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Evolving Clinical Ethics A Working UnConference, held 5 through 7 February 2020 in Houston, Texas, brought together 91 participants from a variety of institutions, many of whom are engaged in clinical ethics work. The event followed the success of the first Clinical Ethics UnConference hosted by the Cleveland Clinic Center for Bioethics in 2018, and offered an opportunity for ethicists to share both their challenges and their solutions to clinical ethics issues. In this article we explore the emerging themes of the second UnConference and identify the top 10 questions currently faced by the field. We address both unresolved issues and areas of agreement and highlight new collaborations that have been developed to work toward greater standardization in our field.The COVID-19 pandemic may have left many of us needing closeness with others more than we have before. Three contexts in which we may especially need this closeness are (1) when we must triage and some but not all will benefit, (2) when families may be separated from loved ones who have COVID-19, and (3) when people for any reason experience shame. In this article I examine sources of present, harmful emotional distancing. I suggest how we might do better in each of these contexts due to what the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us.This study presents a comparison of three methods for TiO2-N synthesis that were applied in the photocatalytic oxidation of the fluoroquinolones (FQs) ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and lomefloxacin in aqueous solution. The TiO2-N bandgap is small enough to allow the use of solar energy in the photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) reactions. The TiO2 doped by a sol-gel method with titanium butoxide (TiO2-N-BUT) and titanium isopropoxide (TiO2-N-PROP) as the precursor were effective as the TiO2 (P25) impregnation with urea (TiO2-N-P25) to degrade the FQs. The FQ degradation was higher by 74, 65, and 91%, respectively for TiO2-N-BUT, TiO2-N-PROP, and TiO2-N (load 50 mg L-1, 20 min of reaction under 28 W UV-ASolar). The TiO2-P25 with urea showed the best performance in FQ degradation. The reaction intermediates might present modifications in their acceptor groups by PCO and, because of that the antimicrobial activity dropped as the reaction time increased. Reactions with TiO2-N-P25 (100 mg L-1) and TiO2-N-BUT (100 mg L-1) achieved ≥ 80% of antimicrobial activity removal from the mixed FQ solution (Cciprofloxacin = 100 μg L-1; Cofloxacin = 100 μg L-1; Clomefloxacin = 100 μg L-1) after 40 min of reaction, for both for Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis.This study focused on using pH as a single indicator to evaluate/control the performance of the nitritation system under the influence of three major operational parameters, and a total of fifteen batch tests were conducted. Results indicated that there were important interactions among different operational parameters and pH in the nitritation system; it was possible to propose the optimal nitritation operation scheme to compensate for negative changes in operational parameters. The optimal carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio was kept at 2.0 to ensure efficient removal of ammonium. The reaction time was the lowest (150 min) with the temperature = 20 °C, C/N = 0, and sludge/water ratio = 11. However, the C/N ratio could be adjusted to close to zero by reducing the temperature to about 10 °C, weakening the heterotrophic bacteria, and supplying sufficient biomass. The C/N ratio and sludge/water ratio could also be set at 4.0 and 13 respectively to deal with the impact of low temperature and organic matter. Results of this study might be useful to explain the optimal conditions and process control schemes with pH as a single indicator.In this study, the wet phase inversion method was used for fabrication of the flat sheet ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. Three different polymer types and two different wetting agents were used for the fabrication. The effect of polymer types and wetting agents were investigated on the structural and dye performance of casted membranes. Two different synthetic dyes, 100 ppm Setazol Red and 100 ppm Setazol Blue, were used for the performance test. Viscosity, contact angle, and molecular weight cut off (MWCO) of casted membranes were measured and an electro kinetic analyzer, dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to determine the structural properties. While the highest water and dye permeability were obtained with PES-PEG membrane, PSf-plain membrane gave the highest removal efficiency for Setazol Red and Setazol Blue dyes, which was found to be 78.33% and 82.52%, respectively, in the conditions of neutral pH and ambient temperature. Addition of PVP and PEG wetting agents improved the structural properties and permeability of membranes, but the dye removal was decreased as against plain ones. As the retention of PEG and PVP-based PSf and PES membrane was calculated at an average of 50%, they could be used for dye retention separately or could be a candidate as a pretreatment membrane prior to nanofiltration or reverse osmosis to make their lifetime longer.The heterogeneous electro-Fenton process degradation of Yellow 2G from wastewater was studied using a batch reactor. The COD of the wastewater used in treatment experiments was 163 mg O2·L-1 and the BOD5 was 17 mg O2·L-1 (hardly biodegradable). The treatment of the wastewater at different current densities (2.5 mA·cm-2-12.5 mA·cm-2), solution pH (3 and 6.6), reaction times (5-25 min), electrolyte nature (NaCl, Na2SO4) and electrolyte concentrations (0.15 g·L-1-1 g·L-1) was investigated. According to the results, the heterogeneous electro-Fenton process was suitable for the decolorization of wastewater containing Yellow 2G. The optimum conditions were current density of 12.5 mA·cm-2, initial pH of the wastewater neutral, 25 min of electrolysis treatment using an additive steel electrode as a source of catalysis and in the presence of 1 g NaCl·L-1. We obtained easily biodegradable water with a mineralization rate equal to 85% and non-toxicity confirmed by the pea grain germination test.Sludge from textile effluent treatment plants (ETP) remains a challenge for many industries due to inefficient and limited waste management strategies. This study explores the potential of using anaerobic digestion (AD) to improve the environmental quality of textile ETP sludge. Selleck PF-9366 The AD of ETP sludge is affected by the low C/N ratio (3.7), heavy metal content, and toxicity. To improve the process, co-digestion of ETP sludge with different substrates (sewage sludge, cow dung, and sawdust) under mesophilic conditions (37 °C), followed by a thermochemical pretreatment was assessed. The results showed that anaerobic co-digestion of the textile sludge with the co-substrates is effective in reducing pollution load. It was found that organic matters degraded during the 30-day AD process. The chemical oxygen demand and biological oxygen demand reduction was in the range of 33.1-88.5% and 48.1-67.1%, respectively. Also, heavy metal (cadmium, lead, iron, and, mercury) concentration was slightly reduced after digestion. Maximal biogas yield was achieved from co-digestion of textile sludge and sewage sludge at a mixing ratio of 31, 11, and 13, and methane content was respectively 87.9%, 68.9%, and 69.5% of the gas composition. The results from this study show that co-digestion will not only reduce the environmental pollution and health risks from the textile industry but also recover useful energy.The present paper deals with the improvement of infrastructure asset management of urban drainage systems (UDS). A numerical tool for assessing the existing management procedures is proposed. It is based on a participatory methodology for the construction of a set of performance indicators. This methodology consists of two phases. The first concerns the identification of priority objectives, criteria and indicators related to the management of the UDS infrastructure. The second phase concerns the assessment of the global performance for each identified objective. Performance measurement scales are first defined for all the elements of the proposed methodology. Then, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used for the weighting stage, and the Weighted Sum Method is used for the aggregation of indicators and criteria. To illustrate this methodology, a case study concerning Bejaia City in northern Algeria was carried out. Two priority objectives are identified for this case, they are divided into 6 criteria and 31 indicators. The results of the application of the developed tool highlighted some weaknesses that need improvements in the actual management procedure applied by the local sanitation services.The membrane bioreactor (MBR) at the Traverse City Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant has experienced sudden and unpredictable periods of substantial permeability decline since 2011. Early observations detected irregularly-shaped Gram-positive bacteria that correlated with plant upsets. Use of biomolecular techniques, such as DNA sequencing of laboratory isolates and the mixed liquor microbial community, and fluorescent in situ hybridization, identified the dispersed organisms as members of the genus Staphylococcus. However, Staphylococcus species were consistently present during normal operation and therefore were more likely to be an indicator of the upset, not the cause. The results suggest that these microorganisms are responding to specific influent wastewater constituents. We chemically analysed seven mixed liquor samples from periods of permeability decline in 2017 and 2018, and four samples from a period of normal operation. During upset conditions, the total carbohydrate content exceeded that of normal operation by 40%. Additionally, mixed liquor calcium concentrations were 65% above normal during the upset in 2017. It is hypothesized and supported through multivariate statistical analysis and estimation of specific resistance to filtration values that a calcium-intermediated polymer bridging mechanism with extracellular polymeric substance constituents is a major contributor to fouling and permeability disruptions in the Traverse City MBR.This study investigated the adsorption of methylene blue with natural and artificial zeolite. The effect of pH, contact time, initial concentration and adsorbent dose on adsorption was also investigated. An artificial dye was prepared. Adsorption removal efficiency was low at pH = 2, 3 and 4 but it was quite high at pH = 7. It was determined that the contact time reaches equilibrium within 60 minutes in the adsorption of methylene blue with natural and artificial zeolite. The initial dyestuff concentration for both adsorbents was 5 mg/L. For the removal of methylene blue, a 0.5 g natural and artificial zeolite dosage was sufficient. In order to express the adsorption of natural and artificial zeolite on methylene blue, Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherm models were examined. In the isotherm study, both natural and artificial zeolite adapted to the Langmuir isotherm model. Langmuir correlation coefficient was 0.998 for artificial zeolite and 0.993 for natural zeolite. Both adsorbent materials best fit into the pseudo-second kinetic model with similar correlation coefficient values of 0.