Morphological tools can assist in the evaluation of effects of insecticides on non-target insects. Pyriproxyfen, a juvenile hormone analog, is known to interfere with growth and metamorphosis of insects. However, there are studies showing indirect effects on natural enemies, including green lacewings. Few prior studies describe morphological effects of pyriproxyfen on target insect organs, especially on natural enemies. Through morphological tools, this study aimed to characterize the midgut and fat body, both important organs of digestion and great metabolic activity respectively, of the predator Ceraeochrysa claveri after chronic exposure to pyriproxyfen. Larvae of C. claveri were fed Diatraea saccharalis egg clusters treated with pyriproxyfen in solution of 50 or 100 mg a.i. L⁻¹ throughout the larval stage. The biological data revealed significant increases in development time, especially in the third instar, and in cumulative mortality from the prepupal into the pupal stage. Morphological analysis of adult midgut (≤24 h old) showed damage including formation of epithelial folds, intercellular spaces, emission of cytoplasmic protrusions. Both fat body regions presented decrease of lipid droplets, vacuolization of trophocytes and mitochondrial injury featuring a multisystemic action. In both organs, pyriproxyfen exposure induced significant oxidative stress by mitochondrial superoxide production. Cytoprotective responses were induced in midgut and fat body cells by augmenting the number of cytoplasmic granules containing calcium and expression of HSP 90. Both organs proved to be efficient in presenting histopathological alterations, showing the sensitivity and applicability of this morphological tool for evaluating other insecticides in non-target organisms.

The beta-blocker atenolol (ATE), and the selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, venlafaxine (VEN) are frequently detected in municipal wastewater effluents, but little is known about their ecotoxicological effect on aquatic animals. Herein, ATE and VEN were selected to explore their accumulation and global DNA methylation (GDM) in zebrafish tissues after a 30-day exposure. Molecular dynamics (MD) stimulation was used to investigate the toxic mechanism of ATE and VEN exposure. The results demonstrated that ATE and VEN could reduce the condition factor of zebrafish. The bioaccumulation capacity for ATE and VEN was in the order of liver > gut > gill > brain and liver > gut > brain > gill, respectively. After a 30-day recovery, ATE and VEN could still be detected in zebrafish tissues when exposure concentrations were ≥10 μg/L. Moreover, ATE and VEN induced global DNA hypomethylation in different tissues with a dose-dependent manner and their main target tissues were liver and brain. When the exposure concentrations of ATE and VEN were increased to 100 μg/L, the global DNA hypomethylation of liver and brain were reduced to 27% and 18%, respectively. In the same tissue exposed to the same concentration, DNA hypomethylation induced by VEN was more serious than that of ATE. After a 30-day recovery, the global DNA hypomethylations caused by the two drugs were still persistent, and the recovery of VEN was slower than that of ATE. The MD simulation results showed that both ATE and VEN could reduce the catalytic activity of DNA Methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1), while the effect of VEN on the 3D conformational changes of the DNMT1 domain was more significant, resulting in a lower DNA methylation rate. The current study shed new light on the toxic mechanism and potential adverse impacts of ATE and VEN on zebrafish, providing essential information to the further ecotoxicological risk assessment of these drugs in the aquatic environment.

Contamination of aquatic systems with pharmaceuticals, personal care products, steroid hormones, and agrochemicals has been an immense problem for the earth's ecosystem and health impacts. The environmental issues of well-known persistence pollutants, their metabolites, and other micro-pollutants in diverse aquatic systems around the world were collated and exposed in this review assessment. Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) influents and effluents, as well as industrial, hospital, and residential effluents, include detectable concentrations of known and undiscovered persistence pollutants and metabolites. These components have been found in surface water, groundwater, drinking water, and natural water reservoirs receiving treated and untreated effluents. Several studies have found that these persistence pollutants, and also similar recalcitrant pollutants, are hazardous to a variety of non-targeted creatures in the environment. In human and animals, they can also have severe and persistent harmful consequences. Because these pollutants are harmful to aquatic organisms, microbial degradation of these persistence pollutants had the least efficiency. Fortunately, only a few wild and Genetically Modified (GMOs) microbial species have the ability to degrade these PPCPs contaminants. Hence, researchers have been studying the degradation competence of microbial communities in persistence pollutants of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) and respective metabolites for decades, as well as possible degradation processes in various aquatic systems. As a result, this review provides comprehensive information about environmental issues and the degradation of PPCPs and their metabolites, as well as other micro-pollutants, in aquatic systems.

Nanotechnology is a rapidly developing technology that will have a significant impact on product development in the next few years. The technology is already being employed in cutting-edge cosmetic and healthcare products. Nanotechnology and nanoparticles have a strong potential for product and process innovation in the food industrial sector. This is already being demonstrated by food product availability made using nanotechnology. Nanotechnologies will have an impact on food security, packaging materials, delivery systems, bioavailability, and new disease detection materials in the food production chain, contributing to the UN Millennium Development Goals targets. Food products using nanoparticles are already gaining traction into the market, with an emphasis on online sales. This means that pre- and post-marketing regulatory frameworks and risk assessments must meet certain standards. There are potential advantages of nanotechnologies for agriculture, consumers and the food industry at large as they are with other new and growing technologies. However, little is understood about the safety implications of applying nanotechnologies to agriculture and incorporating nanoparticles into food. As a result, policymakers and scientists must move quickly, as regulatory systems appear to require change, and scientists should contribute to these adaptations. Their combined efforts should make it easier to reduce health and environmental impacts while also promoting the economic growth of nanotechnologies in the food supply chain. This review highlighted the benefits of a number of nano enabled agrochemicals/materials, the potential health impacts as well as the risk assessment and risk management for nanoparticles in the agriculture and food production chain.

Current synthesis routes of bismuth oxide nanosheets (BiONS) are relatively complicated, requiring the use of halogens or metalloids. Herein, a facile method to synthesize BiONS without the addition of halogens or other metalloids was developed. The synthesized BiONS were identified to have flake-shaped structures (300–1000 nm in width) with the thickness of 6–10 nm, which were predominantly made of β-Bi₂O₃. Such BiONS were applied to modify the surface of screen-printed carbon electrodes (BiONS-SPCEs) for the development of a robust palladium (Pd²⁺) sensor. After optimizing the electrochemical parameters of the sensor, it was found that the linear sensor response range and limit of detection for Pd²⁺ were 40–400 and 1.4 ppb, respectively. The electrocatalytic activity of the Pd²⁺-sensor was validated in the competing environment of other metal and metalloid ions. Real samples collected during a Pd recovery process from pharmaceutical wastewater were used to verify the application of BiONS-SPCEs in control of palladium recovery process. The quantitative results of post recovery palladium concentrations obtained using BiONS-SPCEs in treated pharmaceutical wastewater samples were in good agreement with those obtained by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Thus, such Pd²⁺-sensor provided the possibility of on-site process control of complex industrial samples for obtaining near-instant information that would lead to better management of resources used in the process, and same time assure environmental standards for both recovered products and processed discharge.

With the dramatic increase in anthropogenic threats to the Pearl River Estuary (PRE), the population size of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) has significantly decreased over the past decade. To understand the impact and potential risks of intense human activities on these dolphins, factors related to the mortality of humpback dolphins in the PRE were investigated by a detailed examination of 343 dolphin specimens stranded during 2003–2017. There was a significant (p < 0.01) increasing trend for humpback dolphin stranding, reflecting the accelerating rate of the population decline. A large proportion of strandings (35.88%) were neonates. A low recruitment rate implies slow population growth, and hence, limited capacity to resist anthropogenic stress. The most commonly diagnosed causes of death were vessel collision and net entanglement. The concentrations of trace metals, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and most of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the dolphin samples were greater than those previously reported in cetaceans globally. Furthermore, Cu, PCB77, PCB169, PCB81, PCB37, and PFASs (excluding PFBA, PFPeA, PFHxA, PFHxDA, and PFODA) were the major pollutants accumulated in neonates. 67% of PCB, 78% of Cu, and 100% of perfluorooctane sulfonate concentrations in the neonates exceeded the threshold for toxicological effects in marine mammals, suggesting that these compounds could be important factors contributing to the low survival rate of calves in this area. This study revealed that vessel transportation, fishing activities, and pollutant bioaccumulation are the three major causes of humpback dolphin mortality in the PRE. These results highlight the need for more efforts to restrict anthropogenic activities, especially vessel traffic, the catching of these marine animals and fishing, and pollutant discharge, in order to prevent vulnerable species from continuous population decline and further extinction.

In this work, arsenic (As) accumulation and distribution over time in Pteris vittata young fronds from adult plants and in whole plantlets, grown on a highly contaminated As-soil, was determined by μ-XRF. A linear increase in As content up to 60 days was found in young fronds at different times, and a progressive distribution from the apex to the base of the fronds was observed. In whole plantlets, As signal was detectable from 9 to 20 days in the apex of a few fronds and fiddleheads. Later, up to 60 days, As was localized in all fronds, in the rhizome and in basal part of the roots. The dynamics of expression of As-related genes revealed a good correlation between As content and the level of the As (III)-antiporter PvACR3 transcript in plantlets roots and fronds and in young fronds. Moreover, the transcription of As (V)-related gametophytic genes PvGAPC1, PvOCT4 increases over time during As accumulation while PvGSTF1 is expressed only in roots. Here, we demonstrate the suitability of the μ-XRF technique to monitor As accumulation, which allowed us to propose that As is initially directly transported to fiddleheads and apex of fronds, is later distributed to the whole fronds and simultaneously accumulated in the rhizome and roots. We also provide indications on the expression of candidate genes possibly involved in As (hyper)accumulation.

Monobutyl phthalate (MBP) is the main metabolite of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) in vivo. MBP has a stable structure, can continuously accumulate in living organisms, and has the potentially to harm animal and human reproductive function. In the ovarian follicle microenvironment, MBP may lead to defects in follicular development and steroid production, abnormal meiotic maturation, impaired ovarian function and other reproductive deficits. In this study, SMART-seq was used to investigate the effects of MBP exposure on the in vitro maturation (IVM) and development of porcine oocytes. The results showed that differentially expressed genes after MBP exposure were enriched in the biological processes cytoskeleton, cell apoptosis, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. Glycine (Gly) improved the developmental potential of porcine oocytes by regulating mitochondrial and ER function. The effect of Gly in protecting oocytes against MBP-induced damage was studied. The results showed that the addition of Gly significantly decreased the rate of MBP-induced spindle abnormalities, decreased the frequency of MBP-induced mitochondria-associated ER membrane (MAM) interactions, and downregulated the protein and gene expression of the linkage molecules Mitofusin 1 (MFN1) and Mitofusin 2 (MFN2) in the MAM. Additionally, treatment with Gly restored the distribution of the 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor 1 (IP₃R1) and voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), further decreasing the intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca²⁺]ᵢ) levels and mitochondrial Ca²⁺ ([Ca²⁺]ₘ) , increasing the ER Ca²⁺ ([Ca²⁺]ER) levels, and thus significantly increasing the ER levels and mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ m). Gly also decreased the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increased the levels of Glutathione (GSH), oocyte apoptosis-related indicators (Caspase-3 activity and Annexin V) and oocyte apoptosis-related genes (BAX, Caspase 3 and AIFM1). Our results suggest that Gly can ameliorate microtubule cytoskeleton abnormalities and improve oocyte maturation by reducing the defective mitochondrial–ER interactions caused by MBP exposure in vitro.

Particulate Matter (PM₂.₅) pollution in China has been a primary concern for public health in recent years, which requires banks to appropriately control their credit supply to industries with high pollution, high energy consumption, and surplus capacity. For this reason, this paper examines economic determinants of PM₂.₅ concentrations and incorporates the spatial spillover effect of bank credit by employing the spatial Durbin model (SDM) under the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology framework. Using China's provincial dataset from 1998 to 2016, the main findings are as follows: First, there is evidence in support of spatial dependence of PM₂.₅ concentrations and their inverted U-shaped relationship with economic growth in China. Second, PM₂.₅ concentrations in a province tend to increase as the level of its own urbanization increases, but they decrease as its own human capital and bank credit increase. Meanwhile, the level of neighboring urbanization positively influences a province's PM₂.₅ concentrations, whereas neighboring population size, industrialization, trade openness, and bank credit present negative impacts. Third, indirect effects of the SDM indicate significant and negative spatial spillover effect of bank credit on PM₂.₅ concentrations. These findings implicate policies on reforming economic growth, urbanization, human capital and bank credit to tackle PM₂.₅ pollution in China from a cross-provincial collaboration perspective.

Indoor air pollution has aroused increasing concerns due to its significant adverse health impacts. Indoor PM₂.₅ exposure assessments often rely on PM₂.₅ concentration measured at a single height, which overlooks the vertical variation of PM₂.₅ concentrations accompanied by various indoor activities. In this study, we characterize the vertical profile of PM₂.₅ concentration by monitoring PM₂.₅ concentration at eight different heights in the kitchen and the bedroom, respectively, using low-cost sensors with high temporal resolution. The localized enhancement of PM₂.₅ concentration in elevated heights in the kitchen during cooking was observed on clean and polluted days, showing dominating contribution from cooking activities. The source contribution from cooking and outdoor penetration was semi-quantified using regression models. Stratified source contribution from cooking activities was evident in the kitchen during the cooking period. The contribution in elevated heights (above 170 cm) almost tripled the contrition in bottom layers (below 140 cm). In contrast, little vertical variation was observed during other times of the day in the kitchen or the bedroom. The exposure level calculated using the multi-height measurement in this study is consistently higher than the exposure level estimated from the single-height (at 110 cm) measurement. A more significant discrepancy existed for the cookers (17.8%) than the non-cookers (13.5%). By profiling the vertical gradient of PM₂.₅ concentration, we show the necessity to conduct multi-height measurements or proper breathing-height measurements to obtain unbiased concentration information for source apportionment and exposure assessment. In particular, the multi-height measuring scheme will be crucial to inform household cooking emission regulations.