Identification, occurrence and fate of transformation products and metabolites of fluoxetine and metformin in the aquatic environment

In dieser Studie wurden anhand verschiedener Abbauexperimente (Elektrochemie, mikrobieller Abbau, Photoabbau, Fischembryo-Metabolismus) Transformationsprodukte (TPs) der umweltrelevanten Arzneimitteln Metformin (MF, Antidiabetikum) und Fluoxetin (FLX, Antidepressivum) generiert und anhand eines Workflows mit Flüssigchromatographie gekoppelt an hochauflösende Massenspektrometrie (LC-HRMS) identifiziert. Mittels Elektrochemie konnten vier neue umweltrelevante TPs von MF generiert und identifiziert werden, welche sich durch Zyklisierung und Demethylierung bildeten. Die neu identifizierten TPs (MBG, 2,4-AMT, 2,4-DAT) konnten im Abstrom von Kläranlagen nachgewiesen werden. Anhand von Batchexperimenten mit Belebtschlamm wurde der aerobe Abbau von MF in eine 1:1 Umwandlung in die TPs gezeigt. Der bekannte Metabolit Guanylharnstoff (GU) war dabei das Hauptprodukt und die elektrochemisch identifizierten TPs stellten 2% des abgebauten MF dar. Es konnte außerdem erstmals die Abbaubarkeit von GU in Belebtschlamm nachgewiesen werden, wobei im aeroben Milieu die Abbaubarkeit zusätzlich von der Herkunft des Belebtschlamms, und somit der mikrobiellen Gemeinschaft, abhängig war. Anhand von Photolyse und Fisch-Metabolismus konnten neue TPs von Fluoxetin identifiziert werden. Mit einer Sonnensimulationskammer konnten 27 TPs durch direkten und indirekten Photoabbau von FLX identifiziert werden, welche durch O-Dealkylierung, Hydroxylierung, CF3-Subsitution und N-Acylierung mit Aldehyden und Carboxylsäuren gebildet wurden. Der menschliche Hauptmetabolit Norfluoxetine (NFLX) spielte dabei eine untergeordnete Rolle. In Abbauexperimenten mit Oberflächenwasser anstatt Reinstwasser zeigte sich der Einfluss der indirekten Photolyse durch die größte gebildete Intensität an TPs, insbesondere der hydroxylierten TPs. Im Extrakt von Zebrafischembryonen (96 h nach Befruchtung) konnten sieben der abiotischen TPs nachgewiesen werden, sowie drei neue TPs identifiziert werden. Diese bildeten sich durch N-Hydroxylierung, N-Methylierung und N-Acylierung von FLX mit einer Aminogruppe. FLX aus dem Expositionsmedium (5 mg/L) reicherte sich 110-fach in den Embryonen an, wobei 1% in NFLX umgewandelt wurde und als Hauptmetabolit nachgewiesen werden konnte

Securing the 2024 Election: Recommendations for Federal, State, and Local Officials

What are the gravest threats to the security and integrity of U.S. elections? Over the past decade, the answer to that question has evolved. In addition to foreign cyberattacks and influence campaigns, dangers such as intimidation of election workers and conspiracy theorists assuming election administration positions now put U.S. democracy at risk. In the lead-up to the next presidential election, the United States must adjust to this changed landscape and ensure that the democratic process is protected when the nation goes to the polls

The Election Sabotage Scheme and How Congress Can Stop It

This paper briefly catalogs recent election sabotage legislation and the status of those efforts and explains how they threaten our democratic system. Specifically, there are four categories of legislation to sabotage the electoral process: (1) legislation to give state officials the power to change or reject election results; (2) legislation to give partisan state officials the power to seize control of the election administration and vote-counting processes; (3) legislation to restrict, control, or punish the conduct of local election officials; and (4) legislation to make it harder to vote.The paper then details the most significant legislative solution: the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA), a transformative voting rights and democracy reform bill that would thwart most election sabotage efforts. The Freedom to Vote Act includes provisions targeted at specific election sabotage threats. But its core voting rights provisions would also defang election sabotage laws. By establishing clear, enforceable national standards on issues such as early voting, vote by mail, and the counting of ballots, the Freedom to Vote Act would deprive partisans of the discretion to suppress or discard legitimate votes. It would also deprive partisans of the raw material that underlies their phony claims of fraud whenever marginalized communities are given fair access to the ballot. Partisan election boards, for example, could not claim that counties had improperly allowed people to vote by mail if they were merely following unambiguous federal requirements. The same is true for vote-counting standards. Congress must act quickly and decisively to blunt the election sabotage scheme before it gathers more momentum at the state level

Synthesis and characterization of novel heterocycles based on tetrazine and hydrazonoyl halides

The present work describes the preparation and characterization of new pyridazine, thiohydrazonate, bis-pyrazole, bis-triazole and polypyrazoles based on tetrazine and hydrazonoyl halides. The structures of the newly synthesized were elucidated on the basis of their spectral data FT-IR, NMR, Mass and elemental analysis

Eetilise ja poliitilise tarbimise kuvand tudengite seas

Social responsibility is one of the most important issues to gain global attention lately. The subject is also well known in Estonian context and deserves to be pointed out. The bachelor´s thesis "Image of ethical and political consumption among students" is researching the awareness and attitudes of young mature consumers in relation to ethical consumption. The theoretical part of this research focuses on describing the consumer society. It looks into the object of research: ethical and political consumption. It also expands on social marketing as a way to approach ethical consumption. Fair trade is pointed out under ethical consumption because ethical consumption embodiments through it. Additionally there are brought out a few earlier researches, some of which have also focused on ethical consumption. The most significant one is the research made by The Nielsen Company. The purpose of this bachelor´s thesis was to find out, what influences students on their decisions in consumption to see, if ethical or political aspects come forth. After that I focused more and more on ethical consumption. I found out if and how the ethical, political, fair trade related etc. aspects of mature young people´s habits in consumption differentiate. Furthermore, in which lines of goods or decisions in consumption these aspects are considered. In the third part of the interviews I examined how the students connect their habits in consumption with their field of studies in the university. The purpose was to see, if the habits in consumption of students with different specialties are somehow influenced by their specialties. The last blocks of the interview focused on creating a semantic field for ethical consumption among students and on the expert opinions of students on the subject of research. The principal results showed that ethical consumption doesn´t have a certain semantic field among the interviewed students and various students approach ethical consumption in their own way. Ethical consumption appeared to have connections with rational consumption, environment-friendly consumption and fair trade. The respondents opinion about relevance of this subject in Estonia divided into two: half of the respondents considered it to be an actual problem and the other half less actual. Nevertheless ethical consumption was seen more as a positive ideology directed to helping developing countries. But there were also brought out several problems which associate with ethical consumption. The most important one is lack of information about ethical consumption the interviewees found, that larger informative work would be necessary. The other problem was that there is a need to deal with other more important questions in Estonian society and before we start to think of the others, we need to take care of our own welfare. The interviewed students were mostly aware of different unethical ways to manufacture but there were still no signs of ethical aspects in their choices in consumption. For example, fair trade and manufacturers ethical reputation were mostly less important factors in their decisions. The only factor, on which students seemed to pay attention, was preferring Estonian products, which can be related to political consumption. But the respondents themselves didn´t see preferring to buy Estonian products as political consumption. Current bachelor´s thesis gives a synopsis of how young mature consumers understand ethical consumption, how they have had contacts with it and how it influences their habits in consumption. Ethical and political consumption should certainly be explored in the future, because the subject is becoming more and more actual. Also, the chosen method of research didn´t enable to make representative abstractions. Current work is mainly a pilot study, which may give material to further researches.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4015004*es

COVID-19: mis on teada ja mida me ei tea, mis vajab lahendamist

Artikkel põhineb Londoni hügieeni ja troopilise meditsiini kooli kursusel „Outbreak of the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 and its implications around the world”, mille autor on läbinud. Teema käsitlemisel on kasutatud kursusel saadud teadmisi ja materjale, kuid artikkel sisaldab ka autori täiendusi ning viiteid ajakohasele teaduskirjandusele