Environmental selenium in the Kaschin–Beck disease area,Tibetan Plateau,China

Now, there is a decreasing trend for the prevalence rate of Kaschin–Beck disease (KBD) in most parts of China, but the disease is still active and severe in the Tibetan Plateau for some reason. To further explore the role of selenium in the occurrence of KBD, We collected samples including drinking water, cultivated topsoil, Highland Barley grains, and tsamba in Rangtang County and Aba County, Sichuan Province and determined concentrations of selenium by Hydride Generation Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry. Levels of selenium in the environment were analyzed in detail. Selenium in the soil–plant–food system and their relationship with prevalence rate of KBD were also discussed. The results indicate: (a) the levels of environmental selenium are very low and the study area belongs to a selenium-deficient ecological landscape; (b) the KBD becomes much more severe with decreasing environmental selenium under the selenium-deficient condition. Namely, the lower the environmental selenium is, the more severe the disease is; (c) soil selenium deficiency plays a critical role for the prevalence of local KBD, and more factors inducing selenium deficiency should be more concerned in the future.     

Arsenic,antimony, and other trace element contamination in a mine tailings affected area and uptake by tolerant plant species

The study was conducted to characterize mineralogical and elemental composition of mine tailings in order to evaluate the environmental hazards, and identify the metal accumulation potential of native plant species from São Domingos mine, one of the long-term activity mines of the Iberian Pyrite Belt dating back to pre-Roman times. The mine tailings including soils and different plant species from São Domingos were analyzed for determination of tailings characteristics and chemical element contents in tailings and plants. The large amounts of mining wastes are causing significant adverse environment impacts due to acid mine drainage production and mobilization of potentially toxic metals and metalloids in residential areas, agricultural fields, downstreams, and rivers. The typical mineralogical composition is as follows: quartz, micas, K-feldspar, olivine-group minerals, magnetite, goethite, hematite, jarosite, and sulfides. The mine tailings were highly contaminated by As, Ag, Cr, Hg, Sn, Sb, Fe, and Zn; and among them, As and Sb, main contaminants, attained the highest concentrations except Fe. Arsenic has exhibited very good correlations with Au, Fe, Sb, Se, and W; and Sb with As, Au, Fe, Se, Sn, and W in tailings. Among the all plant species, the higher concentrations of all the metals were noted in Erica andevalensis, Erica australis, Echium plantagium, and Lavandula luisierra. Considering the tolerant behavior and abundant growth, the plant species Erica australis, Erica andevalensis, Lavandula luisierra, Daphne gnidium, Rumex induratus, Ulex eriocladus, Juncus, and Genista hirsutus are of major importance for the rehabilitation and recovery of degraded São Domingos mining area.     

Assessing Cd,Pb, Zn human bioaccessibility in smelter-contaminated agricultural topsoils (northern France)

The extractability of Cd, Pb, and Zn was investigated in contaminated agricultural topsoils located in an area highly affected by the past atmospheric emissions of two smelters in northern France in order to assess their mobility and human bioaccessibility. The determination of Cd, Pb, and Zn bioaccessibility (Unified Barge Method, in vitro test) was made to evaluate the absolute trace element (TE) bioavailability. The results highlighted differences in bioaccessibility between Cd, Pb, and Zn (Cd > Pb > Zn). The mean values of the bioaccessible fractions of Cd, Pb, and Zn during the gastric phase were 82, 55, and 33%, respectively, of the pseudototal concentrations, whereas during the gastrointestinal phase, the bioaccessible fractions of metals decreased to 45, 20, and 10%, respectively. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that human bioaccessibility was affected by various physicochemical parameters (i.e., sand, carbonates, organic matter, assimilated P, free Al oxides, and pseudototal Fe contents). Sequential extractions were performed as an indication of the TE availability in these soils. Cadmium occurred in the more available fractions, Pb was mostly present as bound by oxides, and a significant contribution to the pseudototal Zn concentration was defined as the unavailable residual form related to the crystalline structures of minerals. The concepts of bioavailability and bioaccessibility are important for quantifying the risks associated with exposure to environmental pollutants and providing more realistic information for human health.     

Removal of arsenate from water by adsorbents: a comparative case study

Laboratory and field filtration experiments were conducted to study the effectiveness of As(V) removal for five types of adsorbent media. The media included activated alumina (AA), modified activated alumina (MAA), granular ferric hydroxide (GFH), granular ferric oxide (GFO), and granular titanium dioxide (TiO₂). In laboratory batch and column experiments, the synthetic challenge water was used to evaluate the effectiveness for five adsorbents. The results of the batch experiments showed that the As(V) adsorption decreased as follows at pH 6.5: TiO₂ > GFO > GFH > MAA > AA. At pH 8.5, however, As(V) removal decreased in the following order: GFO = TiO₂ > GFH > MAA > AA. In column experiments, at pH 6.5, the adsorbed As(V) for adsorbents followed the order: TiO₂ > GFO > GFH, whereas at pH 8.5 the order became: GFO = TiO₂ > GFH when the challenge water containing 50 μg/L of As(V) was used. Field filtration experiments were carried out in parallel at a wellhead in New Jersey. Before the effluent arsenic concentration increased to 10 μg/L, approximately 58,000 and 41,500 bed volumes of groundwater containing an average of 47 μg/L of As(V) were treated by the filter system packed with GFO and TiO₂, respectively. The As(V) adsorption decreased in the following sequence: GFO > TiO₂ > GFH > MAA > AA. Filtration results demonstrated that GFO and TiO₂ adsorbents could be used as media in small community filtration systems for As(V) removal.     

Effect of arsenic species on the growth and arsenic accumulation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cucumis sativus</Emphasis>

The effects of arsenic (As) species, such as As(III), As(V) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), on the accumulation of As in cucumber (Cucumis sativus), as well as on its growth in a soil mesocosm were evaluated. When Cucumis sativus was cultivated in soils contaminated with 20 and 50 mg/kg of As(III), As(V) or DMA for 40 days, the growth was markedly inhibited by the inorganic As (As(III) and As(V)) rather than the organic As (DMA). Irrespective of the As species, the As concentrations accumulated in Cucumis sativus increased with increasing As concentration in the soil. The As bioaccumulation factors from soil into the tissue of Cucumis sativus were 17.5–35.4, 29.3–42.7 and 17.6–25.7 for As(III), As(V) and DMA, respectively. In addition, the As translocation factors from the roots to shoots were 0.025–0.031, 0.018–0.032 and 0.014–0.026 for As(III), As(V) and DMA, respectively. In conclusion, Cucumis sativus mainly accumulated As in its roots rather than its shoots and easily accumulated inorganic rather than organic As from the soil into its tissue.     

A critical exploration of blood and environmental chromium concentration among oral cancer patients in an oral cancer prevalent area of Taiwan

The growing incidence of oral cancer (OC) in Taiwan has become a crucial public health concern. In particular, Changhua, a county in central Taiwan, carries persistently high OC incidence rate, with an alarmingly high male/female ratio of OC incidence. Previous epidemiological studies had found that the incidence is spatially correlated with the level of soil content to certain heavy metals in the central Taiwan area. Soil and the human body both intake environmental heavy metals, which can be absorbed through various ways. The soil metal concentration is an index of possible environmental exposure to heavy metal, and the blood metal concentration somewhat reflects the level of the exposure on the human body. Metallic carcinogen is likely to generate free radicals and play a role in many cancers, and many studies had reported that environmental exposure to heavy metals is an important risk factor for developing cancer. Studies on animals showed that chronic intake of chromium (Cr) could induce OC. This study aims to explore the association between the Cr concentration in the farm soil and in the blood of OC patients. We recruited 79 OC patients from Changhua County, with their lifestyle being adjusted in regression analysis. The results showed that the Cr concentration in the blood of OC patients is significantly higher than the background value, and is positively associated with the Cr concentration in the soil surrounding their residence (p-value < 0.023). Because Changhua County is only with moderate prevalence of the known OC habitual risk factors, an environmental factor related to heavy metal Cr exposure is suspected. Future investigations may verify the causal relation between Cr and OC.     

Stress-induced recombination and the mechanism of evolvability

The concept of evolvability is controversial. To some, it is simply a measure of the standing genetic variation in a population and can be captured by the narrow-sense heritability (h²). To others, evolvability refers to the capacity to generate heritable phenotypic variation. Many scientists, including Darwin, have argued that environmental variation can generate heritable phenotypic variation. However, their theories have been difficult to test. Recent theory on the evolution of sex and recombination provides a much simpler framework for evaluating evolvability. It shows that modifiers of recombination can increase in prevalence whenever low fitness individuals produce proportionately more recombinant offspring. Because recombination can generate heritable variation, stress-induced recombination might be a plausible mechanism of evolvability if populations exhibit a negative relationship between fitness and recombination. Here we use the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to test for this relationship. We exposed females to mating stress, heat shock or cold shock and measured the temporary changes that occurred in reproductive output and the rate of chromosomal recombination. We found that each stress treatment increased the rate of recombination and that heat shock, but not mating stress or cold shock, generated a negative relationship between reproductive output and recombination rate. The negative relationship was absent in the low-stress controls, which suggests that fitness and recombination may only be associated under stressful conditions. Taken together, these findings suggest that stress-induced recombination might be a mechanism of evolvability.     

Using information theory as a substitute for stepwise regression in ecology and behavior

In ecological and behavioral research, drawing reliable conclusions from statistical models with multiple predictors is usually difficult if all predictors are simultaneously in the model. The traditional way of handling multiple predictors has been the use of threshold-based removal-introduction algorithms, that is, stepwise regression, which currently receives considerable criticism. A more recent and increasingly propagated modelling method for multiple predictors is the information theoretic (IT) approach that quantifies the relative suitability of multiple, potentially non-nested models based on a balance of model fit and the accuracy of estimates. Here, we examine three shortcomings of stepwise regression, subjective critical values, model uncertainty, and parameter estimation bias, which have been suggested to be avoided by applying information theory. We argue that, in certain circumstances, the IT approach may be sensitive to these issues as well. We point to areas where further testing and development could enhance the performance of IT methods and ultimately lead to robust inferences in behavioral ecology.     

Biliverdin-based egg coloration is enhanced by carotenoid supplementation

Avian eggshell color is remarkably variable among and within species and its possible function has long been controversial. Female birds use biliverdin pigment to color their eggs blue and green. Although evidence is accumulating that blue-green eggshell coloration is costly to produce, the exact mechanisms underlying its expression are little studied. Biliverdin pigment is involved in important maintenance functions such as immune and antioxidant defenses and shows similar properties to carotenoid pigments. Carotenoids play a role as immunoenhancers and have the potential to ameliorate the impact of oxidative processes, although their antioxidant function could be minor for some bird species. Important life-history components can be limited by carotenoid availability, including sexual displays and fecundity. Here we explored if biliverdin-based eggshell pigmentation was affected by carotenoid availability in a seabird, by performing a carotenoid supplementation experiment in female blue-footed boobies (Sula nebouxii) after laying their first egg. In this species, blue eggshell color is associated with incubation patterns, and carotenoid availability affects the crucial trade-off between female foot ornamentation and fecundity. We found that under natural conditions, there was a decline in eggshell color with laying order, suggesting pigment limitation for females. However, carotenoid-supplemented females had enhanced second egg coloration compared to controls, and the color increase was independent of their previous pigment allocation to the first egg. Our results suggest that biliverdin-based eggshell coloration is costly to produce and can be alleviated by current carotenoid availability.     

Darwin’s “tug-of-war” vs. starlings’ “horse-racing”: how adaptations for sequential encounters drive simultaneous choice

Charles Darwin aided his private decision making by an explicit deliberation, famously deciding whether or not to marry by creating a list of points in a table with two columns: “Marry” and “Not Marry”. One hundred seventy-two years after Darwin’s wedding, we reconsider whether this process of choice, under which individuals assign values to their options and compare their relative merits at the time of choosing (the tug-of-war model), applies to our experimental animal, the European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris. We contrast this with the sequential choice model that postulates that decision-makers make no comparison between options at the time of choice. According to the latter, behaviour in simultaneous choices reflects adaptations to contexts with sequential encounters, in which the choice is whether to take an opportunity or let it pass. We postulate that, in sequential encounters, the decision-maker assigns (by learning) a subjective value to each option, reflecting its payoff relative to background opportunities. This value is expressed as latency and/or probability to accept each opportunity as opposed to keep searching. In simultaneous encounters, choice occurs through each option being processed independently, by a race between the mechanisms that generate option-specific latencies. We describe these alternative models and review data supporting the predictions of the sequential choice model.