High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ion spray mass spectrometry in the tandem mode with both negative and positive ionization was used for investigating a variety of polyphenolic compounds in four genotypes of Fragaria vesca berries. About 60 phenolic compounds belonging to the compound classes of phenolic acids, ellagitannins, ellagic acid derivatives, flavonols, monomeric and oligomeric flavanols, dihydrochalcones and anthocyanins were reported, providing for the first time a quite complete picture of polyphenolic composition of F. vesca berries. Some of the polyphenols herein investigated, such as a tris-galloyl-hexahydroxydiphenoyl-hexose, two castalagin/vescalagin-like isomers and peonidin-malonylglucoside, were described for the first time. Principal component analysis applied on original HPLC-MS/MS data, acquired in multiple reaction monitoring mode, successfully discriminated the four investigated cultivars on the basis of their polyphenolic composition, highlighting the fundamental role of mass spectrometry for food characterization.

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Epilithic river biofilms characterize the rock surfaces along the Acquarossa river (Viterbo, Italy); they are in part red and in part black colored, maintaining a well-defined borderline. This peculiarity has raised questions about the biotic and abiotic phenomena that might avoid the mixing of the two biofilms. In this study, the structuring of bacterial communities in black and red epilithic biofilm in the Acquarossa river has been investigated with both culture dependent and independent approaches. Data obtained highlighted a (very) different taxonomic composition of black and red epilithons bacterial communities, dominated by Acinetobacter sp. and iron-oxidizing bacteria, respectively. The chemical characterization of both river water and biofilms revealed a substantial heavy metals pollution of the environment; heavy metals were also differentially accumulated in red and black epilithons. Overall, our data revealed that the structuring of red and black epilithons might be affected mainly by the antagonistic interactions exhibited by bacterial genera dominating the two biofilms. These findings suggest that biotic factors might be responsible for the structuring of natural bacterial communities, suggesting that there is a selection of populations at very small scale, and that different populations might compete for different niches.

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The occurrence of pharmaceuticals and other hazardous substances in surface waters and drinking water and the long-term exposure may represent a potential risk for both the environment and human health. Many studies have evidenced that conventional technologies used for wastewater treatment do not completely remove pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) residues, which can be detected in receiving waters at concentrations ranging from few ng L(-1) until more than μg L(-1). Nanomaterials are of fundamental importance in the current research efforts to develop more efficient water treatment and remediation systems in place of conventional technologies. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the most relevant works available in literature reporting the use of nanosorbents (nanotubes and zeolites), nanofiltration (NF) and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the removal of PPCPs compounds from water and wastewater. The literature review of laboratory- and pilot-scale studies have shown that nanomaterials are promising tools in environmental cleaning processes and water purification, even if more researches are necessary.