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Raw white clay was acidified with H2SO4 (2 M) and then activated in a furnace for 2 h at 150oC. The resulting acid-activated clay product was used as an adsorbent for the removal of radioactive substances such as Cs+, Sr2+ and Co2+ ions in aqueous solution. The specific surface area and the pore volume of acid-activated clay were three times higher compared to raw white clay. At 100 mg L- of initial concentration and 1.0 g of dosage, removal efficiencies of Cs+, Sr2+ and Co2+ ions showed 60.0%, 27.3%, and 88.1%, respectively. It was found that the Langmuir isotherm was described well to the adsorption behavior of Cs+, Sr2+ and Co2+ ions on acid-activated clay rather than Freundlich isotherm. The Langmuir isotherm constant (Q) for Cs+, Sr2+ and Co2+ ions was found to be 8.81, 3.78 and 10.20 mg g-1, respectively. Compared to the pseudo-first-order kinetic model, the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was more suitable for adsorption of Cs+, Sr2+ and Co2+ ions in water/acid-activated clay medium owing to the higher correlation coefficient (R2) and the more proximity value of the experimental value qe,exp and the calculated value qe,cal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adult-onset Still's disease is a systemic inflammatory disease which presents with uveitis and scleritis in the eye. Intravitreal dexamethasone implants are used for the treatment of refractory uveitis. Case presentation: A 19-year-old woman diagnosed to have adult-onset Still's disease for fevers, joint pain, and a salmon-colored bumpy rash presented with scleritis and uveitis in the left eye. Topical and systemic steroids with oral methotrexate failed to control the inflammation. We performed intravitreal injections of dexamethasone implants for side effects of steroid and refractory ocular inflammation. The therapy resulted in improvements in the patient's uveitis with reductions in scleral vessel engorgement and redness. There was no recurrence of uveitis or scleritis during 4 months following treatment. Conclusions: Intravitreal injections of dexamethasone implants may result in clinical improvements of refractory scleritis combined with uveitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of C/N ratios and fluidized media on N2O emissions were investigated during the conventional biological nitrogen removal (BNR) process for wastewater treatment containing high levels of nitrogen. Low concentration of N2O emissions was maintained at around 50~100 ppm when the C/N ratio was 3. However higher amounts of N2O (maximum rate 800 ppm) were released from denitrification, when the C/N ratio was 1.5 and 1, compared to when the ratio was 3. The influence of oxygen concentration on N2O release as well as its sources was investigated using a nitrogen isotope (15N) tracer method. Our results indicated that around 50% of the released N2O was originated from denitrification under aerobic conditions. Under aerobic conditions, the proportion and amount of N2O emissions from denitrification increased with a decrease in dissolved oxygen (DO). In micro-aerobic conditions, 98.6% of N2O emission was originated from denitrification. This result implies that an anoxic zone was present even in aerobic reactors and that reactors with low DO tended to have larger anaerobic zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wastewater treatment process (WWTP) is highly nonlinear and complex, and its dynamics are difficult to model. Process data obtained under multiple operating conditions that have a number of operating models and changes in operating conditions, such as biological WWTP, should be modeled carefully. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid technique for modeling wastewater quality that is based on the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang fuzzy model with artificial intelligence learning and employs real-coded genetic algorithms. The hybrid learning framework integrates the multiple fuzzy model, which can find the rule base and the membership functions of the fuzzy model simultaneously. We applied the proposed method to predict the effluent chemical oxygen demand in a full-scale coke wastewater treatment plant. The modeling results show that the hybrid model can accurately model the real nonlinear processes under diverse operating conditions, and that it is able to identify various operating regions in a full-scale WWTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]