Systematic and Day-to-Day Effects of Chemical-Derived Population Estimates on Wastewater-Based Drug Epidemiology

Population size is crucial when estimating population-normalized drug consumption (PNDC) from wastewater-based drug epidemiology (WBDE). Three conceptually different population estimates can be used: de jure (common census, residence), de facto (all persons within a sewer catchment), and chemical loads (contributors to the sampled wastewater). De facto and chemical loads will be the same where all households contribute to a central sewer system without wastewater loss. This study explored the feasibility of determining a de facto population and its effect on estimating PNDC in an urban community over an extended period. Drugs and other chemicals were analyzed in 311 daily composite wastewater samples. The daily estimated de facto population (using chemical loads) was on average 32% higher than the de jure population. Consequently, using the latter would systemically overestimate PNDC by 22%. However, the relative day-to-day pattern of drug consumption was similar regardless of the type of normalization as daily illicit drug loads appeared to vary substantially more than the population. Using chemical loads population, we objectively quantified the total methodological uncertainty of PNDC and reduced it by a factor of 2. Our study illustrated the potential benefits of using chemical loads population for obtaining more robust PNDC data in WBDE.

Impacts of tillage and application methods on atrazine and alachlor losses from upland fields: Research paper

The effects of tillage practises and the methods of chemical application on atrazine and alachlor losses through run-off were evaluated for five treatments: conservation (untilled) and surface (US), disk and surface, plow and surface, disk and preplant-incorporated, and plow and preplant-incorporated treatments. A rainfall simulator was used to create 63.5 mm h^-1 of rainfall for 60 min and 127 mm h^-1 for 15 min. Rainfall simulation occurred 24-36 h after chemical application. There was no significant difference in the run-off volume among the treatments but the untilled treatment significantly reduced erosion loss. The untilled treatments had the highest herbicide concentration and the disk treatments were higher than the plow treatments. The surface treatments showed a higher concentration than the incorporated treatments. The concentration of herbicides in the water decreased with time. Among the experimental sites, the one with sandy loam soil produced the greatest losses, both in terms of the run-off volume and herbicide loss. The US treatments had the highest loss and the herbicide incorporation treatments had smaller losses through run-off as the residue cover was effective in preventing herbicide losses. Incorporation might be a favorable method of herbicide application to reduce the herbicide losses by run-off.

Nitrogen-doped graphene films from chemical vapor deposition of pyridine: Influence of process parameters on the electrical and optical properties

Graphene films were produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of pyridine on copper substrates. Pyridine-CVD is expected to lead to doped graphene by the insertion of nitrogen atoms in the growing sp2 carbon lattice, possibly improving the properties of graphene as a transparent conductive film. We here report on the influence that the CVD parameters (i.e., temperature and gas flow) have on the morphology, transmittance, and electrical conductivity of the graphene films grown with pyridine. A temperature range between 930 and 1070 °C was explored and the results were compared to those of pristine graphene grown by ethanol-CVD under the same process conditions. The films were characterized by atomic force microscopy, Raman and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The optical transmittance and electrical conductivity of the films were measured to evaluate their performance as transparent conductive electrodes. Graphene films grown by pyridine reached an electrical conductivity of 14.3 × 105 S/m. Such a high conductivity seems to be associated with the electronic doping induced by substitutional nitrogen atoms. In particular, at 930 °C the nitrogen/carbon ratio of pyridine-grown graphene reaches 3%, and its electrical conductivity is 40% higher than that of pristine graphene grown from ethanol-CVD.

The influence of the gas environment on morphology and chemical composition of surfaces micro-machined with a femtosecond laser

We investigated the influence of different gas environments on the fabrication of surfaces, homogeneously covered with equally sized and spaced micro-structures. Two types of structures have been successfully micro-machined with a femtosecond laser on titanium surfaces in various atmospheres. The surface chemistry of samples machined in oxygen and helium shows TiO2, while machining in nitrogen leads to an additional share of TiN. The actual surface structure was found to vary significantly as a function of the gas environment. We found that the ablated particles and their surface triggered two consecutive events: The optical properties of the gas environment became non-isotropic which then led to the pulse intensity being redistributed throughout the cross section of the laser beam. Additionally, the effective intensity was further reduced for TiN surfaces due to TiN's high reflectivity. Thus, the settings for the applied raster-scanning machining method had to be adjusted for each gas environment to produce comparable structures. In contrast to previous studies, where only noble gases were found suitable to produce homogeneous patches, we obtained them in an oxygen environment.

Evaluation of safety treatments at roadwork zones

A major 3-year research project to improve safety at roadworks has recently been completed by the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) and industry partners. This project involved developing strategies to mitigate roadwork hazards including speeding. This paper presents three on-road evaluation studies on the effectiveness of some current and new safety treatments: use of pilot vehicles, variable message signage (VMS), police enforcement with and without VMS, and remote-controlled traffic control devices. The speed reduction potential of pilot vehicles was evaluated at a highway site. Results showed that pilot vehicles reduced average speeds within the work area, but not at a downstream location. Combinations of VMS and police enforcement were evaluated at a motorway site and results showed that police enforcement accompanied with VMS had greater effects on reducing speeds than either of these treatments alone. Three new remote-controlled traffic control devices—red and amber lights, red light and amber arrow, and a robotic stop/slow sign—were evaluated at a highway site. Results showed that the red light and amber arrow option produced consistent effects on the speeds at the approach to traffic controls and at a location inside the work area. This paper presents the first rigorous evaluations of these roadwork safety treatments in Queensland.

Optimal designs for evaluating a series of treatments

Several articles in this journal have studied optimal designs for testing a series of treatments to identify promising ones for further study. These designs formulate testing as an ongoing process until a promising treatment is identified. This formulation is considered to be more realistic but substantially increases the computational complexity. In this article, we show that these new designs, which control the error rates for a series of treatments, can be reformulated as conventional designs that control the error rates for each individual treatment. This reformulation leads to a more meaningful interpretation of the error rates and hence easier specification of the error rates in practice. The reformulation also allows us to use conventional designs from published tables or standard computer programs to design trials for a series of treatments. We illustrate these using a study in soft tissue sarcoma.

Physio-chemical assessment of beauty leaf (Calophyllum inophyllum) as second-generation biodiesel feedstock

Recently, second-generation (non-vegetable oil) feedstocks for biodiesel production are receiving significant attention due to the cost and social effects connected with utilising food products for the production of energy products. The Beauty leaf tree (Calophyllum inophyllum) is a potential source of non-edible oil for producing second-generation biodiesel because of its suitability for production in an extensive variety of atmospheric condition, easy cultivation, high fruit production rate, and the high oil content in the seed. In this study, oil was extracted from Beauty leaf tree seeds through three different oil extraction methods. The important physical and chemical properties of these extracted Beauty leaf oils were experimentally analysed and compared with other commercially available vegetable oils. Biodiesel was produced using a two-stage esterification process combining of an acid catalysed pre-esterification process and an alkali catalysed transesterification process. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles and important physicochemical properties were experimentally measured and estimated using equations based on the FAME analysis. The quality of Beauty leaf biodiesels was assessed and compared with commercially available biodiesels through multivariate data analysis using PROMETHEE-GAIA software. The results show that mechanical extraction using a screw press produces oil at a low cost, however, results in low oil yields compared with chemical oil extraction. High pressure and temperature in the extraction process increase oil extraction performance. On the contrary, this process increases the free fatty acid content in the oil. A clear difference was found in the physical properties of Beauty leaf oils, which eventually affected the oil to biodiesel conversion process. However, Beauty leaf oils methyl esters (biodiesel) were very consistent physicochemical properties and able to meet almost all indicators of biodiesel standards. Overall this study found that Beauty leaf is a suitable feedstock for producing second-generation biodiesel in commercial scale. Therefore, the findings of this study are expected to serve as the basis for further development of Beauty leaf as a feedstock for industrial scale second-generation biodiesel production.

Wetting, solubility and chemical characteristics of plasma-polymerized 1-isopropyl-4-methyl-1,4-cyclohexadiene thin films

Investigations on the wetting, solubility and chemical composition of plasma polymer thin films provide an insight into the feasibility of implementing these polymeric materials in organic electronics, particularly where wet solution processing is involved. In this study, thin films were prepared from 1-isopropyl-4-methyl-1,4-cyclohexadiene (γ-Terpinene) using radio frequency (RF) plasma polymerization. FTIR showed the polymers to be structurally dissimilar to the original monomer and highly cross-linked, where the loss of original functional groups and the degree of cross-linking increased with deposition power. The polymer surfaces were hydrocarbon-rich, with oxygen present in the form of O–H and C=O functional groups. The oxygen content decreased with deposition power, with films becoming more hydrophobic and, thus, less wettable. The advancing and receding contact angles were investigated, and the water advancing contact angle was found to increase from 63.14° to 73.53° for thin films prepared with an RF power of 10 W to 75 W. The wetting envelopes for the surfaces were constructed to enable the prediction of the surfaces’ wettability for other solvents. The effect of roughness on the wetting behaviour of the films was insignificant. The polymers were determined to resist solubilization in solvents commonly used in the deposition of organic semiconducting layers, including chloroform and chlorobenzene, with higher stability observed in films fabricated at higher RF power.

Optical and chemical properties of polyterpenol thin films deposited via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

The development of novel organic polymer thin films is essential for the advancement of many emerging fields including organic electronics and biomedical coatings. In this study, the effect of synthesis conditions, namely radio frequency (rf) deposition power, on the material properties of polyterpenol thin films derived from nonsynthetic environmentally friendly monomer was investigated. At lower deposition powers, the polyterpenol films preserved more of the original monomer constituents, such as hydroxy functional groups; however, they were also softer and more hydrophilic compared to polymers fabricated at higher power. Enhanced monomer fragmentation and consequent reduction in the presence of the polar groups in the structure of the high-power samples reduced their optical band gap value from 2.95 eV for 10 W to 2.64 eV for 100 W. Regardless of deposition power, all samples were found to be optically transparent with smooth, defect-free, and homogenous surfaces.

Human health risk of toxic chemical pollutants generated from traffic and land use activities

The research project developed a quantitative approach to assess the risk to human health from heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban stormwater based on traffic and land use factors. The research outcomes are expected to strengthen the scientifically robust management and reuse of urban stormwater. The innovative methodology developed can be applied to evaluate human health risk in relation to toxic chemical pollutants in urban stormwater runoff and for the development of effective risk mitigation strategies.

Single layer graphene film by ethanol chemical vapor deposition: Highly efficient growth and clean transfer method

The choice of ethanol (C2H5OH) as carbon source in the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) of graphene on copper foils can be considered as an attractive alternative among the commonly used hydrocarbons, such as methane (CH4) [1]. Ethanol, a safe, low cost and easy handling liquid precursor, offers fast and efficient growth kinetics with the synthesis of fullyformed graphene films in just few seconds [2]. In previous studies of graphene growth from ethanol, various research groups explored temperature ranges lower than 1000 °C, usually reported for methane-assisted CVD. In particular, the 650–850 °C and 900 °C ranges were investigated, respectively for 5 and 30 min growth time [3, 4]. Recently, our group reported the growth of highly-crystalline, few-layer graphene by ethanol-CVD in hydrogen flow (1– 100 sccm) at high temperatures (1000–1070 °C) using growth times typical of CH4-assisted synthesis (10–30 min) [5]. Furthermore, a synthesis time between 20 and 60 s in the same conditions was explored too. In such fast growth we demonstrated that fully-formed graphene films can be grown by exposing copper foils to a low partial pressure of ethanol (up to 2 Pa) in just 20 s [6] and we proposed that the rapid growth is related to an increase of the Cu catalyst efficiency due weak oxidizing nature of ethanol. Thus, the employment of such liquid precursor, in small concentrations, together with a reduced time of growth and very low pressure leads to highly efficient graphene synthesis. By this way, the complete coverage of a copper catalyst surface with high spatial uniformity can be obtained in a considerably lower time than when using methane.

Migraine and glutamate: Modulators of glutamatergic signalling as potential treatments of neuropsychiatric disorders

Migraine is a complex neurological disorder with a well-documented genetic basis. Migraine is a product of allelic variation in genes of neurological, vascular and hormonal origin interacting with environmental triggers. Presentation can include attacks of head pain with symptoms of nausea, emesis, photophobia, phonophobia, and occasionally, visual sensory disturbances, known as aura. Migraine pain is difficult to ignore, associated with a deep sense of malaise and manifests as a throbbing, pulsatile headache, localized to one side of the head that intensifies with physical activity and that can last from 4-72 hours. Migraine is diagnosed according to criteria developed by the International Headache Society (IHS) and is subdivided into two main types based on the occurrence of aura symptoms that may be present in the early stages of the headache: migraine with aura (MA) and migraine without aura (MO). The majority (about 70%) of migraineurs are diagnosed with the MO subtype whilst the remaining 30% experience MA accompanied by neurological symptoms that manifest as fully reversible, visual, sensory and/or dysphasic speech disturbances in conjunction with their headache. Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS) and over-excitation of glutamate receptors is regarded as a contributing factor, through various mechanisms, to the pathology of migraine. In this chapter we present an overview of the pathophysiology and co-morbidity of migraine with other psychiatric disorders and discuss the role of the glutamatergic system in migraine, its molecular components as potential drug targets, in addition to the current treatments and progress of modulators of glutamatergic signaling.

Sinteractivity, proton conductivity and chemical stability of BaZr 0.7In0.3O3-δ for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs)

In3+ was used as dopant for BaZrO3 proton conductor and 30 at%-doped BaZrO3 samples (BaZr0.7In 0.3O3-δ, BZI) were prepared as electrolyte materials for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The BZI material showed a much improved sinteractivity compared with the conventional Y-doped BaZrO 3. The BZI pellets reached almost full density after sintering at 1600 °C for 10 h, whereas the Y-doped BaZrO3 samples still remained porous under the same sintering conditions. The conductivity measurements indicated that BZI pellets showed smaller bulk but improved grain boundary proton conductivity, when compared with Y-doped BaZrO3 samples. A total proton conductivity of 1.7 × 10-3 S cm -1 was obtained for the BZI sample at 700 °C in wet 10% H 2 atmosphere. The BZI electrolyte material also showed adequate chemical stability against CO2 and H2O, which is promising for application in fuel cells.

The emerging role of microRNAs in resistance to lung cancer treatments

One of the major challenges in the treatment of lung cancer is the development of drug resistance. This represents a major obstacle in the treatment of patients, limiting the efficacy of both conventional chemotherapy and biological therapies. Deciphering the mechanisms of resistance is critical to further understanding the multifactorial pathways involved, and in developing more specific targeted treatments. To date, numerous studies have reported the potential role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in resistance to various cancer treatments. MicroRNAs are a family of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by sequence-specific targeting of mRNAs causing translational repression or mRNA degradation. More than 1200 validated human miRNAs have been identified to date. While as little as one miRNA can regulate hundreds of targets, a single target can also be affected by multiple miRNAs. Evidence suggests that dysregulation of specific miRNAs may be involved in the acquisition of resistance to a number of cancer treatments, thereby modulating the sensitivity of cancer cells to such therapies. Therefore, targeting miRNAs may be an attractive strategy for developing novel and more effective individualized therapies, improving drug efficiency, and for predicting patient response to different treatments. In this review, we provide an overview on the role of miRNAs in resistance to current lung cancer therapies and novel biological agents.