Telepharmacy is a rapidly growing area of communication within pharmaceutical care delivery, especially in rural areas. The purpose of this literature review is to determine how telepharmacy is currently being practiced within community and ambulatory pharmacy settings, its effectiveness, and how it is being regulated across the United States. A literature review was performed using PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and the Google search engine. State-specific rules were researched using board of pharmacy and legislative online resources. Telepharmacy has been successfully implemented within community pharmacy settings through the creation of remote dispensing sites. The increasing focus of state regulations on telepharmacy services and practices shows the growth and acceptance of this modality of pharmacy practice. There is wide variation among state regulations pertaining to the setup and operation of telepharmacies. Trends in telemedicine show that telepharmaceutical care is likely to continue to expand as it allows for a better allocation of resources and access to more patients. However, research needs to be conducted to specifically analyze the value and place for telepharmacy services.

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Nanofiltration (NF) membranes have been used for different applications in water treatment. In this work, we studied two facile surficial adhesive functionalization processes using polydopamine (pDA) and a metal–organic framework (MOFs) and investigated their individual and synergistic effects on membrane rejection, permeability, and antifouling properties. The copper MOF nanoparticles (Cu-MOF) were synthesized and incorporated with the pDA for surface coating of NF membranes using two different static (dip-coating) and dynamic (filtration-assisted) fabrication processes. All of the functionalized membranes were characterized completely, and the effects of pDA and Cu-MOF separately and together on the membrane physicochemical properties were identified. The results showed that the surface functionalization by only pDA enhanced the dye rejection from 22% (blank) to 98% (pDA-functionalized membrane). The dip-coating approach resulted in uniform polymerization of pDA on the membrane surface, while the filtration-assisted technique generated a deficient pDA layer. The incorporation of Cu-MOF into the pDA layer improved the permeability of the pDA-functionalized membrane by increasing the hydrophilicity of membranes and providing more water pathways due to the porous structure of MOFs. In addition, the molecular dynamics (MD) investigation of MOF-functionalized membranes revealed the role of embedded Cu-MOF charge repulsion mechanisms in the rejection of anionic and cationic dyes.

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) represent one of the largest classes of porous crystalline materials. MOFs have been increasingly applied as functionalizing agents for membranes because of their porosity, high surface area, small particle size, aspect ratio control, tuneability, compatibility with a polymeric network, and exuberance of diverse functional groups. In this comprehensive review paper, we discuss achievements, opportunities, and challenges related to the functionalization of different types of membranes using MOFs for water and wastewater treatment and desalination. The current synthesis and fabrication approaches of MOF-functionalized membranes were identified and critically reviewed. The effects of MOFs on membrane performance, including permeation, selectivity, and antifouling, were discussed. Also, the application of MOF-functionalized membranes in aqueous environments for conventional applications such as heavy metal removal and emerging applications such as resource recovery was enunciated. Finally, recommendations and future directions were provided for further improvement in the field of MOF-functionalized membranes for water treatment and reuse.

Due to adverse health effects and the broad sources of per-and polyfluoroakyl substances (PFAS), PFAS removal is a critical research area in water purification. We demonstrate the functionalization of thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber nanofiltration (HFN) membranes by MXene nanosheets during the interfacial polymerization (IP) process for enhanced removal of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) from water. A MXenepolyamide (PA) selective layer was fabricated on top of a polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber support via IP of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and a mixture of piperazine (PIP) and MXene nanosheets to form MXene-PA thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes. Incorporating MXene nanosheets during the IP process tuned the morphology and negative surface charge of the selective layer, resulting in enhanced PFOS rejection from 72% (bare TFC) to more than 96% (0.025 wt % MXene TFN), while the water permeability was also increased from 13.19 (bare TFC) to 29.26 LMH/bar (0.025 wt % MXene TFN). Our results demonstrate that both electrostatic interaction and size exclusion are the main factors governing the PFOS rejection, and both are determined by PA selective layer structural and chemical properties. The lamella structure and interlayer of MXene nanosheets inside the PA layer provided different transport mechanisms for water, ions, and PFAS molecules, resulting in enhanced water permeability and PFAS rejection due to traveling through the membrane by both diffusions through the PA layer and the MXene intralayer channels. MXene nanosheets showed very promising capability as a 2D additive for tuning the structural and chemical properties of the PA layer at the permeability-rejection tradeoff.

The San Francisco Bay Area (Bay Area) leads the United States and California in the rate of electric vehicle (EV) adoption. However, EVs only represent 3% of vehicles driving on Bay Area roads. Widespread EV adoption requires that all Bay Area residents participate in the EV revolution regardless of demographics or geography. Equitable access to EVs will ensure that all Bay Area residents benefit from improved air quality, lower fuel and maintenance costs, and a better driving experience. Below, we delve into the unique EV market in the Bay Area and present information and insights from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s (Air District) EV programs.

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), a key enzyme in tetrahydrofolate-mediated biosynthetic pathways, has a structural motif known to be highly conserved over a wide range of organisms. Given its critical role in purine and amino acid synthesis, DHFR is a wellestablished therapeutic target for treating a wide range of prokaryotic and eukaryotic infections as well as certain types of cancer. Here we present a structural-based computer analysis of bacterial (Bacilli) and plasmid DHFR evolution. We generated a structure-based sequence alignment using 7 wild-type DHFR x-ray crystal structures obtained from the RCSB Protein Data Bank and 350 chromosomal and plasmid homology models we generated from sequences obtained from the NCBI Protein Database. We used these alignments to compare active site and non-active site conservation in terms of amino acid residues, secondary structure and amino acid residue class. With respect to amino acid sequences and residue classes, active-site positions in both plasmid and chromosomal DHFR are significantly more conserved than non-active site positions. Secondary structure conservation was similar for active site and non-active site positions. Plasmid-encoded DHFR proteins have greater degree of sequence and residue class conservation, particularly in sequence positions associated with a network of concerted protein motions, than chromosomalencoded DHFR proteins. These structure-based were used to build DHFR specific phylogenetic trees from which evidence for horizontal gene transfer was identified.