Intensive Microalgal Cultivation and Tertiary Phosphorus Recovery from Wastewaters via the EcoRecover Process.

Mixed community microalgal wastewater treatment technologies have the potential to advance the limits of technology for biological nutrient recovery while producing a renewable carbon feedstock, but a deeper understanding of their performance is required for system optimization and control. In this study, we characterized the performance of a 568 m3·day-1 Clearas EcoRecover system for tertiary phosphorus removal (and recovery as biomass) at an operating water resource recovery facility (WRRF). The process consists of a (dark) mix tank, photobioreactors (PBRs), and a membrane tank with ultrafiltration membranes for the separation of hydraulic and solids residence times. Through continuous online monitoring, long-term on-site monitoring, and on-site batch experiments, we demonstrate (i) the importance of carbohydrate storage in PBRs to support phosphorus uptake under dark conditions in the mix tank and (ii) the potential for polyphosphate accumulation in the mixed algal communities. Over a 3-month winter period with limited outside influences (e.g., no major upstream process changes), the effluent total phosphorus (TP) concentration was 0.03 ± 0.03 mg-P·L-1 (0.01 ± 0.02 mg-P·L-1 orthophosphate). Core microbial community taxa included Chlorella spp., Scenedesmus spp., and Monoraphidium spp., and key indicators of stable performance included near-neutral pH, sufficient alkalinity, and a diel rhythm in dissolved oxygen.

Chemical Degradation of Androgen Receptor (AR) Using Bicalutamide Analog-Thalidomide PROTACs.

A series of PROTACs (PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimeras) consisting of bicalutamide analogs and thalidomides were designed, synthesized, and biologically evaluated as novel androgen receptor (AR) degraders. In particular, we found that PROTAC compound 13b could successfully demonstrate a targeted degradation of AR in AR-positive cancer cells and might be a useful chemical probe for the investigation of AR-dependent cancer cells, as well as a potential therapeutic candidate for prostate cancers.

Digital data acquisition of shoulder range of motion and arm motion smoothness using Kinect v2.

BACKGROUND: Range of motion (ROM) is a clinically important parameter in evaluating joint function. However, dynamic evaluation to determine the quality of the arm motion using digitized measurement is often overlooked during clinical assessment. We evaluated the accuracy of Kinect v2 (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) as a digital tool for measuring shoulder ROM objectively and proposed a concept of motion smoothness reflecting the quality of arm motion. METHODS: Ten male participants were included in a 2-stage experiment. First, shoulder ROM was measured in 4 static poses (flexion, abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation) with Kinect v2, a 3-dimensional (3D) motion analysis system, and goniometry. Second, participants performed a point-to-point arm motion as naturally as possible. Kinematic data were collected with Kinect v2 and the 3D motion analysis system and then postprocessed to acquire parameters related to motion smoothness, including peak to mean velocity ratio, acceleration to movement time ratio, and number of peaks. RESULTS: Kinect v2 resulted in very good agreement of ROM measurement (r > 0.9) with the 3D motion analysis (95% limits of agreement < ±8°) compared with goniometry (95% limits of agreement < ±10°). Kinect v2 also showed a good correlation and agreement of measurement of motion quality parameters compared with the 3D motion analysis (peak to mean velocity ratio, acceleration to movement time ratio, and number of peaks: r = 0.769, discrepancy = ±0.1; r = 0.922, discrepancy = ±5%; and mean = 1 ± 0, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: We show that Kinect v2 can be used as a reliable tool to measure shoulder ROM and arm motion smoothness.

Scenedesmus-based treatment of nitrogen and phosphorus from effluent of anaerobic digester and bio-oil production.

In this study, a microalgae-based technology was employed to treat wastewater and produce biodiesel at the same time. A local isolate Scenedesmus sp. was found to be a well suited species, particularly for an effluent from anaerobic digester (AD) containing low carbon but high nutrients (NH3-N=273mgL(-1), total P=58.75mgL(-1)). This algae-based treatment was quite effective: nutrient removal efficiencies were over 99.19% for nitrogen and 98.01% for phosphorus. Regarding the biodiesel production, FAME contents of Scenedesmus sp. were found to be relatively low (8.74% (w/w)), but overall FAME productivity was comparatively high (0.03gL(-1)d(-1)) due to its high biomass productivity (0.37gL(-1)d(-1)). FAMEs were satisfactory to the several standards for the biodiesel quality. The Scenedesmus-based technology may serve as a promising option for the treatment of nutrient-rich wastewater and especially so for the AD effluent.

Estimation of indocyanine green elimination rate constant k and retention rate at 15 min using patient age, weight, bilirubin, and albumin.

BACKGROUND: We sought to estimate the indocyanine green (ICG) clearance (Cl), the elimination rate constant (k), and the retention rate at 15 min (R (15)) using patient-specific covariates only. METHODS: We analyzed plasma ICG concentration data at 5, 10, and 15 min after intravenous injection of 0.5 mg/kg of ICG and 17 kinds of patient-specific covariates in 1,276 patients using NONMEM (GloboMax LLC, Ellicott City, MD) for population pharmacokinetic modeling. The population models designed were externally validated on another dataset of 1,629 patients. RESULTS: The population typical value (TV) of Cl (Cl (TV)) and TV of volume of distribution (Vd (TV)) were modeled as: Cl (TV) (mL/min) = 117 x age (year)(-0.119) x body weight (kg)(0.348) x total bilirubin (mg/dL)(-0.226) x albumin (g/dL)(0.327). Vd (TV) (L) = 0.415 x body weight (kg)(0.596) x albumin (g/dL)(-0.292). ICG concentration at zero time (C (0)) and 15 min (C (15)) for R (15) (C (15)/C (0) x 100) were derived from following equations. C (0) = dose/Vd (TV) and C (15) = C (0)e(-k t ) where t = 15 min and k = Cl (TV)/Vd (TV). [corrected] Median percent prediction error and absolute prediction error in the estimated values were 18.0% and 25.6% for Cl; 6.1% and 16.5% for k; and -7.0% and 33.1% for R (15). CONCLUSION: The predictive performance of ICG k was better than those of ICG Cl and R (15).