Pesticide overuse is still prevalent in many developing countries. And improving farmers’ pest control ability is considered to be the key to achieve pesticide reduction. Based on the survey data of 822 rice farmers from Hubei, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces in the Yangtze River Basin, we demonstrated the impact of pest control ability and technical guidance on farmers’ pesticide overuse. We find that rice farmers’ insufficient pest control ability does not necessarily lead to pesticide overuse, which depends on whether there is external technical guidance. The technical guidance of government agrotechnical stations and pesticide retailers can weaken pesticide overuse caused by lack of personal ability. In terms of sample, variable and method substitution, the above estimated results are still robust. In addition, we find that different subjects and links of pesticide technical guidance will bring different impacts. The technical guidance of agrotechnical stations mainly plays a role in the time and type of pesticide application, while the pesticide retailers mainly play a role in the time and dosage of pesticide application. This paper emphasizes that strengthening the guidance and regulation of pesticide technology guidance subject is also an efficient way of pesticide reduction. This will help to improve the effect of agricultural extension and accelerate the realization of pesticide reduction target in China.

The presence of potentially hazardous elements (PHEs) in playground soils is generally associated with anthropogenic sources such as vehicle traffic, industries, construction sites, and biomass burning. Studies indicate that PHEs are harmful to human health and may even be carcinogenic. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the physicochemical, morphological, and mineralogical properties of soil samples from three public playgrounds located in the cities of Bogota, Medellin, and Barranquilla. Besides, the possible impacts caused by the aerodynamics of particles in Colombian cities were verified. The morphology, composition, and structure of the nanoparticles (NPs) (< 100 nm) present in these soils were evaluated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) equipped with high-precision field emission (FE) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Soil samples were predominantly feldspar, quartz, and, to a lesser extent, clay minerals, carbonates, and hematites. The average content of PHEs was anthropogenically enriched in relation to the upper continental crust. As and Sn showed a large spatial variation, indicating the influence of local sources, such as vehicle traffic and industries. There is an inverse relationship between the total concentrations of some elements and their leachable fractions. The accumulation of traffic-derived PHEs has a negative impact on human health and the environment, which is alarming, especially for elements such as Pb, Sb, or As. Therefore, the presence of PHEs should receive greater attention from public health professionals, and limits should be set and exposures controlled. This study includes the construction of a baseline that provides basic information on pollution, its sources, and exposure routes for humans in the vicinity of Colombia’s major cities, characterized by their increasing urbanization and industrialization.

The inclusion of an index, which can be the representative of environmental quality from different aspects, seems to be of paramount significance. This issue is a major challenging one in the economic–environmental literature. This study investigates the role of financial development in economic growth effect on the composite environmental quality index (CEQI) in two groups of selected Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In this regard, System Generalized Method of Moment (SYS-GMM) is applied to fit the research models. According to the findings, in the selected OPEC countries, financial development reinforces negative impacts of economic growth on environmental quality. In the selected OECD countries, economic growth has negative effect on the environmental quality and financial development weakens this effect. The effect of financial development on the CEQI is respectively negative and positive in OPEC and OECD countries. Moreover, in both groups of selected countries, energy consumption and economic growth have a negative impact on the CEQI; nonetheless, trade openness has a positive effect. Accordingly, some policy suggestions and new recommendations are presented for future studies, which would contribute to the better implementation of economic–environmental policies. Graphical abstract

Bats act as a natural reservoir for many viruses, including coronaviruses, and have played a crucial epidemiological role in the emergence of many viral diseases. Coronaviruses have been known for 60 years. They are usually responsible for the induction of mild respiratory signs in humans. However, since 2002, the bat-borne virus started to induce fatal epidemics according to WHO reports. In this year, the first serious human coronavirus epidemic (severe acute respiratory syndrome; SARS) occurred (China, 8098 cases, 774 deaths [9.5% of the cases] in 17 countries). The case fatality was higher in elderly patients above 60 years and reached 50% of the cases. SARS epidemic was followed 10 years later by the emergence of the middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS) in Saudi Arabia (in 2012, 2260 cases, 803 deaths [35.5% of the cases] in 27 countries). Finally, in December 2019, a new epidemic in Wuhan, China, (corona virus disease 2019, COVID-19) emerged and could spread to 217 countries infecting more than 86,255,226 cases and killing 1,863,973 people by the end of 2020. There are many reasons why bats are ideal reservoir hosts for viral diseases such as the tolerance of their immune system to the invading viruses for several months. They can actively shed the viruses, although they develop no clinical signs (will be discussed in details later in the review). Bats were directly or indirectly involved in the three previous coronavirus epidemics. The indirect transmission takes place via intermediate hosts including civet cats for SARS and dromedary camels in the case of MERS. Although bats are believed to be the source of COVID-19 pandemic, direct pieces of evidence are still lacking. Therefore, coronaviruses’ role in epidemics induction and the epidemiological role of bats are discussed. The current work also presents different evidence (phylogenetic data, animal experiments, bats artificial infection studies, and computerized models of SARS-CoV2 evolution) that underline the involvement of bats in the epidemiology of the pandemic.

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in China has been the largest worldwide. Yet the impacts of atmospheric N deposition on soil N₂O emissions were often ignored by previous studies. Thus, we investigated how N deposition affected N₂O emissions over China using the process-based model (DNDC, DeNitrification-DeComposition). Total soil N inputs were 194 kg N ha⁻¹ in agricultural systems over China in 2010, including chemical N fertilizer (78%), atmospheric N deposition (12%), and crop residues N (10%). Annual N₂O emissions induced by N deposition were estimated at 97 Gg N, occupying 43% of total soil N₂O emissions (228 Gg N) in agricultural systems over China. In particular, the largest N₂O emissions caused by atmospheric N deposition were found in South China, followed by North China Plain and Southwest China. The efficiency of N deposition generating N₂O emissions (3.0%) over China was 4 times than that of N fertilizer (0.7%). N₂O emissions induced by N deposition increased from 81 Gg in 2000 to 93 Gg in 2014 (by 1% yr⁻¹), which was consistent with the long-term trend of N deposition. This suggests N deposition accelerated soil N₂O emissions largely contributing to global warming. Our results also indicated that 62% and 10% of soil N₂O emissions were reduced by applying a nitrification inhibitor and N fertilizer with 20% decrease. We highlight the significance of considering N deposition in determining total soil N₂O emissions over China. The results provide an important scientific basis for the prediction of greenhouse effect caused by N deposition over China.

Conjunctivitis is one of the most common eye-related health problems and significantly influences patients’ quality of life. Whether air pollution increased the risks of conjunctivitis is still unclear. Daily counts of outpatient visits for conjunctivitis, air pollution, and meteorological data during January 1, 2015-December 31, 2019 were collected from Tai’an, China. Generalized additive model with Poisson distribution was used to estimate the relationship between air pollution and visits for conjunctivitis, after controlling for the long-term and seasonal trends, weather variables, and day of the week. The effect of air pollution on visits for conjunctivitis was generally acute and significant at the current day and disappeared after 2 days. The relative risk of conjunctivitis visits associated with per 10 μg/m³ increases in PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂ at lag 0-2 days was 1.006 (95% CI: 1.001-1.011), 1.003 (95% CI: 1.000-1.0107), 1.023 (95% CI: 1.009-1.037), and 1.025 (95% CI: 1.010-1.040), respectively. The impact of air pollution on visits for conjunctivitis varied greatly by individual characteristics. The impact of NO₂ was higher in males than in females, with the opposite trend for SO₂ and PM₂.₅. Effect estimates of air pollutants were higher among return visits for conjunctivitis, the elderly, and white-collar workers. Our study highlights that the vulnerable subpopulations should pay more attention to protect themselves from air pollution.

To minimize the awful situation confronting the entire globe, the global warming danger has raised the intensity of consciousness from all areas of life. Therefore, the research assesses the impact of CO₂ emissions and energy use on economic performance and considers trade openness, urbanization, and agriculture in Indonesia utilizing data covering the period from 1965 to 2019. The current research employed the dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) tests to capture the long-run association between these economic indicators. Furthermore, the gradual shift and wavelet coherence tests are utilized to capture the direction of causality. The ARDL bound test discloses a long-run interconnection among the variables of interest. The outcomes of the ARDL and DOLS depict that CO₂ emissions, agriculture, energy use, and urbanization trigger economic growth. Moreover, the wavelet coherence test findings revealed a positive correlation between economic growth and urbanization, CO₂ emissions, agriculture, and energy consumption. Furthermore, there is evidence of a weak and positive correlation between economic growth and trade openness. The gradual shift causality test outcomes disclosed that economic growth can predict urbanization and energy consumption, while agriculture can predict economic growth. These outcomes have far-reaching significance for economic growth and the selected variables in Indonesia.

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an ever-increasing discipline that enables researchers to track near-real-time data concerning the recreational use of illicit drugs. Community illicit drug use was estimated in eleven Turkish cities, using eighteen wastewater treatment plants, representing the metropolitan cities and rural areas with different socio-demographic characteristics. In this study, 24-h composite influent wastewater samples were collected for 1 week per season between March 2019 and December 2019. Heroin, amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, cocaine, and marijuana were covered as illicit drugs in this study. Solid-phase extraction, LC-MS/MS separation, identification, and quantification were used as the analytical methods. Overall results indicate that both cocaine and MDMA usage increased in all cities on weekends. More specifically, it was observed that the average amount of cocaine use regarding 11 cities was 14.7 mg/1000 person/day, while figures for other substances are as follows: 9.5 for amphetamine, 34.5 for methamphetamine, 38.4 for MDMA, 42.2 for heroin, and lastly 5412 mg/1000p/day for marijuana. This study holds the position of being the most comprehensive one conducted, considering spatial and temporal datasets on illicit drug consumption obtained via WBE in Turkey.

The present paper investigates the environmental issue in Tunisia when considering both renewable energy challenges and asymmetric oil prices shocks. The nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) approach to cointegration of Shin et al. (2014) in the presence of structural breaks is used to study the environmental Kuznets inverted U-curve in Tunisia over the period 1976–2014. The EKC hypothesis is found to be confirmed in Tunisia in the short and long terms. The nonlinear turning point is found to take place before the linear one suggesting that considering oil price asymmetrically allows accelerating the EKC assumption in Tunisia to reach the turning point more rapidly. Our finding reflects the necessity of an asymmetric energy price reform in Tunisia respecting the asymmetric nature itself of environmental and economic implications of oil price shocks. By switching from the linear to the nonlinear model, renewable energy consumption is found to exert almost the same and effective role as reducer of CO2 emissions. The energy transition process is found to be triggered in Tunisia but at a slow pace. Policy implications have been implemented in terms of environmental, social equity, and energy transition strategies. The issues raised are multidimensional including regulatory, institutional, financial, and governance reforms.

The aim of this review is to highlight and provide an update on the current development of pesticide remediation methods, focusing on the utilization of different cyclodextrin (CD) molecules. Because of less environmental impact and non-toxic nature, CDs are beneficial for pesticide remediation, reducing environmental risk and health hazards. They are advantageous for the removal of pesticides from contaminated areas, as well as for better pesticide formulation and, posing significant effects on the hydrolysis or degradation of pesticides. The review focuses on the current trend and innovations regarding the methods and strategies employed for using CDs in designing pesticide remediation. Nowadays, in addition to the conventional experimental techniques, molecular simulation approaches are significantly contributing to the study of such phenomena and hence are recognized as a widely used tool.