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  • Soelberg Sweet posted an update 1 day, 19 hours ago

    Furthermore, mitochondria-generated ROS played a major role in regulating the treatment-induced cellular response in the algae. Observations of cellular superficial- and ultra-structures indicated that the binary mixtures provoked oxidative damage to the algal cells. RGO increased the cytotoxicity and the extent of cellular oxidative stress to a higher extent than GNPs. These findings provide new insights that are of use in the risk assessment of mixtures of graphene-based carbon nanomaterials and other ENPs, and fit the new ideas on product testing that respects the combination effects.Aquatic animals can be influenced by exposure to microplastics (MPs), but little is known about their recovery capacity following MPs excretion. Here, common carp were exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of MPs for 30 days and followed by MPs excretion for another 30 days. Growth, isotopic and elemental compositions and intestinal microbiota were investigated. We found that fish growth was not influenced by exposed to MPs but was significantly reduced following MPs excretion, indicating a delayed effect on growth. MPs intake and excretion, however, had no obvious effects on isotopic and elemental compositions. MPs altered the community structure and composition of intestinal microbiota and might reduce functional diversity. After MPs excretion, interestingly, bacterial community structures of MPs treatments were grouped together with the control, suggesting the general resilience of fish intestinal microbiota. Nevertheless, high abundance of pathogenic Shewanella, Plesiomonas and Flavobacterium was observed in MPs treatments but did not affect the functional potential of intestinal microbiota. The results of this study provide new information for the application of adverse outcome pathway (AOP) in MPs, suggesting the necessity of paying attention to recovery assay following MPs intake in the development of AOP frameworks.Copper (Cu) is an essential element, however it’s excess into the environment causes detrimental effect on plant and risks for public health. Four Cu and drought tolerant 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase producing rhizobacteria were isolated from the roots of Trifolium repens L. growing on Cu smelter contaminated soils, characterized and identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. A consortium of high ACC deaminase (53.74 μM α-ketobutyrate mg-1 protein h-1) producing bacteria Pseudomonas sp. strain TR15a + siderophore producing Bacillus aerophilus strain TR15c significantly (p less then 0.05) produced better results for multiple-metal tolerance including Cu (1750 mg kg-1), antibiotic resistance (ampicillin, kanamycin, chloramphenicol, penicillin, tetracycline, and streptomycin) and plant growth promoting attributes (phosphate solubilization 315 mg L-1, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) production 8 mg L-1, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide production) as compared to individual isolates. Pot scale experiment (enriched with 100 mg Cu kg-1) showed inoculation of Helianthus annuus seeds with consortium of TR15a + TR15c had significantly (p less then 0.05) improved seed germination by 32%, total dry biomass by 64%, root Cu by 47% and shoot Cu by 75% as compared to uninoculated control whereas 0.2-7 fold higher results were observed for above stated parameters as compared to four individual isolates studied. The result suggests consortium of ACC deaminase producing Pseudomonas sp. IBMX cost TR15a and siderophore producing B. aerophilus TR15c could play a vital role in enhanced Cu uptake and improvement of biomass and may provide a better alternative for decontamination of Cu contaminated natural ecosystem than individual isolates.Alginate can be used for entrapment of microalgal cells in gel beads to achieve high-rate treatment of wastewater and can overcome the difficulties of cell separation that would occur in suspended microalgae treatment systems. The potential for alginate beads to disintegrate in the presence of high ion concentrations could limit the use of alginate entrapment for treating municipal wastewater reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC). The combined effect of the pH, alkalinity, and salinity of the ROC that impact the physical stability, chemical characteristics, biomass production, and nutrient removal performance of alginate-entrapped Chlorella vulgaris for treating the ROC was investigated. Water adsorption resulting from the loss of calcium from the alginate matrix was the initiating cause of reduction of the algal bead stability. The combination of alkalinity >400 mg/L and pH ≥9.5 led to a >65% reduction in compressive strength and thus disintegration of beads during ROC treatment. However, alginate beads of C. vulgaris were sufficiently stable and were capable of nutrient remediation (up to 100% TP and 85% TN per treatment cycle of 48 h over a 10-day period) and biomass production (up to 340 mg/L/d) when salinity, pH, and alkalinity levels were less then 8 g TDS/L, 7-9.5, and less then 400 mg/L, respectively. Empirical models that were developed and validated could enable the prediction of the performance of the algal beads for various ROC compositions. This study enhances the insight and decision-making regarding the feasibility of the alginate-immobilised microalgal system for treating municipal wastewater ROC streams.An enormous number of pollutants must be investigated to be able to understand which types threaten human health and environmental biota. In this study, we propose a workflow for screening polybromochlorodibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PBCDD/Fs), which are compounds that have thousands of isomers and congeners, by combining measurement of a sample without any in-laboratory-cleanup with the results of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry and post-data processing. This process can be regarded as “in silico sample cleanup.” The post-data processing stage comprises two methods in which the extracted mass spectra are matched to exact mass and isotopic ratios specified as formulae and filtering via mass deficiency. We applied this workflow to wastewater samples from industrial facilities to identify mixtures of halogenated dioxins. As a result, it was estimated that dioxins in an absolute quantity of 10-500 pg could be detected with sufficient accuracy by recovery testing of a standard mixture against sample crude extracts.