Chenpiper9205

The domestic wastewater collection and treatment rate of Nairobi, Kenya are not high. The wastewater in the Kibera slum on the outskirts of the city that is directly discharged to the environment and pollution of the surrounding water body is a serious problem. This paper takes the domestic wastewater in the slum area as the research objective and researches on the wastewater characteristics, collection, and treatment, therefore providing the reference for the wastewater collection and treatment technology in the region. In this paper, domestic wastewater in the Kibera slum of Nairobi was sampled and investigated to find out the characteristics of wastewater discharged, the way of discharge of the household wastewater, and the management in this area. The study shows that there are differences in the concentration of main pollutants such as nutrients and organic matter in the wastewater from the household discharged to the residential river in the slum area. The domestic wastewater in this slum area containedatment system. Furthermore, the removal efficiencies of pollutants such as TP, PO4-P, TN, and NH4-N were carried out by using the fruit extract of Moringa oleifera as raw material and zeolite as an auxiliary agent. The comprehensive effect of zeolite combined with VFCW and natural coagulant in the treatment of domestic wastewater was investigated. The COD removal efficiency was increased by (9%). TN by (46%), NH4-N by (67%), TP by (19%), and turbidity improved by (9%). In short, the domestic wastewater in the Kibera slum was collected and pretreated with natural plant coagulant, and then purified by vertical flow constructed wetland, which can not only significantly reduce the pollutant concentration but also basically meet the discharge standards. It is a low-cost sewage treatment technology suitable for poor areas.The single PN-A (partial nitrification-anammox) reactor offers a cost-effective solution for nitrogen removal. However, optimal control of the PN-A reactor is challenging due to the interactive mechanisms among the oxygen supply, bulk liquid DO (dissolved oxygen) concentration, and the balance of various functional bacterial species. In this study, a mathematical model was used to derive the optimal control variable for the maximum nitrogen removal, and an experimental PN-A reactor was operated to verify the model simulation results. The model simulation results indicate that the oxygen supply to the ammonium load ratio is the key factor to control the single-stage PN-A reactor for optimal TN removal. For optimal TN removal, the oxygen supply to the ammonium load ratio should be 1.9 mg O2/mg N. The DO concentration is not the key control parameter to get the maximum TN removal as the optimal TN removal could be achieved under a wide range of DO concentration. The model simulation results were verified in the experimental PN-A reactor under oxygen transfer rate ([Formula see text]) at 52 day-1, HRT at 24 h, and ammonium load ratio of 0.55 kg N/(m3∙day).A novel composite photocatalyst polyaniline/copper sulfide (PANI/CuS) was successfully prepared using an in situ precipitation method. The surface morphology, internal structure, thermal stability, electronegativity, and visible light photocatalytic activity of PANI/CuS were analyzed by a series of characterization methods. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) was used as the representative pollutant; the degradation effect, degradation kinetic, and influencing factor of SMX by PANI/CuS under visible light were systematically investigated. The degradation mechanism of SMX by PANI/CuS was explained by a series of free radical quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy experiments. The following were the main conclusions through the above research. First, the degradation effect of SMX by composite PANI/CuS was better than that by pure CuS under the same experimental conditions, which indirectly proved that the addition of PANI could effectively delay the photochemical corrosion of CuS. Next, when the dosage of PANI/CuS was 0.04 g/L, initial concentration of SMX was 5 ppm, pH was 2.0, and the simulated visible light was 500 W, the degradation effect of SMX was as high as 72.13%. Last, the hole (h+) played a major role and the superoxide radical (·O2-) played an auxiliary role in the degradation process of SMX by PANI/CuS; persistent free radicals exist simultaneously.

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of subjective titration versus objectively guided titration during polysomnography (PSG) and drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) in mandibular advancement device (MAD) therapy for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

In this pilot cross-over study, patients underwent three titration procedures in randomized order (1) subjective titration, (2) PSG-guided titration using a remotely controlled mandibular positioner (RCMP) and (3) DISE-assisted titration using RCMP. After each titration procedure, patients used the MAD for 1month at the targeted protrusion obtained according to the preceding titration procedure. For each procedure, a follow-up PSG was performed after 1month of MAD use in order to evaluate the efficacy of the MAD.

Ten patients were included in the study. Overall, no significant differences in targeted optimal protrusion compared to maximal comfortable protrusion among the three titration methods were observed. There was no significant difference in reduction in AHI. In this study, PSG titration correctly classified 50% of patients as 'responder'. A higher predictive accuracy was found for DISE titration with a sensitivity of 83.3% and a specificity of 100%.

This pilot randomized cross-over trial showed no differences in optimal mandibular positioning and corresponding efficacy of MAD between subjective titration, DISE titration or PSG titration.

This pilot randomized cross-over trial showed no differences in optimal mandibular positioning and corresponding efficacy of MAD between subjective titration, DISE titration or PSG titration.Obesity is becoming an epidemic of widespread concern, but the underlying causes remain elusive. In this study, whole transcriptome RNA sequencing revealed differential profiles of noncoding (nc) RNAs and mRNAs in visceral adipose tissue from obese (BMI > 32.5 kg/m2) and lean (BMI  less then  20 kg/m2) individuals, with 1920 differentially expressed genes, 1466 long noncoding (lnc) RNAs, 122 micro (mi) RNAs, and 52 circular (circ) RNAs identified. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, Gene Ontology analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that these ncRNAs were involved in inflammation-related pathways that included cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, the tumor necrosis factor and nuclear factor kappa B signaling pathways. The results indicated a critical role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of obesity. The network interaction of lncRNA, circRNA, and miRNA revealed a competing endogenous (ce) RNA network that was associated with inflammation. The ceRNA network included circORC5/miR-197-5p/TNFRSF10D and circNTRK2/miR-760/LAT, which were dysregulated in obese patients. In conclusion, this whole transcriptome study provided a pool of data that will be useful for identifying biomarkers of obesity and identified an obesity-associated ceRNA network that is regulated by circORC5 and circNTRK2.Given long waitlists for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) evaluation coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to triage patients to services they are likely to receive diagnostic clarity (i.e., virtual, in-person evaluation). Participants attended a virtual ASD assessment. A subset also attended in-person evaluation. Results suggest younger children with educational services for ASD may benefit from virtual assessment while older patients with a history of psychiatric conditions may benefit from in-person evaluation. An ASD symptom severity tool related to virtual and in-person diagnostic clarity. Family history of ASD related to in-person diagnosis while other variables (e.g., age, educational services) did not. The study suggests patient characteristics may be used to determine for whom virtual ASD assessment may be appropriate.Previous psychophysical studies reported a positive aftereffect in tactile temporal order judgments, which can be explained by the Bayesian estimation model ('Bayesian calibration'). We investigated the relationship between Bayesian calibration and autistic traits in participants with typical development (TD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Bayesian calibration was weakened in TD participants with high autistic traits, consistent with the 'hypo-priors' hypothesis for autistic perceptions. The results from the ASD group were generally observed as a continuation of those from the TD groups. Meanwhile, two ASD participants showed irregularly large positive or negative aftereffects. We discussed the mechanisms behind the general results among TD and ASD participants and two particular results among ASD participants based on the Bayesian estimation model.After pre concentration of monomers, polymerization is the second most important step for molecular evolution. The formation of peptides is an important issue for prebiotic chemistry and consequently for the origin of life. In this work, goethite was synthesized by two different routes, named goethite-I and goethite-II. Although both samples are goethite, Far-FT-IR spectroscopy and EPR spectroscopy showed differences between them, and these differences had an effect on the polymerization of glycine and alanine. For the amino acid polymerization, three protocols were used, that resembled prebiotic Earth conditions a) amino acid plus goethite were mixed and heated at 90 °C for 10 days in solid state, b) a wet impregnation of the amino acid in the goethite, with subsequent heating at 90 °C for 10 days in solid state, and c) 10 wet/dry cycles each one for 24 h at 90 °C. Experiments with glycine plus goethite-II, using protocols B and C, produced only Gly-Gly. In addition, for the C protocol the amount of Gly-Gly synthesized was 3 times higher than the amount of Ala-Ala. Goethite-I presented a decrease in the EPR signal, when it was submitted to the protocols with and without amino acids. It is probable the decrease in the intensity of the EPR signal was due to a decrease in the imperfections of the mineral. For all protocols the mixture of alanine plus goethite-I or goethite-II produced c(Ala-Ala). However, for wet/dry cycles, protocol C presented higher yields (p  less then  0.05). In addition, Ala-Ala was produced using protocols A and C. The c(Ala-Ala) formation fitted a zero-order kinetic equation model. The surface areas of goethite-I and goethite-II were 35 m2 g-1 and 37 m2 g-1, respectively. Thermal analysis indicated that the mineral changes the thermal behavior of the amino acids. The main reactions for the thermal decomposition of glycine were deamination and dehydration and for alanine was deamination.Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have been employed very successfully to identify molecular and cellular features of psychiatric disorders that would be impossible to discover in traditional postmortem studies. Despite the wealth of new available information though, there is still a critical need to establish quantifiable and accessible molecular markers that can be used to reveal the biological causality of the disease. In this paper, we introduce a new quantitative framework based on supervised learning to investigate structural alterations in the neuronal cytoskeleton of hiPSCs of schizophrenia (SCZ) patients. We show that, by using Support Vector Machines or selected Artificial Neural Networks trained on image-based features associated with somas of hiPSCs derived neurons, we can predict very reliably SCZ and healthy control cells. In addition, our method reveals that [Formula see text]III tubulin and FGF12, two critical components of the cytoskeleton, are differentially regulated in SCZ and healthy control cells, upon perturbation by GSK3 inhibition.