Degradation of emerging organic pollutants in wastewater effluents by electrochemical photocatalysis on nanostructured TiO2 meshes.

An immobilized photoactive TiO2 coating grown directly on titanium meshes was successfully exploited for the electrochemical photocatalytic degradation of carbamazepine in real secondary wastewater effluent. The catalyst was prepared by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation and during the photocatalytic water treatment an electrical polarization (bias) was applied to the catalyst. The investigated process was compared with the conventional one employing suspended TiO2 powder (Degussa P25). Results showed that carbamazepine degradation rate follows the order UV/supported TiO2+bias ≈ UV/TiO2 Degussa P25 > UV/supported TiO2 > UV. The investigation also included the identification of other micropollutants and degradation products. This allowed the detection of 201 compounds present in the secondary wastewater effluent employed for the photocatalysis tests, 51 of them also successfully associated to compounds of emerging concern (CECs), and 194 to transformation products (TPs). The degradation of detected compounds followed first-order kinetics and the mean kinetic constant values of the 51 CECs resulted to be 0.048, 0.035 and 0.043 min-1 for the TiO2+Bias + UV, TiO2+UV and UV, respectively. As for TPs, results showed that the TiO2+Bias + UV treatment is much more efficient than both TiO2+UV and UV in minimizing the intensity of the organics in the real wastewater. Such a better performance was more pronounced at higher reaction time reaching 60% reduction of mean peak area of TPs at 90 min of reaction. Among the detected TPs also compounds belonging to known carbamazepine TPs were found. This allowed to propose a degradation pathway of carbamazepine. The supported catalyst was positively tested for 15 cycles demonstrating that it has the potential to be used in real wastewater tertiary steps aimed at removing CECs.

[Isolation, assay and biotyping of lactobacillary flora of the vagina]. / Ricerche sull'isolamento, la quantizzazione e la biotipizzazione della flora lattobacillare di provenienza vaginale.

The results of the isolation, quantitation and biotyping of 120 strains of vaginal Lactobacillus are presented. The more effective culture media for isolation and different methods of pH measurement were investigated. Five different species of Lactobacillus were isolated in vaginal specimens (Lactobacillus acidophilus 88.8%). The size limits found in the 120 Lactobacillus acidophilus strains were 0.8 to 6,0 mu length and 0.3 to 0.8 mu width. The effort to correlate number of Lactobacillus to pH and weight of vaginal fluid did not give satisfactory results because of difficulties in collecting homogeneous samples. Biochemical investigation of 120 vaginal strains of Lactobacillus did not show any peculiar biotype. The A.A. suggested the "routine" detection of vaginal lactobacillar flora as a usefull marker of ecological status in the choice of the therapy.

Renal lesions in essential mixed IgG-IgM cryoglobulinemia. Study of 48 cases.

56 renal biopsies in 48 patients affected by essential mixed IgG-IgM cryoglobulinemia have been examined by light microscopy and immunofluorescence. Patients were classified in four groups: 1) minimal lesions (4 patients); 2) pure proliferative mesangial lesions (9 patients); 3) membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (23 patients); 4)proliferative glomerulonephritis with prominent intraluminal thrombi (12 patients). In this last group large intraluminal thrombi intensely fixing anti-IgG and IgM antisera were present; unlike the preceding groups, few deposits on capillary walls were seen. These four groups differed in renal clinical syndrome at presentation: in particular, proteinuria or nephrotic syndrome was the predominant manifestation in group 3, acute nephritic syndrome in group 4. In the latter, reversal of renal failure and regression of lesions could be observed. Various morphological aspects tend to show that in this disease more than one mechanism is operating in producing renal damage, including local trapping of abnormal circulating proteins.