Influence of commercial formulation on leaching of four pesticides through soil

Studies with small soil columns (2 cm i.d. x 5.4 cm depth) compared leaching of four pesticides added either as technical material or as commercial formulations. Pesticides were selected to give a gradient of solubility in water between 7 and 93 mg L-1, comprising azoxystrobin (emulsifiable concentrate, EC, and suspension concentrate, SC), cyproconazole (SC), propyzamide (SC) and triadimenol (EC). Columns of sandy loam soil were leached with 6 pore volumes of 0.01M CaCl2 either 1 or 7 days after treatment. Separate experiments evaluated leaching of triadimenol to full breakthrough following addition of 18 pore volumes of 0.01M CaCl2. The mass of pesticide leached from columns treated with commercial formulation was significantly larger than that from columns treated with technical material for all compounds studied and for both leaching intervals (two-sided t-tests, p<0.001). This difference was conserved when triadimenol was leached to full breakthrough with 79 ± 1.2 and 61 ± 3.1% of applied triadimenol leached from columns treated with formulated and technical material, respectively. There were highly significant effects of formulation for all pesticides (two-way ANOVA, p<0.001), whereas leaching interval was only significant for azoxystrobin EC formulation and cyproconazole (p <0.001 and 0.021, respectively) with greater leaching when irrigation commenced 1 day after treatment. Leaching of azoxystrobin increased in the order technical material (6.0% of applied pesticide) < SC formulation (8.5-9.1% of applied) < EC formulation (15.8-21.0% of applied). The relative difference between leaching of formulated and technical pesticide increased with pesticide solubility in water, increasing from a factor of 1.4 for the SC formulation of azoystrobin to 4.3 for the SC formulation of triadimenol. Experimental systems differ markedly from field conditions (small columns with intense irrigation). Nevertheless, results indicate the need to consider further the influence of co-formulants in pesticide formulations on behaviour of the active ingredient in soil

Defining Kawasaki disease and pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome-temporally associated to SARS-CoV-2 infection during SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Italy: results from a national, multicenter survey

Background: There is mounting evidence on the existence of a Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome-temporally associated to SARS-CoV-2 infection (PIMS-TS), sharing similarities with Kawasaki Disease (KD). The main outcome of the study were to better characterize the clinical features and the treatment response of PIMS-TS and to explore its relationship with KD determining whether KD and PIMS are two distinct entities. Methods: The Rheumatology Study Group of the Italian Pediatric Society launched a survey to enroll patients diagnosed with KD (Kawasaki Disease Group - KDG) or KD-like (Kawacovid Group - KCG) disease between February 1st 2020, and May 31st 2020. Demographic, clinical, laboratory data, treatment information, and patients' outcome were collected in an online anonymized database (RedCAP®). Relationship between clinical presentation and SARS-CoV-2 infection was also taken into account. Moreover, clinical characteristics of KDG during SARS-CoV-2 epidemic (KDG-CoV2) were compared to Kawasaki Disease patients (KDG-Historical) seen in three different Italian tertiary pediatric hospitals (Institute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS "Burlo Garofolo", Trieste; AOU Meyer, Florence; IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genoa) from January 1st 2000 to December 31st 2019. Chi square test or exact Fisher test and non-parametric Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test were used to study differences between two groups. Results: One-hundred-forty-nine cases were enrolled, (96 KDG and 53 KCG). KCG children were significantly older and presented more frequently from gastrointestinal and respiratory involvement. Cardiac involvement was more common in KCG, with 60,4% of patients with myocarditis. 37,8% of patients among KCG presented hypotension/non-cardiogenic shock. Coronary artery abnormalities (CAA) were more common in the KDG. The risk of ICU admission were higher in KCG. Lymphopenia, higher CRP levels, elevated ferritin and troponin-T characterized KCG. KDG received more frequently immunoglobulins (IVIG) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) (81,3% vs 66%; p = 0.04 and 71,9% vs 43,4%; p = 0.001 respectively) as KCG more often received glucocorticoids (56,6% vs 14,6%; p &lt; 0.0001). SARS-CoV-2 assay more often resulted positive in KCG than in KDG (75,5% vs 20%; p &lt; 0.0001). Short-term follow data showed minor complications. Comparing KDG with a KD-Historical Italian cohort (598 patients), no statistical difference was found in terms of clinical manifestations and laboratory data. Conclusion: Our study suggests that SARS-CoV-2 infection might determine two distinct inflammatory diseases in children: KD and PIMS-TS. Older age at onset and clinical peculiarities like the occurrence of myocarditis characterize this multi-inflammatory syndrome. Our patients had an optimal response to treatments and a good outcome, with few complications and no deaths

Report on catalyst synthesis and testing

&lt;p&gt;In this public report, we present the main results obtained with the best identified tandem system for the direct conversion of CO2 into propane, from the initial synthesis at lab-scale to the catalyst upscaling. The PdZn/ZrO2 + SAPO-34 catalyst combination was found to provide the highest combined CO2 conversion (40%) and propane selectivity (50%, with 20% CO, 6% C1, 13% C2, 10% C4, and 1% C5), achieving two of the three key performance indicators (KPIs) defined in the COZMOS project for catalyst performance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This catalyst combination was selected as our 1st generation catalyst in the project, and different strategies for catalyst production upscaling have been investigated. The physical mixture of the upscaled version of PdZn/ZrO2 and SAPO-34 achieved 90% of the catalytic performance previously observed for the lab-scale catalyst, also meeting the established KPI. Otherwise, the formulation of technical catalyst in tablet or extrudate shapes demonstrated the migration of Zn from the ZrO2 matrix to the Al-containing binder and the SAPO-34 function. The significant loss of activity in these cases suggested the impracticality of using these shapes for this catalyst combination.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The upscaled catalyst mixture was extensively tested for tandem CO2 hydrogenation and a detailed kinetic model was developed. The versatility of the models allowed the prediction of product distribution using different reaction (temperature, pressure and space velocity) and operation conditions (CO2 feeds, CO feeds and CO2/CO feeds).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These kinetic rate expressions were communicated from WP1 (catalyst development) to WP2 (plant design), WP3 (pilot-plant testing) and WP4 (Life Cycle Assessment), enabling the project's industrial partners to design an industrial plant and perform techno-economic and life cycle assessments (TEA and LCA, WP2 and WP4, respectively). Moreover, this catalyst combination is currently in pilot-plant testing within the COZMOS activities of WP3.&lt;/p&gt

LISS panel - Attitudes Towards Alternative Partnership Arrangements

The aim of this project is to study attitudes towards alternative partnership arrangements to better understand how Dutch people think about the family and to assess how this might be changing in the face of transformations in family formation in the Netherlands in recent decades.Suggestions for data usage: The data files are accessible via Centerdata. For more information, please use the link under Relations or www.lissdata.nl