Burial grounds’ impact on groundwater and public health: an overview

The most common practice for disposal of dead bodies is inhumation in soil, which favours interactions with the surrounding environment and returns nutrients to the life cycle. However, when the burial ground is located where hydrogeological, geological and climatic conditions are not favourable to the process, contamination of soils and groundwater may occur, and decomposition may be inhibited, leading to social, economic and political problems. The most critical parameters when assessing the pollution potential of a burial ground are inhumation depth, geological formation, depth of the water table, density of inhumations, soil type and climate. Considering that, this paper presents an overview of the potential threat that cemeteries can pose, analysing and discussing the influence of the main variables causing environmental impacts and public health risks.     

The Difficulties of Designing Future Coastlines in the Face of Climate Change

This paper adopts two perspectives. The first is a framing process aimed at defining and examining the conditions for adopting adaptive coastal governance. The second applies to relevant themes of changing coastal policy, central to the testing of adaptive coastal governance, namely cooperative science, risk-sensitive planning, socially fair insurance cover and effective ways to design, finance and engage with local communities over actual coastal change. We illuminate both missions through case studies in North Norfolk (England) and Portugal, all notably affected by coastal change. In England and Portugal, there is a broad understanding and acceptance of the likely effects of climate change. This recognition encourages debates over risk-averse planning, the design of proactive insurance cover, creative relocation of endangered property and new ways of predicting and paying for coastal adjustment. Yet, moving from a basic willingness to engage with coastal change to actual practices of landscape adjustment through such policy shifts is proving very difficult. In this research, we find that coastal landscapes are lived experiences, resigned acceptances of inevitable change and hopeful imaginings. Coastal management institutions are not geared to resolving this incompatibility and this paper explains why.     

Polysaccharide‐based membranes loaded with erythromycin for application as wound dressings

In this study, the antibiotic erythromycin (Ery) was incorporated into chitosan (Ch)–alginate (A) and Ch–xanthan (X) membranes with the aim of using them as bioactive wound dressings. Drug incorporation was performed by direct addition (DA) to the polysaccharide mixture and by membrane impregnation in solution (IS). A higher incorporation efficiency was obtained for DA, but higher amounts of drug were loaded into membranes by the IS method (maxima ≈ 2.1 and 0.7 g/g for Ch–X and Ch–A, respectively) because the initial concentration of drug could be higher than that in the DA method. Ery release in phosphate‐buffered saline was slow, reaching about 12 and 32 mg of drug/g of membrane in 60 h for Ch–X and 4 and 16 mg/g for Ch–A by the DA and IS methods, respectively. With formulations prepared with IS, the required therapeutic dosage was reached within 60 h, whereas for those incorporating the drug by DA, prolonged use would be required. Both membrane types behaved as drug reservoirs, providing continuous antibiotic release to the wound site. Formulations with higher drug contents showed effective antibacterial activity against two species of bacteria commonly found in skin lesions, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and were thus potentially capable of protecting the wound site from bacterial attack. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43428.     

Binding of Sulpiride to Seric Albumins

The aim of this work was to study the interaction of sulpiride with human serum albumin (HSA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) through the fluorescence quenching technique. As sulpiride molecules emit fluorescence, we have developed a simple mathematical model to discriminate the quencher fluorescence from the albumin fluorescence in the solution where they interact. Sulpiride is an antipsychotic used in the treatment of several psychiatric disorders. We selectively excited the fluorescence of tryptophan residues with 290 nm wavelength and observed the quenching by titrating HSA and BSA solutions with sulpiride. Stern-Volmer graphs were plotted and quenching constants were estimated. Results showed that sulpiride form complexes with both albumins. Estimated association constants for the interaction sulpiride–HSA were 2.20 (±0.08) × 10⁴ M⁻¹, at 37 °C, and 5.46 (±0.20) × 10⁴ M⁻¹, at 25 °C. Those for the interaction sulpiride-BSA are 0.44 (±0.01) × 10⁴ M⁻¹, at 37 °C and 2.17 (±0.04) × 10⁴ M⁻¹, at 25 °C. The quenching intensity of BSA, which contains two tryptophan residues in the peptide chain, was found to be higher than that of HSA, what suggests that the primary binding site for sulpiride in albumin should be located next to the sub domain IB of the protein structure.     

Polymeric Nanoparticle-Based Photodynamic Therapy for Chronic Periodontitis in Vivo

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is increasingly being explored for treatment of periodontitis. Here, we investigated the effect of aPDT on human dental plaque bacteria in suspensions and biofilms in vitro using methylene blue (MB)-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic) (PLGA) nanoparticles (MB-NP) and red light at 660 nm. The effect of MB-NP-based aPDT was also evaluated in a clinical pilot study with 10 adult human subjects with chronic periodontitis. Dental plaque samples from human subjects were exposed to aPDT—in planktonic and biofilm phases—with MB or MB-NP (25 µg/mL) at 20 J/cm² in vitro. Patients were treated either with ultrasonic scaling and scaling and root planing (US + SRP) or ultrasonic scaling + SRP + aPDT with MB-NP (25 µg/mL and 20 J/cm²) in a split-mouth design. In biofilms, MB-NP eliminated approximately 25% more bacteria than free MB. The clinical study demonstrated the safety of aPDT. Both groups showed similar improvements of clinical parameters one month following treatments. However, at three months ultrasonic SRP + aPDT showed a greater effect (28.82%) on gingival bleeding index (GBI) compared to ultrasonic SRP. The utilization of PLGA nanoparticles encapsulated with MB may be a promising adjunct in antimicrobial periodontal treatment.     

The effect of monoethylene glycol on the stability of water-in-oil emulsions

It is important from both a strategic and economic standpoint to study the mechanism of formation of water/oil emulsions, to predict their increase of viscosity with respect to that of the crude oil, and to obtain information about the stability vs separation of these substances (since their presence can impair oil processing and distribution). The objective of this work was to ascertain the influence of monoethylene glycol (MEG) on these parameters and its action mechanism. The addition of MEG in different proportions in the oil emulsions significantly changed the flow curve of the emulsion, passing from a quasi-Newtonian one to a shear thinning behaviour. Besides this, when MEG was present at low concentrations, the demulsification process was slow and an increase in concentration made the emulsions more stable than samples containing the same aqueous phase proportion. Under the conditions studied, the addition of MEG did not reduce the quantity of the aqueous phase separated compared to the emulsions free of MEG, but significantly delayed the demulsification process. Rheology provided important information regarding the phase separation process of the aqueous phase in oil phase emulsions, and dynamic testing suggested that the most relevant effect of the addition of MEG is an increase of the emulsion elasticity that can be correlated with the increase in the emulsion stability observed by bottle test and Turbiscan.     

Self‐welding 1‐butene/ethylene copolymers from metallocene catalysts: Structure,morphology, and mechanical properties

Samples of random copolymers consisting of 1‐butene modified with a low ethylene content (4, 5, 8% by weight) produced with metallocene catalysts were studied to elucidate the polymorphic behavior of this new class of materials and to characterize them from a structural, morphological, and mechanical point of view. The samples cooled down from the melt are in amorphous phase and crystallize in a mixture of form I and I′ or in pure form I′ with aging time, according to the C2 content. Infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction and microscopic techniques were used to follow the changes of the material with aging time and to correlate the structural and morphological behavior with the peculiar mechanical properties that differentiate the samples with increasing C2 content. The presence, in the aged samples with higher C2 content, of the pure form I′ induces the peculiar ability to self‐welding and these copolymers combine high flexibility with good elasticity and ductility and can be processed directly or used as modifying agents in polymers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40119.     

Treatment of Critical Size Femoral Bone Defects with Biomimetic Hybrid Scaffolds of 3D Plotted Calcium Phosphate Cement and Mineralized Collagen Matrix

To treat critical-size bone defects, composite materials and tissue-engineered bone grafts play important roles in bone repair materials. The purpose of this study was to investigate the bone regenerative potential of hybrid scaffolds consisting of macroporous calcium phosphate cement (CPC) and microporous mineralized collagen matrix (MCM). Hybrid scaffolds were synthetized by 3D plotting CPC and then filling with MCM (MCM-CPC group) and implanted into a 5 mm critical size femoral defect in rats. Defects left empty (control group) as well as defects treated with scaffolds made of CPC only (CPC group) and MCM only (MCM group) served as controls. Eight weeks after surgery, micro-computed tomography scans and histological analysis were performed to analyze the newly formed bone, the degree of defect healing and the activity of osteoclasts. Mechanical stability was tested by 3-point-bending of the explanted femora. Compared with the other groups, more newly formed bone was found within MCM-CPC scaffolds. The new bone tissue had a clamp-like structure which was fully connected to the hybrid scaffolds and thereby enhanced the biomechanical strength. Together, the biomimetic hybrid MCM-CPC scaffolds enhanced bone defect healing by improved osseointegration and their differentiated degradation provides spatial effects in the process of critical-bone defect healing.     

Novel Insights into Autophagy and Prostate Cancer: A Comprehensive Review

Autophagy is a complex process involved in several cell activities, including tissue growth, differentiation, metabolic modulation, and cancer development. In prostate cancer, autophagy has a pivotal role in the regulation of apoptosis and disease progression. Several molecular pathways are involved, including PI3K/AKT/mTOR. However, depending on the cellular context, autophagy may play either a detrimental or a protective role in prostate cancer. For this purpose, current evidence has investigated how autophagy interacts within these complex interactions. In this article, we discuss novel findings about autophagic machinery in order to better understand the therapeutic response and the chemotherapy resistance of prostate cancer. Autophagic-modulation drugs have been employed in clinical trials to regulate autophagy, aiming to improve the response to chemotherapy or to anti-cancer treatments. Furthermore, the genetic signature of autophagy has been found to have a potential means to stratify prostate cancer aggressiveness. Unfortunately, stronger evidence is needed to better understand this field, and the application of these findings in clinical practice still remains poorly feasible.