Biomass characterization by dielectric monitoring of viability and oxygen uptake rate measurements in a novel membrane bioreactor

Development of Digital Image Processing as an Innovative Method for Activated Sludge Biomass Quantification

Activated sludge process is the most common method for biological treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater. One of the most important parameters in performance of activated sludge systems is quantitative monitoring of biomass to keep the cell concentration in an optimum range. In this study, a novel method for activated sludge quantification based on image processing and RGB analysis is proposed. According to the results, the intensity of blue color in the macroscopic image of activated sludge culture can be a very accurate index for cell concentration measurement and R² coefficient, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) which are 0.990, 2.000, 0.323, and 13.848, respectively, prove this claim. Besides, in order to avoid the difficulties of working in the three-parameter space of RGB, converting to grayscale space has been applied which can estimate cell concentration with R ² = 0.99. Ultimately, an exponential correlation between RGB values and cell concentrations in lower amounts of biomass has been proposed based on Beer-Lambert law which can estimate activated sludge biomass concentration with R ² = 0.97 based on B index.

COVID-19: Environment concern and impact of Indian medicinal system

The COVID-19 outbreak has came in existence in late December 2019 at Wuhan, China. It is declared as an epidemic by WHO. The rationale of this study is to provide the details regarding prevention, environment concern, social economic consequences, and medicines for COVID-19. Social distancing, screening, lockdown, use of mask and application of sanitizer or soap at regular time interval is the best prevention against COVID-19. The "oral-feces" transmission of COVID-19 is threat to environment. Improper disposal of medical/biomedical and human waste may harm the total environment. Nitrifying-enriched activated sludge i.e. NAS approach can play important role to clean the environment compartments like sludge and waste. COVID-19 has shown impact on social and economic life, but there is no alternate until the drug discovery. In medicine or treatment of COVID-19 point of views, an integrated approach between modern and traditional medicine system may ensure an early prevention of further viral spread. Based on the symptoms of COVID-19, list of herbs and drugs of Indian Medicine System has been searched and reported. To develop the potential drug against COVID-19, the detailed experimentation and clinical trials to be performed for future prospective.