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In this study, physicochemical pre- and post-treatment of highly polluting coking wastewater (CWW) for the removal of refractory compounds and recovery of high-energy substances/components was investigated. An economic optimization model targeting the development of a cost-effective and sustainable treatment technology was proposed. At the post-treatment stage, powdered activated carbon (PAC) was used to separate the refractory and toxic pollutants from the bio-treated CWW, with the adsorption capacity ranging from 50 to 120 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD) g -1 PAC. Then, the spent PAC, together with a coagulant, was reused in the pre-treatment of highly concentrated raw CWW, which lifted the adsorption capacity to 800-1200 mg COD g -1 PAC. Results showed that the adsorbent's high selectivity towards macromolecular and complicated pollutants could remove 25-65 % of COD in both CWW flows. Analysis of pollutants' molecular weight distribution and GC-MS indicated a good affinity between PAC and high-energy pollutants (phenolic compounds and alkanes), which could transfer 144,555 kJ m -3 of energy from CWW to the adsorption-coagulation sludge. The economic optimization model suggested that the cost of the adsorbent was compensated by the net benefits of energy recovery and that profit was achieved when the PAC price was less than 5562 CNY t -1 . The proposed two-stage PAC/coagulant approach offers a way to sustainable water quality and sludge management, plus energy recycling, in CWW treatment. It may also be applied to the treatment of other industrial wastewaters., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Systematically analyzing the problem of heavy metals in the municipal sludge, a meta-analysis of nine metals was undertaken to distinguish the sources and sinks of those with the impact of their accumulation on the environment. Municipal sludge was rich in N, P and K nutrients, was found to contain heavy metals comprising the descending order Zn > Mn > Cu > Cr > Pb > Ni > As > Cd > Hg. The forms, in which heavy metals accumulated in geographical regions, were characterized. The geographical distribution of heavy metals in the sludge showed a significant difference, with higher accumulation in Eastern and Southern regions, however, the risk evaluations showed the higher risk of heavy metals accumulation in Eastern and Western regions. Agricultural, industrial and traffic activities, and storm water pipeline sediments were identified as the main sources of heavy metals in the sludge. The correlation analysis elucidated the role of the total organic carbon in the accumulation of heavy metals in sludge. Municipal sludge is endowed with resource properties due to the detection of heavy metal contents thresholds in household products and its own resource-attributable enrichment behavior, which requires deduction of environmental risks., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The application of advanced biological treatment technology results in improved coking wastewater (CW) effluent quality at lower material and energy input practiced by wastewater treatment plants. In wastewater treatment, the diversity of biological processes combinations affects the variety of microorganisms and biochemical reactions resulting in effluent quality. Four full-scale CW processes, anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A/A/O), anoxic-oxic-hydrolytic-oxic (A/O/H/O), anoxic-oxic-oxic (A/O/O), and oxic-hydrolytic-oxic (O/H/O) were compared for their consumption of chemicals and energy, emissions of greenhouse gases, and excess sludge production. A new performance indicator combining the above mentioned parameters was proposed to comprehensively evaluate processes in capacity to CW. The O/H/O process showed stable and reliable operation with minimum chemicals cost and the average energy consumption, whereas A/A/O at its good performance in TN removal required a large amount of alkaline chemicals to maintain stability. Besides, a substantial addition of chemicals in A/A/O results in larger average amounts of inorganic sludge. Also, the A/A/O process with a single aerobic unit appeared to be incapable of energy saving when dealing with CW rich in nitrogen and poor in phosphorus. The process with dual aerobic units can achieve more complete carbon and nitrogen removal, which is related to the sequence of biochemical reactions. Diverse sequence combinations can create variation in HRT and DO, whereby contaminants proceed through distinct channels of degradation. In the comparative analysis of CWPIs, it could be seen that O/H/O is the biological treatment process with the least equivalent energy consumption input at present thus exhibiting promising application in CW treatment. The A/O/O and A/O/H/O combinations are good attempts of development; however, more energy-efficient operation modes have to be further investigated., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare that the manuscript consists of original and unpublished work, which is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. The manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. No conflict of interest presents in the submission of this manuscript., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The design of biological treatment process for the coking wastewater (CW) is complicated since wastewater treatment demand is gradually increasing lacking the systematic strategy in efficiency evaluation and advisable selection. Therefore, this study develops a holistic approach by means of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) that uses numerical representation to rank the preferences of each participating alternatives for evaluation of the advanced biological technologies in CW treatment. Based on survey results, six types reactor combinations were selected as the alternatives, which were further classified as two group according to COD load. The AHP methodology consists of weighting and ranking procedures considering technical, economic, environmental and administration factors defined as criteria layers. Eighteen indicators were chosen as sub-criteria layers. Inclusively beneficial and sustainable biological processes were assessed and ranked along the AHP implementation. The results placed technical indicators to the top position among the criteria layers in the weighting descending order 'technical indicators > economic indicators > environmental indicators > administrative indicators', whereas the weight of indicators in sub-criteria layers fitted in the range of 0.005 to 0.151. The inclusive priority calculation integrating all weight indices of criteria and sub-criteria layers resulted in the anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A/A/O) combination rising in the hierarchy of the low load group, whereas the oxic-hydrolytic-oxic (O/H/O) process was prioritized in the high load group. The accuracy and objectivity of AHP application was also supported by sensitivity and variability analyses that examines a range for the weights' values and corresponding to alternative scenarios., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare that the manuscript consists of original and unpublished work, which is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. The manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. No conflict of interest presents in the submission of this manuscript., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The purpose of the prospective clinical and pharmacoeconomic outcomes study of different first-line antiretroviral treatment strategies (PROPHET) was to examine the healthcare costs of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons in Germany treated with different antiretroviral therapy (ART) strategies and to identify variables associated with high costs., Methods: The setting was a 24-month prospective multicenter observational cohort study in a German HIV-specialized care setting from 2014 to 2017. A microcosting approach was used for the estimation of healthcare costs. Data were obtained via electronic case report forms. The costs were calculated from both the societal and the statutory health insurance perspective. Regression models were performed that took into consideration the impact of several independent variables., Results: Four hundred thirty-four patients from 24 centers throughout Germany were included. Average annual healthcare costs were €20 118 (standard deviation [SD] €6451) per patient from the societal perspective (n = 336) and €17 306 (SD €4106) from the statutory health insurance perspective (n = 292). Expenditures for the ART medication had the highest impact. Total costs declined in the second year of therapy. There was a significant association between the amount of total cost and clinical or therapeutic variables from both perspectives; a diagnosis of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) led to higher costs as well as the chosen ART strategy. Age also increased cost from the statutory health insurance perspective., Conclusions: The main cost driver of the healthcare costs for HIV-positive patients was antiretroviral drug expenses. Further variables that influenced the costs were identified. The results provide a detailed overview of the resource use of patients in the PROPHET cohort., (Copyright © 2020 ISPOR–The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A high-efficiency graphene oxide-terminated hyperbranched amino polymer-carboxymethyl cellulose ternary nanocomposite (GO-HBP-NH 2 -CMC) was fabricated for adsorbing heavy metals from aqueous solutions. The adsorbent was characterized by SEM, FT-IR, Raman, and XPS analyses showing its porous architecture, rough surface, abundant N- and O-containing functional groups providing enhanced binding ability towards Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ . Experimental adsorption data fitted well to the pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models, indicating the adsorption of GO-HBP-NH 2 -CMC towards Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ being a chemical and monolayer process. The maximum adsorption capacities of GO-HBP-NH 2 -CMC for Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ at 25 °C comprised 152.86 and 137.48 mg/g, respectively. The laboratory-scale experimental study into the Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ adsorption in a fixed-bed column was undertaken. Effects of flow rate, bed depth and influent metals concentration on the adsorption performance were assessed. Experimental data successfully correlated with the Adams-Bohart, Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models with the R 2 exceeding 0.79. Density functional theory calculation was adopted to study interactions between functional groups at GO-HBP-NH 2 -CMC and heavy metals showing OH, NH 2 and COOH moieties in GO-HBP-NH 2 -CMC being more likely to bind Pb 2+ rather than Cu 2+ , while the binding abilities of CONH towards Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ were similar., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are accumulated in the sludge collected from the coking wastewater treatment. Phenol with its efficient degradation observed in biological treatment promotes the solubility of PAHs in aqueous phase. The interaction mechanism of phenol and PAHs in aqueous and sludge phases was systematically studied in two full-scale engineering projects composed of anaerobic-oxic-oxic (A-O 1 -O 2 ) and anaerobic-oxic-hydrolytic-oxic (A-O 1 -H-O 2 ) sequences. The results showed that reasonable use of phenol facilitates solubilization of PAHs alleviating their emission problems. The ΔPAHs/Δphenol mass ratio in the sludge phase of A-O 1 -H-O 2 system (146.3) exceeded that in A-O 1 -O 2 one (63.80), exhibiting a good solubilization effect on PAHs with their more efficient degradation in the former. The full-scale observations were verified in laboratory solubilization experiments using phenanthrene (Phen), pyrene (Pyr) and benzo[a]pyrene (Bap) as the models of 3-, 4- and 5-ring PAHs, respectively. The binding energies of [phenol - PAHs] complexes were calculated using computational density functional theory showing consistency with the experimentally observed phenol-facilitated solubilization efficiencies in the row of Phen>Pyr>Bap. The results showed the fate and distribution of PAHs in coking wastewater treatment affected by the presence of phenol serving as a cost effective reagent for enhanced solubilization of PAHs from the coking wastewater sludge., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

One ferret (Mustela putorius furo) from Finland and two ferrets from Austria, aged 1-4.5 years and of both genders, were presented with pyogranulomatous subcutaneous inflammation affecting the inguinal, preputial and femoral regions, respectively. Histologically, microorganisms were detected within the lesions. The organisms had a capsule that stained positively by the periodic acid-Schiff reaction. Pseudomonas spp. were cultured from the lesions in two cases. In the third case, electron microscopy revealed a prokaryotic organism surrounded by an electron lucent matrix. 16S rRNA gene sequencing showed highest sequence homology to Pseudomonas luteola in all three cases. In combination with recent reports of pleuropneumonia in ferrets due to P. luteola infection, these cases might indicate a predisposition of ferrets for infection by these bacteria., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of the present research concerns the competitive photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) and adsorption of steroid estrogens (SEs) on titanium dioxide in presence of urea. The results showed the indifference of SEs towards the presence of urea in concentrations characteristic for the domestic sewage. The selective PCO of SEs appeared to be feasible in alkaline media, in which the PCO exhibited the highest efficiency. Ethanol used for hydrophobic SEs dissolution in water appeared to be interfering with the PCO.

The neurophysiological and neuroanatomical foundations of developmental language disorder (DLD) are still a matter of dispute. A main argument is that children with DLD show atypical anatomical asymmetries of speech-relevant brain areas, which possibly affect efficient language processing. In contrast to previous anatomical studies in DLD children, this study employed voxel based morphometry (VBM) in order to search for brain anomalies outside the classical language areas. Children with DLD (n=21) and healthy children (n=21) matched for age, sex, hand preference, and education were studied using high-resolution MRI scans. Using a new variant of the voxel-based morphometry technique (augmented VBM), the brains of children with DLD and control children were compared with respect to white matter (WM) and grey matter (GM) differences. In addition, simple hand motor tests were used to uncover possible motor impairments in DLD children. We found decreased WM volumes in a left-hemispheric network comprising the motor cortex, the dorsal premotor cortex, the ventral premotor cortex, and the planum polare on the superior temporal gyrus. In addition, DLD children exhibited motor impairments in most of the applied motor tests. These results provide strong evidence that children with DLD have anomalous anatomy in a left-sided network comprising motor and language areas. Thus, this study supports the suggestion that motor and language functions are equally impaired because the underlying anatomical underpinnings are regionally identical.