Recent advances in environmental risk assessment of transformation products

When micropollutants degrade in the environment, they may form persistent and toxic transformation products, which should be accounted for in the environmental risk assessment of the parent compounds. Transformation products have become a topic of interest not only with regard to their formation in the environment, but also during advanced water treatment processes, where disinfection byproducts can form from benign precursors. In addition, environmental risk assessment of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals requires inclusion of human metabolites as most pharmaceuticals are not excreted into wastewater in their original form, but are extensively metabolized. All three areas have developed their independent approaches to assess the risk associated with transformation product formation including hazard identification, exposure assessment, hazard assessment including dose-response characterization, and risk characterization. This review provides an overview and defines a link among those areas, emphasizing commonalities and encouraging a common approach. We distinguish among approaches to assess transformation products of individual pollutants that are undergoing a particular transformation process, e.g., biotransformation or (photo)oxidation, and approaches with the goal of prioritizing transformation products in terms of their contribution to environmental risk. We classify existing approaches for transformation product assessment in degradation studies as exposure- or effect-driven. In the exposure-driven approach, transformation products are identified and quantified by chemical analysis followed by effect assessment. In the effect-driven approach, a reaction mixture undergoes toxicity testing. If the decrease in toxicity parallels the decrease of parent compound concentration, the transformation products are considered to be irrelevant, and only when toxicity increases or the decrease is not proportional to the parent compound concentration are the TPs identified. For prioritization of transformation products in terms of their contribution to overall environmental risk, we integrate existing research into a coherent model-based, risk-driven framework. In the proposed framework, read-across from data of the parent compound to the transformation products is emphasized, but limitations to this approach are also discussed. Most prominently, we demonstrate how effect data for parent compounds can be used in combination with analysis of toxicophore structures and bioconcentration potential to facilitate transformation product effect assessment.     

Influence of Compaction Conditions on the Foamability of AlSi8Mg4 Alloy

Aluminum AlSi8Mg4 alloy foams were produced by the powder compact foaming route using different parameters for the uniaxial powder compaction step. Compaction time, pressure, and temperature were varied and were found to influence both the density of the foamable precursor and the peak expansion reached during foaming. While peak expansion cannot be related to any single pressing parameter alone in a simple way, a clear dependence of expansion on the precursor density was found. Densification to a relative density between 97.5 and 99 pct yielded volume expansions of the foam up to 880 pct. Lower densities result in weaker foaming, due to insufficient encapsulation of the blowing agent; in addition, we were surprised to find that higher densification also has an adverse effect on peak expansion, most likely due to the elimination of nucleation centers or the effect of entrapped compressed air. Precursor microstructures were analyzed to identify the mechanisms leading to the observed density dependence of expansion.     

Reversibly erasable nanoporous anti-reflection coatings from polyelectrolyte multilayers

For nearly two centuries, researchers have sought novel methods to increase light transmission in optical systems, as well as to eliminate unwanted reflections and glare. Anti-reflection coatings and surfaces have enabled the increasing performance demands of optical components fabricated from glass-based optical materials. With the current trend of technology moving towards optically transparent polymeric media and coatings, the need for anti-reflection technology and environmentally benign processing methods for polymeric materials independent of shape or size has become quite apparent. We describe an economical, aqueous-based process controlled at the molecular level that simultaneously coats all surfaces of almost any material. Systematically designed nanoporous polymer films are used, which are suitable for optical applications operating at both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. These high-efficiency anti-reflection coatings are created from phase-separated polyelectrolyte multilayer films that undergo a reversible pH-induced swelling transition. Furthermore, such films, easily patterned by an inkjet printing technique, possess potential for pH-responsive biomaterial and membrane applications.     

Prior knowledge activation: Inducing engagement with informational texts.

Failure to engage with informational texts is a problem frequently noted at the high school level, at which students are expected to read independently. As a means of addressing this issue, a prior knowledge activation strategy (PKA) was taught to ninth-grade students in which they were encouraged to make spontaneous connections between their personal knowledge and informational texts. Students who learned to use the PKA strategy consistently outperformed students in a main idea (MI) treatment group and those in a no-instruction control group on application-level comprehension questions but not literal-level questions. A second study replicated the operations of the first study, with the addition of an MI-PKA treatment designed to combine both strategies. Both the PKA and the MI-PKA combination groups performed higher on application-level comprehension questions and demonstrated more positive attitudes toward reading than the other groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Untersuchungen zur Resistenz von Edelmetall-Dentallegierungen

A study of the dealloying resistance of noble metal dental alloys. In connection with the development of low gold dental alloys the corrosion resistance of homogeneous gold-palladium-silver-experimental alloys was investigated in a chloride solution. Analogous measurements were made with several noble metal containing intermetallic phases which may be present in dental alloys of more complex composition. The results indicate a high corrosion resistance of the homogeneous gold-palladium-silver-alloys, since their free corrosion potentials are always situated within a region of their anodic polarization curves, where the current density of metal dissolution is extremely low. Within the composition limits of these alloys the substitution of gold by palladium did not reduce the extension of this “region of immunity” in a significant way. Intermetallic phases, however, as present in the systems silver-tin, silver-palladium-tin and silver-palladium-indium show a clearly restricted “region of immunity” and, at the free corrosion potential, are dissolved at a relatively high rate.     

Multiparameter microscopy and spectroscopy for single-molecule analytics

The ability to monitor several parameters simultaneously from distinct individual fluorescent reporter molecules facilitates the disentanglement of complex and interacting systems and opens new perspectives in areas from basic science to biopharmaceutical technology. By combining annular illumination microscopy, time-correlated single-photon counting, and multichannel detection, we were able to determine 14 independent parameters from one individual fluorophore. The whole set of parameters was deduced from the few properties of the fluorescence photons, i.e., arrival time, wavelength, and polarization. With this approach, the intensity, the polarization, and the spectral dynamics can be analyzed on a nanosecond time scale and the mean values can be monitored with submillisecond time resolution. Nanosecond spectral dynamics of single molecules has been observed, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time. From our experience, we can determine all parameters for more than 30% of the illuminated fluorophores in biological samples and for more than 80% in doped polymeric films.     

ILC beam energy measurement based on synchrotron radiation from a magnetic spectrometer

We propose to measure, on a bunch-to-bunch basis, the beam energy at the International Linear e⁺e^- Collider by recording synchrotron radiation (SR) light emitted in the magnets of an energy spectrometer based on beam position monitors. Measuring the width of the horizontal SR fan permits to determine the relative beam energy with a precision better than 10^-4. There are two different measuring schemes possible. The first one is based on edge measurements of the direct SR fan, while the second option includes mirrors to deflect soft SR light to detectors located sufficiently off the beamline. Three possibilities for high-spatial resolution detectors are considered: a standard silicon strip detector, a novel-type Si detector and a gas amplification detector, both with exceptional position resolution. The main issue of the first scheme is the high radiation dose expected in the direct SR fan. If mirrors are used this dose is strongly reduced and allows application of any of the three detectors proposed.