Publications by authors named "Ana B Martinez-Piernas"

Glyphosate (GLY) is the most widely used herbicide globally. Despite concerns regarding its potential adverse effects on human health and the environment, its use continues to grow each year. Following application, a substantial proportion of glyphosate infiltrates the soil, where it can degrade into transformation products such as aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), which is much more persistent than the parent compound.

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This study evaluates the combined use of H₂O₂ and thermally activated S₂O₈⁻ (T-PDS) for the degradation of phenolic compounds (PhOH) in wastewater, aiming to limit or eliminate sludge production. Phenolic compounds are common in industrial effluents, and their effective removal is crucial for reducing environmental impact. The study employs Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to optimise critical variables such as temperature, pH, and oxidant concentrations.

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Microcystins (MCs) are cyclic heptapeptides originating from various cyanobacteria in eutrophic aquatic environments. Their potential consequences on ecosystems and public health underscores the need to explore MCs' occurrence. In this study, liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) analysis and a suspect screening workflow supported by open-source tools were employed for the determination of MCs in freshwater and biota samples from a eutrophic dam in Uruguay.

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The pollution of natural waters by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) is one of the pressing problems due to their global distribution and potential negative effects on the environment and human health. In rural areas with lower population density and limited industrial development, less contamination is expected. However, the lack of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) or their poor removal efficiency can lead to significant input of pollutants.

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Pesticides are considered one of the main sources of contamination of surface waters, especially in rural areas highly influenced by traditional agricultural practices. The objective of this work was to evaluate the impact caused by pesticides and their transformation products (TPs) related to olive groves in surface waters with strong agricultural pressure. 11 streams were monitored during four sampling campaigns over 2 years.

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Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is currently the gold-standard technique for the analysis of non-volatile small organic molecules. However, one-dimensional liquid chromatography (1D-LC) cannot efficiently deal with mixtures of analytes with different physicochemical properties and, thus, specific chromatographic behaviour. As an alternative, this work proposes a two-dimensional liquid chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry (2D-LC-HRMS) approach for the simultaneous analysis of compounds with different polarities.

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In food analysis, conventional one-dimensional liquid chromatography methods sometimes lack sufficient separation power due to the complexity and heterogeneity of the analyzed matrices. Therefore, the use of two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) turns out to be a powerful tool to consider, especially when coupled to mass spectrometry (MS). This review presents the most remarkable 2D-LC-MS food applications reported in the last 10 years, including a critical discussion of the multiple approaches, modulation strategies as well as the importance of the optimization of the different analytical aspects that will condition the 2D-LC-MS performance.

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In food analysis, conventional one-dimensional liquid chromatography methods sometimes lack sufficient separation power due to the complexity and heterogeneity of the analysed matrices. Therefore, the use of two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) turns out to be a powerful tool to consider, especially when coupled to mass spectrometry (MS). This review presents the most remarkable 2D-LC-MS food applications reported in the last 10 years, including a critical discussion of the multiple approaches, modulation strategies as well as the importance of the optimisation of the different analytical aspects that will condition the 2D-LC-MS performance.

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In this study, a full cycle of agricultural reuse of agro-food wastewater (synthetic fresh-cut wastewater, SFCWW) at pilot plant scale has been investigated. Treated SFCWW by ozonation and two solar processes (HO/solar, Fe-EDDHA/HO/solar) was used to irrigate two raw-eaten crops (lettuce and radish) grown in peat. Two foodborne pathogens (E.

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This paper deals with the removal of two last-resort antibiotics, namely imipenem and meropenem, in aqueous solutions employing heterogeneous photocatalysis with TiO under natural solar radiation at pilot plant scale. It was found that TiO photocatalysis is a very efficient technique for the degradation of both compounds in aqueous solutions, albeit it's relatively low quantum efficiency. At the experimental conditions employed in the present work (compound parabolic collectors photoreactor) the optimal TiO concentration was about 50 mg L.

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In this study, disinfection of urban wastewater (UWW) with two solar processes (HO -20 mg/L and photo-Fenton 10 mg/L-Fe/20 mg/L-HO at natural water pH) at pilot scale using a 60 L compound parabolic collector reactor for irrigation of two raw-eaten vegetables (lettuce and radish) has been investigated. Several microbial targets (total coliforms, , spp., and spp.

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Agriculture is considered as the main source of water contamination by pesticides. However, food packaging or processing industries are also recognised as relevant point sources of contamination by these compounds, not yet investigated in depth. The objective of this work has been to improve current knowledge about the presence and concentration of pesticides in the effluent of a food processing industry, as well as to investigate their main transformation products (TPs).

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In many regions, reuse of reclaimed water (RW) is a necessity for irrigation. The presence of organic microcontaminants (OMCs) in RW and their translocation to plants may represent a risk of human exposure. Nevertheless, information available about real field crops is scarce and focused on a limited number of compounds.

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This paper deals with the photochemical fate of two representative carbapenem antibiotics, namely imipenem and meropenem, in aqueous solutions under solar radiation. The analytical method employed for the determination of the target compounds in various aqueous matrices, such as ultrapure water, municipal wastewater treatment plant effluents, and river water, at environmentally relevant concentrations, was liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid triple quadrupole-linear ion trap-mass spectrometry. The absorption spectra of both compounds were measured in aqueous solutions at pH values from 6 to 8, and both compounds showed a rather strong absorption band centered at about 300 nm, while their molar absorption coefficient was in the order from 9 × 10-10 L mol cm.

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The sunlight/H2O2 process has recently been considered as a sustainable alternative option compared to other solar driven advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in advanced treatment of municipal wastewater (WW) to be reused for crop irrigation. Accordingly, in this study sunlight/H2O2 was used as disinfection/oxidation treatment for urban WW treatment plant effluent in a compound parabolic collector photoreactor to assess subsequent cross-contamination of lettuce and soil by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) (determined by QuEChERS extraction and LC-QqLIT-MS/MS analysis) and antibiotic resistant (AR) bacteria after irrigation with treated WW. Three CECs (carbamazepine (CBZ), flumequine (FLU), and thiabendazole (TBZ) at 100 μg L(-1)) and two AR bacterial strains (E.

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