Hydroxytyrosol recovery from olive pomace: a simple process using olive mill industrial equipment and membrane technology

In this work, pilot-scale nanofiltration was used to obtain aqueous solutions rich in hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol from olive oil by-products. A large-scale simple process involving olive mill standard machinery (blender and decanter) was used for the olive pomace pre-treatment with water. The aqueous extract was then directly fed to a nanofiltration unit and concentrated by reverse osmosis. Final concentration factors ranged between 7 and 9 for hydroxytyrosol and between 4 and 7 for tyrosol. The final aqueous solution, obtained as retentate stream of reverse osmosis, was highly concentrated in hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol and their concentrations remained stable over at least 14 months.

Interfacial vs Bulk Phenomena Effects on the Surface Tensions of Aqueous Magnetic Surfactants in Uniform Magnetic Fields

The literature clearly reports that magnetic surfactant systems respond to magnetic fields. This manuscript investigates if the responses are because the magnetic fields directly alter the interfacial properties or if the surface-active properties are independent of the paramagnetic fluid responses. It uses uniform and gradient magnetic fields to determine the magnetically induced changes to the surface tensions independent of bulk paramagnetic fluid effects for ionic magnetic surfactants. The magnetically induced decrease in surface tensions is small compared to the bulk paramagnetic fluid effects. The reported decrease in surface tensions is significantly smaller than those previously found in the literature, which reported a combined interfacial and bulk paramagnetic effect. The magnetically induced surface tension changes are a function of the degree of association, α, of the magnetic moiety with the surfactant's amphiphilic structure. Therefore, the proposed answer to the question is that as α approaches zero, the magnetic properties of the magnetic surfactant system approaches the behavior of an ordinary paramagnetic fluid. For magnetic surfactants with α approaching one, there is a measurable interfacial response. For example in this study, a magnetic surfactant with α = 0.92 had a 2.5 times greater magnetically induced change in surface tension compared to a magnetic surfactant with α = undetectable, even thought they had similar magnetic moments.

1H NMR Relaxometry and Diffusometry Study of Magnetic and Nonmagnetic Ionic Liquid-Based Solutions: Cosolvent and Temperature Effects

In this work, ¹H NMR relaxometry and diffusometry as well as viscometry experiments were carried out as a means to study the molecular dynamics of magnetic and nonmagnetic ionic liquid-based systems. In order to evaluate the effect of a cosolvent on the superparamagnetic properties observed for Aliquat-iron-based magnetic ionic liquids, mixtures comprising different concentrations, 1% and 10% (v/v), of DMSO-d6 were prepared and studied. The results for both magnetic and nonmagnetic systems were consistently analyzed an suggest that, when at low concentrations, DMSO-d6 promotes more structured ionic arrangements, thus enhancing these superparamagnetic properties. Furthermore, the analysis of temperature and water concentration effects allowed to conclude that neither one of these variables significantly affected the superparamagnetic properties of the studied magnetic ionic liquids.

Aminoglycoside dosing: a randomized prospective study

Although clinical benefits for aminoglycoside dosing services have been suggested, this has not been clearly documented in a prospective fashion. Therefore, we randomly assigned patients to be dosed (1) by their physician (Physician dosing method), (2) by predicting an initial dosage (Predictive dosing method), or (3) by calculating an initial dosing regimen by measuring the pharmacokinetics for the individual patients after a loading dose (Individual dosing method). The patients' clinical response and nephrotoxicity were then evaluated. The individual dosing method resulted in erratic aminoglycoside levels, necessitating its elimination from the study. This group was not included in the final analysis. Of the 164 patients entering the study, 41 had a documented gram-negative infection, received aminoglycosides for more than 2 days, and had serum aminoglycoside levels measured. The predictive dosing method in these 41 patients produced statistically significant higher peak and lower trough levels, but there was no difference in the incidence of nephrotoxicity or clinical response. The 95% confidence intervals precluded any major clinical benefit in these patients with documented gram-negative infections. We question the previous findings of increased efficacy and decreased nephrotoxicity with the use of an aminoglycoside dosing service and suggest that larger studies be done.