The correspondence between the dietary fibre contents of 28 breakfast cereals and their faecal bulking efficacies was measured and used to assess criterion values controlling nutrient claims for dietary fibre. A valid, standardised rat assay was used to measure faecal bulking efficacy as the content of wheat bran equivalents for faecal bulk (WBEfb) in the cereals. Regression analysis of WBEfb c...

Activated sludge systems are prone to be affected by changes in operating conditions leading to problems such as pinpoint flocs formation, filamentous bulking, dispersed growth, and viscous bulking. These problems are often related with the floc structure and filamentous bacteria contents. In this work, a lab-scale activated sludge system was operated sequentially obtaining filamentous bulking,...

Aerobic, anoxic, and anaerobic selectors have become popular for controlling filamentous bulking in activated sludge systems; however, selectors are not always successful. Regression analyses of data collected from 48 full-scale wastewater treatment plants, with operating selectors, provided a method for ranking the importance of selector operating and design parameters (with respect to their i...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the use of biological materials in the augmentation of the anal sphincter either as part of an overlapping sphincter repair (OSR) or anal bulking procedure. METHODS A systematic search of PubMed was conducted using the search terms "anal bulking agents," "anal sphincter repair," or "overlapping sphincter repair." Five studies us...

Levamisole has been implicated in the vasculitis and aganulocytosis. It has been pulled from the United States market for human use. Due to its euphoric and bulking properties, it has been . used as a bulking agent in cocaine. We hereby present a case of a 56-year-old Hispanic male, who developed vasculitis due to cocaine use adulterated with levamisole.

Sludge bulking causes loss of biomass in the effluent and deterioration of effluent water quality. This study explored the use of nano zero-valent iron (NZVI with an average particle size of 55 ± 11 nm) for sludge bulking control. In two Modified Ludzack-Ettinger (MLE) activated sludge treatment systems, a single dose of NZVI at the final concentration of 100 mg Fe per L in the mixed liquor red...

Background Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a common health problem affecting women and interfering with their quality of life. Many therapeutic options are available to solve this problem: conventional surgery, minimally invasive surgery, endoscopic procedures. The use of bulking agents for urethral augmentation seems to be a beneficial way of restoring continence in these patients while a...

In the activated sludge process, the share of filamentous bacteria is crucial for proper settlement and high sewage treatment efficiency. Disequilibrium of the microbial community may be a reason for the appearance of bulking episodes. During 19 months (August 2007-February 2009) activated sludge samples were collected and analyzed by physicochemical, microscopic, and molecular methods. Amplifi...

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) affects a large proportion of middle-aged and elderly women. When all conservative means are ineffective, a surgical treatment including retropubic suspension, pubovaginal and tension-free slings, is contemplated. Intra-urethral injections with bulking agents have been used as an alternative to the mentioned surgical procedures with alternate results. Many uret...

Bulking therapy for the minimally invasive treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) may be offered to women with urodynamic SUI, wishing to avoid the complications associated with more invasive surgery, on the basis of low operative morbidity and low longterm success rates. These bulking agents may be injected by a retrograde or antegrade technique in the periurethral tissue around the bl...