Macrophage activity and histopathology of the lymphohematopoietic organs in male Wistar rats orally exposed to single or mixed pesticides

The noxious effects of low or effective dose exposure to single or mixed pesticides on macrophage activity and the lymphohematopoietic organs were investigated. Male Wistar rats were orally exposed to dichlorvos, dicofol, endosulfan, dieldrin and permethrin, either as single or combined mixtures during a 28-day study containing eight groups: one group received a semipurified diet (non-treated); two groups received a semipurified diet containing low dose mixture (dieldrin 0.025 mg/kg, endosulfan, 0.6 mg/kg, dicofol 0.22 mg/kg, dichlorvos 0.23 mg/kg, permethrin 5 mg/kg) or an effective dose mixture (dichlorvos 2.3 mg/kg, dicofol 2.5 mg/kg, endosulfan 2.9 mg/kg, dieldrin 0.05 mg/kg and permethrin 25.0 mg/kg), respectively; the other five groups received a semipurified diet containing each single pesticide in effective doses. At sacrifice, the thymus, spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes, Payer's patches and bone marrow were removed for histological analysis. Peritoneal macrophages were obtained to determine the phagocytosis and spreading indexes and tumoral necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), nitric oxide (NO) and H₂O₂ production. Exposure to pesticide mixtures did not alter the percentage of macrophage phagocytosis and spreading, TNF-α production or the NO and H₂O₂ release when compared to the non-treated group. Neither was there any apparent evidence that a pesticide mixture at low or effective doses altered the histological structure of the lymphohematopoietic organs. The findings indicate that short-term treatment with pesticide mixtures did not induce an apparent immunotoxic effect in male Wistar rats.     

Evaluation of protective effects of sulforaphane on DNA damage caused by exposure to low levels of pesticide mixture using comet assay

The objective of the study was to evaluate the potential risk of DNA damage due to exposure to a mixture of the most widely used pesticides, namely endosulfan, chlorpyriphos and thiram at an environmentally relevant concentration (5 μM each) and the DNA protective capacity of sulforaphane (SFN) (10–30 μg/mL). DNA damage in human lymphocytes was ascertained with Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (SCGE), also called Comet Assay. For positive control, H₂O₂ at 100 mM was used. The pesticide mixture produced DNA damage at the concentration used in the lymphocytes. SFN was able to offer a statistically significant (P < 0.01), concentration-dependant protection to DNA damage between 10–20 μg/mL in both the pre-incubation and co-incubation strategies. The results indicate that exposure to low levels of these pesticide mixtures can induce DNA damage, and the presence of SFN in diet may reduce the incidence of genetic damage, especially in farm workers. However, it is not clear whether SFN is involved in quenching of the free radicals generated by the pesticide mixture or it is involved in DNA repair mechanism.     

Oxidative stress and biochemical perturbations induced by insecticides mixture in rat testes

The joint action of pyrethroids, lambda-cyhalothrin (LC) in combination with organophosphates, fenitrothione (FNT) on antioxidant defense system and lipid peroxidation biomarkers in rat testes was studied. The results suggest that incubation of testes homogenate with different concentrations of insecticide mixture for different time intervals significantly decreased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, like glutathione S-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), and the level of reduced glutathione (GSH). In addition, a significant inhibition in transaminases (AST, ALT), phosphatases (AcP, AlP) activity and protein content were observed. On the other hand, FNT plus LC increased the cellular lipid peroxidation (LPO) level and the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). In conclusion, the use of insecticides mixture might cause marked oxidative damage in a concentration and time-dependent manner.     

Modeling of n-butane ignition, combustion, and preflame oxidation in the 20-l vessel

The objective of the study reported herein is to simulate various physical and chemical phenomena accompanying fuel-rich n-butane–oxygen mixture preparation, ignition, preflame oxidation, and combustion in the standard 20-l explosion vessel, by applying mathematical models. Based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the mixing process and natural convection of the ignition kernel, as well as on the analysis of the detailed reaction mechanism of n-butane oxidation, laminar flame propagation, and self-ignition, possible explanations for the phenomena observed experimentally have been suggested. The results of the study indicate that seemingly inflammable mixtures can become hazardous depending on the mixture preparation procedure and forced ignition timing.     

A New Approach to Plant Diversity Assessment Combining HPLC Data, Simplex Mixture Design and Discriminant Analysis

The quantitative assessment of plant diversity and its monitoring with time represent a key environmental issue for management and conservation of natural resources. Assessment of plant diversity could be based on chemical analyses of secondary metabolites (e.g. flavonoids, terpenoids), because of the substantial quantitative and qualitative between-individual variability in such compounds. At a geographical scale, the plant populations become widely dispersed, and their monitoring from numerous routine individual analyses could become restricting. To overcome such constraint, this study develops a multivariate calibration model giving the relative frequency of a particular taxon from a simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of a plant mixture. The model was built from a complete set of mixtures combining different taxons, according to an experimental design (Scheffé’s matrix). For each mixture, a reference HPLC pattern was simulated by averaging the individual HPLC profiles of the constitutive taxons. The calibration models, based on Bayesian discriminant analysis (BDA), gave statistical relationships between the contributions of each taxon in mixtures and reference HPLC patterns of these mixtures. Finally, these models were validated on new mixtures by using outside plants. This new biodiversity survey approach is illustrated on four chemical taxons (four chemotypes) of Astragalus caprinus (Fabaceae). The more differentiated the taxon, the better predicted its contributions (in mixtures) were by BDA calibration model. This new approach could be very useful for a global routine survey of plant diversity.     

Inverse modeling of multicomponent reactive transport through single and dual porosity media

Compacted bentonite is foreseen as buffer material for high-level radioactive waste in deep geological repositories because it provides hydraulic isolation, chemical stability, and radionuclide sorption. A wide range of laboratory tests were performed within the framework of FEBEX (Full-scale Engineered Barrier EXperiment) project to characterize buffer properties and develop numerical models for FEBEX bentonite. Here we present inverse single and dual-continuum multicomponent reactive transport models of a long-term permeation test performed on a 2.5 cm long sample of FEBEX bentonite. Initial saline bentonite porewater was flushed with 5.5 pore volumes of fresh granitic water. Water flux and chemical composition of effluent waters were monitored during almost 4 years. The model accounts for solute advection and diffusion and geochemical reactions such as aqueous complexation, acid-base, cation exchange, protonation/deprotonation by surface complexation and dissolution/precipitation of calcite, chalcedony and gypsum. All of these processes are assumed at local equilibrium. Similar to previous studies of bentonite porewater chemistry on batch systems which attest the relevance of protonation/deprotonation on buffering pH, our results confirm that protonation/deprotonation is a key process in maintaining a stable pH under dynamic transport conditions. Breakthrough curves of reactive species are more sensitive to initial porewater concentration than to effective diffusion coefficient. Optimum estimates of initial porewater chemistry of saturated compacted FEBEX bentonite are obtained by solving the inverse problem of multicomponent reactive transport. While the single-continuum model reproduces the trends of measured data for most chemical species, it fails to match properly the long tails of most breakthrough curves. Such limitation is overcome by resorting to a dual-continuum reactive transport model.     

Flame regime estimations of gasoline explosion in a tube

Flame regime of gasoline-air mixture explosion is related to chemical reaction, turbulent flow and heat and mass transfer. Experimental data of gas velocity, pressure and flame temperature of gasoline-air mixture explosion in a tube at the equivalence ratio of 0.72, 1.00 and 1.28 were preliminarily acquired. Then, fluctuating velocities, overpressures, and burned and unburned gas temperatures at early stage (50 ms), intermediate stage (150 ms) and last stage (250 ms) in three explosions were determined through the analysis of the experimental data. Finally, the Damköhler number and Reynolds number of the early, intermediate and late stage were calculated respectively, and the flame regimes for each stage were estimated through the Damköhler number vs. Reynolds number diagram. Results show that all the flames at early, intermediate and late stage of the three explosions have the same regime of flamelets-in-eddies. The conclusions can provide some useful references for further study of the flame regime and the numerical analysis model selection of gasoline-air mixture explosion.     

Toxicity of carbaryl,diquat dibromide,and fluoranthene,individually and in mixture,to larval grass shrimp,Palaemonetes pugio

This study examined the toxicity of two pesticides (carbaryl and diquat dibromide) and one polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (fluoranthene), both singly and in mixture, to grass shrimp larvae (Palaemonetes pugio). These three chemicals are all present in coastal environments and can easily enter estuarine ecosystems. Fluoranthene was the most toxic chemical with a 96-h LC₅₀ value of 32.45 μ g/L, followed by carbaryl (43.02 μ g/L) and diquat dibromide (1624 μ g/L). In the chemical mixture tests, the binary carbaryl/diquat dibromide mixture and the ternary carbaryl/diquat dibromide/fluoranthene mixture had additive results.     

毒性鉴别评价方法对城镇污水处理厂去除水中有毒物质的分析实例

以江苏省常州市城北污水算处理厂的进水、活性污泥处理系统的出水以及A^2O处理工艺的出水为研究对象，对进出水进行Daphnia magna急性毒性试验。结果表明，进水对Daphnia magna具有24h急性毒性，经过活性污泥处理工艺处理及A^2O处理工艺处理，两股出水均不显示24h急性毒性，采用毒性鉴别评价（Toxicity Identification Evaluation,TE）方法对进水进行监测和评价，发现曝气可去除进水的毒性，C18固相提取亦可去除进水毒性，进水中存在的主要毒物为易挥发的非极性有机化合物，进一步检测可知，进水中的关键毒物主要为邻丙基甲醛肟、1，1－甲基乙基－2－甲氧基苯酚、2－氮，氮二甲基苯甲醇等，此外，对2个处理系统出水进行GC／MS分析，可知出水中关键毒物基本被去除。     

混合气体直接吸附分离回收过程研究

以精密陶瓷制造过程中排放的甲苯和异丙醇混合气体为目标气体,采用4段活性炭吸附柱串联吸附实验方式研究了混合组分气体直接吸附分离回收的可行性.结果表明,异丙醇和甲苯这2种物性具有一定差异的物质在吸附床的长度方向存在明显的分层吸附现象.在表观气速0.42 m·s-1、异丙醇与甲苯入口浓度分别为477 mg·m-3和746 mg·m-3、吸附柱总长为26cm条件下,通气吸附798 min时,0～10 cm长度段炭层吸附甲苯量为184.5 mg·g-1,吸附异丙醇量为0 mg·g-1,而21～26 cm长度段炭层吸附甲苯量为0.92 mg·g-1,吸附异丙醇量为91.2 mg·g-1,通过分段再生回收分别得到了纯度99%以上的甲苯和异丙醇回收液.弱吸附质异丙醇在吸附过程中存在气相浓度增浓现象,该现象导致实验条件下部分活性炭层区域对异丙醇的吸附量提高了27%以上.通过多段串联吸附、分段再生回收的方式可以实现混合气体的直接吸附分离回收.