An overview of pharmaceuticals and personal care products contamination along the river Somes watershed, Romania

The mass flows of selected pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were studied in the aqueous compartment of the river Somes in Romania. PPCPs were measured in wastewater treatment effluents and in the receiving river water. The analytical method for the determination of PPCPs in river water was based on solid phase extraction and GC-ITMS. Carbamazepine, pentoxyfylline, ibuprofen, diazepam, galaxolide, tonalide and triclosan were determined in wastewater effluents with individual concentrations ranging from 15 to 774 ng L(-1). Caffeine was measured at concentrations up to 42 560 ng L(-1). Due to the high contamination of WWTP effluents, the receiving river was also polluted. The most abundant PPCPs measured in the Somes were caffeine, galaxolide, carbamazepine and triclosan. They were present at all the 15 sampling sites along the Somes, the concentrations ranging from 10 to 400 ng L(-1). The concentrations in the effluents of the different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) varied considerably and the differences are due to different elimination efficiencies of the studied PPCPs during sewage treatment. Only one of 5 WWTPs studied, the WWTP in Cluj-Napoca, was working properly, and therefore technical measures have to be taken for upgrading the WWTPs and reducing the environmental load of micropollutants. This study is the first overview of PPCPs along on Romanian part of river Somes.     

Rebirth,Devastation and Sickness: Analyzing the Role of Metaphor in Media Discourses of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power plays an important but controversial role in policies to ensure domestic energy security, fuel poverty reduction and the mitigation of climate change. Our article construes the problem of nuclear power in terms of social discourse, language and public choice; specifically examining the role that metaphors play in the policy domain. We empirically analyze metaphors as framing devices in nuclear energy policy debates in the UK between April 2009 and March 2013, thereby capturing the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. We employ documentary analysis of major UK national broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, using electronic bibliographic tools to extract the metaphors. We then map these metaphors using a Type Hierarchy Analysis, which examines how elements of the target domain (energy technologies and policies) originate from a different source domain. Type hierarchies identify and categorize metaphors, defining the affectual and emotional responses associated with them, providing us with grounded insight into their role in shaping discourse and as a consequence influence public engagement with energy policy. Our analysis highlights three emergent domains of discourse metaphors and discusses the implications of their deployment. Metaphors were found to be classified into three different categories: Rebirth (Renaissance), Devastation (Apocalypse, Inferno, Genie and Bomb) and Sickness (Addiction and Smoking).     

Residual tembotrione and atrazine in carrot

Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is a vegetable crop that is grown throughout the year across various regions of Brazil in rotation or in succession to other cultures. Herbicide residual effect has emerged as a concern, because of the possibility of carryover. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of tembotrione and atrazine residues – in mixture and isolated – on carrot planted in succession to corn. The experiment was designed in randomized blocks with five replications. Treatments consisted of tembotrione (50.4 g ha^?1), tembotrione (100.8 g ha^?1), tembotrione + atrazine (50.4 g ha^?1+ 2 L ha^?1), tembotrione + atrazine (100.8 g ha^?1+ 2 L ha^?1), and atrazine (2.00 L ha^?1) applied eight months before carrot seeding, plus a control treatment with no herbicide application. Investigated variables were shoot dry mass, productivity, and classification of carrot roots. The presence of atrazine and tembotrione decreased dry mass in the area, and only tembotrione reduced total root productivity. Thus, there is a carryover effect to tembotrione application that reduces the dry matter accumulation of shoot and total productivity, and an atrazine + tembotrione (100.8 g ha^?1) mixture reduces the total productivity after application of these herbicides to soil.     

Investigation of ZnO nanoparticles’ ecotoxicological effects towards different soil organisms

Introduction  

Nanomaterials have widespread applications in several industrial sectors. ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) are among the most commonly used metal oxide NPs in personal care products, coating and paints. However, their potential toxicological impact on the environment is largely unexplored.     

Evaluation of the efficiency of a Venturi scrubber in particulate matter collection smaller than 2.5 µm emitted by biomass burning

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Energy demand has increased worldwide, and biomass burning is one of the solutions most used by industries, especially in countries that have a great...     

Cryptic biodiversity effects: importance of functional redundancy revealed through addition of food web complexity

Interactions between predators and the degree of functional redundancy among multiple predator species may determine whether herbivores experience increased or decreased predation risk. Specialist parasites can modify predator behavior, yet rarely have cascading effects on multiple predator species and prey been evaluated. We examined influences of specialist phorid parasites (Pseudacteon spp.) on three predatory ant species and herbivores in a coffee agroecosystem. Specifically, we examined whether changes in ant richness affected fruit damage by the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) and whether phorids altered multi-predator effects. Each ant species reduced borer damage, and without phorids, increasing predator richness did not further decrease borer damage. However, with phorids, activity of one ant species was reduced, indicating that the presence of multiple ant species was necessary to limit borer damage. In addition, phorid presence revealed synergistic effects of multiple ant species, not observed without the presence of this parasite. Thus, a trait-mediated cascade resulting from a parasite-induced predator behavioral change revealed the importance of functional redundancy, predator diversity, and food web complexity for control of this important pest.