Facial emotion processing in patients with borderline personality disorder as compared with healthy controls: an fMRI and ECG study

Abstract Background Maladaptive behaviors and interpersonal difficulties in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) seem connected to biased facial emotion processing. This bias is often accompanied by heightened amygdala activity in patients with BPD as compared to healthy controls. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies exploring differences between patients and healthy controls in facial emotion processing have produced divergent results. The current study explored fMRI and heart rate variability (HRV) correlates of negative facial emotion processing in patients with BPD and healthy controls. Methods The study included 30 patients with BPD (29 females; age: M = 24.22, SD = 5.22) and 30 healthy controls (29 females; M = 24.66, SD = 5.28). All participants underwent the “faces” task, an emotional face perception task, in an fMRI session simultaneously with ECG. In this task, participants are presented with emotional expressions of disgust, sadness, and fear (as a negative condition) and with the same pictures in a scrambled version (as a neutral condition). Results We found no differences in brain activity between patients with BPD and healthy controls when processing negative facial expressions as compared to neutral condition. We observed activation in large-scale brain areas in both groups when presented with negative facial expressions as compared to neutral condition. Patients with BPD displayed lower HRV than healthy controls in both conditions. However, there were no significant associations between HRV and amygdala activity and BPD symptoms. Conclusion The results of this study indicate no abnormal brain activity during emotional facial processing in patients with BPD. This result contrasts with previous studies and more studies are needed to clarify the relationship between facial emotion processing and brain activity in patients with BPD. Possible reasons for the absence of brain activity differences are discussed in the study. Consistent with previous findings, patients showed lower HRV than healthy controls. However, HRV was not associated with amygdala activity and BPD symptoms

Assessment of biodegradation potential at a site contaminated by a mixture of BTEX, chlorinated pollutants and pharmaceuticals using passive sampling methods; Case study

The present study describes a pilot remediation test of a co-mingled plume containing BTEX, chlorinated pollutants and pharmaceuticals. Remediation was attempted using a combination of various approaches, including a pump and treat system applying an advanced oxidation process and targeted direct push injections of calcium peroxide. The remediation process was monitored intensively and extensively throughout the pilot test using various conventional and passive sampling methods, including next-generation amplicon sequencing. The results showed that the injection of oxygen-saturated treated water with residual hydrogen peroxide and elevated temperature enhanced the in situ removal of monoaromatics and chlorinated pollutants. In particular, in combination with the injection of calcium peroxide, the conditions facilitated the in situ bacterial biodegradation of the pollutants. The mean groundwater concentration of benzene decreased from 1349 μg·L− 1 prior to the test to 3 μg·L− 1 within 3 months after the calcium peroxide injections; additionally, monochlorobenzene decreased from 1545 μg·L− 1 to 36 μg·L− 1, and toluene decreased from 143 μg·L− 1 to 2 μg·L− 1. Furthermore, significant degradation of the contaminants bound to the soil matrix in less permeable zones was observed. Based on a developed 3D model, 90% of toluene and 88% of chlorobenzene bound to the soil were removed during the pilot test, and benzene was removed almost completely. On the other hand, the psychopharmaceuticals were effectively removed by the employed advanced oxidation process only from the treated water, and their concentration in groundwater remained stagnant due to inflow from the surroundings and their absence of in situ degradation. The employment of passive sampling techniques, including passive diffusion bags (PDB) for volatile organic pollutants and their respective transformation products, polar organic compound integrative samplers (POCIS) for the pharmaceuticals and in situ soil microcosms for microbial community analysis, was proven to be suitable for monitoring remediation in saturated zones

Pharmaceuticals, benzene, toluene and chlorobenzene removal from contaminated groundwater by combined UV/H2O2 photo-oxidation and aeration

This study was performed to test the feasibility of several decontamination methods for remediatingheavily contaminated groundwater in a real contaminated locality in the Czech Republic, where apharmaceuticals plant has been in operation for more than 80 years. The site is polluted mainly byrecalcitrant psychopharmaceuticals and monoaromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, toluene andchlorobenzene. For this purpose, an advanced oxidation technique employing UV radiation withhydrogen peroxide dosing was employed, in combination with simple aeration pretreatment. The resultsshowed that UV/H2O2was an efficient and necessary step for degradation of the pharmaceuticals;however, the monoaromatics were already removed during the aeration step. Characterization of theremoval mechanisms participating in the aeration revealed that volatilization, co-precipitation andbiodegradation contributed to the process. Thesefindings were supported by bacterial metabolite ana-lyses, phospholipid fatty acid analysis, qPCR of representatives of the degradative genes and detailedcharacterization of the formed precipitate using M€ossbauer spectroscopy and scanning electron micro-scopy. Further tests were carried out in a continuous arrangement directly connected to the wells alreadypresent in the locality. The results documented the feasibility of combination of the photo-reactoremploying UV/H2O2together with aeration pretreatment for 4 months, where the overall decontami-nation efficiency ranged from 72% to 99% of the pharmaceuticals. We recorded even better results for themonoaromatics decontamination except for one month, when we encountered some technical problemswith the aeration pump. This demonstrated the necessity of using the aeration step