7 research outputs found
Fenton Reaction–Unique but Still Mysterious
No full textThis study is devoted to the Fenton reaction, which, despite hundreds of reports in a number of scientific journals, provides opportunities for further investigation of its use as a method of advanced oxidation of organic macro- and micropollutants in its diverse variations and hybrid systems. It transpires that, for example, the choice of the concentrations and ratios of basic chemical substances, i.e., hydrogen peroxide and catalysts based on the Fe2+ ion or other transition metals in homogeneous and heterogeneous arrangements for reactions with various pollutants, is for now the result of the experimental determination of rather randomly selected quantities, requiring further optimizations. The research to date also shows the indispensability of the Fenton reaction related to environmental issues, as it represents the pillar of all advanced oxidation processes, regarding the idea of oxidative hydroxide radicals. This study tries to summarize not only the current knowledge of the Fenton process and identify its advantages, but also the problems that need to be solved. Based on these findings, we identified the necessary steps affecting its further development that need to be resolved and should be the focus of further research related to the Fenton process
State resilience in post-Arab Spring setting
No full textDie Anfangsphase dieser Forschungsarbeit führte darauf hin, dass die einzigen Staaten, die relativ in der Lage wären, die Sicherheit und Stabilität in der Region Mittlerer Osten und Nordafrika bewahren zu können, Tunesien und Marokko seien. Jedoch blieb keiner der beiden von den jüngsten Veränderungen unbeeinflusst. Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit ist es, herauszufinden und zu beschreiben wie stabil der tunesische Staat ist: entgegen hauptsächlich interne, aber zu einem bestimmten Grade auch externe destabilisierenden Faktoren. Die Forschungsbasis für diese Arbeit ist das Konzept der Politischen Settlements.
Zuerst werden die für die Politischen Settlements am meisten relevanten Akteure und Interessensgruppen der Gesellschaft bestimmt, dann wird individuell auf ihre Interessen eingegangen. Dazu gehören sowohl formale Institutionen, staatliche Einrichtungen und ihre besonderen Einheiten, als auch omnigesellschaftliche Organisationen, das Interesse der Privatwirtschaft, elitäre Gruppen, die die Stabilität des Politischen Settlements gefährden usw. Als Ausgangspunkt für die Analyse dient Parks und Coles Charakterisierung von Politischen Settlements, die auf vier Elementen basiert: Akteure, Macht, Interessen, Institutionen. Da der Konflikt und die daraus folgenden Veränderungen in der Region Nordafrika fortlaufend sind, sind Primärressourcen karg oder gänzlich nicht verfügbar. Nichtsdestotrotz befasst sich der Autor mit Thinktank-Analysen, Indexen und nationalen, regionalen und ausländischen Medienperspektiven um die Grundzüge der Politischen Settlements festzulegen.
Das System des Landes hat einen Punkt erreicht, an dem politische Parteien zwar wesentliche Träger des politischen Willens und der Prozesse sind, aber dabei nicht die einzigen sind. Der innere Einflussbereich hat Seite an Seite sowohl formale als auch informale Eliten entwickelt. Wie man der Forschungsarbeit entnehmen kann, zeigen die meisten Indikatoren schwerwiegende Bedenken gegenüber der Stabilität des Settlements auf. Diejenigen Indikatoren, die positive Aussichten aufzeigen, sind eher institutionellen Charakters und bleiben leider oft nur in Debatten und auf dem Papier bestehen.As it seemed in the initial stage of this research, the only countries, relatively capable of being the security and stability “guardians” of the Middle East and North African region could be Tunisia and Morocco. Yet, neither of them remained unaffected by the recent changes. The main goal of this work is to identify and describe the degree of resilience of Tunisian state: against mainly internal but to some degree also external destabilizing factors.
This thesis will research the topic based on the concept of political settlements. It will identify the core political settlement relevant actors and factions of society, then separately look at their interests. These encompass both formal institutions, state agencies and their special engagements, as well as omni-societal organizations, private sector interests, elite groups threatening the stability of the political settlement and so on. Parks and Cole, who represent a starting point for the analysis, characterize political settlements based on four elements: actors, power, interests, and institutions. The conflict and connected changes in the North African region are ongoing, primary sources might be therefore scarce or fairly unavailable. Nevertheless, the author will look into think-tanks’ analyses, indexes, and national, regional and foreign media perspectives to map the political settlements' outlines.
The country’s system reached a point where political parties are a major, although not the only, carrier of political will and process. The inner circle of influence has developed hand in hand with of both formal and informal elites, rather than exclusively amongst one of these. As one can see from the research, majority of the indicators show severe concerns over the resilience of the settlement. Those that show positive outlooks are rather of an institutional than informal character and, unfortunately, often remain only on paper
A Comparative LCA of Aeroponic, Hydroponic, and Soil Cultivations of Bioactive Substance Producing Plants
No full textSustainable agriculture is currently trendy. It is supported not only for the urban environment but also as an innovation of conventional practices in order to increase the efficiency and quality of agricultural production. This study presents the results achieved within selected soil-less (hydroponic and aeroponic) systems. Then, it compares them, using the tool of comparative life cycle assessment (LCA), with the results of soil cultivation. The attention is directed towards biomass production and the content of bioactive substances, which can compensate for higher operating costs of soil-less cultivation systems. Coffea arabica has shown a significant increase of caffeine and theobromine contents, both in leaves and roots, as well as higher biomass yield during the aeroponic cultivation. On the contrary, Senecio bicolor evinced the results of a considerably increased growth in the hydroponic system, with no higher contents of alkaloid or flavonoids, except for the rutin concentration. The LCA results of the compared soil and soil-less systems showed that the consumption of fertilizers, diesel, and water in soil systems and of conventional electricity in aeroponics and hydroponics contributed mostly to their environmental burden. The major environmental impact categories are terrestrial ecotoxicity, human non-carcinogenic toxicity, and global warming. Therefore, in order to make the soil-less cultivation systems sustainable, these environmental aspects need to be considered deeply
Toxicity Assessment and Treatment Options of Diclofenac and Triclosan Dissolved in Water
No full textThe presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products in water is increasing tremendously nowadays. Typical representatives are diclofenac (DCF) and triclosan (TCS). Acute toxicity of these substances was experimentally assessed using the freshwater algae Raphidocelis subcapitata (living, immobilized). The IC(50) achieved for R. subcapitata was 177.7–189.1 mg·L(−1) for DCF and 5.4–17.2 µg·L(−1) for TCS, whereas, regarding DCF, the results corresponded to the values observed by other authors. Concerning TCS, the results were lower than predicted and indicated TCSs’ higher toxicity. The immobilized R. subcapitata showed comparable results with its living culture for DCF only. Regarding K(2)Cr(2)O(7) and TCS, the immobilized alga was more sensitive. The DCF and TCF removal from water was tested by sorption, photocatalytic and photolytic processes. TiO(2) was used as a photocatalyst. Norit and SuperSorbon were used as sorbents based on activated charcoal. The DCF decomposition achieved by both photo-processes was very fast. The starting concentration fell below the detection limit in less than one minute, while bioluminescence on Aliivibrio fischeri showed no toxic intermediates formed only in the case of photocatalysis. DCF and TCS removals by sorption were significantly faster on Norit than SuperSorbon, while the bioluminescence inhibition remained insignificant
An Innovative Sorption Technology for Removing Microplastics from Wastewater
No full textThis study is focused on technology development for microplastic removal from wastewater using a sorption process, which would be suitable not only as a tertiary stage of purification in wastewater treatment plants but also for other waters, e.g., process water and surface water. Therefore, cheap natural materials such as zeolites and bentonites were tested as possible sorbents. This study aims not only at sorbent selection but also at their possible modification by a special water regime improving sorption efficiency and lifetime. Microplastic particles of the majority of common types of plastics were prepared by a newly developed abrasion technique from various plastic items used at home, thus microplastic particle sizes and shapes corresponded to the real microplastics found in waters. Based on results with high reproducibility, a novel method for microplastic characterization based on Raman spectroscopy in combination with SEM/EDX was developed. The removal of microplastics from waste water was tested not only at the laboratory scale but also in a developed semi-operational sorption unit at a real wastewater treatment plant throughout the year with the efficiency of over 90%
Author's personal copy The problems of proteinuria measurement in urine with presence of Bence Jones protein
No full texta b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Design and methods: The laboratories received a reference urine sample obtained from a patient with multiple myeloma and lambda free light chain proteinuria and were asked to type the paraprotein using immunofixation and to measure total urinary protein using their established method, most commonly turbidimetry, pyrogallol red assay, and biuret assay. Results: There was a very wide inter-laboratory variability in the protein concentration readouts with up to three-fold difference in some cases. High-resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis and linear mass spectrometry showed that a high proportion of the urinary paraprotein was composed of lambda light chain fragments with molecular weight of 12 kDa. Conclusions: Our results highlight the challenges of reliable and reproducible measurement of urinary protein concentration in the presence of Bence Jones protein
Prognosis, disease progression, and treatment of atrial fibrillation patients during 1 year: Follow-up of the Euro Heart Survey on Atrial Fibrillation
No full textAims: To gain insight in the prognosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients during 1-year follow-up in the Euro Heart Survey (EHS) on AF. Methods and results: The EHS enrolled 5333 AF patients in 2003-2004. One-year follow-up data were available for 80%. Of first detected AF patients, 46% did not have a recurrence during 1 year, paroxysmal AF largely remained paroxysmal AF (80%), and 30% of persistent AF progressed to permanent AF. Many treatment changes occurred since baseline. Oral anticoagulation was started in 19% and discontinued in 16% of all patients. Of patients initially on rhythm control 27% did not receive rhythm control during follow-up, whereas 15% of patients initially on rate control received rhythm control. Mortality was highest in permanent AF (8.2%), but also substantial in first detected AF (5.7%). In multivariable analysis, sinus rhythm at baseline was associated with lower mortality, but no significant effect was observed regarding the application of either rhythm or rate control. Conclusion: The EHS on AF provides unique prospective observational data on AF progression, long-term treatment, prognosis, and determinants of adverse outcome of the total clinical spectrum of AF in a European cardiology-based patient cohort. © The Author 2008
