Plastic marine debris hyper-concentrates hydrophobic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and can transfer these sorbed contaminants to biota following ingestion. PAHs are known to induce cardiotoxicity and visual toxicity at sublethal doses. Juvenile White seabass (Atractoscion nobilis) fish were fed environmentally relevant concentrations of either virgin polystyrene or benzo(a)pyrene (BaP)-sorbed polystyrene for 5 days and were monitored for changes in phototactic response, swimming behavior, and hepatic cytochrome p450 1A (CYP1A) enzyme activity. No significant differences in the monitored endpoints were recorded in fish that ingested either polystyrene or BaP-sorbed polystyrene relative to control fish following the short-term exposure. However, fish exposed to 252 μg/L BaP alone as a positive control had significantly elevated CYP1A enzyme activity (p = 0.046) and impaired phototactic response (p = 0.020), though no altered swimming behavior was observed (p = 0.843) relative to control fish. These results demonstrate that pelagic fish ingesting environmentally relevant concentrations of BaP-sorbed polystyrene for a short, 5-day duration do not demonstrate measurable changes in vision, swimming activity, nor CYP1A activity. High variability within enzyme activity and behavioral responses suggest that lack of significant effects may be due to low sample size.

Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the most common plasticizer. Previous studies have shown DEHP treatment accelerates neurological degeneration, suggesting that DEHP may impact retinal sensitivity to light, neurotransmission, and copulation behaviors. Although its neurotoxicity and antifertility properties have been studied, whether DEHP exposure disrupts vision and how DEHP influences neuromuscular junction (NMJ) have not been reported yet. Moreover, the impact of DEHP on insect courtship behavior is still elusive. Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) were treated with series concentrations of DEHP and observed for lifespan, motor function, electroretinogram (ERG), electrophysiology of neuromuscular junction (NMJ), courtship behaviors, and relevant gene expression. Our results confirmed the DEHP toxicity on lifespan and capacity of motor function and updated its effect on copulation behaviors. Additionally, we report for the first time that DEHP exposure may harm vision by affecting the synaptic signaling between the photoreceptor and the laminar neurons. Further, DEHP treatment altered both spontaneous and evoked neurotransmission properties. Noteworthy, the effect of DEHP exposure on the copulation behavior is sex-dependent, and we proposed potential mechanisms for future investigation.

The development of the eye in vertebrates is dependent upon glucocorticoid signalling, however, specific components of the eye are sensitive to synthetic glucocorticoids. The presence of synthetic glucocorticoids within the aquatic environment may therefore have important consequences for fish, which are heavily reliant upon vision for mediating several key behaviours. The potential ethological impact of synthetic glucocorticoid oculotoxicity however has yet to be studied. Physiological and behavioural responses which are dependent upon vision were selected to investigate the possible toxicity of prednisolone, a commonly occurring synthetic glucocorticoid within the environment, during early life stages of zebrafish. Although exposure to prednisolone did not alter the morphology of the external eye, aggregation of melanin within the skin in response to increasing light levels was impeded and embryos exposed to prednisolone (10 μg/l) maintained a darkened phenotype. Exposure to prednisolone also increased the preference of embryos for a dark environment within a light dark box test in a concentration dependent manner. However the ability of embryos to detect motion appeared unaffected by prednisolone. Therefore, while significant effects were detected in several processes mediated by vision, changes occurred in a manner which suggest that vision was in itself unaffected by prednisolone. Neurological and endocrinological changes during early ontogeny are considered as likely candidates for future investigation.

Heavy metals (HMs) in soil and water bodies greatly threaten human health. The wide separation of HMs urges the necessity to develop an expert system for HMs prediction and detection. In the current perspective, several propositions are discussed to design an innovative intelligence system for HMs prediction and detection in soil and water bodies. The intelligence system incorporates the Edge Cloud Server (ECS) data center, an innovative deep learning predictive model and the Federated Learning (FL) technology. The ECS data center is based on satellite sensing sources under human expertise ruling and HMs in-situ measurement. The FL system comprises a machine learning (ML) technique that trains an algorithm across multiple decentralized edge servers holding local data samples without exchanging them or breaching data privacy. The expected outcomes of the intelligence system are to quantify the soil and water bodies' HMs, develop new modified HMs pollution contamination indices and provide decision-makers and environmental experts with an appropriate vision of soil, surface water, and crop health.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) alters circadian rhythms in animals and therefore can be a source of environmental stress affecting their physiology and behaviour. The impact of ALAN can be related to the increased light level, but also to the spectral composition of night lighting. Previous research showed that many species can be particularly sensitive to the LED light, but it is unclear if they respond to its broad spectrum or specifically to the blue light wavelength. In this study, we tested whether dim ALAN (2 lx) differing in the spectral quality (warm white LED, blue LED, high-pressure sodium HPS light) modifies behaviour and changes oxidative status in two nocturnal freshwater shredder species: Dikerogammarus villosus and Gammarus jazdzewskii (Gammaroidea, Amphipoda). Our experiment revealed that ALAN, irrespective of its spectral quality, did not affect the oxidative stress markers in cells (the level of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation). However, ALAN changed the gammarid behaviour in a species-specific manner, which can potentially reduce the fitness of the shredders. Dikerogammarus villosus avoided all types of light compared to darkness. Therefore, confined to the shelter, D. villosus may have fewer opportunities to forage and/or mate. Gammarus jazdzewskii was sensitive only to the narrow-spectrum blue light, but did not respond to the HPS and white LED light. Avoidance is a typical response of gammarids to natural light, thus the disruption of this behaviour in the presence of common ALAN sources can increase the predation risk in this species. To summarize, behavioural modifications induced by ALAN seem more pronounced than changes in physiology and can constitute the main driver of disturbances in the processing of organic matter in freshwater ecosystems by invertebrate shredders.

The human eye is an excellent, general-purpose airborne sensor for detecting marine debris larger than 10cm on or near the surface of the water. Coupled with the human brain, it can adjust for light conditions and sea-surface roughness, track persistence, differentiate color and texture, detect change in movement, and combine all of the available information to detect and identify marine debris. Matching this performance with computers and sensors is difficult at best. However, there are distinct advantages over the human eye and brain that sensors and computers can offer such as the ability to use finer spectral resolution, to work outside the spectral range of human vision, to control the illumination, to process the information in ways unavailable to the human vision system, to provide a more objective and reproducible result, to operate from unmanned aircraft, and to provide a permanent record that can be used for later analysis.

Evidence on the effects of exposure to ambient gaseous pollutants on children’s vision was consistently scarce. We aimed to explore the effect of ambient gaseous pollutant exposure on the incidence of visual impairment (VI) in children. From 2005 to 2018, a total of 340,313 children without VI participated in a longitudinal and two-center dynamic cohort. The logMAR acuity was used to assess visual function. The space–time extremely randomized trees model was used to estimate SO₂ and CO exposures levels. The association between SO₂ and CO and VI risks among children was assessed using a proportional hazards model with a restricted cubic spline. Subgroup analyses stratified by gender and grades were used to investigate the differences in an association of SO₂ and CO exposures with childhood VI. A total of 158381 (46.54%) children experienced an new incident VI. A ten-unit (10 μg/m³) increase in SO₂ exposure concentrations was significantly associated with a 1.70 times higher risk of childhood VI. In addition, a 0.1-unit (0.1 mg/m³) increase in CO exposure was significantly associated with a 1.22 times higher risk of childhood VI. The positive association between ambient gaseous pollutants (including SO₂ and CO exposures) and childhood VI risks remained even after adjusting for other environmental variables. An increase in the incidence of VI in children was positively linked to SO₂ and CO exposure. Such evidence might aid governments in developing strategies to interfere with children’s eyesight by decreasing air pollution and changing school curricula.

The vision of every country or sub-regions is to achieve sustainable economic growth. The inability of individual countries to have a sole sustainable initiative has resulted in the establishment of economic cooperation such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which renders interaction among 138 relevant countries to increase economic development. This study delves into the determinants of economic growth along the BRI economic corridors, taking into consideration regional classification of the relevant countries. The analytical procedure applied indicated the presence of heterogeneity in the slope coefficient and cross-sectional dependencies across the various panels. Applying the Westerlund bootstrap co-integration test, it was deducted that the employed variables have a long-run equilibrium association. The results from the pooled mean group (PMG) revealed that the contribution weight (order of importance) of the explanatory variables to economic growth varies across the regional panel clusters. Finally, the causality results unveil that a bidirectional causation affiliation exists between energy consumption and economic growth in all panels except Southeast and South Asia which experience one-way directional effects from energy usage to economic growth. Trade and economic growth unveiled a bidirectional causal affiliation in all panel groups with exception of the Middle East and North Africa, where a one-way directional affiliation from trade to economic growth was felt. These results obtained indicate that energy consumption, urbanization, trade, and CO₂ emissions are determinants of economic growth along the BRI route. Based on the outcome, the suggested policy implications include the following: (a) The government across each region could incorporate tax and other incentives to encourage entrepreneurs and citizens to produce equipment that reduces carbon intensity and is ecologically friendly. (b) The necessity for a paradigm shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources should be advocated among the countries involved.

IoT plays an important role in the overall development and advancement of the country as it is the key ingredient for the development of the smart environment. IoT is a network of physical objects, devices that contain embedded technologies such as sensors, controllers, etc., which can sense, communicate, and interact with the system to carry out desired operations. The advancement in technology over the past years has provided a new era for computational processing and sensing to facilitate the vision of a smart environment. Researchers have put several efforts to use IoT to facilitate our lives. This paper purposes on an integrated smart environment using IoT. Various sectors such as agriculture, transportation, garbage collection, security issues, sensors, etc. are discussed along with the key technologies including RFID, IP, EPC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee. This paper will provide a complete insight into the one who wants to research in the field of IoT. It also highlights the unprecedented opportunities brought by IoT-based technologies to human life. Finally, we have discussed the future enhancements in IoT.

Excessive release of methylene blue (MB) in the environment and its potential infusion to human body may cause several health issues such as blurred vision, confusion, hallucinations and seizures. Based on experimental results on MB removal efficiency through adsorption using activated carbon of Parthenium hysterophorus, a simple mathematical model is developed for the prediction of MB removal efficiency for any combination of input conditions. Based on earlier experimental results, four independent variables such as pH, contact time, initial MB concentration and dose concentration were considered for the model. Based on individual experimental results, a factor is proposed for each independent variable. Eventually, all the factors are multiplied with maximum achievable removal efficiency to predict a removal efficiency under specific conditions. It is found that the developed model can accurately predict the higher range of efficiency while underestimates during lower range of efficiency. To overcome this drawback, the developed model was further fine-tuned with an adjustment factor, through which model predictions were turned out to be much better. Standard errors of the original model’s estimations are RMSE = 10.09, MAE = 7.08 and RAE = 0.12. After the mentioned adjustment, the same errors were lowered by 60%, 57% and 83%, respectively. Such modelling approach is very useful for the decision-makers on deciding input variables for industry-scale implementations. Similar mathematical modelling can be adopted for other pollutants and for other adsorbents.