Membrane fouling is a major hindrance to widespread wastewater treatment applications. This study optimizes operating parameters in membrane rotating biological contactors (MRBC) for maximized membrane fouling through Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). MRBC is an integrated system, embracing membrane filtration and conventional rotating biological contactor in one individual bioreactor. The filtration performance was optimized by exploiting the three parameters of disk rotational speed, membrane-to-disk gap, and organic loading rate. The results showed that both the RSM and ANN models were in good agreement with the experimental data and the modelled equation. The overall R2 value was 0.9982 for the proposed network using ANN, higher than the RSM value (0.9762). The RSM model demonstrated the optimum operating parameter values of a 44 rpm disk rotational speed, a 1.07 membrane-to-disk gap, and a 10.2 g COD/m2 d organic loading rate. The optimization of process parameters can eliminate unnecessary steps and automate steps in the process to save time, reduce errors and avoid duplicate work. This work demonstrates the effective use of statistical modeling to enhance MRBC system performance to obtain a sustainable and energy-efficient treatment process to prevent human health and the environment.

Introduction: The process of scientific publishing changed greatly in the past decades. The authors aimed to get insight into the time required for articles to be accepted and released online in high-impacted ophthalmology journals.Methods: Comprehensive review of all original articles published by eight ophthalmology journals during a one-year period was performed for 2020 and 2005. Time taken from submission to acceptance and the first online release of the article was abstracted and analyzed.Results: A total of 3110 articles were reviewed. In 2020, the overall median time from submission to acceptance (AT) was 119 days (IQR 83-168) and 30 days (10-71) from acceptance to the first online release of the article (OP). AT increased by 7.3% from 2005 to 2020, whereas OP reduced by 73%. Publications, which the corresponding author was affiliated with US-located institution had shorter both AT and OP in 2005 and 2020. The author's specialty in ophthalmology had an inconclusive impact on AT and OP. Papers with multiple affiliated institutions had shorter AT and OP in both 2005 and 2020; however, these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion:This study demonstrated that increasing pressure on authors, editors, and reviewers to publish articles and journals with high impact factor (IF) significantly influenced publication times in ophthalmology journals. Inflation of research papers was associated with rising AT time. A significant decrease in OP time was potentially explained by the editor's demand to achieve decent journal IF. This article brings to light relative publication times in the ophthalmology scientific journals.

Do najczęstszych nowotworów rozpoznawanych u kobiet ciężarnych należą: rak piersi, nowotwory narządu rodnego (szczególnie szyjki macicy) i przewodu pokarmowego, chłoniaki i czerniak. Zarówno rozpoznanie, jak i leczenie choroby nowotworowej w okresie ciąży napotyka wiele trudności, powinien je więc prowadzić zespół złożony z wielu specjalistów. Cel nadrzędny zawsze powinny stanowić ochrona zdrowia i życia matki oraz możliwie najniższe ryzyko negatywnego odziaływania diagnostyki i terapii na płód. Postępowanie chirurgiczne to jedna z podstawowych metod leczenia onkologicznego, także w trakcie ciąży, ale jego zakres zależy od rodzaju rozpoznanego nowotworu, wieku ciąży i stopnia rozwoju płodu. Radioterapia okolic miednicy i jamy brzusznej podczas ciąży jest bezwzględnie przeciwwskazana, z uwagi na poważne (w tym letalne) zagrożenie płodu. Chemioterapię wybranymi lekami dopuszcza się po zakończeniu okresu organogenezy; zaleca się zakończenie leczenia około trzech tygodni przed planowanym porodem. Częstość występowania nowotworów złośliwych jajnika wynosi około 1 na 10 000-38 000 ciąż. W większości przypadków ciąża nie zmienia rokowania. Postępowanie lecznicze uwarunkowane jest przede wszystkim stopniem klinicznego zaawansowania choroby. We wczesnych postaciach interwencja chirurgiczna powinna ograniczać się do jednostronnego usunięcia przydatków, biopsji otrzewnej i sieci większej. Po zakończeniu ciąży i okresu połogu do rozważenia jest powtórna operacja, oceniająca zaawansowanie procesu nowotworowego. W przypadkach choroby zaawansowanej zakres leczenia chirurgicznego zależy głównie od decyzji pacjentki co do utrzymania ciąży. Słowa kluczowe: ciąża, nowotwory, rak jajnika, chemioterapia, radioterapia The most common neoplasms in pregnant women are: breast cancer, cancers of the reproductive organ (in particular cervical cancer) and gastrointestinal tract, lymphomas and melanoma. Both diagnosis and treatment of cancer in pregnancy encounter numerous obstacles and therefore they should be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of physicians. The primary aim should always be the protection of life and health of the mother and the lowest possible risk of adverse effects induced by the

Introduction: The speed of manuscript publication in reputable journals plays a crucial role in spreading scientific novelties and may influence the number of received citations. In the present study, the authors investigated the publication speed of dentistry journals. This is crucial for both authors, who desire rapid dissemination of their findings, and patients in need, who seek new therapies.Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional bibliometric analysis of published dentistry journals. A list of dentistry journals featured in the 2021 Journal Citation Report was downloaded. A total of five random original articles were extracted from each of these journals. These articles were published between January and December 2020. Median and interquartile range (IQR) times from submission to acceptance, publication in print, online publication, time from acceptance to in print and online publication were calculated. The correlation between publication times and journal impact factor (IF) was examined.Results: A total of 89 journals were included. Individual time from submission to acceptance (peer review time) ranged from 6 to 279 days, the combined median peer review time was 115 (80-159) days. The overall median time from acceptance to online or print publication was 17 (12-38) and 153 (92-249) days, respectively. Journals with available data concerning publication times tended to have higher IF than others. Only journals that did not have available time from acceptance to online publication had higher IF. There were negative correlations between times from submission (r = -0.442, p = 0.007), acceptance (r = -0.616, p < 0.001) to in-print publication, and IF. There were no correlations between IF and time from submission to acceptance, acceptance to online publication, and submission to online publication. Conclusions: Publication times availability was revealed to be an indicator of higher impacted journals, which is a potential new exponent of journal quality. Higher IF values were associated with shorter times from submission to acceptance and in-print publication, which is consistent with current editorial policies.