A 78-year-old woman with burn-induced cervico-mento-sternal scar contracture was scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. During inhalational induction of sevoflurane, her airway patency deteriorated. The right lateral position and assist ventilation using a breathing bag dramatically improved her airway patency.

Autotrophic nitrogen removal through sequential partial nitritation and anammox reactions can be achieved in biofilm reactors by controlling the oxygen concentration in the bulk liquid in such a way that nitrite oxidizers are outcompeted by anammox bacteria. In the case of granular sludge reactors, the granule size may influence the optimal range of oxygen concentration, as has been confirmed i...

The need to reduce energy input and enhance energy recovery from wastewater is driving renewed interest in high-rate activated sludge treatment (i.e. short hydraulic and solids retention times (HRT and SRT, respectively)). This process generates short SRT activated sludge stream, which should be highly degradable. However, the evaluation of anaerobic digestion of short SRT sludge has been limit...

It is quite well known that the diffusers are required for efficient conversion of the dynamic head generated by the impeller in a centrifugal fan. Hence the flow into the diffuser passage plays a crucial role in determining the efficiency of conversion. The flow in the region bounded by the impeller exit and the diffuser entry i.e. the radial clearance space is generally considered to be highl...

The effects of nitrogen oxides on anammox bacteria are not well known. Therefore, anammox bacteria were exposed to 3,500 ppm nitric oxide (NO) in the gas phase. The anammox bacteria were not inhibited by the high NO concentration but rather used it to oxidize additional ammonium to dinitrogen gas under conditions relevant to wastewater treatment.

Introduction: Obesity levels mean an increased presentation of patients with Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB). Method: Literature search revealed a paucity of information on ultrasonography to diagnose a slipped LAGB. Conclusion: 2D Ultrasonography with a standard low frequency curvilinear probe proved to be a simple, effective method of diagnosing slipped Laparoscopic adjustable ...

Partial nitrification techniques, such as the continuously aerated SHARON process, have been denoted for quite a while as very promising for improved sustainability of wastewater treatment. Combination of such a SHARON process with the Anammox process, where ammonium is oxidised with nitrite to nitrogen gas under anoxic conditions, leads to cost-efficient and sustainable nitrogen removal from c...

A concise and efficient total synthesis of the spermidine alkaloid (-)-isooncinotine (1) incorporating a 22-membered lactam ring is outlined. The approach is largely catalysis-based, involving a selective iron-catalyzed alkyl-aryl cross-coupling reaction of a difunctionalized pyridine substrate, a heterogeneous asymmetric hydrogenation step to set the chiral center of the target, and a highly i...

We investigated the mechanisms of anticoagulant activity mediated by sulfated galactans. The anticoagulant activity of sulfated polysaccharides is achieved mainly through potentiation of plasma cofactors, which are the natural inhibitors of coagulation proteases. Our results indicated the following. 1) Structural requirements for the interaction of sulfated galactans with coagulation inhibitors...

We sequenced the metagenome of a granular sludge in a nitritation/anammox bioreactor used for the treatment of ammonium-rich wastewater. Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Ignavibacteriae, and Acidobacteria were the predominant phyla in the studied bioreactor. Binning of contigs yielded a near-complete genome of the dominant anammox bacterium assigned to the candidate g...