Atmospheric fluorides (gaseous and particulate) are deposited on, and absorbed by, vegetation. Ingested fluoride accumulates in calcified tissues of vertebrates, and if it is excessive, it may lead to dental and skeletal fluorosis. The prevalence, form and severity of the effects vary greatly between species. Foraging strategy can be an important determinant of fluoride exposure in herbivores, because foliar fluoride concentrations vary between plant species, for example, according to vertical and lateral position in the vegetation. We combined microhistological analysis of diet and analysis of foliar fluoride levels to examine interspecific variation in dietary fluoride exposure of macropodid marsupials (swamp wallaby Wallabia bicolor, red-necked wallaby Notamacropus rufogriseus and eastern grey kangaroo Macropus giganteus), in the buffer zone of an aluminium smelter in Victoria, Australia. Dietary niche differentiation between species was evident. The swamp wallaby and the red-necked wallaby were browsers or mixed feeders, depending on the classification system used. The eastern grey kangaroo was a grazer, consuming almost entirely grasses. However, foliar fluoride did not vary significantly between the main plant groups consumed. Our results indicate that interspecific variation in diet at this site is unlikely to explain variation in fluoride exposure.

We aimed to understand and to provide evidence on relationships of the weather as biometeorological and hospital admissions due to hypertension, angina, myocardial infarction and ischemic heart disease in a national setting in recent years that might help indicate when to expect more admissions for health professionals and the general public. This is an ecological study. Ten percent of daily hospital admissions from the included hospitals (n = 1618) across Germany that were available between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011 (n = 5,235,600) were extracted from Statistisches Bundesamt, Germany. We identified I11 hypertensive heart disease, I13 hypertensive heart and renal disease, I15 secondary hypertension, I20 angina pectoris, I21 acute myocardial infarction and I25 chronic ischemic heart disease by International Classification of Diseases version 10 as the study outcomes. Daily weather data from 64 weather stations that covered 13 German States including air temperature, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, radiation flux and vapour pressure were obtained and generated into physiologically equivalent temperature (PET). Two-way fractional-polynomial prediction was plotted with 95 % confidence intervals. Hospital admissions of hypertension, angina, myocardial infarction, heart disease peaked in winter and early spring when PETs were around 0 °C. Admissions had an apparent drop when PETs reached 10 °C. More medical resources could have been needed on days when PETs were around 0 °C than on other days. While adaptation to such weather change for health professionals and the general public would seem to be imperative, future research with a longitudinal monitoring would still be needed.

The immune system can be the target of many chemicals, with potentially severe adverse effects on the host’s health. In the literature, carbamate (CM) pesticides have been implicated in the increasing prevalence of diseases associated with alterations of the immune response, such as hypersensitivity reactions, some autoimmune diseases and cancers. CMs may initiate, facilitate, or exacerbate pathological immune processes, resulting in immunotoxicity by induction of mutations in genes coding for immunoregulatory factors and modifying immune tolerance. In the present study, direct immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption and inhibition of esterases activities have been introduced as the main mechanisms of CMs-induced immune dysregulation. Moreover, the evidence on the relationship between CM pesticide exposure, dysregulation of the immune system and predisposition to different types of cancers, allergies, autoimmune and infectious diseases is criticized. In addition, in this review, we will discuss the relationship between immunotoxicity and cancer, and the advances made toward understanding the basis of cancer immune evasion.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the biostimulant Kelpak and different nitrogen rates on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents as well as non-structural carbohydrates in orchard grass and Braun’s festulolium. The experiment was a split-plot arrangement with three replicates. It was set up at the experimental facility of the University of Natural Sciences and Humanities, Siedlce, in late April 2009. The following factors were examined: biostimulant with the trade name Kelpak SL applied at 2 dm³ ha⁻¹ and a control—no biostimulant; nitrogen application rates 50 and 150 kg ha⁻¹ and a control (0 kg ha⁻¹); pure stands of grass species grown in monoculture—orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata), cv. Amila,—Braun’s festulolium (Festulolium braunii), cv. Felopa. Kelpak significantly increased non-structural carbohydrates, and increasing nitrogen rates reduced the concentration of these components in plants. Increasing nitrogen rates significantly decreased cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and non-structural carbohydrate contents. Compared with orchard grass, Braun’s festulolium proved to be of a higher nutritional value due to lower cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents and more non-structural carbohydrates. The aforementioned contents in the grasses differed significantly depending on the cut. Most cellulose and non-structural carbohydrates were determined in second-cut grass whereas most hemicellulose and lignin in second-cut grass.

The use of heavy metals (HM) contaminated soils to grow energy crops can diminish the negative impact of HM in the environment improving land restoration. The effect of two PGPR (B1—Chryseobacterium humi ECP37ᵀ and B2—Pseudomonas reactans EDP28) and an AMF (F—Rhizophagus irregularis) on growth, Cd and Zn accumulation, and nutritional status of energy maize plants grown in a soil collected from an area adjacent to a Portuguese mine was assessed in a greenhouse experiment. Both bacterial strains, especially when co-inoculated with the AMF, acted as plant growth-promoting inoculants, increasing root and shoot biomass as well as shoot elongation. Cadmium was not detected in the maize tissues and a decrease in Zn accumulation was observed for all microbial treatments in aboveground and belowground tissues—with inoculation of maize with AMF and strain B2 leading to maximum reductions in Zn shoot and root accumulation of up to 48 and 43 %, respectively. Although microbial single inoculation generally did not increase N and P levels in maize plants, co-inoculation of the PGPR and the AMF improved substantially P accumulation in roots. The DGGE analysis of the bacterial rhizosphere community showed that the samples inoculated with the AMF clustered apart of those without the AMF and the Shannon-Wiener Index (H′) increased over the course of the experiment when both inoculants were present. This work shows the benefits of combined inoculation of AMF and PGPR for the growth energy maize in metal contaminated soils and their potential for the application in phytomanagement strategies.

The aim of this research was to investigate the presence and daily variability of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in public swimming pools. Various types of public swimming pool water were analysed, taken from freshwater indoor swimming pools, outdoor swimming pools, spa pools and seawater swimming pools. Swimming pool water samples were analysed for 30 PPCPs using solid phase extraction (SPE) followed by isotope dilution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). All PPCPs were below quantification limits in seawater pools. However, caffeine was detected in 12 chlorinated swimming pools at concentrations up to 1540 ng/L and ibuprofen was observed in 7 chlorinated pools at concentrations up to 83 ng/L. Caffeine and ibuprofen concentrations were below quantification limits in all fill water samples, eliminating this as their source in swimming pools. High variations in caffeine concentrations monitored throughout the day roughly reflect bather loads in swimming pools. Future monitoring of these compounds may assist in evaluating what portion of organic matter measured in swimming pools may come from human excretions.

The radiation contamination after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident attracts considerable concern all over the world. Many countries, areas, and oceans are greatly affected by the emergency situation other than Japan. An effective remediation strategy is in a highly urgent demand. Though plenty of works have been carried out, progressive achievements have not yet been well summarized. Here, we review the recent advances on the remediation of radiocesium-contaminated liquid waste, soil, and ash. The overview of the radiation contamination is firstly given. Afterwards, the current remediation strategies are critically reviewed in terms of the environmental medium. Special attentions are paid on the adsorption/ion exchange and electrically switched ion exchange methods. Finally, the present review outlines the possible works to do for the large-scale application of the novel remediation strategies.

Heavy metal pollution in China’s Yangtze River basin has been of high concern. The concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Cd, Hg, Cu, Zn, Pb, and As) in the sediment were investigated in the upper reaches of the river, China. Sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), an enrichment factor (EF), an index of geo-accumulation (I gₑₒ), and potential ecological risk were used to evaluate the extent of contamination from the heavy metal concentrations in the sediment. Among the seven metals, a noticeable degree of pollution was seen only in the case of Cd and Cd posed a considerable ecological risk at some sample sites. The Pearson correlation analysis was implemented to determine the relationships among the heavy metals, and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to determine the most common pollution sources. The elements As, Cd, Pb, and Zn were grouped together, and the anthropogenic sources of these heavy metals were closely related. The sites with higher Cd concentrations were mainly confined to the river’s reach near industrial areas. Controlling the pollution sources will effectively reduce the pollutant concentrations in the sediment.

Supported Fe₂O₃/WO₃ nanocomposites were fabricated by an original vapor phase approach, involving the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of Fe₂O₃ on Ti sheets and the subsequent radio frequency (RF)-sputtering of WO₃. Particular attention was dedicated to the control of the W/Fe ratio, in order to tailor the composition of the resulting materials. The target systems were analyzed by the joint use of complementary techniques, that is, X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and optical absorption spectroscopy. The results showed the uniform decoration of α-Fe₂O₃ (hematite) globular particles by tiny WO₃ aggregates, whose content could be controlled by modulations of the sole sputtering time. The photocatalytic degradation of phenol in the liquid phase was selected as a test reaction for a preliminary investigation of the system behavior in wastewater treatment applications. The system activity under both UV and Vis light illumination may open doors for further material optimization in view of real-world end-uses.

The present study aimed to improve the performance of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) by using an intermittent connection period without power output. Connecting two MFCs in parallel improved the voltage output of both MFCs until the voltage stabilized. Electric energy was accumulated in two MFCs containing heavy metal ions copper, zinc, and cadmium as electron acceptors by connection in parallel for several hours. The system was then switched to discharge mode with single MFCs with a 1000-Ω resistor connected between anode and cathode. This method successfully achieved highly efficient removal of heavy metal ions. Even when the anolyte was run in sequencing batch mode, the insufficient voltage and power needed to recover heavy metals from the cathode of MFCs can be complemented by the developed method. The average removal ratio of heavy metal ions in sequencing batch mode was 67 % after 10 h. When the discharge time was 20 h, the removal ratios of zinc, copper, and cadmium were 91.5, 86.7, and 83.57 %, respectively; the average removal ratio of these ions after 20 h was only 52.1 % for the control group. Therefore, the average removal efficiency of heavy metal ions increased by 1.75 times using the electrons stored from the bacteria under the open-circuit conditions in parallel mode. Electrochemical impedance data showed that the anode had lower solution resistance and polarization resistance in the parallel stage than as a single MFC, and capacitance increased with the length of time in parallel.