1,721,045 research outputs found
Proposing Chitosan/Snail Slime Blended Films As Sustainable Functional Masks/Patches for Cosmetics and Biomedical Applications
No full textenvironmental impact is needed worldwide in different fields, particularly in cosmetics and biomedicine. For this purpose, our research focused the attention on realizing Chitosan-based films blended with Snail Slime to develop facial beauty masks or functional patches for potential cosmetics and biomedical applications. After preliminarily investigating their morphology, a physical and chemical characterization was also performed by attaining SEM, UV-Vis, ATR-FTIR, profilometer analyses, and Water Vapor Transmission Rate measurements, evidencing a quite uniform distribution of the snail mucus inside the chitosan films. As a result, compacted and strongly cross-linked structures were observed. XRD analyses demonstrated their amorphous nature. For assessing their stability in water medium, the swelling measurements were acquired, showing the effect of pH, ionic strength, and temperature. The antioxidant features were finally investigated by means of the ABTS assay, resulting in a boosted activity when the snail slime added amount was increased, occurring to be as dose dependent. [1] For further confirming these findings, the oxidation of a sulphur nucleoside, the 4-thiotymidine, was monitored overtime; as a result, its H2O2-induced degradation was prevented when increasing the Snail Slime amount. Work is in progress for testing in-vitro Chitosan-based blended films’ antioxidant, as well as anti-inflammatory properties, with the aim also to assess their potential effect on improving wound healing, thanks to the snail slime components content. [1, 2] Furthermore, Chitosan/Snail Slime blended films’ sunscreen, moisturizing, and skin-lightening properties will be explored, for making them suitable also as potential cosmetic multifunctional formulations. [3
Food Wastes As Adsorbent Materials for Water Decontamination: The Use of Kiwi Peels To Remove Emerging Pollutants and Textile Dyes
No full textThe high rate of resource consumption and large amounts of produced wastes have been reported to drive towards an
ecological collapse. Interestingly, a circular economy approach could reduce this environmental concern avoiding the waste
management, and all outputs (products, by-products, wastes) would become inputs (material and energy) to other processes.
When the model is based on the production of renewable biological resources, and these resources are converted into value added products, the concept of bio-circular economy take place. [1,2] It means to develop an economy plan based on the
production from biological resources with a sustainable transformation of wastes, offering alternatives to their dumping,
burning, composting etc. About this purpose, the use of fruit Peels as food/agricultural wastes have attained interest, as
adsorbent materials for water purification, avoiding their disposal according to the principles of Green Chemistry and
Sustainable Development.[3] For this purpose, this work proposes, among wastes, the use of Kiwi Peels to remove emerging
pollutants (not regulated substances that could affect both human health, and the whole environment, causing severe
problems [1,2]) and textile dyes from water. Indeed, among the explored wastes, Kiwi Peels removed the largest number of
contaminants. Kiwi Peels were characterized by adopting in synergy FTIR-ATR, TG and SEM analyses, before and after
their use, and as result they are proposed as recyclable adsorbent. To infer information about the behaviour of Kiwi Peels
during water treatments, model contaminants were selected and investigated (Ciprofloxacin, CIP, and Direct Blue 78, DB);
so, the role of several parameters affecting the process was assessed. The thermodynamic, the adsorption isotherms and
kinetics were also studied. Finally, to extend the lifetime of Kiwi Peels, desorption experiments were carried out by using
hot water or salt solutions. 10 cycles of adsorption/desorption were studied, evidencing the recycling of both pollutants and
Kiwi Peels (Figure 1). Moreover, another aspect investigated in this work regards the possibility of using Advance Oxidation
Processes (AOPs) to induce the pollutants solid-state photodegradation as an alternative approach for adsorbent regeneration.
Also, in this case, FTIR-ATR, SEM, and TG analyses were used in synergy for investigating the adsorbent features after the
AOPs’ application. If, on the one hand, the SEM and FTIR-ATR results revealed the absence of important post-treatment
changes, on the other hand, the TGA suggested some modifications. Finally, mixtures of pollutants were also studied and in
the case of dyes, dyeing experiments were also performed, evidencing the dye ability to colour cotton fibers after the colour
recycling (Figure 2). Particularly, the experiments of dyeing were executed during the Kiwi Peels desorption in hot water at
323 K, without further additive
Methotrexate in the treatment of systemic glucocorticoid-dependent severe persistent asthma: a word of caution.
No full textMethotrexate should not be prescribed to every systemic glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatic. In fact, while methotrexate may be advantageous in selected patients, every attempt to control asthma with regular anti-asthma agents should be made. Most studies on the effects of methotrexate in the treatment of systemic glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatics include small numbers of patients and are all of relatively short duration. Thus, large long-term multicentre trials are urgently needed. In these studies, a uniform accepted definition of systemic glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatics should be used. For the time being, we reinforce the recommendation of the NHLBI/ WHO panel that methotrexate and other systemic glucocorticoid sparing drugs should be considered experimental medications, and used only in selected patients under the supervision of an asthma specialist with previous experimental experience
Plasma Deposited Electrocatalytic Films with Controlled Content of Pt Nanoclusters
No full textCombining platinum sputtering with plasma polymerization in argon-ethylene plasmas, nanocomposite Pt-hydrocarbon thin films, useful as catalytic layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cells, can be deposited. Pulsing the ethylene flow rate allowed for a fine tuning of the Pt amount in deposited films at low RF input power. The proposed deposition process seems to be an efficient strategy to control the metal content over a wide range of atomic percentages (5-80%). Deposited films were characterized in terms of their chemical, electrochemical and structural properties. The XPS spectra revealed that platinum is included in the films in metallic state. SEM and TEM analyses showed that nanosized Pt clusters (3-7 nm diameter) are uniformly distributed in a porous columnar film structure. The best electrochemical activity (202 cm 2 · mg Pt-1) was achieved with a 500 nm thick thin film containing 0.56 mg Pt · cm -2 of catalyst. High performance electro-catalytic hydrocarbon thin films containing Pt nano-clusters are deposited combining platinum sputtering with plasma polymerization in Ar-ethylene plasmas. The process originality relies on pulsing the monomer mass flow rate that permits an accurate and reproducible control of the metal content over a wide range of concentrations at low power
Methotrexate in the treatment of systemic glucocorticoid dependent severe persistent astma: a word of caution
No full textMethotrexate should not be prescribed to every systemic glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatic. In fact, while methotrexate may be advantageous in selected patients, every attempt to control asthma with regular anti-asthma agents should be made. Most studies on the effects of methotrexate in the treatment of systemic glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatics include small numbers of patients and are all of relatively short duration. Thus, large long-term multicentre trials are urgently needed. In these studies, a uniform accepted definition of systemic glucocorticoid-dependent asthmatics should be used. For the time being, we reinforce the recommendation of the NHLBI/ WHO panel that methotrexate and other systemic glucocorticoid sparing drugs should be considered experimental medications, and used only in selected patients under the supervision of an asthma specialist with previous experimental experience
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Kiwi peel waste as a recyclable adsorbent to remove textile dyes from water: Direct Blue 78 removal and recovery
No full textAccording to circular bioeconomy principles, the use of kiwi peels to remove Direct Blue 78 (DB) from water is investigated during this work, proposing food waste as a recyclable adsorbent substrate. Direct Blue 78 (DB) was adopted as a model pollutant, employing its visible spectrum to monitor its adsorption. The adsorption process was thus fully characterized, investigating the roles of ionic strength, pH values, adsorbent/pollutant amounts, and temperature. The thermodynamics, kinetics, and adsorption isotherms were also studied. To extend the kiwi peels' lifetime, quite complete desorption was obtained by adopting hot water as a safe and eco-friendly strategy. Despite the relatively low kiwi peels' maximum adsorption capacity (6 mg g-1) for DB when adsorbed in the presence of NaCl, 10 cycles of adsorption/desorption were attempted, proposing the recycling of both the dye and kiwi peels as dictated by circular economy principles. Dyeing experiments were also performed, evidencing the dye's ability to color cotton fabrics after its recycling. Finally, the removal of other textile dyes, Direct Red 83 : 1 and Direct Yellow 86, was demonstrated in a mixture with DB. A preliminary investigation was performed to find the best working conditions for inducing the solid-state dye photodegradation, proposing a possible alternative for the adsorbent regeneration.According to circular bioeconomy principles, the use of kiwi peels to remove Direct Blue 78 (DB) from water is investigated during this work, proposing food waste as a recyclable adsorbent substrate
An interesting environmental friendly cleanup: The excellent potential of olive pomace for disperse blue adsorption/desorption from wastewater
Full text linkThe removal of Disperse Blue 73 from aqueous solutions, using olive pomace as adsorbent material, was investigated in a batch system with respect to contact time, pomace dosage, pH and temperature. SEM, FTIR-ATR, TG and XPS analyses appeared as powerful tools to characterize olive pomace, before and after the adsorption of dye, while UV–Visible analyses were used to quantify the amount of loaded dye on adsorbent material. The pseudo-second order kinetic model well fitted the experimental data and described the kinetic adsorption process. The dye desorption in glacial acetic acid was also obtained with the dye recovery enabling the recycle both of adsorbent material and dye itself. Five consecutive cycles of adsorption and desorption were performed and the absence of any degradation process affecting the dye after the adsorption/desorption cycles was observed. The recorded absorption spectrum, in acetic acid solution, before and after the desorption, confirmed such result. An environmentally friendly and a low cost material is thus presented, showing the excellent olive pomace potential both in disperse blue adsorption (with an efficiency of 100%) and desorption (with a mean value of 80% for each cycle). Additionally, an alternative environmental friendly use of olive oil solid residues is presented
Regenerable Kiwi Peels as an Adsorbent to Remove and Reuse the Emerging Pollutant Propranolol from Water
No full textThis work aims to characterize the adsorption process of propranolol HCl, an emerging
pollutant and a widely used β-blocker, onto kiwi peels, an agricultural waste. The use of UV-vis
spectroscopy was considered to obtain information about the pollutant removal working in the
in-batch mode. In a relatively short time, the adsorption process could remove the pollutant from
water. A kiwi peel maximum adsorption capacity of 2 mg/g was obtained. With the perspective of
scaling up the process, preliminary in-flux measurements were also performed. The investigation
of the whole in-batch adsorption process was conducted by studying the effect of ionic strength
(adopting salt concentrations from 0 to 0.4 M), pH values (from 2 to 12), adsorbent/pollutant amounts
(from 25 to 100 mg and from 7.5 to 15 mg/L, respectively), and temperature values (from 289 to 305 K).
The thermodynamics, the adsorption isotherms, and the kinetics of the adsorption process were also
carefully investigated. The Langmuir model fitted the experimental data well, with an R2 of 0.9912,
restituting KL: 1 L/mg and Q0
: 1.8 mg/g. The temperature increase enhanced the pollutant removal
due to the endothermic adsorption characteristics. Accordingly, a ∆H◦
298K of +70 KJ/mol was
obtained. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model described the process. Due to the results observed
during the study of the effects of pH and ionic strength, the prominent presence of electrostatic
interactions, working in synergy with hydrophobic forces and H-bonds between the pollutant and
kiwi peel surfaces, was successfully demonstrated. In particular, FTIR-ATR measurements confirmed
the latter findings. Finally, desorption experiments for recycling 100% of propranolol for each cycle
were performed using 0.1 M MgCl2.Ten cycles of adsorption/desorption were obtained and indicated
that the percentage of propranolol removal was not affected during each run, increasing the maximum
adsorption from 2 to 20 mg/g
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