Removal of naproxen from water using adsorbents obtained from low-cost materials

The continuous growth of world population together with the strong urbanization has triggered an increasing demand for freshwater which has resulted in a serious deterioration of water bodies [1]. Water pollution with pharmaceutical drugs is becoming a relevant problem. The concentration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, estrogens, personal care products, among others, in waterways is reaching hazardous levels, posing a threat to the environment and human health. Moreover, conventional cleaning and degradation processes applied on wastewater treatment plants are inefficient to eliminate or remove these compounds. Adsorption is a treatment process considered as effective process used to remove micropollutants such as pharmaceutical drugs from wastewaters [2, 3]. This work will present the main experimental results obtained for the removal of naproxen, a representative anti-inflammatory drug, from water by adsorption using activated carbon obtained from olive stone. From the raw material, four different types of activated carbon adsorbent were prepared and characterized. The equilibrium adsorption isotherms were measured using the batch method. The most significant adsorption parameters were optimized, such as the solution pH, mass of the adsorbent, contact time and temperature. Four types of activated carbon materials were prepared from olive stones, the olive pits were powdered to an average diameter of 0.25 mm (type 1), then chemically activated with a strong acid (type 2) and then carbonized at 500ᵒC (type 3) or pyrolyzed at 800ᵒC (type 4). The batch method was applied to experimentally measure the equilibrium adsorption isotherms. The most significant adsorption parameters were optimized, such as the solution pH, mass of the adsorbent used, adsorption contact time and adsorption temperature.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020, UIDP/00690/2020 and EXPL2021CIMO_05-REMPHARM) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Removal of estrogens from water using activated carbon obtained from olive stones

Micropollutants are natural or synthetic substances that are continuously released to aquatic environments that, even present at very low concentrations, such as μg/L or ng/L, can present adverse effects to the environment [1]. Micropollutants include a huge range of compounds such as pharmaceuticals, hormones, cosmetics, disinfectants, pesticides, among others [2]. Estrogens are hormones that can be found naturally in fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The main therapeutic molecules of estrogens are 17ꞵ-Estradiol, Estriol and synthetic 17α-Ethinylestradiol normally used as contraceptives [3]. When present in water bodies, they can represent an environmental and health problem since traditional sewage and drinking water treatment plants are not able to remove or degrade this pharmaceutical compounds. This work will present some experimental studies for the removal of estrogens by adsorption using biomass-based materials, namely different types of activated carbon, obtained using olive stones as carbon sourceThe authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021). J.L. Diaz De Tuesta acknowledges the financial support of “Comunidad de Madrid” (Spain) for the individual research grant 2020-T2/AMB-19836.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

Updated cardiovascular prevention guideline of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology: 2019

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Climate seasonality limits leaf carbon assimilation and wood productivity in tropical forests

The seasonal climate drivers of the carbon cycle in tropical forests remain poorly known, although these forests account for more carbon assimilation and storage than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Based on a unique combination of seasonal pan-tropical data sets from 89 experimental sites (68 include aboveground wood productivity measurements and 35 litter productivity measurements), their associated canopy photosynthetic capacity (enhanced vegetation index, EVI) and climate, we ask how carbon assimilation and aboveground allocation are related to climate seasonality in tropical forests and how they interact in the seasonal carbon cycle. We found that canopy photosynthetic capacity seasonality responds positively to precipitation when rainfall is  < 2000 mm yr⁻¹ (water-limited forests) and to radiation otherwise (light-limited forests). On the other hand, independent of climate limitations, wood productivity and litterfall are driven by seasonal variation in precipitation and evapotranspiration, respectively. Consequently, light-limited forests present an asynchronism between canopy photosynthetic capacity and wood productivity. First-order control by precipitation likely indicates a decrease in tropical forest productivity in a drier climate in water-limited forest, and in current light-limited forest with future rainfall  < 2000 mm yr⁻¹

Schizophrenia-associated somatic copy-number variants from 12,834 cases reveal recurrent NRXN1 and ABCB11 disruptions

While germline copy-number variants (CNVs) contribute to schizophrenia (SCZ) risk, the contribution of somatic CNVs (sCNVs)—present in some but not all cells—remains unknown. We identified sCNVs using blood-derived genotype arrays from 12,834 SCZ cases and 11,648 controls, filtering sCNVs at loci recurrently mutated in clonal blood disorders. Likely early-developmental sCNVs were more common in cases (0.91%) than controls (0.51%, p = 2.68e−4), with recurrent somatic deletions of exons 1–5 of the NRXN1 gene in five SCZ cases. Hi-C maps revealed ectopic, allele-specific loops forming between a potential cryptic promoter and non-coding cis-regulatory elements upon 5′ deletions in NRXN1. We also observed recurrent intragenic deletions of ABCB11, encoding a transporter implicated in anti-psychotic response, in five treatment-resistant SCZ cases and showed that ABCB11 is specifically enriched in neurons forming mesocortical and mesolimbic dopaminergic projections. Our results indicate potential roles of sCNVs in SCZ risk

Marcador molecular do gene PKD1 em pacientes submetidos à hemodiálise

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