Carbon monoxide (CO) emission inventory data are crucial for air quality control. However, the emission inventories are labor-intensive and time-consuming and generally have large uncertainties. In this study, we developed a new regional data assimilation system (TracersTracker) for estimating the surface CO emission flux from continuous mixing ratio observations using the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-based four-dimensional variational (4D-VAR) data assimilation method (POD-4DVar) and a coupled regional model (Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) with the Models-3 Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model). This system was applied to estimate CO emissions in Xuzhou city, China. An experiment was conducted with the continuous hourly surface CO mixing ratio observations from 21 monitoring towers in January and July of 2016. The experimental results of the system were examined and compared with the continuous surface CO observations (a priori emission). We found that the retrieved CO emission fluxes were higher than the a priori emission and were mainly distributed in urban and industrial areas, which were 104% higher in January (winter) and 44% higher in July (summer).

Frequent and widespread pesticide use is a major concern for both human and environmental health. The aim of this study was to screen for 19 pesticides in rural rivers in Guangzhou, China, evaluating the potential impact of detected pesticides on the local ecosystem. Sampling was performed in rural rivers in three environment types: agricultural, industrial, and unpolluted, with sampling of water and sediments in both wet and dry seasons. A total of 11 pesticides were detected overall and their spatiotemporal distribution in water and ecological risk were assessed. Five pesticides were detected at concentrations above 100 ng L⁻¹, with the highest concentration pesticides being dimethoate (1318 ng L⁻¹) in surface water and quinalphos (328 ng g⁻¹ dry weight (dw)) in sediments. The most commonly detected pesticides were chlorpyrifos, acetochlor, and butachlor with detection frequencies of 50–57% and 29–43%, in water and sediments, respectively. Samples from the agricultural rural river contained the most pesticides and at higher concentrations, as compared to industrial and unpolluted areas, especially during the wet season. Ecotoxicological risk assessment through Risk Quotients (RQs) showed that chlorpyrifos and fenvalerate pose high ecological risks in water and therefore, reduction of the source input of these pesticides is essential.

Global warming issues have become a pertinent theme for many economies and policy initiatives. The Indonesian economy is no exception as government officials and stakeholder are working seriously to decouple carbon emission from economic growth. It is on this premise that the present study attempts to investigate the nexus between the environmental implication of offshore economic activities, economic growth, energy use, and environment (CO₂) with the integration of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade openness over recent time series data from 1980 to 2017. A series of analysis were conducted with Pesaran’s autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology and the Granger causality test as estimation techniques over the outlined variables. Empirical findings from ARDL long-run (elasticity) shows that economic growth is significantly positively associated with carbon emissions at the initial stage but a negative association is established at lags 1 and 2. A significant positive relationship is witnessed between economic growth and FDI. Also, statistical positive relationship is observed between economic growth and energy use, while an inverse relationship is observed between openness and economic growth. For causality analysis, we observe that a uni-directional causality is running from economic growth to foreign direct investment at 5% significant level. This outcome is in support of the growth-induced FDI hypothesis in Indonesia. Furthermore, a one-way causality is seen from energy to openness, CO₂ emissions, and from FDI to CO₂ emissions while there is a feedback causality between openness and CO₂ emissions. The findings of this study have implications to the environmental quality of Indonesia via economic growth; hence, the higher and better the economic growth of the country, the lesser the carbon emissions and the better the environmental quality. This proposition aligns with the pollution halo hypothesis (PHH), where FDI inflow enhances economic growth as well as impacts energy consumption and reduces carbon emissions in the host country.

Acrylamide (ACR) is a widespread industrial chemical with recognized adverse effects not only to humans but to other organisms in the environment as well. In the present study, the ecotoxicological effects of dietary exposure to sublethal concentration (1/20 LC₅₀) of ACR on the land snail, Theba pisana after 2 weeks of exposure and 1-week recovery with respect to oxidative stress parameters; lipid peroxidation (LPO), reduced glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT), and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), cytogenetic parameter; deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) content, as well as immunological parameters; cell death, phagocytosis, lysosomal membrane stability (LMS), lectins, superoxide anion (O₂⁻) generation, phenoloxidase (PO), peroxidase (POD), and hemocyanin (Hc) were examined. The results showed that ACR significantly increased LPO level and the activity of CAT and GST, cell death, and Hc level, whereas a significant decline in DNA and GSH contents, phagocytic activity, LMS, lectins, O₂⁻ generation, POD, and PO activities compared to the controls after 2-week exposure was observed. After 1-week recovery, most of the tested parameters in exposed snails were permanent and not reversible to the control levels. This study suggests that the tested multiple parameters of T. pisana species may be used as biomarkers of ACR exposure. Besides, T. pisana snails could be used as a good sentinel organism for ACR exposure in pollution monitoring studies.

Pot experiment was conducted to study the difference of cadmium uptake and OAS and IRT genes’ expression between the two ryegrass varieties under cadmium stress. The results showed that with the increase of cadmium levels, the dry weights of roots of the two ryegrass varieties, and the dry weights of shoots and plants of Abbott first increased and then decreased. When exposed to 75 mg kg⁻¹ Cd, the dry weights of shoot and plant of Abbott reached the maximum, which increased by 11.13 and 10.67% compared with the control. At 75 mg kg⁻¹ Cd, cadmium concentrations in shoot of the two ryegrass varieties were higher than the critical value of Cd hyperaccumulator (100 mg kg⁻¹), 111.19 mg kg⁻¹ (Bond), and 133.69 mg kg⁻¹ (Abbott), respectively. The OAS gene expression in the leaves of the two ryegrass varieties showed a unimodal curve, which was up to the highest at the cadmium level of 150 mg kg⁻¹, but fell back at high cadmium levels of 300 and 600 mg kg⁻¹. The OAS gene expression in Bond and Abbott roots showed a bimodal curve. The OAS gene expression in Bond root and Abbott stem mainly showed a unimodal curve. The expression of IRT genes family in the leaves of ryegrass varieties was basically in line with the characteristics of unimodal curve, which was up to the highest at cadmium level of 75 or 150 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. The IRT expression in the ryegrass stems showed characteristics of bimodal and unimodal curves, while that in the roots was mainly unimodal. The expression of OAS and IRT genes was higher in Bond than that in Abbott due to genotype difference between the two varieties. The expression of OAS and IRT was greater in leaves than that in roots and stems. Ryegrass tolerance to cadmium can be increased by increasing the expression of OAS and IRT genes in roots and stems, and transfer of cadmium from roots and stems to the leaves can be enhanced by increasing expression OAS and IRT in leaves.

The preparation of coal water slurry (CWS) using wastewater, which contains inorganic and organic components, is one method of wastewater utilization. In this study, the effect of inorganic salts on the viscosity of CWS was examined. The results show that monovalent salts (NaCl, KCl) decreased the viscosity of CWS. The viscosity of CWS was not affected by bivalent salts (CaCl₂, MgCl₂). However, CWS combined with trivalent salt (AlCl₃) sharply increased the viscosity. The zeta potential of CWS with inorganic salts increased which can enhance the electric repulsion and beneficial to reduce the viscosity. The content of free water in CWS with trivalent salt decreased, and the freedom of the free water in CWS with trivalent salt decreased which were all bad to the viscosity and the adsorption of the dispersant on the particles. Compared with the surface polarity of the particles without inorganic salts, the surface polarity of the particles with divalent salts was similar to those without inorganic salts. Under the comprehensive influence, divalent salt has little effect on the viscosity of CWS.

A rapid and sensitive immunoassay for the simultaneous detection of imidacloprid and thiacloprid was developed by using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). The UCNPs of NaYF₄:Yb, Er and NaYF₄:Yb, Tm were synthesized and conjugated with anti-imidacloprid monoclonal antibody (mAb) and anti-thiacloprid mAb as signal labels, while the MNPs were conjugated with antigens of thiacloprid and imidacloprid as separation elements. The fluorescence intensities of Yb/Er- and Yb/Tm-doped UCNPs were detected simultaneously in 544 nm and 477 nm under the excitation of NIR light (980 nm). The amounts of mAb-conjugated UCNPs that were separated by antigen-conjugated MNPs were determined based on competitive immunoassays. Under the optimal conditions, the 50% inhibiting concentration (IC₅₀) and limit of detection (LOD, IC₁₀) were 5.80 and 0.32 ng/mL for imidacloprid and 6.45 and 0.61 ng/mL for thiacloprid, respectively. The immunoassay exhibited negligible cross-reactivity with analogs of imidacloprid and thiacloprid except imidaclothiz (86.2%). The average recoveries of imidacloprid and thiacloprid in environmental and agricultural samples, including paddy water, soil, pears, oranges, cucumbers, and wheat, ranged from 78.4 to 105.9% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2.1–11.9% for imidacloprid and ranged from 82.5 to 102.3% with RSDs of 1.0–16.5% for thiacloprid. In addition, the results of the immunoassay correlated well with high-performance liquid chromatography for the detection of the authentic samples.

Recently, China is named among the most carbon dioxide (CO₂)-emitting countries in the world after the United State of America (USA). A major part of Chinese carbon dioxide emissions is as a result of offshore industrial activities which come into the economy as foreign direct investment (FDI). Following this, the present study seeks to investigate the nexus between CO₂ emissions, FDI, energy use, and tourism arrivals, and possibly to advise on who will bear the responsibility of offshore CO₂ emissions. Utilizing ARDL-bound testing and Granger causality approaches for both short- and long-run effects the author found that economic growth (GDP) has a positive relationship with both tourism arrivals, energy use, FDI, and CO₂.This contributes to heavy CO₂ emissions which the author classified as the outsourced/offshore CO₂emissions in China’s FDI. Tourism arrivals have a bi-directional (feedback) causal relationship with energy use and a uni-directional causal relationship with CO₂(transmitting from tourism to CO₂). Both FDI and energy use have a bi-directional (feedback) causal relationship; CO₂, energy use, and tourism arrivals have a unidirectional relationship with GDP which established the triangular nexus causality among the variables and the impact on GDP. Hence, the policy implication should be geared towards implementing the policies and regulations that will checkmate and reduce the excesses of foreign firms to the environment quality of China and promote environmentally friendly economic activities.

Industry is one of the main activities in the city and in many cities of the world, and the dominant industrial zones are the most significant morphological forms of concentration of industrial facilities in the city and are concentrated industrial and business activity. Industrial parks combine activities related to energy and resource consumption, emissions, waste generation, economic benefits, and regional development. The focus of this work is the path of transformation between the present and the vision of a sustainable city in the future. The problem and the subject of research related to two related objects of research: the city and sustainable development. In this paper, the co-author’s industrial symbiosis parks, modern tendencies of the spatial distribution of productive activities, circular economy, to attract leading corporations and open the way for new ventures while preserving the living environment in an urban area.

In recent years, the occurrence of microplastics in the aquatic environment has gathered increasing scientific interest. Several studies have shown that the ingestion of microplastics may negatively influence the physiology of marine organisms having different feeding strategies, particularly in those species which cannot discriminate between food sources. Recent studies highlighted the potential for such particles to accumulate in the food web, posing risks to human health via the consumption of seafood. Furthermore, early findings also indicated the role of microplastics as vectors of chemical pollutants either used as additives during synthesis of the plastics or adsorbed directly from seawater, i.e., PAHs, PCB, and surfactants. Despite the importance of microplastics in adsorption and transport of hydrophobic pollutants, little is known about their distribution and accumulation in marine food webs, or their direct and indirect harmful effects. The Adriatic Sea represents a semi-enclosed basin with a low water recirculation rate and high anthropogenic pressures associated with unsustainable fishing and inputs of contaminants. The body burden, accumulation rates, polymer composition, and recurring morphotypes of microplastics in native blue mussels (M. galloprovincialis) were examined. Organisms collected offshore were compared to those collected in coastal areas. Microplastics were recovered from the soft tissues of all analyzed mussels. Coastal organisms showed a load of 1.06–1.33 fragments g⁻¹ (wet weight) and 0.62–0.63 fibers g⁻¹ (wet weight) while offshore organisms showed an accumulation of 0.65–0.66 fragments g⁻¹ (wet weight) and 0.24–0.35 fibers g⁻¹ (wet weight). The size class distribution revealed a marked prevalence of smaller particles (20 μm to 40 μm range) and the most recurring polymer type in analyzed organisms was PE followed by PP, PET, and equal amounts of PS, PLY, and PVC. A significant site-, time-, and oceanographic-related distribution trend was observed. Based on the findings presented here, there is a clear need to implement a seafood safety monitoring program to better understand actual human health–related risks.