Characteristics and sinking behavior of typical microplastics including the potential effect of biofouling : implications for remediation

Microplastics are ubiquitous pollutants within the marine environment, predominantly (>90%) accumulating in sediments worldwide. Despite the increasing global concern regarding these anthropogenic pollutants, research into the remediation of microplastics is lacking. Here, we examine those characteristics of microplastics that are essential to adequately evaluate potential remediation techniques such as sedimentation and (air) flotation techniques. We analyzed the sinking behavior of typical microplastics originating from real plastic waste samples and identified the best-available drag model to quantitatively describe their sinking behavior. Particle shape is confirmed to be an important parameter strongly affecting the sinking behavior of microplastics. Various common shape descriptors were experimentally evaluated on their ability to appropriately characterize frequently occurring particle shapes of typical microplastics such as spheres, films, and fibers. This study is the first in this field to include film particles in its experimental design, which were found to make up a considerable fraction of marine pollution and are shown to significantly affect the evaluation of shape-dependent drag models. Circularity χ and sphericity Φ are found to be appropriate shape descriptors in this context. We also investigated the effect of biofouling on the polarity of marine plastics and estimated its potential contribution to the settling motion of initially floating microplastics based on density-modification. It is found that biofouling alters the polarity of plastics significantly; this is from (near) hydrophobic (i.e., water contact angles from 70 to 100°) to strong hydrophilic (i.e., water contact angles from 30 to 40°) surfaces, rendering them more difficult to separate from sediment based on polarity as a primary separation factor. Thus, besides providing a better understanding of the fate and behavior of typical marine microplastics, these findings serve as a fundamental stepping-stone to the development of the first large-scale sediment remediation technique for microplastics to address the global microplastic accumulation issue

Treatment of severe alcoholic hepatitis: A systematic review

Severe alcoholic hepatitis is the most severe form of alcohol-related liver disease. Corticosteroids remain the first choice of treatment. However, they are only effective in a subset of patients and are associated with an increased infection risk. Furthermore, nonresponders to corticosteroids have a poor prognosis with a mortality of 70% over 6 months. As such, there is a high need for a more personalized use of corticosteroids and the development and identification of alternative therapeutic strategies. In this review, we summarize the recent and ongoing randomized controlled trials concerning the treatment of severe alcoholic hepatitis

Processing-Induced Disorder in Pharmaceutical Materials

This chapter focuses on the major types of pharmaceutical processing methods that have been widely reported to produce disordered material either intentionally or unintentionally. Milling is one of the most frequently used unit operations used by the pharmaceutical industry for reducing the particle size of solids. Thermal processing techniques are mainly used for controlling or improving the release and the subsequent bioavailability of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). Techniques such as melt-mixing, spray-congealing, sintering, melt-granulation, and hot-melt extrusion (HME) have developed and evolved rapidly for large-scale pharmaceutical production. Solvent-evaporation-based methods are important processing techniques for both raw materials, such as crystallization of the raw drug, and formulation manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry. The chapter discusses the processing that can potentially induce the formation of the disordered state during the manufacture of formulations. The widely used solvent-evaporation-based processing techniques in pharmaceutical formulation production include spray-drying, freeze-drying, film casting, and film coating

The 'Societal Turn'. Historicizing Future Society

Even more than has been the case during the last decades, social-economic historians need to construe the concepts of the economy and the social in a broad sense, to include economies of status and affection, material cultures, social power relations and political ecology. Since the turning of the century, a so-called 'societal turn' is imminent. Demands for re-newed interactions with the social sciences are coming back to the surface. In the last decade, social-economic historians have been incorporating ingredients from new political and cultural history, while analysing sociohistorical processes and related practices both as structure, agency and perception. During the next ten years, the challenge for young researchers exists in bringing this societal turn to a decisive phase, making use of our collaborative research en-vironments and our engagement with societal movements both on a local, regional and global scale