The spillover effect of fiscal environmental protection spending on residents’ medical and healthcare expenditure: evidence from China

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - The Chinese government has not only been increasing investments in environmental protection, improving the quality of the ecological environment, but has...     

Biocompatible self-healing hydrogels based on boronic acid-functionalized polymer and laponite nanocomposite for water pollutant removal

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Global water pollution by organic dyes and metals may be solved by adsorption. In particular, hydrogel adsorbents display unique...     

双酚A促进粪肠球菌中信息素调控质粒pCF10介导的耐药基因接合转移

粪肠球菌是一种在自然水体中广泛存在的革兰氏阳性细菌。信息素调控质粒介导的接合转移是造成粪肠球菌耐药基因快速扩散的重要方式。双酚A是一种内分泌干扰物,因其在工业中大量应用造成其在水环境中的广泛分布。本文以信息素调控质粒中比较有代表性的pCF10质粒作为研究对象,研究了双酚A对粪肠球菌中耐药基因接合转移的影响,证实了双酚A可以促进pCF10质粒介导的耐药基因接合转移,且这一结果同双酚A作用浓度和作用时间相关。双酚A影响耐药基因的扩散,是通过促进编码正调控信息素的ccfA基因表达实现的。本文旨在深入理解双酚A影响抗生素抗性基因扩散的环境行为,为耐药基因控制及双酚A环境效应的评估提供理论支持。     

绍兴茶园小流域的3种农药生态风险评价

虫螨腈、联苯菊酯和溴氰菊酯是茶叶生产中较为常见的3种杀虫剂,但其对茶园小流域内生态环境影响的相关研究较少。为评价其生态风险,选取我国浙江绍兴茶园小流域内主要溪流及湖库采集水体样品,采用气相色谱-质谱法对样品中3种农药进行残留检测;基于美国生态毒理数据库(ECOTOX)收集了3种农药对我国常见水生生物的毒性数据,利用BITSSD软件平台构建了物种敏感度分布(species sensitivity distribution, SSD)曲线,结合研究区实测数据开展3种农药对绍兴茶园小流域的生态风险评价研究。结果表明：(1)无脊椎动物和节肢动物对3种农药的敏感度高于鱼类,营养级越高其敏感度越低;(2)根据SSD模拟结果,为保护该流域95%的物种,联苯菊酯和溴氰菊酯浓度需<0.001μg·L^(-1),虫螨腈为0.4μg·L(-1),虫螨腈为0.4μg·L^(-1);(3)农药喷施后,虫螨腈、溴氰菊酯和联苯菊酯在茶园溪流中的残留浓度最高分别影响22%、50%和66%的物种,联苯菊酯是生态风险的主要贡献者,但在喷施1个月后,茶园流域水溪及河湖水环境中的农药残留基本均未检出。这说明3种农药施用对茶园小流域物种的影响较小,所带来的生态风险尚在可控范围之内。     

An antibiotic composite electrode for improving the sensitivity of electrochemically active biofilm biosensor

• Antibiotic azithromycin employed in graphite electrode for EAB biosensor. • Azithromycin at 0.5% dosage increased the sensitivity for toxic formaldehyde. • Azithromycin increased the relative abundance of Geobacter. • Azithromycin regulated thickness of electroactive biofilm. Extensive research has been carried out for improved sensitivity of electroactive biofilm-based sensor (EAB-sensor), which is recognized as a useful tool in water quality early-warning. Antibiotic that is employed widely to treat infection has been proved feasible in this study to regulate the EAB and to increase the EAB-biosensor’s sensitivity. A novel composite electrode was prepared using azithromycin (AZM) and graphite powder (GP), namely AZM@GP electrode, and was employed as the anode in EAB-biosensor. Different dosages of AZM, i.e., 2 mg, 4 mg, and 8 mg, referred to as 0.25%, 0.5% and 1% AZM@GP were under examination. Results showed that EAB-biosensor was greatly benefited from appropriate dosage of AZM (0.5% AZM@GP) with reduced start-up time period, comparatively higher voltage output, more readable electrical signal and increased inhibition rate (30%-65% higher than control sensor with GP electrode) when exposing to toxic formaldehyde. This may be attributed to the fact that AZM inhibited the growth of non-EAM without much influence on the physiologic or metabolism activities of EAM under proper dosage. Further investigation of the biofilm morphology and microbial community analysis suggested that the biofilm formation was optimized with reduced thickness and enriched Geobacter with 0.5% AZM@GP dosage. This novel electrode is easily fabricated and equipped, and therefore would be a promising way to facilitate the practical application of EAB-sensors.     

Antibiotic resistance genes in manure-amended paddy soils across eastern China: Occurrence and influencing factors

• Manure fertilization resulted in antibiotic residues and increased metal contents. • The tet and sul genes were significantly enhanced with manure fertilization. • Soil physicochemical properties contributed to 12% of the variations in ARGs. • Soil metals and antibiotics co-select for ARGs. Pig manure, rich in antibiotics and metals, is widely applied in paddy fields as a soil conditioner, triggering the proliferation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in soil. However, comprehensive studies on the effects of manure fertilization on the abundance of ARGs and their influencing factors are still insufficient. Here, pig manure and manure-amended and inorganic-amended soils were collected from 11 rice-cropping regions in eastern China, and the accumulation of antibiotics, metals, and ARGs was assessed simultaneously. The results showed that manure fertilization led to antibiotic residues and increased the metal content (i.e., Zn, Cu, Ni, and Cr). Tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes (tetM, tetO, sul1, and sul2) were also significantly enhanced with manure fertilization. According to variance partitioning analysis, the most important factors that individually influenced ARGs were soil physicochemical properties, accounting for 12% of the variation. Significant correlations between soil nutrients and ARGs indicated that manure application enhanced the growth of resistant microorganisms by supplying more nutrients. Metals and antibiotics contributed 9% and 5% to the variations in ARGs, respectively. Their co-occurrence also increased the enrichment of ARGs, as their interactions accounted for 2% of the variation in ARGs. Interestingly, Cu was significantly related to most ARGs in the soil (r = 0.26–0.52, p<0.05). Sulfapyridine was significantly related to sul2, and tetracycline resistance genes were positively related to doxycycline. This study highlighted the risks of antibiotic and ARG accumulation with manure fertilization and shed light on the essential influencing factors of ARGs in paddy soils.     

Quorum sensing regulation methods and their effects on biofilm in biological waste treatment systems: A review

• Quorum sensing enhancement and inhibition methods are summarized. • Effects of quorum sensing regulation on biofilm are reviewed. • Current knowledge gaps and research challenges are proposed. Quorum sensing (QS) plays an important role in microbial aggregation control. Recently, the optimization of biological waste treatment systems by QS regulation gained an increasing attention. The effects of QS regulation on treatment performances and biofilm were frequently investigated. To understand the state of art of QS regulation, this review summarizes the methods of QS enhancement and QS inhibition in biological waste treatment systems. Typical QS enhancement methods include adding exogenous QS molecules, adding QS accelerants and cultivating QS bacteria, while typical QS inhibition methods include additions of quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria, QS-degrading enzymes, QS-degrading oxidants, and QS inhibitors. The specific improvements after applying these QS regulation methods in different treatment systems are concluded. In addition, the effects of QS regulation methods on biofilm in biological waste treatment systems are reviewed in terms of biofilm formation, extracellular polymeric substances production, microbial viability, and microbial community. In the end, the knowledge gaps in current researches are analyzed, and the requirements for future study are suggested.     

Techno-economic characteristics of wastewater treatment plants retrofitted from the conventional activated sludge process to the membrane bioreactor process

• Retrofitting from CAS to MBR increased effluent quality and environmental benefits. • Retrofitting from CAS to MBR increased energy consumption but not operating cost. • Retrofitting from CAS to MBR increased the net profit and cost efficiency. • The advantage of MBR is related to the adopted effluent standard. • The techno-economy of MBR improves with stricter effluent standards. While a growing number of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are being retrofitted from the conventional activated sludge (CAS) process to the membrane bioreactor (MBR) process, the debate on the techno-economy of MBR vs. CAS has continued and calls for a thorough assessment based on techno-economic valuation. In this study, we analyzed the operating data of 20 large-scale WWTPs (capacity≥10000 m³/d) and compared their techno-economy before and after the retrofitting from CAS to MBR. Through cost-benefit analysis, we evaluated the net profit by subtracting the operating cost from the environmental benefit (estimated by the shadow price of pollutant removal and water reclamation). After the retrofitting, the removal rate of pollutants increased (e.g., from 89.0% to 93.3% on average for NH₃-N), the average energy consumption increased from 0.40 to 0.57 kWh/m³, but the operating cost did not increase significantly. The average marginal environmental benefit increased remarkably (from 0.47 to 0.66 CNY/g for NH₃-N removal), leading to an increase in the average net profit from 19.4 to 24.4 CNY/m³. We further scored the technical efficiencies via data envelopment analysis based on non-radial directional distance functions. After the retrofitting, the relative cost efficiency increased from 0.70 to 0.73 (the theoretical maximum is 1), while the relative energy efficiency did not change significantly. The techno-economy is closely related to the effluent standard adopted, particularly when truncating the extra benefit of pollutant removal beyond the standard in economic modeling. The modeling results suggested that MBR is more profitable than CAS given stricter effluent standards.     

Water-dispersible nano-pollutions reshape microbial metabolism in type-specific manners: A metabolic and bacteriological investigation in Escherichia coli

• Water-dispersible nano-pollutions exhibit type-specific toxic effects on E. coli. • Global metabolite profiling was used to characterize metabolic disruption patterns. • Key dysregulated metabolites responsive to nano-pollution exposures were found. • Amino acid metabolism and purine metabolism are perturbed at nano-pollutions. Incomplete separation and recycling of nanoparticles are causing undesirable nanopollution and thus raising great concerns with regard to nanosafety. Since microorganisms are important regulator of physiological processes in many organisms, the interaction between nanopollution and microbial metabolomics and the resultant impact on the host’s health are important but unclear. To investigate how typical nanopollution perturbs microbial growth and metabolism, Escherichia coli (E. coli) in vitro was treated with six water-dispersible nanomaterials (nanoplastic, nanosilver, nano-TiO₂, nano-ZnO, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), carbon dots (CDs)) at human-/environment-relevant concentration levels. The nanomaterials exhibited type-specific toxic effects on E. coli growth. Global metabolite profiling was used to characterize metabolic disruption patterns in the model microorganism exposed to different nanopollutants. The percentage of significant metabolites (p<0.05, VIP>1) accounted for 6%–38% of the total 293 identified metabolites in each of the nanomaterial-contaminated bacterial groups. Metabolic results also exhibited significant differences between different nanopollutants and dose levels, revealing type-specific and untypical concentration-dependent metabolic responses. Key metabolites responsive to nanopollution exposures were mainly involved in amino acid and purine metabolisms, where 5, 4, and 7 significant metabolic features were included in arginine and proline metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, and purine metabolism, respectively. In conclusion, this study horizontally compared and demonstrated how typical nanopollution perturbs microbial growth and metabolomics in a type-specific manner, which broadens our understanding of the ecotoxicity of nanopollutants on microorganisms.     

Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies between short-term exposure to ambient carbon monoxide and non-accidental,cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Although a growing number of original epidemiological studies imply a link between ambient pollution exposure and mortality risk, the findings...