•Hydrogeological, chemical, and isotopic data assess antibiotic pollution in groundwater.•Most frequent antibiotics are sulfamethoxazole and ciprofloxacin.•A lack of spatial correlation exists for ...antibiotic occurrence, yet not for nitrate.•Fate of antibiotics in groundwater not only depend on chemical properties but on hydrogeology.
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Antibiotics are an increasing focus of interest due to their high detection frequency in the environment. However, their presence in water bodies is not regulated by environmental policies. This field study investigates, for the first time, the occurrence, behavior and fate of a selection of 53 antibiotics, including up to 10 chemical groups, in an alluvial aquifer originated from manure application in an agricultural region using hydrogeological, hydrochemical and isotopic approaches. Up to 11 antibiotics were found in groundwater corresponding to 4 different chemical groups: fluoroquinolones, macrolides, quinolones and sulfonamides. In surface water, only 5 different antibiotics from 2 chemical groups: fluoroquinolones and sulfonamides, were quantified. The most frequent antibiotics were sulfamethoxazole and ciprofloxacin. Concentrations of antibiotics were in the order of ng/L, with maximum concentrations of 300ng/L in groundwater. Hydrochemistry and isotopic data and geostatistics confirmed the spatial trend observed for nitrates, where nitrate concentrations tend to be higher in the margin areas of the study area, and lower concentrations are found nearby the river. On the other hand, no clear continuous spatial concentration trend of antibiotics was observed in the aquifer, supported by the short spatial correlation found in the variograms. This indicates that the physical-chemical properties and processes of each antibiotic (mainly, sorption and degradation), and other environmental issues, such as a patchy diffuse input and the manure antibiotic content itself, play an important role in their spatial distribution in groundwater. A discussion on the estimation of the antibiotic sorption parameter reveals the difficulties of describing such phenomena. Furthermore, retardation factors will extend over several orders of magnitude, which highly affects the movement of individual antibiotics within the aquifer. To summarize, this study points out the difficulties associated with antibiotic research in groundwater in order to define water resources quality management strategies and environmental regulations.
Within education, concepts such as distance learning, and open universities, are now becoming more widely used for teaching and learning. However, due to the nature of the subject domain, the ...teaching of Science, Technology, and Engineering are still relatively behind when using new technological approaches (particularly for online distance learning). The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that these fields often require laboratory exercises to provide effective skill acquisition and hands-on experience. Often it is difficult to make these laboratories accessible for online access. Either the real lab needs to be enabled for remote access or it needs to be replicated as a fully software-based virtual lab. We argue for the latter concept since it offers some advantages over remotely controlled real labs, which will be elaborated further in this paper.
We are now seeing new emerging technologies that can overcome some of the potential difficulties in this area. These include: computer graphics, augmented reality, computational dynamics, and virtual worlds. This paper summarizes the state of the art in virtual laboratories and virtual worlds in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. The main research activity in these fields is discussed but special emphasis is put on the field of robotics due to the maturity of this area within the virtual-education community. This is not a coincidence; starting from its widely multidisciplinary character, robotics is a perfect example where all the other fields of engineering and physics can contribute. Thus, the use of virtual labs for other scientific and non-robotic engineering uses can be seen to share many of the same learning processes. This can include supporting the introduction of new concepts as part of learning about science and technology, and introducing more general engineering knowledge, through to supporting more constructive (and collaborative) education and training activities in a more complex engineering topic such as robotics. The objective of this paper is to outline this problem space in more detail and to create a valuable source of information that can help to define the starting position for future research.
•State of the art in dynamics-based virtual laboratories.•Defining the criteria for critical evaluation of existing technologies.•State of the art in virtual worlds.•Future advances in the field of virtual-world based laboratories.
A study was conducted in an area in north, Italy, on the effluent of two different sized hospitals and the influent and effluent of the receiving municipal treatment plant of one of the examined ...hospitals. The aim was to investigate 73 selected pharmaceuticals, belonging to twelve different classes, comparing their occurrence in the effluent directly exiting the hospital with that, mixed with the local urban effluent, at the point of its entry and exit from the treatment plant.
Consistent differences were found in the concentrations of some antibiotics, analgesics and lipid regulators in the two wastewaters, confirming that hospital effluents should not be considered as possessing the same pollutant nature as urban wastewater. Furthermore, analysis of percentage contributions of the hospital to the treatment plant influent evidences that hospitals represent one of the main sources of pollutants, in particular antibiotics, receptor antagonists and lipid regulators.
Hence, an environmental risk assessment, performed on the effluent from the hospital and the influent and effluent from the treatment plant, revealed a high risk for 9 pharmaceuticals in hospital effluent and for 4 of the 9 substances in the treatment plant influent and effluent, with antibiotics being the most critical compounds in terms of contribution and potential environmental risk for the hospital.
► Seventy-three pharmaceuticals were monitored in raw and treated wastewaters. ► Two hospital effluents and an urban WWTP influent and effluent were investigated. ► One of the monitored hospital effluents is treated to the investigated urban WWTP. ► Hospital load contributes more than 50% of some antibiotics in WWTP influent one. ► Hospital effluents pose a higher environmental risk than urban ones.
Hospital wastewaters contain a variety of toxic or persistent substances such as pharmaceuticals, radionuclides, solvents and disinfectants for medical purposes in a wide range of concentrations due ...to laboratory and research activities or medicine excretion. Most of these compounds belong to the so called
emerging contaminants; quite often unregulated pollutants which may be candidates for future regulation depending on research on their potential health effects and monitoring of their occurrence. Their main characteristic is that they do not need to persist in the environment to cause negative effects since their high transformation/removal rates can be compensated for by their continuous introduction into the environment.
Some of these compounds, most of them pharmaceuticals and personal care products may also be present in urban wastewaters. Their concentrations in the effluents may vary from ng
L
−1 to μg
L
−1.
In this paper, hospital effluents and urban wastewaters are compared in terms of quali–quantitative characteristics. On the basis of an in-depth survey: (i) hospital average specific daily water consumptions (L patient
−1
day
−1) are evaluated and compared to urban ones (L person
−1
day
−1), (ii) conventional parameters concentrations in hospital effluents are compared to urban ones and (iii) main pharmaceuticals and other emerging compounds contents are compared in the two wastewaters. Finally, an overview of the removal capacity of the different treatments is reported.
Pharmaceuticals are designed to improve human and animal health, but even the most beneficial pharmaceuticals might raise some questions concerning the consequences of exposure to non-target ...organisms. To illustrate this situation and using diclofenac as a case-study, we analyze global consumption and occurrence data to identify hot spots of consumption without occurrence data, review the scientific literature on the harmful environmental effects to determine whether the observed concentrations in freshwater are of environmental concern, summarize the current pharmaceutical and environmental policies to highlight policy gaps, and suggest a series of research and policy recommendations, which can be summarized as follows: we need to improve the current knowledge on occurrence in freshwaters to properly implement environmental policies (i), diclofenac might pose a risk to non-target organisms in freshwater (ii); the harmful effects that some pharmaceuticals may have on the environment are not always addressed by environmental policies (iii).
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•Global analysis reveals hotspots of Diclofenac consumption with no occurrence data.•Diclofenac occurs in freshwaters at ecotoxicological relevant concentrations.•Research on occurrence and ecotoxicology is needed to properly assess risks posed by pharmaceuticals.
•Steam accumulator storage provides primary and secondary power control.•Accumulated steam replaces turbine extractions for two condensate heaters.•Steam discharge from 600 m3 accumulator provides ...27.3 MWe for 27 min.•Additional 11.5 MWe power increase is available for 13 min.•Control reserve by fresh steam throttling reduces by 4.2% of 650 MWe nominal power.
Thermal power plants are forced to operate under frequent load changes in energy systems with increased share of solar and wind power plants. These load changes increase thermal power plant aging and reduce their efficiency. Therefore, solutions for energy storage are sought in order to accumulate energy in periods of lower power demand and produce excess power in periods of increased demands. In the present paper the steam accumulator as the thermal energy storage device is applied in a 650 MWe coal-fired thermal power plant to increase its flexibility under the demand for the variable load changes. The steam accumulator is charged during periods of lower power demand, as during the night hours, and discharged during peak load demands. The steam accumulator with volume of 600 m3 is charged with superheated steam (pressure 4.5 MPa and temperature 335 °C) extracted from the exit of high pressure steam turbine. The steam discharged from the steam accumulator replaces the turbine steam extraction for two low pressure heaters: a 59.5 MWt and a 54.6 MWt heater operating at 0.56 MPa and 0.23 MPa steam pressure. This replacement results in an increase of the steam flow rate through the turbine and the turbine power gain of 27.3 MWe during 27 min and 11.5 MWe for additional 13 min. The proposed solution of the steam accumulator installation in the power plant is a new design. The upgrade of power plant flexibility by steam accumulator is demonstrated.
This study investigated the occurrence of 135 contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) – pharmaceuticals, pesticides, a set of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) (parabens, bisphenols, hormones, ...triazoles, organophosphorus flame retardants and triclosan), UV-filters, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) – in 59 fish samples, collected in 2010 in 4 Spanish Rivers (Guadalquivir, Júcar, Ebro and Llobregat). Of the 135 CECs, 76 including 8 pharmaceuticals, 25 pesticides, 10 EDCs, 5 UV-filters, 15 PFASs and 13 HFRs were detected. Pharmaceuticals were the less frequently found and at lower concentrations. Pesticides, EDCs, UV-filters, PFASs and HFRs were detected more frequently (>50% of the samples). The maximum concentrations were 15 ng/g dry weight (dw) for pharmaceuticals (diclofenac), 840 ng/g dw for pesticides (chlorpyrifos), 224 ng/g dw for EDCs (bisphenol A), 242 ng/g dw for UV-filters (EHMC), 1738 ng/g dw for PFASs (PFHxA) and 64 ng/g dw for HFRs (Dec 602). The contaminants detected in fish are commonly detected also in sediments. In light of current knowledge, the risk assessment revealed that there was no risk for humans related to the exposure to CECs via freshwater fish consumption. However, results provide detailed information on the mixtures of CECs accumulated that would be very useful to identify their effects on aquatic biota.
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•Concentration levels of 135 CECs in wild fresh fish of 4 Spanish Rivers•Fish exposed to mixture of CECs at sublethal levels•Pesticides and EDCs more frequent at higher concentrations•Accumulation in fish positively associated to log Kow•These fish can be regularly consumed without causing contaminant-related health risks.
Several studies have shown the importance of the cGAS-STING pathway in antigen-presenting cells for anti-cancer immunity. Cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) – STING ligand is a negatively charged dinucleotide ...prone to degradation by hydrolases. Once administered in its soluble form, high doses are needed which in turn may cause side effects such as T cell apoptosis. Moreover, due to its negative charge, transfection of cGAMP into negatively-charged membrane cells is hampered. In order to achieve successful transfection and protection from enzymatic degradation there is a need for a suitable carrier for cGAMP. In this review, we therefore describe currently reported carriers for cGAMP, and correlate their characteristics to the effect they cause. To achieve targeted delivery to the tumor microenvironment, the route of administration and physicochemical parameters of the particles (containing a carrier and cGAMP) such as size and charge need to be determined. Therefore, the choice of the particle formulation and its impact on the preclinical outcome will be discussed.
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•STING ligand benefit from nanocarriers to protect them from degradation.•Nanocarrier design depends on route of administration, targeted physicochemical properties and tumor model.•Clinical applications focus on i.t. administration, often combined with systemic ICB immunotherapy.•New sulfo-nucleotide or non-nucleotide STING ligands may hold promise to increase in vivo half-life.•Nanocarriers with cationic and properties may be designed to promote endosomal escape.
This study describes an investigation on the occurrence of 27 pharmaceutical compounds, belonging to different classes, in the effluent from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their ...receiving water bodies in the sensitive area of the Po Valley (northern Italy). These canals were monitored upstream and downstream of the effluent discharge points in order to evaluate the effluent impact on the quality of surface waters, commonly used for irrigation. An environmental risk assessment was also conducted by calculating the risk quotient, i.e. the ratio between measured concentration and predicted no effect concentration.
Collected data show that, although average values of the selected compounds were in general higher in the effluent than in the surface waters, some compounds not detected in the WWTP effluent were detected in the receiving water (upstream as well as downstream), indicating that sources other than treated effluents are present as contaminations during extraction and analysis have to be excluded. The most critical compounds for the environment were found to be the antibiotics sulfamethoxazole, clarithromycin and azithromycin. The study shows that the potential toxicological effects of persistent micropollutants can be mitigated to some extent by a high dilution capacity, i.e. a high average flow rate in the receiving water body with respect to the effluent.
► 27 pharmaceuticals of different classes were monitored. ► Two WWTP effluents and the corresponding receiving water bodies were investigated. ► Hydrodynamic characteristics and pharmaceutical impact on water bodies were studied. ► Based on the risk quotient, antibiotics are the most critical compounds. ► The flow rate of the surface water body contributes to mitigate the risk.
Efficient and rational implementation of building stock CO
2 emission reduction strategies and policies requires the application of comprehensive building stock models that have the ability to: (a) ...estimate the baseline energy demand of the existing building stock, (b) explore the technical and economic effects of different CO
2 emission reduction strategies over time, including the impact of new technologies, and (c) to identify the effect of emission reduction strategies on indoor environmental quality.
The aims of this paper are fourfold: (a) to briefly describe bottom-up and top-down methods and overview common bottom-up modelling techniques (statistical and building physics based), (b) to critically analyse the existing bottom-up building physics based residential energy models focusing on their purposes, strengths, and shortcomings, (c) to compare five building physics based bottom-up models focusing on the same building stock – UK case study, and (d) to identify the next generation of coupled energy–health bottom-up building stock models.
This paper has identified three major issues which need to be addressed: a) the lack of publicly available detailed data relating to inputs and assumptions, as well as underlying algorithms, renders any attempt to reproduce their outcomes problematic, b) lack of data on the relative importance of input parameter variations on the predicted demand outputs, and c) uncertainty as to the socio-technical drivers of energy consumption – how people use energy and how they react to changes in their home as a result of energy conservation measures.
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