Denitrification for the treatment of nitrates in wastewater typically relies on organic electron donating substrates. However, for groundwater treatment, inorganic compounds such as elemental sulfur ...(S
0) are being considered as alternative electron donars in order to overcome concerns that residual organics can cause biofouling. In this study, a packed-bed bioreactor supplied with S
0:limestone granules (1:1, v/v) was started up utilizing a chemolithotrophic denitrifying enrichment culture in the form of biofilm granules that was pre-cultivated on thiosulfate. The granular enrichment culture enabled a rapid start-up of the bioreactor. A nearly complete removal of nitrate (7.3
mM) was
NO
3
-
attained by the bioreactor at nitrate loading rates of up to 21.6
mmol/(L
reactor
d). With lower influent concentrations (1.3
mM nitrate) comparable to those found in contaminated groundwater, high nitrate loads of 18.1
mmol/(L
reactor
d) were achieved with an average nitrate removal efficiency of 95.9%. The recovery of nitrogen as benign N
2 gas was nearly stoichiometric. The concentration of undesirable products from S
0-based denitrification such as nitrite and sulfide were low. Comparison of bioreactor results with batch kinetic studies revealed that denitrification rates were dependent on the surface area of the added S
0. The surface area normalized denitrification rate was determined to be 26.4
mmol /(m
2 S
0
d).
Introducción: El desfibrilador automático implantable (DAI) transvenoso es el tratamiento de elección para la prevención de muerte súbita (MS) cardiaca por arritmias ventriculares malignas. Su uso se ...puede ver limitado cuando existe infección del sistema de estimulación o en población pediátrica donde representa un reto por diversas razones, incluyendo: las mínimas dimensiones del sistema venoso de los niños, la longitud de los electrodos, el tamaño del generador, así como por la complejidad anatómica en casos de cardiopatía congénita asociada. Objetivo: El presente artículo tiene por objetivo presentar la primera serie de casos de pacientes mexicanos a los cuales se les implantó un DAI subcutáneo (DAI-SC) como terapia para la prevención de MS. Métodos: Se presentan los cuatro primeros casos que fueron implantados en el Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez con un DAI-SC (Emblem, Boston Scientific, EE.UU.), tres de ellos eran pacientes pediátricos, incluyendo el primer implante de este tipo de dispositivo en un paciente pediátrico en América Latina. Las técnicas de tres y dos incisiones fueron empleadas bajo anestesia general. Resultados: Se realizó el implante exitoso con técnica de tres incisiones en los dos primeros casos y con técnica de dos incisiones en los dos últimos casos. Se corroboró el adecuado funcionamiento del dispositivo en sala, con la verificación de terapia apropiada (65 J) de la fibrilación ventricular inducida mediante estimulación a 50 Hz. No hubo complicaciones inmediatas. Un paciente presentó descargas apropiadas a los dos meses del implante. En el seguimiento, un niño desarrolló erosión de la piel a nivel de la curva del electrodo en el esternón, sin datos de infección. En quirófano se resecó la piel dañada, se retiró el barril y la seda de fijación, se realizó lavado quirúrgico y se volvió a cerrar la piel, logrando así evitar el retiro del sistema. Conclusiones: El DAI-SC es una terapia alternativa al DAI endovenoso y puede ser considerado de primera elección en aquellos casos que no requieran de estimulación ventricular, incluyendo pacientes pediátricos. Pueden ocurrir complicaciones cutáneas, pero no representan una amenaza como las complicaciones venosas de los DAI convencionales.
Crab wastes are employed for simultaneous production of chitin and L(+)-lactic acid by submerged fermentation of Lactobacillus sp. B2 using sugar cane molasses as carbon source. Response surface ...methodology was applied to design the culture media considering demineralization. Fermentations in stirred tank reactor (2L) using selected conditions produced 88% demineralization and 56% deproteinization with 34% yield of chitin and 19.5 gL−1 of lactic acid (77% yield). The chitin purified from fermentation displayed 95% degree of acetylation and 0.81 and 1 ± 0.125% of residual ash and protein contents, respectively.
Numerical estimation of Lyapunov exponents in non-linear dynamical systems results in a very high computational cost. This is due to the large-scale computational cost of several Runge–Kutta problems ...that need to be calculated. In this work we introduce a parallel implementation based on MPI (Message Passing Interface) for the calculation of the Lyapunov exponents for a multidimensional dynamical system, considering a weakly coupled algorithm. Since we work on an academic high-latency cluster interconnected with a gigabit switch, the design has to be oriented to reduce the number of messages required. With the design introduced in this work, the computing time is drastically reduced, and the obtained performance leads to close to optimal speed-up ratios. The implemented parallelisation allows us to carry out many experiments for the calculation of several Lyapunov exponents with a low-cost cluster. The numerical experiments showed a high scalability, which we showed with up to 68 cores.
El objetivo de este trabajo es dar a conocer un hallazgo de restos humanos del llamado periodo precerámico, ocurrido de forma accidental al sur de la cuenca de México, en el poblado de Tláhuac de la ...Ciudad de México. Son los restos de un esqueleto casi completo, aunque en estado multifragmentado, a excepción del cráneo. El análisis osteológico indica que se trata de un individuo adulto joven de sexo femenino, al que hemos denominado la Mujer de Tláhuac. Su edad radiocarbónica se estimó en 8330 + 40 años BP (95.4%, 9465 - 9260 cal BP); fechamiento que corresponde al de algunos restos considerados “paleoamericanos”. Exploramos la variación del patrón morfológico craneofacial de la mujer Tláhuac aplicando análisis de componentes principales (PCA) comparativamente con otros especímenes de México, Brasil y Estados Unidos que datan del Pleistoceno tardío al Holoceno medio. Sin embargo, a pesar de su cronología, este ejemplar difiere del grado morfológico predominante a fines del Pleistoceno y se asemeja más a la población nativa americana moderna.
Abstract BACKGROUND: Visceral pleural invasion (VPI) may impact non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survival. However, previous studies are mixed as to whether VPI is an independent prognostic factor ...in early-stage cancers and whether its effect is size dependent. In the current American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system, VPI leads to upstaging of cancers < 3 cm but not of those 3 to 7 cm in size. METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry, we identified 16,315 patients with stage I-II NSCLC treated with lobectomy. We used the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression to assess the association of VPI with lung cancer-specific (primary outcome) and overall survival. Based on these results, we created a revised VPI staging classification. RESULTS: Overall, 3,389 patients (21%) had VPI. Kaplan-Meier analysis stratified by tumor size showed worse cancer-specific survival in patients with VPI ( P < .0001). VPI was independently associated with decreased lung cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.29-1.47) after controlling for tumor size and other confounders; this effect was not size dependent. In our revised classification, tumors < 7 cm with VPI were upstaged to the next T category. CONCLUSIONS: VPI is a prevalent finding associated with worse prognosis in early-stage lung cancer, even among patients with tumors > 3 cm, a factor not captured in the current staging system. Patients with VPI may be considered candidates for more aggressive treatment.
A microbial consortium attached onto a polyethylene support was used to evaluate the simultaneous oxidation of sulfide and phenol by denitrification. The phenol, sulfide and nitrate loading rates ...applied to an inverse fluidized bed reactor were up to 168
mg phenol–C/(l
d), 37
mg S
2−/(l
d) and 168
mg NO
3
−–N/(l
d), respectively. Under steady state operation the consumption efficiencies of phenol, sulfide and nitrate were 100%. The N
2 yield (g N
2/g NO
3
−–N) was 0.89. The phenol was mineralized resulting in a yield of 0.82
g bicarbonate–C/g phenol–C and sulfide was completely oxidized to sulfate with a yield of 0.99
g SO
4
2−–S/g S
2−. 16S rRNA gene-based microbial community analysis of the denitrifying biofilm showed the presence of
Thauera aromatica,
Thiobacillus denitrificans,
Thiobacillus sajanensis and
Thiobacillus sp. This is the first work reporting the simultaneous oxidation of sulfide and phenol in a denitrifying biofilm reactor.
It has been postulated that patient's sex impacts response to immunotherapy. Sex modulation of immunotherapy benefit, however, has not yet been explored using patient-level data, where potential ...confounders, as well as histologic type, can be accounted for. Here we investigated the association between sex and chemoimmunotherapy efficacy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using a large, nation-wide dataset.
Stage IV NSCLC patients diagnosed in 2015 were identified in the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Patients were treated with either chemoimmunotherapy or chemotherapy alone. The efficacy of the addition of immunotherapy treatment by sex was investigated using both an adjusted Cox proportional hazards model and propensity-score matching, in both the overall cohort and stratified by histological subtype.
2064 (16%) patients received chemoimmunotherapy and10,733 (84%) received chemotherapy alone. Adjusted survival analysis in the overall cohort showed that both males (hazards ratio (HR)
: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.74-0.87) and females (HR
: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.76-0.90) had better OS when treated with chemoimmunotherapy than chemotherapy alone, with no statistically significant interaction between sex and receipt of immunotherapy (p = 0.63). Propensity matching confirmed these results. However, for those with squamous cell histology, male patients derived more benefit from chemoimmunotherapy treatment than females (HR
: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.58-0.91 vs HR
: 1.03, 95% CI: 0.76-1.38; p for interaction = 0.07).
Male patients with squamous cell carcinoma may derive more benefit from chemoimmunotherapy treatment. Histology likely plays an important role in how sex modulates immunotherapy efficacy.
The mechanism underlying the production of fungal lignocellulolytic enzymes from lignocellulosic biomass remains unclear; therefore, it is imperative to investigate the interactions of ...microorganisms, culture components, and enzyme production. In this research, four native fungi isolated from agave bagasse:
Aspergillus fumigatus
(BC-1IB and BDJ-1S),
Neurospora sitophila
(BDJ-1I), and
Rhizopus oryzae
(BC-3IDA), were used to evaluate their interaction with lignocellulosic biomass as carbon source (agave or sugarcane bagasse) and pH (6.4 and 7.9) during the production of enzymatic extracts by solid-state fermentation with a packed-bed bioreactor. The evaluated enzymatic activities were pectinolytic, cellulolytic, and xylanolytic. The results demonstrate that the interaction between fungal strain, biomass, and pH during solid-state fermentation has a relevant effect on the final catalytic properties of the resulting enzymatic extract. The interaction between BDJ-1I and agave bagasse results in a pectinase extract that preserves above 99% of its activity at 70 °C for 5 h. Notably, the interaction between
N. sitophila
BDJ-1I with agave bagasse at pH 6.4 results in extracts with higher pectinase (96.8 IU/gdw), cellulase (39.3 IU/gdw), and xylanase (26.6 IU/gdw) activities suitable for hydrolyzing agro-industrial residues like wheat straw (30.2%), sugarcane (17.4%), and agave bagasse (28.4%). These findings highlight reusing agave and sugarcane bagasse residues for biotransformation into lignocellulosic enzyme cocktails with naturally present fungi strains toward the sustainable zero-waste management of agave and sugarcane bagasse biomass.
Graphical Abstract
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