The use of RO to remove emerging micropollutants following CAS/UF or MBR treatment of municipal wastewater

The removal of various organic micropollutants (OMPs), including six antibiotics (ERY, ROX, CLA, SMX, SMZ, and TMP), three pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen, salicylic acid, and diclofenac), one industrial product (BPA), and one hormone (cholesterol), was investigated in two pilot plants treating the same raw sewage of the Tel-Aviv WWTP. The effluent production by CAS-UF was 45 m³/h while that of MBR was 40 L/h. Each system's effluent constituted the feed for its RO, which comprised three RO steps after the CAS/UF and a semi-batch RO system after the MBR. Despite significant molecular differences between the selected OMPs, high removal rates were achieved after the RO stage (> 99% for macrolides, pharmaceuticals, cholesterol, and BPA, 95% for diclofenac, and > 93% removal of sulfonamides). However, low antibiotics concentrations and 28–223 ng/L residuals of ibuprofen, diclofenac, salicylic acid, cholesterol, and BPA in the MBR/RO and CAS-UF/RO permeates showed that although RO is an efficient removal solution, it cannot serve as an absolute barrier to OMPs. Therefore, additional treatment techniques should be considered to be incorporated aside the RO to ensure complete removal of such substances.     

Forensic Architecture

The urban destruction captured by black and white photos of London after the Blitz or bomb-damaged Berlin are emblematic of the desolation brought by modern warfare. Eyal Weizman , Paulo Tavares , Susan Schuppli and Situ Studio describe, though, how the built environment now represents more than a means of violation in conflict, as it has become an important source of evidence bearing witness to the event when international justice is sought. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cast structure and property variability in gamma titanium aluminides

Aspects of cast structure that influence mechanical property variability, and in particular tensile ductility, have been studied in a Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb titanium aluminide alloy. Macrostructure, porosity, microstructure and tensile properties have been characterized over a range of casting processing conditions. Local solidification times and subsequent solid-state cooling rates during casting have been characterized via local thermal measurements in combination with solidification modeling. Large variations in cooling rate during casting dramatically influence the initial cast structure as well as the distribution of defects such as porosity. Variations in as-cast structure persist through subsequent thermal and hot isostatic pressing cycles and contribute to the variability of tensile ductility. The current understanding of the relationship of tensile ductility to processing-induced changes in structure will be briefly discussed.     

Randomness versus Fault-Tolerance

We investigate the relations between two major properties of multiparty protocols: fault tolerance (or resilience ) and randomness . Fault-tolerance is measured in terms of the maximum number of colluding faulty parties, t , that a protocol can withstand and still maintain the privacy of the inputs and the correctness of the outputs (of the honest parties). Randomness is measured in terms of the total number of random bits needed by the parties in order to execute the protocol. Previously, the upper bound on the amount of randomness required by general constructions for securely computing any nontrivial function f was polynomial both in n , the total number of parties, and the circuit-size C(f) . This was the state of knowledge even for the special case t=1 (i.e., when there is at most one faulty party). In this paper we show that for any linear-size circuit, and for any number t < n/3 of faulty Received 30 April 1998 and revised 3 January 1999 and 1 July 1999     

Effects of monoglyceride content,cooling rate and shear on the rheological properties of olive oil/monoglyceride gel networks

Functionality of conventional fat spreads can be achieved without hydrogenation by the formation of stable network structures upon cooling of mixtures of monoglycerides (MGs) and vegetable oils from the melt. Such mixtures are healthy substitutes for margarine and butter. The effects of MG content, cooling rate and shear on the temperature ramp, mechanical spectra and hardness of olive oil/MG gel networks were investigated. A minimum MG volume fraction was necessary for formation of a gelled network, but this concentration was less than that needed for a space‐filling network structure. Onset of gel network or structure formation was indicated by a sudden divergence in value of the elastic modulus G′. The temperature at onset of structure formation, T_o, final G′ value and network hardness all increased with increase in MG content. High cooling rates led to low final G′ values but harder networks, and vice versa. Maximum gel network development occurred when moderate shear (about 300 s^?1) was applied at incipient gelation. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Comparative Evaluation of Several Pitch Process Models in the Detection of Vocal Tremor

Three models describing the speech excitation wave (denoted as pitch process) are suggested in order to detect vocal tremor in pathological speech. These models are compared, and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them are discussed. Comparison results for synthesized speech are presented, as well as spectral analysis results for real data of Parkinsonian speech, from which it turns out that the pitch process may serve as a powerful tool for detecting such tremor.     

The dependence of the output Stokes parameters on the state of an arbitrarily located polarization controller in PMD mitigation schemes

The dependence of the instantaneous Stokes parameters, at the output of a transmission system, on the state of a polarization controller (PC) located anywhere in the system is analytically derived. Based on the analytical formalism, a novel characterization technique is introduced and used for finding the PC state that yields a maximum degree of polarization and optimal bit-error rate.