For 503 days, unoiled control and artificially oiled sediments were incubated in situ at 20m water depth in a Mediterranean coastal area. Degradation of the aliphatic fraction of the oil added was followed by GC-MS. At the same time, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) of 16S rRNA encoding genes was used to detect dynamics in the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) community ...

INTRODUCTION Many cases of hydrocarbon toxicity occur annually due to oral or inhalational exposure. Rarely are hydrocarbons injected subcutaneously or intravenously. These parenteral routes of exposure, however, can have a wide range of consequences ranging from mild skin irritation to tissue necrosis, pulmonary injury, neurologic consequences, cardiovascular collapse, and death. WD-40TM is a ...

Odor detection thresholds (ODTs) are used for assessing outdoor and indoor air quality. They are obtained experimentally by olfactometry and psychophysical methods, and large compilations are available in the literature. A non-linear regression equation was fitted to describe the ODT variability of 114 aliphatic compounds based on the alkyl chain length for different homologous series (carboxyl...

Microwave-assisted pyrolysis of seaweed biomass was conducted using a microwave system. The product yields were determined and the components bio-oil analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results showed that as temperature increased from 400 °C to 600 °C, yield bio-char decreased. However, rose firstly then reduced. maximal 18.4 wt.% when 500 °C. obtained is mixture very com...

Pseudomonas putida strain DOT-T1E is highly tolerant to organic solvents, with a logP(ow) (the logarithm of the partition coefficient of a solvent in a two-phase water-octanol system of > or =2.5. Solvent tolerant microorganisms can be exploited to develop double-phase (organic solvent and water) biotransformation systems in which toxic substrates or products are kept in the organic phase. We t...

Harbor sediments are often characterized by the presence of inorganic and organic contaminants, and this fact represents a relevant problem both when sediments are dredged and when they are left in the sea bottom. In this study we present the main results achieved by our research group in laboratory experiments addressed to marine sediment bioremediation. Dealing with sediments mainly contamina...

BACKGROUND We aimed to assess, for the first time, the nature of the indoor air contamination of hospitals. METHODS AND FINDINGS More than 40 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including aliphatic, aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, ethers and terpenes were measured in a teaching hospital in France, from sampling in six sampling sites--reception hall, patient ...

The carbonaceous chondrite meteorites are fragments of asteroids that have remained relatively unprocessed since the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. These carbon-rich objects contain a variety of extraterrestrial organic molecules that constitute a record of chemical evolution prior to the origin of life. Compound classes include aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbon...

Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (CHCs) are toxic and carcinogenic contaminants commonly found in environmental samples, and efficient online detection of these contaminants is still challenging at the present stage. Here, we report an advanced Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy-attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) sensor for in-situ and simultane...