Christensenhede4806

The extensive use of nanoparticles (NPs) in industrial processes makes their potential release into the environment an issue of concern. Ag and ZnO NPs are among the most frequently used NPs, potentially reaching concentrations of 1-4 and 64 mg/kg, respectively, in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs), with unknown effects over microbial populations. Thus, we examined, in depth, the effect of such NPs on a P. aeruginosa strain isolated from a WWTP. We evaluated the growth, ROS production and biofilm formation, in addition to the transcriptomic response in presence of Ag and ZnO NPs at concentrations potentially found in sewage sludge. The transcriptomic and phenotypic patterns of P. aeruginosa in presence of Ag NPs were, in general, similar to the control treatment, with some specific transcriptional impacts affecting processes involved in biofilm formation and iron homeostasis. The biofilms formed under Ag NPs treatment were, on average, thinner and more homogeneous. ZnO NPs also alters the biofilm formation and iron homeostasis in P. aeruginosa, however, the higher and more toxic concentrations utilized caused an increase in cell death and eDNA release. Thus, the biofilm development was characterized by EPS production, via eDNA release. The number of differentially expressed genes in presence of ZnO NPs was higher compared to Ag NPs treatment. Even though the responses of P. aeruginosa to the presence of the studied metallic NPs was at some extent similar, the higher and more toxic concentrations of ZnO NPs produced greater changes concerning cell viability and ROS production, causing disruption in biofilm development.To keep global warming below 2 °C by 2100, as per the Paris Agreement, China has announced to peak its CO2 emissions before 2030. Several studies have explored the emissions trajectories in China, but it is as yet uncertain how persistent mitigation efforts of individual provinces and sectors will impact the achievement of ambitious emissions reduction goal. Here we develop a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Bayesian analysis with a modified Kaya identity to project the CO2 emissions in China before 2050. We find that, with persistent mitigation efforts, China can reach an emissions peak in 2032 at 13395 Mt. CO2, which is later than its announced time. Moreover, China's total emissions will reduce slowly after peaking time, with an average annual reduction rate of 0.47%. There are 15 provinces whose emissions will peak before 2030, while 11 provinces can peak during 2030-2050, and 4 provinces can hardly obtain the peak before 2050. Future emission decreases result from the interplay between a rapid reduction driven by decreasing emission intensities, especially in industry, against the increases from economic and population growth. In addition, we find an important mitigation impact from economic structure shift towards services. Such information will be necessary for China's future low-carbon development and will provide implications for policy making.Since commercial polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been globally banned or restricted in 2000s, alternative halogenated flame retardants (AHFRs) appear increasingly dominant over PBDEs in many countries/regions. In this study, low levels of AHFRs were unexpectedly observed in the indoor dust from Adelaide, South Australia. Anti-dechlorane plus (anti-DP) was the most frequently detected AHFR with a median concentration of 1.28 ng/g, while other AFHRs were less detected (detection frequency less then 50%). The levels of ΣPBDEs (496 ng/g, median) and ΣAHFRs (160 ng/g) and the ratio of ΣAHFRs/ΣPBDEs (0.32) were much lower than those investigated in Australian indoor dust previously. The findings were different to the trend for PBDEs and AHFRs from other countries over the past two decades. No significant correlation was determined between DP and PBDE congeners, indicating their different sources in dust. The human exposure assessment suggested that dust ingestion was the predominant pathway of PBDEs and AHFRs exposure for toddlers, while dermal absorption may be the dominant pathway for adults. The estimated daily intake (EDI) suggested low health risks via dust ingestion and dermal contact for general populations in Adelaide. This study contributes to the knowledge on region-specific FR contamination in indoor environments and related human exposure risk.Anthropogenic emissions in Europe have been gradually reduced thanks to a combination of factors, including restrictive regulation and policy implementation, fuel switching, technological developments, and improved energy efficiencies. Many measures have been specifically introduced to meet the annual and hourly limit value of NO2 for the protection of human health, mainly targeting traffic emissions. Due to NOX reduction policies in Europe, NO2 levels have generally declined, but O3 concentrations have been found to increase. This phenomenon would cause changes in the oxidant capacity of the atmosphere, altering the concentration of tropospheric oxidants in urban areas. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modelling system has been used to study concentration changes of NO2, O3 and the main radicals in Europe between 2007 and 2015 for two months representatives of winter and summer conditions (January and July). In addition to describing the general situation in Europe, variations in pollutants along with NOX emission changes over 67 large European cities have been analysed by means of statistical methods. NOX emissions and NO2 concentrations decreased in both seasons during the period in all the selected cities. In most of them O3 concentrations increased in winter but decreased in summer. The concentration of the OH radical, the main oxidant during the daytime, shows an increase in winter. This is also the case for the main cities in summer although we found a general decrease in continent for this season. The NO3 radical, the main night-time oxidant, was found to increase in winter and decrease in summer. HNO3 shows a concentration decline in both seasons. The studied cities are classified in five groups by means of k-mean clustering procedure. We identified five groups with specific patterns, suggesting that the oxidant capacity of the European urban atmospheres has reacted differently to NOX emission abatement policies.Anthropogenic climate change and landscape alteration are two of the most important threats to the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the tropical Americas, thus jeopardizing water and soil resources for millions of people in the Andean nations. Understanding how aquatic ecosystems will respond to anthropogenic stressors and accelerated warming requires shifting from short-term and static to long-term, dynamic characterizations of human-terrestrial-aquatic relationships. Here we use sediment records from Lake Llaviucu, a tropical mountain Andean lake long accessed by Indigenous and post-European societies, and hypothesize that under natural historical conditions (i.e., low human pressure) vegetation and aquatic ecosystems' responses to change are coupled through indirect climate influences-that is, past climate-driven vegetation changes dictated limnological trajectories. We used a multi-proxy paleoecological approach including drivers of terrestrial vegetation change (pollen), soil erosion (Titanium), hum inputs into the lake decoupling the links between climate-driven vegetation changes and the aquatic community. Our results demonstrate how rates of change of anthropogenic and climatic influences can guide dynamic ecological baselines for managing water ecosystem services in the Andes.The environment issues associated with global warming and climate change caused by continuous increase in greenhouse gas emissions have attracted worldwide concerns. As renewable resources with good adsorption property, biochar is an efficient and environmental friendly adsorbsent for CO2 capture. In this study, the CO2 adsorption behavior of biochars derived from feedstock mixtures of 70% pine sawdust and 30% sewage sludge by KOH modification was investigated. The textual properties and functional groups of the pristine biochars have been significantly enhanced after KOH activation. With highly developed microporosity, the specific surface area (SSA) of the KOH-modified biochars increased by 3.9-14.5 times. Furthermore, higher CO2 adsorption capacities of 136.7-182.0 mg/g were observed for the modified biochars, compared to pristine ones (35.5-42.9 mg/g). The development of micropores by KOH activation significantly increased the CO2 adsorption capacity. Meanwhile, the presence of hetero atoms (O and K) also positively influenced CO2 adsorption capacity of biochar. Noticeably, both physical and chemical adsorption played a crucial role in CO2 capture, which was verified by different characterization methods including high resolution scanning electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. The Findings of this study demonstrate the -significance of chemical sorption by identifying the transformation of CO2 by biochar composites and in situ characterization of weakly adsorbed and newly formed mineral species during the CO2 sorption process. Moreover, BC700K showed 97% recyclability during 10 consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles at 25 °C, 1 bar. The results obtained in the present study may inspire new research interest and provide a comprehensive insight into the research subject to biochars derived from feedstock mixtures for CO2 capture.

Particulate matter (PM) pollution is a well-known risk factor of stroke. However, little is known about the association between PM

(aerodynamic diameter ≤ 1.0 μm) and stroke. We estimated the associations of short-term exposure to PM

with hospital admission and recurrence of stoke in China.

Stroke data were derived from the Chinese Stroke Center Alliance (CASA) program conducted in 1458 hospitals in 292 Chinese cities from 2015 to 2019. Daily air pollution and meteorological data were collected in the cities where studied hospitals were located. Daily PM

concentration was estimated by a generalized additive model (GAM) using PM

and meteorological variables. A time-stratified case-crossover design was applied to estimate the associations of short-term exposure to PM

with hospital admission of stroke. A GAM model was used to estimate the association between average PM

exposure during hospitalization and the recurrence of stroke.

A total of 989,591 stroke cases were included in the study. Each and recurrence of stroke in China, and the effects varied across different types of stroke and regions. Geographically targeted strategies and measures are needed to control air pollution for reducing the burden of stroke from PM1.The responses of biotic communities and ecosystems to climate change may be abrupt and non-linear. Thus, resolving ecological threshold mechanisms is crucial for understanding the consequences of climate change and for improving environmental management. Here, we present a study on the threshold responses of benthic diatom communities that are an important component of all aquatic environments and strongly contribute to global primary production. We reach beyond the taxonomic perspective by focusing on the diversity and functions of diatom communities and benthic biomass along gradients of salinity and wind disturbance, whose climate-change-induced changes have been predicted to strongly affect biotic communities in the marine and brackish systems in the future. To improve the generality of our results, we examine three self-collected datasets from different spatial scales (6-830 km) and ecosystem types. We collected samples from rock pools or from littoral stones and studied taxonomic thresholds using Threshold Indicator Taxa Analysis (TITAN2).