Various industrial activities release heavy metal ions into the environment, which represent one of the major toxic pollutants owing to their severe effects on the environment, humans, and all living species. Despite several technological advances and breakthroughs, wastewater treatment remains a critical global issue. Traditional techniques are dedicated to extracting heavy metal ions from diverse wastewater origins, encompassing coagulation/flocculation, precipitation, flotation, and ion exchange. Their cost, side toxicity, or ineffectiveness often limit their large-scale use. Due to their adaptable design, simple operation, and reasonable cost, membrane filtration and adsorption have proven their efficiency in removing metals from wastewater. Recently, adsorption-based filters have appeared promising in treating water. Within this range, filters incorporating natural, synthetic, or hybrid adsorbents present an appealing alternative to conventional approaches. This review aims to list and describe the conventional and advanced wastewater treatment methods by comparing their efficiency, cost, and environmental impact. Adsorption-based filters were highlighted due to the significant advantages they can provide.
The field of molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP)-based chemosensors has been experiencing constant growth for several decades. Since the beginning, their continuous development has been driven by the need for simple devices with optimum selectivity for the detection of various compounds in fields such as medical diagnosis, environmental and industrial monitoring, food and toxicological analysis, and, more recently, the detection of traces of explosives or their precursors. This review presents an overview of the main research efforts made so far for the development of MIP-based chemosensors, critically discusses the pros and cons, and gives perspectives for further developments in this field.
The invertebrate model, Galleria mellonella, has been widely used to study host–pathogen interactions due to its cheapness, ease of handling, and similar mammalian innate immune system. G. mellonella larvae have been proven to be useful and a reliable model for analyzing pathogenesis mechanisms of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, an opportunistic pathogen difficult to kill. This review describes the detailed experimental design of G. mellonella/A. baumannii models, and provides a comprehensive comparison of various virulence factors and therapy strategies using the G. mellonella host. These investigations highlight the importance of this host–pathogen model for in vivo pathogen virulence studies. On the long term, further development of the G. mellonella/A. baumannii model will offer promising insights for clinical treatments of A. baumannii infection.
Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) causes severe and often fatal healthcare-associated infections due partly to antibiotic resistance. There are no studies on A. baumannii lipidomics of susceptible and resistant strains grown at lethal and sublethal concentrations. Therefore, we analyzed the impact of colistin resistance on glycerolipids’ content by using untargeted lipidomics on clinical isolate. Nine lipid sub-classes were annotated, including phosphatidylcholine, rarely detected in the bacterial membrane among 130 different lipid species. The other lipid sub-classes detected are phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), lysophosphatidylethanolamine, hemibismonoacylglycerophosphate, cardiolipin, monolysocardiolipin, diacylglycerol, and triacylglycerol. Under lethal and sublethal concentrations of colistin, significant reduction of PE was observed on the resistant and susceptible strain, respectively. Palmitic acid percentage was higher at colistin at low concentration but only for the susceptible strain. When looking at individual lipid species, the most abundant PE and PG species (PE 34:1 and PG 34:1) are significantly upregulated when the susceptible and the resistant strains are cultivated with colistin. This is, to date, the most exhaustive lipidomics data compilation of A. baumannii cultivated in the presence of colistin. This work is highlighting the plasma membrane plasticity used by this gram-negative bacterium to survive colistin treatment.
1 August 2023 in Current Developmental Disorders Reports
Background: The main traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are difficulties in social communication and interactions. Autism is frequently related to motor impairments. In the last decades, to develop and promote the social and motor skills of autistic people, several sports training programmes have been designed. In the present systematic narrative review, we aimed at providing an overview of studies evaluating the effectiveness of these sports training programmes to synthesize their strengths and weaknesses. Method: To formulate the eligibility criteria for the systematic review, the PICO protocol was used. The PRISMA protocol was applied to four databases for the search strategy. 30 papers were reviewed, and their main features were tabulated and critically discussed. Results: Findings highlighted that 8 types of sports were applied to autistic individuals and that the majority of them were focused on two individual sports (i.e., swimming and horseback riding). In sum, findings revealed that sports training programmes provided positive benefits both on motor/social skills as well as on autistic traits (e.g., repetitive behaviours) and individual functioning. The narrative synthesis revealed also that future studies should enroll more autistic females and preschoolers. To encourage the social inclusion of autistic individuals, a group of typically developing peers should be involved in future sports training programmes. Discussion: In conclusion, professionals trained on autistic traits and knowledgeable in the target sport are required; consultations with the autistic community as guidance for designing novel sports training programmes are recommended.
Owing to its imidazole side chain, histidine participates in various processes such as enzyme catalysis, pH regulation, metal binding, and phosphorylation. The determination of exchange rates of labile protons for such a system is important for understanding its functions. However, these rates are too fast to be measured directly in an aqueous solution by using NMR spectroscopy. We have obtained the exchange rates of the NH3+ amino protons and the labile NHε2 and NHδ1 protons of the imidazole ring by indirect detection through nitrogen‐15 as a function of temperature (272 K<T<293 K) and pH (1.3<pH<4.9) of uniformly nitrogen‐15‐ and carbon‐13‐labeled L‐histidine⋅HCl⋅H2O. Exchange rates up to 8.5×104 s−1 could be determined (i.e., lifetimes as short as 12 μs). The three chemical shifts δHi of the invisible exchanging protons Hi and the three one‐bond scalar coupling constants 1J(N,Hi) could also be determined accurately.