Study of the Potential Accumulation of the Pesticide Alpha-Endosulfan by Microplastics in Water Systems

Microplastics (MP) are spread into all ecosystems and represent a threat to the equilibrium of the environment and human health, not only due to their intrinsic characteristics but also to their action as effective carriers of contaminants, such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The pesticide α-endosulfan is persistent and spread in the environment. The MP are another possible way of dissemination to be considered in the fate of this pesticide. The adsorption dynamics of α-endosulfan by six different MP (low-density polyethylene—LDPE, polyethylene-co-vinyl acetate, unplasticized polyvinyl chloride, polyamide 6, polystyrene granule, polypropylene granule) with different sizes/shapes and chemical compositions were evaluated. The most critical situation was identified for the system LDPE (particle size < 300 μm). Equilibrium studies (48 h equilibrium time) were performed for distilled, tap and filtered river water. Based on the Langmuir model parameters, the highest maximum adsorption capacity was obtained for distilled water, followed by filtered river and tap waters (i.e., 366 ± 39, 247 ± 38, 157 ± 22 μg/g). The obtained results demonstrate the important role that microplastics may have in the fate and transport of pesticides and their potentially harmful effect on the environment, which requires further investigationThis research was funded by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV, which received financial support from UIDB/50006/2020, UIDP/50006/2020, and LA/P/0008/2020 by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES) through national funds. This research was funded through the 2019–2020 Biodiversa & Water JPI joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivRestore ERA-Net COFUND programme, DivRestore/0002/2020, and with the funding organisation FCT, Portugal. Virgínia Cruz Fernandes thanks FCT for the financial support through a postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/109153/2015). Also, Sílvia Daniela Martinho thanks FCT for the financial support through a doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BD/13595/2022). The authors are greatly indebted to all financing sources.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Microplastic Pollution Focused on Sources, Distribution, Contaminant Interactions, Analytical Methods, and Wastewater Removal Strategies: A Review

Plastics have been one of the most useful materials in the world, due to their distinguishing characteristics: light weight, strength, flexibility, and good durability. In recent years, the growing consumption of plastics in industries and domestic applications has revealed a serious problem in plastic waste treatments. Pollution by microplastics has been recognized as a serious threat since it may contaminate all ecosystems, including oceans, terrestrial compartments, and the atmosphere. This micropollutant is spread in all types of environments and is serving as a “minor but efficient” vector for carrier contaminants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The need to deeply study and update the evolution of microplastic sources, toxicology, extraction and analysis, and behavior is imperative. This review presents an actual state of microplastics, addressing their presence in the environment, the toxicological effects and the need to understand their extent, their interactions with toxic pollutants, the problems that arise in the definition of analytical methods, and the possible alternatives of treatmentsThis research was funded by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV, which received financial support from UIDB/50006/2020, UIDP/50006/2020, and LA/P/0008/2020 by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES) through national funds. The research was funded also by FCT and BiodivRestore Joint Call 2020–2021—European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101003777-BiodivRestore-406/DivRestore/0002/2020-BioReset-“Biodiversity restoration and conservation of inland water ecosystems for environmental and human well-being”. Virgínia Cruz Fernandes thanks FCT for the financial support through a postdoctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/109153/2015). The authors are greatly indebted to all financing sourcesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Summarization of films and documentaries based on subtitles and scripts

We assess the performance of generic text summarization algorithms applied to films and documentaries, using extracts from news articles produced by reference models of extractive summarization. We use three datasets: (i) news articles, (ii) film scripts and subtitles, and (iii) documentary subtitles. Standard ROUGE metrics are used for comparing generated summaries against news abstracts, plot summaries, and synopses. We show that the best performing algorithms are LSA, for news articles and documentaries, and LexRank and Support Sets, for films. Despite the different nature of films and documentaries, their relative behavior is in accordance with that obtained for news articles.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum