Estrogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are natural hormones, synthetic compounds or industrial chemicals that mimic estrogens due to their structural similarity with estrogen's functional moieties. They typically enter aquatic environments through wastewater treatment plant effluents or runoff from intensive livestock operations. Globally, most natural and synthetic estrogens in receiving aquatic environments are in the low ng/L range, while industrial chemicals (such as bisphenol A, nonylphenol and octylphenol) are present in the μg to low mg/L range. These environmental concentrations often exceed laboratory-based predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) and have been evidenced to cause negative reproductive impacts on resident aquatic biota. In vertebrates, such as fish, a well-established indicator of estrogen-mediated endocrine disruption is overexpression of the egg yolk protein precursor vitellogenin (Vtg) in males. Although the vertebrate Vtg has high sensitivity and specificity to estrogens, and the molecular basis of its estrogen inducibility has been well studied, there is growing ethical concern over the use of vertebrate animals for contaminant monitoring. The potential utility of the invertebrate Vtg as a biomonitor for environmental estrogens has therefore gained increasing attention. Here we review evidence providing support that the molluscan Vtg holds promise as an invertebrate biomarker for exposure to estrogens. Unlike vertebrates, estrogen signalling in invertebrates remains largely unclarified and the classical genomic pathway only partially explains estrogen-mediated activation of Vtg. In light of this, in the latter part of this review, we summarise recent progress towards understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the activation of the molluscan Vtg gene by estrogens and present a hypothetical model of the interplay between genomic and non-genomic pathways in the transcriptional regulation of the gene.

Sustainable remediation is a new way of thinking and acting in the management of contaminated sites. This research aims to identify and structure the state-of-the-art of sustainable remediation from the risk management and stakeholder involvement perspective. A systematic and bibliometric study of scientific production was performed on scientific papers indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases with the objectives: 1) to select a bibliographic portfolio that is aligned with the perception of the researchers in regard to theme, 2) to perform a bibliometric analysis of the selected bibliographic portfolio, and 3) to conduct a thematic synthesis and identify the integration of sustainable remediation from the risk management and stakeholder involvement perspective. The results indicated that although sustainable remediation is a recent theme it presents a promising field for development worldwide, verified by the growing number of publications in recent years. A change is observed in the way risk management is considered with the rise of sustainable remediation, demonstrated by different approaches in publications. Likewise, the involvement of stakeholders is widely discussed, and the importance of their participation in decision-making processes in the field of sustainable remediation is identified. This research brings several and new contributions as it provides with a detailed overview and guidance about the main characteristics and peculiarities as well as what already exists, the form to approach, the advances and what still needs to be improved so that the perception of stakeholders and risk management are better understood within the context of sustainable remediation.

The phenylpyrazole insecticide, fipronil, isused for the eradication of insects in agriculture, which also exposes various non-target groups such as birds and animals. Our aim was to assess the cardiac and pulmonary consequences of sub-acute administration of fipronil (¹∕₅ LD₅₀; 2.26 mg/kg) in the Japanese quail for fifteen days and to determine the tissue recovery over a period of 60 days. Fipronil exposure led to a significant decrease in the body weight of the treated birds. Its exposure also induced cardiac and pulmonary damage of varying degrees. Fipronil increased the lipid peroxide (LPO) and nitric oxide (NO) contents as well as indices of tissue injury in the serum of exposed birds. Furthermore, it decreased the antioxidant indices in both the organs. Most of these changes gradually reversed and the histological changes, particularly of the heart, reversed completely by day-60 of recovery. Furthermore, alterations in the mRNA gene expressions of Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), Interleukin 6 (IL-6), and Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were monitored by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In both the tissues, a significant up-regulation of the transcripts was recorded after fipronil administration, which was reversed during the recovery period in the heart tissue except for TNF-α, while the transcripts in the lung tissue declined non-significantly. This study showed that the exposure of Japanese quail to fipronil has a profound negative impact on heart and lung including oxidative injury and tissue inflammation. Fipronil can induce the activity of NF-κB inflammatory -signaling pathway that play a role in the associated tissue inflammation. Although most of the cardiac changes could be reversed after a recovery period of sixty days, the pulmonary changes did not reverse much.

Biomass burning (BB), such as, crop field burning during the post-harvest season, emits large amounts of air pollutants (e.g., PM₂.₅) that severely impact human health. However, it is challenging to evaluate the impact of BB on PM₂.₅ due to uncertainties in the size and location of sources as well as their temporal and spatial variability. This study focused on the impacts of BB on local pollution as well as the long-range transport of PM₂.₅ in Northeast Asia resulting from a huge field BB event in Northeast China during the autumn of 2014. Air quality simulations using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model were conducted in the year 2014 over the horizontal domains covering Northeast Asia, including the Japanese mainland. In the baseline simulation (Base), field BB emissions were derived from Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN) v1.5 for the year 2014. The model reasonably captured the daily mean PM₂.₅ mass concentrations, however, it underestimated concentrations in autumn around Northeast China where irregular field BB following the harvest occurred frequently. To address the underestimation of emissions from BB sources in China, another simulation with boosted BB sources from cropland area (FINN20_crop) was conducted in addition to the Base simulation. The model performance of FINN20_crop was significantly improved and showed smaller biases and higher indices of agreement between simulated and observed values in comparison to those of Base. To evaluate long-range transport of PM₂.₅ from BB sources in China towards Japan, CMAQ with brute-force method (CMAQ/BFM)-estimated BB contributions for Base and FINN20_crop cases were compared with Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF)-estimated BB contributions at Noto Peninsula in Japan. The CMAQ/BFM-estimated contributions from FINN20_crop were in greater agreement with the PMF-estimated contributions. The comparison of BB contributions estimated by the two contrasting models also indicated large underestimations in the current BB emission estimates.

Silver ions are among the predominant anthropogenic introduced pollutants in aquatic systems. As silver has effects on species at all trophic levels the community composition in aquatic habitats can be changed as a result of silver stress. The response of planktonic protists to environmental stressors is particularly important as they act both as producers and consumers in complex planktonic communities. Chrysomonad flagellates are of major interest, since this group includes heterotrophic, mixotrophic and phototrophic taxa, and therefore allows analysis of silver stress in organisms with contrasting nutritional strategies independent of a potential taxonomic bias. In a series of lab experiments, we compared the response of different trophic chrysophyte strains to low (5 μg L⁻¹), medium (10 μg L⁻¹) and high (20 μg L⁻¹) nominal Ag concentrations in combination with changes in temperature and light intensity (phototrophs), temperature and food concentration (heterotrophs), or a combination of the above settings (mixotrophs). All tested strains were negatively affected by silver in their growth rates. The phototrophic strains reacted strongly to silver stress, whereas light intensity and temperature had only minor effects on growth rates. For heterotrophic strains, high food concentration toned down the effect of silver, whereas temperatures outside the growth optimum had a combined stress effect. The mixotrophic strains reacted differently depending on whether their nutritional mode was dominated by heterotrophy or by phototrophy. The precise response pattern across all variables was uniquely different for every single species we tested. The present work contributes to a deeper understanding of the effects of environmental stressors on complex planktonic communities. It indicates that silver will negatively impact planktonic communities and may create shifts in their composition and functioning.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an important factor affecting ambient air quality, and furniture production is one of the important sources of VOC pollution. High VOC concentrations have adverse effects on the environment and worker welfare in furniture factories. In order to control VOC emissions in a furniture workshop, the VOC species and concentration distributions were examined. Qualitative analysis of VOC species was carried out by headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The results showed that VOCs from a furniture workshop were mainly 12 substances including acetate, toluene, and xylene compounds. The heights and representative positions of VOCs released during the coating process were determined, and the results showed that VOC concentrations depended on environmental and height factors. The concentration of VOCs decreased with increasing altitude and reached a maximum concentration at 0.4 m above the ground. Because the concentration of VOCs varied with temperature, humidity, air pressure, and amount of spray paint, this paper established functional relationships between VOC concentrations and temperature, humidity, air pressure, and amount of spray paint. These results provide a theoretical basis for furniture workshops to automatically monitor and control VOCs.VOCs from the furniture workshop were mainly composed of 10 substances including acetate, toluene, and xylene compounds.

Whilst numerous studies have explored the spatial patterns and underlying causes of PM₂.₅, little attention has been paid to the spatial heterogeneity of the factors affecting PM₂.₅. In this study, a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was used to explore the strength and direction of nexus between various factors and PM₂.₅ in Chinese cities. A comprehensive interpretive framework was established, composed of 18 determinants spanning the three categories of natural conditions, socioeconomic factors, and city features. Our results indicate that PM₂.₅ concentration levels were spatially heterogeneous and markedly higher in cities in eastern China than in cities in the west of the country. Based on the results of GWR, significant spatial heterogeneity was identified in both the direction and strength of the determinants at the local scale. Among all of the natural variables, elevation was found to be statistically significant with its effects on PM₂.₅ in 95.60% of the cities and it correlated negatively with PM₂.₅ in 99.63% cities, with its effect gradually weakening from the eastern to the western parts of China. The variable of built-up areas emerged as the strongest variable amongst the socioeconomic variables studied; it maintained a positive significant relationship in cities located in the Pearl River Delta and surrounding areas, while in other cities it exhibited a negative relationship to PM₂.₅. The highest coefficients were located in cities in northeast China. As the strongest variable amongst the six landscape factors, patch density maintained a positive relationship in part of cities. While in cities in the northeast regions, patch density exhibited a negative relationship with PM₂.₅, revealing that increasing urban fragmentation was conducive to PM₂.₅ reductions in those regions. These empirical results provide a basis for the formulation of targeted and differentiated air quality improvement measures in the task of regional PM₂.₅ governances.

Microplastics (<5 mm) are distributed ubiquitously in natural environments. The majority of microplastics in aquatic environments are shown to have rough surfaces due to various weathering processes (secondary microplastics; SMP), while laboratory studies predominantly utilise pristine microplastics (primary microplastics; PMP). Here we present the results from a study comparing the chronic effects of pristine PMP and artificially weathered SMP to three different Cladoceran species (Daphnia magna, Daphnia pulex, Ceriodaphnia dubia). We assessed the impact of PMP and SMP on reproductive output using various measured parameters, including time of first brood, size of first brood, size of first three broods, cumulative number of neonates, total number of broods and terminal length of test animals. Our results show that reproductive output of all species declined in a dose-dependent manner. The No Observed Effect Concentration (NOEC) was less than the lowest tested concentration (102 p/mL) for at least one measured endpoint for all species and both PMP and SMP. Further, it was inferred that species sensitivity varied inversely with body size for most endpoints, resulting in C. dubia being the most sensitive species; and D. magna being the least sensitive species under study. In addition, PMP appeared to have greater toxic potential as compared to SMP. This study is the first to directly compare the chronic toxicity of both pristine and weathered microplastic particles on three freshwater toxicological model organisms. Our results indicate that sensitivity in reproduction and growth to microplastics may differ between species and type of microplastic exposed; highlighting the importance of using multiple species and structural types of particles.

The consumption of tonnes of anti-tubercular and other anti-microbial compounds for the control of the tuberculosis epidemic and other opportunistic diseases associated with human immunodeficiency virus presents tuberculosis-endemic countries such as South Africa, with a problem regarding the occurrence and fate of these compounds in the aquatic environment. The majority of these compounds are not readily degradable and could persist in the aquatic environment with potential detrimental effect on the aquatic microbiota ecosystem, development and dissemination of anti-microbial resistance as well as chronic toxicity in humans due to long-term exposure. This review summarises and discusses the occurrence, fate and potential adverse effects of the commonly administered anti-tubercular compounds in the aquatic environment in tuberculosis-endemic countries and South Africa in particular. It further attempts to identify information gaps in the literature regarding anti-tubercular compounds in the environment that needs further investigation so that their risk can be comprehensively assessed and impact mitigated.

Development of low-cost cathode materials for Plant-Sediment Microbial Fuel Cells (P-SMFCs) has gained increasing interest, due to improved performance levels in terms of power and pollutant removal. A novel low cost three-dimensional cathode prepared by simple three-step strategy with growth of Co₃O₄ in-situ biofilm was successfully prepared. Different cathodes were applied to the six parallel P-SMFCs systems (reactor: R1-R6), such as graphite felt (GF), Pt/C, GF@Co₃O₄ (non-bonding Co₃O₄ nanowires on GF), GF@SG-Co₃O₄ (using argon as shielding gas (SG)). Its performances (R1, R2: control groups) were evaluated by electricity generation and Cr(VI) reduction at initial cadmium concentrations (4.97, 10.29 and 21.16 mg L⁻¹). A significant Cr(VI) removal efficiency of 99.76%, maximum power density of 75.12 ± 2.90 mW m⁻² and Cr(VI) adsorption capacity of 1.67 mg g⁻¹ were obtained at initial Cr(VI) concentration of 21.16 mg L⁻¹ with non-bonding GF@Co₃O₄ and bio-GF@SG-Co₃O₄ as cathodes. This indicated that these two materials were better than others (GF, Pt/C and GF@Co₃O₄) as cathodes. Characterization analysis including scanning electron microscope (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), Polarization curve, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed that high current generation Cr(VI) removal mainly attributed to transportation of plants, adsorption of bio-cathode, formation of a relatively high concentration region and abundant oxygen vacancies of GF@SG-Co₃O₄. The results show that P-SMFCs with GF@SG-Co₃O₄ cathode may be a potentially novel approach for remediating Cr(VI) contaminated waster or soil.