Microbiology Commons^™

Pepper Mild Mottle Virus As A Surrogate For Enteric Viruses: Implications For Assessing Water Quality, Erin Michelle Symonds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Less than 10% of the world’s domestic wastewater is disinfected prior to discharge into surface waters; therefore, human exposure to diverse wastewater-related pathogens results in millions of cases of illness each year. Among the enteric pathogens, viruses represent an important group of emerging pathogens and are frequently the cause of food- and water-borne outbreaks of illness. Although the World Health Organization and many government agencies mandate the use of bacterial indicators to identify poor microbial water quality, it is well known that these indicators poorly correlate with fecal pollution contamination events and risk of disease. The field of public health-related …

Pathogen Removal In Natural Wastewater Treatment And Resource Recovery Systems: Solutions For Small Cities In An Urbanizing World, Matthew Eric Verbyla

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sanitation, renewable energy, and food security are among the most pressing global development needs of the century, especially for small cities with rapid population growth. Currently, 53% of the world’s population either lacks access to improved sanitation or discharges fecal waste to the environment without treatment. Furthermore, 80% of food consumed in developing regions is produced by 500 million small farms, and while many of them are still rain-fed, irrigated agriculture is increasing. The post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, recently adopted by the United Nations, include targets to address the water-energy-food nexus. Wastewater reuse in agriculture can be an important solution …

Assessment Of A Modified Double Agar Layer Method To Detect Bacteriophage For Assessing The Potential Of Wastewater Reuse In Rural Bolivia, Sakira N. Hadley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water scarcity is a global concern that impacts many developing countries, forcing people to depend on unclean water sources for domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs. Wastewater is an alternative water source that contains nutrients needed for crop growth. Wastewater reuse for agriculture can cause public health problems because of human exposure to pathogens. Pathogen monitoring is essential to evaluate the compliance of wastewater with established World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wastewater reuse guidelines. Indicator organisms are commonly used to detect pathogens in water and wastewater because they are quick and easy to measure, non-pathogenic, and …

Mechanistic Modeling Of Photocatalytic Water Disinfection, Omatoyo Kofi Dalrymple

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main goal of this research was to develop a mechanism-based model for photocatalytic disinfection of bacteria in water using suspended catalyst pthesiss in batch reactors. The photocatalytic disinfection process occurs as a semiconductor photocatalyst, most commonly titanium dioxide (TiO₂), is irradiated with light of wavelength less than 380 nm to produce hydroxyl radicals and other highly reactive oxidants which can inactivate microorganisms. Photocatalytic disinfection involves a complex interaction of many fundamental mechanisms such as light absorption and scattering by semiconductor pthesiss, electrochemical surface reactions, and heterogeneous colloidal stability. Current models, based largely on chemical reacting systems, do …

Investigation Of The Optimal Dissolved Co2 Concentration And Ph Combination For The Growth Of Nitrifying Bacteria, Raymond Anthony Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ammonium (NH₄⁺) is a biological nutrient that is transformed in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in a process called activated sludge. This is accomplished in an aerobic environment using microorganisms and inorganic carbon that convert the ammonium to nitrate (NO₃^-). This process is termed nitrification. Removal of ammonium is necessary due to its oxygen demand and toxicity to the environment.

Nitrification is considered a slow process due to the slow growth rate of the nitrifying bacteria. Ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) first covert the ammonium (NH₄⁺) to nitrite (NO₂^-) …