Improving the start-up of an EBPR system using OUR to control the aerobic phase length: a simulation study.

The enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) process is based on enriching the sludge with polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAO) which are scarce in conventional non-EBPR wastewater treatment plant sludge. Hence, the start-up of EBPR systems (i.e.

Stream-stage response tests and their joint interpretation with pumping tests.

Hydraulic head response to stream-stage variations can be used to explore the hydraulic properties of stream-aquifer systems at a relatively large scale. These stream-stage response tests, also called flooding tests, are typically interpreted using one- or two-dimensional models that assume flow perpendicular to the river. Therefore, they cannot be applied to systems that are both horizontally and vertically heterogeneous.

Firearm-related personal and clinical characteristics of US medical students.

Background: Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of fatal injury in the US, and several medical specialty societies encourage patient counseling about firearm injury prevention. Because personal choices. influence physicians' willingness to counsel, it would be valuable to know how frequently guns are kept in the homes of physicians-in-training, as well as their perceptions and current rates of counseling about firearm injury prevention.

Normal standards for fetal neurobehavioral developments--longitudinal quantification by four-dimensional sonography.

Aim: To construct normal standards for fetal neurobehavioral development using longitudinal observations through all trimesters by four-dimensional sonography.

Subject And Methods: A group of 100 healthy normal singleton pregnancies were recruited for longitudinal 4D US examinations to evaluate fetal neurodevelopmental parameters between 7 to 40 weeks' gestation. Variables of maternal and fetal characteristics including gestational age, eight fetal movements patterns in the first trimester and 14 parameters of fetal movement and fetal facial expression patterns recorded thereafter for the construction of fetal neurological charts.

Limitations of ASM1 and ASM3: a comparison based on batch oxygen uptake rate profiles from different full-scale wastewater treatment plants.

The two most popular models for the description of the biological COD removal are ASM1 and ASM3. However, some numerical inconsistencies arise when using these models to interpret the data obtained in short-term respirometric batch experiments. In this study, both models are fitted to four different respirometric batch profiles obtained with biomass from different WWTP.

Net P-removal deterioration in enriched PAO sludge subjected to permanent aerobic conditions.

Recently, some research in the field of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) has been focused on studying systems where the electron donor (substrate) and the electron acceptor (nitrate or oxygen) are present simultaneously. This can occur, for example, in a full scale wastewater treatment plant during heavy rainfall periods when the anaerobic hydraulic retention time is temporarily shortened. To study this situation that could induce EBPR failure, the operation of a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) working under alternating anaerobic-aerobic conditions with an enriched EBPR population (50% Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis and less than 1% Candidatus Competibacter phosphatis) was shifted to strict aerobic operation.

Structural and functional early human development assessed by three-dimensional and four-dimensional sonography.

Objective: To summarize the role of three-dimensional and four-dimensional ultrasound in the assessment of early human development.

Design: Review of literature.

Setting: Ultrasound research center and obstetrics and gynecology department in a tertiary care facility.

Assessing quality of end-of-life hospital care in a southern European regional health service.

Objectives: During the final period of life, patients with cancer in the Basque Country are given treatment in different types of hospital care. This study compared the quality of care according to the type of care in one of the autonomous communities in Spain.

Methods: A retrospective study was carried out of cancer patients who died in conventional hospital services, home hospitalization services, and palliative care units.

A new approach for modelling simultaneous storage and growth processes for activated sludge systems under aerobic conditions.

By critically evaluating previous models, a new mechanistic model is developed to describe simultaneous storage and growth processes occurring in activated sludge systems under aerobic conditions. Identifiability was considered an important criterion during the model development since it among others helps to increase the realiability and applicability of models to full-scale WWTPs. A second order model was proposed for description of the degradation of the storage products under famine conditions.

Respirometric calibration and validation of a biological nitrite oxidation model including biomass growth and substrate inhibition.

The modelling of the nitrification process of high-strength ammonium wastewater must be designed to consider it as a two-step reaction with substrate inhibition. Consequently, kinetic and stoichiometric parameters of both steps are required. In this work, the second step in the nitrification process was studied: a biological nitrite oxidation model was formulated, calibrated and validated using only oxygen uptake rate (OUR) measurements.

Fetal behavior assessed in all three trimesters of normal pregnancy by four-dimensional ultrasonography.

Aim: To assess fetal behavior in all three trimesters of normal pregnancy and to investigate the continuation of behavior from fetal to neonatal period.

Methods: One hundred out of 130 pregnant women in all trimesters with singleton pregnancy were assigned for the investigation. All recordings were performed in the morning, after two hours of fasting.

The antenatal development of fetal behavioral patterns assessed by four-dimensional sonography.

The investigation of fetal intrauterine activities has been enabled by the development of two-dimensional ultrasound. It has been shown that the earliest signs of fetal motor activity can be in the late embryonic period, and that the characteristics of fetal motor patterns change constantly throughout gestation. During the first trimester of pregnancy, the repertoire and frequency fetal movement patterns constantly expand, whereas the second and third trimesters are characterized by the progressive organization of fetal activities into complex and clearly distinct behavioral patterns.

The potential of four-dimensional (4D) ultrasonography in the assessment of fetal awareness.

Aim: The aim of the study was to observe different expressions and movements of a fetal face during investigation of fetal behavior in the second and the third trimester of normal pregnancies, as a probable manifestation of fetal awareness.

Subjects And Methods: Over a 6-month period a study was conducted in three centers in Zagreb, Croatia and in Barcelona and Malaga, Spain. Women with singleton pregnancies (16-33 weeks) who were referred for ultrasound check-up for determination of gestational age, suspicious fetal malformations, polyhydramnios, and/or the assessment of biophysical profile or other possible pathology, were assigned to the study.

Behavioral pattern continuity from prenatal to postnatal life--a study by four-dimensional (4D) ultrasonography.

Aim: To investigate whether the same behavioral patterns were present pre- and postnatally, and whether there were any differences in the frequency of movements observed in fetal and in early neonatal life.

Subjects And Methods: Ten out of 37 pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy (median gestational age 34 weeks, range 33 to 35 weeks) in the two-month period (from November 1st to December 31st, 2003) were enrolled in the investigation. Ten term, appropriate for gestational age newborns (seven born vaginally, three by elective SC, six girls, six first-born) and were enrolled in the study.

Improving the biological nitrogen removal process in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants: a case study.

The Biological Nitrogen Removal (BNR) process of some pharmaceutical wastewater treatment plants has important operational problems. This study shows that, in order to solve these problems, the design of industrial BNR processes should start by analysing three key parameters: the characteristics of the wastewater load, the determination of the maximum TKN removal rate and the detection of toxic or inhibitory compounds in the wastewater. A case study of this analysis in pharmaceutical wastewater is presented here.

[Home Enteral Nutrition: National Registry 2001].

Goal: The NADYA-SENPE Working Group analyzed the registered data of patients on Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) in our country, during year 2001.

Material And Methods: The data were collected through a closed questionnaire included on our web site (www.nadya-senpe.

[National Registry of Home Parenteral Nutrition of the year 2001].

Aim: We analyse the registered data of home parenteral nutrition (HPN) in our country during the year 2001.

Method: The data were collected through a previously designed questionnaire. Apart from epidemiological information, the form includes the disease to prescribe this treatment, the specific nutritional treatment used and its duration, access path, complications and readmission rate in hospital, follow-up of the treatment, and progress.

Aerobic phosphorus release linked to acetate uptake in bio-P sludge: process modeling using oxygen uptake rate.

The main processes involved in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) under anaerobic and subsequently aerobic conditions are widely described in the literature. Polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAO) are the organisms responsible for this process. However, the mechanisms of PAO are not fully established yet under conditions that differ from the classical anaerobic/aerobic conditions.

An off-line respirometric procedure to determine inhibition and toxicity of biodegradable compounds in biomass from an industrial WWTP.

Determining whether a certain compound is toxic (or inhibitor) or not to a biomass of a WWTP is crucial in order to avoid WWTP malfunction. Respirometric techniques have been commonly used to assess the toxicity of a certain compound by evaluating the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) profile obtained when a pulse of substrate is added to endogenous biomass and comparing it with the OUR profile obtained when the pulse is a mixture of substrate and the possible toxic or inhibitor (PTI). However, when using this method with biodegradable compounds some difficulties arise because the PTI consumption implies oxygen consumption as well.