Use of immobilised bacteria for the wastewater treatment--examples from the sugar industry.

This work focuses on the implementation of high performance systems to the wastewater treatment of sugar factories. For this purpose, systems with immobilised bacteria were studied. For the hydrolysis of organic matter and denitrification, fluidized bed reactors were used. The nitrification was studied with an airlift reactor system. Both hydrolysis and nitrogen elimination were investigated on laboratory and pilot scales in sugar factories. Although with porous materials higher biomass concentrations are attainable for the hydrolysis (up to 55 kg/m3), for economical reasons sand was used (22.5 kg/m3) for the pilot scale-study. With a pilot-scale reactor (volume 1 m3) the maximum sucrose conversion rate achieved with sand in the first campaign was 52 kg/(m3 d). For the nitrogen elimination on the pilot scale, a system with denitrification and nitrification was combined. The highest performance for the nitrification (reactor volume: 0.68 m3) with pumice as support material was 1.2 kg NH4-N/(m3 d), limiting the whole system. The denitrification rate (reactor volume: 0.12 m3) was four times higher (3.5-5 kg NO3-N/(m3 d). Rules of the modelling of the system are discussed.

Karyological investigations on the vampyrellid filose amoeba Lateromyxa gallica Hülsmann 1993.

The nuclei of the vampyrellid filose amoeba Lateromyxa gallica were investigated in trophozoites, early digestive cysts, reproductive cysts, and in developing resting cysts. Trophozoites possess numerous, minute, spherical nuclei in interphase. In early digestive cysts the nuclei enlarge and the morphology of the nucleolus changes. The digestive cysts develop into reproductive cysts. Karyokinesis takes place synchronously. The spindle is intranuclear and acentrical. In metaphase, the chromosomes are arranged in a distinct equatorial plate. The nuclear envelope remains intact at least until telophase. Shortly after karyokinesis the trophozoites leave the cysts. Cytokinesis regularly takes place when the trophozoites invade cells of Oedogonium. Under unfavorable conditions the trophozoites as well as the digestive cysts are able to form resting cysts. Nuclei of digestive cysts which begin to develop into resting cysts were found in the pachytene phase of meiosis, proved by synaptonemal complexes. Karyokinesis, probably the second meiotic division, was detected when the resting cyst was almost fully developed. From the results of our investigations, the vampyrellid filose amoebae can be regarded as sexual.

Stomatogenesis in the ditransversal ciliate Homalozoon vermiculare (Ciliophora, Rhabdophora).

H. vermiculare possesses about 10 somatic kineties on the right lateral side, 3 somatic kineties on the left lateral side and a single circumoral kinety. The somatic kineties are composed of monokinetids exc\~ept for the anterior ends of the brush kineties which are composed of dikinetids. The circumoral kinety consists of paired kinetosomes one of which is nonciliated and associated with a microtubular lamella and a nematodesma. Stomatogenesis commences when the anteriormost somatic kinetosomes in the opisthe are transformed into the nonciliated kinetosomes of the future oral dikinetid. They lose the somatic infraciliary fibers and the ciliary shaft and each gives rise to a nematodesma and a microtubular ribbon. Adjacent to each of the transformed somatic kinetosomes, a new kinetosome is assembled, thus producing an oral dikinetid anlage. The new anterior kinetosome bears a cilium and becomes the ciliferous kinetosome of the oral wreath of cilia. In protargol stained specimens, proliferation of kinetosomes can first be observed in the left lateral kineties but, eventually, each of the somatic kineties produces one kinetofragment. Thus, H. vermiculare has a holotelokinetal type of stomatogenesis. The cirumoral kinety arises from a counter-clockwise rotation (as viewed from outside the cell) of all 15 dikinetid kinetofragments and subsequent "head to tail" fusion of the fragments after cell division has been completed. The oral apparatus of the proter seems to be largely conserved during division. Some aspects of the evolution of the oral apparatus and the origin of the oral microtubular ribbons are discussed.

Surface coat shedding and axopodial movements in Actinophrys sol.

Dyes specific to the glycoproteins of the mucous coat (Alcian Blue and Ruthenium Red) and ligands cross-linking the surface receptors (γ-globulin and Concanavalin A) provoke detachment of the surface coat and shedding of mucus conglomerates outwards along axopodia in Actinophrys sol. Moreover, the two receptor-specific ligands induce rearrangement of axopodia into unipolar fan-like bundles. They arise by inclination of axopodia in one direction, usually before shedding of the surface coat. Then, the mucus is unidirectionally evacuated along the bundles. The coordinated polar reorientation of axopodia is faster than any other axopodial movement and manifests the dynamics of an active behaviour. However, its mechanism remains conjectural.

Absence of macrophage and presence of plasmacellular iron storage in the terminal duodenum of patients with hereditary haemochromatosis.

Biopsy specimens of the terminal duodenum obtained from 11 patients with hereditary haemochromatosis were examined by light and electron microscopy. Stainable iron was found in the lamina propria of the terminal duodenum in only 4 patients, all of whom were in an advanced stage of the disease. The iron was localized in the basal parts of the villi, sparing their tips, and between the crypts of Lieberkühn. The iron-storing cells could be identified as plasma cells, in which ferritin and haemosiderin were localized within lysosomes and ferritin molecules scattered in the cell sap. There was no storage of iron in macrophages. These observations demonstrate the impaired iron-storing capacity of macrophages in hereditary haemochromatosis, which may be related to the increased iron absorption in this iron storage disease.

Rapid digestion of Staphylococcus aureus by Paramecium: An evaluation of the role of bacterial autolytic enzymes.

Paramecium fed exclusively with the human pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus can survive over a period of at least 2 months and is able to use the bacteria as substrate. In this study, Paramecium was fed with S. aureus for 45 min and the process of digestion of these Gram-positive bacteria and their remains was analysed. The degradation starts with very slight damage to the outside of the bacterial cell wall. During digestion, first the cytoplasm and later the membranes are degraded. The cell wall material is gradually broken down at the same time. After 45 min of phagocytosis, defecation competent digestive vacuoles (DVs) are present. There is no difference in the digestive process using bacterial cells from the logarithmic or stationary phase of growth. Cells with abnormally thick cell walls induced by treatment with erythromycin were digested similarly. By using thermally inactivated S. aureus cells, we can exclude the possibility that bacterial autolysines are responsible for the rapid destruction and degradation of the procaryotic cell wall. The Paramecium cells needed longer to digest the coagulated cytoplasm of heat-treated cells.

Sulfide silver amplification of ferritin iron cores in blood and bone marrow cells. Methods, adaptations to microphysical analyses, and the impact of advanced iron overload.

A short exposure of cell suspensions to gaseous hydrogen sulfide, appropriate fixations, and subsequent physical development of silver shells around sulfidated insoluble metals were used to amplify ferritin iron cores in blood and bone marrow cells. The methods described are suitable for both light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. These techniques made it possible to visualize Prussian Blue stainable ferritin and haemosiderin, as well as a large variety of isoferritin iron and other smaller particles beyond the sensitivity of Prussian Blue staining. Admixtures of sulfidatible zinc and traces of other heavy metals had to be taken into consideration. For further research, adaptations of sulfide silver staining to microphysical analyses were developed. However, conventional energy dispersive X-ray analysis was not sensitive enough to signalize the presence of Fe in sulfide silver amplified iron cores of a single or a few ferritin molecule(s). Proton-induced X-ray emission was used to measure Fe and Zn down to 1 fg/single cell in unstained or sulfide silver stained smears on thin foils. However, multielement analysis of homogeneous cell concentrates was much easier to perform and far more sensitive. In advanced iron overload, highly increased sulfide silver staining was found in peripheral blood cells including lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, and--in extreme cases--also in neutrophils and platelets.

[Chronic hemorrhagic iron deficiency. Sources of hemorrhage, blood loss and systematic iron substitution]. / Chronisch-hämorrhagischer Eisenmangel. Blutungsquellen, Blutverluste und systematische Eisensubstitution.

In only 121/436 (28 per cent) patients with chronic haemorrhagic iron deficiency bleeding sources could be removed by appropriate management or healed spontaneously. In 61 per cent of all cases the disease lasted from 1 year to greater than 20 years. The fall of haemoglobin per month correlated closely with blood losses per month as calculated by determinations of 59Fe whole body iron loss. Over prolonged periods estimations of the magnitude of blood loss (range 1- greater than 721 per year) based on changes of the iron status under normal diets and under systematic iron substitution. Oral iron administration with appraisable bioavailability was able to compensate blood losses up to 151 and with increasing doses up to 361 per year with maintenance of normal or borderline haemoglobin values. However, side reactions increased considerably after years and with rising doses. Under such circumstances combinations of i.v. iron, oral iron and blood transfusions were successful over prolonged periods.

Blood lymphocyte volumes and diameters in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and normal controls.

The electronic modal lymphocyte volumes of 151 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and 305 normal controls were determined by the hydrodynamically focused multi-channel Coulter TF analyser. The mean volumes of the normally distributed groups were 166 +/- 19.3 (range 126-216) fl in patients with CLL and 206 +/- 14.4 (range 126 +/- 246) fl in normal controls. The calculated cell diameters were 6.8 (6.2-7.4) micron and 7.3 (6.8-7.8) micron respectively. Our data do not support previous reports about relations between cell size and clinical stages of the Rai and Binet classifications.

[Sequential polychemotherapy and large-field radiotherapy of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma]. / Sequentielle Polychemotherapie und Grossfeld-Radiotherapie von Non-Hodgkin-Lymphomen.

The combination of polychemotherapy and large-field radiotherapy essentially promoted the improved total results achieved during the period of 1976 and 1982 in 272 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) of low and high malignancy. In case of centroblastic-centrocytic (cb/cc) NHL of stages II A/III A, the recurrence-free survival after radiotherapy (n = 21) could be increased by the combined method (n = 25) from 17% to 60%, and the probability of seven-year survival could be improved from 70% to 90%. All of the ten initially irradiated patients in the stages I A/II A/III A of centrocytic (cc) NHL suffered from a recurrence, whereas the development seems to be more favorable in the five patients submitted to combined treatment who had only one recurrence. The recurrence-free seven-year survival of the highly malignant NHL in stage I A/II A increased from 40% after unique radiotherapy (n = 15) to 70% after combined therapy (n = 39), the survival probability increased from 55% to 75%. Despite the partly insufficient therapy results after unique radiotherapy and polychemotherapy, the combined method has largely contributed to achieve after eight years the total survival rates of 76% for cb/cc NHL (n = 123) and of 55% for the highly malignant immunoblastic NHL (n = 57), centroblastic NHL (n = 35) and NHL with uncertain classification, whereas the cc-NHL (n = 36) hitherto has a relatively unfavorable prognosis with only 29%.

[Latent and manifest iron deficiency conditions. Diagnostic and therapeutic developments]. / Latente und manifeste Eisenmangelzustände. Diagnostische und therapeutische Entwicklungen.

The developments of the last 15 years rendered possible more exact clinical evidences on stages (cross section diagnoses of the iron state within the body), developmental forms (longitudinal section diagnoses with estimation of the iron balance) and substitution of the iron deficiency. In the stages I (storage iron deficiency with increased intestinal iron absorption) and II (additional decrease of the serum iron) haemoglobin lies within the normal. Iron deficiency anaemias without (III) and with (IV) tissue damage show much decreased serum ferritin values. In the pre-treatment or in complications by infections or tumours the dispersion areas of serum ferritin intersect with the lower dispersion area of the norm of control persons with normal reserves of iron. - The most frequent cause of the non-haemorrhagic iron deficiency developing by an absolute or relatively too small iron supply are pregnancies without an effective iron prophylaxis. The chronic haemorrhagic iron deficiency relapsing without iron supply is caused by hypermenorrhoeas (blood losses per year 1-6 l) and in older patients by blood losses from the gastro-intestinal canal (blood losses per year 1 to more than 30 l). The posthaemorrhagic or postpartal iron deficiency remaining after removal of the causes remits spontaneously with sufficient nutrition. A more exact knowledge about the bioavailability of oral ferroiron preparation and the biotransformation of parenterally administered colloidal iron preparation render possible a better adaptation of the iron substitution to the demand of iron to the limits of tolerability and metabolisability of the remedies administered.

[Prognostic differences in low-malignancy germinal center cell lymphomas and immunocytomas. Relationship to histological subtypes, stages and therapy]. / Prognostische Unterschiede bei niedrig-malignen Keimzentrumslymphomen und Immunozytomen. Beziehung zu histologischen Subtypen, Stadien und Therapie.

Based on repeated interval analyses, radiotherapy and cytostatic drug therapy were stepwise intensified and combined in 264 patients diagnosed between 1976 and 1981 as having histopathologically low-malignant centroblastic-centrocytic (cb/cc; n = 106), centrocytic (cc; n = 34) or immunocytic lymphoma (n = 124). The number of treatment failures and recurrences were clearly reduced. There were three prognostic steps in survival probability: 90% after seven years for stages IA-IVA of the cb/cc lymphoma as well as for the extranodal lymphoplasmocytoid and lymphoplasmocytic immunocytomas, stages I-IV of Ann Arbor, and stages 0-II of the Rai classifications. In the Rai stages III and IV these immunocytomas had a definitely worse prognosis, at 60%. Prognostically most unfavourable, at levels of around or below 30%, were the B forms of cb/cc lymphomas, all stages of centrocytoma and the polymorph-cell immunocytomas. The survival rate of the cb/cc lymphomas was increased by about 33%, compared with cases of Brill-Symmers' disease between 1970 and 1975. The alternating use of cytostatic combinations seems to be more favourable among the previously little affected centrocytomas and the polymorph-cell immunocytomas.