A Generic Platform for Upcycling Polystyrene to Aryl Ketones and Organosulfur Compounds.

Polystyrene (PS) is one of the least recycled large-volume commodity plastics due to bulkiness of foam products and associated contaminants. PS recycling is also severely hampered by the lack of financial incentive, limited versatility, and poor selectivity of existing methods. To this end, herein we report a thermochemical recycling strategy of "degradation-upcycling" to synthesize a library of high-value aromatic chemicals from PS wastes with high versatility and selectivity. Two cascade reactions are selected to first degrade PS to benzene under mild temperatures, followed by the derivatization thereof utilizing a variety of acyl/alkyl and sulfinyl chloride additives. To demonstrate the versatility, nine ketones and sulfides of cosmetic and pharmaceutical relevance were prepared, including propiophenone, benzophenone, and diphenyl sulfide. The approach is also amenable to sophisticated upcycling reaction designs and can produce desired products stepwise. The facile and versatile approach will provide a scalable and profitable methodology for upcycling PS waste into value-added chemicals.

Assessment of adherence to cinacalcet by prescription refill rates in hemodialysis patients.

Secondary hyperparathyroidism is common among dialysis patients and leads to numerous complications including cardiovascular disease and renal osteodystrophy. Cinacalcet, an oral daily calcimimetic agent that sensitizes the calcium receptor to serum calcium, is approved for treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in dialysis patients. We identified 101 patients who received their first cinacalcet prescription between November 2004 and April 2005. All patients were participating in a Missouri state-funded pharmacy program providing free or low cost medications. We tracked the cinacalcet refill rate and refills for another control medication prescribed to each patient. The average cinacalcet refill rate over the first 12 months was 56% vs. 64% for the control medication (P=0.02). Good adherence, defined as >80% medication possession ratio over the 12 months, was 29% for cinacalcet and 33% for the control medication (P=0.68). Additionally, the refill rate for cinacalcet fell significantly over five quarterly periods from 53% in the first quarter to 37% in the 5th quarter. We conclude that dialysis patients' adherence to medications, including cinacalcet, is poor even when medications are provided at a nominal cost. Poor cinacalcet adherence would be expected to impair long-term control of SHPT. In a reimbursement system where injectable, but not oral medications, are bundled with dialysis payments there may be pressure to move patients to oral medications. The poor compliance found in this study highlights the potential adverse effects of movement toward self-administered oral therapy.

Detection of Listeria spp. in Naturally Contaminated Seafoods Using Four Enrichment Procedures.

Four enrichment procedures were evaluated for the recovery of Listeria spp. from 211 samples of raw and processed seafoods. The presence of Listeria spp. was determined in all four methods by a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The enrichments used were 1) Listeria enrichment broth (LEB); 2) buffered LEB (BLEB); 3) BLEB transferred to the same enrichment after 24 h (BLEB 24-h transfer); and 4) modified University of Vermont medium (UVM-1) transferred after 24 h to UVM-1 medium containing additional acriflavin (UVM-2). All four enrichments were incubated for a total of 48 h at 30°C. To determine the efficiency of each protocol, we compared our recovery results with those obtained by using a modified version of the Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM) cultural method, as described in the Federal Register of November 1, 1988. Statistical analysis showed that recovery of Listeria spp. using nonbuffered LEB for 48 h without transfer did not differ significantly from that obtained with the revised BAM method.