氟对斑马鱼甲状腺内分泌功能的干扰效应

为探究氟对斑马鱼甲状腺内分泌功能的干扰效应,本研究以雌性斑马鱼成鱼为研究对象,分别以不同浓度氟(0、20、 40、80 mg·L~(-1))暴露45 d和90 d,对斑马鱼的生长发育指数进行测定,用组织学方法对斑马鱼甲状腺组织结构进行显微观察,用酶联免疫吸附法检测血浆中T3和T4激素水平,并用实时荧光定量PCR方法检测HPT轴上内分泌相关基因的表达.结果显示,与对照组相比,氟暴露组雌性斑马鱼的生长发育指数随着暴露浓度和时间的增加而呈下降趋势(p0.05);甲状腺组织病变程度随着氟暴露浓度的增大和时间的延长而加重;氟暴露45 d时,T3和T4水平呈升高趋势,90 d时,T4水平呈下降趋势且在80 mg·L~(-1)组下降显著(p0.05);氟暴露45 d时,40 mg·L~(-1)组除crh处,其他mRNA表达均显著下降(p0.05),80 mg·L~(-1)组除tg、nis、ttr外其他mRNA表达均显著下降(p0.05);暴露90 d时tg、dio1、dio2的mRNA表达水平在40 mg·L~(-1)和80 mg·L~(-1)组显著上升(p0.05),ugt1ab mRNA表达在80 mg·L~(-1)组显著下降(p0.05).综上,氟可通过影响雌性斑马鱼的生长发育、甲状腺组织结构、激素水平及HPT轴上内分泌相关基因的表达,从而对其甲状腺内分泌功能产生一定程度的干扰,进而影响机体的生长发育.本研究结果对水环境中氟的生态毒性效应及风险评估提供了理论资料.     

Emission factors of particulate matter, CO and CO2 in the pyrolytic processing of typical electronic wastes

A self-designed experimental device was employed to simulate the pyrolytic dismantling process of selected electronic wastes(E-wastes), including printed wiring boards(PWBs)and plastic casings. The generated particulate matter(PM) of different particle sizes, carbon monoxide(CO) and carbon dioxide(CO_2) were determined, and the corresponding emission factors(EFs) were estimated. Finer particles with particle sizes of 0.4–2.1 μm accounted for78.9% and 89.3% of PM emitted by the pyrolytic processing of PWBs and plastic casings,respectively, and the corresponding EFs were 9.68 ± 4.81 and 18.49 ± 7.2 g/kg, respectively.The EFs of CO and CO_2 from PWBs and plastic casings were 55.9 ± 26.9 and 1182 ± 439 g/kg,and 133.6 ± 34.6 and 2827 ± 276 g/kg, respectively. Compared with other emission sources,such as coal, biomass, and traffic exhaust, the EFs of E-wastes were relatively higher,especially for PM. There were significant positive correlations(p 0.05) of the initial contents of carbon and nitrogen in PWBs with the related EFs of PM, CO, and CO_2, while the correlations for plastic casings were insignificant. The EFs of CO of PWBs were significantly positively correlated with the corresponding EFs of PM and the parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs); however, the same result was not observed for plastic casings.     

Removal of elemental mercury by photocatalytic oxidation over La2O3/Bi2O3 composite

La₂O₃/Bi₂O₃ photocatalysts were prepared by impregnation of Bi₂O₃ with an aqueous solution of lanthanum precursor followed by calcination at different temperatures. The composite materials were used for the first time for the photocatalytic removal of Hg⁰ from a simulated flue gas under UV light irradiation. The results showed that the sample containing 6 wt.% La₂O₃ and calcined at 500°C has the highest dispersion of the active sites, which was promoted by the strong interaction with the support (i.e., the formation of Bi-O-La species). Since they are fully accessible on the surface, the material also exhibits excellent optical properties while the heterojunction formed in La₂O₃/Bi₂O₃ promotes the separation and migration of photoelectron-hole pairs and thus Hg⁰ oxidation efficiency is enhanced. The effects of the various factors (e.g., the reaction temperature and composition of the simulated flue gas (i.e., O₂, NO, H₂O, and SO₂)) on the efficiency of the Hg⁰ photocatalytic oxidation were investigated. The results demonstrated that O₂ and SO₂ enhanced the efficiency of the reaction while the reaction temperature, NO, and H₂O had an inhibitory effect.     

Biodegradation of typical azole fungicides in activated sludge under aerobic conditions

Widespread use of azole fungicides and low removal efficiency in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have led to the elevated concentration of azole fungicides in receiving environment. However, there was limited research about the removal mechanism of azole fungicides in the biological treatment of WWTPs. Imidazole fungicide climbazole and triazole fungicide fluconazole were selected to investigate the biodegradation mechanism of azole fungicides in activated sludge under aerobic conditions. Climbazole was found to be adsorbed to solid sludge and resulted in quick biodegradation. The degradation of climbazole in the aerobic activated sludge system was fitted well by the first-order kinetic model with a half-life of 5.3 days, while fluconazole tended to stay in liquid and had only about 30% of loss within 77 days incubation. Ten biotransformation products of climbazole were identified by high resolution mass spectrometry using suspect and non-target screening method. But no biodegradation products of fluconazole were identified due to its limited removal. The possible biodegradation pathways for climbazole were proposed based on the products identification and pathway prediction system, and involves oxidative dehalogenation, side chain oxidation and azole ring loss. The findings from this study suggest that it should be a concern for the persistence of fluconazole in the environment.     

中国东北沈抚地区土壤中PBDEs的残留、来源及风险评价

为研究我国东北地区表层土壤中多溴联苯醚(PBDEs)的残留和分布.于2016夏季采集了3个城市(沈阳、抚顺和沈抚新区)的72份土壤样品,覆盖本地区4种不同的土地利用类型:城镇用地,农村居住用地,耕地和林地.分析了表层土壤中14种PBDEs的残留,组成和分布特征,探究了本地区PBDEs主要来源及贡献率,并对人体暴露水平和健康风险进行了评估.结果表明,表层土壤Σ_(14)PBDEs的含量(以干重计,下同)范围在0. 279～50. 719 ng·g~(-1)之间,均值为(10. 466±9. 246) ng·g~(-1).不同城市PBDEs的含量规律为:抚顺沈阳沈抚新区背景点,不同类型土地规律为:城镇用地农村居住用地耕地林地.在所有PBDEs组分中,十溴联苯醚占比最高,为81. 25%～89. 23%.来源分析表明,商用十溴联苯醚是主要来源,多元线性回归分析(PCA-MLR)结果显示其贡献率为66. 06%.暴露水平和健康风险评价的结果又表明,5种不同人群中,抚顺的幼儿人群暴露剂量最高,为(20. 98±25. 01) ng·(kg·d)~(-1)在不同土地类型中,城镇用地的幼儿人群暴露剂量最高,(18. 54±20. 27)ng·(kg·d)~(-1),本地区总体非致癌健康风险处于较低水平.     

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 on Cold-Chain Food: Precautions Can Effectively Reduce the Risk

Food and Environmental Virology - The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a new era in the world, also in the food safety. Up to now, there is no evidence to suggest that people can infect COVID-19 via...     

Mercury accumulation and dynamics in montane forests along an elevation gradient in Southwest China

Understanding atmospheric mercury (Hg) accumulation in remote montane forests is critical to assess the Hg ecological risk to wildlife and human health. To quantify impacts of vegetation, climatic and topographic factors on Hg accumulation in montane forests, we assessed the Hg distribution and stoichiometric relations among Hg, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) in four forest types along the elevation of Mt. Gongga. Our results show that Hg concentration in plant tissues follows the descending order of litter > leaf, bark > root > branch > bole wood, indicating the importance of atmospheric Hg uptake by foliage for Hg accumulation in plants. The foliar Hg/C (from 237.0 ± 171.4 to 56.8 ± 27.7 µg/kg) and Hg/N (from 7.5 ± 3.9 to 2.5 ± 1.2 mg/kg) both decrease along the elevation. These elevation gradients are caused by the heterogeneity of vegetation uptake of atmospheric Hg and the variation of atmospheric Hg° concentrations at different altitudes. Organic soil Hg accumulation is controlled by forest types, topographic and climatic factors, with the highest concentration in the mixed forest (244.9 ± 55.7 µg/kg) and the lowest value in the alpine forest (151.9 ± 44.5 µg/kg). Further analysis suggests that soil Hg is positively correlated to C (r² = 0.66) and N (r² = 0.57), and Hg/C and Hg/N both increase with the soil depth. These stoichiometric relations highlight the combined effects from environmental and climatic factors which mediating legacy Hg accumulation and selective Hg absorption during processes of organic soil mineralization.     

Improved atmospheric mercury simulation using updated gas-particle partition and organic aerosol concentrations

The gaseous or particulate forms of divalent mercury (Hg^II) significantly impact the spatial distribution of atmospheric mercury concentration and deposition flux (FLX). In the new nested-grid GEOS-Chem model, we try to modify the Hg^II gas-particle partitioning relationship with synchronous and hourly observations at four sites in China. Observations of gaseous oxidized Hg (GOM), particulate-bound Hg (PBM), and PM_2.5 were used to derive an empirical gas-particle partitioning coefficient as a function of temperature (T) and organic aerosol (OA) concentrations under different relative humidity (RH). Results showed that with increasing RH, the dominant process of Hg^II gas-particle partitioning changed from physical adsorption to chemical desorption. And the dominant factor of Hg^II gas-particle partitioning changed from T to OA concentrations. We thus improved the simulated OA concentration field by introducing intermediate-volatility and semi-volatile organic compounds (I/SVOCs) emission inventory into the model framework and refining the volatile distributions of I/SVOCs according to new filed tests in the recent literatures. Finally, normalized mean biases (NMBs) of monthly gaseous element mercury (GEM), GOM, PBM, WFLX were reduced from −33%–29%, 95%–300%, 64%–261%, 117%–122% to −13%–0%, −20%–80%, −31%–50%, −17%–23%. The improved model explains 69%–98% of the observed atmospheric Hg decrease during 2013–2020 and can serve as a useful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention on Mercury.     

Effects of fulvic acid and humic acid from different sources on Hg methylation in soil and accumulation in rice

Humus is often used as an organic modifier to reduce the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in plants, but the effects of different humus components from different sources on the fate of mercury (Hg) in paddy fields are still unclear. Here, fulvic acid (FA) and humic acid (HA) extracted from composted straw (CS), composted cow dung (CCD), peat soil (PM) and lignite coal (LC) were used to understand their effects on the methylation and bioaccumulation of Hg in paddy soil by pot experiments. Amendments of both FA and HA largely increased the abundance of Hg-methylating microbes and low-molecular-weight organic matters (e.g, cysteine) in paddy soil. They were also found to change the aromaticity, molecular size and Chromophoric DOM concentration of DOM, and resulted in heterogeneous effects on migration and transformation of Hg. All the FA-amended treatments increased the mobility and methylation of Hg in soil and its absorption in roots. Nevertheless, FA from different sources have heterogeneous effects on transport of Hg between rice tissues. FA-CCD and FA-PM promoted the translocation of MeHg from roots to rice grains by 32.95% and 41.12%, while FA-CS and FA-LC significantly inhibited the translocation of inorganic Hg (IHg) by 52.65% and 66.06% and of MeHg by 46.65% and 36.23%, respectively. In contrast, all HA-amended treatments reduced the mobility of soil Hg, but promoted Hg methylation in soil. Among which, HA-CCD and HA-PM promoted the translocation of MeHg in rice tissues by 88.95% and 64.10%, while its accumulation in rice grains by 28.43% and 28.69%, respectively. In general, the application of some FA and HA as organic modifiers to reduce Hg bioaccumulation in rice is not feasible.     

Experimental evaluation of the rainfall retention and inorganic pollutant mitigation effect by dual-layer and polyacrylamide-modified green roofs

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Research on substrate layer modification and filler configuration is an important direction for improving the retention and interception efficiency of...