Balkis A. Talip

An Update on Global Tuberculosis (TB).

Tuberculosis globally results in almost 2 million human deaths annually, with 1 in 4 deaths from tuberculosis being human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS)-related. Primarily a pathogen of the respiratory system, aerobic Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) infects the lungs via the inhalation of infected aerosol droplets generated by people with pulmonary disease through coughing. This review focuses on M. tuberculosis transmission, epidemiology, detection methods and technologies.

Consequences of the Improper Disposal of Greywater

Discharge of greywater into the environment and natural water bodies is the main challenge in the management of greywater. The increase of greywater disposed into the environment has drawn serious attention from the society and the government who endeavour to find a safe alternative way for the disposal of these wastes. The implication for the improper disposal of greywater is associated with infectious agents. This is because the organisms are able to multiply in the environment and might reach the infective dose which causes several diseases in human and animals. In this chapter, the health risks and effects posed by pathogens and heavy metals in disposed greywater to the environment and humans are reviewed. The chapter discusses the level of risk for each component in greywater. It has appeared that eutrophication and water bloom are associated with the discharge of greywater into the natural water due to the high level of nutrients.

Disinfection Technologies for Household Greywater

The treatment technologies for greywater are followed by the disinfection processes in order to achieve safe disposal into the environment. The disinfection technologies aim at reducing or minimising the concentrations of the pathogenic microorganism of greywater which have a high potential risk for humans and plants, and, thus, provide safe and aesthetically acceptable greywater that is appropriate for the purpose of irrigation. The disinfection processes include chemical (chlorination and ozonation), physical or mechanical (filtration process) and radiation disinfection (UV irradiation, solar disinfection (SODIS)). The degree of the disinfection process proposed must take into account the type of reuse and the risk of exposure to the population. In this chapter, the disinfection techniques of greywater are reviewed and discussed based on their efficiency to eliminate the pathogenic bacteria and other toxic by-products. The objective of this chapter was to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of disinfection processes. Among the several disinfectant technologies for greywater, SODIS appears to be the most potent technology which is widely applicable in most of the developing countries experiencing arid and semi-arid atmospheric conditions due to the high density of sunlight which is more effective for inactivating pathogenic microorganisms.

Treatment Technologies of Household Greywater

The shortage of water resource in the developing countries induced the search for alternative sources. Greywater alongside storm and ablution water might represent the best source of water because these waters have less contaminant than sewage. However, the separation of this water from the source point is the first step in the proper management which facilitates the treatment process. The selection of treatment technologies for greywater depends on the economic status and standards limits required for disposal or reuse of greywater which differs from one country to the others. In many of the developing countries, the treatment of greywater aims at achieving the basic requirements which lie in the reduction of the main parameters of greywater. The utilisation of flocculation and coagulants process might be effective for this purpose. Many of the natural coagulants have been reported to reduce the main parameters of greywater. In the developed countries, advanced technologies are used for removing of xenobiotics organic compounds (XOCs) and to produce high quality of the treated greywater. This chapter focuses on the treatment technology used for the treatment of greywater and their efficiency in the reduction of XOCs.

Bioremediation of Xenobiotic Organic Compounds in Greywater by Fungi Isolated from Peatland, a Future Direction

The conventional wastewater treatment processes aim to remove pathogens and priority pollutants in terms of chemical and physical characteristics such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS). Some of the technologies are used for reduction of nutrients such as the phycoremediation process which has high efficiency for the reduction of total nitrogen and phosphorus from the wastewater. Unfortunately, these techniques have no contribution to the removal of XOCs. The greywater with XOCs should be subjected to an advanced treatment process to remove xenobiotic organic compounds (XOCs) before the final disposal into the environment. The current treatment by the oxidation processes is insufficient and expensive as well as have many of toxic by-products. This gap offered the investigators greater opportunities to explore effective and eco-friendly alternative technologies for XOCs degradation in greywater. Moreover, many of the fungi from the peat soil especially that belong to white rot fungi have higher enzymatic activities and produce a lot of oxidative enzymes such as laccase, lignin and manganese peroxidases. These enzymes are the main factor in the bioremediation process of the pollutants in the contaminated environment such as wastewater. Among different types of the oxidative enzymes from the fungi, the peroxidase and laccase have high importance in the biodegradation of XOCs. The current chapter discusses the potential of fungi as an alternative green technology for the degradation of XOCs from the greywater.

Reuse of Greywater for Irrigation Purpose

Reuse of greywater for the irrigation is an alternative water source in the new water management strategy of the countries that face a severe deficiency of water resources such as the Middle East Countries. Several studies have been evaluated the effects of greywater on the soil structure and plants. Greywater with a high level of nitrogen and phosphorus as well as macro-elements induce the plant’s growth. However, the reuse of these effluents at excessive rates might produce detrimental effects on soil and crops. Some of the heavy metals in the greywater are toxic to plants, while others have toxicity for human and animals. The main consideration in the reuse of greywater in the irrigation lies in the transfer of pathogenic microorganisms to humans directly or indirectly. In developed countries, the utilisation of greywater for the irrigation subject for strict regulation which lies in the method of irrigation as surface or subsurface. In contrast, the surface irrigation is the common practice in the developing countries. In this chapter, the benefits of the greywater for the soil and plants as well as the adverse effects are reviewed. Based on the literature review in this chapter, it can be concluded that the criteria required to reuse greywater in the irrigation include aesthetics, hygienic safety, environmental tolerance, and technical and economic feasibility.

Xenobiotic Organic Compounds in Greywater and Environmental Health Impacts

One of the most common organic compounds which represents real challenges in the environmental pollution treatment is the xenobiotic organic compounds (XOCs). They are complex organic compounds which have high persistence in the environment extend for several years due to their chemical structure. Meanwhile, its hazards risk lies in tier active poisons which directly affect aquatic life within a short exposure time. XOCs in the greywater are generated from utilisation of detergents and personal body care products and they have the potential to persist in nature for a long time and thus have long-term effects to the environment including toxicity and bioaccumulation in the organism’s cells. There are many literatures discussing about the types of XOCs of greywater. For instance, some types of XOCs in greywater are toxic for aquaculture. This chapter will discuss the occurrence of XOCs in the greywater, chemical structure and bioassay for the toxicity of these compounds.

Physical Properties of Edible Films Based on Tapioca Starch as Affected by the Glycerol Concentration

The aim of this work is to study the influence of different proportions of glycerol on the properties of tapioca starch films. The films were characterized to determine crystallinity by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal property by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and mechanical property by tensile test. The DSC thermograms show a decrease in the melting temperature (TPeak) with increase in the glycerol content. According to XRD diffractograms, pure starch exhibits crystallinity, but gelatinisation converts the starch film with 0 (w/w) % glycerol to amorphous, it gains back its crystallinity with the increase in the glycerol concentration. Mechanical properties were also influenced by variation of the percentage ratio of glycerol. The tensile strength was observed to decrease with increase in glycerol concentration whereas the elongation at break sharply increase with increase in glycerol concentration.

Single Spore Isolation as a Simple and Efficient Technique to obtain fungal pure culture

The successful identification of fungi by phenotypic methods or molecular technique depends mainly on the using an advanced technique for purifying the isolates. The most efficient is the single spore technique due to the simple requirements and the efficiency in preventing the contamination by yeast, mites or bacteria. The method described in the present work is depends on the using of a light microscope to transfer one spore into a new culture medium. The present work describes a simple and efficient procedure for single spore isolation to purify of fungi recovered from the clinical wastes.

Selection of inactivation medium for fungal spores in clinical wastes by supercritical carbon dioxide

The present study aimed to select the best medium for inactivation of Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus spp. in section Nigri, A. niger, A. terreus var. terreus, A. tubingensis, Penicillium waksmanii, P. simplicissimum, and Aspergillus sp. strain no. 145 spores in clinical wastes by using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2). There were three types of solutions used including normal saline, seawater, distilled water, and physiological saline with 1% of methanol; each solution was tested at 5, 10, and 20xa0mL of the water contents. The experiments were conducted at the optimum operating parameters of supercritical carbon dioxide (30xa0MPa, 75xa0°C, 90xa0min). The results showed that the inactivation rate was more effective in distilled water with the presence of 1% methanol (6 log reductions). Meanwhile, the seawater decreases inactivation rate more than normal saline (4.5 vs. 5.1 log reduction). On the other hand, the experiments performed with different volumes of distilled water (5, 10, and 20xa0mL) indicated that A. niger spores were completely inactivated with 10xa0mL of distilled water. The inactivation rate of fungal spores decreased from 6 to 4.5 log as the amount of distilled water increased from 10 to 20xa0mL. The analysis for the spore morphology of A. fumigatus and Aspergillus spp. in section Nigri using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has revealed the role of temperature and pressure in the SC-CO2 in the destruction of the cell walls of the spores. It can be concluded that the distilled water represent the best medium for inactivation of fungal spores in the clinical solid wastes by SC-CO2.