Search

Wastewater generated by the pork industry urgently requires the implementation of low-cost, high-benefit, and efficient treatment systems. Accordingly, a microalgae-bacteria consortia-based treatment system is proposed for the removal of contaminants released, by the pork-producing industry, in swine wastewater. In this study, different inoculum concentrations of the microalgae-bacteria consortium were tested to document variation in the removal of nutrients from the wastewater. At varying concentrations, it was efficient and did not present a significant difference in the removal kinetics. The treatment with the greatest amount of inoculum removed close to 87% of total nitrogen, approximately 70% of orthophosphate, and 77% of chemical oxygen demand. Removals of 84% iron, 44% copper, and 48% manganese were also obtained. These results demonstrate that microalgae-bacteria consortia are an economically viable and environmentally desirable option for the efficient treatment of wastewater from the pork industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to evaluate plastic deformation's effect by cold-rolling on the precipitation sequence of 2024 aluminum alloy. X-ray diffraction, scanning/transmission electron microscopy, and Vickers microhardness tests have been used to characterize the microstructure and mechanical behavior of the alloys. It was observed that plastic deformation induces changes in the precipitation sequence, which affects the mechanical properties and delays the overaging stage. In the deformed alloy, two hardening peaks were observed. These peaks occurred at 30 min (248 HV ± 5) and 600 min (230 HV ± 2) and were attributed to the θ' and S' phases, respectively. However, in the non-deformed alloy, only a single hardening peak was observed. This peak arose after 300 min aging (208 HV ± 4) and was attributed to the S' phase formation. Thus, the precipitation sequence in the deformed alloy was the following: αSSS–CuMg clusters → GPB-II zones/θ''/θ'/ → S' → S, and for the non-deformed alloy was αSSS–CuMg clusters → GPB-II zones/S'/ → S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Principal axis methods such as principal component analysis (PCA) and correspondence analysis (CA) are useful for identifying structures in data through interesting planar graphic displays. However, some kinds of data sets can be dealt alternatively with PCA or CA. This paper focuses on methods, such as PCA and CA, and on visual displays. Our aim is to illustrate the implications for a potential user of selecting either method, and its advantages and disadvantages, from an applied point of view. This is a matter covered broadly in textbooks and elsewhere considering theoretical arguments. Our purpose is to contribute to the comparison between these methods, over the same data set, in order to illustrate them for the practitioner. In the first part of this paper we present a novel analytical study of a binary matrix associated with a non-oriented axis-symmetric graph and show that CA outperforms standardized PCA for the reconstitution and visualization of such kind of graphs. In the second part we present a case using real data dealing with the distribution of employees in different economic sectors for the countries of the European Union, analyzed by means of standardized PCA and two-way CA, in order to see the differences between the two methods in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]