Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:03:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JucaraRMpdf1-61.pdf: 2157479 bytes, checksum: 530d9910b960362ab6b98d5b3433665f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-19 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / The Pirangi beach is located in the eastern coastline of Rio Grande do Norte state, in the municipality of Parnamirim and N?sia Floresta. In it flow into Pirangi Watershed (PW), whose water receives large amounts of pollutants, mainly domestic and industrial sewage from districts where pass the rivers that consist it, compromising, thus, the bathing water quality of the Pirangi beach. Bearing in mind the importance of water sanitary quality to ensure an environment that no present risk to the bathers s health, this work had as main objective to assess the influence of the PW s waters in the bathing water quality of the Pirangi beaches. To that end, were made collections of water in the beaches and in the rivers with the intention of quantify the fecal contamination indicators thermotolerant coliforms and enterococci, to then classify the conditions of bathing water quality according with the CONAMA Resolution number 274 of 2000. For the purposes greater knowledge about the health conditions of the Beaches Pirangi and about the influence the PW s waters exert on it, was done parallely to the study of the water quality, an investigation of the sand sanitary quality. Furthermore, it was made an evaluation of the PW s Water Quality through Water Quality Index (WQI). Starting from the results obtained in the research present was possible to verify, among other aspects, that the entry of the PW s waters in the Pirangi beaches exerts direct influence in the bathing water quality of the same ones, being the North Pirangi beach (point tracking PA-02) the most influenced. There was noticed also a significant reduction in the conditions of bathing water quality of the beaches in the rainy season. However, the precariousness do sewerage system of the Natal metropolitan region and the absence of a right system of treatment an final disposal of domestic sewage and industrial are the main factors responsi le for deterioration of the PW s Water Quality, and as a consequence, compromising the bathing water quality of the Pirangi beaches / A praia de Pirangi est? localizada no litoral oriental do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte, nos munic?pios de Parnamirim e N?sia Floresta. Nela des?gua a Bacia Hidrogr?fica Pirangi (BHP), cuja ?gua recebe grande quantidade de poluentes, principalmente esgotos dom?sticos e industriais dos munic?pios por onde passam os rios que a comp?em, comprometendo, dessa forma, a balneabilidade desta praia. Tendo em vista a import?ncia da qualidade sanit?ria da ?gua para se garantir um ambiente que n?o apresente riscos ? sa?de dos banhistas, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo principal avaliar a influ?ncia das ?guas da BHP na balneabilidade das praias de Pirangi. Para tanto, foram realizadas coletas de ?gua nas praias e nos rios com o intuito de quantificar os indicadores de contamina??o fecal Enterococos e Coliformes termotolerantes, para ent?o classificar as condi??es de balneabilidade de acordo com a resolu??o CONAMA n? 274 de 2000. Para efeito de maior embasamento sobre as condi??es sanit?rias das Praias de Pirangi e sobre a influ?ncia que as ?guas da BPH exercem sobre elas, foi realizada, paralelamente ao estudo da qualidade das ?guas, uma investiga??o da qualidade sanit?ria das areias. Al?m disso, foi feita uma avalia??o da qualidade da ?gua da BHP atrav?s do ?ndice de Qualidade da ?gua (IQA). A partir dos resultados obtidos na presente pesquisa foi poss?vel constatar, dentre outros aspectos, que a entrada das ?guas da BHP nas praias de Pirangi exerce influ?ncia direta na balneabilidade das mesmas, sendo a praia de Pirangi do Norte (ponto de monitoramento PA-02) a mais influenciada. Observou-se, tamb?m, redu??o significativa nas condi??es de balneabilidade das praias na esta??o chuvosa. Contudo, a precariedade do esgotamento sanit?rio da regi?o metropolitana de Natal e a aus?ncia de um sistema adequado de tratamento e disposi??o final dos esgotos dom sticos e industriais s?o os principais fatores respons?veis pela degrada??o da qualidade da ?gua da BHP, e como conseq??ncia, pelo comprometimento da balneabilidade das praias de Pirangi

The aim of this paper is to explain and compare non-compliance of two EU-directives, “the quality of bathing water” and “the working time directive”. This study answers the questions: Why didn’t Sweden implement the directive on bathing water quality and the working time directive correctly? Are the reasons for non-compliance the same or different in the two cases? The paper is designed as a case study and with an explanatory attempt we explain why the two directives weren’t implemented correctly in Sweden. The theoretical approach is based on both general- and EU-specific implementation theories. The reason why the directive on quality of bathing water wasn’t implemented correctly was firstly because of the differences between the Swedish political contents and the EU-directive’s, secondly the vague formulation that caused problems with understanding how to implement the directive. Third and lastly the implementation suffered from the lack of administrative resources. The working time directive had problems with the political contents and the resistance from the trade union and government, which caused delays with the implementation of the directive. By studying these two cases this paper concludes that there is only one point of similarity between the cases, i.e. the political contents.

Objective: National and supranational directives (EU-bathing water directiv, WHO directives) exist to examine the bathing-water quality with concern to public health criteria. E.coli, Intestinal enterococci and Enteroviruses serve as indicators for the contamination of a water with pathogenic bacteria and viruses. As an valuable indicators for the viral contamination bacteriophages are discussed. The aim of this work is the evaluation of somatic and F+ RNA coliphages as indicators of a contamination with enteric viruses considering a lignite mining lake as example. Approach: In weekly intervals, the concentration of bacterial and viral indicators, as well as the presence or absence of enteric viruses in the mining lake "Werbeliner See" (central German lignite mining area), in the flooding water and in the sewage plant Leipzig-Rosental, which significantly influences the flooding water, was examined. The paramters E.coli, Intestinal enterococci and spores of Clostridium perfringens serve as indicators for the hygienic state. As possible indicators of a viral contamination, somatic and F+ RNA coliphages were examined. Several hygienic relevant enteric viruses (Entero-, Noro-, Astro-, Adeno-, Rota- and Hepatitis A-viruses) were detected by means of adequate molecular biological methods and enumerated. Results: 1. The sewage plant Leipzig-Rosental eliminated fecal bacteria and bacteriophages very efficiently (about two logs), however the reduction of E.coli and enterococci was significant higher then the reduction of Cl.perfringens-spores and bacteriophages. The purification capacity benefits from the application of chemical precipitants (Fe (III) cloride / sulfate). 2. The reduction of genomes of Noro-, Astro- and Enteroviruses by the sewage plant was in the range of one to two logs. 3. All examined viruses could be detected in the inflow and the outflow of the sewage plant during the time of examination. 4. The concentration of fecal bacteria in the lake Werbeliner See was very low. The requirements by the EU-bathing water directive (76/160/EWG) with 2000 . (100 ml)-1 (E.coli, imperial value) and 100 . (100 ml)-1 (enterococci, guide value), respectively, were under-run clearly, also concerning the individual sampling days. 81 % and 92 % of the samples of the lake Werbeliner See (except the inflow site) were below the detection limit of 0,1 PFU . ml-1 for somatic and F+ RNA coliphages, respectively. 5. In contrast, DNA and RNA of all examined virus could be found in the lake. Quantitative PCR reveald a virus load between 0 und 105 Gen.equiv. . l-1 for Entero-, Noro- and Astroviruses. 6. The detection of infectious Enteroviruses on BGM cell lines yielded one positve sample (=1,2%). Since the concentration of Enterovirus genomes in the quantitative PCR was three to four log-steps lower then this of the Noro- and Astroviruses, one could specualte, that the concentration of infectious Noro- and Astroviruses in the lake was quite high. 7. The low rate of positive infectious Enteroviruses in the lake reflects the low concentration of bacteriophages. But the direct comparison of the concentration of bacteriophages with the concentration of infectious Enteroviruses in the flooding water casts doubt on the indicatior value of bacteriophages regarding Enteroviruses. In conclusion, this finding suggests that an exclusive indication of bacteriophages concerning a contamination with Enteroviruses is not possible. 8. The use of bacteriophages as indicators of a wider range of enteric viruses could attenuate this discrepancy by the epidemiological more frequent appearance of enteric viruses as a sum. 9. In this context bacteriophages could, due to their comparatively high resistence, have a key function in the assesment of the hygienic quality of a water sample. / Problemstellung: Um die hygienische Qualität von Badegewässern zu beurteilen existieren nationale und übernationale Richtlinien (EU-Badegewässerrichtlinie, WHO-Richtlinien). E.coli, Intestinale Enterokokken und Enteroviren dienen dabei als Indikatoren für die Belastung des Gewässers mit humanpathogenen Keimen bzw. Viren. Als Indikatoren für die virale Belastung sind in diesem Zusammenhang unter anderem Bakteriophagen im Gespräch. Gegenstand dieser Arbeit sind die Evaluierung von Somatischen und F+ RNA Coliphagen als Indikatoren für die Kontamination mit enteralen Viren am Beispiel eines Tagebausee sowie die Dokumentation der hygienischen Wasserqualität des Tagebausees unter Berücksichtigung des Flutungswassers. Vorgehensweise: In wöchentlichen Routineuntersuchungen wurden die Konzentrationen bakterieller und viraler Indikatoren, sowie die An- oder Abwesenheit enteraler Viren im Tagebausee "Werbeliner See" untersucht. Verschiedene, hygienische relevante enterale Viren (Entero-, Noro-, Astro-, Adeno-, Rotaviren, sowie Hepatitis A-Viren) wurden mittels geeigneter molekularbiologischer und zellkultureller Methoden detektiert und quantifiziert. Ergebnisse: 1. Die Kläranlage Leipzig-Rosental eliminierte sehr effizient (ca. zwei Größenordnungen) fäkale Bakterien und Bakteriophagen, wobei die Reduktion von E.coli und Enterokokken signifikant höher war als die von Cl.perfringens-Sporen und Bakteriophagen. Die Reinigungsleistung wird durch den Einsatz von chemischen Fällmitteln (Eisen-(III)-Chlorid / -Sulfat-Salze) begünstigt. 2. Noro-, Astro- und Enteroviren, für die quantitative Untersuchungen durchgeführt worden, konnten durch die Kläranlage um ein bis zwei Größenordnungen reduziert werden. 3. Alle untersuchten Viren konnten in Zu- und Ablauf der Kläranlage molekularbiologisch nachgewiesen werden. 4. Die Konzentration fäkaler Bakterien im Werbeliner See war sehr gering. Die Vorgaben der EU-Badegewässerrichtlinie (76/160/EWG) von 2000 . (100 ml)-1 (E.coli, Grenzwert) bzw. 100 . (100 ml)-1 (Enterokokken, Leitwert) wurden dabei, auch bezogen auf die einzelnen Probenahmetage, deutlich unterschritten. 81 % bzw. 92 % der Seeproben (außer Einleitungsstelle) lagen unterhalb der Nachweisgrenze von 0,1 PFU . ml-1 für Somatische- bzw. F+ RNA Coliphagen. 5. Im Kontrast dazu konnte DNA bzw. RNA aller untersuchten Viren im See gefunden werden. Die genomische Viruslast der mittels real-time-PCR detektierten Entero-, Noro- und Astroviren lag zwischen 0 und 105 Gen.äquiv. . l-1. 6. Der Nachweis infektiöser Enteroviren auf BGM-Zellen im Werbeliner See ergab ein einzelnes positives Ergebnis im Untersuchungszeitraum (= 1,2 %). Allerdings lag die Konzentration detektierter Enteroviren-Genome im Mittel drei bis vier Größenordnungen unter der Konzentration von Noro- und Astroviren. Es kann deshalb spekuliert werden, dass für diese Viren ebenfalls ein hoher Anteil infektiöser Proben zu erwarten gewesen wäre. 7. Die niedrige Nachweisrate infektiöser Enteroviren im Werbeliner See spiegelte sich in der sehr niedrigen Konzentration an Bakteriophagen wider. Allerdings lässt der direkte Vergleich der Bakteriophagenkonzentration mit dem Nachweis infektiöser Enteroviren im Flutungswasser Zweifel am Indikatorwert von Bakteriophagen für eine Kontamination mit Enteroviren aufkommen. Eine exklusive Indikation von Bakteriophagen bezüglich einer Kontamination mit Enteroviren scheint anhand dieser Befunde nicht möglich. 8. E.coli und Enterokokken wurden in Laborversuchen unter verschiedenen Versuchsbedingungen signifikant schneller inaktiviert als Somatische Coliphagen und Noroviren. Gleiches galt im Vergleich zu Cl. perfringens-Sporen, Astroviren und F+ RNA Coliphagen. 9. Bakteriophagen könnten deshalb auf Grund ihrer vergleichsweise hohen Resistenz eine wichtige Schlüsselfunktion für die Beurteilung der hygienischen Qualität einer Wasserprobe spielen.

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been comprehensively researched, both from a computer scientific perspective and with regard to their use for predictive modelling in a wide variety of applications including hydrology and the environment. Yet their adoption for live, real-time systems remains on the whole sporadic and experimental. A plausible hypothesis is that this may be at least in part due to their treatment heretofore as “black boxes” that implicitly contain something that is unknown, or even unknowable. It is understandable that many of those responsible for delivering Early Warning Systems (EWS) might not wish to take the risk of implementing solutions perceived as containing unknown elements, despite the computational advantages that ANNs offer. This thesis therefore builds on existing efforts to open the box and develop tools and techniques that visualise, analyse and use ANN weights and biases especially from the viewpoint of neural pathways from inputs to outputs of feedforward networks. In so doing, it aims to demonstrate novel approaches to self-improving predictive model construction for both regression and classification problems. This includes Neural Pathway Strength Feature Selection (NPSFS), which uses ensembles of ANNs trained on differing subsets of data and analysis of the learnt weights to infer degrees of relevance of the input features and so build simplified models with reduced input feature sets. Case studies are carried out for prediction of flooding at multiple nodes in urban drainage networks located in three urban catchments in the UK, which demonstrate rapid, accurate prediction of flooding both for regression and classification. Predictive skill is shown to reduce beyond the time of concentration of each sewer node, when actual rainfall is used as input to the models. Further case studies model and predict statutory bacteria count exceedances for bathing water quality compliance at 5 beaches in Southwest England. An illustrative case study using a forest fires dataset from the UCI machine learning repository is also included. Results from these model ensembles generally exhibit improved performance, when compared with single ANN models. Also ensembles with reduced input feature sets, using NPSFS, demonstrate as good or improved performance when compared with the full feature set models. Conclusions are drawn about a new set of tools and techniques, including NPSFS and visualisation techniques for inspection of ANN weights, the adoption of which it is hoped may lead to improved confidence in the use of ANN for live real-time EWS applications.