The increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals, alongside their limited removal in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), have led to their ubiquitous occurrence in receiving aquatic environments. This ...study addresses the occurrence of 68 pharmaceuticals (PhACs) in the Ebro River Delta region (NE Spain), as well as their distribution in different environmental compartments, including surface water, sediments, biota (river biofilm and fish tissues), and field-collected plastic litter. In addition, their concentrations in serving WWTPs, as possible sources of environmental contamination, were also determined.
Our study confirmed the widespread occurrence of PhACs in riverine and, to a more limited extent, coastal environments. Most frequently detected PhACs belonged to analgesics/anti-inflammatories (e.g., ibuprofen) and psychiatric drugs (e.g., venlafaxine) therapeutic groups, followed by antihypertensives (e.g., valsartan) and antibiotics (e.g., azithromycin). Seasonal differences in cumulative levels of PhACs were reported for water and sediments (winter>summer). Despite spatial gradients were not clear along the river, a non-negligible contribution of upstream Ebro sites (reference area) was highlighted, which was unexpected based on the low anthropogenic pressure. Sediments represented a minor attenuation pathway for the selected PhACs, whereas they were more heavily accumulated in biota: fish liver (up to 166 ng/g dw), river biofilms (up to 108 ng/g dw), fish plasma (up to 63 ng/mL), and fish muscle (up to 31 ng/g dw).
These findings highlight the importance of biomonitoring in the characterization of polluted areas and prioritization of hazardous substances (e.g., psychiatric drugs) in aquatic systems, and a particular interest of fish plasma as non-destructive biomonitoring matrix. PhACs were also detected on plastic litter, demonstrating their role as environmental sinks for certain PhACs (e.g., analgesics/anti-inflammatories, psychiatric drugs). Overall, the widespread detection of PhACs in a variety of biotic and abiotic matrices from the lower Ebro River and Delta warns about their possible environmental implications.
Display omitted
•No geographical variation in pharmaceutical pollution along lower Ebro River basin.•Analgesics/anti-inflammatories, psychiatric drugs and antihypertensives as most frequent in river water•Biomonitoring improves assessment of pharmaceutical contamination compared to grab water.•River biofilm, fish plasma (non-destructive) and liver more informative than fish muscle•Plastic litter as a passive sink of some pharmaceuticals
Habitat suitability models (HSM) are concerned with the abundance or distribution of species as a consequence of interactions with the physical environment. Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were ...used to model brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) density as a function of environmental variables at the scale of river reach and hydromorphological units (HMU) in the Júcar River Basin (Eastern Spain). After 4 years of observations (2003–2006) the data representing trout density were split into two categories, young (<2 years) and adult (≥2 years), for modelling independently. The environmental descriptors at reach–scale described the geographical position, hydrological conditions, proportions and diversity of habitats. At the scale of HMUs (pool, glide, riffle or rapid), habitat descriptors representing dimensions, substrate, cover and velocity were used. The best and parsimonious GAM for each category was selected after a comprehensive trial of all possible combinations of input variables. The models explained 61% (adult) and 75% (young) of the variability of the data (R²adj). The results demonstrated the relevance of mean width, mean depth, cover index, mean velocity and slope for adult brown trout. Young trout densities were mainly related to maximum depths, cover index, mean velocity, elevation, average distance between rapids and number of slow water HMUs. This article shows the relevance of considering geographical and habitat‐related requirements at different scales to describe the patterns of trout density. Furthermore, the importance of considering non‐linear relationships with habitat variables was demonstrated. The results are useful for environmental managers to design effective and science‐based restoration measures, and result in a more efficient management of brown trout populations.
In recent years, fuzzy models have been acknowledged as a suitable approach for species distribution modelling due to their transparency and their ability to incorporate the ecological gradient ...theory. Specifically, the overlapping class boundaries of a fuzzy model are similar to the transitions between different environmental conditions. However, the need for ecological expert knowledge is an important constraint when applying fuzzy species distribution models. Moreover, the consistency of the ecological preferences of some fish species across different rivers has been widely contested. Recent research has shown that data-driven fuzzy models may solve this ‘knowledge acquisition bottleneck’ and this paper is a further contribution. The aim was to analyse the brown trout (
Salmo trutta fario L.) habitat preferences based on a data-driven fuzzy modelling technique and to compare the resulting fuzzy models with a commonly applied modelling technique, Random Forests. A heuristic nearest ascent hill-climbing algorithm for fuzzy rule optimisation and Random Forests were applied to analyse the ecological preferences of brown trout in 93 mesohabitats. No significant differences in model performance were observed between the optimal fuzzy model and the Random Forests model and both approaches selected river width, the cover index and flow velocity as the most important variables describing brown trout habitat suitability. Further, the fuzzy model combined ecological relevance with reasonable interpretability, whereas the transparency of the Random Forests model was limited. This paper shows that fuzzy models may be a valid approach for species distribution modelling and that their performance is comparable to that of state-of-the-art modelling techniques like Random Forests. Fuzzy models could therefore be a valuable decision support tool for river managers and enhance communication between stakeholders.
Abstract
A third Comirnaty vaccine dose increased severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor-binding domain antibody levels (median, 93-fold) and neutralizing antibody ...titers against Wuhan-Hu-1 (median, 57-fold), Beta (me 22-fold), Delta, (median, 43-fold), and Omicron (median, 8-fold) variants, but had less impact on S-reactive T-cell immunity in nursing home residents.
Habitat degradation has reduced the complexity of the Mediterranean streams in Spain and contributed to decreasing the historical range of the endangered Júcar nase, Parachondrostoma arrigonis. This ...species is endemic to the Júcar River Basin (Spain), and most of its populations live in the Cabriel River, which is divided into two segments by the large Contreras Dam. The main objective of this study was to develop a multivariate habitat suitability model (HSM) for this species that can be used to evaluate environmental flows and water management scenarios for the Cabriel River. We first assessed the fish densities (from 2006 to 2008) and compared the habitat characteristics and variability among eight study sites based on the physical characteristics of hydromorphological units (HMUs) or mesohabitats. The abundance of the Júcar nase then was related to the HMU type, and generalized additive models of fish abundance were developed for the sites for both small and large fish. Both models showed acceptable or good performance (adjusted R2 of 69.4 for small fish and 72.4 for large fish), and fish abundance was used as an indicator of potential habitat quality ‘potential nase habitat’ (PNH) for the Júcar nase. The final step was to apply the HSM to evaluate environmentally friendly flow regimens. Hydraulic simulations were used to estimate the PNH under two flow regimen scenarios and in the actual flow regimen for the regulated study site located below the large dam. This article supports the need for new management actions in the Cabriel River, such as implementation of an environmental flow regimen, and illustrates a procedure for the practical application of habitat selection models at the mesohabitat scale.
The potential of Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Ensembles to explore the ecology of freshwater fish species was tested by applying the technique to redfin barbel (Barbus haasi Mertens, 1925), an endemic ...and montane species that inhabits the North-East quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula. Two different MLP Ensembles were developed. The physical habitat model considered only abiotic variables, whereas the biotic model also included the density of the accompanying fish species and several invertebrate predictors. The results showed that MLP Ensembles may outperform single MLPs. Moreover, active selection of MLP candidates to create an optimal subset of MLPs can further improve model performance. The physical habitat model confirmed the redfin barbel preference for middle-to-upper river segments whereas the importance of depth confirms that redfin barbel prefers pool-type habitats. Although the biotic model showed higher uncertainty, it suggested that redfin barbel, European eel and the considered cyprinid species have similar habitat requirements. Due to its high predictive performance and its ability to deal with model uncertainty, the MLP Ensemble is a promising tool for ecological modelling or habitat suitability prediction in environmental flow assessment.
The current study was aimed at examining SARS-CoV-2 immune responses following two doses of Comirnaty® COVID-19 vaccine among elderly people in nursing homes.
A prospective cohort study in a ...representative sample from nursing homes in Valencia (n = 881; males: 271, females 610; median age, 86 years) recruited residents using a random one-stage cluster sampling approach. A lateral flow immunochromatography device (LFIC) (OnSite COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test; CTK BIOTECH, Poway, CA, USA) was used as the front-line test for detecting SARS-CoV-2-Spike (S)-specific antibodies in whole blood obtained using a fingerstick. Residents returning negative LFIC results underwent venipuncture and testing for presence of SARS-CoV-2-S-reactive antibodies and T cells using the Roche Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S (Roche Diagnostics, Pleasanton, CA, USA), the LIAISON® SARS-CoV-2 TrimericS IgG assay (Diasorin S.p.A, Saluggia, Italy) and by flow cytometry, respectively.
The SARS-CoV-2-S antibody detection rate in nursing home residents was 99.6% (283/284) and 98.3% (587/597) for SARS-CoV-2 recovered and naïve residents, respectively, within a median of 99 days (range 17–125 days) after full vaccination. Three out of five residents lacking SARS-CoV-2-S antibodies had detectable S-reactive CD8+ and/or CD4+ T cells. In addition, 50/50 and 40/50 participants with detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies also had SARS-CoV-2-S-reactive interferon-γ-producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, respectively.
The Comirnaty® COVID-19 vaccine is highly immunogenic in nursing home residents.
A two-photon fluorescent probe based on a ruthenium(II) vinyl complex is capable of selectively detecting carbon monoxide in cells and ex vivo using mice with a subcutaneous air pouch as a model for ...inflammation. This probe combines highly selective and sensitive ex vivo detection of endogenous CO in a realistic model with facile, inexpensive synthesis, and displays many advantages over the widely used palladium-based systems.
•Enrolled 65 mother-baby pairs in an endemic hydrofluorosis area in Mexico.•Pregnant women from endemic hydrofluorosis areas had high levels of fluoride in urine.•Maternal exposure to Fluoride was ...negatively associated with cognitive functions in infants.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between in utero exposure to fluoride (F) and Mental and Psychomotor Development (MDI and PDI) evaluated through the Bayley Scale of Infant Development II (BSDI-II) in infants. The sample included 65 mother-infant pairs. Environmental exposure to F was quantified in tap and bottled water samples and F in maternal urine was the biological exposure indicator; samples were collected during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy. The mean values of F in tap water for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester were 2.6±1.1mg/l, 3.1±1.1mg/l and 3.7±1.0mg/l respectively; above to 80% of the samples exceeded the reference value of 1.5mg/l (NOM-127-SSA1-1994). Regarding F in maternal urine, mean values were 1.9±1.0mg/l, 2.0±1.1mg/l and 2.7±1.1mg/l for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester respectively. The infants with MDI and PDI scores less than 85 points were 38.5% and 20.9% respectively. After adjusting for potential confounding factors (gestational age, age of child, marginalization index and type of water for consumption), the MDI showed an inverse association with F levels in maternal urine for the first (β=−19.05, p=0.04) and second trimester (β=−19.34, p=0.01). Our data suggests that cognitive alterations in children born from exposed mothers to F could start in early prenatal stages of life.
PDF
