Despite promising results obtained in the early diagnosis of several pathologies, breath analysis still remains an unused technique in clinical practice due to the lack of breath sampling ...standardized procedures able to guarantee a good repeatability and comparability of results. The most diffuse on an international scale breath sampling method uses polymeric bags, but, recently, devices named Mistral and ReCIVA, able to directly concentrate volatile organic compounds (VOCs) onto sorbent tubes, have been developed and launched on the market. In order to explore performances of these new automatic devices with respect to sampling in the polymeric bag and to study the differences in VOCs profile when whole or alveolar breath is collected and when pulmonary wash out with clean air is done, a tailored experimental design was developed. Three different breath sampling approaches were compared: (a) whole breath sampling by means of Tedlar bags, (b) the end-tidal breath collection using the Mistral sampler, and (c) the simultaneous collection of the whole and alveolar breath by using the ReCIVA. The obtained results showed that alveolar fraction of breath was relatively less affected by ambient air (AA) contaminants (
-values equal to 0.04 for Mistral and 0.002 for ReCIVA Low) with respect to whole breath (
-values equal to 0.97 for ReCIVA Whole). Compared to Tedlar bags, coherent results were obtained by using Mistral while lower VOCs levels were detected for samples (both breath and AA) collected by ReCIVA, likely due to uncorrected and fluctuating flow rates applied by this device. Finally, the analysis of all data also including data obtained by explorative analysis of the unique lung cancer (LC) breath sample showed that a clean air supply might determine a further confounding factor in breath analysis considering that lung wash-out is species-dependent.
Diclofenac (DCF) is one of the most detected pharmaceuticals in environmental water matrices and is known to be recalcitrant to conventional wastewater treatment plants. In this study, degradation of ...DCF was performed in water by photolysis and photocatalysis using a new synthetized photocatalyst based on hydroxyapatite and TiO₂ (HApTi). A degradation of 95% of the target compound was achieved in 24 h by a photocatalytic treatment employing the HApTi catalyst in comparison to only 60% removal by the photolytic process. The investigation of photo-transformation products was performed by means of UPLC-QTOF/MS/MS, and for 14 detected compounds in samples collected during treatment with HApTi, the chemical structure was proposed. The determination of transformation product (TP) toxicity was performed by using different assays:
acute toxicity test, Toxi-ChromoTest, and
and
germination inhibition test. Overall, the toxicity of the samples obtained from the photocatalytic experiment with HApTi decreased at the end of the treatment, showing the potential applicability of the catalyst for the removal of diclofenac and the detoxification of water matrices.
Long-range transport of natural and/or anthropogenic particles can contribute significantly to PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations and some European cities often fail to comply with PM daily limit values ...due to the additional impact of particles from remote sources. For this reason, reliable methodologies to identify long-range transport (LRT) events would be useful to better understand air pollution phenomena and support proper decision-making.
This study explores the potential of an integrated and high time-resolved monitoring approach for the identification and characterization of local, regional and long-range transport events of high PM. In particular, the goal of this work was also the identification of time-limited event. For this purpose, a high time-resolved monitoring campaign was carried out at an urban background site in Bari (southern Italy) for about 20days (1st–20th October 2011). The integration of collected data as the hourly measurements of inorganic ions in PM2.5 and their gas precursors and of the natural radioactivity, in addition to the analyses of aerosol maps and hourly back trajectories (BT), provided useful information for the identification and chemical characterization of local sources and trans-boundary intrusions. Non-sea salt (nss) sulfate levels were found to increase when air masses came from northeastern Europe and higher dispersive conditions of the atmosphere were detected. Instead, higher nitrate and lower nss-sulfate concentrations were registered in correspondence with air mass stagnation and attributed to local traffic source. In some cases, combinations of local and trans-boundary sources were observed. Finally, statistical investigations such as the principal component analysis (PCA) applied on hourly ion concentrations and the cluster analyses, the Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) and the Concentration Weighted Trajectory (CWT) models computed on hourly back-trajectories enabled to complete a cognitive framework and confirm the influence of aerosol transported from heavily polluted areas on the receptor site.
•An integrated approach was developed to characterize local and LRT contributions to PM.•The use of high time-resolved tools allowed one to identify also time-limited events.•Hourly ion concentrations enabled an accurate characterization of high-PM events.•Hourly BT cluster analysis enabled the identification of the LRT pathways.•This approach is useful to understand air pollution phenomena and support decision making.
In recent years, the massive exploitation of agricultural land intended to meet growing food demand has led to a reduction in soil fertility through the depletion of nutrients and organic matter. To ...implement sustainable agriculture, it is necessary to reduce soil tillage and use residual biomasses that are easily available in the region as soil amendments. Furthermore, it is important to test these residual biomasses in order to exclude a possible increase of heavy metals in soils due to the incorporation of the aforementioned biomasses. The current study aimed to evaluate the effects on soil fertility and health following the application of organic fertilizers combined with different soil tillage practices and the agronomic response of
Brassica carinata
A. (Braun). The soil tillage treatments consisted of conventional (CT) and minimum tillage (MT), whereas the fertilization treatments were mineral fertilizer (N
min
), municipal solid waste compost (N
comp
), mixed compost and mineral fertilizer (N
mix
), and sewage sludge (N
ss
). These treatments were compared with an unfertilized control (N
0
). The N
comp
and N
ss
treatments enhanced soil fertility, increasing the organic carbon and available phosphorus concentrations compared with N
0
and N
min
, whereas no significant difference was showed between the soil tillage treatments in terms of soil fertility. In addition, N
ss
did not show any significant difference compared to N
min
in terms of crop biomass, whereas this parameter appeared higher in CT compared with MT. A principal component analysis showed that the concentrations of toxic elements applied by the organic amendments did not change the dynamic equilibrium of the soil–plant system. Over the short term, the replacement of CT and N
min
with MT and N
ss
can be achieved, thus guaranteeing the sustainable cultivation of
Brassica
, without significant changes in heavy metal concentration in soil.
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