Characteristics and variability of storm tracks in the north Pacific, Bering Sea, and Alaska

The North Pacific and Bering Sea regions represent loci of cyclogenesis and storm track activity. In this paper climatological properties of extratropical storms in the North Pacific/Bering Sea are presented based upon aggregate statistics of individual storm tracks calculated by means of a feature-tracking algorithm run using NCEP–NCAR reanalysis data from 1948/49 to 2008, provided by the NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Climate Diagnostics Center. Storm identification is based on the 850-hPa relative vorticity field (ζ) instead of the often-used mean sea level pressure; ζ is a prognostic field, a good indicator of synoptic-scale dynamics, and is directly related to the wind speed. Emphasis extends beyond winter to provide detailed consideration of all seasons. Results show that the interseasonal variability is not as large during the spring and autumn seasons. Most of the storm variables—genesis, intensity, track density—exhibited a maxima pattern that was oriented along a zonal axis. From season to season this axis underwent a north–south shift and, in some cases, a rotation to the northeast. This was determined to be a result of zonal heating variations and midtropospheric moisture patterns. Barotropic processes have an influence in shaping the downstream end of storm tracks and, together with the blocking influence of the coastal orography of northwest North America, result in high lysis concentrations, effectively making the Gulf of Alaska the “graveyard” of Pacific storms. Summer storms tended to be longest in duration. Temporal trends tended to be weak over the study area. SST did not emerge as a major cyclogenesis control in the Gulf of Alaska

Genome of Rhodnius prolixus, an insect vector of Chagas disease, reveals unique adaptations to hematophagy and parasite infection

Rhodnius prolixus not only has served as a model organism for the study of insect physiology, but also is a major vector of Chagas disease, an illness that affects approximately seven million people worldwide. We sequenced the genome of R. prolixus, generated assembled sequences covering 95% of the genome (∼702 Mb), including 15,456 putative protein-coding genes, and completed comprehensive genomic analyses of this obligate blood-feeding insect. Although immune-deficiency (IMD)-mediated immune responses were observed, R. prolixus putatively lacks key components of the IMD pathway, suggesting a reorganization of the canonical immune signaling network. Although both Toll and IMD effectors controlled intestinal microbiota, neither affected Trypanosoma cruzi, the causal agent of Chagas disease, implying the existence of evasion or tolerance mechanisms. R. prolixus has experienced an extensive loss of selenoprotein genes, with its repertoire reduced to only two proteins, one of which is a selenocysteine-based glutathione peroxidase, the first found in insects. The genome contained actively transcribed, horizontally transferred genes from Wolbachia sp., which showed evidence of codon use evolution toward the insect use pattern. Comparative protein analyses revealed many lineage-specific expansions and putative gene absences in R. prolixus, including tandem expansions of genes related to chemoreception, feeding, and digestion that possibly contributed to the evolution of a blood-feeding lifestyle. The genome assembly and these associated analyses provide critical information on the physiology and evolution of this important vector species and should be instrumental for the development of innovative disease control methods.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH Grant NHGRI-HG003079)National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.) (Grant HHSN272200900039C)Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (Marie Curie PIOF-GA-2011-303312

Removal of ibuprofen by an aerobic activated sludge system

O aumento de compostos farmacêuticos no meio ambiente levou à procura de métodos eficientes e amigos do ambiente capazes de solucionar o problema. Neste trabalho é proposta a utilização de lamas ativadas para a remoção de ibuprofeno (IBU). Foram testadas diferentes concentrações de IBU (0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8 e 1 mg L-1), em sistema fechado, num reactor de 4 L. Foram calculados valores de uptake e percentagem de remoção. Os valores de uptake cresceram com o aumento da concentração inicial de IBU (0.192 para 0.660 mg g-1), o que está de acordo com o teoricamente esperado. A remoção foi quase total (99.1-99.5 %) sendo independente da concentração inicial de IBU. O mecanismo de remoção é bem descrito pelo modelo de pseudo- 2ª ordem, para todas as concentrações testadas. O sistema utilizado mostrou ser eficiente na remoção de IBU e poderá ser utilizado na remoção de IBU em grande escala.The increasing presence of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment leads to the search of efficient and eco-friendly methods able to solve the problem. This work proposes the use of activated sludge for the removal of ibuprofen (IBU). Different concentrations of IBU were tested (0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 mg L-1) in a batch reactor with a working volume of 4 L. The uptake values and removal percentage were calculated. The uptake values increased with increasing initial concentration of IBU (0.192 to 0.660 mg g-1 ), which is in agreement with the theoretically expected. The removal was almost total (99.1-99.5 %) and independent of the initial IBU concentration. The removal mechanism is well described by the pseudo 2nd order model, for all concentrations tested. The system is efficient in removing IBU and may be used in the removal of IBU in large scale.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) através do projecto de financiamento estratégico à unidade de investigação (UID/BIO/04469/2013), COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684)Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - SFRH/BPD/82558/2011; SFRH/BPD/101338/2014

Characterization of the effects of pharmaceuticals in activated sludge using quantitative image analysis

Microbiotec'17 - Congress of Microbiology and Biotechnology 2017Background: The extensive use of personal care products and pharmaceuticals for human consumption and veterinary usage led to the detection of these products in wastewater effluents and aqueous systems as rivers, surface waters and others. The ecotoxicology of pharmaceuticals was well studied by Backhaus [1]. The effect of these compounds on microorganisms is also an important study that should be taken into account when biological processes are used to remove these compounds from aqueous systems. Quantitative image analysis (QIA) is considered a useful technique for biological processes monitoring when combined to microscopy. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of ibuprofen (IBU), paracetamol (PARA), and ethynylestradiol (EE2) on the biomass morphology using QIA.The authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-010145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors also acknowledge the financial support to Cristina Quintelas through the postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/101338/2014) provided by FCT – Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

DNA-psoralen: single-molecule experiments and first principles calculations

The authors measure the persistence and contour lengths of DNA-psoralen complexes, as a function of psoralen concentration, for intercalated and crosslinked complexes. In both cases, the persistence length monotonically increases until a certain critical concentration is reached, above which it abruptly decreases and remains approximately constant. The contour length of the complexes exhibits no such discontinuous behavior. By fitting the relative increase of the contour length to the neighbor exclusion model, we obtain the exclusion number and the intrinsic intercalating constant of the psoralen-DNA interaction. Ab initio calculations are employed in order to provide an atomistic picture of these experimental findings.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures in re-print format 3 pages, 4 figures in the published versio

Distinção de fenómenos de bulking em lamas activadas por técnicas de análise de imagem

No corrente trabalho pretendeu-se detectar e identificar diferentes tipos de perturbações em lamas activadas (bulking filamentoso, bulking viscoso e crescimento de flocos pin point) por técnicas de processamento e análise de imagem. Para o efeito foram determinados os parâmetros operacionais sólidos suspensos totais (SST) e índice volumétrico de lamas (IVL), assim como diversos parâmetros morfológicos (conteúdo e morfologia da biomassa agregada e filamentosa), obtidos por análise de imagem. Os resultados obtidos permitiram o esclarecimento das diferentes inter-relações presentes entre cada uma das condições estudadas e os parâmetros que caracterizaram a biomassa microbiana, assim como a aferição do parâmetro operacional IVL, a partir da caracterização da biomassa

Polyhydroxyalkanoate granules quantification in mixed microbial cultures: Sudan Black B versus Nile Blue A staining

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are intracellular granules found in a wide variety of microorganisms under limited nutrient conditions when carbon source is available in excess. These polymers, usually from lipid nature, are used as carbon and energy sources for metabolic synthesis and growth. Despite the important role of PHAs in cell physiology, they are regarded as potential substitutes of traditional petrochemical plastics with the additional advantage of being completely biodegradable and produced from mixed microbial cultures (MMC). PHA quantification is regularly accomplished using a digestion step prior to chromatography analysis which is a labor and time-consuming technique. To overcome these limitations in polymers quantification, the present work investigates two methods for PHA granules identification based on quantitative image analysis (QIA) procedures in an enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) system operated for three months. MMC were analyzed for PHA granules detection by Sudan Black B (SBB) and Nile Blue A (NBA) staining using bright-field and epifluorescence microscopy, respectively. The captured color images were evaluated through QIA and the image analysis data was further processed using multivariate statistical analysis. Quite satisfactory partial least squares (PLS) regressions (R2) of 0.85 for NBA and 0.86 for SBB were established between PHA concentrations predicted from QIA parameters and determined by the standard analytical method. Although SBB staining procedure was found to provide a somewhat higher estimation of PHA concentrations in MMC, the consistency between PLS results allowed to conclude that both SBB and NBB staining methods combined with QIA procedures demonstrated the capability to estimate PHA concentrations. Concluding, both staining procedures are promising alternative for a faster PHA assessment relatively to the laborious standard PHA quantification

Identifying different types of bulking in an activated sludge system through quantitative image analysis

The present study proposes an image analysis methodology for the identification of different types of disturbances in wastewater treatment activated sludge systems. Up to date, most reported image analysis methodologies have been used in activated sludge processes with the aim of filamentous bulking detection, however, other disturbances could be foreseen in wastewater treatment plants. Such disturbances can lead to fluctuations in the biomass contents, affecting the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), and in the sludge settling ability, affecting the sludge volume index (SVI). Therefore, this work focuses on predicting the MLSS and SVI parameters for different types of disturbances affecting an activated sludge system. Four experiments were conducted simulating filamentous bulking, zoogleal or viscous bulking, pinpoint floc formation, and normal operating conditions. Alongside the MLSS and SVI determination, the aggregated and filamentous biomass contents and morphology were studied as well as the biomass Gram and viability status, by means of image analysis.The authors acknowledge the financial support to D.P.M. through the Grant SFRH/BD/32329/2006 and the project PTDC/EBB-EBI/103147/2008 provided by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia