The metribuzin herbicide in polycaprolactone nanocapsules shows less plant chromosome aberration than non-encapsulated metribuzin

Environmental Chemistry Letters - The excessive use of the metribuzin herbicide is contaminating groundwater and damaging non-target plants and organisms. There is therefore a need for safer...     

Drivers' opinions of enforcement and incentive strategies to promote safety belt use

During a nationwide campaign to promote safety belt use among military personnel, a field study was conducted at 12 military bases in the Netherlands. Enforcement and incentive programs were varied among military bases. A written survey was administered to personnel of these bases. The survey contained items concerning reported belt use, motivation to use a safety belt, attitudes toward legislation, public information, enforcement and incentive strategies, and awareness of the campaign. The results showed that enforcement was clearly a better accepted countermeasure than rewarding drivers for the use of safety belts. Respondents from bases exposed to the incentive treatment tend to have relatively more positive opinions of incentives than those exposed to the enforcement treatment. Two independent dimensions were present in the response patterns: one representing opinions of enforcement and the other of incentives/rewards.     

Physiological costs of compensatory growth in a damselfly

Little is known about physiological costs of rapid growth. We successfully generated compensatory growth to time stress and transient food stress in the damselfly Lestes viridis and studied the physiological correlates of the resulting reduced ability to cope with starvation. We found evidence for both mechanisms proposed to underlie the physiological trade-off: compensatory growth was associated with (1) a higher metabolic rate, as indicated by a higher oxygen consumption and a faster depletion of energy storage molecules (glycogen and triglycerides), and (2) a smaller investment in energy storage. The former may also explain why storage molecules after emergence were negatively affected by time stress and food stress, despite the successful compensation before emergence. These deferred physiological costs of rapid growth have the potential to couple larval stresses to adult fitness irrespective of age and size at emergence, and they may partly explain why many animals do not show their maximum achievable growth rate.     

Systematic review and meta-analysis on the association between phthalates exposure and insulin resistance

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study aims to provide an overview of human studies on the association of exposure to phthalates and insulin resistance. We systematically...     

Study of sorptive properties of trap systems for selective enrichment of volatile organic compounds from tobacco smoke samples

There is a dearth of data on the consumer product concentrations of iron, lead, and nickel for accurate comparison to be made. The levels of these elements were determined in 85 samples of six different classes of personal care products commonly used in Nigeria using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results of the analysis showed that the range of the mean concentrations of Fe was 0.485–1.108 ppm, Pb ND–0.163 ppm, and Ni ND-0.160 ppm. The analytical data have demonstrated that the selected consumer products are possible sources of iron, lead, and nickel exposure. Users can be exposed to these metals directly through dermal contact or inhalation. The regulations relating to cosmetic products give no limit values for heavy metals in cosmetic products, hence, it was difficult to establish if the values obtained in this study are safe or not. Prolonged use of soaps, creams, and detergent containing these elements may pose threat to human health and the environment. This could be responsible for various skin diseases such as allergic skin, follicular and pigmentary disorders, which are common among the users (exposed groups) of these products in Nigeria. A body of evidence has presented a rare example of systemic allergic dermatitis caused by topical application of a mercury-containing cosmetic to the upper lip of a 32-year-old Turkish patient.     

Generalists and specialists along a latitudinal transect: patterns of thermal adaptation in six species of damselflies

Tropical organisms colonizing temperate environments face reduced average temperatures and dramatic thermal fluctuations. Theoretical models postulate that thermal specialization should be favored either when little environmental variation is experienced within generations or when among-generation variation is small relative to within-generation variation. To test these predictions, we studied six temperate species of damselflies differing in latitudinal distribution. We developed a computer model simulating how organisms experience environmental variation (accounting for diapause and voltinism) and performed a laboratory experiment assaying thermal sensitivities of growth rates. The computer model showed opposing latitudinal trends in among- and within-generation thermal variability: within-generation thermal variability decreased toward higher latitudes, whereas relative levels of among-generation thermal variability peaked at midlatitudes (where a shift in voltinism occurred). The growth experiment showed that low-latitude species were more thermally generalized than mid- and high-latitude species, supporting the prediction that generalists are favored under high levels of within-generation variation. Northern species had steeper, near-exponential reaction norms suggestive of thermal specialization. However, they had strikingly high thermal optima and grew very slowly over most of the thermal range they are expected to experience in the field. This observation is at present difficult to explain. These results highlight the importance of considering interactions between life history and environmental variation when deriving expectations of thermal adaptation.