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mples.This is the first study to assess human health risks due to the exposure of 'repurposed' pharmaceutical drugs used to treat Covid-19 infection. The study used a six-step approach to determine health risk estimates. CA3 nmr For this, consumption of pharmaceuticals under normal circumstances and in Covid-19 infection was compiled to calculate the predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) in river water and in fishes. Risk estimates of pharmaceutical drugs were evaluated for adults as they are most affected by Covid-19 pandemic. link2 Acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) are estimated using the no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL) or no observable effect level (NOEL) values in rats. The estimated ADI values are then used to calculate predicted no-effect concentrations (PNECs) for three different exposure routes (i) through the accidental ingestion of contaminated surface water during recreational activities only, (ii) through fish consumption only, and (iii) through combined accidental ingestion of contaminated surface watrried out to reduce the adverse effects of pharmaceutical drugs on human health.Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus transmit diseases such as dengue, and are of major public health concern. Driven by climate change and global trade/travel both species have recently spread to new tropic/subtropic regions and Ae. albopictus also to temperate ecoregions. The capacity of both species to adapt to new environments depends on their ecophysiological plasticity, which is the width of functional niches where a species can survive. Mechanistic distribution models often neglect to incorporate ecophysiological plasticity especially in regards to overwintering capacity in cooler habitats. To portray the ecophysiological plasticity concerning overwintering capability, we conducted temperature experiments with multiple populations of both species originating from an altitudinal gradient in South Asia and tested as follows the cold tolerance of eggs (-2 °C- 8 days and - 6 °C- 2 days) without and with an experimental winter onset (acclimation 10 °C- 60 days), differences between a South Asian and a Europear spread to colder ecoregions driven by climate change.The understanding of compounding and cascading impacts is becoming increasingly central to the risk reduction debate as hazard consequences are strongly coupled. Still, studies on their quantification and visualization are limited. This restricts the establishment of impact-based early warning systems. Here, a novel method for quantifying drought compound impacts and their cascading paths is presented by integrating network analysis and data mining tools. The 2018/19 drought in Germany is used as a case study. Network graphs are employed to display impact co-occurrences and cascades of agriculture, livestock, forestry, industry, and recreation impacts. Furthermore, sequential pattern mining is used to predict the next impact that is likely to take place. A synthesis of the identified relationships is presented using accessible visual formats. Results show that simultaneous and cascading drought impacts may not happen by chance but follow a pattern. Indeed, statistically significant co-occurrence associations outnumbered randomly distributed ones (91.1% versus 8.9%). With regard to the cascading paths, cross-validation results show that within three attempts, the next impact class was accurately predicted in 72.9% of the cases. Crop losses were usually followed up by a shortage of feed for livestock and consequent early slaughtering of animals. This implies that in order to limit drought impacts, there is a need to consider their compounding and cascading effects. Hence, researchers need to move from the analysis of single impacts to the understanding of how multi-sectoral impacts are connected with each other. The methodology proposed here paves towards this direction. The visualization tools used can help to increase awareness of the possible impact interactions and dependency, improving drought managers' decision-making ability. Moreover, the obtained results can serve as the basis for inferring impact causal relationships.Parabens are one of the most widely used preservatives in food, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PCPs) because of their advantageous properties and low toxicity based on the early assessments. However, recent research indicates that parabens may act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and thus, are considered as chemicals of emerging concern that have adverse human health effects. To provide the basis for future human health studies, we reviewed relevant literature, published between 2005 and 2020, regarding the levels of parabens in the consumer products (pharmaceuticals, PCPs and food), environmental matrices and humans, including susceptible populations, such as pregnant women and children. The analysis showed that paraben detection rates in consumer products, environmental compartments and human populations are high, while the levels vary greatly by country and paraben type. The concentrations of parabens reported in pregnant women (~20-120 μg/L) were an order of magnitude higher than in the general population. Paraben concentrations in food and pharmaceuticals were at the ng/g level, while the levels in PCPs reached mg/g levels. Environmental concentrations ranged from ng/L-μg/L in surface waters to tens of μg/g in wastewater and indoor dust. The levels of human exposure to parabens appear to be higher in the U.S. and EU countries than in China and India, which may change with the increasing production of parabens in the latter countries. The review provides context for future studies to connect paraben exposure levels with human health effects.Microcystins (MCs) are common, well-known cyanobacterial toxins that can affect health of humans. Recently, it has been reported that MCs affect endocrine functions. In the present study, for the first time, histopathology, concentrations of hormones and transcription of genes along the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), hypothalamic-pituitary-gonad (HPG) and hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axes were examined in rats exposed to microcystin-LR (MC-LR). Female, Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were exposed acutely to MC-LR by a single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection at doses of 0.5, 0.75, or 1 median lethal dose (LD50), i.e. 36.5, 54.75, or 73 μg MC-LR/kg body mass (bm) then euthanized 24 hours after exposure. Acute exposure to MC-LR significantly increased relative mass of adrenal in a dose-dependent manner, but relative mass of hypothalamus, pituitary, ovary and thyroid were not significantly different from respective mass in controls. link3 However, damage to all these tissues was observed by histology. Along these results suggested that MC-LR affected HPA, HPG and HPT axes and exerted endocrine-disrupting effects. Effects of MC-LR on crosstalk among these three axes need further studies.Bronopol and Detarox® AP are broad spectrum antimicrobial biocides of growing interest for the aquaculture sector. While their effectiveness against aquatic pathogens has been demonstrated, toxicity data on wild or farmed species are still lacking, as is information on their potential environmental risk for aquatic ecosystems. With this study, we assessed the acute and sublethal toxicity of Bronopol and Detarox® AP in the freshwater bivalve Sinanodonta woodiana and their theoretical risk for aquatic ecosystem. The 96-h median lethal concentration (LC50) was determined using the acute toxicity test, while for the sublethal toxicity test the bivalves were exposed to two concentrations for 14 days of Bronopol (2.5 and 50 mg/L) and Detarox® AP (1.11 and 22.26 mg/L) followed by a 14-day withdrawal period. Biocide-mediated oxidative processes were investigated via a panel of oxidative stress biomarkers (malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S-transferase). Theoretical environmental risk assessment of both biocides, with predicted concentration of no effect (PNEC), expected theoretical concentration (TEC) in the environment, and risk quotient (RQ) was performed. TEC was calculated using a model based on the size of the aquaculture facility and the receiving basin, the estimated quantity of biocide dissolved in water, and published data on biocide stability in water. Although the LC50 was higher for Bronopol (2440 mg/L) than for Detarox® AP (126 mg/L), fluctuations in oxidative stress biomarkers levels indicated that both biocides exert a slight oxidative pressure on S. woodiana. Theoretical environmental risk assessment suggested a muted risk with Detarox® AP and greater eco-sustainability compared to Bronopol.Speciation of Cd in soil solutions strongly determines the fate of this toxic metal in the environment. Generally, in soil solutions, Cd predominantly binds to the dissolved organic matter (DOM). The determination of the quantity and reactivity of DOM that actually complexes Cd in soil solutions is challenging for operational purposes. Therefore, this study tested whether Cd2+ concentration in soil solutions could effectively be predicted by considering complexation with a single mean organic ligand assumed to be a fraction of DOM of unspecified nature or assumed to be purely fulvic acids (FA) with reactivity as described in WHAM VII. The reactivity of the unspecified ligand and the concentration of FA were modelled and fitted to experimental data from 76 agricultural soils with low Cd contents. The optimal reactivity and FA concentration that minimized the relative error (RE) of predictions of the concentration of Cd2+ in soil solutions were either considered constant across soils or modelled from soil properties by multiple linear regressions (MLR) or random forests (RF), giving 6 models, the predictive value of which was assessed by 10-folds cross-validation. When the reactivity of the mean ligand and the optimal FA concentration were considered constant across soils, the models were biased and 66.9% of predictions had relative errors below a factor of 2. By contrast, if the reactivity of the mean ligand or the optimal FA concentration were allowed to vary with soil characteristics, these performances increased to 95.5%, soil pH being the main predictor and RF being slightly more efficient than MLR. With more than 95% of the relative errors of prediction below a factor of 2, the models developed in this work could be valuable for assessing Cd speciation in the solution of soils having a low Cd content.Within human modified ecosystems the effects of individual stressors are difficult to establish amid co-occurring biological processes, environmental gradients and other stressors. Coupled examination of several endpoints across different levels of organisation may help elucidate the individual and combined effects of stressors and interactions. Malathion is a commonly used organophosphate pesticide that contaminates freshwaters and has strong negative effects on aquatic biota. However, both other stressors (e.g. increased sediment) and common ecosystem components (e.g. macrophytes and variable pH) can reduce the aqueous concentrations of malathion, reducing its toxic effects. We conducted a fully orthogonal bioassay to examine how pH (at 7 and 7.8) and sorptive processes (across two levels of kaoline clay 0 and 24 g L-1) affected aqueous malathion concentrations and toxicity in an aquatic invertebrate genus. Survival and acetylcholinesterase activity as a sub-organism response were examined in the mayfly Coloburiscoides spp.