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Journal of Environmental Management Oct 2019We systematically investigated the transport mechanisms of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in a fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) membrane process. Four...
We systematically investigated the transport mechanisms of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in a fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) membrane process. Four representative OMPs, i.e., atenolol, atrazine, primidone, and caffeine, were chosen for their different molecular weights and structural characteristics. All the FDFO experiments were conducted with the membrane active layer on the feed solution (FS) side using three different fertilizer draw solutions (DS): potassium chloride (KCl), monoammonium phosphate (MAP), and diammonium phosphate (DAP) due to their different properties (i.e., osmotic pressure, diffusivity, viscosity and solution pH). Using KCl as the DS resulted in both the highest water flux and the highest reverse solute flux (RSF), while MAP and DAP resulted in similar water fluxes with varying RSF. The pH of the FS increased with DAP as the DS due to the reverse diffusion of NH ions from the DS toward the FS, while for MAP and DAP DS, the pH of the FS was not impacted. The OMPs transport behavior (OMPs flux) was evaluated and compared with a simulated OMPs flux obtained via the pore-hindrance transport model to identify the effects of the OMPs structural properties. When MAP was used as DS, the OMPs flux was dominantly influenced by the physicochemical properties (i.e., hydrophobicity and surface charge). Those OMPs with positive charge and more hydrophobic, exhibited higher forward OMP fluxes. With DAP as the DS, the more hydrated FO membrane (caused by increased pH) as well as the enhanced RSF hindered OMPs transport through the FO membrane. With KCl as DS, the structural properties of the OMPs were dominant factors in the OMPs flux, however the higher RSF of the KCl draw solute may likely hamper the OMPs transport through the membrane especially those with higher MW (e.g., atenolol). The pore-hindrance model can be instrumental in understanding the effects of the hydrodynamic properties and the surface properties on the OMPs transport behaviors.
Topics: Fertilizers; Membranes, Artificial; Osmosis; Solutions; Water Purification
PubMed: 31310933
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.07.011 -
Epileptic Disorders : International... Jun 2021To describe the clinical characteristics of cutaneous adverse reactions and cross-sensitivity induced by antiseizure medications and compare the pattern of use of...
OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical characteristics of cutaneous adverse reactions and cross-sensitivity induced by antiseizure medications and compare the pattern of use of antiseizure medications in patients with epilepsy according to skin rash history.
METHODS
We analysed patients with a history of skin rash presenting for up to 12 weeks after initiating antiseizure medication. The history of skin rash was verified by medical charts, interviews, and identification of skin lesions by patients based on illustrative images. The minimum follow-up period was eight months. The control group comprised epilepsy patients with regular antiseizure medication use for at least 12 weeks without skin rash. We included 109 cases and 99 controls.
RESULTS
The median (interquartile range) period from the index rash was six years (2-11). Carbamazepine was the trigger medication in 48% of cases and induced skin rashes in all patients with cross-sensitivity and carbamazepine exposure. Stevens-Johnson syndrome, toxic epidermal necrolysis, or drug reactions with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms affected 36% of cases. Carbamazepine- or oxcarbazepine-induced maculopapular exanthema occurred earlier (median: one week) than that induced by other antiseizure medications (median: three weeks) (p=0.006). Cross-sensitivity was more common in patients with at least one episode of Stevens-Johnson syndrome (29%) and Stevens-Johnson/toxic epidermal necrolysis overlap (50%) than in patients with maculopapular exanthema (8%) (p=0.01). Although most cases were mild, the pattern of antiseizure medication use differed from that of controls, with a lower proportion of antiseizure medication typically associated with severe cutaneous adverse reactions (carbamazepine, phenytoin, phenobarbital, primidone, oxcarbazepine, and lamotrigine) (p<0.001). Most cases exposed to high-risk medication, however, did not develop cross-sensitivity.
SIGNIFICANCE
Cutaneous adverse reaction history may influence antiseizure medication use. Cross-sensitivity is more common in severe cases and most patients are affected by mild, self-limited skin rashes. Further research should consider the relevance of mild skin rashes in lifelong epilepsy treatment.
Topics: Anticonvulsants; Carbamazepine; Epilepsy; Exanthema; Humans; Oxcarbazepine; Stevens-Johnson Syndrome
PubMed: 34080983
DOI: 10.1684/epd.2021.1288 -
The Science of the Total Environment Sep 2019The degradation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) by using solar photolysis in the presence of free available chlorine (FAC) was investigated in...
The degradation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) by using solar photolysis in the presence of free available chlorine (FAC) was investigated in simulated drinking water. The combination of free available chlorine and sunlight irradiation dramatically accelerated the degradation of all the contaminants tested through the generation of hydroxyl radicals, reactive chlorine species (RCS) and ozone. Contaminants containing electron-donating moieties degraded quickly and were preferentially degraded by RCS and/or HO oxidation. Primidone, ibuprofen and atrazine, which contain electron-withdrawing moieties, were mainly degraded by HO. Trace amounts of O contributed greatly to carbamazepine's degradation. Degradation of PPCPs was accelerated in oxygenated solutions. Increasing chlorine concentrations barely enhanced removal of PPCPs bearing electron-withdrawing moieties. Higher pH generally decreased the degradation rate constants along with reduced levels of HO and Cl, but diclofenac, gemfibrozil, caffeine and carbamazepine had peak degradation rate constants at pH 7-8. The cytotoxicity using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell did not show significant enhancement in solar/FAC treated water. Combining chlorination with sunlight may provide a simple and energy-efficient approach for improving the removal of organic contaminants during water treatment.
PubMed: 31129545
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.184 -
Chemosphere Jan 2021Tertiary-treated effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Tucson, AZ, was added to recirculating hydroponic bed bioreactors filled with light expanded...
Tertiary-treated effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Tucson, AZ, was added to recirculating hydroponic bed bioreactors filled with light expanded clay aggregate (LECA) and recirculated for 10 days. Bioreactors were planted with high and low densities of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Bacillus thuringiensis cotton (Gossypium sp.). The experiment also included a non-planted bioreactor treatment and a control bioreactor with neither plants nor substrate medium. Of 46 contaminants of emerging conern assayed with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), 16 were initially identified at detectable levels in the effluent. After one day, concentrations of Ibuprofen and Diphenhydramine fell below detection limits in all treatments as well as the control. After five days, initial concentrations of atenolol, benzotriazole, carbamazepine, hydrochlorothiazide, iohexol, iopamidol iopromide, primidone, sulfamethoxazole and tris TCPP were reduced by greater than 80% in all treatments, while the control exhibited little to no removal. Diclofenac, simazine and sucralose exhibited variable removal rates among treatments ranging from 44 to 84% after five days. After 10 days, concentrations of DEET, diclofenac, iopromide, primidone and simazine were all below detection levels, while there was near zero removal in the control. Bioreactors planted with cotton had significantly more removal of sulfamethoxazole than unplanted bioreactors by 16-19% after five days and by an additional 18-20% removal after 10 days. The percentage uptake of benzotriazole by every planted treatment was significantly higher than the non-planted treatment after five and 10 days. Significant contaminant removal occurred in the media substrate, likely through adsorption to LECA or microbial degradation. More research is needed to examine specific pathways of degradation and removal by various microbials and plants.
Topics: Adsorption; Biodegradation, Environmental; Bioreactors; Hydroponics; Plant Development; Plants; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Wastewater; Water Pollutants, Chemical
PubMed: 33182119
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128121 -
Chemosphere Jul 2020Emerging contaminants, especially, pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are not removed well during conventional wastewater treatment and hence pose water...
Emerging contaminants, especially, pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are not removed well during conventional wastewater treatment and hence pose water quality risk to the environment and potentially to public health. Long-term use of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation can lead to accumulation of trace contaminants in the soil, ground water and their subsequent uptake by plants and potentially can enter human food chain. This paper uses biochar as an adsorbent to remove emerging contaminants from treated wastewater by performing fixed bed experiments. Ten emerging contaminants namely, carbamazepine (CBZ), caffeine, diethyltoluamide (DEET), diphenhydramine (DPH), meprobamate (MPB), primidone (PMD), sulfamethoxazole (SMX), fluoxetine (FXT), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and trimethoprim (TMP) were monitored during lab scale experiments. Results from the continuous flow runs showed that the breakthrough curve for compounds caffeine, CBZ, DEET and PFOA follow second order Thomas model with adsorption capacities of 396 μg g, 392 μg g, 1160 μg g and 32 μg g biochar, respectively. Whereas compounds such as DPH, TMP and FXT were completely removed throughout the column runs by biochar. Results for rest of the compounds were interfered by leaching of these compounds from biochar. It was observed that commercially available GAC performed much better than biochar for all the compounds considered. Even at 1% of obtained capacity, biochar amendment to soils where reclaimed water is used for irrigation can reduce the uptake of these compounds by plants.
Topics: Adsorption; Agricultural Irrigation; Carbamazepine; Charcoal; Cosmetics; Groundwater; Humans; Soil; Soil Pollutants; Sulfamethoxazole; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Wastewater; Water; Water Pollutants, Chemical
PubMed: 32171942
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126403 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Nov 2023The objective of the present report was to develop and validate a simple, selective, and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatography method with UV detection...
The objective of the present report was to develop and validate a simple, selective, and reproducible high-performance liquid chromatography method with UV detection suitable for routine therapeutic drug monitoring of the most commonly used antiepileptic drugs and some of their metabolites. Simple precipitation of plasma proteins with acetonitrile was used for sample preparation. 10,11-dihydrocarbamazepine was used as an internal standard. Chromatographic separation of the analytes was achieved by gradient elution on a Phenyl-Hexyl column at 40 °C, using methanol and potassium phosphate buffer (25 mM; pH 5.1) as a mobile phase. The method was validated according to the FDA guidelines for bioanalytical method validation. It showed to be selective, accurate, precise, and linear over the concentration ranges of 1-50 mg/L for phenobarbital, phenytoin, levetiracetam, rufinamide, zonisamide, and lacosamide; 0.5-50 mg/L for lamotrigine, primidone, carbamazepine and 10-monohydroxycarbazepine; 0.2-10 mg/L for carbamazepine metabolites: 10,11-trans-dihydroxy-10,11-dihydrocarbamazepine and carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide; 0.1-10 mg/L for oxcarbazepine; 2-100 mg/L for felbamate and 3-150 mg/L for ethosuximide. The suitability of the validated method for routine therapeutic drug monitoring was confirmed by quantification of the analytes in plasma samples from patients with epilepsy on combination antiepileptic therapy.
Topics: Humans; Anticonvulsants; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Drug Monitoring; Carbamazepine; Oxcarbazepine
PubMed: 38067559
DOI: 10.3390/molecules28237830 -
Water Research Apr 2020The presence of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) can exert a strong influence on the effectiveness of the UV/chlorine process. This study examined the impact of five DOM...
The presence of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) can exert a strong influence on the effectiveness of the UV/chlorine process. This study examined the impact of five DOM isolates with different characteristics on the degradation kinetics of model contaminant primidone (PM) during UV/chlorine treatment. The formation of Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) from DOM after 15-min UV/chlorine treatment followed by 24 h chlorination was investigated and compared with chlorination alone. The use of chemical probes and radical scavengers revealed that OH and ClO• were the main radical species responsible for the loss of PM at acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. All tested DOM isolates significantly inhibited the decay of PM. A strong negative correlation (>0.93) was observed between the decay rate constants of PM and SUVA of DOM isolates, except for EfOM isolate, which induced the strongest inhibitory effect due to its higher abundance in sulfur-containing functional groups (i.e., sink of OH/Cl radicals). Compared with chlorination, the formation of Adsorbable Organic Chlorine (AOCl) and Trichloromethane (TCM) during the UV/Chlorine process was enhanced and hindered for low SUVA isolates and high SUVA DOM, respectively. However, Dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN) formation was generally lower for all isolates except for Ribou Reservoir DOM at pH 8.4 because of its high reactive nitrogenous DBP precursors at caustic conditions. However, when normalized to the chlorine consumed, the UV/Chlorine process always led to a lower DBPs formation compared with chlorination alone.
Topics: Chlorine; Disinfection; Halogenation; Kinetics; Primidone; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Water Purification
PubMed: 31962269
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.115463 -
The Science of the Total Environment Jul 2022Effluents from ten full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that discharge into the Hudson River, surface waters, and wild-caught fish samples were...
Effluents from ten full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that discharge into the Hudson River, surface waters, and wild-caught fish samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to examine the influence of wastewater discharge on the concentrations of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and their ecological impacts on fish. Analysis was based on targeted detection of 41 pharmaceuticals, and non-targeted analysis (suspect screening) of CECs. Biological effects of treated WWTP effluents were assessed using a larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) swimming behavior assay. Concentrations of residues in surface waters were determined in grab samples and polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS). In addition, vitellogenin peptides, used as biomarkers of endocrine disruption, were quantified using LC/MS/MS in the wild-caught fish plasma samples. Overall, 94 chemical residues were identified, including 63 pharmaceuticals, 10 industrial chemicals, and 21 pesticides. Eight targeted pharmaceuticals were detected in 100% of effluent samples with median detections of: bupropion (194 ng/L), carbamazepine (91 ng/L), ciprofloxacin (190 ng/L), citalopram (172 ng/L), desvenlafaxine (667 ng/L), iopamidol (3790 ng/L), primidone (86 ng/L), and venlafaxine (231 ng/L). Over 30 chemical residues were detected in wild-caught fish tissues. Notably, zebrafish larvae exposed to chemical extracts of effluents from 9 of 10 WWTPs, in at least one season, were significantly hyperactive. Vitellogenin expression in male or immature fish occurred 2.8 times more frequently in fish collected from the Hudson River as compared to a reference site receiving no direct effluent input. Due to the low concentrations of pharmaceuticals detected in effluents, it is likely that chemicals other than pharmaceuticals measured are responsible for the behavioral changes observed. The combined use of POCIS and non-target analysis demonstrated significant increase in the chemical coverage for CEC detection, providing a better insight on the impacts of WWTP effluents and agricultural practices on surface water quality.
Topics: Animals; Environmental Monitoring; Male; Organic Chemicals; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Rivers; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; Vitellogenins; Wastewater; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Zebrafish
PubMed: 35245556
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154176 -
Cerebellum (London, England) Apr 2020Essential tremor (ET) is among the most prevalent neurological disorders and the most common cause of abnormal tremors. It is characterized by postural and action...
Essential tremor (ET) is among the most prevalent neurological disorders and the most common cause of abnormal tremors. It is characterized by postural and action tremors ranging from 4 to 12 Hz. The treatments of choice for ET are propranolol and primidone, but their use is associated with adverse effects like hypotension, depression, and cognitive impairments. Benzodiazepines, which nonselectively enhances the effect of GABA at the GABA α1/2/3/5 receptors, have been shown to be effective in treating ET. Their use, however, is limited due to sedation, ataxia, tolerance development and memory impairment. Sedation and ataxia are attributed to the activity at the α1 subunit while cognitive impairment is ascribed to the action on the α5 subunit of the GABA receptors. It can be hypothesized that subtype selective GABA receptor modulators only acting via the α2, and α3 subunits may have an improved side effect profile while retaining the beneficial effects. Here, we have evaluated the effect of subtype selective GABA α2/3/5 receptor modulators on harmaline-induced tremors in rats. The tremors were automatically quantified in tremor boxes. We show that the GABA α2/3 subtype selective modulator NS16085 significantly and dose-dependently inhibits harmaline-induced tremors in rats, indicating that potentiation of α2- and α3-containing GABA receptors is sufficient to ameliorate harmaline-induced tremors. These results provide the first support for a therapeutic role of a subtype selective GABA α2/3 modulator in the treatment of ET.
Topics: Animals; Benzimidazoles; Central Nervous System Stimulants; Disease Models, Animal; Essential Tremor; GABA Agents; Harmaline; Male; Pyridines; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptors, GABA-A
PubMed: 31989440
DOI: 10.1007/s12311-020-01106-w -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Nov 2019A monitoring study of 71 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in tap water covered all districts of Shanghai. Nineteen PPCPs were detected in all samples,...
A monitoring study of 71 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in tap water covered all districts of Shanghai. Nineteen PPCPs were detected in all samples, and most of them were detected with high concentration. Ten compounds were found with highest concentrations and their detection frequencies were over 80%, included thiamphenicol (101.54 ng/L), florfenicol (84.56 ng/L), valsartan (66.84 ng/L), irbesartan (38.35 ng/L) hydrochlorothiazide (33.13 ng/L), 4-acetaminopyrine (48.16 ng/L), propylparaben (47.50 ng/L), dicyclohexylamine (42.33 ng/L), primidone (32.85 ng/L) and bisphenol A (31.51 ng/L). Only 6 PPCPs were not detected in all samples. Detection frequency of PPCPs was between 50% and 70% in most tap waters, but the total concentration of PPCPs ranged from 71.6 to 361 ng/L. Phenicols was the dominant type with average value of 100 ng/L, accounting for over 50% of most samples, followed by cardiovascular and psychotropic drugs with average value of 26.3 and 12.1 ng/L, respectively. In general, the residues of PPCPs in tap water of suburb were higher than those in central districts. The maximum residues happened in D district with the average concentration of 355 ng/L, followed by J, H and Cb districts with the average concentration of 269, 251 and 215 ng/L. In the same district, the content and distribution of PPCPs in tap waters were similar supplied by different water treatment plants. While those are some differences among tap waters inlet from the same water sources. Individual compound was expected to pose a negligible risk to human health with risk quotients (RQ) less than 1, except primidone which may pose potential risk to infants.
Topics: China; Cities; Cosmetics; Drinking Water; Environmental Monitoring; Humans; Organic Chemicals; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Risk Assessment; Water Pollutants, Chemical
PubMed: 31400719
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.109497