Comparison of the toxicity of waters containing initially sulfaquinoxaline after photocatalytic treatment by TiO2 and polyaniline/TiO2.

This paper addresses the residual toxicity of waters after photocatalysis treatments. The initial waters contain 7 mg L-1 of sulfaquinoxaline (SQX) which is a sulfonamide antibiotic generally recorded inside the water. The contaminated waters are treated by photocatalytic degradation process with bare titania and titania covered with polyaniline (PANI) conducting polymer. The degradation of SQX is conducted at different pH in order to find the optimal condition to obtain SQX concentration relatively equal to zero in the shortest amount of time. This occurs for PANI/TiO2 at pH 12 and TiO2 at pH 4. Toxicity assays (concentration of biomass, pigmentation tests, and cells counting) are undertaken on the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in order to evaluate the residual toxicity of the 2 treated waters. The toxicity results highlight that the water treated by PANI/TiO2 at pH 12 is the less toxic towards the algae cells. The water processed by bare titania at acidic pH displays unneglectable toxicity towards the algae cells which are larger than the toxicity of the original SQX solution.

Prevalence, awareness, treatment, control and risk factors associated with hypertension in Lebanese adults: A cross sectional study.

Background: The prevention and control of hypertension is an essential component for reducing cardiovascular disease burden. Hypertension is an important public health issue, yet few studies have examined its current status among the Lebanese population. Objective: To examine the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension and its associated risk factors among Lebanese adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2014, and May 2015, on adults from the five districts of Lebanon. Multistage sampling was used to enroll participants. Hypertension was defined as an average of two blood pressure (BP) measurements with systolic/diastolic blood pressure of at least 140/90 mm Hg, using an automated digital device, or the use of antihypertensive medication. A questionnaire was used to assess hypertension risk factors, awareness, treatment and control. Results: Of the 1362 Lebanese adults interviewed, 399 (29.3%) had hypertension. Of these, 106 (26.5%) were aware of their condition. Sixty-nine patients (65%) of those aware, were receiving treatment, and 38 (55%) participants from those treated were controlled. The significant risk factors were sex, gender, age, family history of hypertension, obesity, and a low level of education. Conclusions: Hypertension is prevalent among the Lebanese adult population and is multifactorial, but remains incompletely recognized, leading to insufficient control. Hypertension was highly prevalent in males in the age category 18-29 years. These findings show that improvements in detection, treatment, and control of hypertension among Lebanese adults, is much needed.

The Prevalence and Awareness of Cardiovascular Diseases Risk Factors among the Lebanese Population: A Prospective Study Comparing Urban to Rural Populations.

Introduction. CVDs are largely driven by modifiable risk factors. This study sought to determine the awareness and prevalence of the modifiable CVDs risk factors among the Lebanese population. Methods. In a cross-sectional survey, 1000 participants aged ≥ 45 years were randomly selected from pharmacies and interviewed. The data was analyzed with SPSS version 21.0 software. Results. Differences between urban and rural areas include alcohol consumption (2.8% versus 1.7%; p = 0.0001), cardioprotective vegetable servings (6.1% versus 2.3%; p = 0.016), sedentary hours per day (18.6% versus 15.1%; p = 0.002), and hypertension (38.5% versus 25.4%; p = 0.001). The prevalence of overweight and obesity (77.3% versus 75.2%; p = 0.468), smoking (39.3% versus 43.3%; p = 0.232), diabetes (25.4% versus 21.4%; p = 0.173), and dyslipidemia (25 versus 21.2%) was reported. Measurements revealed 19.3% of undiagnosed hypertension (12.4% versus 22.4%, p = 0.001), 61.7% of hypertension (59.8% versus 62.6%; p = 0.203), and 7.9% of undiagnosed diabetes (6.6% versus 8.6%; p = 0.323). The declared awareness of CVDs risk factors was highest for smoking (91.5% versus 89.7%; p = 0.339) and lowest for diabetes (54.4 versus 55.7%; p = 0.692). Conclusion. This study has shown a high prevalence of modifiable CVDs risk factors in the Lebanese population ≥ 45 years, among which hypertension is the most prominent.

Study of the degradation process of ofloxacin with free chlorine by using ESI-LCMSMS: Kinetic study, by-products formation pathways and fragmentation mechanisms.

This study was conducted to gain a better understanding of the fate of fluoroquinolone antibacterial ofloxacin (OFX) which is the free available chlorine (FAC) in order to determine its effect during water chlorination process. The Direct reactions of FAC with OFX were quite rapid. A half-life of 7.7 s was measured under pseudo-first order conditions in the presence of an excess of total chlorine ([FAC]0 = 13 µM and [OFX]0 = 0.55 µM at pH 7.2 and 20 °C in buffered reagent water. Free chlorine reactions rates were of first-order type in both substrate and oxidant with specific second-order rate constants of 6.8 × 103 M-1 s-1. No induced back reactions or other interference by using thiosulfate to stop the chlorination reaction was shown. The seven products of the reaction were determined by using the LC/MS/MS analysis. Structures were investigated due to the explication of transitions obtained at different CID energies by LC-ESI-MS/MS. Pathways of the formations of these by-products were presented in this study and pathways of the fragmentations of pseudo molecular ions of the structures proposed were presented in supplementary files.