Table 1.
Pharmaceutical concentrations and mixture in SBRs.
Table 2.
Average removal of COD, NH4+–N and TN during stable stage of each reactor.
Table 3.
Average removals of selected NSAIDs in the stable stage of each reactor.
Fig 1.
Relative activities of oxidizing enzymes in activated sludge during the stable stage.
The enzyme activity of the control is regarded as 100%. The relative activity is presented in the percentage of enzyme activity value in samples with enzyme activity value in the control. The relative activity is over 100% indicating an increase of enzyme activity (compared to the control). The relative activity is less 100% indicating a decrease of enzyme activity (compared to the control). asterisks (*) indicating the statistical difference from the control (p < 0.05).
Fig 2.
Changes of EPS content in each sludge sample.
EPS content is presented by the sum of PN and PS. PN and PS are normalized by volatile solid sludge (VSS). asterisks (*) indicates statistical difference from the control (p < 0.05).
Fig 3.
Percentages of live/dead cells in each sludge sample.
Twenty random fields were chosen and observed, and the rate of live/dead cells in activated sludge was calculated by quantifying the area of each image. The final results indicate the percentage of live cell.
Fig 4.
The relative abundances of bacteria in sludge samples of stable stage at phylum level.
The abundance is presented in terms of percentage in total effective bacterial sequences in each sample. The color bar indicates the range of the percentage of a phylum. The sum of all phyla and unclassified phylum is 100%.
Fig 5.
Heat map of genera occurring at >0.2% abundance in at least one sludge sample.
The color bar indicates the range of the percentage of a genus in each sample, based on the color key (log 10 scale) at the top right corner. Genera with abundance >0.2% were selected in each sample.