The authors have presented a new concept of excess sludge elimination treatment with recirculation of sludge via ozonation in the activated sludge process. This paper is intended to clarify the potential application of the process to municipal and industrial wastewater treatments. In a full-scale operational experiment lasting 10 months under 550 kg/d of BOD loading, no excess sludge was needed to be withdrawn and no significant accumulation of inorganic solids occurred in the aeration tank. Most of the inorganic compounds in the sludge were released to the soluble phase. Material balance indicated that one-third of ozonated sludge was mineralized via the recirculation treatment, and thereby the requirement of sludge mass to be treated was 3.3 times as much as sludge to be eliminated. Effluent TOC was slightly higher than under the conventional activated sludge process, indicating that refractory TOC was released from the sludge eliminated by treatment. The amount of released TOC corresponded to less than 2 weight % of eliminated sludge under recirculation rates below 30% of total biomass in the aeration tank in a day, but increased at higher recirculation rates. The operation costs associated with the process were estimated to be lower than those of conventional dewatering and disposal.

Dual-energy subtraction imaging by a single x-ray exposure (one shot) can easily be performed by using computed radiography with scanning laser-stimulated luminescence. In a phantom study, a thin copper filter placed between two imaging plates produced a dual-energy subtracted image from a single x-ray exposure. One-shot dual-energy subtraction imaging was also useful in the diagnosis of thoracic lesions.

A clinical evaluation of one-shot dual-energy subtraction chest imaging by means of computed radiography (CR) with imaging plates was carried out in a comparison with the original plain CR images. In analyses of chest images of 140 patients, new information, not detected on the original plain CR images, was obtained on subtraction images in 21 patients (15%). Receiver operating characteristic curve studies also verified the superiority of CR subtraction over the original plain CR images for the detection of pulmonary nodules, calcification in a nodule, and rib lesions. Subtraction images complemented the original plain images.

The chemical structure of glycoside H1 (I), C56H90O24, mp 182•‹, [a]24D-22. 83•‹ (EtOH), which was isolated from Bei-Wujiapi (cortex of Periploca sepittm BGE.), was established to be•¢5-pregnene-3ƒÀ, 20ƒ¿-diol (3)-[2-O-acetyl-ƒÀ-D-digitalopyranosyl (ldig•¨4cym)-ƒÀ-D-cymaropyranoside] (20)-[ƒÀ-D-glucopyranosyl (1g1u•¨6g1u)-ƒÀ-D-glucopyranosyl (1g1u•¨2dig)-ƒÀ-D-digitalopyranoside].