1,720,970 research outputs found

    Effect of feed length on settleability, substrate uptake and storage in a sequencing batch reactor treating an industrial wastewater

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    The paper compares the performance of two Sequencing Batch Reactors (SBRs) treating the same industrial wastewater (composed of formic acid, ethylene glycol and methanol) operated at two different lengths of the feed. The two SBRs were operated in parallel under the same conditions of organic load (0.85 gCOD l(-1) d(-1)) and sludge age (about 10 d), the only difference being the length of the feed: less than 1 min vs. 5 h. In this way the conditions of a plug flow reactor and of a completely mixed reactor were simulated. The two systems were compared on sludge settleability (related to filaments abundance and floc morphology), substrate uptake rates and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) storage rates. The main difference between the two systems was in the settling properties of the sludge: both SVI and effluent solids were higher in the system with slow feed. With regard to filamentous microorganisms, even though both reactors were inoculated with the same sludge with high concentration of filaments, they were rapidly washed out from both systems. Microscopic observations showed that the reason for the different settling properties of the two sludges was in the floc structure, which was more compact in the system operated with fast feed. These data support the theory of the role of diffusion inside the flocs in determining the settling properties of the sludge. The maximum substrate uptake rates and PHA storage rates were similar in the two systems, showing that also the microorganisms grown at a constant and low substrate concentration were able to quickly increase their activity and to store PHAs when in the presence of a sudden change in substrate concentration

    Role of storage phenomena on removal of different substrates during pre-denitrification

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    Removal mechanisms of different substrates during the pre-denitrification step of an anoxic/aerobic sequencing process are studied. Biomass was cultivated in an anoxic/aerobic SBR and fed with a mixture of low and high molecular weight compounds. Substrate removal mechanisms are studied by means of batch tests, performed under anoxic conditions. The dynamic response to a spike of four different substrates (acetate, glucose, glutamic acid and ethanol) is described by simultaneously considering substrate and electron acceptor removal, and PHB and carbohydrates storage. PHB storage is a relevant mechanism during the removal of acetate and ethanol, while glucose is removed mainly by carbohydrate storage

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    PHA storage from several substrates by different morphological types in an anoxic/aerobic SBR

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    An activated sludge was cultivated on a mixture of several soluble substrates (acetate, ethanol, glucose, glutamic acid, peptone, Tween 80, starch, yeast extract) in an anoxic/aerobic SBR. Highly dynamic conditions in the SBR (feast famine regime) caused fast removal of most COD in the anoxic phase (in particular acetate, ethanol, glutamic acid and glucose were totally removed) and relevant contribution of storage. In spite of that, filament abundance was always high, as is typical of bulking sludges. Filaments which developed in the reactor were characterized on a morphological basis and on the basis of their ability to grow and to store polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Three main filaments prevailed in the biocenosis, whose relative abundance was varyng with time: Nostocoida limicola II, (two different morphological types), Haliscomenobacter hydrossis and an unidentified one. It was found that maximum growth rate was higher for flocformers than for filaments on each of the tested substrates. Epifluorescence showed that storage ability was more widespread among flocformers than in the filaments. Only one type of Nostocoida limicola II was able to store PHAs. The obtained data show that aerobic growth on the little residual fraction of COD from the anoxic phase was enough to support high abundance of filamentous microorganisms

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods
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