice. Mice were treated for 3 months starting at 5 months of age, when the earliest stages of β-amyloid deposition begin. Cromolyn, alone, or in combination with ibuprofen, almost completely abolished longer insoluble Aβ species, i.e. Aβ40 and Aβ42, but increased insoluble Aβ38 levels. In addition to its anti-aggregation effects on Aβ, cromolyn, alone, or plus ibuprofen, but not ibuprofen alone, increased microglial recruitment to, and phagocytosis of β-amyloid deposits in AD mice. Cromolyn also promoted Aβ42 uptake in microglial cell-based assays. Collectively, our data reveal robust effects of cromolyn, alone, or in combination with ibuprofen, in reducing aggregation-prone Aβ levels and inducing a neuroprotective microglial activation state favoring Aβ phagocytosis versus a pro-neuroinflammatory state. These findings support the use of cromolyn, alone, or with ibuprofen, as a potential AD therapeutic

Serpin Induced Antiviral Activity of Prostaglandin Synthetase-2 against HIV-1 Replication

The serine protease inhibitors (serpins) are anti-inflammatory proteins that have various functions. By screening a diverse panel of viruses, we demonstrate that the serpin antithrombin III (ATIII) has a broad-spectrum anti-viral activity for HIV-1, HCV and HSV. To investigate the mechanism of action in more detail we investigated the HIV-1 inhibition. Using gene-expression arrays we found that multiple host cell signal transduction pathways were activated by ATIII in HIV-1 infected cells but not in uninfected controls. Moreover, the signal pathways initiated by ATIII treatment, were more than 200-fold increased by the use of heparin-activated ATIII. The most up-regulated transcript in HIV-1 infected cells was prostaglandin synthetase-2 (PTGS2). Furthermore, we found that over-expression of PTGS2 reduced levels of HIV-1 replication in human PBMC. These findings suggest a central role for serpins in the host innate anti-viral response. Host factors such as PTGS2 elicited by ATIII treatment could be exploited in the development of novel anti-viral interventions

Biomineralization of amorphous Fe-, Mn- and Si-rich mineral phases by cyanobacteria under oxic and alkaline conditions

Iron and manganese are poorly soluble elements in oxic and alkaline solutions, whereas they are much more soluble under anoxic conditions. As a result, the formation of authigenic mineral phases rich in Fe and/or Mn has traditionally been viewed as diagnostic of global or local anoxic conditions. Here we reveal that some specific cyanobacteria of very small size (&lt; 2 µm, i.e., picocyanobacteria) can biomineralize abundant, authigenic Fe(III)-, Mn(IV)- and Si-rich amorphous phases under oxic conditions in an alkaline lake in Mexico. The resulting biominerals cluster as small globules arranged as rings around the division septum of cyanobacterial cells. These rings are enveloped within an organic, likely polysaccharidic envelope and are partially preserved, at least morphologically, upon sedimentation. Based on their 16S rDNA sequence, these cyanobacteria were affiliated with the Synechococcales order. The high Fe and Mn enrichment of the biominerals questions the systematic inference of anoxic conditions based on their detection. Moreover, this process scavenges iron from the water column, an overlooked biological contribution to the Fe cycle. Finally, it reveals a new case of controlled biomineralization of Si-rich phases by bacteria.</p

P2 receptors in atherosclerosis and postangioplasty restenosis

Atherosclerosis is an immunoinflammatory process that involves complex interactions between the vessel wall and blood components and is thought to be initiated by endothelial dysfunction [Ross (Nature 362:801–09, 1993); Fuster et al. (N Engl J Med 326:242–50, 1992); Davies and Woolf (Br Heart J 69:S3–S11, 1993)]. Extracellular nucleotides that are released from a variety of arterial and blood cells [Di Virgilio and Solini (Br J Pharmacol 135:831–42, 2002)] can bind to P2 receptors and modulate proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells (SMC), which are known to be involved in intimal hyperplasia that accompanies atherosclerosis and postangioplasty restenosis [Lafont et al. (Circ Res 76:996–002, 1995)]. In addition, P2 receptors mediate many other functions including platelet aggregation, leukocyte adherence, and arterial vasomotricity. A direct pathological role of P2 receptors is reinforced by recent evidence showing that upregulation and activation of P2Y2 receptors in rabbit arteries mediates intimal hyperplasia [Seye et al. (Circulation 106:2720–726, 2002)]. In addition, upregulation of functional P2Y receptors also has been demonstrated in the basilar artery of the rat double-hemorrhage model [Carpenter et al. (Stroke 32:516–22, 2001)] and in coronary artery of diabetic dyslipidemic pigs [Hill et al. (J Vasc Res 38:432–43, 2001)]. It has been proposed that upregulation of P2Y receptors may be a potential diagnostic indicator for the early stages of atherosclerosis [Elmaleh et al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 95:691–95, 1998)]. Therefore, particular effort must be made to understand the consequences of nucleotide release from cells in the cardiovascular system and the subsequent effects of P2 nucleotide receptor activation in blood vessels, which may reveal novel therapeutic strategies for atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty

30-day morbidity and mortality of sleeve gastrectomy, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and one anastomosis gastric bypass: a propensity score-matched analysis of the GENEVA data

Background: There is a paucity of data comparing 30-day morbidity and mortality of sleeve gastrectomy (SG), Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), and one anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB). This study aimed to compare the 30-day safety of SG, RYGB, and OAGB in propensity score-matched cohorts. Materials and methods: This analysis utilised data collected from the GENEVA study which was a multicentre observational cohort study of bariatric and metabolic surgery (BMS) in 185 centres across 42 countries between 01/05/2022 and 31/10/2020 during the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 30-day complications were categorised according to the Clavien–Dindo classification. Patients receiving SG, RYGB, or OAGB were propensity-matched according to baseline characteristics and 30-day complications were compared between groups. Results: In total, 6770 patients (SG 3983; OAGB 702; RYGB 2085) were included in this analysis. Prior to matching, RYGB was associated with highest 30-day complication rate (SG 5.8%; OAGB 7.5%; RYGB 8.0% (p = 0.006)). On multivariate regression modelling, Insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolaemia were associated with increased 30-day complications. Being a non-smoker was associated with reduced complication rates. When compared to SG as a reference category, RYGB, but not OAGB, was associated with an increased rate of 30-day complications. A total of 702 pairs of SG and OAGB were propensity score-matched. The complication rate in the SG group was 7.3% (n = 51) as compared to 7.5% (n = 53) in the OAGB group (p = 0.68). Similarly, 2085 pairs of SG and RYGB were propensity score-matched. The complication rate in the SG group was 6.1% (n = 127) as compared to 7.9% (n = 166) in the RYGB group (p = 0.09). And, 702 pairs of OAGB and RYGB were matched. The complication rate in both groups was the same at 7.5 % (n = 53; p = 0.07). Conclusions: This global study found no significant difference in the 30-day morbidity and mortality of SG, RYGB, and OAGB in propensity score-matched cohorts

30-Day morbidity and mortality of bariatric metabolic surgery in adolescence during the COVID-19 pandemic – The GENEVA study

Background: Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is an effective treatment for adolescents with severe obesity. Objectives: This study examined the safety of MBS in adolescents during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: This was a global, multicentre and observational cohort study of MBS performed between May 01, 2020, and October 10,2020, in 68 centres from 24 countries. Data collection included in-hospital and 30-day COVID-19 and surgery-specific morbidity/mortality. Results: One hundred and seventy adolescent patients (mean age: 17.75 ± 1.30 years), mostly females (n = 122, 71.8%), underwent MBS during the study period. The mean pre-operative weight and body mass index were 122.16 ± 15.92 kg and 43.7 ± 7.11 kg/m2, respectively. Although majority of patients had pre-operative testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (n = 146; 85.9%), only 42.4% (n = 72) of the patients were asked to self-isolate pre-operatively. Two patients developed symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection post-operatively (1.2%). The overall complication rate was 5.3% (n = 9). There was no mortality in this cohort. Conclusions: MBS in adolescents with obesity is safe during the COVID-19 pandemic when performed within the context of local precautionary procedures (such as pre-operative testing). The 30-day morbidity rates were similar to those reported pre-pandemic. These data will help facilitate the safe re-introduction of MBS services for this group of patients

Loss of TNR causes a nonprogressive neurodevelopmental disorder with spasticity and transient opisthotonus.

PURPOSE: TNR, encoding Tenascin-R, is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein involved in neurite outgrowth and neural cell adhesion, proliferation and migration, axonal guidance, myelination, and synaptic plasticity. Tenascin-R is exclusively expressed in the central nervous system with highest expression after birth. The protein is crucial in the formation of perineuronal nets that ensheath interneurons. However, the role of Tenascin-R in human pathology is largely unknown. We aimed to establish TNR as a human disease gene and unravel the associated clinical spectrum. METHODS: Exome sequencing and an online matchmaking tool were used to identify patients with biallelic variants in TNR. RESULTS: We identified 13 individuals from 8 unrelated families with biallelic variants in TNR sharing a phenotype consisting of spastic para- or tetraparesis, axial muscular hypotonia, developmental delay, and transient opisthotonus. Four homozygous loss-of-function and four different missense variants were identified. CONCLUSION: We establish TNR as a disease gene for an autosomal recessive nonprogressive neurodevelopmental disorder with spasticity and transient opisthotonus and highlight the role of central nervous system extracellular matrix proteins in the pathogenicity of spastic disorders