Direct photo transformation of tetracycline and sulfanomide group antibiotics in surface water: Kinetics, toxicity and site modeling.

The direct photo-transformation of widely used antibiotics, including Tetracycline (TTC), chlortetracycline (CTC), sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and sulfamethazine (SMZ) were quantified for surface water by using artificial UV irradiation. The photolysis rate is directly proportional to the overlap between the absorption spectrum of the solution and the spectrum of the terrestrial sunlight. Increasing overlap fraction of Tetracycline (TC) group than Sulfanomide (Sulfa) group, the transformation of TC group is certified much faster than the sulfa group. The speciation of TC and Sulfa group antibiotics are pH-dependent and consequently influence its light adsorption spectrum. And the toxicity of the four target antibiotics along the photo-transformation was assessed. In field aquatic environment, a temporal- and spatial half-life model described the behavior of the antibiotics in water column of victoria harbour could be validated by using experimentally obtained quantum yield with the target field meteorological data. The modeling results indicated the photolysis rate of different kind of antibiotics varied differently along season, daily time and water depth. Summer, midday and surface layer of water body would be the time- and space-highlight spot in which the phototransformation are the dominant process for antibiotics concentration depletion. Seasonal variety would be enhanced for sulfa-group kind antibiotics, which having only tail overlapped with irradiation spectrum. Daily averaged half-lives of TC group were relatively stable, while the sulfa group antibiotics were found to vary from about 300 to 750 h, dependent on the seasonal change.

Pediatric drug safety signal detection of non-chemotherapy drug-induced neutropenia and agranulocytosis using electronic healthcare records.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop a procedure to explore the adverse drug reaction signals of drug-induced neutropenia (DIN) or drug-induced agranulocytosis (DIA) in children using an electronic health records (EHRs) database. Methods: A two-stage design was presented. First, the suspected drugs to induce DIN or DIA were selected. Second, the associations were evaluated by a retrospective cohort study. Results: Ten and five drugs were potentially identified to be associated with DIN and DIA, respectively. Finally, five (oseltamivir, chlorpheniramine, vancomycin, meropenem, and ganciclovir) and two (chlorpheniramine, and vancomycin) drugs were found to be associated with DIN and DIA, respectively. Of these, the association between oseltamivir and neutropenia (P = 9.83 × 10-9; OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.62-2.69) was considered as a new signal for both adults and children. Chlorpheniramine-induced neutropenia (P = 3.01 × 10-8; OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.35-1.87) and agranulocytosis (P = 3.16 × 10-7; OR, 3.76; 95% CI, 2.25-6.26) were considered as new signals in children. Other drugs associated with DIN or DIA were confirmed by previous studies. Conclusion: A method to detect signals for DIN and DIA has been described. Several pediatric drugs were found to be associated with DIN or DIA.

Calcium hydroxide coating on highly reactive nanoscale zero-valent iron for in situ remediation application.

Nano scale zero-valent iron (nZVI), a promising engineering technology for in situ remediation, has been greatly limited by quick self-corrosion and low mobility in porous media. Highly reactive nZVI particles produced from the borohydride reduction method were enclosed in a releasable Ca(OH)2 layer by the chemical deposition method. The amount of Ca(OH)2 coated on nZVI surface were well controlled by the precursor dosage. At moderate Ca(OH)2 dosage (RCa/TFe = 0.25) condition, the increment of Fe0 content for the obtained nZVI/Ca-0.25 sample was observed. The interfacial reactions between the iron oxide shell and the Ca(OH)2 saturated environment were delicately elucidated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectrum. And the coverage of Ca(OH)2 shell on spherical nZVI surface was found more complete and uniform for the nZVI/Ca sample obtained from the moderate precursor dosage condition (RCa/TFe = 0.25). The Ca(OH)2 shell before dissolution was demonstrated owning the anti-corrosion capability to slow down the oxidation of Fe0 core in air, during ethanol storage and in aqueous environment. The mechanism of anti-corrosion capability for nZVI/Ca-0.25 particle was interestingly found to be attributed to the Ca(OH)2 shell isolation and also be potentially due to the iron oxide shell phase transformation mediated by the outer Ca(OH)2 shell. An improved trichloroethylene reduction performance was observed for nZVI/Ca-0.25 than bare nZVI. The mobility of nZVI/Ca particles in water-saturated porous media was moderately improved before shell dissolution.

[Influencing factors and reaction mechanism of chloroacetic acid reduction by cast iron].

The chloroacetic acids are ubiquitous present as a class of trace chlorinated organic pollutants in surface and drinking water. Most of chloroacetic acids are known or suspected carcinogens and, when at high concentrations, are of great concern to human health. In order to economically remove chloroacetic acids, the degradation of chloroacetic acids by cast iron was investigated. Moreover, the effect of iron style, pretreatment process, shocking mode and dissolved oxygen on chloroacetic acids reduced by cast iron was discussed. Compared to iron source and acid pretreatment, mass transfer was more important to chloroacetic acid removal. Dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and monochloroacetic acid (MCAA) were the main products of anoxic and oxic degradation of trichloroacetic acid (TCAA) by cast iron during the researched reaction time, respectively. With longtitudinal shock, the reaction kinetics of chloroaectic acid removal by cast iron conformed well to the pseudo first order reaction. The anoxic reaction constants of TCAA, DCAA and MCAA were 0.46 h(-1), 0.03 h(-1) and 0, and their oxic constants were 1.24 h(-1), 0.79 h(-1) and 0.28 h(-1), respectively. The removal mechanisms of chloroacetic acids were different under various oxygen concentrations, including sequential hydrogenolysis for anoxic reaction and sequential hydrogenolysis and direct transformation possible for oxic reaction, respectively.

Characterization of soluble microbial products as precursors of disinfection byproducts in drinking water supply.

Water pollution by wastewater discharge can cause the problem of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water supply. In this study, DBP formation characteristics of soluble microbial products (SMPs) as the main products of wastewater organic biodegradation were investigated. The results show that SMPs can act as DBP precursors in simulated wastewater biodegradation process. Under the experimental conditions, stabilized SMPs had DBPFP (DBP formation potential) yield of around 5.6 µmol mmol(-1)-DOC (dissolved organic carbon) and DBP speciation profile different from that of the conventional precursor, natural organic matter (NOM). SMPs contained polysaccharides, proteins, and humic-like substances, and the latter two groups can act as reactive DBP precursors. SMP fraction with molecular weight of <1 kDa accounted for 85% of the organic carbon and 65% of the DBP formation. As small SMP molecules are more difficult to remove by conventional water treatment processes, more efforts are needed to control wastewater-derived DBP problem in water resource management.

[Formation of disinfection by-products: temperature effect and kinetic modeling].

Water temperature has significant effects on the disinfection by-product (DBP) formation and concentration in many water utilities and distribution systems. To study the temperature effect on the DBP concentration, the uniform formation condition (UFC) test was referred in testing the formation concentration of DBPs [including (trihalomethanes) THMs and (haloacetic acids) HAAs] at different temperatures during chlorination of the humic acid (HA) solution. A kinetic model was consequently proposed to predict DBP concentration during chlorination. Results show that for the three detected DBPs, including chloroform (CHCl3), dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCAA), increasing temperature could considerably enhance both the DBP formation rates and the maximum DBP concentrations, where the maximum concentrations increase exponentially with the water temperature (R2 > 0.90). By using the data-processing software Origin, the detected DBP values were fitted using the proposed first order kinetic model, and the result showed a strong correlation for each DBP at various temperatures (R > 0.94). The apparent reaction rate constant k was also derived for each DBP. In order to quantify the temperature effect on DBP formation, the Arrhenius Equation was employed to calculate the apparent reaction activation energy for each DBP-22.3, 25.5 and 40.8 kJ x mol(-1) for CHCl3, DCAA and TCAA, respectively. By comparing the model predicted and the detected DBP values at 20 and 30 degrees C, the model showed a strong performance in predicting DBP formation concentrations, which indicated the reliability and validity of this proposed kinetic model.