Biology subjects

Garcia, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Garcia, L..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Operando Failure Diagnosis and Performance Dynamics in Microbial Fuel Cells Treating Mine Waste

Bench-scale microbial fuel cells (MFCs) treating mining wastewater frequently exhibit operational variability and uncharacterized degradation that obscure true biocatalytic performance. To decouple genuine biological treatment effects from mechanical failures, this paper presents an integrated diagnostic framework validated on two bench-scale systems treating heavy-metal-rich gold mine tailings. The first system evaluates Micractinium inermum algal bio-augmentation (System 1), while the second compares Psychrobacter alimentarius- and Trichococcus patagoniensis-dominated anodic consortia (System 2). To overcome single-reactor constraints, the framework integrates paired time-series statistical modeling, an adaptive percentile-floor change-point detector, equivalent-circuit modeling, and baseline-corrected spectroscopy (XRD/FTIR). Applying the framework to these systems uncovers previously masked dynamics: statistical analysis demonstrates that algal biocatalysis provides no voltage advantage under stable operation (+0.17%) but increases output by 27.54% under diurnal perturbation, while periodicity analysis links these diurnal shifts to the chamber photoperiod. Furthermore, heavy-metal remediation (up to 97.7%) is governed by system-level physicochemical mechanisms rather than algal-specific processes. The change-point detector successfully isolates distinct failure modes, distinguishing a recoverable excursion from terminal structural collapse. Finally, equivalent-circuit modeling reveals that the superior power density of Trichococcus consortia is driven by combined improvements in internal resistance and open-circuit voltage. Ultimately, pairing statistical controls with automated fault detection resolves operational ambiguity, offering a scalable baseline for health monitoring in bio-electrochemical wastewater treatment.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2018

Real Time PCR for the Evaluation of Treatment Response in Clinical Trials of Adult Chronic Chagas Disease: Usefulness of Serial Blood Sampling and qPCR Replicates.

This work evaluated a serial blood sampling procedure to enhance the sensitivity of duplex real time PCR (qPCR) for baseline detection and quantification of parasitic loads and post-treatment identification of failure in the context of clinical trials for treatment of chronic Chagas disease, namely DNDi-CH-E1224-001 (NCT01489228) and MSF-DNDi PCR sampling optimization study (NCT01678599). Patients from Cochabamba (N= 294), Tarija (N = 257), and Aiquile (N= 220) were enrolled. Three serial blood samples were collected at each time-point, and qPCR triplicates were tested per sample. The first two samples were collected during the same day and the third one seven days later.\n\nA patient was considered PCR positive if at least one qPCR replicate was detectable. Cumulative results of multiple samples and qPCR replicates enhanced the proportion of pre-treatment sample positivity from 54.8 to 76.2%, 59.5 to 77.8%, and 73.5 to 90.2% in Cochabamba, Tarija, and Aiquile cohorts, respectively and increased cumulative detection of treatment failure from 72.9 to 91.7%, 77.8 to 88.9%, and 42.9 to 69.1% for E1224 low, short, and high dosage regimes, respectively; and from 4.6 to 15.9% and 9.5 to 32.1% for the benznidazole (BZN) arm in the DNDi-CH-E1224-001 and MSF-DNDi studies, respectively. The monitoring of patients treated with placebo in the DNDi-CH-E1224-001 trial revealed fluctuations in parasitic loads and occasional non-detectable results. This serial sampling strategy enhanced PCR sensitivity to detecting treatment failure during follow-up and has the potential for improving recruitment capacity in Chagas disease trials which require an initial positive qPCR result for patient admission.

microbiology↗