Southern ocean carbon and heat impact on climate.

The Southern Ocean greatly contributes to the regulation of the global climate by controlling important heat and carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the ocean. Rates of climate change on decadal timescales are therefore impacted by oceanic processes taking place in the Southern Ocean, yet too little is known about these processes. Limitations come both from the lack of observations in this extreme environment and its inherent sensitivity to intermittent processes at scales that are not well captured in current Earth system models.

Observed interannual changes beneath Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf linked to large-scale atmospheric circulation.

Floating ice shelves are the Achilles' heel of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. They limit Antarctica's contribution to global sea level rise, yet they can be rapidly melted from beneath by a warming ocean. At Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, a decline in sea ice formation may increase basal melt rates and accelerate marine ice sheet mass loss within this century.

Crystallization kinetics and growth of struvite crystals by seawater versus magnesium chloride as magnesium source: towards enhancing sustainability and economics of struvite crystallization.

The recycling of nutrients from wastewater and their recovery in the form of valuable products is an effective strategy to accelerate the circular economy concept. Phosphorus recovery from wastewater by struvite crystallization (MgNHPO·6HO) is one of the most applied techniques to compensate for the increasing demand and to slow down the depletion rate of phosphate rocks. Using low-cost magnesium sources, such as seawater, improves the financial sustainability of struvite production.

Struvite crystallization by using raw seawater: Improving economics and environmental footprint while maintaining phosphorus recovery and product quality.

Seawater, as an alternative magnesium source, has the potential to improve the overall economics and environmental footprint of struvite production compared to the use of pure magnesium salts. However, the dilution effect and the presence of other ions in seawater can reduce the phosphorus recovery potential and the simultaneous precipitation of other compounds may reduce the quality of the produced struvite. This work presents a comparative study of seawater and MgCl by performing a series of thermodynamic equilibrium modeling and crystallization experiments.

Self-optimizing attainable regions of the anaerobic treatment process: Modeling performance targets under kinetic uncertainty.

Despite the advantage of model-based design, anaerobic digesters are seldom designed using biokinetic models due to lack of reliable kinetic coefficients and/or systematic approaches for incorporating kinetic models into digester design. This study presents a systematic framework, which couples practical identifiability, uncertainty quantification and attainable region (AR) concepts for defining process performance targets, especially when reliable kinetic coefficients are unavailable. Within the framework, we introduce the concept of self-optimizing ARs, which define performance targets that results in near optimal operation in spite of variations in kinetic coefficients.

Simulation of two-dimensional attainable regions and its application to model digester structures for maximum stability of anaerobic treatment process.

Unlike high-rate anaerobic digesters that employ some mechanism to retain microbial sludge mass, low-rate systems use sufficiently long hydraulic retention times to ensure process stability, which becomes economically unattractive for treating large quantities of waste. This study presents the use of attainable region to develop a new strategy to enhance the stability of low-rate digesters. By considering three digestion cases, diary manure only (batch 1) or diary manure with granular (batch 2) or lagoon (batch) sludge as innoculum, the following findings were obtained.

Enhancing efficiency and economics of phosphorus recovery process by customizing the product based on sidestream characteristics - an alternative phosphorus recovery strategy.

The enhanced biological phosphorus removal process makes the phosphorus recovery feasible from the dewatering streams of biological sludge. The physicochemical properties of these sidestreams, as an input to a crystallizer, are different before and after anaerobic digestion. In this study, phosphorus recovery by calcium phosphate is proposed for pre-digestion sidestreams and by struvite precipitation for post-digestion sidestreams.

Human Metapneumovirus Infection Inhibits Cathelicidin Antimicrobial Peptide Expression in Human Macrophages.

Human cathelicidin antimicriobial peptide (CAMP) is a critical component of host innate immunity with both antimicrobial and immunomodulatory functions. Several pathogens have been shown to downregulate CAMP expression, yet it is unclear if such modulation occurs during a viral infection. In this study, we showed that infection with human metapneumovirus (hMPV), one of the leading causes of respiratory tract infections in young children, strongly suppressed basal and vitamin-D induced CAMP expression in human macrophages.

A study on the reactivity characteristics of dissolved effluent organic matter (EfOM) from municipal wastewater treatment plant during ozonation.

The reactivity of dissolved effluent organic matter (EfOM) in the process of ozonation was examined. Under different ozone dosages (0.42 ± 0.

Influenza vaccination: a summary of Cochrane Reviews.

The Cochrane Library was systematically searched for meta-analyses regarding influenza vaccination of various populations, both healthy and sick. An effect in reducing the number of cases of influenza, influenza-like illness or complications to influenza was found in some studies, but, generally, the quality of the studies was low, and several studies lacked hard clinical endpoints. Data on adverse effects were scarce.

Degradation of pCBA by catalytic ozonation in natural water.

The catalytic effect of commercially available ceramic Raschig rings versus stainless steel rings (known to be oxidant resistant) at different water qualities, for the decomposition of ozone and the hydroxyl radical formation have been investigated by using an ozone bubble column. Para-chlorobenzoic acid (pCBA) has been used as a model pollutant since it has been reported to be an ideal compound for ozone AOP studies because it displays slow reaction rates with ozone, but rapid oxidation kinetics with the OH radical. While the ozone was quite stable when the stainless steel rings were used as a packing media, the ceramic media enhanced the decomposition of the ozone.

Observed and modelled stability of overflow across the Greenland-Scotland ridge.

Across the Greenland-Scotland ridge there is a continuous flow of cold dense water, termed 'overflow', from the Nordic seas to the Atlantic Ocean. This is a main contributor to the production of North Atlantic Deep Water that feeds the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which has been predicted to weaken as a consequence of climate change. The two main overflow branches pass the Denmark Strait and the Faroe Bank channel.

Membrane filtration for particles removal after ozonation-biofiltration.

With the process combination Ozonation-Biofiltration-Membranefiltration (the OBM-process) an average removal of 63% for UV-absorbance (UV(254)), 79% for color, and 28% for DOC was obtained treating NOM containing surface water. In this paper, focus has been made on the removal of particles after the ozonation and biofiltration treatment steps, using a submerged hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane reactor. For this purpose the membrane performed adequately.

Decreasing overflow from the Nordic seas into the Atlantic Ocean through the Faroe Bank channel since 1950.

The overflow of cold, dense water from the Nordic seas, across the Greenland-Scotland ridge and into the Atlantic Ocean is the main source for the deep water of the North Atlantic Ocean. This flow also helps drive the inflow of warm, saline surface water into the Nordic seas. The Faroe Bank channel is the deepest path across the ridge, and the deep flow through this channel accounts for about one-third of the total overflow.