Constructed wetlands in the treatment of agro-industrial wastewater: A review

Due to their simplicity and low operation cost, constructed wetlands are becoming more prevalent in wastewater treatment all over the world. Their range of applications is no longer limited to municipal wastewater but has expanded to the treatment of heavily polluted wastewaters such as agro-industrial effluents. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review of the application of constructed wetlands in treating a variety of agro-industrial wastewaters, and discusses pollutant surface loads and the role of constructed wetland type, prior-treatment stages and plant species in pollutant removal efficiency. Results indicate that constructed wetlands can tolerate high pollutant loads and toxic substances without losing their removal ability, thus these systems are very effective bio-reactors even in hostile environments. Additionally, the review outlines issues that could improve pollutant treatment efficiency and proposes design and operation suggestions such as suitable vegetation, porous media and constructed wetland plain view. Finally, a decision tree for designing constructed wetlands treating agro-industrial wastewaters provides an initial design tool for scientists and engineers

Arterial Wall Elastic Properties and Endothelial Dysfunction in the Diabetic Foot Syndrome in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetic foot (DF) syndrome is the most common lower-extremity complication of poorly controlled type 2 diabetes (T2D) (1). DF affects the quality of life of T2D patients and is associated with increased morbidity (2). T2D-related mechanisms induce endothelial dysfunction and adverse effects on vascular biology (3). We have recently shown that measurements of endothelial function and arterial stiffness are strongly associated with diabetic retinopathy (4), but their association with DF has not been explored yet.To examine this, we enrolled 284 consecutive T2D subjects visiting our outpatient diabetes clinic and 196 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects without evidence of diabetes or cardiovascular or other disease. Subjects with known malignancy, hepatic impairment, or acute or chronic inflammatory disease were excluded from the study. Study protocol was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Endothelial function was assessed by the flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx) were assessed by SphygmoCor (AtCor Medical) as …

Multidisciplinary treatment of subclavian artery injury after catheterization for atrial fibrillation ablation

Combined rheolytic thrombectomy and stent placement in SVC and brachiocephalic vein thrombosis due to metastatic lymphadenopathy

The current management of neoplastic obstruction, SVC, and brachiocephalic vein thrombosis, especially of SVC, is based on the combined use of interventional (endovascular thrombolysis or thrombectomy, stent placement) and noninterventional (radiation, chemotherapy) means of treatment. We present the case of a forty-year-old woman with SVC and left brachiocephalic vein thrombosis secondary to lymph node metastasis of non-small-cell lung cancer. A combination of rheolytic thrombectomy (Angiojet device) and stent placement was performed for both venous sites with complete technical success. We discuss the principles of percutaneous rheolytic thrombectomy, its effectiveness, and potential complications

OWARDS SEMANTIC-BASED CLOUD APPLICATION MANAGEMENT

Reconstruction-Incorporated Respiratory Motion Correction in Clinical Simultaneous PET/MR Imaging for Oncology Applications

Simultaneous PET and MR imaging is a promising new technique allowing the fusion of functional (PET) and anatomic/functional (MR) information. In the thoracic-abdominal regions, respiratory motion is a major challenge leading to reduced quantitative and qualitative image accuracy. Correction methodologies include the use of gated frames that lead to low signal-to-noise ratio considering the associated low statistics. More advanced correction approaches, previously developed for PET/CT imaging, consist of either registering all the reconstructed gated frames to the reference frame or incorporating motion parameters into the iterative reconstruction process to produce a single motion-compensated PET image. The goal of this work was to compare these two—previously implemented in PET/CT—correction approaches within the context of PET/MR motion correction for oncology applications using clinical 4-dimensional PET/MR acquisitions. Two different correction approaches were evaluated comparing the incorporation of elastic transformations extracted from 4-dimensional MR imaging datasets during PET list-mode image reconstruction to a postreconstruction image-based approach.

Baseline Tumor 18F-FDG Uptake and Modifications After 2 Cycles of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Are Prognostic of Outcome in ER+/HER2− Breast Cancer

This study investigated whether (18)F-FDG PET/CT performed at baseline and during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) was able to early depict estrogen receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (ER+/HER2-) breast cancer patients with poor clinical outcome.

A Fuzzy Rule-Based Feature Construction Approach Applied to Remotely Sensed Imagery

The inherent interpretability properties of fuzzy rule-based classification systems (FRBCSs) are undoubtedly one of their major advantages when compared to conventional black-box classifiers. In this paper we present a preliminary study of how the socalled technique of feature construction can prove useful in the context of land cover classification tasks using remotely sensed imagery. The method is integrated into a previously proposed genetic FRBCS (GFRBCS) and applied in a crop classification task using a multispectral satellite image. The experimental analysis shows that feature construction can effectively identify very useful hidden relationships among the initial variables of the problem.

Why Do Performing Arts Need Deleuze and Guattari? A Methodological Inquiry

Nomads have no history; they only have a geography. Deleuze and Guattari 1 In the following pages I am arguing that the discourse of Performance Studies need Deleuze and Guattari in order to closer investigate the dynamic interplay between intercultural performance and capitalism. I am focusing on the 10-minute “solo chair scene” from Dimitris Papaioannou’s 2 production of Medea2 which was performed in New York in 2013 as part of Robert Wilson’s Circus of Stillness: the power over wild beasts. The Greek avant–garde artist produced Medea2 for the first time in Athens in 2008. Robert Wilson chose the “solo chair scene” as one of the 25 readymade performances that came from 25 countries from all over the world and assembled the annual summer benefit of Watermill Center. The Greek dancer Evangelia Rantou, performed the “solo chair scene” 20 times on a loop. Using this scene as my case study, I am applying Erika Fischer–Lichte’s understanding of intercultural theatre as “the agency of mediation” in order to argue that although she challenges the discourse of intercultural performance through understanding theatre’s capacity to blend difference, she doesn’t fully explore intercultural performance’s ability to challenge capitalism from within. As a result she is relying on utopia in order to save difference. Deleuze and Guattari on the other hand, through their conceptualization of nomad, help us realize that intercultural performance envelops the capacity to introduce non– capitalistic ways of existence. Therefore, I conclude that the discourse of intercultural performance should pay closer attention to their theoretical, and yet very applicable, introduced methodologies.

Monte-Carlo dosimetry for intraoperative radiotherapy using a low energy x-ray source

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) is continuously gaining ground in cancer treatment. However, there is currently no planning system associated with these devices, which precludes patient-specific dose delivery optimization. The objective of this study was the development and validation of a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS)-based dosimetry platform using the Intrabeam™ system.