Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), a xenobiotic, is widely used in industries as a softener for polyvinyl chloride resins. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether DBP induces oxidative stress in testes of Wistar rats. DBP at doses of 500, 1,000 and 1,500 mg/kg b.wt. (doses below LD₅₀) was given orally for 7 days. After 24 hrs from the last dose, the animals were killed under ether anesthesia. Nonsignificant increase in testicular weight was observed. Histological studies indicated a dose-related degeneration of germinal, Leydig and Sertoli cells along with loss of spermatozoa in the lumen. The concentrations of malondialdehyde (TBARS), lipid hydroperoxides, water-soluble antioxidant capacity, glutathione-S-transferase, catalase and trace elements—zinc and copper increased while concentrations of total protein, lipid soluble antioxidant capacity, ascorbic acid, glutathione, total superoxide dismutase (SOD), Cu–ZnSOD, MnSOD, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and metallothionein decreased at all the dose levels. The data suggests that the cellular functions were adversely affected due to impairment of spermatogenesis indicative of oxidative stress as evident by altered antioxidative defense system which appears to mediate through hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis. The spectrum of changes in testes reflects its susceptibility to phthalate even at low dose with the potential to interfere with critical reproductive function.

Heavy-metal-contaminated soil is one of the major environmental pollution issues all over the world. In this study, two low-cost amendments, inorganic eggshell and organic banana stem, were applied to slightly alkaline soil for the purpose of in situ immobilization of Pb, Cd, and Zn. The artificially metal-contaminated soil was treated with 5 % eggshell or 10 % banana stem. To simulate the rainfall conditions, a metal leaching experiment for a period of 12 weeks was designed, and the total concentrations of the metals in the leachates were determined every 2 weeks. The results from the metal leaching analysis revealed that eggshell amendment generally reduced the concentrations of Pb, Cd, and Zn in the leachates, whereas banana stem amendment was effective only on the reduction of Cd concentration in the leachates. A sequential extraction analysis was carried out at the end of the experiment to find out the speciation of the heavy metals in the amended soils. Eggshell amendment notably decreased mobility of Pb, Cd, and Zn in the soil by transforming their readily available forms to less accessible fractions. Banana stem amendment also reduced exchangeable form of Cd and increased its residual form in the soil.

Health effects from air pollution are severe concern of today’s world. The study was undertaken to assess the effects of air pollution on hematological profiles of trained and untrained males of West Bengal. The sample consisted of 60 sprinters, 60 footballers, and 120 untrained males, subdivided into two groups from two zones, namely, Tollygunge and Sonarpur. Suspended particulate matter (SPM), respirable particulate matter (RPM), oxides of sulfur (SOₓ), and oxides of nitrogen (NOₓ) of ambient air were monitored for both zones. Height and weight of all the subjects were measured. Venous blood sample was drawn from the cubital vein, and the red blood cell count (TC), packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were determined by standard methods. Results revealed that SPM, RPM, SOₓ, and NOₓ concentrations were significantly higher in the Tollygunge area than Sonarpur. TC, PCV, and Hb concentration of untrained males were significantly higher than footballers in both regions but no significant difference were observed when compared with sprinters, except the Hb concentration in the Tollygunge zone. On the other hand, all hematological parameters of both trained and untrained males were significantly higher in the Sonarpur area than Tollygunge. It was concluded that environmental air pollutants might influence hematological profile adversely both in trained and sedentary males. However, further investigation in this area is needed.

From screening 23 plant species, it was found that Pterocarpus indicus (C₃) and Sansevieria trifasciata (crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM)) were the most effective in polar gaseous trimethylamine (TMA) uptake, reaching up to 90 % uptake of initial TMA (100 ppm) within 8 h, and could remove TMA at cycles 1–4 without affecting photosystem II (PSII) photochemistry. Up to 55 and 45 % of TMA was taken up by S. trifasciata stomata and leaf epicuticular wax, respectively. During cycles 1–4, interestingly, S. trifasciata changed its stomata apertures, which was directly induced by gaseous TMA and light treatments. In contrast, for P. indicus the leaf epicuticular wax and stem were the major pathways of TMA removal, followed by stomata; these pathways accounted for 46, 46, and 8 %, respectively, of TMA removal percentages. Fatty acids, particularly tetradecanoic (C₁₄) acid and octadecanoic (C₁₈) acid, were found to be the main cuticular wax components in both plants, and were associated with TMA removal ability. Moreover, the plants could degrade TMA via multiple metabolic pathways associated with carbon/nitrogen interactions. In CAM plants, one of the crucial pathways enabled 78 % of TMA to be transformed directly to dimethylamine (DMA) and methylamine (MA), which differed from C₃ plant pathways. Various metabolites were also produced for further detoxification and mineralization so that TMA was completely degraded by plants.

The aim of this study was to investigate seasonal heavy metal accumulation and translocation characteristics of the narrow-leaved cattail (Typha angustifolia L.). Sediment and plant samples were taken seasonally from six different locations identified for this purpose, and Pb, Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn, and Cd concentrations as well as accumulation factor (AF) and translocation factor (TF) values were determined. It was noted that the metal concentrations in the plant roots, rhizomes, and leaves differed seasonally. The metals mainly accumulated in the plant roots, and Zn was the element that accumulated the most in the plant roots, rhizomes, and leaves. The highest Zn concentration was observed to be 56.47 μg g⁻¹ in the rhizome sample from the summer. In all the seasons, the AF value of Cd was observed to be above 1. In addition, the TF value was below 1 for all elements in every season. While the element having lowest uptake and translocation ratio was Cr, and the highest uptake and translocation ratio was found for Cd. The AF and TF values suggest that the plant would be most appropriate for use in phytostabilization.

The objective of this study was to explore the relationships between the distribution of some meroplanktonic species and water temperature. Meroplankton larvae abundance of bivalves, and barnacles and water temperature fluctuations were studied from February 2011 to January 2012 at five stations in Ghar El Melh lagoon (GML) Mediterranean Sea, northern Tunisia). According to redundancy analysis (RDA), a significant difference was found in the distribution of larvae among the seasons (F = 10.28, p < 0.001); summer and autumn appear to be the period of bivalve larvae development, whereas the arrival of barnacle larvae coincided with winter and spring. The generalized additive models (GAMs) show strong correlation of bivalve larvae with high temperature (F = 23.2; p < 0.001) and the affinity of barnacle larvae to low temperature values (F = 8.41; p = 0.004). This environmental parameter accounted for 26 % of the deviance in variability in larvae abundance. The development process of many generations of larvae may therefore have been predetermined by temperature.

The preparation, characterization, and performance evaluation of an innovative mesoporous activated carbon (C-XHIT) were conducted in this study. Comparative evaluation with commercial carbons (C-PS and C-ZJ15) and long-term performance evaluation of C-XHIT were conducted in small-scale system-A (S-A) and pilot-scale system-B (S-B-1 and S-B-2 in series), respectively, for treating water from Songhua River. The cumulative uptake of micropollutants varied with KBV (water volume fed to columns divided by the mass of carbons, m³ H₂O/kg carbon) was employed in the performance evaluation. The results identified that mesoporous and microporous volumes were simultaneously well-developed in C-XHIT. Higher mesoporosity (63.94 %) and average pore width (37.91 Å) of C-XHIT ensured a higher adsorption capacity for humic acid compared to C-PS and C-ZJ15. When the KBV of S-A reached 12.58 m³ H₂O/kg carbon, cumulative uptake of organic pollutants achieved by C-XHIT increased by 32.82 and 156.29 % for DOC (QC) and 22.53 and 112.48 % for UV₂₅₄ (QUV) compared to C-PS and C-ZJ15, respectively; in contrast, the adsorption capacity of NH₄ ⁺-N did not improve significantly. C-XHIT achieved high average removal efficiencies for DOC (77.43 ± 16.54 %) and UV₂₅₄ (83.18 ± 13.88 %) in S-B over 253 days of operation (KBV = 62 m³ H₂O/kg carbon). Adsorption dominated the removal of DOC and UV₂₅₄ in the initial phases of KBV (0–15 m³ H₂O/kg carbon), and simultaneous biodegradation and adsorption were identified as the mechanisms for organic pollutant uptake at KBV above 25 m³ H₂O/kg carbon. The average rates contributed by S-B-1 and S-B-2 for QC and QUV were approximately 0.75 and 0.25, respectively. Good linear and exponential correlations were observed between S-A and S-B in terms of QC and QUV obtained by C-XHIT, respectively, for the same KBV ranges, indicating a rapid and cost-saving evaluation method. The linear correlation between mesoporosity and QC (QUV) was also identified by the evolution of the property indices of C-XHIT.

Clogging often leads to a decrease of the treatment performance of wetlands. The aims of this study were to compare the impact of different design and operational variables on the treatment efficiency and clogging processes and to model suspended solid (SS) accumulation within the saturated wetland zone using the Wang-Scholz model. Different vertical-flow constructed wetlands were operated from June 2011 until April 2014. Four treatment periods were assessed: set-up, first year after set-up period, second year after set-up period and diesel spill (for selected filters only). The filter with the highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading but no diesel contamination performed the best in terms of COD and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) removal for the fourth and final treatment period. Filters contaminated by diesel performed worse in terms of COD and BOD but considerably better regarding nitrate-nitrogen removal. Serious clogging phenomena impacting negatively on the treatment performance and the hydraulic conductivity were not observed. Modelling results were generally poor for the set-up period, adequate for the first 2 years after the set-up period and variable after the diesel spill. The Wang-Scholz model performed well for less complex operations.

As the dielectric constant and conductivity of petroleum products are different from those of the pore water in soil, the electrical resistivity characteristics of oil-contaminated soil will be changed by the corresponding oil type and content. The contaminated soil specimens were manually prepared by static compaction method in the laboratory with commercial kaolin clay and diesel oil. The water content and dry density of the first group of soil specimens were controlled at 10 % and 1.58 g/cm³. Corresponding electrical resistivities of the contaminated specimens were measured at the curing periods of 7, 14, and 28 and 90, 120, and 210 days on a modified oedometer cell with an LCR meter. Then, the electrical resistivity characteristics of diesel oil-contaminated kaolin clay were discussed. In order to realize a resistivity-based oil detection method, the other group of oil-contaminated kaolin clay specimens was also made and tested, but the initial water content, oil content, and dry density were controlled at 0~18 %, 0~18 %, 1.30~1.95 g/cm³, respectively. Based on the test data, a resistivity-based artificial neural network (ANN) was developed. It was found that the electrical resistivity of kaolin clay decreased with the increase of oil content. Moreover, there was a good nonlinear relationship between electrical resistivity and corresponding oil content when the water content and dry density were kept constant. The decreasing velocity of the electrical resistivity of oil-contaminated kaolin clay was higher before the oil content of 12 % than after 12 %, which indicated a transition of the soil from pore water-controlled into oil-controlled electrical resistivity characteristics. Through microstructural analysis, the decrease of electrical resistivity could be explained by the increase of saturation degree together with the collapse of the electrical double layer. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) photos indicated that the diesel oil in kaolin clay normally had three kinds of effects including oil filling, coating, and bridging. Finally, a resistivity-based ANN model was established based on the database collected from the experiment data. The performance of the model was proved to be reasonably accepted, which puts forward a possible simple, economic, and effective tool to detect the oil content in contaminated clayey soils just with four basic parameters: wet density, dry density, measured moisture content, and electrical resistivity.

Quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR) for no observed adverse effect levels (NOAEL, mmol/kg/day, in logarithmic units) are suggested. Simplified molecular input line entry systems (SMILES) were used for molecular structure representation. Monte Carlo method was used for one-variable models building up for three different splits into the “visible” training set and “invisible” validation. The statistical quality of the models for three random splits are the following: split 1 n = 180, r ² = 0.718, q ² = 0.712, s = 0.403, F = 454 (training set); n = 17, r ² = 0.544, s = 0.367 (calibration set); n = 21, r ² = 0.61, s = 0.44, r ₘ ² = 0.61 (validation set); split 2 n = 169, r ² = 0.711, q ² = 0.705, s = 0.409, F = 411 (training set); n = 27, r ² = 0.512, s = 0.461 (calibration set); n = 22, r ² = 0.669, s = 0.360, r ₘ ² = 0.63 (validation set); split 3 n = 172, r ² = 0.679, q ² = 0.672, s = 0.420, F = 360 (training set); n = 19, r ² = 0.617, s = 0.582 (calibration set); n = 21, r ² = 0.627, s = 0.367, r ₘ ² = 0.54 (validation set). All models are built according to OCED principles.