Article
Economics
Hannah Hook, Jonas De Vos, Veronique Van Acker, Frank Witlox
Summary: This study empirically analyzes motivations for undirected travel (UT) and explores the relationship between UT motivations, demographics, and trip characteristics. The findings suggest a clear association between UT and physical/mental health. Active UT trips have stronger motivations, and the use of multiple modes is associated with stronger motivations. Longer and more frequent UT trips fulfill all motivations. This research provides evidence that travel is not solely a derived demand and contributes to the understanding of the value of travel.
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART A-POLICY AND PRACTICE
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Karpinski Pawel, Sasiadek Maria Malgorzata
Summary: The CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is an important manifestation of epigenetic instability in cancer. It has been extensively studied in various tumor types, but its use as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in solid tumors is limited by the lack of generalizability and reproducibility of epigenetic markers, as well as its poor predictive value in clinical outcomes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Ion Ghiviriga
Summary: Water solubility measurements are essential in drug discovery, toxicological or environmental studies, and industrial processes. We developed an automated NMR method that provides accurate results with a wide solubility range, and it is faster than the traditional shake-flask method. By analyzing saturated solutions with excess solute, the NMR spectra can distinguish between dissolved and dispersed liquids. Evaluation of the method's selectivity, accuracy, precision, and limit of quantitation is presented.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Michael H. Abraham, William E. Acree, Xiangli Liu
Summary: Literature data on solubilities of adamantane in organic solvents were utilized to derive descriptors for adamantane and substituted adamantanes, enabling the estimation of various physicochemical properties. This allowed for the first-time estimation of water-solvent and gas-solvent partition coefficients across a wide range of solvents, along with other properties such as vapor pressures, enthalpies, and skin permeability. The descriptors indicated adamantane's hydrophobic nature, with low dipolarity and hydrogen bond acidity.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS
(2021)
Article
Thermodynamics
Trevor N. Brown
Summary: The study aims to predict the partitioning coefficients of solutes in liquid solvents in equilibrium with air by combining PPLFERs and solvent density, creating empirical regressions using normalized solute descriptors and interaction parameters.
FLUID PHASE EQUILIBRIA
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Oscar Nordness, Joshua D. Moon, Nico Marioni, Everett S. Zofchak, Peter M. Richardson, Matthew R. Landsman, Lynn E. Katz, Craig J. Hawker, Venkat Ganesan, Rachel A. Segalman, Raphaele J. Clement
Summary: The effects of ligand basicity on water and ion transport within hydrogel membranes are investigated using a library of functionalizable poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) polymer networks. The study reveals that the self-diffusion of water molecules and ions is primarily driven by the hydration level of the membrane. The interaction between triflate anions and the polymer significantly reduces ion and water mobility.
Article
Environmental Studies
Laura Lam, Anna Triandafyllidou
Summary: Canada has highly educated migrants, but they face labor market barriers. This qualitative study interviewed 35 platform workers in Canada and identified six pathways into platform work. The findings suggest that structural inequalities persist in platform work among migrants, despite Canada's merit-based immigration system.
ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING A-ECONOMY AND SPACE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Andrology
Katarzyna Michalek, Patrycja Oberska
Summary: Aquaporins are small, unusual proteins that have revolutionized the understanding of membrane transport in living organisms. Their presence in the male reproductive system is crucial for various processes and maintaining a high reproductive potential.
Article
Business, Finance
Michael Ehrmann, Alena Wabitsch
Summary: This paper examines tweets about the ECB in English and German, and finds that the central bank's communication is received by non-experts. The tweets mainly convey information, become more factual, and show more moderate and homogeneous views. Some communications trigger divergent opinions, and negative, stronger, or more subjective views are more likely to be retweeted, liked, or replied to, indicating that Twitter is also a platform for controversial discussions.
JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Hafiz Saqib Ali, Richard H. Henchman
Summary: The energy-entropy multiscale cell correlation (EE-MCC) method is used to calculate toluene-water log P values of 16 drug molecules in the SAMPL9 physical properties challenge. The log P values calculated by EE-MCC have a mean average error of 0.82 and standard error of the mean of 0.97 versus experiment, which is comparable with the best methods entered in SAMPL9. The main contribution to log P is from energy. Less polar drugs have more favourable energies of transfer.
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Philip Eor, Jared L. Anderson
Summary: Silver(I) ions have been effectively used in separating olefins, with ligand coordination to these ions found to decrease their olefin complexation capability and subsequent partitioning of olefins in pseudophases. The study also determined values for enthalpy, entropy, and free energy of solvation for different systems, revealing enthalpic domination in olefin retention and variations in enthalpic and entropic contributions when ligands coordinate with the silver(I) ions. The developed model can be useful for studying chemical changes in silver(I) ions over time and identifying optimal silver(I) salt/IL mixtures for high olefin selectivity.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Cuicui Tao, Ying Chen, Tianyun Tao, Zaizhi Cao, Wenxuan Chen, Tengyi Zhu
Summary: The study developed models for predicting the partition coefficients of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) between XAD resin and air using poly parameter linear free energy relationship (pp-LFER) and temperature. Machine learning algorithms showed good fitting and generalization abilities, with the random forest (RF) model performing the best. The models provide a useful tool for filling experimental data gaps and evaluating the environmental ecological risk of untested chemicals.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tengyi Zhu, Wenxuan Chen, Chad T. Jafvert, Dafang Fu, Haomiao Cheng, Ming Chen, Yajun Wang
Summary: The novel three-phase partitioning system using surfactant to form micellar pseudo-phase successfully determined the partition coefficient between LDPE and water, avoiding the limitations of direct measurement of aqueous phase concentrations. Through 120 experimental data and in silico models, estimation of missing or uncertain values was achieved, enhancing the accuracy of KPE-w values.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Angelica Sharapova, Marina Ol'khovich, Svetlana Blokhina, Ekaterina Zhirova, German Perlovich
Summary: This study investigated the solubility and lipophilicity of antimicrobial moxifloxacin (MFX) in modeling solvents and biphasic systems at different temperatures using the shake flask method. The results showed that MFX had the highest solubility in ethanol, followed by higher solubility in acidic medium and decreasing solubility with increasing pH. The experimental data were well correlated with the relative polarity of the solvents, and the solubility and transfer processes were found to be endothermic.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Yuan Li, Andreas Audetat, Zhiwei Liu, Fangyue Wang
Summary: The research findings reveal variations in partition coefficients of chalcophile elements in silicate melts under different conditions, influenced by various factors. Furthermore, the results can be used to predict the evolution trends of chalcophile elements in hydrothermal systems.
GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA
(2021)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Chungseok Choi, Xiaoxiong Wang, Soonho Kwon, James L. Hart, Conor L. Rooney, Nia J. Harmon, Quynh P. Sam, Judy J. Cha, William A. Goddard, Menachem Elimelech, Hailiang Wang
Summary: Electrochemistry offers an efficient and sustainable solution for treating chlorinated organic compounds in polluted environmental waters. A catalyst composed of cobalt phthalocyanine molecules on multiwalled carbon nanotubes has been developed, which can selectively convert 1,2-dichloroethane into ethylene with high efficiency. The catalyst operates at a wide range of electrode potentials and reactant concentrations, achieving unprecedented near 100% Faradaic efficiency.
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Helene Walch, Antonia Praetorius, Frank von der Kammer, Thilo Hofmann
Summary: Aquatic fate models and risk assessment require experimental information on the potential of contaminants to interact with riverine suspended particulate matter (SPM). However, the assumption of chemical equilibrium is invalid for particulate contaminants, and their interactions with SPM are governed by physicochemical forces between contaminant-particle and SPM surfaces. Therefore, the availability of a standard SPM material is highly relevant for the development of reproducible test systems to evaluate the fate of particulate contaminants in aquatic systems.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Narayana R. Aluru, Fikret Aydin, Martin Z. Bazant, Daniel Blankschtein, Alexandra H. Brozena, J. Pedro de Souza, Menachem Elimelech, Samuel Faucher, John T. Fourkas, Volodymyr B. Koman, Matthias Kuehne, Heather J. Kulik, Hao-Kun Li, Yuhao Li, Zhongwu Li, Arun Majumdar, Joel Martis, Rahul Prasanna Misra, Aleksandr Noy, Tuan Anh Pham, Haoran Qu, Archith Rayabharam, Mark A. Reed, Cody L. Ritt, Eric Schwegler, Zuzanna Siwy, Michael S. Strano, YuHuang Wang, Yun-Chiao Yao, Cheng Zhan, Ze Zhang
Summary: Confined fluids and electrolyte solutions in nanopores exhibit rich and surprising physics and chemistry that impact the mass transport and energy efficiency in many important natural systems and industrial applications. Exploiting these effects presents myriad opportunities in both basic and applied research that stand to impact a host of new technologies. In this review article, the progress on nanofluidics of single-digit nanopores (SDNs) is summarized, with a focus on the confinement effects. The recent development of precision model systems, transformative experimental tools, and multiscale theories in this field are reviewed.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Ryan M. DuChanois, Lauren Mazurowski, Hanqing Fan, Rafael Verduzco, Oded Nir, Menachem Elimelech
Summary: The separation of specific ions in water is essential for the recovery and reuse of metals and nutrients, but current membrane technologies lack the required precision selectivity for a circular resource economy. This study investigates whether the cation/cation selectivity of a composite cation-exchange membrane (CEM) is affected by the mass transfer resistance of the underlying CEM. The results show that eliminating resistance from the base layer of the CEM can significantly increase selectivity, highlighting the importance of low-resistance CEMs for precise separations with composite membranes.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Ragne Parnamae, Michele Tedesco, Min-Chen Wu, Chia-Hung Hou, Hubertus V. M. Hamelers, Sohum Patel, Menachem Elimelech, P. M. Biesheuvel, Slawomir Porada
Summary: In this study, a trackable model based on the Nernst-Planck theory was developed to predict the behavior of a commercial bipolar membrane. The model successfully predicted the concentration profiles of four ions (H+, OH-, Na+, and Cl-) inside the membrane and the resulting current-voltage curve, providing new insights into ion transport in bipolar membranes and identifying optimal operating conditions for environmental applications.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Mohammad Sadia, Ingeborg Nollen, Rick Helmus, Thomas L. ter Laak, Frederic Been, Antonia Praetorius, Annemarie P. van Wezel
Summary: This study examines human exposure to PFAS through drinking water and assesses the associated health risks. A method for analyzing 56 target PFAS was developed and applied to drinking water samples from 18 Dutch locations. The study found that ultrashort-chain PFAS and PFCA were the most dominant substances, while surface water sources had higher levels of PFCA and perfluoroalkyl-sulfonic-acid. Groundwater protection is necessary to address the presence of ultrashort PFAS. Some advanced treatment processes showed negative removal of PFAS, indicating desorption and degradation. Drinking water produced from surface water exceeded non-binding provisional guideline values in some locations but met the upcoming binding drinking-water-directive requirements.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xiaoxiong Wang, Xuanhao Wu, Wen Ma, Xuechen Zhou, Shuo Zhang, Dahong Huang, Lea R. Winter, Jae-Hong Kim, Menachem Elimelech
Summary: This study presents a flow-through electrofiltration method using an electrified membrane and single-atom catalysts, which achieves high removal efficiency of ultra-low concentration nitrate and improves reduction activity and selectivity, offering a new solution for efficient water purification.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuzhang Zhu, Liangliang Gui, Ruoyu Wang, Yunfeng Wang, Wangxi Fang, Menachem Elimelech, Shihong Lin, Jian Jin
Summary: The authors demonstrate the ability to regulate the pore size of a polyamide membrane through applied voltage, enabling precise molecular separation. This study uncovers a previously overlooked mechanism of membrane-water-solute interactions.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Li Wang, Jinlong He, Mohammad Heiranian, Hanqing Fan, Lianfa Song, Ying Li, Menachem Elimelech
Summary: We used NEMD simulations and permeation experiments to investigate the mechanism of water transport in RO membranes. The simulations showed that water transport is driven by a pressure gradient, contradicting the traditional solution-diffusion model. We also observed that water molecules form clusters and move through transiently connected pores. Permeation experiments with different solvents further revealed that solvent permeance depends on membrane pore size, solvent molecule size, and viscosity, which is inconsistent with the solution-diffusion model.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Lorenzo Sanjuan-Navarro, Aaron Boughbina-Portoles, Yolanda Moliner-Martinez, Frank von der Kammer, Pilar Campins-Falco
Summary: In this study, a procedure for isolating carbon black (CB) from soil samples using a dispersive medium was proposed for the first time. Different dispersants were tested and asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation and sedimentation field flow fractionation were used for quantifying and characterizing CB in the dispersions. The results showed that CB isolation depended on the solid size distribution, composition, and dispersant nature. Higher organic matter content in the soil led to better CB isolation. Furthermore, the CB could be recovered and reused as a solid residue.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Helene Walch, Nada Basic, Antonia Praetorius, Frank von der Kammer, Thilo Hofmann
Summary: Engineered and incidental nanomaterials are emerging contaminants of environmental concern. This study introduces a new versatile test system to determine heteroagglomeration attachment efficiency (αhet) under environmentally relevant conditions. The importance of this research lies in providing the comparability of environmental fate studies and environmental risk assessment of nanomaterials.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE-NANO
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yifan Gao, Shuai Liang, Biming Liu, Chengxu Jiang, Chenyang Xu, Xiaoyuan Zhang, Peng Liang, Menachem Elimelech, Xia Huang
Summary: Researchers have proposed a facile and highly controllable thermal tuning strategy that enables fine control of nanodefects in electrocatalysts. This strategy endows common carbon materials with record high efficiency in electrocatalytic degradation of pollutants.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Mohammad Sadia, Ingeborg Nollen, Rick Helmus, Thomas L. ter Laak, Frederic Been, Antonia Praetorius, Annemarie P. van Wezel
Summary: This study examines human exposure to PFAS through drinking water and assesses the associated health risks. A method for detecting 56 target PFAS, including ultrashort-chain and branched isomers, was developed and applied to Dutch drinking water sources and treatment processes. The study found that ultrashort-chain and PFCA PFAS were dominant in the water, with higher levels of PFCA and perfluoroalkyl-sulfonic-acid in water from surface sources. However, all produced drinking waters met the binding drinking water directive requirements.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mohammad Heiranian, Hanqing Fan, Li Wang, Xinglin Lu, Menachem Elimelech
Summary: This article provides an overview of the importance of reverse osmosis (RO) desalination technology in addressing water scarcity. The design and development of RO membranes are discussed, along with an analysis of membrane separation and transport mechanisms. Two key water transport models, solution-diffusion and pore-flow, are examined and evaluated. Future research directions are also proposed.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS
(2023)