Treatment of Agricultural Waste Using a Combination of Anaerobic, Aerobic, and Adsorption Processes

The generation of waste in agricultural and livestock industries, followed by inadequate treatment and uncontrolled disposal to natural recipients, results in significant environmental pollution. Thus, the efficient and integrated management of high-organic-load waste produced in such activities is a key factor for sustainability and the protection of aqueous matrices. In this work, we investigate an integrated management approach for the treatment of agricultural, high-organic-load waste via a combination of processes, with an ultimate goal to improve the characteristics of the final waste and enhance the valorization of the nutrients contained in it. Towards this direction, a waste mixture comprising pig waste, cheese dairy, and food residues was sequentially treated in a laboratory scale by anaerobic digestion, followed by activated sludge (aerobic–anoxic treatment), and last by adsorption using natural zeolite. The efficiency of two different adsorption routes was examined (magnetically agitated zeolite or packed zeolite column), while the effect of the granule sizes of zeolite (0–1 mm or 1.5–3 mm) was also evaluated with regards to the remediation of the final effluent. Excellent adsorption capacities were observed in all cases, with the larger-sized zeolite exhibiting a superior performance, while the granule size of zeolite significantly affected the lifetime of the packed columns, as the smaller-sized zeolite columns reached their saturation point faster than the larger-sized zeolite analogue. The average ammonium nitrogen removal in the column experiment was ~92%, while total phosphorus was ~68%, respectively. Overall, an almost complete remediation of the final effluent was observed when compared with the physicochemical parameters of the initial waste, with a ~96% chemical oxygen demand, ~79% total nitrogen, ~96% total phosphorus, and ~82% phenols concentration decrease, signifying the high performance of the sequential treatment strategy proposed herein

Treatment of Agricultural Waste Using a Combination of Anaerobic, Aerobic, and Adsorption Processes

The generation of waste in agricultural and livestock industries, followed by inadequate treatment and uncontrolled disposal to natural recipients, results in significant environmental pollution. Thus, the efficient and integrated management of high-organic-load waste produced in such activities is a key factor for sustainability and the protection of aqueous matrices. In this work, we investigate an integrated management approach for the treatment of agricultural, high-organic-load waste via a combination of processes, with an ultimate goal to improve the characteristics of the final waste and enhance the valorization of the nutrients contained in it. Towards this direction, a waste mixture comprising pig waste, cheese dairy, and food residues was sequentially treated in a laboratory scale by anaerobic digestion, followed by activated sludge (aerobic–anoxic treatment), and last by adsorption using natural zeolite. The efficiency of two different adsorption routes was examined (magnetically agitated zeolite or packed zeolite column), while the effect of the granule sizes of zeolite (0–1 mm or 1.5–3 mm) was also evaluated with regards to the remediation of the final effluent. Excellent adsorption capacities were observed in all cases, with the larger-sized zeolite exhibiting a superior performance, while the granule size of zeolite significantly affected the lifetime of the packed columns, as the smaller-sized zeolite columns reached their saturation point faster than the larger-sized zeolite analogue. The average ammonium nitrogen removal in the column experiment was ~92%, while total phosphorus was ~68%, respectively. Overall, an almost complete remediation of the final effluent was observed when compared with the physicochemical parameters of the initial waste, with a ~96% chemical oxygen demand, ~79% total nitrogen, ~96% total phosphorus, and ~82% phenols concentration decrease, signifying the high performance of the sequential treatment strategy proposed herein

Signing avatar performance evaluation within the EASIER project

<p>The direct involvement of deaf users in the development and evaluation of signing avatars is imperative to achieve legibility and raise trust among synthetic signing technology consumers. A paradigm of constructive cooperation between researchers and the deaf community is the EASIER project1, where user driven design and technology development have already started producing results. One major goal of the project is the direct involvement of sign language (SL) users at every stage of development of the project's signing avatar. As developers wished to consider every parameter of SL articulation including affect and prosody in developing the EASIER SL representation engine, it was necessary to develop a steady communication channel with a wide public of SL users who may act as evaluators and can provide guidance throughout research steps, both during the project's end-user evaluation cycles and beyond. To this end, we have developed a questionnaire-based methodology, which enables researchers to reach signers of different SL communities on-line and collect their guidance and preferences on all aspects of SL avatar animation that are under study. In this paper, we report on the methodology behind the application of the EASIER evaluation framework for end-user guidance in signing avatar development as it is planned to address signers of four SLs -Greek Sign Language (GSL), French Sign Language (LSF), German Sign Language (DGS) and Swiss German Sign Language (DSGS)- during the first project evaluation cycle. We also briefly report on some interesting findings from the pilot implementation of the questionnaire with content from the Greek Sign Language (GSL).</p&gt

Introducing sign languages to a multilingual Wordnet: Bootstrapping corpora and lexical resources of Greek Sign Language and German Sign Language

<p>Wordnets have been a popular lexical resource type for many years. Their sense-based representation of lexical items and numerous relation structures have been used for a variety of computational and linguistic applications. The inclusion of different wordnets into multilingual wordnet networks has further extended their use into the realm of cross-lingual research. Wordnets have been released for many spoken languages. Research has also been carried out into the creation of wordnets for several sign languages, but none have yet resulted in publicly available datasets. This article presents our own efforts towards an inclusion of sign languages in a multilingual wordnet, starting with Greek Sign Language (GSL) and German Sign Language (DGS). Based on differences in available language resources between GSL and DGS, we trial two workflows with different coverage priorities. We also explore how synergies between both workflows can be leveraged and how future work on additional sign languages could profit from building on existing sign language wordnet data. The results of our work are made publicly available.</p&gt

Antidepressants influence somatostatin levels and receptor pharmacology in brain

This study investigated how the administration (acute and chronic) of the antidepressants citalopram and desmethylimipramine (DMI) influences somatostatin (somatotropin release inhibitory factor, SRIF) levels and SRIF receptor density (sst1-5) in rat brain. Animals received either of the following treatments: (1) saline for 21 days (control group), (2) saline for 20 days and citalopram or DMI for 1 day (citalopram or DMI acute groups), (3) citalopram or DMI for 21 days (citalopram or DMI chronic groups). Somatostatin levels were determined by radioimmunoassay. [125I]LTT SRIF-28 binding in the absence (labeling of sst1-5) or presence of 3 nM MK678 (labeling of sst1/4) and [125I]Tyr3 octreotide (labeling of sst2/5) binding with subsequent autoradiography was performed in brains of rats treated with both antidepressants. Somatostatin levels were increased after citalopram, but not DMI administration, in the caudate-putamen, hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex. Autoradiography studies illustrated a significant decrease in receptor density in the superficial and deep layers of frontal cortex (sst2), as well as a significant increase in the CA1 (sst1/4) hippocampal field in brains of chronically citalopram-treated animals. DMI administration increased sst 1/4 receptors levels in the CA1 hippocampal region. These results suggest that citalopram and to a lesser extent DMI influence the function of the somatostatin system in brain regions involved in the emotional, motivational, and cognitive aspects of behavior. © 2009 Nature Publishing Group All rights reserved