Aqueous-Phase Temperature Swing Adsorption for Pesticide Removal.

Recently, activated carbon adsorption for water treatment regained substantial attention due to the emerging task to remove trace organic compounds such as pesticides. In many applications, especially in decentralized water treatment, one major drawback of adsorbents is their limited recyclability due to inadequate logistics or uneconomical reactivation. In this lab-scale study, we present the temperature swing adsorption in the aqueous phase that allows the in situ regeneration of fixed-bed adsorbers, and prove its technical feasibility. Complying with circular water economy principles, we eliminated the pivotal need for regular replacement and consumables by employing only clean water instead of dedicated regeneration solutions. Adsorption of the herbicide amitrole in aqueous solution on granular activated carbon was exothermic (Δ H = -14.4 ± 3.2 kJ mol-1 for T = 20-94 °C) and followed the Freundlich model. The proposed method consisting of a short counterflow flush with liquid water at 125 °C effectively regenerated the adsorbent. Hence, we obtained a cyclic steady state operation with breakthrough after 122 ± 14 bed volumes (at cout/ cin = 0.2), cycle-average rejection of 90 ± 1%, and water recovery of up to 78 ± 4%. No thermal aging of adsorbent was observed over the investigated 17 cycles.

A Role for GDNF and Soluble APP as Biomarkers of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Pathophysiology.

The current inability of clinical criteria to accurately identify the "at-risk group" for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) development as well as its unknown etiology are fueling the interest in biomarkers aimed at completing clinical approaches for the diagnosis. The Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a diffusible peptide critically involved in neuronal differentiation and survival. GDNF is largely studied in various neurological and neuromuscular diseases, with a great interest in the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The recent discovery of Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)-dependent GDNF regulation driving neuro-muscular junctions' formation in APP null transgenic mice, prompts to study whether neurodegeneration relies on loss or gain of APP function and suggests that it could affect peripheral processes. Here, we explored a brand-new aspect of the loss of trophic support in ALS by measuring GDNF, APP, soluble APP fragments and Aß peptides levels in SOD1WT or SOD1G93A transgenic mouse models of ALS and in human biological fluids [i.e. serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)] from ALS patients and control subjects. Our results show that both GDNF and soluble APP fragments levels are altered at the onset of motor deficits in mice and that their levels are also modified in patient samples. This study indicates that both GDNF and soluble APPα represent possible biomarkers for ALS.