Improving anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge through pretreatment techniques is a suitable solution for better sludge management. In this sense, modeling may present itself as an important tool to assess and predict process performance and pretreatment effects. In this study, the feasibility of using biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests data for calibrating the Anaerobic Digestion Model ...

Forty-eight combinations of enrichment media, secondary enrichment, incubation times and temperatures, and atmospheres were examined for their efficacy in recovering different serovars of Salmonella that had been inoculated into ground-meat extract. Variations included three selective-enrichment media, two (37 and 43 degrees C) incubation temperatures, two (24 and 48 h) incubation times, two (a...

A new genus, a member of the Ruminococcaceae family, was isolated from left colon healthy woman. Strain Marseille P3213 non-motile, spore-forming, Gram-stain negative, rod-shaped bacterium. This strictly anaerobic species reached optimal growth after an incubation 72 h at 37 °C. The 16S rRNA gene sequence this strain shared 93.52% similarity level with Harryflintia acetispora V20-281a, its clos...

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs, prion diseases) are a class of fatal neurodegenerative diseases affecting a variety of mammalian species including humans. A misfolded form of the prion protein (PrP(TSE)) is the major, if not sole, component of the infectious agent. Prions are highly resistant to degradation and to many disinfection procedures suggesting that, if prions enter wa...

Polychlorobiphenyl (PCB) biodegradation was followed for 1 year in microcosms containing marine sediments collected from Mar Piccolo (Taranto, Italy) chronically contaminated by this class of hazardous compounds. The microcosms were performed under strictly anaerobic conditions with or without the addition ofDehalococcoides mccartyi, the main microorganism known to degrade PCBs through the anae...

In the present study, we isolated three novel bacterial species, namely, Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus circulans-I, and Bacillus circulans-II, from contaminated soil collected from the premises of a pesticide manufacturing industry. Batch experiments were conducted using both mixed and pure cultures to assess their potential for the degradation of aqueous endosulfan in aerobic and facultative an...

Indigenous mixed populations of anaerobic microorganisms from an irrigation tailwater drain and submerged agricultural chemical waste pit readily biodegraded the major isomer of endosulfan (endosulfan I). Endosulfan I was biodegraded to endosulfan diol, a low toxicity degradation product, in the presence of organic carbon sources under anaerobic, methanogenic conditions. While there was extensi...

Estrogens are important environmental contaminants that disrupt endocrine systems and feminize male fish. We investigated the potential for anaerobic biodegradation of the estrogens 17-alpha-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and 17-beta-estradiol (E2) in order to understand their fate in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Cultures were established using lake water and sediment under methanogenic, sulfa...

Stem segments prepared from pondweed (Potamo geton distinctus A. Benn.) turions (overwintering buds) elongate in anaerobic conditions, whereas there is almost no elongation in air. The anaerobic elongation was accompanied by a decrease in dry weights of stem segments, mainly due to consumption of storage starch in the amyloplasts of stem cells. On the other hand, total contents of amino acids i...