Risk of infections associated with biological treatment in inflammatory bowel disease

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) inhibitors are biological agents introduced in the late 1990s for the treatment of different immune-mediated diseases as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. The most commonly used TNF-α antagonists are infliximab, adalimumab, and certolizumab pegol, and though highly effective in lowering inflammation, the efficacy must be weighed against the potential for adverse events. The treatment-induced immunosuppression is suspected to increase the risk of infections, including the risk of reactivation of latent tuberculosis, as the TNF-α cytokine plays an important role in the immune function. In this topic highlight a short overview of the infection risk associated with TNF-α inhibiter therapy is outlined with a focus on the overall risk of serious infections, mycobacterial infection and latent viral infections.

Fluidized-Bed Bioreactor Applications for Biological Wastewater Treatment： A Review of Research and Developments

Wastewater treatment is a process that is vital to protecting both the environment and human health. At present, the most cost-effective way of treating wastewater is with biological treatment processes such as the activated sludge process, despite their long operating times. However, population increases have created a demand for more efficient means of wastewater treatment, Fluidization has been demonstrated to in- crease the efficiency of many processes in chemical and biochemical engineering, but it has not been widely used in large-scale wastewater treatment. At the University of Western Ontario, the circulating fluidized-bed bioreactor （CFBBR） was developed for treating wastewater. In this process, carrier particles develop a biofilm composed of bacteria and other microbes. The excellent mixing and mass transfer characteristics inherent to fluidization make this process very effective at treating both municipal and industrial wastewater. Studies of lab- and pilot-scale systems showed that the CFBBR can remove over 90% of the influent organic matter and 80% of the nitrogen, and produces less than one-third as much biological sludge as the activated sludge process. Due to its high efficiency, the CFBBR can also be used to treat wastewaters with high organic solid concentrations, which are more difficult to treat with conventional methods because they require longer residence times; the CFBBR can also be used to reduce the system size and footprint. In addition, it is much better at handling and recovering from dynamic loadings （i.e., varying influent volume and concentrations） than current systems. Overall, the CFBBR has been shown to be a very effective means of treating wastewa- ter, and to be capable of treating larger volumes of wastewater using a smaller reactor volume and a shorter residence time. In addition, its compact design holds potential for more geographically localized and isolat- ed wastewater treatment systems.

Biological treatments as a mean to improve feed utilization in agriculture animals——An overview

As a result of agriculture practices, million tons of agriculture are produced as a secondary or by-products; however, with low nutritive values. Many methods are applied to improve the nutritive value and increase its utilization in ruminant＇s nutrition. The biological treatments are the most common with more safe-treated products. In most cases, the biological treatments are paralleled with decreased crude fiber and fiber fractions content with increased crude protein content. Direct-fed microbial and exogenous enzymes to animal are other ways of biological methods for improving nutritive value of feeds. Here in this review, we will try to cover the biological treatments of by-products from different sides view with different types of animals and different animal end-products.

Removal of Pesticides from Water Using Anaerobic-Aerobic Biological Treatment

The biodegradability of wastewater containing priority pollutant pesticideVydine or triadimenol（C14H18CLN3O2） in different bio-reactor configurations was investigated.Two laboratory scale biological reactors were employed：one reactor under aerobic condition and the other under anaerobic condition.The aerobic reactor was operated at an ambient temperature（22±2） °C,while the anaerobic reactor was run in the lower mesophilic range（30±2） °C.The effect of pesticide concentration,hydraulic retention time（HRT） ,and co-substrate on the treatment process was explored,using glucose as a supplemental carbon substrate.More than 96%pesticide was removed after an acclimation period of approximately 172 d（aerobic） and 230 d（anaerobic） .The aerobic reactor achieved complete Vydine utilization at feed concentrations up to 25 mg·L^-1 .On the other hand,the anaerobic reactor was able to degrade 25 mg·L^-1 of Vydine.Moreover,glucose was consumed first throughout the experiment in a sequential utilization pattern.The combination of anaerobic and aerobic biological processes yielded higher biomass concentration and lower retention time than individual units.The biomass in the combined reactors was first acclimated with the corresponding pesticide.Then,the target pesticide,at a concentration of 25 mg·L^-1,was sequentially treated in a semi batch mode in the reactors.HRT studies showed that 24 h HRT of aerobic and 12 h HRT of anaerobic were the optimum combination for the treatment of simulated wastewater containing Vydine,which produced Vydine effluent at concentration below 0.1 mg·L^-1 .The optimum ratio of substrate（Vydine） to co-substrate（glucose） was 1︰100.

Biological treatment of wastewater with high concentrations of zinc and sulfate ions from zinc pyrithione synthesis

An enriched and domesticated bacteria consortium of sulfate-reducing bacteria(SRB)was used to treat wastewater from zinc pyrithione(ZPT)production,and the effects of different reaction parameters on sulfate reduction and zinc precipitation were evaluated.The single-factor experimental results showed that the removal rates of Zn2+and24SO?decreased with an increased ZPT concentration ranging from3.0to5.0mg/L.Zn2+and24SO?in wastewater were effectively removed under the conditions of30?35°C,pH7?8and an inoculum concentration of10%?25%.The presence of Fe0in the SRB system enhanced Zn2+and24SO?removal and may increase the resistance of SRB to the toxicity of Zn2+and ZPT in wastewater.A Box?Behnken design was used to evaluate the influence of the main operating parameters on the removal rate of24SO?.The optimum parameter values were found to be pH7.45,33.61°C and ZPT concentration of0.62mg/L,and the removal rate of24SO?reached a maximum of91.62%under these optimum conditions.

Enhancing Biological Wastewater Treatment with Chitosan

Chitin and chitosan have been applied to biological wastewater treatment.From a number of parallel comparison experiments,it can be concluded that the application of chitin and chitosan can both enhance the biological treatment,besides which chitosan is more efficient than chitin.The study on the enhancement mechanism reveals the difference between the two additives:chitosan improves the sludge structure and settlibility,while chitin acts as a kind of carrier for microorganism in the biological treatment system.

Intended process water management concept for the mechanical biological treatment of municipal solid waste

Accumulating operational experience in both aerobic and anaerobic mechanical biological waste treatment （MBT） makes it increasingly obvious that controlled water management would substantially reduce the cost of MBT and also enhance resource recovery of the organic and inorganic fraction. The MBT plant at Gescher, Germany, is used as an example in order to determine the quantity and composition of process water and leachates from intensive and subsequent rotting, pressing water from anaerobic digestion and scrubber water from acid exhaust air treatment, and hence prepare an MBT water balance. The potential of, requirements for and limits to internal process water reuse as well as the possibilities of resource recovery from scrubber water are also examined. Finally, an assimilated process water management concept with the purpose of an extensive reduction of wastewater quantity and freshwater demand is presented.

Research of the Mechanism of Enhancing Biological Treatment by Chitosan

Chitosan of different molecular weight （M. W. ） was added into SBR bioreactor to treat domestic wastewater. From comparison of treatment efficiency, sludge activity, sludge structure etc., we revealed the mechanism that chitosan enhanced the biological treatment function of activated sludge. The results proved that, chitosan is certain to restrain the reaction of activated sludge, but it do improve the structure of sludge floes and increase the treatment efficiency of activated sludge. The bigger the M. W. of chitosan is, the better the efficiency of enhancing biological treatment can be.

Lipase and Phospholipase in the Hydrolysis of Lipids in Wastewater from Swine Slaughterhouse and Subsequent Biological Treatment Study

Wastewaters from slaughterhouses are characterized by a high concentration of oils and greases that can cause problems in conventional treatments. The degradation of difficult pollutants in more easily degradable products can be mediated by enzymes. Enzymatic hydrolysis facilitates the biodegradation because it makes the organic material is made available as compounds of lower molecular weight, the lipids being made available in the form of free fatty acids. The application of enzymes as processing aids in wastewater treatment has some advantages, such as the specificity that allows control of the products, which leads to increased income generation for the non-toxic byproducts and moderate conditions of operation. The objective of this work was optimizing the conditions for lipids enzymatic hydrolysis present in swine slaughterhouse wastewaters using lipolytic enzymes and subsequent biological treatment study. Temperature, pH and enzyme concentration were the variables tested. The enzymes showed good activity and could therefore be used for the hydrolysis process proposed here. The optimized conditions to maximize the release of fatty acids were： temperature of 36 ℃, pH 8.5 and enzyme concentration of 1.1%, yielding fatty acids in the order of 31.50μmol/mL for lipase and 31.13 μmol/mL for phospholipase. All variables influenced the release of fatty acids. The maximum yield of biogas was 89.65 mL in the reactor added the sludge, raw wastewater and phospholipase in the conditions optimized the hydrolysis step, obtaining a chemical oxygen demand （COD） reduction of 90.01% in relation to the value of the COD of the raw wastewater.

Continuous Biological Treatment of Ozone Pre-treated Membrane Concentrates of Deinking Wastewater Streams from Pulp and Paper Industry

The implementation of the European WFD （water framework directive） requires IWRM （integrated water resource management）, an important tool in managing available water resources in the presence of emerging constraints. Pressures caused by variability in water supply cycles, droughts, pollution, industrialization, increasing domestic and commercial demand, inadequate infrastructure, intense urbanization and population growth, and decrepit distribution networks have led to the increasing exploitation of industrial wastewater. Most industrial process has some negative impacts on the environment especially on a catchment scale i.e. water, air and soil quality. In the context of water resources and environmental protection measures, the term ＂sustainable development＂, a development that is compatible with the future gains and environmental protection, is regulated more and more by law. To comply with these emission-based limit values, so-called ＂end-of-pipe-techniques＂ are used. Experimental results show CBT （continuous biological treatment） processes present secondary measures to purify highly contaminated industrial wastewater.

Nitrification Performance in Lab Scale Biological Treatment System： Effect of Flow Rates

Lab scale biological treatment system was constructed from acrylic and operated using synthetic wastewater to evaluate the nitrification performance using different media. The media used for were Ceramic Ring A （CRA）, Ceramic Ring B （CRB）, Japanese Filter Mat （JFM）, and Filter Wool （FW）. Laboratory studies were conducted, in order to evaluate the nitrification performance of different media types, at different synthetic wastewater flow rates, ranging from 0.03 to 0.045 m3/hr. The results from experiments suggest that at higher water flow rates, there was a decrease in nitrification for all media types. Based on the ammonia and nitrite removal rates, FW media gave the optimum nitrification, of up to 0.46 g/m2/day and 0.09 g/m2/day, respectively. Besides, in this study, the surface texture of the media is the main factor that affected the volumetric ammonia and nitrite conversion rates （VTR and VNR）. JFM gave the greatest VTR and VNR performance, compared with the other media

IN VITRO ANTI-HEPATOMA EFFECTS OF MONOCYTES AND KUPFFER CELLS ISOLATED FROM HEPATOMA PATIENTS AFTER TREATMENT WITH BIOLOGICAL IMMUNE STIMULANTS

Monocytes (MC), lymphocytes (LC) and Kupffer cells (KC) were isolated respectively from blood and surgical liver samples of patients suffering from he-patocellular carcinoma (HCC). 13 patients were given BCG, mixed bacterium vaccine (MBV) and human white blood cell interferon (IFN), the other 3 patients were not treated with any biological immune stimulants (BIS) and served as controls. The cytosta-tic and cytotoxic effects of MC and KC on human hepatoma SMMC-7721 (TC) were assayed in vitro and the numbers of T total (Tt), T helper (Th) and T suppressor (Ts) cells were counted using CD monoclonal antibody immunofluorescence. The results were as follows: (1) On the 7th day after the first administration of BIS, the cytostatic and cytotoxic effects of MC on TC showed obvious increase over pre-administration. The activity of BIS was 1 ?5 times as high as that in the controls. (2) After 3 administrations, the cytostatic effect of MC on TC increased to the normal level (84%), while the controls remained as before (45%). (3) On the 7th day after first administration, cytostatic and cytotoxic effects of KC on TC were 0.5 and 1 times higher respectively than those of the controls. (4) The numbers of Tt and Th of patients given BIS increased continuously; on the contrary Ts decreased in number. These results indicate that combined use of BCG, MBV and IFN can actively enhance the immune anti-hepatoma function of patients suffering from HCC.

Overview of enhancing biological treatment of coal chemical wastewater:New strategies and future directions

Coal chemical wastewater(CCW)is a type of refractory industrial wastewater,and its treatment has become the main bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of novel coal chemical industry.Biological treatment is considered as an economical,effective and environmentally friendly technology for CCW treatment.However,conventional biological process is difficult to achieve the efficient removal of refractory organics because of CCW with the characteristics of composition complexity and high toxicity.Therefore,seeking the novel enhancement strategy appears to be a favorable solution for enhancing biological treatment efficiency of CCW.This review focuses on presenting a comprehensive picture about the exogenous enhancement strategies for CCW biological treatment.The performance and potential application of exogenous enhancement strategies,including co-metabolic substrate enhancement,biofilm filler enhancement,adsorption material enhancement and conductive mediator enhancement,were expounded.Meanwhile,the enhancing mechanisms of different strategies were comprehensively discussed from a biological perspective.Furthermore,the prospects of enhancement strategies based on the engineering performance,economic cost and environmental impact(3E)evaluation were introduced.And novel enhancement strategy based on“low carbon emissions”,“resource recycling”and“water environment security”in the context of carbon neutrality was proposed.Taken together,this review provides technical reference and new direction to facilitate the regulation and optimization of typical industrial wastewater biological treatment.

Study of Hygrothermal Behavior of Bio-Sourced Material Treated Ecologically for Improving Thermal Performance of Buildings

Creating sustainable cities is the only way to live in a clean environment,and this problem can be solved by using bio-sourced and recycled materials.For this purpose,the authors contribute to the valuation of sheep wool waste as an eco-friendly material to be used in insulation.The paper investigates the thermal,hygrothermal,and biological aspects of sheep wool by testing a traditional treatment.The biological method of aerobic mesophilicflora has been applied.Fluorescence X was used to determine the chemical composition of the materials used.Also,thermal characterization has been conducted.The thermal conductivity is above 0.046(W·m^(-1)·K^(-1))and the thermal diffusivity is 1.56.10^(-6) m^(2)·s^(-1).Besides,the energy efficiency of using sheep wool in buildings was studied.Furthermore,its humidity behavior was evaluated in different aspects in both winter and summer.Results of biological analyses show the efficiency of the treatment by removing the majority of the microorgan-isms:the value of yeast and mildew was reduced from 38.10^(2) to 2.10^(2)(UFC·g^(-1)).In addition to that,sheep wool permits obtaining a low thermal transmittance on the scale of the walls and low cooling needs on the scale of the building with a gain of 45%and 52%,respectively.

Treatment of anthraquinone dye wastewater by hydrolytic acidification-aerobic process

Experiment on microbial degradation with two kinds of biological process, hydrolytic acidification-aerobic process and aerobic process was conducted to treat the anthraquinone dye wastewater with COD Cr concentration of 400 mg/L and chroma 800. The experimental result demonstrated that the hydrolytic-aerobic process could raise the biodegradability of anthraquinone dye wastewater effectively. The effluent COD Cr can reach 120170 mg/L and chroma 150 which is superior to that from simple aerobic process.

Optimization of Two-species Whole-cell Immobilization System Constructed with Marine-derived Fungi and Its Biological Degradation Ability

Mycelia pellet formed spontaneously in the process of cultivation was exploited as a biological carrier for whole-cell immobilization due to its unique structural characteristic. An innovative two-species whole-cell im- mobilization system was achieved by inoculating the marine-derived fungus Pestalotiopsis sp. J63 spores into cul- ture medium containing another fungus Penicillium janthinellum P1 pre-grown mycelia pellets for 2 days without any pretreatment. In order to evaluate the biological degradation capacity of this novel constructed immobilization system, the immobilized pellets were applied to treat paper mill effluent and decolorize dye Azure B. The use of the constructed immobilization system in the effluent resulted in successful and rapid biodegradation of numerous in- soluble fine fibers. The optimum conditions of immobilized procedure for maximum biodegradation capacity were determined using orthogonal design with biomass of P1 pellets 10 g （wet mass）, concentration of J63 spore 2x109 mlq, and immobilization time 2 d. The results demonstrate that immobilized pellets have more than 99% biodegradation capacity in a ten-hour treatment process. The kinetics of biodegradation fits the Michaelis-Menten equation well. Besides, the decolorization capability of immobilized pellets is more superior than that of P1 mycelia pellets. Overall, the present study offers a simple and reproducible way to construct a two-species whole-cell immobiliza- tion system for sewage treatment.

Phosphorus limitation in biofiltration for drinking water treatment

Bacterial growth potential(BGP) method and two parallel pilot scale biofilters were used to investigate phosphorus limitation and its effect on the removal of organic matters in biofiltration for drinking water treatment. Addition of phosphorus can substantially increase the BGPs of the samples. Its effect was equivalent to that of addition of a mixture of various inorganic nutrients including phosphorus. The biofilter with phosphate added into its influent performed a higher biological stability of the effluent and a higher COD Mn removal than the control filter. These results suggested that phosphorus was the limiting nutrient in the biofiltration and the removal efficiency of organic matters could be improved by adding phosphate into the influent.

Effects of Micronutrient Niacin on Treatment Efficiency of Textile Wastewater

Textile wastewater is well known as one of the wastewaters to be most difficultly treated. The effects of niacin on textile wastewater treatment efficiency were studied by continuous addition of 1.0 mg·L^-1 niacin, the physical and chemical indexes of the water samples, such as COD, ammonia and dehydrogenase activities, were analyzed every day with standard methods, and obvious improvement in wastewater treatment performance was achieved. The exact results showed that：① Niacin could improve the COD removal efficiency signifcantly with removal rates being 1.31 times as to those of the control system; ② under this experimental condition, addition of niacin had almost no effect on the removal of ammonia;③ Addition of niacin could improve the activity of dehydrogenase by 130 %. It proved that the biological treatment performance of textile wastewater treatment system probably could be optimized through micronutrient niacin supplement.

Are we giving biologics too much time? When should we stop treatment?

The optimal duration of biological treatment, particularly anti-TNF, in inflammatory bowel disease （IBD） is a very important question both for patients and physicians. There is no published evidence to clearly and definitely answer this question. However data on natural history of IBD, long term safety of biologics, immunosuppressors （IS） cessation and some preliminary studies on biologics cessation may help us to discuss this topic. The decision to stop a biological treatment is currently based on a compromise between the benefits and risks associated with the prolongation of this treatment. IBD, more particularly CD, are characterized by the development of complications and the need for recurrent hospitalizations and surgeries in approximately 2/3 of cases. In these patients potentially in need of biological treatments, it is probable that, as it has been demonstrated for IS, the longer a stable remission has be achieved under treatment, the lower the risk of relapse is alter treatment cessation. Further prospective studies should now aim at disclosing patient characteristics associated with a low risk of relapse to imple- ment this strategy.

Evaluation of the Inverse Fluidized Bed Biological Reactor for Treating High-Strength Industrial Wastewaters

The aim of this work was to investigate the aerobic degradation of high-strength industrial (refinery) wastewaters in the inverse fluidized bed biological reactor, in which polypropylene particles of density 910 kg/m3 were fluidized by an upward flow of gas through a bed. Measurements of chemical oxygen demand (COD) versus residence time t were performed for various ratios of settled bed volume to reactor volume (Vb/VR) and air velocities u. The largest COD reduction, namely, from 54,840 to 2,190 mg/l, i.e. a 96% COD decrease, was achieved when the reactor was operated at the ratio (Vb/VR) = 0.55, air velocity u = 0.046 m/s and t = 65 h. Thus, these values of (Vb/VR), u and t can be considered as the optimal operating parameters for a reactor when used in treatment of high-strength refinery wastewaters. In the treatment operation conducted in a reactor optimally controlled at (Vb/VR) = 0.55, u = 0.046 m/s and t = 65 h, the conversions obtained for all phenolic constituents of the wastewater were larger than 95%. The conversions of about 90% were attained for other hydrocarbons.