Environmentally-friendly technology for rapid identification and quantification of emerging pollutants from wastewater using infrared spectroscopy

Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in theonline version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2020.103458.The monitoring of emerging pollutants in wastewaters is nowadays an issue of special concern, with the classical quantification methods being time and reagent consuming. In this sense, a FTIR transmission spectroscopy based chemometric methodology was developed for the determination of eight of these pollutants. A total of 456 samples were, therefore, obtained, from an activated sludge wastewater treatment process spiked with the studied pollutants, and analysed in the range of 200cm1 to 14,000cm1. Then, a k-nearest neighbour (kNN) analysis aiming at identifying each sample pollutant was employed. Next, partial least squares (PLS) and ordinary least squares (OLS) modelling approaches were employed in order to obtain suitable prediction models. This procedure resulted in good prediction abilities regarding the estimation of atrazine, desloratadine, paracetamol, -estradiol, ibuprofen, carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole and ethynylestradiol concentrations in wastewaters. These promising results suggest this technology as a fast, eco-friendly and reagent free alternative methodology for the quantification of emerging pollutants in wastewaters.The authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science andTechnology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/BIO/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fundunder the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional doNorte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bacteriophage-receptor binding proteins for multiplex detection of Staphylococcus and Enterococcus in blood

Health care-associated infections (HCAIs) affect hundreds of millions of patients, representing a significant burden for public health. They are usually associated to multidrug resistant bacteria, which increases their incidence and severity. Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are among the most frequent and life-threatening HCAIs, with Enterococcus and Staphylococcus among the most common isolated pathogens. The correct and fast identification of the etiological agents is crucial for clinical decision-making, allowing to rapidly select the appropriate antimicrobial and to prevent from overuse and misuse of antibiotics and the consequent increase in antimicrobial resistance. Conventional culture methods are still the gold standard to identify these pathogens, however are time-consuming and may lead to erroneous diagnosis, which compromises an efficient treatment. (Bacterio)phage receptor binding proteins (RBPs) are the structures responsible for the high specificity conferred to phages against bacteria and thus are very attractive biorecognition elements with high potential for specific detection and identification of pathogens. Taking into account all these facts, we have designed and developed a new, fast, accurate, reliable and unskilled diagnostic method based on newly identified phage RBPs and spectrofluorometric techniques that allows the multiplex detection of Enterococcus and Staphylococcus in blood samples in less than 1.5 hours after an enrichment step.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the project “Phages‐on‐chip” PTDC/BTM‐SAL/32442/2017 (POCI‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐032442) and the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 − Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Catarina Nogueira, Ana Brandão and Susana Costa were supported by the FCT grants PD/BD/143037/2018, SFRH/BD/133193/2017 and SFRH/BD/130098/2017, respectively. We would also like to acknowledge Professor Hermínia de Lencastre, Doctor Carina Almeida and Doctor Nuno Cerca for gently providing some of the strains used in this study. We acknowledge Professor Paulo Freitas for providing some of the infrastructures to perform the experiments.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New test of the gabardine infiltration basin for mar in rio seco (Campina de Faro aquifer system, Algarve)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Is the Good Polity Attainable? Measuring the Quality of Democracy

This article introduces a discussion on defining, measuring, and assessing the quality of democracy. Providing a short overview of the papers of the Symposium, it places them within a broader context of current academic debate on various methodological, theoretical, and policy outreach dimensions of the topic

The RNA-binding protein hnRNP K mediates the effect of BDNF on dendritic mRNA metabolism and regulates synaptic NMDA receptors in hippocampal neurons

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an important mediator of long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus. The local effects of BDNF depend on the activation of translation activity, which requires the delivery of transcripts to the synapse. In this work, we found that neuronal activity regulates the dendritic localization of the RNA-binding protein heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNP K) in cultured rat hippocampal neurons by stimulating BDNF-Trk signaling. Microarray experiments identified a large number of transcripts that are coimmunoprecipitated with hnRNP K, and about 60% of these transcripts are dissociated from the protein upon stimulation of rat hippocampal neurons with BDNF. In vivo studies also showed a role for TrkB signaling in the dissociation of transcripts from hnRNP K upon high-frequency stimulation (HFS) of medial perforant path-granule cell synapses of male rat dentate gyrus (DG). Furthermore, treatment of rat hippocampal synaptoneurosomes with BDNF decreased the coimmunoprecipitation of hnRNP K with mRNAs coding for glutamate receptor subunits, Ca2+- and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIβ (CaMKIIβ) and BDNF. Downregulation of hnRNP K impaired the BDNF-induced enhancement of NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-mediated mEPSC, and similar results were obtained upon inhibition of protein synthesis with cycloheximide. The results demonstrate that BDNF regulates specific populations of hnRNP-associated mRNAs in neuronal dendrites and suggests an important role of hnRNP K in BDNF-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity.publishe

Interpretation of an injection test in a large diameter well in south Portugal and contribution to the understanding of the local hydrogeology

This paper refers to the interpretation of an injection test in a traditional large diameter well in Querença-Silves aquifer, south Portugal, under the scope of the project FP7-ENV-2013-WATER-INNO-DEMO MARSOL. Hydraulic parameter estimates were found within a high level of uncertainty regarding aquifer and well configuration. Given the injection test results together with the knowledge acquired on the field and from previous well logs and pumping tests on this aquifer section, it seems plausible to assume that the water injected in the well is locally flowing to an opposite direction to the regional aquifer flow. This forcing could possibly be caused by the existence of a local confinement or aquitard separating the injection well from the regional aquifer, or simply due to local scale heterogeneities and fracturation patterns.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gestão de recarga induzida de aquíferos. Exemplos do projeto Marsol no Algarve

A utilização de técnicas de MAR (managed aquifer recharge, em nomenclatura inglesa ou gestão de recarga induzida de aquíferos) visa armazenar água em aquíferos durante períodos de excedentes podendo ajudar a resolver posteriores desafios de escassez de água e, assim, melhor gerir a variabilidade temporal da disponibilidade de água. Além disso, a qualidade da água pode ser melhorada através da sua circulação pelo meio poroso até ao aquífero, como resultado de processos químicos e biológicos, para além da própria diluição. Nesse contexto, a recarga induzida de aquíferos pode ser um importante contributo para resolver a crise de água da Europa, ligando o uso de excedentes hídricos com a reutilização de água e a gestão de recursos hídricos. Neste artigo apresenta-se uma síntese dos ensaios de demonstração sobre MAR realizados nos aquíferos da Campina de Faro (PT1) e Querença-Silves (PT2), no Algarve, pelo Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC), pela Terra, Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos (TARH), e pela Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), parceiros do projeto MARSol "Gestão de recarga induzida de aquíferos como uma solução para a escassez de água e secas", do 7.º Programa-Quadro da União Europeia. As fontes de água alternativas exploradas no âmbito do MARSol são excedentes hídricos superficiais gerados em eventos extremos durante as estações chuvosas e efluentes de águas residuais com tratamento secundário. Ambos estão a ser estudados no sentido de avaliar os volumes disponíveis e sua importância no contexto do balanço hídrico regional e da sua qualidade, o primeiro para a Campina de Faro e o segundo para o Querença-Silves. A melhoria da qualidade da água é o objetivo principal em ambos os aquíferos, no primeiro através da recarga por bacias, furos e noras e, no segundo caso, melhorando a qualidade das águas residuais por processos de atenuação e de filtração naturais de tratamento aquífero do solo (SAT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Demonstrating managed aquifer recharge as a solution to water scarcity and drought: description of MARSOL Project demo sites in Portugal

This paper presents a synthesis of the work developed in Portugal, by LNEC, TARH and UAlg, for the European Union Seventh Framework Programme project "Demonstrating Managed Aquifer Recharge as a Solution to Water Scarcity and Drought – MARSOL". The main achievements gathered in the DEMO sites during 2014, the first year of the project, are briefly presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio