1,381 research outputs found
Viviparus lubenescuae Neubauer, Harzhauser, Georgopoulou, Mandic & Kroh, 2014, nom. nov.
No full text<i>Viviparus lubenescuae</i> nom. nov. <p> <i>Viviparus conicus</i> Lubenescu & Zazuleac 1985: 100, pl. 23, figs 5–19 [non <i>Vivipara conica</i> Pavlović, 1903].</p> <p> <b>Etymology.</b> In honor of Victoria Lubenescu (Bucharest), who studied the viviparids of the Dacian Basin and first described this species.</p> <p> <b>Type locality.</b> Mănăstirea Dintr-un Lemn along Runcu brook, near Dezrobiţi village, Vâlcea, Romania.</p> <p> <b>Age.</b> Lower Dacian (= Getian, middle Zanclean).</p> <p> <b>Holotype.</b> Institut de Géologie et Géophysique, Bucharest, coll. no. 17056.</p> <p> <b>Discussion.</b> Here the same rules apply as for the case of <i>Viviparus muscelensis</i> above: <i>Viviparus conicus</i> Lubenescu & Zazuleac, 1985 is a primary homonym of <i>Viviparus conicus</i> Pavlović, 1903 from the Pliocene of Orahovac in the Metohia Basin, Kosovo (see also Wenz 1928, p. 2307).</p>Published as part of <i>Neubauer, Thomas A., Harzhauser, Mathias, Georgopoulou, Elisavet, Mandic, Oleg & Kroh, Andreas, 2014, Replacement names and nomenclatural comments for problematic species-group names in Europe's Neogene freshwater Gastropoda, pp. 453-468 in Zootaxa 3785 (3)</i> on page 455, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3785.3.7, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/4913363">http://zenodo.org/record/4913363</a>
Melanopsis anistratenkoi Neubauer, Harzhauser, Georgopoulou, Mandic & Kroh, 2014, nom. nov.
No full text<i>Melanopsis anistratenkoi</i> nom. nov. <p> <i>Melanopsis</i> (<i>Duabiana</i>) <i>cylindrica</i> Anistratenko 1993: 69 [non <i>Lyrcea cylindrica</i> Stoliczka, 1862].</p> <p> <b>Etymology.</b> In honor of Vitaliy V. Anistratenko (Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the Ukrainian National Academy, Kiev), who greatly contributed to our knowledge about the fossil and recent mollusk fauna from eastern Europe.</p> <p> <b>Type locality.</b> Mok'vi monastery by the Duab River, Abkhazia, Georgia.</p> <p> <b>Age.</b> Duab beds, Kimmerian (= middle-late Zanclean).</p> <p> <b>Holotype.</b> Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, coll. no. 22/VI 1989.</p> <p> <b>Discussion.</b> The species by Anistratenko constitutes a secondary homonym of <i>Melanopsis cylindrica</i> (Stoliczka, 1862). The latter species was introduced within <i>Lyrcaea</i> (misspelt " <i>Lyrcea</i> " by Stoliczka), which is considered a junior synonym of <i>Melanopsis</i> (Wenz 1929, p. 2647). Today it is undoubtedly referred to <i>Melanopsis</i>.</p>Published as part of <i>Neubauer, Thomas A., Harzhauser, Mathias, Georgopoulou, Elisavet, Mandic, Oleg & Kroh, Andreas, 2014, Replacement names and nomenclatural comments for problematic species-group names in Europe's Neogene freshwater Gastropoda, pp. 453-468 in Zootaxa 3785 (3)</i> on page 456, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3785.3.7, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/4913363">http://zenodo.org/record/4913363</a>
Environmental Lead Exposure in Children: a Problem of Developing Countries?
No full textEnvironmental exposure to lead, although not an important cause of mortality, represents one of the main causes of morbidity among children and adolescents. In general, rural communities are expected to have significantly lower blood lead levels (BLLs) than urban communities. However, this is not the case in populations living in the vicinity of lead mines and smelting facilities, where higher BLLs may occur, particularly among young children. Around 50% of Global lead production can be traced back to car battery recycling.
The aim of this study was to quantify blood lead levels (BLLs) of children living near a car battery smelting facility in Serbia, compare the levels with developed and developing countries’ standards, and identify the main determinants of lead exposure in this population. BLLs were quantified in 75 children from Zajača, a village where a car battery smelting factory is located, and 52 children from Paskovac, village 5 kilometers away from Zajača. The median BLL for both groups were 12 μg/dl, 7.60 μg/dl in children from Paskovac, and 17.5 μg/dl in children from Zajača. Even 87% of children from Zajača had the BLL above 10 μg/dl, which is comparable to urban schoolchildren in South Africa and Bangladesh. Although a European country, a candidate country for the European Union, BLLs of Serbian children were comparable to that of children living in developing countries and higher than those expected in children living near lead smelting facilities in developed countries
From Pre-marketing Studies and Authorization Dossiers to New Prospects for Pesticide Risk Assessment in Rural Enterprises
No full textThe role of pesticides in the modern society has been strengthened by the need for higher yield in food production and the ongoing battle against vector borne diseases in public health. Nevertheless, the toxicity of these chemicals is not fully specific to target organisms, thus posing a potential health threat to humans. In this frame, risk assessment and management are fundamental. In the occupational settings, variability of meteorological conditions, use of different concentrations of variable mixtures, and significant variations in the application times and modalities make this task very complicated, making necessary proposing novel approaches for conducting “in field” preventive activities. The amount of information collected during the process of authorization of a new active ingredient is unique, with a size similar of the one available for human drugs. Therefore, a possible way forward for risk assessment is represented by a better exploitation in the post-marketing phase of the data used for the registration process, combined with the data collected in real-life field studies usable for refining and validate the risk hypothesis generated through modelling. In particular, parameters such as Acceptable Operator Exposure Level (AOEL), acute reference dose (ArD) as well data regarding skin absorption, metabolism and relevant metabolites in animals can find use in the conduction of risk assessment activities in agricultural enterprises, through the creation of new tools for exposure and risk assessment. Such tool are usable even without conducting complicated and expensive measures, and therefore are adequate for the needs of small and medium sized agricultural enterprises
The Importance of Open Data in Toxicological Research and Publishing
No full textEvery year thousands of toxicological studies are performed around the World. These studies are most commonly funded by Governmental, Non-Governmental agencies, Universities, Faculties, and in the last 50 years even more so by funds provided by research funding schemes such as the Horizon 2020 and the Framework Programmes in the European Union, or the National Institutes of Health in the United States. As part of these studies, thousands of experiments and field studies are done, collecting millions of tables of data ranging from genotypes and cell-culture reactions to chemical agents, to epidemiological data on populations from different towns and countries. In addition, governmental agencies and private companies measure a vast amount of parameters regarding the environment. Recently, a very specific risk has come to attention of research funders: the results of a specific research project are published in a peer review journal, thus satisfying the basic requirements of the project call, and the raw data which was collected remains buried (or lost) in the hard-disk of participating researchers. To resolve this situation, many institutions have adopted the „Open Data“ policy, which should allow the data collected by these institutions or projects funded by them to be freely available to use and re-use by others. This philosophy was also adopted by many journals which now allow the authors of published articles to store even the raw data in their online repositories. This new trend, which might soon become a rule in the scientific publishing world, considering there are journals specifically designed to store datasets and study protocols, increases the use of already collected data, facilitates data re-use and new discoveries, but also helps authors achieve a higher impact and recognition than by just publishing their work
Duration of Skin Exposure: a Neglected Variable in Absorbed Dose Assessment
No full textThe use of pesticides has become unavoidable in agriculture as it ensures the massive production of food crops and their global trade, as well as solves public health problems by eradicating vectors of human diseases such as malaria. Besides risk assessment done in the pre-marketing phase, field studies allow for the re-evaluation of exposure and risk in real-life working conditions, opening new possibilities for risk assessment and modeling. In agriculture, special attention must be given to the skin as the main route of exposure, but the fixed fractional approach to dermal absorption might not represent the perfect solution to absorbed dose assessment. Here we present a practical method for integrating the information on the duration of exposure into the absorbed dose assessment, using a group of mancozeb applicators as a case study. Assumption of an 8-hour exposure resulted in a gross overestimation of absorbed dose from hands’ exposure. Absorbed dose from body exposure was overestimated in those workers working less than 8 hours, but somewhat underestimated in those working more than 8 hours, which is common in agriculture. In total, an 80% reduction of the absorbed dose estimate resulted from the introduction of the duration of exposure as a factor. This reduction did not influence risk assessment significantly for substances with low toxicity such as mancozeb, but implications for modeling might be much more important
Improving the Quality of Toxicological Research Findings Using Modern Principles of Reproducible Research
No full textReproducibility represents the foundation of scientific work and publications, and the materials and methods section in each published article should allow any researcher to repeat the experiment in question and get the same or similar results. Nevertheless, in most scientific papers the data analysis procedure is rarely described well, and it often contains just the basic information on statistical procedures performed. We present all of the basic steps in doing reproducible data analysis, with all the advantages and disadvantages over the non-reproducible methods, on a case study of pesticide exposure and risk assessment. Data is imported from multiple sources (text, excel, access database), and basic description of acquired data, visual and numerical comparison between groups, and modelling of data acquired in real-life studies of pesticide exposure in agriculture are presented. The final products of the data analysis process, tables and figures which are ready for the revision process, are compiled using the R Language and Environment for Statistical Computing and additional packages. Considering the more strict requirements for funding and the increased competition, as well as the slow (but certain) move towards open access, open review and data exchange, doing data analysis the reproducible way will become inevitable in toxicology, as well as other scientific fields. Popularization and training on using free statistical and reproducible research tools should be a priority for young researchers entering this field, as this will result in the improvement of the quality of toxicological research, leading to easier publishing
Introduction to Pesticide Exposure Monitoring, Practical Guidance, and Perspectives
No full textThe use of pesticides has continued to grow since their introduction to modern agriculture, and more than 2 billion kilograms of these substances are used per year worldwide. Their main characteristic, that they impact living organisms, makes them a chemical hazard, and their use results in potential health risk, especially in agricultural workers. In agriculture, there is a notable instability of working conditions, disregard of good agricultural practices, and misuse of personal protective devices. Estimating the exposure and absorbed dose in this scenario is, therefore, extremely challenging. Pesticide field studies still represent the main way to collect real-life exposure data, to perform absorbed dose and risk assessment, and to verify the presence or absence of health effects from pesticide use. Here we present the main methods for pesticide exposure monitoring in real-life field conditions, with their advantages, disadvantages, and ways to improve them. Since most of the exposure in open field conditions comes from dermal exposure, OECD “patch” and “whole-body” methodologies are the two most widely used methods for exposure assessment. The main advantages of the “patch” methodology is that it preserves the real-life working conditions and allows the combined use of personal exposure and biological monitoring. The use of biological monitoring is limited in because of the lack of health-based occupational biological exposure limits. Ideally, a method to produce biological exposure limits for pesticide use in agriculture, similar to the ACGIH BEIs, could be developed taking into account skin as the main route of exposure in this setting
Glyphosate-based herbicides : Evidence of immune-endocrine alteration
No full textGlyphosate (G) is the active ingredient of the most widely used herbicide products. It targets the enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS), which lacks in humans, suggesting to confer a low mammalian toxicity to G-based herbicides (GBHs). Despite this, the use of G is currently under intense debate. Many studies indicating its hazard and toxicity on non-target organisms are emerging, and associations between GBHs and immune-endocrine disturbances have been described. This review aims to investigate, based on recent epidemiological studies and studies performed in vitro and in vivo in animals, the possible association between GBHs and immune-endocrine alterations. Published data suggest that GBHs have endocrine disrupting potentiality targeting sex and thyroid hormones, although its relevance for humans will require further investigations. Evidence of immunotoxicity are limited compared to those on endocrine effects, but overall highlight possible noxious effects, including lung inflammation and rhinitis. An attractive hypothesis could be the one that connects microbiota dysbiosis with possible immune-endocrine outcomes. Indeed, several intestinal microorganisms express the enzyme EPSPS and, studies are emerging that highlight a possible G-induced dysbiosis. Considering the wide use of GBHs in agriculture, further studies investigating their noxious effects at levels relevant for human exposure should be performed. A critical analysis of emerging evidence of G toxicity is required to better characterize its safety profile. In addition, attention should be paid to the differences between G alone and its formulations, which, containing substances able to increase G absorption, may present a different toxicity profile
Mercury in contaminated coastal environment; A case study: The Gulf of Trieste
No full textSome general facts, uncertainties and gaps in current knowledge of Hg cycling in coastal and oceanic environments are given. As a case study the Gulf of Trieste is chosen. The Gulf is subject to substantial Hg pollution, originating from the So ̆ca river, that drains the cinnabar deposits of the world’s second largest Hg mining area, Idrija, Slovenia. The Gulf belongs to one of the most polluted areas in the Mediterranean. Apart from Hg problems, the Gulf is also a subject to industrial and sewage pollution. Due to deteriorating water quality in the Gulf there is a great concern
that Hg can be remobilized from sediments to the water column as well as enhance methylation rates which may consequently increase already elevated Hg levels in aquatic organisms. The paper presents data from a recent study which aims to assess the extent of contamination of the Gulf of Trieste after the closure of the Hg mine. Mercury and methylmercury were measured in various environmental compartments estuarine and marine waters, sediments, and organisms. during the period 1995]1997. Data obtained show that even 10 years after closure of the Hg mine, Hg concentrations in river sediments and water are still very high and did not show the expected decrease of Hg in
the Gulf of Trieste. A provisional annual mercury mass balance was established for the Gulf of Trieste showing that the major source of inorganic mercury is still the River Soca Isonzo. while the major source of methylmercury is the bottom sediment of the Gulf
- …
