419 research outputs found
Review of Greta Olson’s From Law and Literature to Legality and Affect Followed By a Question and Answer Exchange with Greta Olson
No full textThe first section contains a review of Greta Olson's From Law and Literature to Legality and Affect, and the second section is a question and answer exchange with the author
Review of Greta Olson’s From Law and Literature to Legality and Affect Followed By a Question and Answer Exchange with Greta Olson
No full textThe first section contains a review of Greta Olson's From Law and Literature to Legality and Affect, and the second section is a question and answer exchange with the author
Greta Pratt, 35th Annual ODU Literary Festival
No full textGreta Pratt is the author of two books, Using History and In Search of the Corn Queen. Pratt’s works are represented in major public and private collections, including The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Photography and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Pratt was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and worked as photography bureau chief of Reuters International in New York City. Her photographs have been featured in The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. Pratt is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at Old Dominion University
Greta Bayer Family Collection 1888-1961
No full textThis collection contains certificates, vital documents, letters of recommendation, military documents, emigration documents, and photographs related to Greta Bayer's father, Friedrich Stux (born 1888), and her stepfather, Wilhelm Freud (1887-1966).A German language, Jewish prayer book has been removed to the LBI Library. It is dedicated by its anonymous female author (Verfasserin) and the book’s publisher to Louise von Rothschild, wife of Mr. A. Carl von Rothschild in Frankfurt am Main.A tablecloth, allegedly woven in honor of Francis' I. coronation in 1804, showing faintly the skyline of Vienna with a profile of Francis I. has been removed to the LBI Art and Objects Collection.Greta Bayer's stepfather, Wilhelm Freud was born 1887 in Vienna, Austria, the son of Carl Freud and Fanny née Kohn. He was a lieutenant in the Imperial Austrian army, and later the director of sales for the Berlin oil company "Olex" (Deutsche Benzin und Petroleum GmbH). He immigrated to the US in 1940 via Belgium and Great Britain and died 1966 in Florida.Friedrich Stux was an attorney in Czechoslovakia, born in Vienna in 1888 to Leopold Stux and Theresia (Rösi) née Löb. In 1939, he emigrated to Great Britain, where he died. He was married to Anna née Tobias (1892, Vienna - 1968, California), and their daughter was Greta Bayer.Processeddigitize
Magic extraction: solid-phase extraction and analytical pyrolysis to study polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and polychlorinated biphenyls in freshwater
No full textPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls are commonly categorized as persistent organic pollutants. In order to analyze these pollutants, customized stationary phases are increasingly being developed and synthesized for solid-phase extraction. In this work, we tested a new solventless solid-phase extraction approach based on the use of a Magic Chemisorber® (Frontier Lab) which consists of a bead-covered polydimethylsiloxane stationary phase with a thickness of 500 µm. These devices are directly immersed into aqueous samples and then introduced into a pyrolysis–gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system equipped with a cryofocusing system for the thermal desorption and analysis of the adsorbed species. Our new method performs better than the most recent solid-phase extraction devices, with limits of detection lower than 2.7 ng/L and limits of quantification lower than 9.0 ng/L. The method was tested on standard compounds and on an environmental sample, showing the potential to characterize other chemical species besides the persistent organic pollutants, such as phthalate plasticizers and antioxidants. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-022-22435-9
Characterization and quantification of microplastics and organic pollutants in mussels by microwave-assisted sample preparation and analytical pyrolysis
No full textSampling, separation, detection, and characterization of micro- and nanoplastic pollutants is a critical goal to assess their amount, fate, and the related hazards for ecosystems. There is still a major lack of understanding of the most relevant mechanisms of interaction and exchange of this class of pollutants with the environment and with organisms. In the last few years a number of studies highlighted the importance of the evaluation of the chemical species associated with the presence of microplastics in the environment, such as plasticizers, low-molecular weight degradation products, and different kinds of organic contaminants. In this work we combined microwave-assisted extraction and digestion, together with analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS), to quantify microplastics together with different classes of associated pollutants. This method was developed using mussels as a matrix and it can be potentially applied to characterize and quantify, together with microplastics, polymer additives (phthalate plasticizers, UV stabilizers, etc.), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and emerging contaminants like anti-inflammatory drugs. This method allowed the quantification of more than 40 different contaminants in a single chromatographic run, with recoveries higher that 87% in most cases and limits of detection/quantitation in the nanogram range. The method was also tested on a standard microplastic calibration mixture containing 11 different polymers, and recoveries higher than 84% were obtained in most cases.We developed a method to isolate and quantify various classes of both non-polymeric contaminants and polymers from mussel flour using microwave-assisted extraction/digestion and analytical pyrolysis-GC-MS
A pyrolysis approach for characterizing and assessing degradation of polyurethane foam in cultural heritage objects
No full textSpecific analytical tools are needed to investigate the composition and degradation processes of the synthetic materials in the cultural heritage, and recent advancements in pyrolysis-based analytical techniques have great potential for the characterisation of synthetic polymers. We applied evolved gas analysis mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) and double shot pyrolysis coupled with chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to investigate polyurethane foam micro-samples from the Italian pop-art sculpture “Contenitoreumano n.1” (1968) by Ico Parisi (1916–1996) and Francesco Somaini (1926–2005). The chemical analysis aimed to assess the chemical composition and of the state of preservation of the PU foam by acquiring information on its thermal degradation behaviour and identifying the pyrolysis products produced at different temperatures. A preliminary ATR-FTIR analysis was also carried out. The multi-analytical approach enabled us to identify the isocyanate and polyol precursors as 2,6-toluenediisocyanate and polypropylene glycol, respectively. The plasticizers used in the production of the PU foam were also identified in the first shot of a double shot Py-GC/MS experiment. A comparison of a sample of better preserved foam with a sample of degraded foam from the surface of the object highlighted that the more degraded part of the PU foam featured an increase in the thermal degradation temperature of the soft-fragments of the PU network, related to cross-linking phenomena. Moreover, loss of plasticizers and formation of NH2 functional groups was observed in the degraded foam
A Systematic Study on the Degradation Products Generated from Artificially Aged Microplastics
No full textMost of the analytical studies focused on microplastics (MPs) are based on the detection
and identification of the polymers constituting the particles. On the other hand, plastic debris in the
environment undergoes chemical and physical degradation processes leading not only to
mechanical but also to molecular fragmentation quickly resulting in the formation of leachable,
soluble and/or volatile degradation products that are released in the environment. We performed
the analysis of reference MPs–polymer micropowders obtained by grinding a set of five polymer
types down to final size in the 857–509 μm range, namely high‐ and low‐density polyethylene,
polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The reference MPs
were artificially aged in a solar‐box to investigate their degradation processes by characterizing the
aged (photo‐oxidized) MPs and their low molecular weight and/or highly oxidized fraction. For this
purpose, the artificially aged MPs were subjected to extraction in polar organic solvents, targeting
selective recovery of the low molecular weight fractions generated during the artificial aging.
Analysis of the extractable fractions and of the residues was carried out by a multi‐technique
approach combining evolved gas analysis–mass spectrometry (EGA–MS), pyrolysis–gas
chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py–GC–MS), and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The
results provided information on the degradation products formed during accelerated aging. Up to
18 wt% of extractable, low molecular weight fraction was recovered from the photo‐aged MPs,
depending on the polymer type. The photo‐degradation products of polyolefins (PE and PP)
included a wide range of long chain alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and hydroxy
acids, as detected in the soluble fractions of aged samples. SEC analyses also showed a marked
decrease in the average molecular weight of PP polymer chains, whereas cross‐linking was
observed in the case of PS. The most abundant low molecular weight photo‐degradation products
of PS were benzoic acid and 1,4‐benzenedicarboxylic acid, while PET had the highest stability
towards aging, as indicated by the modest generation of low molecular weight species
Leached degradation products from beached microplastics: A potential threat to coastal dune plants
No full textPlants play a fundamental role in maintaining coastal dunes but also accumulate littered microplastics (MPs). Migration tests suggest that naturally weathered MPs can leach out a broader range of potentially phytotoxic chemicals than virgin MPs. Thus, assessing MPs effects on plants using beached-collected particles rather than virgin ones is critically important. Here, the effects on plants of leachates from two pools of beach-collected and virgin MPs, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP), and their mixture, were explored combining toxicity tests and chemical analyses. Phytotoxicity of MP leachates at different dilutions was evaluated under standard laboratory conditions using test species and under environmentally realistic conditions using the dune species Thinopyrum junceum. Leachates from beached PP and HDPE adversely affected all species, and the extent of these effects varied according to polymer type, concentration, and species. Virgin MPs had weaker effects than beached ones. Several potentially phytotoxic oxidized compounds were detected in water by GC/MS analysis, and their amount estimated. Results indicate that the molecular species leaching from beached MPs - at ppm concentration levels for the individual chemical species - can inhibit plant growth, and the effects of leachates from mixtures of degraded MPs can differ from those from individual polymers, highlighting the need for further investigation of MPs consequences for coastal ecosystems
Microplastic pollution in the sediments of interconnected lakebed, seabed, and seashore aquatic environments: polymer-specific total mass through the multianalytical “PISA” procedure
No full textThe total mass of individual synthetic polymers present as microplastic (MP < 2 mm) pollutants in the sediments of interconnected aquatic environments was determined adopting the Polymer Identification and Specific Analysis (PISA) procedure.
The investigated area includes a coastal lakebed (Massaciuccoli), a coastal seabed (Serchio River estuarine), and a sandy beach (Lecciona), all within a natural park area in Tuscany (Italy). Polyolefins, poly(styrene) (PS), poly(vinyl chloride)
(PVC), polycarbonate (PC), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and the polyamides poly(caprolactame) (Nylon 6) and
poly(hexamethylene adipamide) (Nylon 6,6) were fractionated and quantified through a sequence of selective solvent extractions
followed by either analytical pyrolysis or reversed-phase HPLC analysis of the products of hydrolytic depolymerizations
under acidic and alkaline conditions. The highest concentrations of polyolefins (highly degraded, up to 864 μg/kg of dry
sediment) and PS (up to 1138 μg/kg) MPs were found in the beach dune sector, where larger plastic debris are not removed
by the cyclic swash action and are thus prone to further aging and fragmentation. Surprisingly, low concentrations of less
degraded polyolefins (around 30 μg/kg) were found throughout the transect zones of the beach. Positive correlation was
found between polar polymers (PVC, PC) and phthalates, most likely absorbed from polluted environments. PET and nylons
above their respective LOQ values were found in the lakebed and estuarine seabed hot spots. The pollution levels suggest a
significant contribution from riverine and canalized surface waters collecting urban (treated) wastewaters and waters from Serchio River and the much larger Arno River aquifers, characterized by a high anthropogenic pressur
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