Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket and aerated constructed wetlands for swine wastewater treatment: a pilot study.

Swine wastewater management is often affected by two main issues: a too high volume for optimal reuse as a fertilizer and a too high strength for an economically sustainable treatment by classical solutions. Hence, an innovative scheme has been tested to treat swine wastewater, combining a low cost anaerobic reactor, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB), with intensified constructed wetlands (aerated CWs) in a pilot scale experimental study. The swine wastewater described in this paper is produced by a swine production facility situated in North Italy. The scheme of the pilot plant consisted of: (i) canvas-based thickener; (ii) UASB; (iii) two intensified aerated vertical subsurface flow CWs in series; (iv) a horizontal flow subsurface CW. The influent wastewater quality has been defined for total suspended solids (TSS 25,025 ± 9,323 mg/l), organic carbon (chemical oxygen demand (COD) 29,350 ± 16,983 mg/l), total reduced nitrogen and ammonium (total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) 1,783 ± 498 mg/l and N-NH4+ 735 ± 251 mg/l) and total phosphorus (1,285 ± 270 mg/l), with nitrates almost absent. The overall system has shown excellent performances in terms of TSS, COD, N-NH4+ and TKN removal efficiencies (99.9%, 99.6%, 99.5%, and 99.0%, respectively). Denitrification (N-NO3- effluent concentration equal to 614 ± 268 mg/l) did not meet the Italian quality standards for discharging in water bodies, mainly because the organic carbon was almost completely removed in the intensified CW beds.

Representing performance of horizontal flow treatment wetlands: The Tanks In Series (TIS) and the Plug Flow with Dispersion (PFD) approaches and their application to design.

Horizontal flow wetlands have been designed using the so-called P-k-C* approach, which has been largely embraced by the treatment wetlands literature. P is meant to represent the equivalent number of apparent tanks in series (hydraulic factor), but also incorporates the loss of biodegradability as the wastewater undergoes treatment (kinetic factor). For design purposes, literature proposes fixed values of P. The proposal of this paper is to decouple hydraulics from kinetics and use the traditional concept of N or NTIS (number of tanks in series) as a function of geometric relationships of the wetland to be designed, leaving kinetic elements to be dealt with solely by the first-order removal rate coefficient (k). From the literature, a database with 41 wetlands with data from tracer studies was used, and a novel regression-based equation was derived relating N with the ratio length/depth of horizontal wetlands. This equation can be used at the design stage for estimating N and, hence, the output concentration of the pollutant using the traditional structure of the TIS model, with a possible inclusion of background concentration (C*). The paper presents all relevant equations, including those from the plug-flow with dispersion model (PFD), and it is shown how to convert from one hydraulic model to the other, what is also believed to be a novel approach in the treatment wetland literature. Finally, the area-based removal rate coefficients (kA) proposed by Kadlec and Wallace (2009) for designs of horizontal wetlands treating domestic wastewater based on the P-k-C* approach are converted into kA values for the TIS model in the paper.

Lessons learnt from a pilot study on residual dye removal by an aerated treatment wetland.

Treatment wetlands (TWs) have shown good capacity in dye removal from textile wastewater. However, the high hydraulic retention times (HRTs) required by these solutions and the connected high area requirements, remain a big drawback towards the application of TWs for dye treatment at full scale. Aerated TWs are interesting intensified solutions that attempt to reduce the TW required area. Therefore, an aerated CW pilot plant, composed of a 20 m2 horizontal subsurface flow TW (HF) and a 21 m2 Free Water System (FWS), equipped with aeration pipelines, was built and monitored to investigate the potential reduction of required area for dye removal from the effluent wastewater of a centralized wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). During a 8 months long study, experimenting with different hydraulic retention times (HRTs - 1.2, 2.6 and 3.5 days) and aeration modes (intermittent and continuous), the pilot plant has shown a normal biological degradation for organic matter and nutrients, while the residual dye removal has been very low, as demonstrated by the absorbance measure at three wavelengths: at 426 nm (blue) the removal varies from -55% at influent absorbance of 0.010 to 41% at 0.060; at 558 nm (yellow) the removal is negative at 0.005 (-58%) and high at higher influent concentrations (72% at 0.035 of absorbance for the inlet); at 660 nm (red) -82% of removal efficiency was obtained at influent absorbance of 0.002 and 74% at 0.010. These results are a consequence of the biological oxidation processes taking place in the WWTP, so that the residual dye seems to be resistant to further aerobic degradation. Therefore, TWs enhanced by aeration can provide only a buffer effect on peak dye concentrations.

Alcohol exposure therapy: generalisation and changes in responsivity.

Fifty male alcohol-dependent individuals presenting for treatment were randomly assigned to either a cue exposure (CE) or control group. The experimental group were presented with 10 exposure trials to the sight and smell of alcohol, whilst the control group were presented with a neutral beverage. Following this, subjects received exposure to alcohol in a different room to examine whether extinguished responses generalised to a different environment. Results showed that only those subjects presented with the alcohol cue showed a significant reduction in cue-elicited swallowing, subjective withdrawal symptoms, arousal and urge to drink alcohol and that these extinguished responses remained diminished in magnitude in a different environment. These results provide additional support for the effectiveness of CE in reducing responsivity to alcohol cues.

Effects of intrafamilial sexual assault on eating behaviors.

Recent research has linked sexual assaults with disordered eating behaviors. Whether the relationship of the perpetrator, intrafamilial or extrafamilial affects the development of disturbed eating is not known. Using data from 190 university women, we found that women with histories of intrafamilial assaults were more likely to suffer a serious eating problem (17 of 36 subjects, 47%) than women who had no history of sexual assault (30 of 142 subjects, 21%) and women who only reported extrafamilial assaults (76 of 212 subjects, 36%,).