Biochar from co-pyrolysis of biological sludge and sawdust in comparison with the conventional filling media of vertical-flow constructed wetlands for the treatment of domestic-textile wastewater.

A biochar from co-pyrolysis of a mixture of sawdust and biological sludge (70/30, w/w), providing a high environmental compatibility in terms of water leachable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and inorganic elements, together with a remarkable surface area (389 m2/g), was integrated into laboratory-scale vertical-flow constructed wetlands (VF-CWs), planted with Phragmites australis and unplanted. Biochar-filled VF-CWs have been tested for 8 months for the refining of effluents from the tertiary clariflocculation stage of a wastewater treatment plant operating in a mixed domestic-industrial textile context, in comparison with systems filled with gravel. VF-CW influents and effluents were monitored for chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and absorbance values at 254 and 420 nm, the latter as rapid and reliable screening parameters of the removal of organic micropollutants containing aromatic moieties and/or chromophores. Biochar-based systems provided a statistically significant improvement in COD (Δ = 22%) and ammonia (Δ = 35%) removal, as well as in the reduction of UV-Vis absorbance values (Δ = 32-34% and Δ = 28% for 254 and 420 nm, respectively), compared to gravel-filled microcosms. The higher removal of organic was mainly attributed to the well-known adsorption properties of biochars, while for nitrogen the biological mechanisms seem to play a predominant role.

The "click-on-tube" approach for the production of efficient drug carriers based on oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

To demonstrate the potential of azido-substituted carbon nanotubes for application in nanomedicine, multiple-decorated oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes as drug delivery systems have been synthesized. These DDSs were able to carry doxorubicin inside breast MCF-7 cancer cell lines resulting in an enhanced cytotoxic effect with respect to the free drug. Decoration of the carbon nanotubes was accomplished through both covalent and non-covalent approaches: versatile click reactions and π-π interactions were exploited. To assess the internalization of the carbon nanotubes inside cells, decoration with a BODIPY fluorescent molecule was performed. Furthermore, the nanotubes were decorated with a biotin selector molecule to increase the uptake of the system by cancer cells. Comparative studies were performed on the complete drug delivery system to highlight its effect with respect to the free drug and the contribution of the selector in the internalization efficiency. Finally, preliminary in vivo tests were performed on MCF-7 inoculated mice. A net improvement in efficiency, concerning the minor growth of the tumors, has been found when using doxorubicin loaded on our drug delivery system with respect to free doxorubicin.

Azido-Substituted BODIPY Dyes for the Production of Fluorescent Carbon Nanotubes.

A series of azido-dyes were synthesized through Knoevenagel reactions of an azido-BODIPY with aromatic aldehydes. The nature of the substituents allowed the fine tuning of their spectroscopic properties. The dyes were used to decorate oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (ox-MWCNTs), bearing terminal triple bond groups, by CuAAC reactions, affording fluorescent materials. This decoration allowed the efficient determination of the internalization of the ox-MWCNT derivatives by different model cancer cells, such as MCF7.

[Inequalities in health in Italy]. / Diseguaglianze di salute in Italia.

Socioeconomic inequality and its impact on health is a growing concern in the European public health debate. In many countries, the issue is moving away from description towards the identification of the determinants of inequalities and the development of policies explicitly aimed at reducing inequalities in health. In Italy, ten years after the publication of the first report on inequalities in health, this topic is seldom present on the agenda of public policy makers. The purpose of this report is to update the Italian profile of social variation in health and health care in order to stimulate the debate on ways to tackle inequalities in health that are preventable. In the first section of this book, the threefold objective is to describe the principal mechanisms involved in the generation of social inequalities in health (Introduction); to report Italian data on the distribution and magnitude of this phenomenon in the last decade; and to evaluate policies and interventions in both the social (chapter 1.9, Section I) and the health sector (chapter 2.3, Section I), which are potentially useful to reduce health inequalities. It is intended for anyone who is in a position to contribute t o decision-making that will benefit the health of communities. For this reason, chapters are organized by specific determinants of inequalities on which interentions may have an impact. The methodological approach in the second section focuses on the best methods to monitor social inequalities including recommendations on social indicators, sources of information and study models, based on European guidelines revised for the Italian situation. According to data from national and local studies, mortality increases linearly with social disadvantage for a wide range of indicators at both the individual (education, social class, income, quality of housing) and the geographical level (deprivation indexes computed at different levels of aggregation). This positive correlation is evident for both sexes, with the steepest gradient observed among adults of working age, although differences persist also among the elderly. The causes of death found to be most highly correlated with social inequality, and largely responsible for the increasing inequality over the last decade, are those associated with addiction and exclusion (drug, alcohol and violence related deaths), with smoking (lung cancer) and with safety in the workplace and on the roads (accidents). Similar gradients and trends have been observed with different outcomes, such as self-reported morbidity, disability and cancer incidence (chapter 1.1, Section I). Reproductive outcomes confiirm this picture: compared to women belonging to the upper classes, those women in low conditions experience more spontaneous abortions and their children suffer from higher infant mortality and low birth weight. This is a critical issue since poor infant health, particularly for metabolic and respiratory pathologies, affects health in adult life. There is now substantive evidence showing that also socioeconomic circumstances at birth or during adolescence may have a strong impact on adult health (chapter 1.2, Section I). Differences in harmful lifestyles, such as smoking, heavy drinking, drug use, unhealthy diet, obesity and physical inactivity, have a similar effect. The only exception is smoking among women, which is positively correlated with socioeconomic status; however, since women in the upper classes have a greater tendency to quit smoking, the gradient will soon be reversed (chapter 1.7, Section I). On the other hand, most of these behaviours do not follow from free and conscious individual choice; they are a form of adaptation to chronic stress originating in the work-place (chapter 1.4, Section I), or to particularly unfavourable events and conditions, such as unemployment (chapter 1.5, Section I) or lack of family and social support (chapter 1.6, Section I). Poor socioeconomic circumstances are the threshold of absolute poverty and may lead to social exclusion, a condition with a heavy impact on health, which in Italy includes marginal groups of the native population and broader classes of immigrants (chapter 1.3, Section I). Finally, there is recent and consistent evidence on the existence of a "contextual" effect on health, as opposed to the "compositional" effect given solely by the aggregation of individual processes. According to this hypothesis, characteristics of the infrastructure, and the physical and socioeconomic environment of an area would have an impact on individual health independent from the cultural and economic resources personally available to people living in that area (chapter 1.8, Section I). With respect to the health care system, various studies are in agreement in demonstrating that poor and less educated people have inadequate access both to primary prevention and early diagnosis (chapter 2.1, Section I), and to early and appropriate care (chapter 2.2, Section I). They also experience higher rates of hospitalization, particularly in emergencies and with advanced levels of severity.