Toxicity assessment of DMSO extracts of environmental aged beached plastics using human cell lines.

Plastic products contain complex mixtures of chemical compounds that are incorporated into polymers to improve material properties. Besides the intentional chemical additives, other compounds including residual monomers and non-intentionnaly added substances (NIAS) as well as sorbed pollutants are usually also present in aged plastic. Since most of these substances are only loosely bound to the polymer via non-covalently interactions, i.

Glycolipid and Lipopeptide Biosurfactants: Structural Classes and Characterization-Rhamnolipids as a Model.

In recent years, biosurfactants (BS) produced by various bacteria, fungi and yeast strains have attracted much interest because of their unique properties and potential applications in many industries ranging from bioremediation to agriculture and biomedical to cosmetics. Glycolipids are a popular group of BS that include rhamnolipids, sophorolipids, mannosylerythritol, trehalose lipids, xylolipids and cellobiose lipids. Lipopeptides e.

Transforming Nanocrystals into Superhard Boron Carbide Nanostructures.

Boron carbide (BC) possesses a large potential as a structural material owing to its lightness, refractory character, and outstanding mechanical properties. However, its large-scale industrialization is set back by its tendency to amorphize when subjected to an external stress. In the present work, we design a path toward nanostructured boron carbide with greatly enhanced hardness and resistance to amorphization.

Water-accommodated fractions of heavy and light oils impact DNA integrity, embryonic development, and immune system of Japanese medaka at early life stages.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous contaminants generally found in complex mixtures. PAHs are known to cause pleiotropic effects on living organisms, including developmental defects, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and immunotoxicity, and endocrine disruptions. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the toxicity of water-accommodated fractions (WAFs) of oils in two life stages of the Japanese medaka, larvae and juveniles.