Emerging applications of EEM-PARAFAC for water treatment: a concise review

In this work, the application of EEM-PARAFAC (fluorescence excitation-emission matrix-parallel factor analysis) in water treatment processes, has been summarized. First, its most common use, the characterization and monitoring of dissolved organic matter (DOM) along freshwater ecosystems, drinking and wastewater treatment plants (DWTP and WWTP, respectively), was reviewed. In particular for DWWT/WWTP, the effect towards the different DOM fractions after adsorption, coagulation, biological/chemical processes or tertiary treatments (e.g. advanced oxidation processes), as well as the PARAFAC components scores (i.e. fluorescence intensity) correlation with disinfection by-products formation, were reported. On the other hand, barely barely for the first time, we also reviewed the emerging uses of EEM-PARAFAC focused on water treatment studies, such as, the simultaneous analysis of several fluorescent CECs degradation (with the concomitant formation of major by-products), the use of PARAFAC components scores decay to estimate certain CECs removals, the correlation of reactive oxygen species formation with the specific DOM fractions originating them, or even the study of interactions between DOM with other water constituents. Therefore, this study aims to extend the uses of this economical, reagentless and low time-consuming tool to obtain further insight into fluorescent compounds during water treatment processes, mainly to: i) tentatively elucidate structural modifications of target analyte (DOM or CECs), ii) obtain semi-quantitative data on parent pollutants and by-products variation, and iii) investigate the plausible mechanistic aspects which are involved

Identification and quantification of prosthetic mitral regurgitation by flow convergence method using transthoracic approach

The present case report illustrates the clinical applicability of the proximal isovelocity surface area (PISA) method in identifying, locating and assessing paravalvular prosthetic mitral regurgitation by transthoracic echocardiography

Unveiling the Dependence between Hydroxyl Radical Generation and Performance of Fenton Systems with Complexed Iron

Humiclike substances (HLS) have been demonstrated to be useful auxiliaries to drive the (photo)-Fenton process at mild pH, by avoiding iron inactivation via formation of active complexes. However, the actual performance of the process is affected by a manifold of opposite processes. In this work, the generation of hydroxyl radical-like reactive species in the Fentonlike process has been investigated using electron paramagnetic resonance, employing 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide as a probe molecule. The signal obtained with the Fe(II)-HLS-H2O2 system at pH = 5 was very intense but decreased with time, in line with the difficult reduction of the formed Fe(III) to Fe(II). On the contrary, the signal of the Fe(III)-HLS-H2O2 system was weak but stable. The most intense signal was observed at HLS concentration of ca. 30 mg/L. Interestingly, the performance of the Fenton system at pH = 5 to degrade caffeine followed the same trends, although caffeine removal was very low after 1 h of irradiation. The results were more evident in a solar simulated photo-Fenton process, where an increase in the abatement of caffeine was observed until an HLS concentration of 30 mg/L, where 98% removal was reached after 1 h

Photo-fenton degradation of pentachlorophenol l: competition between additives and photolysis

[EN] In the present work, the photo-Fenton degradation of pentachlorophenol (PCP, 1 mg/L) has been studied under simulated and natural solar irradiation; moreover, the effect on the process efficiency of urban waste-derived soluble bio-based substances (SBO), structurally comparable to humic acids, has been investigated. Experiments showed a crucial role of PCP photolysis, present in the solar pilot plant and hindered by the Pyrex (R) filter present in the solar simulator. Indeed, the SBO screen negatively affects PCP degradation when working under natural solar light, where the photolysis of PCP is relevant. In contrast, in the absence of PCP photolysis, a significant improvement of the photo-Fenton process was observed when added to SBO. Furthermore, SBO were able to extend the application of the photo-Fenton process at circumneutral pH values, due to their ability to complex iron, avoiding its precipitation as oxides or hydroxides. This positive effect has been observed at higher concentration of Fe(II) (4 mg/L), whereas at 1 mg/L, the degradation rates of PCP were comparable in the presence and absence of SBO.This work was realized with the financial support of the academic interchange from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange project, funded by the European Commission H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 within the framework of the research project Mat4treaT (Project number: 645551).Vergura, EP.; García-Ballesteros, S.; Vercher Pérez, RF.; Santos-Juanes Jordá, L.; Bianco Prevot, A.; Arqués Sanz, A. (2019). Photo-Fenton Degradation of Pentachlorophenol: Competition between Additives and Photolysis. Nanomaterials. 9(8):1-8. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano9081157S189

Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate administration during early life: effects on performance, immunity and microbial community of European sea bass yolk-sac larvae

The reliable production of marine fish larvae is one of the major bottlenecks in aquaculture due to high mortalities mainly caused by infectious diseases. To evaluate if the compound poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) might be a suitable immunoprophylactic measure in fish larviculture, its capacity to improve immunity and performance in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) yolk-sac larvae was explored. PHB was applied from mouth opening onwards to stimulate the developing larval immune system at the earliest possible point in time. Larval survival, growth, microbiota composition, gene expression profiles and disease resistance were assessed. PHB administration improved larval survival and, furthermore, altered the larva-associated microbiota composition. The bacterial challenge test using pathogenic Vibrio anguillarum revealed that the larval disease resistance was not influenced by PHB. The expression profiles of 26 genes involved e.g. in the immune response showed that PHB affected the expression of the antimicrobial peptides ferritin (fer) and dicentracin (dic), however, the response to PHB was inconsistent and weaker than previously demonstrated for sea bass post-larvae. Hence, the present study highlights the need for more research focusing on the immunostimulation of different early developmental stages for gaining a more comprehensive picture and advancing a sustainable production of high quality fry

Deux méthodes de comparaison d'images pour l'identification d'objets à partir de données prospectives

Cette étude aborde le problème de l'identification d'objets mobiles à partir de données délivrées par un senseur prospectif dont la conception est actuellement en cours. Le but est d'estimer la faisabilité d'une telle identification à l'aide d'outils disponibles à ce jour en reconnaissance des formes. On présente dans ce papier la réalisation complète d'une chaîne de simulation, comprenant à la fois la génération des données (non disponibles) et la mise en place de processus capables de les exploiter dans un but d'identification. Des paramètres variables contrôlent la nature des images (richesse, niveau de bruit) tout au long de la simulation, ceci afin de pouvoir prendre en compte des données de qualité variable

Bio-based substances from urban waste as auxiliaries for solar photo-Fenton treatment under mild conditions: optimization of operational variables

The use of soluble bio-based organic substances (SBO) obtained from urban wastes to expand the pH region where the photo-Fenton process can be applied has been investigated in this study. For this purpose, a mixture of six pollutants, namely acetaminophen, carbamazepine, amoxicillin, acetamiprid, clofibric acid and caffeine, at an initial concentration of 5 mg L−1 each, has been employed. Surface response methodology, based on the Doehlert matrix, has shown to be a useful tool to determine the effect of pH (in the range 3–7), concentration of SBO (15–25 mg L−1) and iron (2–6 mg L−1) on the performance of the photodegradation of the studied pollutants, measured by their half-life. Results indicate that, at high SBO concentration, the optimum pH shifts in most cases to a higher value (between 3 and 4) and that a significant loss of efficiency of the process was only observed at pH values above 5. An iron concentration of 4–5 mg L−1 and an amount of SBO of 19–22 mg L−1 have been determined to be the optimal conditions for the degradation of most of the studied pollutants at pH = 5.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicada

New Route for Valorization of Oil Mill Wastes: Isolation of Humic-Like Substances to be Employed in Solar-Driven Processes for Pollutants Removal

The valorization of olive oil mill solid wastes (OMW) has been addressed by considering it as a possible source of humic-like substances (HLSs), to be used as auxiliary substances for photo-Fenton, employing caffeine as a target pollutant to test the efficiency of this approach. The OMW-HLS isolation encompassed the OMW basic hydrolysis, followed by ultrafiltration and drying. OMW-HLS structural features have been investigated by means of laser light scattering, fluorescence, size exclusion chromatography, and thermogravimetric analysis; moreover, the capability of OMW-HLS to generate reactive species under irradiation has been investigated using spin-trap electronic paramagnetic resonance. The caffeine degradation by means of photo-Fenton process driven at pH = 5 was significantly increased by the addition of 10 mg/L of OMW-HLS. Under the mechanistic point of view, it could be hypothesized that singlet oxygen is not playing a relevant role, whereas other oxidants (mainly OH• radicals) can be considered as the key species in promoting caffeine degradation

Humic-like substances from urban waste as auxiliaries for photo-Fenton treatment: a fluorescence EEM-PARAFAC study

In this work, analysis of excitation-emission-matrices (EEM) has been employed to gain further insight into the characterization of humic like substances (HLS) obtained from urban wastes (soluble bio-organic substances, SBOs). In particular, complexation of these substances with iron and changes along a photo-Fenton process have been studied. Recorded EEMs were decomposed by using parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). Three fluorescent components were identified by PARAFAC modeling of the entire set of SBO solutions studied. The EEM peak locations (λex/λem) of these components were 310?330 nm/400?420 nm (C1), 340?360 nm/450?500 nm (C2), and 285 nm/335?380 nm (C3). Slight variations of the maximum position of each component with the solution pH were observed. The interaction of SBO with Fe(III) was characterized by determining the stability constants of the components with Fe(III) at different pH values, which were in the order of magnitude of the ones reported for humic substances and reached their highest values at pH = 5. Photochemical experiments employing SBO and Fe(III), with and without H2O2, showed pH-dependent trends for the evolution of the modeled components, which exhibited a strong correlation with the efficiency reported for the photo-Fenton processes in the presence of SBO at different pH values.Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicada

RNAi-Based Functional Genomics Identifies New Virulence Determinants in Mucormycosis

Mucorales are an emerging group of human pathogens that are responsible for the lethal disease mucormycosis. Unfortunately, functional studies on the genetic factors behind the virulence of these organisms are hampered by their limited genetic tractability, since they are reluctant to classical genetic tools like transposable elements or gene mapping. Here, we describe an RNAi-based functional genomic platform that allows the identification of new virulence factors through a forward genetic approach firstly described in Mucorales. This platform contains a whole-genome collection of Mucor circinelloides silenced transformants that presented a broad assortment of phenotypes related to the main physiological processes in fungi, including virulence, hyphae morphology, mycelial and yeast growth, carotenogenesis and asexual sporulation. Selection of transformants with reduced virulence allowed the identification of mcplD, which encodes a Phospholipase D, and mcmyo5, encoding a probably essential cargo transporter of the Myosin V family, as required for a fully virulent phenotype of M. circinelloides. Knock-out mutants for those genes showed reduced virulence in both Galleria mellonella and Mus musculus models, probably due to a delayed germination and polarized growth within macrophages. This study provides a robust approach to study virulence in Mucorales and as a proof of concept identified new virulence determinants in M. circinelloides that could represent promising targets for future antifungal therapies