Emerging (Bio)Sensing Technology for Assessing and Monitoring Freshwater Contamination - Methods and Applications

Ecological Water Quality - Water Treatment and ReuseWater is life and its preservation is not only a moral obligation but also a legal requirement. By 2030, global demands will exceed more than 40 % the existing resources and more than a third of the world's population will have to deal with water shortages (European Environmental Agency [EEA], 2010). Climate change effects on water resources will not help. Efforts are being made throughout Europe towards a reduced and efficient water use and prevention of any further deterioration of the quality of water (Eurostat, European Comission [EC], 2010). The Water Framework Directive (EC, 2000) lays down provisions for monitoring, assessing and classifying water quality. Supporting this, the Drinking Water sets standards for 48 microbiological and chemical parameters that must be monitored and tested regularly (EC, 1998). The Bathing Water Directive also sets concentration limits for microbiological pollutants in inland and coastal bathing waters (EC, 2006), addressing risks from algae and cyanobacteria contamination and faecal contamination, requiring immediate action, including the provision of information to the public, to prevent exposure. With these directives, among others, the European Union [EU] expects to offer its citizens, by 2015, fresh and coastal waters of good quality

A new dihydroxysterol from the marine phytoplankton Diacronema sp.

Diacronema sp. was cultured and its sterols were separated by column chromatography on silica gel. The new sterol 24-ethyl-4α-methyl-cholestane-3,20-diol (1) was characterised by NMR and MS spectrometry, as well as (22E)-24-ethyl-4α-methyl-5α-cholest-22-en-3β-ol (2) and β-sitosterol, the major components of the sterol fractions. Neither the biosynthetic origin of the new dihydroxysterol nor its role in the biochemistry of Diacronema is known.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A novel pentacyclic triterpene from Leontodon filii

A novel oleanene triterpenetetrol was isolated from the chloroform extract of the aerial parts of Leontodon filii. Its structure was shown to be 2β,3β,15α,21β-olean-12-ene-2,3,15,21-tetrol by chemical and spectroscopic methods. The fungicidal efficacy of the chloroform and methanol extracts of the plant was also evaluated, a protective effect being found against Plasmopara viticola, Botrytis cinerea, particularly powerful against Pyricularia oryzae.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Glueballs, gluon condensate, and pure glue QCD below T_c

A quasiparticle description of pure glue QCD thermodynamics at T<T_c is proposed and compared to recent lattice data. Given that a gas of glueballs with constant mass cannot quantitatively reproduce the early stages of the deconfinement phase transition, the problem is to identify a relevant mechanism leading to the observed sudden increase of the pressure, trace anomaly, etc. It is shown that the strong decrease of the gluon condensate near T_c combined with the increasing thermal width of the lightest glueballs might be the trigger of the phase transition.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures; analysis refined in v2, explanations added; v3 to appear in EPJ