Loggerhead sea turtle (
C. caretta
) is the official European bioindicator of marine litter in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2019, 8 sea turtles, out of 28 specimens loggerhead on the Adriatic coast of ...Molise, were subjected to necropsy. The intestinal contents were collected and the microplastics until 0.45 μm were extracted. Qualitative and quantitative assessments were performed by stereomicroscope observation and spectroscopic analyses (attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ATR-FTIR and Raman microspectroscopy, RMS). Moreover, the analytical quantification of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate (PC), para phthalic acid (PTA) and bisphenol A (BPA) in fat and liver tissues was performed by LC-MS/MS. Microparticles ranging from 0.45 μm to 1 mm were found in all turtles, for a total of 623, while plastic litter greater than 1 mm were found only in 4 specimens (ranging from 0.03 to 0.11 g). Nineteen different polymers and 10 pigments, including polyester (100% of animals), high-density polyethylene (50%) and polypropylene (50%) were identified. BPA, PTA and PET were detected in fat and liver tissues of all animals, while PC was found only in 50%. A major prevalence was registered in the abdominal fat tissue, although only PC compounds were significantly higher in abdominal tissue (
p
< 0.05), except for free PTA with liver tissue being the most contaminated (
p
< 0.05). Microplastics and additives surely impact the health status of turtles that showed gastrointestinal impairment and an important level of contamination in tissues.
Graphical abstract
Anti-insect photoselective nets present a new technology that combines light manipulation and pest protection in orchards. In this study, the effect of the anti-insect photoselective red net on the ...generative and vegetative traits was studied in an apple orchard near the city of Zadar, Croatia. 'Granny Smith' apples were grown on M9 rootstock and raised as slender spindles. The experiment consisted of two treatments: the trees covered with the red photoselective anti-insect nets (AGRITECH S. r. l., Eboli, Italy; mesh size of 2.4 × 4.8 mm) and uncovered trees as control. Yield, percentage of fruit with diameter >70 mm and fruit mass were not significantly different between treatments. L* color value was higher on fruit skin grown under the red net, and there was no significant difference in other color values (a*, b*, C* and h°). Soluble solids concentration (SSC) and total flavonoid content were significantly lower in fruit grown under red net than in control, and there was no significant difference in titratable acidity (TA), SSC/TA ratio, starch degradation and Streif maturity index. Red net proved to be effective against fruit red blush development (undesirable trait for 'Granny Smith' apple) and sunburn damage occurrence.
A phytochemical study of the flowers and bulbs derived from the Australian plant Macropidia fuliginosa, involving hyphenated spectroscopic methodologies (HPLC-NMR and HPLC-MS), together with ...conventional isolation strategies, resulted in the identification of 16 constituents (1, 2, 4–17) representative of six different structural classes. Six new compounds (12–17) were identified from the bulbs of the plant. The isolated compounds were assessed for antimicrobial activity, and compound 8 was found to be more potent against P. aeruginosa than ampicillin.
Sulfur-rich molybdenum sulfides are an emerging class of inorganic coordination polymers that are predominantly utilized for their superior catalytic properties. Here we investigate surface water ...dependent properties of sulfur-rich MoS x (x = 32/3) and its interaction with water vapor. We report that MoS x is a highly hygroscopic semiconductor, which can reversibly bind up to 0.9 H2O molecule per Mo. The presence of surface water is found to have a profound influence on the semiconductor’s properties, modulating the material’s photoluminescence by over 1 order of magnitude, in transition from dry to moist ambient. Furthermore, the conductivity of a MoS x -based moisture sensor is modulated in excess of 2 orders of magnitude for 30% increase in humidity. As the core application, we utilize the discovered properties of MoS x to develop an electrolyteless water splitting photocatalyst that relies entirely on the hygroscopic nature of MoS x as the water source. The catalyst is formulated as an ink that can be coated onto insulating substrates, such as glass, leading to efficient hydrogen and oxygen evolution from water vapor. The concept has the potential to be widely adopted for future solar fuel production.
Understanding the molecular-level behavior of ionic liquids (ILs) at IL–solid interfaces is of fundamental importance with respect to their application in, for example, electrochemical systems and ...electronic devices. Using a model system, consisting of an imidazolium-based IL (C2MimNTf2) in contact with a sapphire substrate, we have approached this problem using a complementary combination of high-resolution X-ray reflectivity measurements and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our strategy enabled us to compare experimental and theoretically calculated reflectivities in a direct manner, thereby critically assessing the applicability of several force-field variants. On the other hand, using the best-matching MD description, we are able to describe the nature of the model IL–solid interface in appreciable detail. More specifically, we find that characteristic interactions between the surface hydroxyl groups and donor and acceptor sites on the IL constituents have a dominant role in inducing a multidimensional layering profile of the cations and anions.
Phytochemical profiling was undertaken on the crude extracts of Drosera magna to determine the nature of the chemical constituents present. In total, three new flavonol diglycosides (1–3), one new ...flavan-3-ol glycoside (4), and 12 previously reported compounds of the flavonol (5, 9), flavan-3-ol (15), flavanone (8), 1,4-napthoquinone (6, 7, 13, 14), 2,3-dehydroxynapthalene-1,4-dione (10–12), and phenolic acid (16) structure classes were isolated and identified. Compounds 1–9, 13, 17, and 18 were assessed for antimicrobial activity, with compounds 6, 7, 8, and 9 showing significant activity. Compounds 1, 2, and 6 were also evaluated for anthelmintic activity against larval forms of Hemonchus contortus, with compound 6 being active.
Organic solvents offer promising methods for the fractionation of Eucalyptus obliqua lignocellulosic biomass. This study investigated the impact of γ-valerolactone (GVL) fractionation on the ...morphology of cellulose and its internal structure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The solubilized lignin precipitated on the macrofibril surface as lignin spheres. GVL fractionation significantly increased the crystallinity of the recovered pulps from 0.29 for the sawdust to an average of 0.53 and a maximum of 0.66. The main states of cellulose that were susceptible to hydrolysis during the fractionation were amorphous and surface cellulose, both of which were reduced significantly, while paracrystalline and pure crystalline fractions in the pulp increased. It was concluded that GVL fractionation can produce a crystalline cellulose pulp of high quality suitable for further processing.
Calculations of CD spectra can provide important structural information for peptide systems. Although TD-DFT is an attractive method for these calculations, recent studies have pointed to problems ...with modeling charge transfer excitations. Motivated by these problems, we benchmarked the performances of CAM-B3LYP, ωB97X-D, M06-2X, B3LYP, and PBE0 against high level ab initio RICC2 calculations for selected peptide structures. Furthermore, we compared the performance of the functionals with the experimentally available data. Our results show that long-range corrected functionals (CAM-B3LYP and ωB97X-D) correlate relatively well with RICC2 calculations, as does the meta-hybrid M06-2X, while the global hybrid functionals (B3LYP and PBE0) exhibit the aforementioned charge-transfer artifacts. On the other hand, PBE0 and even more so M06-2X and B3LYP produce spectra in better agreement with the experimental data. We have clarified this apparent discrepancy by finding that the surplus charge-transfer excitations, exhibited by B3LYP and PBE0, seem to have a negligible contribution to the final spectra, once appropriate structural averaging is performed.
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