Analysis of phytoplankton community in the vicinity of domestic sewage outflow during stratified conditions

The response of phytoplankton community structure to anthropogenically-derived nutrient from the submarine sewage outflow was analysed in a shallow coastal area of the middle Adriatic Sea. The study was conducted during the eight-year period (2002-2010) at six stations in the Brač Channel, aiming to assess the potential change in the state of biological and environmental parameters before and after the sewage commissioning. The research was particularly focused on phytoplankton producers during the summer which is considered to be critical due to water stratification and low water dynamics. The results show an increase in phytoplankton biomass in the deep layer after the discharge activation that was significant (M-W test; U=584.5, p<0.01), but not related to any intense phytoplankton bloom or oxygen deficiency. Temporal variability of total phytoplankton abundances throughout the research period indicated a significant increase in 2005, the year following the sewage outflow activation. Pairwise Dunn's multiple comparison test emphasised the difference in the years before the sewage activation (2002, 2003) compared to 2005 (2002 vs. 2005, R=-60.92 p<0.001; 2003 vs. 2005, R=-63.92 p<0.001). This situation was soon followed by the rapid equalization in phytoplankton abundances. Considering the entire research period, there were no changes in contributions of major phytoplankton groups, but the increase in overall species diversity was recorded, supporting the view that moderate inputs may stimulate plankton taxonomic diversity in coastal ecosystems. Increased ciliate and copepod nauplii abundance was also observed but was considered to be caused by natural variability

Hydrographic conditions driving sardine and anchovy populations in a land-locked sea

The aim of this paper is to establish a relationship between long-term variability in sardine and anchovy populations in the Adriatic Sea and ocean dynamics and processes that occur over interannual and decadal timescales in the Adriatic-Ionian basin. Basis for such analysis are annual time series of sardine and anchovy landings and recruits at age 0 and annual time series of environmental parameters observed at a representative Adriatic station between 1975 and 2010. Pearson correlations and robust Dynamic Factor Analysis (DFA) were applied to quantify the connections between fisheries and environmental parameters. Variations and trends in fisheries series were best explained by changes in near-bottom temperature and salinity, being an appropriate proxy for tracking changes in water masses' dynamics and hydrographic conditions in the basin. It seems that a prolonged period of decreasing sardine population was characterized by low oxygen availability and environmental conditions in the deep Adriatic waters, triggered by an extraordinary basin-wide event called the Eastern Mediterranean Transient. A collapse in anchovy population has been observed after an exceptional cooling event followed by dense water formation

Supplementary data for the article: Mrđan, G. S.; Vastag, G. G.; Škorić, D. Đ.; Radanović, M. M.; Verbić, T. Ž.; Milčić, M. K.; Stojiljković, I. N.; Marković, O. S.; Matijević, B. M. Synthesis, Physicochemical Characterization, and TD–DFT Calculations of Monothiocarbohydrazone Derivatives. Structural Chemistry 2021, 32 (3), 1231–1245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-020-01700-y.

Supplementary material for: [https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-020-01700-y]Related to published version: [https://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/4453

Application of oxidation processes in the purification of wastewaters from phenolic compounds

Natural phenolic compounds are significant component of the human diet, as they are present in fruits and vegetables, and they have very important biological activity in the living organisms. Because of their structure, they are subject of numerous oxidation processes, such as autoxidation, but are easily to oxidize in presence of various oxidizing agents and enzymes. Many authors have been investigating phenolic oxidation processes, and have successfully identified their pathways and a significant number of intermediates and products generated by these processes. Also, particular attention has been made to the effects of these processes on food quality and other biological processes in living organisms. Phenols are persistent pollutants of water systems from various agricultural activities and industrial wastewater discharges. It is known that the presence of phenolic compounds in water supplies and industrial effluents directly affects natural processes in the environment due to their toxicity and natural ability to decompose. This property, to easily oxidize and, as a result of it, to mineralize, is practically useful for the treatment of the wastewaters, so it is of global concern to manage the best technology to remove phenols and other organic pollutants, assisted with the oxidation processes. In the aspect of treatment of wastewaters polluted with phenols, we reviewed oxidative processes such as autoxidation, enzyme-catalyzed oxidation, photo-oxidation, electrochemical oxidation and oxidation by Fenton's reagent and, based on the literature data, we presented advantages and disadvantages of these processes compared to each other. © 2020 Editura Academiei Romane. All rights reserved

Efficient fabrication of high-density ensembles of color centers via ion implantation on a hot diamond substrate

Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are promising systems for quantum technologies, including quantum metrology and sensing. A promising strategy for the achievement of high sensitivity to external fields relies on the exploitation of large ensembles of NV centers, whose fabrication by ion implantation is upper limited by the amount of radiation damage introduced in the diamond lattice. In this works we demonstrate an approach to increase the density of NV centers upon the high-fluence implantation of MeV N2+ ions on a hot target substrate (>550 {\deg}C). Our results show that, with respect to room-temperature implantation, the high-temperature process increases the vacancy density threshold required for the irreversible conversion of diamond to a graphitic phase, thus enabling to achieve higher density ensembles. Furthermore, the formation efficiency of color centers was investigated on diamond substrates implanted at varying temperatures with MeV N2+ and Mg+ ions revealing that the formation efficiency of both NV centers and magnesium-vacancy (MgV) centers increases with the implantation temperature.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Scientific opinion on the tolerable upper intake level for manganese

Following a request from the European Commission (EC), the EFSA Panel onNutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) was asked to deliver a scientificopinion on the tolerable upper intake level (UL) for manganese. Systematic reviewsof the literature of human and animal data were conducted to assess evidenceregarding excess manganese intake (including authorised manganese salts) andthe priority adverse health effect, i.e. manganese-induced neurotoxicity. Availablehuman and animal studies support neurotoxicity as a critical effect, however, dataare not sufficient and suitable to characterise a dose–response relationship andidentify a reference point for manganese-induced neurotoxicity. In the absenceof adequate data to establish an UL, estimated background dietary intakes (i.e.manganese intakes from natural dietary sources only) observed among high consumers (95th percentile) were used to provide an indication of the highest level of intake where there is reasonable confidence on the absence of adverse effects. A safe level of intake of 8 mg/day was established for adults ≥18years (including pregnant and lactating women) and ranged between 2 and 7 mg/day for other population groups. The application of the safe level of intake is more limited than an UL because the intake level at which the risk of adverse effects starts to increase is not defined

Drugs with the highest drug expenditure in the Republic of Serbia

Introduction: The policy concerning drugs represents a concentrated effort to achieve better health outcomes for all, with a particular focus on people's access to and rational use of medications. On the basis of pharmacoeconomic analyses, it is possible to modify established prescribing habits, it is possible to influence the creation of guidelines, development strategy and long-term health care planning. Aim: The aim of the work was to determine drugs with the highest expenditure in the Republic of Serbia, and to compare the results obtained in three consecutive years 2016, 2017 and 2018. Also, to analyze which are the most expensive medications listed in the National Register of Medications and what is the trend of changing them. Material and methods: The drug expenditure was monitored using the ATC/DDD methodology. It implies the classification of medications according to the internationally accepted ATC classification of drugs, while DDD, i.e. defined daily dose, is used as a statistical unit for consumption monitoring. The number of DDD/1,000 inhabitants per day provides an insight into how many inhabitants (out of 1,000 of them) used the observed medication and were exposed to its effects during one day. Results: The trend of expenditure of these medications was growing exponentially from 2016 to 2018. The most expensive medications per box are from group J - anti-infective drugs for systemic use and L - antineoplastics and immunomodulators, but their expenditure in the Republic of Serbia is very low. The drugs with the highest price per 1 DDD are: enzymes imiglucerase, laronidase and the biological medication basiliximab in all three years, but considering the indications and rare prescribing, the total cost for these drugs is not high. The largest funds in the Republic of Serbia for the mentioned period were spent on drugs such as: acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol in combinations, trastuzumab, pantoprazole, amlodipine and rosuvastatin. Comparing the spending on L group of drugs in 2017 compared to 2016, there was a significant increase. Conclusion: The medications with the highest expenditure in the Republic of Serbia are used very little compared to countries with good pharmacotherapy practice. The most expensive drugs are those that are used for special and rare indications, and large amounts of money are not allocated for them as for some cheaper, but more frequently prescribed drugs

Development of scalable and versatile nanomaterial libraries for nanosafety studies: polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) capped metal oxide nanoparticles

The potential long-term environmental impact of manufactured nanomaterials (NMs) remains poorly understood, and the need to better predict NM fate and transformations and chronic effects is particularly urgent. Compared to their bulk counterparts, manufactured NMs can have distinct physical and chemical characteristics, which influence their behaviour, stability and toxicity. It is therefore essential to develop standard and reference NM libraries for environmental nanoscience and nano(eco)toxicology, and to facilitate a move towards computational prediction of NM fate, through quantitative structure–activity relationships for example. The aim of this work was to develop and fully characterise one such library, which included comparable NMs with a range of core chemistries, but the same capping agent and size range, for use in future studies to test the hypothesis that the core chemistry is a primary factor in controlling toxicity. The library contained the following NMs: 10k, 40k and 360k PVP capped ceria, zinc oxide and copper oxide (9 NMs in total). The work presented here upholds the underpinning hypothesis that the mechanism of NM formation is the same in all cases, suggesting that the protocol is very robust and has the potential to generate a wide range of comparable metal oxide NMs and potentially expand the library further with doped metal oxide and metal NMs. Characterisation by means of DLS (both size and zeta measurements), UV/Vis, XPS, FT-IR, TEM, STEM, EDX and EELS confirms that the tested synthesis protocol can easily and successfully be used to create stable PVP capped metal oxide NMs of reproducible sizes