Zingiber officinale ethanolic extract attenuates oxidative stress,steroidogenic gene expression alterations,and testicular histopathology induced by sodium arsenite in male rats

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Arsenic (As) indelibly exists in the environment and may reach to a food chain. Flavors and herbs are recognized sources of natural antioxidants that...     

Immunohistochemical,histopathological, and biochemical studies of the NF-ҡB P65 marker in rat ovaries experimentally intoxicated by cadmium and the protective effect of the purslane plant extract

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aim of this study is to describe the existence of the inflammatory marker nuclear factor kappa light chain B lymphocyte protein (NF-?B P65)...     

Potential of Eucalyptus globulus for the phytoremediation of metals in a Moroccan iron mine soil—a case study

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The contamination left by abandoned mines demands sustainable mitigation measures. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the phytoremediator...     

Towards saving freshwater: halophytes as unconventional feedstuffs in livestock feed: a review

Water represents 71% of all earth area and about 97% of this water is salty water. So, only 3% of the overall world water quantity is freshwater. Human can benefit only from 1% of this water and the remaining 2% freeze at both poles of earth. Therefore, it is important to preserve the freshwater through increasing the plants consuming salty water. The future prosperity of feed resources in arid and semi-arid countries depends on economic use of alternative resources that have been marginalized for long periods of time, such as halophytic plants, which are one such potential future resource. Halophyte plants can grow in high salinity water and soil and to some extent during drought. The growth of these plants depends on the contact of the salted water with plant roots as in semi-desert saline water, mangrove swamps, marshes, and seashores. Halophyte plants need high levels of sodium chloride in the soil water for growth, and the soil water must also contain high levels of salts, as sodium hydroxide or magnesium sulfate. There are many uses for halophyte plants, including feed for animals, vegetables, drugs, sand dune stabilizers, wind shelter, soil cover, wetland cultivation, laundry detergents, and paper production. This paper will focus on the use of halophytes as a feed additive for animals. In spite of the good nutritional value of halophytes, some anti-nutritional factors as nitrates, nitrite complexes, tannins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, saponins, oxalates, and alkaloids may be present in some of them. The presence of such anti-nutritional agents makes halophytes unpalatable to animals, which tends to reduce feed intake and nutrient use. Therefore, the negative effects of these plants on animal performance are the only objection against using halophytes in animal feed diets. This review article highlights the beneficial impact of considering halophytes in animal feeding on saving freshwater and illustrates its nutritive value for livestock from different aspects.     

Fresh water fishes as indicators of Kaveri River pollution

The survey of fish fauna in Kaveri River at polluted and unpolluted sites revealed a direct effect on the distribution of fishes in that 14 species were observed in unpolluted site and only 6 species in polluted site. Further, the haemotological parameters like RBC, WBC and haemoglobin content increased in fishes collected from polluted site whereas the organic constituents of muscle decreased in the above fishes when compared to the fishes of unpolluted site. The reason for the above changes is discussed.     

Factors driving the seasonal dynamics of Pseudo-nitzschia species and domoic acid at mussel farming in the SW Mediterranean Sea

ABSTRACT

The seasonal variations in Pseudo-nitzschia species and domoic acid (DA) concentration were investigated, at three shellfish farms in SW coastal Mediterranean. In parallel, the toxicity of mussels was tested. Two distinct groups of species were enumerated according to morphology and size (Pseudo-nizschia delicatissima and P. seriata groups). DA was detected over a nine-week period from July to October 2012 in the Lagoon, with a maximum concentration recorded in July (12.71?ng?DA?L^?1). DA was positively correlated with the presence of P. seriata-group and P. delicatissima-group and was mostly occurred during P limitation period in seawater. No DA was found in mussels that were collected during the period of DA absence in seawater. Our results suggest that temperature, salinity, inorganic and organic nutrients were significant for the seasonal dynamics of P. seriata and P. delicatissima groups, but that the P limitation was the most driving factor for DA production in these areas. The relative influence of environmental factors should be further studied to better understand the recent surfacing of massive blooms of toxigenic Pseudo-nitzschia in SW Mediterranean coast.     

Benefits of protected areas for nonbreeding waterbirds adjusting their distributions under climate warming

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so-called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm-dwelling species, but also mitigated by lowering extirpation rates of cold-dwelling species. An evaluation of the relative importance of colonization-extirpation processes is important to inform conservation strategies that aim for both climate debt reduction and species conservation. We assessed the colonization-extirpation dynamics involved in community changes in response to climate inside and outside PAs. To do so, we used 25 years of occurrence data of nonbreeding waterbirds in the western Palearctic (97 species, 7071 sites, 39 countries, 1993–2017). We used a community temperature index (CTI) framework based on species thermal affinities to investigate species turnover induced by temperature increase. We determined whether thermal community adjustment was associated with colonization by warm-dwelling species or extirpation of cold-dwelling species by modeling change in standard deviation of the CTI (CTI_SD). Using linear mixed-effects models, we investigated whether communities in PAs had lower climatic debt and different patterns of community change than communities outside PAs. For CTI and CTI_SD combined, communities inside PAs had more species, higher colonization, lower extirpation, and lower climatic debt (16%) than communities outside PAs. Thus, our results suggest that PAs facilitate 2 independent processes that shape community dynamics and maintain biodiversity. The community adjustment was, however, not sufficiently fast to keep pace with the large temperature increases in the central and northeastern western Palearctic. Our results underline the potential of combining CTI and CTI_SD metrics to improve understanding of the colonization-extirpation patterns driven by climate warming.     

Systematic development of an artificial neural network model for real-time prediction of ground-level ozone in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Ground-level ozone is a secondary pollutant that has recently gained notoriety for its detrimental effects on human and vegetation health. In this paper, a systematic approach is applied to develop artificial neural network (ANN) models for ground-level ozone (O3) prediction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, using ambient monitoring data for input. The intent of these models is to provide regulatory agencies with a tool for addressing data gaps in ambient monitoring information and predicting O3 events. The models are used to determine the meteorological conditions and precursors that most affect O3 concentrations. O3 time-series effects and the efficacy of the systematic approach are also assessed. The developed models showed good predictive success, with coefficient of multiple determination values ranging from 0.75 to 0.94 for forecasts up to 2 hr in advance. The inputs most important for O3 prediction were temperature and concentrations of nitric oxide, total hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.     

Performance of photocatalytic reactors using immobilized TiO2 film for the degradation of phenol and methylene blue dye present in water stream

TiO2 thin film photocatalyst was successfully synthesized and immobilized on glass reactor tube using sol-gel method. The synthesized TiO2 coating was transparent, which enabled the penetration of ultra-violet (UV) light to the catalyst surface. Two photocatalytic reactors with different operating modes were tested: (a) tubular photocatalytic reactor with re-circulation mode and (b) batch photocatalytic reactor. A new proposed TiO2 synthesized film formulation of 1 titanium isopropoxide: 8 isopropanol: 3 acetyl acetone: 1.1 H2O: 0.05 acetic acid (in molar ratio) gave excellent photocatalytic activity for degradation of phenol and methylene blue dye present in the water. The half-life time, t1/2 of photocatalytic degradation of phenol was 56 min at the initial phenol concentration of 1000 microM in the batch reactor. In the tubular photocatalytic reactor, 5 re-circulation passes with residence time of 2.2 min (single pass) degraded 50% of 40-microM methylene blue dye. Initial phenol concentration, presence of hydrogen peroxide, presence of air bubbling and stirring speed as the process variables were studied in the batch reactor. Initial methylene blue concentration, pH value, light intensity and reaction temperature were studied as the process variables in the tubular reactor. The synthesized TiO2 thin film was characterized using SEM, XRD and EDX analysis. A comparative performance between the synthesized TiO2 thin film and commercial TiO2 particles (99% anatase) was evaluated under the same experimental conditions. The TiO2 film was equally active as the TiO2 powder catalyst.