The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal effects of perinatal exposure to dioxin on physical growth in a 3-year follow-up study. In 2015, 27 mother–infant pairs living in an electronic waste (e-waste) dismantling region and 35 pairs living in a control region were enrolled in the present study. Breast milk samples were collected at 4 weeks after birth. Physical growth, including weight, height, and head and chest circumferences, was measured at 6 months and 3 years of age. Dioxin levels in the breast milk were measured by gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry. Levels of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and toxic equivalency values in maternal breast milk of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and PCDDs/PCDFs were significantly higher in women residing in the e-waste dismantling region. In 3-year-old boys, inverse associations were found between height and PCDDs-TEQ. In girls, positive associations were found between height and 2,3,7,8-TetraCDD, PCDDs-TEQ, and PCDDs/PCDFs-TEQ, and for weight and PCDDs-TEQ and PCDDs/PCDFs-TEQ at 3 years of age. In this study, sex-specific differences were observed in children, in whom dioxin exposure decreased growth in boys but increased growth in girls during the first 3 years of life.

In this study, Jordanian diatomaceous earth (JDA) and commercial diatomaceous earth (standard diatomaceous earth, SDA) were used for adsorption of samarium (Sm)(III) and neodymium (Nd)(III) ions from aqueous solutions using batch technique as a function of initial concentration of metal ions, adsorbent dosage, ionic strength, initial pH solution, contact time, and temperature. Both adsorbents were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Maximum metal ion uptake was observed after 100 min of agitation, and the uptake has decreased with increasing temperature and reached a maximum at pH ≈ 5. Different types of adsorption isotherms and kinetic models were used to describe the Nd(III) and Sm(III) ion adsorption. The experimental data fitted within the following isotherms in the order Langmuir > Dubinin–Radushkevich (DR) > Freundlich and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model based on their coefficient of determination (R²), chi-square (χ²), and error function (Fₑᵣᵣₒᵣ%) values. Maximum adsorption uptakes, according to the Langmuir model, were obtained as 188.679 mg/g and 185.185 mg/g for Sm(III) and 169.492 mg/g and 149.254 mg/g for Nd(III) by JDA and SDA, respectively. The results of thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of Sm(III) and Nd(III) ions onto JDA and SDA is a feasible, spontaneous, exothermic, and entropy driven. The best recovery for Sm(III) and Nd(III) was obtained when the 0.05 M EDTA + 0.05 M H₃PO₄ mixture was used as an eluent.

Unapproved and illegal buildings have sprawled into the Northern Piedmont of the Qinling Mountains. The problem of illegal villas has aroused widespread public opinion and concern. The ecological environment of the Qinling Mountains has been seriously affected by the resurgence of illegal villas. This paper introduces the characteristics and distribution of illegal villas, analyzes the hazards caused by illegal villas, and describes control measures for illegal villas and land consolidation and ecological remediation in the Northern Piedmont of the Qinling Mountains. The results show that illegal planning and illegal development, as well as local governments’ irregularities, including control, governance, punishment, demolition, and compensation for illegal buildings in the expropriation of premises, have caused the problem of illegal construction of villas in the Northern Piedmont of the Qinling Mountains. Control measures for illegal villas are demolition, land consolidation, and ecological remediation. Policy implications for protection of Qinling Mountains are provided.

In this study, the eggs of 30 wild Black Sea whiting (Merlangius merlangus euxinus, Nordmann, 1840) and 30 farmed freshwater rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Walbaum, 1792) collected from Samsun Province in Turkey were analyzed to determine the level of contamination by nine organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), namely α-hexachlorocyclohexane (α-HCH), β-HCH, γ-HCH (lindane), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), aldrin, 2,4′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), 4,4′-DDT, 2,4′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), 4,4′-DDE, and 15 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (PCB-28, -70, -74, -81, -99, -101, -118, -138, -153, -156, -170, -180, -183, -187, and -208), and their potential use as biomarkers to monitor levels of environmental contamination. OCPs and PCBs in the fat of fish eggs were extracted cryogenically and their concentrations were determined with a gas chromatography-electron capture detector (GC-ECD). The whiting eggs showed high OCP and PCB levels compared to the rainbow trout eggs. The median ∑ DDT values for whiting and rainbow trout eggs were 1601.62 ng g⁻¹ fat (range 824.87–5049.81) and 406.49 ng g⁻¹ fat (range 199.88–588.82); median ∑Indicator PCBs were 1264.24 ng g⁻¹ fat (range 520.05–6140.32) and 82.11 ng g⁻¹ fat (range 2.85–215.97); and median ∑ HCHs were 155.66 ng g⁻¹ fat (range 35.45–330.40) and 13.48 ng g⁻¹ fat (range 4.44–66.44), respectively. In the whiting eggs, the ∑Indicator PCB level was above the maximum residue limit (MRL) of 200 ng g⁻¹ fat stated in the European Commission Regulation (EC) and Turkish Food Codex (TFC). In addition, there was a significant difference between the contamination levels of the eggs of the two species. In conclusion, it appears that fish eggs can serve as a valuable biomarker for the level of contamination of persistent organochlorine contaminants in different aquatic environments.

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.

In order to ensure better use of treated wastewater (TWW), we investigated the effect of three increasing doses of TWW, 10%, 50%, and 100%, on biochemical and transcriptomic statuses of earthworms Eisenia andrei exposed during 7 and 14 days. The effect of TWW on the oxidative status of E. andrei was observed, but this effect was widely dependent on the dilution degree of TWW. Results showed a significant decrease in the catalase (CAT) activity and an increase in the glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity, and considerable acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition was recorded after 14 days of exposure. Moreover, malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation was found to be higher in exposed animals compared to control worms. The gene expression level revealed a significant upregulation of target genes (CAT and GST) during experimentation. These data provided new information about the reuse of TWW and its potential toxicity on soil organisms.

Carbon materials, as effective adsorbents to numerous aqueous cationic contaminants, have been hardly applied to remove anions in wastewater. In this work, different modifying agents were used to modify corncob biochars (CC) and the surface potentials of these modified biochars were determined. Based on the findings, modification principle was determined to reveal the relationship between surface potentials of the biochars and their nitrate adsorption capacities. The surface potential was dominated by the metal cations and multivalent cations led to even positive zeta potential. The formation of metal oxide not only led to the augment in surface area but also increase the surface charge. FeCl₃-modified biochar (Fe-CC) with the highest positive surface charge was utilized to remove anions (nitrate) from aqueous solutions. Characterization results confirm that Fe₂O₃ structure were successfully formed on biochar surface. This led to the formation of iron nitrate hydrate (Fe(NO₃)₃·9H₂O), which enabled higher nitrate adsorption performance than that of pristine biochar. Batch experiments showed that nitrate adsorption on the Fe-CC was stable and almost independent of experimental pH and temperature. Based on the Langmuir model results, the maximum nitrate adsorption capacity of Fe-CC was 32.33 mg/g. Coexisting anions had negative influence on the adsorption performance. Findings of this work suggest that the modified biochar can be used in wastewater treatment to remove anions such as nitrate. Graphic abstract ᅟ

This paper develops a methodology for constructing a representative electric vehicle (EV) urban driving cycle as a basis for studying the differences in estimated energy consumption, taking Xi’an as an example. The test route is designed in accordance with the overall topological structure of the urban roads in the study region and the results of a traffic flow survey. Wavelet decomposition and reconstruction are utilized to preprocess the original data. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the number of the kinetic parameters. The fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering algorithm is used to cluster the driving segments. A representative EV urban driving cycle is constructed in accordance with the time proportions of three classes of driving segments and the correlation coefficients of the characteristic parameters. Finally, the differences in energy consumption estimates obtained using the constructed Xi’an EV urban driving cycle (XA-EV-UDC) and the international driving cycles are studied. The comparison shows that when international driving cycles are used to estimate the energy consumption and driving range of EVs, large relative errors will result, with energy consumption errors of 9.65 to 21.17% and driving range errors of 20.10 to 38.14%. Therefore, to accurately estimate energy consumption and driving range of EVs under real-world driving conditions, representative EV driving cycles for each typical city and region should be constructed.

This study was carried out to investigate the concentration of two heavy metals, i.e., mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) in soil and plant. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) was used as a test vegetable in a pot experiment. Five spiked concentrations of both the metals along with sewage water were used as treatments. The analyses of the metals were determined in two cuttings. The results showed significant effect of treatments on the concentration of the two metals in soil and plant. The concentrations of As recorded were higher in 1st spinach cutting and reduced in the second harvest. However, comparing the two metal concentrations, it was found that As was absorbed greater as compared with Hg. Analyzing the plant growth parameter, it was found that metal stress has significantly influenced the plant growth. In sewage water pots, As was significantly higher than Hg. The transfer factor from soil to plant showed higher As in plants at lower concentration, but at higher As levels, the transfer rate declined, while Hg showed it was completely inverse. Positive correlation was found between soil applied metal concentration and plant uptake. It may be concluded from the above results that spinach is a good accumulator of heavy metals and has shown significant result of both As and Hg accumulation in plant. The concentration increased with the increasing concentration in soil.

Various types of micropollutants, e.g., pharmaceuticals and their metabolites and resistant strains of pathogenic microorganisms, are usually found in hospital wastewaters. The aim of this paper was to study the presence of 74 frequently used pharmaceuticals, legal and illegal drugs, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 5 hospital wastewaters in Slovakia and Czechia and to compare the efficiency of several advanced oxidations processes (AOPs) for sanitation and treatment of such highly polluted wastewaters. The occurrence of micropollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria was investigated by in-line SPE-LC-MS/MS technique and cultivation on antibiotic and antibiotic-free selective diagnostic media, respectively. The highest maximum concentrations were found for cotinine (6700 ng/L), bisoprolol (5200 ng/L), metoprolol (2600 ng/L), tramadol (2400 ng/L), sulfamethoxazole (1500 ng/L), and ranitidine (1400 ng/L). In the second part of the study, different advanced oxidation processes, modified Fenton reaction, ferrate(VI), and oxidation by boron-doped diamond electrode were tested in order to eliminate the abovementioned pollutants. Obtained results indicate that the modified Fenton reaction and application of boron-doped diamond electrode were able to eliminate almost the whole spectrum of selected micropollutants with efficiency higher than 90%. All studied methods achieved complete removal of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria present in hospital wastewaters.