Image analysis application for the study of activated sludge floc size during the treatment of synthetic and real fishery wastewaters.

BACKGROUND, AIM, AND SCOPE: Fishery wastewater treatment can be compromised due to seasonal production. The use of sequencing batch reactors is not completely successful, despite flexibility being one of the principal advantages. Most research on activated sludge is performed using synthetic wastewater to ensure a stable and constant feed. The current work compared biomass morphology and settling ability using image analysis of synthetic and real fishery wastewaters, with and without NaCl addition. RESULTS: The final effluent presented higher turbidity for both wastewaters after NaCl addition, and lower SVI values. For synthetic wastewater, NaCl addition led to the total aggregates' area (TA) increase from 1.46 to 2.09 mm(2)/µL, alongside the growth of intermediate aggregates into larger aggregates. The addition of NaCl to the fishery wastewater led to a decrease of the TA from 4.43 to 1.72 mm(2)/µL. The biomass composition decreased in larger and intermediate structures, opposite to the smaller aggregates' area percentage increase. DISCUSSION: NaCl addition to synthetic wastewater incited flocculation increasing sludge settling ability. A slight aggregate disruption was responsible for a turbidity increase. A strong deflocculation was identified in fishery wastewater with NaCl from the decrease of intermediate and large aggregates. This contrasted with pinpoint flocs release, which increased the turbidity levels. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND PERSPECTIVES: It could be established that synthetic wastewater biomass flocculation and fishery wastewater biomass deflocculation, observed during 0.5% NaCl experiments, were related to sludge settling and effluent turbidity changes. Furthermore, the biomass changes obtained with synthetic wastewater cannot be extrapolated to fishery wastewater.

Dental findings and dental care management in trisomy 18: case report of a 13-year-old "long-term survivor".

Trisomy 18 is a disorder characterized by psychomotor disabilities, dysmorphic features and organ malformations, including mental disabilities, growth deficiency, poor motor ability, micrognathia, microcephaly, low-set and malformed ears, distinctively clenched fists with overlapping fingers, and congenital heart defects. The prognosis is poor: 90% of infants with trisomy 18 do not survive beyond the first year of life and 99% die before the age of 10. This paper reports on a 13-year-old child diagnosed with trisomy 18. The major clinical features are cleft lip/palate, high-arched narrow palate, micrognathia, anterior open bite, posterior crossbite and taurodontism. Dental care management of these patients with special needs is discussed and the dental treatment for this child with trisomy 18 is described.