Molecular,functional, and cellular alterations of oocytes and cumulus cells induced by heat stress and shock in animals

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Global warming is considered as the main environmental stress affecting ecosystems as well as physiological and biochemical characteristics, and...     

Dengue fever awareness: effect of an educational intervention on nursing students,Tanta, Egypt

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Dengue fever (DF) is one of the world’s most important vector-borne illnesses. In 2017, Egypt experienced a dengue outbreak. This study aimed to...     

Evaluation Of Ambient Air Pollution Impact On Carrot Plants At A Sub Urban Site Using Open Top Chambers

The present experiment was done to evaluate the impact of ambient air pollution on carrot (Dacus carotavar. Pusa Kesar) plants using open top chambers (OTCs) ventilated with ambient (NFCs) or charcoal filtered air (FCs) at a suburban site of Varanasi, India. Various morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of the plants were studied at different growth stages. Air monitoring data clearly showed high concentrations of SO₂, NO₂and O₃in the ambient air of study site. SO₂and NO₂concentrations were higher during early growth stages of carrot, whereas O₃concentration was highest during later growth stages. Filtration of air has caused significant reductions in all the three pollutant concentrations in FCs as compared to NFCs.Plants growing in FCs showed significantly higher photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, water use efficiency and variable fluorescence as compared to plants growing in NFCs. Protein content also showed a similar pattern, however, lipid peroxidation, ascorbic acid content and peroxidase activity were higher in plants growing in NFCs as compared to FCs. Shoot length, number of leaves per plant, leaf area and root and shoot weight increased significantly upon filtration of ambient air. Total nitrogen decreased significantly in root, but increased significantly in shoot of plants grown in NFCs. Total P, Mg, Ca and K contents decreased significantly in plants grown in NFCs as compared to FCs. The individual pollutant concentrations were below threshold for plant injury, but the combined effect of all the three seems to act synergistically in causing greater adverse impact on dry weight and physiology of carrot plants. The study clearly indicates that air pollutants are high enough in the ambient air to cause significant unfavorable impact on carrot plants. The work further supports the usefulness of OTCs for assessing air pollution damage under field conditions in developing countries.     

The distribution and composition of hydrocarbons in sediments from the Fladen Ground, North Sea, an area of oil production

The distribution and composition of hydrocarbons in sediment from the Fladen Ground oilfield in the northern North Sea have been investigated. The total PAH concentrations (2- to 6-ring parent and alkylated PAHs, including the 16 US EPA PAHs) in sediments were relatively low (<100 microg kg(-1) dry weight). The PAH, the Forties crude and diesel oil equivalent concentrations were generally higher in sediment of fine grain size and higher organic carbon concentration. PAH distributions and concentration ratios indicated a predominantly pyrolytic input, being dominated by the heavier, more persistent, 5- and 6-ring compounds, and with a high proportion of parent PAHs. The n-alkane profiles of a number of the sediments contained small, high boiling point, UCMs, indicative of weathered oil arising from a limited petrogenic input. The geochemical biomarker profiles of the sediments that contained UCMs showed a small bisnorhopane peak and a high proportion of norhopane relative to hopane, indicating that there was contamination from both Middle Eastern and North Sea oils. Therefore contamination was not directly as a result of oil exploration activity in the area. The most likely source of petrogenic contamination was from general shipping activity.     

Cancer and Non-Cancer Health Risk from Eating Cassava Grown in Some Mining Communities in Ghana

Food crops such as cassava, cocoyam and other tuber crops grown in mining communities uptake toxic or hazardous chemicals such as arsenic, and cadmium, from the soil. Cassava is a stable food for Ghanaians. This study evaluated human health risk from eating cassava grown in some mining communities in Ghana such as Bogoso, Prestea, Tarkwa and Tamso, which are important mining towns in the Western Region of Ghana. The study evaluated cancer and non-cancer health effects from eating cassava grown in the study areas in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Assessment guidelines. The results of the study revealed the following: cancer health risk for Tamso, 0.098 (RME – Reasonable Maximum Exposure) and 0.082 (CTE – Central Tendency Exposure). This means that approximately 10 and 8 out of 100 resident adults are likely to suffer from cancer related cases by RME and CTE parameters respectively. For Prestea, we have 0.010 and 0.12, which also means that approximately 1 out of 100 and 10 resident adults out of 100 are also likely to suffer from cancer related diseases by RME and CTE parameters. The results of the study obtained were found to be above the acceptable cancer risk range of 1× 10⁻⁶ to 1× 10⁻⁴, i.e., 1 case of cancer out of 1 million or 100,000 people respectively.     

SAOZ measurements of NO2 at Aberystwyth

We present in this paper fifteen years' measurements, from March 1991 to September 2005, of stratospheric NO2 vertical columns measured by a SAOZ zenith-sky visible spectrometer. The instrument spent most of its time at Aberystwyth, Wales, with occasional excursions to other locations. The data have been analysed with the WinDOAS analysis program with low-temperature high-resolution NO2 cross-sections and fitting a slit function to each spectrum. Because of a change in detector in May 1998 there is some uncertainty about the relative changes before and after this date, which are partially constrained by the results of an intercomparison exercise. However, the effect of the Mt Pinatubo aerosol cloud is very evident in the data from 1991-94, with a decrease of 10% in NO2 in the summer of 1992 (the SAOZ was located in Lerwick, Scotland during the winter of 1991-92 and observed very low NO2 values but these cannot be directly compared to the Aberystwyth data). To focus more on interannual and long-term variations in NO2, a seasonal variation comprising an annual and semi-annual component was fitted to the morning and evening twilight separately from 1995 to the present. This fit yielded average NO2 columns of 4.08 x 10(15) cm(-2) and 2.68 x 10(15) cm(-2) for the evening and morning twilight, respectively, with a corresponding annual amplitude of +/-2.08 x 10(15) cm(-2) and +/-1.50 x 10(15) cm(-2). Departures from the fitted curve show a trend of 6% per decade, consistent with that reported elsewhere, for the period 1998-2003, but in the past two years a distinct interannual variation of amplitude of approximately 8% has emerged.     

A Rapid Method for Assessing the Environmental Performance of Commercial Farms in the Pampas of Argentina

The generation of reliable updated information is critical to support the harmonization of socio-economic and environmental issues in a context of sustainable development. The agro-environmental assessment and management of agricultural systems often relies on indicators that are necessary to make sound decisions. This work aims to provide an approach to (a) assess the environmental performance of commercial farms in the Pampas of Argentina, and (b) propose a methodological framework to calculate environmental indicators that can rapidly be applied to practical farming. 120 commercial farms scattered across the Pampas were analyzed in this study during 2002 and 2003. Eleven basic indicators were identified and calculation methods described. Such indicators were fossil energy (FE) use, FE use efficiency, nitrogen (N) balance, phosphorus (P) balance, N contamination risk, P contamination risk, pesticide contamination risk, soil erosion risk, habitat intervention, changes in soil carbon stock, and balance of greenhouse gases. A model named Agro-Eco-Index was developed on a Microsoft-Excel support to incorporate on-farm collected data and facilitate the calculation of indicators by users. Different procedures were applied to validate the model and present the results to the users. Regression models (based on linear and non-linear models) were used to validate the comparative performance of the study farms across the Pampas. An environmental dashboard was provided to represent in a graphical way the behavior of farms. The method provides a tool to discriminate environmentally friendly farms from those that do not pay enough attention to environmental issues. Our procedure might be useful for implementing an ecological certification system to reward a good environmental behavior in society (e.g., through tax benefits) and generate a commercial advantage (e.g., through the allocation of green labels) for committed farmers.     

Community-Based Environmental Management in Atlantic Canada: The Impacts and Spheres of Influence of the Atlantic Coastal Action Program

The Atlantic Coastal Action Program (ACAP) is a unique, community-based program initiated by Environment Canada in 1991 to help Atlantic Canadians restore and sustain watersheds and adjacent coastal areas. ACAP is the eastem-most Environment Canada Ecosystem Initiative. The ACAP family is currently made up of 14 ecosystem-based organizations in the four Atlantic provinces. Each one of these non-profit organizations operates independently, but is formally linked under the umbrella of ACAP to represent a force stronger than the individual parts. In Environment Canada's experience, the program consistently demonstrates the value of a community-based approach and produces results on an ecosystem basis. This paper will examine some of the impacts of ACAP in terms of economics, credible community science, and environmental results which most often align with Environment Canada's objectives. It will explore the influences of the community-based approach to environmental management on multiple scales (local, regional, etc.). Through examples, the paper will demonstrate the effectiveness of ACAP in influencing some of the policies, programs and attitudes of various levels of government and industry in the region, as well as describe how the community-based model has been exported internationally. The paper will conclude with a discussion on a planned path forward for ACAP.     

A Characterization of Selected Endocrine Disruptor Compounds in a Portuguese Wastewater Treatment Plant

Anthropogenic compounds that are able to disrupt the endocrine system of wildlife species are a major cause for concern and have led to a demand for new screening methods. The identification and quantification of endocrine disruptor compounds at wastewater treatment plant is of major interest to assess the endocrine activity of wastewater treatment plant discharges into the environment. This study consists of a preliminary survey of concentrations of previously selected endocrine disruptor compounds, undertaken to establish environmental concentrations and to support a biological program assay exposing freshwater fish to them. Selected endocrine disrupting chemicals (APEs, bisphenol A and 17 β-estradiol) were measured in samples from a wastewater treatment plant located in Lisbon (Portugal), using recent commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits and also LC-MS/MS. The results show that the wastewater treatment plant treatment process is efficient on the removal of target endocrine disruptor compounds. However, environmentally significant concentrations are still present in the treated effluent. The results also show that enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit is suitable for routine analysis of the selected compounds. The results are also useful since the wastewater treatment plant is located in a Mediterranean region, which results in an effluent with its own characteristics.     

Near Real-Time Monitoring and Mapping of Specific Conductivity Levels Across Lake Texoma, USA

A submersible sonde equipped with a specific conductivity probe, linked with a global positioning satellite receiver was developed, deployed on a small boat, and used to map spatial and temporal variations in specific conductivity in a large reservoir. 7,695 sample points were recorded during 8 sampling trips. Specific conductivity ranged from 442,uS/cm to 3,378,uS/cm over the nine-month study. The data showed five statistically different zones in the reservoir: 2 different riverine zones, 2 different riverine transition zones, and a lacustrine zone (the main lake zone). These data were imported to a geographic information system where they were spatially interpolated to generate 8 maps showing specific conductivity levels across the entire surface of the lake. The highly dynamic nature of water quality, due to the widely differing nature of the rivers that flow into the reservoir and the effect of large inflows of fresh water during winter storms is easily captured and visualized using this approach.