Fluorene-9-bisphenol (BHPF), a new derivative of bisphenol A (BPA), has been introduced for treatment with estrogen-related tumors, such as endometrial cancer. This study investigated the potential mechanism underlying the action of BHPF against endometrial cancer in vitro. We used the cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) method on Ishikawa cells to screen sub-lethal doses of BHPF and established the optimal concentration at which BHPF influenced the proliferation of Ishikawa cells. Effect of BHPF on cell migration and invasion was investigated by cell scratch assay and transwell assay, respectively. Expression levels of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)–related proteins were detected by Western blot analysis. BHPF was found to inhibit the proliferation of Ishikawa cells, whose migration and invasion abilities were also reduced. Western blot indicated that BHPF can significantly inhibit the EMT process of Ishikawa cells by blocking transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling pathway. This is the first report of the effect of BHPF on the biological behavior of endometrial cancer cells and its inhibition of endometrial cancer progression by repressing both endometrial cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition, hence suggesting it as a novel anti-cancer drug. Graphical abstract Schematic representation of the molecular basis underlying BHPF treatment. BHPF repressed the EMT process by regulating EMT-related genes, such as E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and vimentin as well as the TGF-β signaling pathway–related genes, including p-Smad2/3 and slug, in a BHPF-dependent manner.

Cyproconazole is a triazole fungicide used to protect a diverse range of fruits, vegetables, and grain crops. As such, it has the potential to enter aquatic environments and affect non-target organisms. The objective of this study was to assess the acute toxicity of the triazole fungicide cyproconazole to zebrafish embryos by assessing mortality, developmental defects, morphological abnormality, oxidative respiration, and locomotor activity following a 96-h exposure. Zebrafish embryos at 6-h post-fertilization (hpf) were exposed to either a solvent control (0.1% DMSO, v/v), or one dose of 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 μM cyproconazole for 96 h. Data indicated that cyproconazole exhibited low toxicity to zebrafish embryos, with a 96-h LC₅₀ value of 90.6 μM (~ 26.4 mg/L). Zebrafish embryos/larvae displayed a significant decrease in spontaneous movement, hatching rate, and heartbeats/20 s with 50, 100, and 250 μM cyproconazole exposure. Malformations (i.e., pericardial edema, yolk sac edema, tail deformation, and spine deformation) were also detected in zebrafish exposed to ≥ 50 μM cyproconazole, with significant increases in cumulative deformity rate at 48, 72, and 96 hpf. In addition, a 20–30% decrease in basal and oligomycin-induced ATP respiration was observed after 24-h exposure to 500 μM cyproconazole in embryos. To determine if cyproconazole affected locomotor activity, a dark photokinesis assay was conducted in larvae following 7-day exposure to 1, 10, and 25 μM cyproconazole in two independent trials. Activity in the dark period was decreased for zebrafish exposed to 25 μM cyproconazole in the first trial, and hypoactivity was also observed in zebrafish exposed to 1 μM cyproconazole in a second trial, suggesting that cyproconazole can affect locomotor activity. These data improve understanding of the toxicity of cyproconazole in developing zebrafish and contribute to environmental risk assessments for the triazole fungicides on aquatic organisms. We report that, based on the overall endpoints assessed, cyproconazole exhibits low risk for developing fish embryos, as many effects were observed above environmentally-relevant levels.

The presence of pathogens in drinking water can seriously affect human health. Therefore, water disinfection is needed, but conventional processes, such as chlorination, result in the production of dangerous disinfection by-products. In this regard, an alternative solution to tackle the problem of bacterial pollution may be the application of advanced oxidation processes. In this work, the inactivation of total coliforms, naturally present in a Colombian surface water by means of UV/H₂O₂, UV/US, and the UV/US/H₂O₂ advanced oxidation processes, was investigated. Under the investigated conditions, complete bacterial inactivation (detection limit equal to 1 CFU 100 mL⁻¹) was found within 5 min of treatment by UV/H₂O₂ and UV/US/H₂O₂ systems. UV/US oxidation process also resulted in total bacterial load elimination, but after 15 min of treatment. Bacterial reactivation after 24 h and 48 h in the dark was measured and no subsequent regrowth was observed. This phenomenon could be attributed to the high oxidation capacity of the evaluated oxidation systems. However, the process resulting in the highest oxidation potential at the lowest operating cost, in terms of energy consumption, was UV/H₂O₂ system. Therefore, UV/H₂O₂ advanced oxidation system can be used for disinfection purposes, enabling drinking water production meeting the requirements of regulated parameters in terms of water quality, without incurring extremely high energy costs. Nonetheless, further researches are required for minimizing the associated electric costs.

In this study, a high sensitive metamaterial sensor has been designed to detect quality of water for water treatment centre. The water samples have been obtained and electrical properties have been measured in microwave range to design the proposed sensor. These electrical properties have been assigned in microwave simulator. Water quality has been investigated by using parametric study and genetic algorithm approach to realize high sensitivity in terms of resonance frequency shift. Around 130 MHz frequency shift has been observed between the water samples. This shift is sufficient to detect instantaneously to the quality of water. This is the first study that metamaterial approach has been used to detect water quality in literature.

Two-dimensional HPLC (2D-HPLC) recently has received great attention due to providing high resolving power and higher peak capacities than that of 1D-HPLC, especially dealing with a wide spectrum of sample matrices containing several components. In this work, an on-line heart-cutting two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) method was developed using monolithic columns coupled with reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). 2D-HPLC was successfully carried out using affinity-based monolithic columns at first dimension (20 cm × 4.6 mm I.D.) followed by a Pinnacle II PAH column (50 mm × 4.6 mm I.D.) at the second dimension. Furthermore, good linearity was observed for the correlation of the benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) molecule against the peak areas (R² = 0.994) in the concentration range of 0.01–1.0 ng/mL in 30 min. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were found to be 4.0 pg/mL and 12.0 pg/mL, respectively. Both the intra-day and inter-day precision at 0.01 and 0.1 ng/mL spiked concentrations were below than 2.35% RSD whereas the means of the recovery data of the BaP from the water samples were found to be in the range of 93.71–98.65%. These results demonstrate that the 2D-HPLC system, developed by the combination of the P(HEMA-MAPA) column and Pinnacle II PAH column, is reliable, stable, and well qualified in the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the water samples.

In this work, a novel functionalized graphene oxide (GO) was used as an effective and selective adsorbent for removal of mercury (Hg²⁺). The magnetic nanocomposite adsorbent (MNA) based on GO was prepared through surface reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer copolymerization of acrylic monomers and then the formation of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The structure of MNAs was characterized by using FTIR, SEM, TEM, VSM, XRD, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms. The results of ion adsorption of MNAs demonstrated high selectivity and adsorption efficiency for Hg²⁺ in the presence of competing ions. Furthermore, the removal of Hg²⁺ obeyed a pseudo-second-order model and fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm model with the maximum Hg²⁺ uptake of 389 mg g⁻¹. The MNA was also confirmed as good materials for re-use and maintained 86% of its initial adsorption capacity for mercury after the fifth regeneration cycles. Finally, the experimental results demonstrated that the solution pH, ion concentration, and temperature had a major impact on Hg(II) adsorption capacity. The results indicate that the MNAs with high adsorption abilities could be very promising adsorbents for the selective recovery of ions in wastewater treatment process. Graphical abstract

Increasing environmental concern, human health and the continuous upgradation in the stringent standards of vehicular emissions have shown much interest in cleaner diesel fuels. Out of various strategies to mitigate the diesel engine emissions, use of water blended diesel in the form of emulsion has grabbed sufficient attention of the fuel research community. Various researches have shown that water-emulsified diesel has sufficient potential to improve the engine performance simultaneously with a significant reduction in the levels of nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. Micro-explosion phenomenon of combustion in emulsion fuel helps to provide efficient and complete combustion which in turn improves brake thermal efficiency. The current study presents a comprehensive review of the usage of water-emulsified diesel fuel in CI engines. Focusing on the performance, combustion, and emission analysis, it also talks in detail about the principle and the chemistry involved in making of a stable and homogeneous water–diesel emulsion compatible for CI engine. The literature survey concludes two crucial points. First, the water-blended diesel emulsion serves as an economical, fuel efficient, and cleaner combustion technology. Second, the optimum blend ratio, emulsifier quantity, and proper process differs in almost all the research papers and hence needed to be standardized.

Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) provides not only bee products of immense value but also render invaluable free service as cross-pollination and propagation of several cultivated and wild species, thereby, maintaining biological diversity. Bee larvae and adults might be killed or suffer various sublethal effects when placed in contact with pollen and nectar contaminated with insecticides. The present work was conducted to investigate the toxicity of seven insecticides on laboratory using oral toxicity test and their side effects on A. mellifera in cotton fields. Results indicated that lambda-cyhalothrin was the most toxic-tested pesticide, recording the lowest LC₅₀ and LC₉₀ values at all tested periods and the lowest LT₅₀ and LT₉₀ at all tested concentrations, followed by abamectin, spinosad, chlorpyrifos, and emamectin benzoate. On the other side, dipel and pyridalyl recording the highest LC₅₀ and LC₉₀ at all tested periods and the highest LT₅₀ and LT₉₀ at all tested concentrations. As for the application of pesticides in cotton fields, the tested pesticides significantly increased the number of dead workers in comparison with control. The tested pesticides significantly decreased bee foraging activities, i.e., number of foraging workers, number of worker collecting nectar, number of worker gathering pollen grains, area of broad workers, and honey bee yields. Dipel and pyridalyl were the most safety pesticides on honey bee workers in laboratory and field, so it could be introduced as a component in IPM programs of cotton pests.

Biopurification systems (BPS) are employed for the treatment of pesticide-containing wastewaters. In this work, a biomixture (active core of BPS) complemented by the addition of the fungus Trametes versicolor was evaluated for the elimination of a mixture of pesticides under different treatment conditions. The biomixture achieved high removal of all the pesticides assayed after 16 d: atrazine (68.4%, t₁/₂: 9.6 d), carbendazim (96.7%, t₁/₂: 3.6 d), carbofuran (98.7%, t₁/₂: 3.1 d) and metalaxyl (96.7%, t₁/₂: 3.8 d). Variations in the treatment conditions including addition of the antibiotic oxytetracycline and co-bioaugmentation with a bacterial consortium did not significantly affect the removal performance of the biomixture. Bacterial and fungal community profiles determined by DGGE analyses revealed changes that responded to biomixture aging, and not to antibiotic or pesticide addition. The proposed biomixture exhibits very efficient elimination during simultaneous pesticide application; moreover, the matrix is highly stable during stressful conditions such as the co-application of antibiotics of agricultural use.

The effects of solid content (10–80 g/L) on the bioleaching of heavy metals (HMs) from pig manure (PM) were investigated using indigenous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. The results showed that an increase in solid content increased the PM buffering capacity, which slowed the rates of pH reduction, ORP increase, and sulfur oxidation and decreased the solubilization efficiency of HMs from PM. Approximately 75–99% of Cu, 76–99% of Zn, and 55–88% of Mn were leached from PM with solid contents of 10–80 g/L after 28 days of bioleaching. However, the content of HMs in bioleached manure did not meet the requirement for agricultural application when the solid content was ≥ 60 g/L after 28 days of bioleaching. The solubilization of HMs from PM was well-described by a kinetic equation. Regression analysis showed that Cu solubilization was primarily controlled by ORP, and pH seemed to be the sole factor responsible for the solubilization of Zn and Mn. Additionally, nutrient (N, P, K, and organic matter) loss significantly increased when PM solid content decreased from 40 to 20 g/L. Therefore, the recommended solid content for the bioleaching of HMs from PM is 40 g/L.