Constructed wetlands and solar-driven disinfection technologies for sustainable wastewater treatment and reclamation in rural India: SWINGS project.

SWINGS was a cooperation project between the European Union and India, aiming at implementing state of the art low-cost technologies for the treatment and reuse of domestic wastewater in rural areas of India. The largest wastewater treatment plant consists of a high-rate anaerobic system, followed by vertical and horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands with a treatment area of around 1,900 m2 and a final step consisting of solar-driven anodic oxidation (AO) and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection units allowing direct reuse of the treated water. The implementation and operation of two pilot plants in north (Aligarh Muslim University, AMU) and central India (Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, IGNTU) are shown in this study. The overall performance of AMU pilot plant during the first 7 months of operation showed organic matter removal efficiencies of 87% total suspended solids, 95% 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5) and 90% chemical oxygen demand, while Kjeldahl nitrogen removal reached 89%. The UV disinfection unit produces water for irrigation and toilet flushing with pathogenic indicator bacteria well below WHO guidelines. On the other hand, the AO disinfection unit implemented at IGNTU and operated for almost a year has been shown to produce an effluent of sufficient quality to be reused by the local population for agriculture and irrigation.

Diarrhoea in HIV-infected patients: no evidence of cytokine-mediated inflammation in jejunal mucosa.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a mucosal cytokine-mediated inflammatory response is involved in cryptosporidial or microsporidial diarrhoea, as well as in diarrhoea of unknown origin in HIV-infected patients. DESIGN: Prospective study. METHODS: Jejunal biopsies were obtained from HIV-infected patients with diarrhoea. Controls were HIV-infected and HIV-seronegative patients without diarrhoea. Two biopsies were homogenized immediately and two other biopsies were first cultured for 20 h. Cytokines [tumour necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin (IL)-1 beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10], soluble TNF receptors (sTNFR) p55 and p75, and soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R) were assessed in the homogenates and in the supernatants by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent or enzyme-linked binding assays. The cytokine receptors were also measured in serum. RESULTS: Six HIV-infected patients with cryptosporidiosis, six with microsporidiosis, seven with diarrhoea of unknown origin, seven without diarrhoea, and seven HIV-seronegative patients were eligible. Four patients were excluded because of the presence of other pathogens. No cytokines were detected in immediately homogenized jejunal tissue. Following culture, IL-6 and IL-8 levels were higher in HIV-infected patients with diarrhoea of unknown origin than in HIV-seronegative controls without diarrhoea, although this was not statistically significant. No differences in serum or post-culture supernatant sTNFR p55 and p75 levels existed between the HIV-infected patients with or without diarrhoea. sTNFR, IL-1 beta, IL-10 and the sIL-2R were only detected in low amounts or not at all, and were equally distributed among all patient groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that mucosal cytokine-mediated inflammatory responses do not play an important role in the pathogenesis of different types of diarrhoea in HIV-infected patients. These results do not support the use of immunomodulatory therapy in these patients.

Intraindividual variability in development of accuracy of motor performance.

Age trends in children's ball-rolling accuracy were investigated with a concentration on intraindividual variability. The subjects were boys and girls (n =20 each) who were randomly selected from each of seven groupings representing ages 5 to 11 yr. Significant reduction in mean constant error occurred with increasing age for both sexes, and the boys performance was superior to that of the girls' across ages. The concept of modification of performance toward less variability was supported by significant reduction of mean intraindividual variance with age; however, the sex difference in mean intraindividual variance (greater consistency in boys' performance) was not constant over age. The results are discussed in relation to speculated cultural influences, and consideration is given to the importance of examining intraindividual variance in studies of age trends in motor performance.

A computerised spreadsheet for audit of a microbiology laboratory.

The use of a microcomputer and spreadsheet software is described, to assist in the audit of a clinical microbiology laboratory. The costs of consumables for specimen types and their workload values were calculated. Together with knowledge of the annual number of requests, these were used as a basis for determining the minimum budget and staffing establishment required.