Removal of sulfamethoxazole in an algal-bacterial membrane aerated biofilm reactor: Microbial responses and antibiotic resistance genes.

Antibiotics are frequently detected in wastewater, but often are poorly removed in conventional wastewater treatment processes. Combining microalgal and nitrifying bacterial processes may provide synergistic removal of antibiotics and ammonium. In this research, we studied the removal of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) in two different reactors: a conventional nitrifying bacterial membrane aerated biofilm reactor (bMABR) and algal-bacterial membrane aerated biofilm reactor (abMABR) systems.

Effect of biofilm physical characteristics on their susceptibility to antibiotics: impacts of low-frequency ultrasound.

Biofilms are highly resistant to antimicrobials, often causing chronic infections. Combining antimicrobials with low-frequency ultrasound (LFU) enhances antimicrobial efficiency, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Biofilm physical characteristics, which depend on factors such as growth conditions and age, can have significant effects on inactivation efficiency.

A sequential, multiple-assignment, randomized trial of analgesic strategies for acute musculoskeletal Pain.

Background: Most methodologically rigorous, ED-based, comparative effectiveness analgesic studies completed in the last two decades failed to find a clinically important difference between the comparators. We believe that many of these comparative effectiveness studies were biased towards the null hypothesis because some ED patients with intense pain will respond to relatively mild interventions. We hypothesized that including a run-in period would alter the results of an acute pain RCT.

Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Framework Incorporating Water Ages with Growth Rates.

Water age in drinking water systems is often used as a proxy for water quality but is rarely used as a direct input in assessing microbial risk. This study directly linked water ages in a premise plumbing system to concentrations of via a growth model. In turn, the concentrations were used for a quantitative microbial risk assessment to calculate the associated probabilities of infection () and clinically severe illness () due to showering.

Nitrate increases the capacity of an aerobic moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) for winery wastewater treatment.

We used bench-scale tests and mathematical modeling to explore chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rates in a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) for winery wastewater treatment, using either urea or nitrate as a nitrogen source. With urea addition, the COD removal fluxes ranged from 34 to 45 gCOD/m-d. However, when nitrate was added, fluxes increased up to 65 gCOD/m-d, twice the amount reported for aerobic biofilms for winery wastewater treatment.