Pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants in U.S. streams, 1999-2000: a national reconnaissance

To provide the first nationwide reconnaissance of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) in water resources, the U.S. Geological Survey used five newly developed analytical methods to measure concentrations of 95 OWCs in water samples from a network of 139 streams across 30 states during 1999 and 2000. The selection of sampling sites was biased toward streams susceptible to contamination (i.e. downstream of intense urbanization and livestock production). OWCs were prevalent during this study, being found in 80% of the streams sampled. The compounds detected represent a wide range of residential, industrial, and agricultural origins and uses with 82 of the 95 OWCs being found during this study. The most frequently detected compounds were coprostanol (fecal steroid), cholesterol (plant and animal steroid), N,N-diethyltoluamide (insect repellant), caffeine (stimulant), triclosan (antimicrobial disinfectant), tri(2-chloroethyl)phosphate (fire retardant), and 4-nonylphenol (nonionic detergent metabolite). Measured concentrations for this study were generally low and rarely exceeded drinking-water guidelines, drinking-water health advisories, or aquatic-life criteria. Many compounds, however, do not have such guidelines established. The detection of multiple OWCs was common for this study, with a median of seven and as many as 38 OWCs being found in a given water sample. Little is known about the potential interactive effects (such as synergistic or antagonistic toxicity) that may occur from complex mixtures of OWCs in the environment. In addition, results of this study demonstrate the importance of obtaining data on metabolites to fully understand not only the fate and transport of OWCs in the hydrologic system but also their ultimate overall effect on human health and the environment.     

Phthalates exposure indicators determined by urinary phthalate metabolites in healthy non-obese Czech adults: FANTOM study

It is assumed that human exposure to phthalates may be associated with adverse health effects. The indicators of urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations in healthy adults are limited. In this study, the phthalate metabolites concentrations were detected from 24-h urine collection in non-obese Czech adults (n = 201). Each participant filled in an 80-item questionnaire (FANTOM-SQ 2013) regarding the outdoor and indoor sources of phthalates, the use of personal care products and food intake sources. The concentrations of 15 phthalates metabolites were analysed following enzymatic cleavage of the glucuronide using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS). The indicators of chronic or acute exposure phthalate-containing materials were identified. It is shown that higher fruit consumption was positively and significantly associated with a higher level of total 15 urinary phthalates biomarkers (p < 0.001). Regular meat consumption showed a negative significant association with total 15 phthalates metabolites (p < 0.01). The use of personal care products was significantly and positively correlated with monoethyl phthalate urine concentrations (p < 0.05). The analysis of the dietary behaviour and personal care products use in the Czech non-obese population showed it to be a predictable tool in the level of phthalates exposure when high fruit consumption and personal care products use are linked to higher phthalate metabolite contents in the urine. However, this topic deserves more research.     

Benefits of multiple micronutrient supplementation in heart failure: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Background: Multiple micronutrient supplementation has been suggested to have a role on health outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF), but the evidence is inconclusive. Objective: To elucidate the role of multiple micronutrient supplementation in heart failure we performed a comprehensive review of the literature. Methods and results: The search in databases included PUBMED (until June 2018) to detect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyzes that investigated the impact of micronutrient supplementation in HF. Results: With more than 2357 titles and abstracts reviewed, we included only the studies suitable for the final review. Whether alone or in combination, micronutrients have been found to improve the health outcomes of patients with HF by improving symptoms, work capacity and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), thus increasing the quality of life in these patients. Conclusion: Future studies are needed to document the effects of multiple micronutrient associations in order to include them in nutritional guidelines to increase survival and to improve quality of life in patients with heart failure.     

Transport of chemical and microbial compounds from known wastewater discharges: potential for use as indicators of human fecal contamination

The quality of drinking and recreational water is currently (2005) determined using indicator bacteria. However, the culture tests used to analyze forthese bacteria require a long time to complete and do not discriminate between human and animal fecal material sources. One complementary approach is to use chemicals found in human wastewater, which would have the advantages of (1) potentially shorter analysis times than the bacterial culture tests and (2) being selected for human-source specificity. At 10 locations, water samples were collected upstream and at two successive points downstream from a wastewaster treatment plant (WWTP); a treated effluent sample was also collected at each WWTP. This sampling plan was used to determine the persistence of a chemically diverse suite of emerging contaminants in streams. Samples were also collected at two reference locations assumed to have minimal human impacts. Of the 110 chemical analytes investigated in this project, 78 were detected at least once. The number of compounds in a given sample ranged from 3 at a reference location to 50 in a WWTP effluent sample. The total analyte load at each location varied from 0.018 microg/L at the reference location to 97.7 microg/L in a separate WWTP effluent sample. Although most of the compound concentrations were in the range of 0.01-1.0 microg/L, in some samples, individual concentrations were in the range of 5-38 microg/L. The concentrations of the majority of the chemicals present in the samples generally followed the expected trend: they were either nonexistent or at trace levels in the upstream samples, had their maximum concentrations in the WWTP effluent samples, and then declined in the two downstream samples. This research suggests that selected chemicals are useful as tracers of human wastewater discharge.     

Chemistry of small organic molecules on snow grains: the applicability of artificial snow for environmental studies

The utilization of artificial snow for environmentally relevant (photo)chemical studies was systematically investigated. Contaminated snow samples were prepared by various methods: by shock freezing of the aqueous solutions sprayed into liquid nitrogen or inside a large walk-in cold chamber at -35 °C, or by adsorption of gaseous contaminants on the surface of artificially prepared pure or natural urban snow. The specific surface area of artificial snow grains produced in liquid nitrogen was determined using valerophenone photochemistry (400-440 cm(2) g(-1)) to estimate the surface coverage by small hydrophobic organic contaminants. The dynamics of recombination/dissociation (cage effect) of benzyl radical pairs, photochemically produced from 4-methyldibenzyl ketone on the snow surface, was investigated. The initial ketone loading, c = 10(-6)-10(-8) mol kg(-1), only about 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the contaminant concentrations commonly found in nature, was already well below monolayer coverage. We found that the efficiency of out-of-cage reactions decreased at much higher temperatures than those previously determined for frozen solutions; however, the cage effect was essentially the same no matter what technique of snow production or ketone deposition/uptake was used, including the experiments with collected natural snow. The experimental observation that the contaminant molecules are initially self-associated even at the lowest concentrations was supported by DFT calculations. We conclude that, contrary to frozen aqueous solutions, in which the impurities reside in a 3D cage (micropocket), contaminant molecules located on the artificial snow grain surface at low concentrations can be visualized in terms of a 2D cage. Artificial snow thus represents a readily available study matrix that can be used to emulate the natural chemical processes of trace contaminants occurring in natural snow.     

PREPARATION OF HYDROTHERMALLY TREATED LRC/WATER FUEL SLURRIES

The hot-water coal drying process is a means of thermally beneficiating and dewatering lignite and subbituminous coal for the purpose of preparing dense low-rank coal/water fuel. In hot-water coal drying, which is a form of hydrothermal treatment, low-rank coal in a water slurry is treated at elevated temperatures of 513 to 623  K and at pressures in excess of the equivalent saturated steam pressures lo minimize vaporization of the water. This produces a coal product which contains less than one-third the inherent moisture of the raw coal and which is resistant to moisture reabsorption. The hydrothermally treated coal/water slurry resulting from the process can be concentrated by mechanical means (centrifuge, pressure filter)to form a pumpable coal/water fuel with greater than 60 weight percent bone-dry solids content and with an energy content greater than 15·4 MJ/Kg (6600 Btu/lb). Hydrothermal treatment also beneficiates the coal by reducing oxygen and minerals. Over 94 percent of the energy content of the raw coal remains in the product. Low-rank coal/water fuel is typically a pseudoplastic fluid, and for some low-rank coals, the slurry is stable towards settling, without the use of additives.     

N‐Arylsulfonyl Indolines as Retinoic Acid Receptor‐Related Orphan Receptor γ (RORγ) Agonists

The nuclear retinoic acid receptor‐related orphan receptor γ (RORγ; NR1F3) is a key regulator of inflammatory gene programs involved in T helper 17 (T_H17) cell proliferation. As such, synthetic small‐molecule repressors (inverse agonists) targeting RORγ have been extensively studied for their potential as therapeutic agents for various autoimmune diseases. Alternatively, enhancing T_H17 cell proliferation through activation (agonism) of RORγ may boost an immune response, thereby offering a potentially new approach in cancer immunotherapy. Herein we describe the development of N‐arylsulfonyl indolines as RORγ agonists. Structure–activity studies reveal a critical linker region in these molecules as the major determinant for agonism. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange coupled to mass spectrometry (HDX‐MS) analysis of RORγ–ligand complexes help rationalize the observed results.     

Microfluidic transendothelial electrical resistance measurement device that enables blood flow and postgrowth experiments

Transendothelial electronic resistance (TEER) measurements are performed across a cell layer immobilized on a microfluidic device that also enables the cell layer to interact with a flowing stream of red blood cells (RBCs). A bipolar pulsed square wave potential is applied across a monolayer of bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells, and the resulting current response is measured and integrated. The overall impedance of the cell layer provides an indicator of cell layer integrity. After cell seeding on the device, a decrease in TEER signal from 22.3 ± 1.6 μC to 3.5 ± 0.4 μC (corresponding to a resistance of 40.9 ± 2.9 Ω·cm(2) to 259.1 ± 27.4 Ω·cm(2)) was observed after 8 h of cell growth. Intracellular nitric oxide (NO) production by the immobilized endothelial cells that had reached confluence was 34% higher than those cells that had not reached confluence, as indicated by the integrated TEER system. Importantly, this NO production by the confluent endothelium was stimulated by ATP released from RBCs flowing under the endothelial cells. In this construct, the described microfluidic device enables both a TEER-based evaluation of cell layer integrity and molecularly communicated interactions of these cells with a flowing stream of blood components.