Comparative goal-oriented assessment of conventional and alternative sewage sludge treatment options

Phosphorous (P) is a limited and non-substitutable resource. Sewage sludge contains significant amounts of P and is therefore a widely applied fertilizer. Due to its organic and inorganic contaminants, sewage sludge is also combusted in industrial facilities as well as in waste incinerators. This study compares five common methods and one novel alternative based on a thermo-chemical process to treat and dispose of sewage sludge with regard to environmental impact, resource recovery, and materials dissipation. The comparison is based on material flow analysis, energy balances, selected LCA impact analysis, and statistical entropy analysis. This work shows that the novel technology combines both advantages of the established practices: organic and inorganic pollutants are either destroyed or removed from the P containing material, and the P returned to the soil exhibits high plant-availability. The novel method also has low emissions. The additional energy requirements should be reduced. However, with regards to sewage sludge P recovery is more important than energy recovery.     

Imposex occurrence in marine whelks at a military facility in the high Arctic

Imposex was found in the Arctic whelk Buccinum finmarkianum at several marine stations off Thule Air Base, an US military facility in Northwest Greenland. This indicates a widespread contamination with the antifouling agents, tributyltin (TBT) or triphenyltin (TPhT) in the area, but such contamination was not supported by the organotin analyses in sediments, whelks and clams, which in general was below the analytical detection limit. Organotin concentrations above the detection limit were found only at one station close to a quay, where the highest frequency of imposex also occurred. This suggests that imposex in B. finmarkianum is a biomarker of TBT more sensitive than the detection limits, which the analytical chemistry could achieve in this study.     

Inactivation of Viruses and Bacteriophages as Models for Swine Hepatitis E Virus in Food Matrices

Hepatitis E virus has been recognised as a food-borne virus hazard in pork products, due to its zoonotic properties. This risk can be reduced by adequate treatment of the food to inactivate food-borne viruses. We used a spectrum of viruses and bacteriophages to evaluate the effect of three food treatments: high pressure processing (HPP), lactic acid (LA) and intense light pulse (ILP) treatments. On swine liver at 400 MPa for 10 min, HPP gave log₁₀ reductions of ≥4.2, ≥5.0 and 3.4 for feline calicivirus (FCV) 2280, FCV wildtype (wt) and murine norovirus 1 (MNV 1), respectively. Escherichia coli coliphage ?X174 displayed a lower reduction of 1.1, while Escherichia coli coliphage MS2 was unaffected. For ham at 600 MPa, the corresponding reductions were 4.1, 4.4, 2.9, 1.7 and 1.3 log₁₀. LA treatment at 2.2 M gave log₁₀ reductions in the viral spectrum of 0.29–2.1 for swine liver and 0.87–3.1 for ham, with ?X174 and MNV 1, respectively, as the most stable microorganisms. The ILP treatment gave log₁₀ reductions of 1.6–2.8 for swine liver, 0.97–2.2 for ham and 1.3–2.3 for sausage, at 15–60 J cm^?2, with MS2 as the most stable microorganism. The HPP treatment gave significantly (p < 0.05) greater virus reduction on swine liver than ham for the viruses at equivalent pressure/time combinations. For ILP treatment, reductions on swine liver were significantly (p < 0.05) greater than on ham for all microorganisms. The results presented here could be used in assessments of different strategies to protect consumers against virus contamination and in advice to food producers. Conservative model indicators for the pathogenic viruses could be suggested.     

Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus distribution in particle size-fractionated separated pig and cattle slurry

Solid liquid separation of animal slurry is a method to reduce the excess nutrient loads from intensive livestock production. Five different separation technologies (sedimentation, centrifugation, pressurized filtration, polymer flocculation and drainage, and iron chloride addition + polymer flocculation and drainage) were applied to pig and cattle slurry in a laboratory study. Separation efficiencies of mass, dry matter (DM), N, and P were measured. Particle size fractionation of the solid fractions was performed by subjecting them to wet fractionation and C, organic N (N(org)), and P contents were subsequently measured. Chemical pretreatment with polymer before gravity drainage separated DM, total N, and P from raw pig and cattle slurry with the highest efficiencies. Sedimentation and centrifugation separated P from pig and cattle slurries with higher simple separation efficiencies (0.77 and 0.70, respectively) compared with pressurized filtration (0.15 and 0.37). Pressurized filtration transferred the lowest masses (14 and 18%) to the solid fractions. Solid fractions from pig slurry generally contained higher concentrations of P and C compared with cattle slurry solid fractions. The majority of C in solid fractions was present in particles > 25 microm, whereas N and P were present in larger proportions in particles < 25 microm. Chemical pretreatment increased the capture of smaller N(org)- and P-rich particles into larger particles between 25 and 1000 microm.     

Comprehensive prenatal diagnostics: Exome versus genome sequencing

Objective

This study aimed to assess the diagnostic yield of prenatal genetic testing using trio whole exome sequencing (WES) and trio whole genome sequencing (WGS) in pregnancies with fetal anomalies by comparing the results with conventional chromosomal microarray (CMA) analysis.

Methods

A total of 40 pregnancies with fetal anomalies or increased nuchal translucency (NT ≥ 5 mm) were included between the 12th and 21st week of gestation. Trio WES/WGS and CMA were performed in all cases.

Results

The trio WES/WGS analysis increased the diagnostic yield by 25% in cases with negative CMA results. Furthermore, all six chromosomal aberrations identified by CMA were independently detected by WES/WGS analysis. In total, 16 out of 40 cases obtained a genetic sequence variant, copy number variant, or aneuploidy explaining the phenotype, resulting in an overall WES/WGS diagnostic yield of 40%. WES analysis provided a more reliable identification of mosaic sequence variants than WGS because of its higher sequencing depth.

Conclusions

Prenatal WES/WGS proved to be powerful diagnostic tools for fetal anomalies, surpassing the diagnostic yield of CMA. They have the potential to serve as standalone methods for prenatal diagnosis. The study highlighted the limitations of WGS in accurately detecting mosaic variants, which is particularly relevant when analyzing chorionic villus samples.     

PAH-sequestration capacity of granular and powder activated carbon amendments in soil, and their effects on earthworms and plants

A field lysimeter study was carried out to investigate whether the amendment of 2% powder and granular activated carbon (PAC and GAC) to a soil with moderate PAH contamination had an impact on the PAH bioaccumulation of earthworms and plants, since AC is known to be a strong sorbent for organic pollutants. Furthermore, secondary effects of AC on plants and earthworms were studied through growth and nutrient uptake, and survival and weight gain. Additionally, the effect of AC amendments on soil characteristics like pH, water holding capacity, and the water retention curve of the soil were investigated. Results show that the amendment of 2% PAC had a negative effect on plant growth while the GAC increased the growth rate of plants. PAC was toxic to earthworms, demonstrated by a significant weight loss, while the results for GAC were less clear due to ambiguous results of a field and a parallel laboratory study. Both kinds of AC significantly reduced biota to soil accumulation factors (BSAFs) of PAHs in earthworms and plants. The GAC reduced the BSAFs of earthworms by an average of 47 ± 44% and the PAC amendment reduced them by 72 ± 19%. For the investigated plants the BSAFs were reduced by 46 ± 36% and 53 ± 22% by the GAC and PAC, respectively.     

Environmental Effects of In Situ Burning of Oil Spills in Inland and Upland Habitats

In situ burning of inland and upland habitats is an alternative oil spill cleanup technique that, when used appropriately, may be more environmentally acceptable than intrusive manual, mechanical, and chemical treatments. There have been few published reports documenting the environmental effects of in situ burning in inland and upland habitats. Thus, this study, sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, used two approaches to increase the knowledge base and improve the appropriate use of in situ burning: (1) detailed review of published and unpublished in situ burn case histories for inland and upland spills; and (2) summaries of fire effects and other information from the literature on fire ecology and prescribed burning. Thirty-one case histories were summarized to identify the state of the practice concerning the reasons for burning, favorable conditions for burning, and evaluations of burn effects. The fire ecology and effects summaries included information from the extensive knowledge base surrounding wildfire and prescribed burning (without oil) as a natural resource management tool, as well as fire tolerance and burning considerations for dominant vegetation types of the United States. Results from these two approaches should improve the application of in situ burning for inland and upland spills.     

Pigeon homing: A repetition of the deflector loft experiment

Summary Pigeons brought up in closed cages deflecting the winds to the left or to the right show, on release, a bias of the mean vanishing directions to the left or right of the mean direction of untreated control birds. The results are in full accord with the findings of Baldaccini et al. (1975).Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft     

Solute transport in crystalline rocks at Äspö — I: Geological basis and model calibration

Water-conducting faults and fractures were studied in the granite-hosted Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (SE Sweden). On a scale of decametres and larger, steeply dipping faults dominate and contain a variety of different fault rocks (mylonites, cataclasites, fault gouges). On a smaller scale, somewhat less regular fracture patterns were found. Conceptual models of the fault and fracture geometries and of the properties of rock types adjacent to fractures were derived and used as input for the modelling of in situ dipole tracer tests that were conducted in the framework of the Tracer Retention Understanding Experiment (TRUE-1) on a scale of metres. After the identification of all relevant transport and retardation processes, blind predictions of the breakthroughs of conservative to moderately sorbing tracers were calculated and then compared with the experimental data. This paper provides the geological basis and model calibration, while the predictive and inverse modelling work is the topic of the companion paper [J. Contam. Hydrol. 61 (2003) 175].The TRUE-1 experimental volume is highly fractured and contains the same types of fault rocks and alterations as on the decametric scale. The experimental flow field was modelled on the basis of a 2D-streamtube formalism with an underlying homogeneous and isotropic transmissivity field. Tracer transport was modelled using the dual porosity medium approach, which is linked to the flow model by the flow porosity. Given the substantial pumping rates in the extraction borehole, the transport domain has a maximum width of a few centimetres only. It is concluded that both the uncertainty with regard to the length of individual fractures and the detailed geometry of the network along the flowpath between injection and extraction boreholes are not critical because flow is largely one-dimensional, whether through a single fracture or a network. Process identification and model calibration were based on a single uranine breakthrough (test PDT3), which clearly showed that matrix diffusion had to be included in the model even over the short experimental time scales, evidenced by a characteristic shape of the trailing edge of the breakthrough curve. Using the geological information and therefore considering limited matrix diffusion into a thin fault gouge horizon resulted in a good fit to the experiment. On the other hand, fresh granite was found not to interact noticeably with the tracers over the time scales of the experiments.While fracture-filling gouge materials are very efficient in retarding tracers over short periods of time (hours–days), their volume is very small and, with time progressing, retardation will be dominated by altered wall rock and, finally, by fresh granite. In such rocks, both porosity (and therefore the effective diffusion coefficient) and sorption K_ds are more than one order of magnitude smaller compared to fault gouge, thus indicating that long-term retardation is expected to occur but to be less pronounced.     

Deltas,freshwater discharge,and waves along the Young Sound,NE Greenland

A wide range of delta morphologies occurs along the fringes of the Young Sound in Northeast Greenland due to spatial heterogeneity of delta regimes. In general, the delta regime is related to catchment and basin characteristics (geology, topography, drainage pattern, sediment availability, and bathymetry), fluvial discharges and associated sediment load, and processes by waves and currents. Main factors steering the Arctic fluvial discharges into the Young Sound are the snow and ice melt and precipitation in the catchment, and extreme events like glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Waves are subordinate and only rework fringes of the delta plain forming sandy bars if the exposure and fetch are optimal. Spatial gradients and variability in driving forces (snow and precipitation) and catchment characteristics (amount of glacier coverage, sediment characteristics) as well as the strong and local influence of GLOFs in a specific catchment impede a simple upscaling of sediment fluxes from individual catchments toward a total sediment flux into the Young Sound.