An overview of analytical methodologies for the determination of antibiotics in environmental waters

The widespread occurrence of antibiotics as contaminants in the aquatic environment has increased attention in the last years. The concern over the release of antibiotics into the environment is related primarily to the potential for the development of antimicrobial resistance among microorganisms. This article presents an overview of analytical methodologies for the determination of quinolone (Qs) and fluoroquinolone (FQs), macrolide (MLs), tetracycline (TCs), sulfonamide (SAs) antibiotics and trimethoprim (TMP) in different environmental waters. The analysis of these antibiotics has usually been carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) or tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and to a lesser extent by ultraviolet (UV) or fluorescence detection (FD). A very important step before LC analysis is sample preparation and extraction leading to elimination of interferences and prevention of matrix effect and preconcentration of target analytes.     

On the Gray index conjecture for phantom maps

We study the Gray index, a numerical invariant for phantom maps. It has been conjectured that the only phantom map between finite-type spaces with infinite Gray index is the constant map. We disprove this conjecture by constructing a counter example. We also prove that this conjecture is valid if the target spaces of the phantom maps are restricted to being simply connected finite complexes.As a result of the counter example, we can show that SNT^∞(X) can be non-trivial for some space X of finite type.