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- Wilkinson, John L., et al.
(författare)
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Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers
- 2022
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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- Angers-Loustau, A., et al.
(författare)
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The challenges of designing a benchmark strategy for bioinformatics pipelines in the identification of antimicrobial resistance determinants using next generation sequencing technologies
- 2018
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Ingår i: F1000Research. - : F1000 Research Ltd. - 2046-1402. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are expected to play a crucial role in the surveillance of infectious diseases, with their unprecedented capabilities for the characterisation of genetic information underlying the virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) properties of microorganisms. In the implementation of any novel technology for regulatory purposes, important considerations such as harmonisation, validation and quality assurance need to be addressed. NGS technologies pose unique challenges in these regards, in part due to their reliance on bioinformatics for the processing and proper interpretation of the data produced. Well-designed benchmark resources are thus needed to evaluate, validate and ensure continued quality control over the bioinformatics component of the process. This concept was explored as part of a workshop on "Next-generation sequencing technologies and antimicrobial resistance" held October 4-5 2017. Challenges involved in the development of such a benchmark resource, with a specific focus on identifying the molecular determinants of AMR, were identified. For each of the challenges, sets of unsolved questions that will need to be tackled for them to be properly addressed were compiled. These take into consideration the requirement for monitoring of AMR bacteria in humans, animals, food and the environment, which is aligned with the principles of a "One Health" approach.
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- Grubîi, Victor, 1990-, et al.
(författare)
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Effect of Chipping Edge Inclination Angle on Size Distribution of Pulp Chips Produced by Chipper-Canter
- 2019
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Ingår i: Wood and Fiber Science. - : PKP Publishing Services Network. - 0735-6161. ; 51:4, s. 402-415
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The effect of oblique cutting on the chipper-canter wood chipping mechanism was studied. A bent knife was modified to obtain inclination angles (IA) of 30° and 50° between the chipping edge and the log feeding direction. The standard knife had an IA of 40°. These three knives were tested on 15 logs each, under frozen (-10°C) and unfrozen conditions. Chip dimensions were assessed by thickness (Domtar distribution) and width/length (Williams distribution). Characteristics and physical properties of the log knots were also measured. Experiments revealed that IA had a significant effect on chip formation mechanism. The IA affected the chipping edge entering the log and the form of the wood slice that was transforming into chips. These changes provoked variations in chip size. An IA of 30° produced wider chips, mostly in the first half of the cut, shaped as an elongated parallelepiped that resulted from a tangential, oblique and radial splitting in a single chip. The shape of chips obtained with IAs of 40° and 50° was more like an upright parallelepiped that was detached mostly by radial and oblique splitting. At the beginning and at the end of the cut, chips were produced by tangential splitting. As a result, for a same chip length of 23 mm, weighted mean chip thickness (WCT) decreased almost 1 mm when IA decreased from 50° to 30°. The knot ratio (total knot area / cant total area) affected both chip size distributions and WCT. Chipping frozen wood at -10°C reduced the chip thickness by 0.55 mm with respect to unfrozen wood. The amount of fines and pin chips also increased nearly two times compared to unfrozen wood. The amount of the Williams accepts chip class increased by 6% when IA decreased from 50° to 30° and by 8% when chipping unfrozen wood compared to frozen wood.
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