Search results for "microorganism"
showing 10 items of 449 documents
Changes in the seasonal snow cover of alpine regions and its effect on soil processes: A review
2007
Abstract At its maximum annual development, snow can cover more than half the Northern Hemisphere land area with one-third experiencing seasonal snow cover. The precise conditions that develop during the annual pattern of snowpack development formation have implications for: (i) soil microbiological activity and nutrient transformations; (ii) the capacity of the accumulating snowpack to retain atmospheric derived solutes; (iii) preferential elution and rapid runoff of solutes from the snowpack during periods of thaw; and (iv) leaching of solutes. Long-term records of annual snow accumulation suggest that substantial, regional scale shifts in snowpack characteristics have been occurring. The…
Continuous 3-year outdoor operation of a flat-panel membrane photobioreactor to treat effluent from an anaerobic membrane bioreactor
2020
[EN] A membrane photobioreactor (MPBR) plant was operated continuously for 3 years to evaluate the separate effects of different factors, including: biomass and hydraulic retention times (BRT, HRT), light path (Lp), nitrification rate (NOxR), nutrient loading rates (NLR, PLR) and others. The overall effect of all these parameters which influence MPBR performance had not previously been assessed. The multivariate projection approach chosen for this study provided a good description of the collected data and facilitated their visualisation and interpretation. Forty variables used to control and assess MPBR performance were evaluated during three years of continuous outdoor operation by means …
Improving membrane photobioreactor performance by reducing light path: operating conditions and key performance indicators
2020
[EN] Microalgae cultivation has been receiving increasing interest in wastewater remediation due to their ability to assimilate nutrients present in wastewater streams. In this respect, cultivating microalgae in membrane photobioreactors (MPBRs) allows decoupling the solid retention time (SRT) from the hydraulic retention time (HRT), which enables to increase the nutrient load to the photobioreactors (PBRs) while avoiding the wash out of the microalgae biomass. The reduction of the PBR light path from 25 to 10 cm increased the nitrogen and phosphorus recovery rates, microalgae biomass productivity and photosynthetic efficiency by 150, 103, 194 and 67%, respectively.The areal biomass product…
Nitrite inhibition of microalgae induced by the competition between microalgae and nitrifying bacteria
2020
[EN] Outdoor microalgae cultivation systems treating anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) effluents usually present ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) competition with microalgae for ammonium uptake, which can cause nitrite accumulation. In literature, nitrite effects over microalgae have shown controversial results. The present study evaluates the nitrite inhibition role in a microalgae-nitrifying bacteria culture. For this purpose, pilot- and lab-scale assays were carried out. During the continuous outdoor operation of the membrane photobioreactor (MPBR) plant, biomass retention time (BRT) of 2 d favoured AOB activity, which caused nitrite accumulation. This nitrite was confirmed to inhib…
Biofiltration System for Purification of Composting Waste Gases
2006
The biofiltration technique for the purification of polluted air from composting facility volatile compounds was studied. Two different biowaste composting techniques were compared with regard to emission of NH3 and H2S. The ammonia removal was observed in aerobic phase of active composting period, respectively H2S in anaerobic phase. Biofiltration process was realized in modified solid- state fermentation system (SSF). The biodegradation of volatile compounds was investigated in one and two stage systems with inert packing material and hemoautotrofic microorganisms designed DN-1 (Pseudomonas sp.), DN-2 (Nitrisomonas sp.), DN-3 (Nitrobacter sp.) and DN-13 (Sarcina sp.) and Thiopharus-3. The…
Copper-Containing Oxidases: Occurrence in Soil Microorganisms, Properties, and Applications
2009
Copper is an essential trace element in living systems, where it is used as a cofactor in many enzymatic redox reactions and oxygen transport. The copper-containing oxidases tyrosinase and laccase are widely distributed in soil microorganisms. Recently, progress has been made with respect to structural and catalytic data for the tyrosinase of the soil bacterium Streptomyces. The formation of eumelanins—dark polymers with multiple functionality (e.g., UV protection, immune defense)—is a well-established task of tyrosinases. An abundance of information exists on the structures and biochemical properties of fungal laccases. Many studies have demonstrated a physiological role for them in the de…
Use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a whole cell system for aldol condensation in organic medium: Study of the factors affecting the biotransformation
2011
Abstract Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been employed as a whole cell catalyst for a number of asymmetric transformations. This work explores the ability of this microorganism to carry out the asymmetric aldol condensation between 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and acetone. For this purpose, lyophilized cells of the FY86 laboratory strain from stationary phase cultures were employed. This reaction shows stereoselectivity, and its progress is affected by the water concentration in the medium, temperature and the growth stage of the yeast culture. Cell lysis experiments indicate that activity responsible for this biotransformation is located in the soluble fraction.
Production of methyl mercury in the gut of the Australian termite Mastotermes darwiniensis
2008
Animals are often exposed to or can ingest heavy metals along with their food. Therefore, we tested whether the hindgut microbiota of Mastotermes darwiniensis possesses the capability to form methyl mercury. The termite M. darwiniensis (Isoptera) was fed with saw dust containing different concentrations of inorganic mercury. Methyl mercury was determined by purge-and-trap capillary gas chromatography-atom fluorescence spectrometry (CGC-AFS) using ethyl mercury chloride as the internal standard. Total mercury concentrations were determined in the termite tissue by inductive coupled plasma-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (ICP-IDMS) after microwave-assisted digestion. The obtained results s…
Levels of predominant intestinal microorganisms in 1 month-old full-term babies and weight gain during the first year of life
2021
The early life gut microbiota has been reported to be involved in neonatal weight gain and later infant growth. Therefore, this early microbiota may constitute a target for the promotion of healthy neonatal growth and development with potential consequences for later life. Unfortunately, we are still far from understanding the association between neonatal microbiota and weight gain and growth. In this context, we evaluated the relationship between early microbiota and weight in a cohort of full-term infants. The absolute levels of specific fecal microorganisms were determined in 88 vaginally delivered and 36 C-section-delivered full-term newborns at 1 month of age and their growth up to 12 …
Trend of MDR-microorganisms isolated from the biological samples of patients with HAI and from the surfaces around that patient.
2018
Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) continue to be a major public health concern. A number of epidemiologically relevant HAI microorganisms are multidrug-resistant (MDR) germs that can spread rapidly and/or carry multiple resistance to antibiotics. They are the cause of high mortality and possible nosocomial epidemics. For this reason, we implemented microbiological surveillance acquiring samples from patients with HAI and environmental samples from the surfaces surrounding those patients. A retrospective study was carried out from January 2014 to December 2016 in two departments of the University Hospital in Messina, Italy: the Microbiology and the Hygiene Laboratories. A comparison was…