Biochemical alterations in duckweed and algae induced by carrier solvents: Selection of an appropriate solvent in toxicity testing

Carrier solvents are often used in aquatic toxicity testing for test chemicals with hydrophobic properties. However, the knowledge of solvent effects on test organisms remains limited. This study aimed to understand biochemical effects of the four common solvents ((methanol, ethanol, acetone and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO)) on two test species Lemna minor and Raphidocelis subcapitata by applying Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) coupled with multivariate analysis in order to select appropriate solvents in the toxicity testing. The results showed biochemical variations associated with solvent treatments at different doses on test species. From the obtained infrared spectra, the structures of lipid membrane and protein phosphorylation in the test species were found sensitive to the solvents. Methanol and ethanol mainly affected the protein secondary structure, while acetone and DMSO primarily induced the alterations of carbohydrate and proteins in the test species. The FTIR results demonstrated that methanol and ethanol showed higher biochemical alterations in the test species than acetone and DMSO, especially at the high doses (0.1% and 1% v/v). Based on the growth inhibition and FTIR spectroscopy, acetone and DMSO can be used as carrier solvent in the toxicity testing when their doses are lower than 0.1% v/v. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserve

Vibrational biospectroscopy characterises biochemical differences between cell types used for toxicological investigations and identifies alterations induced by environmental contaminants

The use of cell-based assays is essential in reducing the number of vertebrates used in the investigation of chemical toxicities and in regulatory toxicology assessment. An important factor in obtaining meaningful results which can be accurately extrapolated is the use of biologically appropriate cell lines. In this preliminary study, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy with multivariate analysis was used to assess the fundamental biomolecular differences between a commonly used cell line, MCF-7 cells, and an environmentally relevant cell line derived from Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) dermal fibroblasts. To better understand differences in basic cell biochemistry, the cells were analysed in the untreated state or post-exposure to PCB and PBDE congeners. The main spectral peaks in spectra from both cell types were associated with cellular macromolecules, particularly proteins and lipids but the spectra also revealed some cell-specific differences. Spectra from untreated Mallard fibroblasts spectra contained a large peak associated with lipids. The cell-related differences in lipid and DNA were also identified as regions of spectral alteration induced by PBDE and PCB exposure. Although lipid alterations were observed in post-treatment spectra from both cell types, these may be of more significance to Mallard fibroblasts, which may be due to increased intracellular lipid as determined by Nile red staining. Untreated MCF-7 cell spectra contained unique peaks related to DNA and nucleic acids. DNA associated spectral regions were also identified as areas of considerable alteration in MCF-7 cells exposed to some congeners including PBDE 47 and PCB 153. The findings indicate that in their native state, MCF-7 and Mallard cells have unique biochemical differences, which can be identified using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Such differences in biochemical composition differences, which may influence cell susceptibility to environmental contaminants and therefore influence the choice of cell type used in toxicology experiments. This is the first study to analyse the biochemistry of a Mallard dermal fibroblast cell line and to use ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for this purpose. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is demonstrated as a useful tool for exploration of biomolecular variation at the cellular level and with further development, it could be used as part of a panel of cell-based assays to indicate when different results might be seen in environmental species compared to currently used cell lines. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserve

Data collection on trafficking in human beings in the EU:Final report

Trafficking in human beings is the buying and selling of women, girls, men, and boys. It has hugely deleterious consequences for individuals, society, and the economy. This is the fourth report published by the European Commission that presents a compilation of statistics at the EU Member State level on trafficking in human beings. This data collection exercise approached all 28-Member States and covers the years 2015 and 2016and updates the 2014 data collection as relevant

Spectrochemical analysis of sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) leaves for environmental health monitoring

Terrestrial plants are ideal sentinels of environmental pollution, due to their sedentary nature, abundance and sensitivity to atmospheric changes. However, reliable and sensitive biomarkers of exposure have hitherto been difficult to characterise. Biospectroscopy offers a novel approach to the derivation of biomarkers in the form of discrete molecular alterations detectable within a biochemical fingerprint. We investigated the application of this approach for the identification of biomarkers for pollution exposure using the common sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) as a sentinel species. Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy was used to interrogate leaf tissue collected from three sites exposed to different levels of vehicle exhaust emissions. Following multivariate analysis of acquired spectra, significant biochemical alterations were detected between comparable leaves from different sites that may constitute putative biomarkers for pollution-induced stress. These included differences in carbohydrate and nucleic acid conformations, which may be indicative of sub-lethal exposure effects. We also observed several corresponding spectral alterations in both the leaves of A. pseudoplatanus exposed to ozone pollution under controlled environmental conditions and in leaves infected with the fungal pathogen Rhytisma acerinum, indicating that some stress-induced changes are conserved between different stress signatures. These similarities may be indicative of stress-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, although further work is needed to verify the precise identity of infrared biomarkers and to identify those that are specific to pollution exposure. Taken together, our data clearly demonstrate that biospectroscopy presents an effective toolkit for the utilisation of higher plants, such as A. pseudoplatanus, as sentinels of environmental pollution

Subtle effects of environmental stress observed in the early life stages of the Common frog, Rana temporaria

Worldwide amphibian populations are declining due to habitat loss, disease and pollution. Vulnerability to environmental contaminants such as pesticides will be dependent on the species, the sensitivity of the ontogenic life stage and hence the timing of exposure and the exposure pathway. Herein we investigated the biochemical tissue ‘fingerprint’ in spawn and early-stage tadpoles of the Common frog, Rana temporaria, using attenuated total reflection- Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy with the objective of observing differences in the biochemical constituents of the respective amphibian tissues due to varying water quality in urban and agricultural ponds. Our results demonstrate that levels of stress (marked by biochemical constituents such as glycogen that are involved in compensatory metabolic mechanisms) can be observed in tadpoles present in the pond most impacted by pollution (nutrients and pesticides), but large annual variability masked any inter-site differences in the frog spawn. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy is capable of detecting differences in tadpoles that are present in selected ponds with different levels of environmental perturbation and thus serves as a rapid and cost effective tool in assessing stress-related effects of pollution in a vulnerable class of organism

Resource Discovery For Teaching Datasets

The use of relevant and appropriate datasets is recognised as an important prerequisite in teaching statistics to non-statisticians. Such examples help to provide motivation for the student and can aid both understanding and performance. While impressive resources such as the Data and Story Library and the datasets section of STATLIB exist, there is a need for a more comprehensive index of datasets which are freely available on the web. Datasets exist in a wide variety of locations, however, and it is often a hard task for the lecturer to find an appropriate dataset which both illustrates a particular technique and is relevant to the background of the student. This paper discusses the problem of constructing a resource to allow lecturers to discover appropriate data sources. It reports on a demonstration project which is trawling a wide number of types of data sources for relevant datasets, and describes the successes and pitfalls

Thermo-mechanical behaviour of energy geostructures subjected to bending thermal actions

The energy geostructures are an innovative multifunctional technology that couples their structural support with the heating/cooling role of heat exchangers. The heating/cooling operations of such technology lead to thermo-hydro-mechanical interaction between the structure and the surrounding elements such as the soil and the groundwater. The temperature change in the geostructure can be uniform or non-uniform, leading respectively to thermally induce axial strain and curvature. The first aspect has been well studied, especially for energy piles, while the latter is still underresearched and involves generally for plane energy geostructures, such as walls or slabs. Nowadays, any simplified method exists for the study of such structures. To address this challenge, this works presents two methods for analysing the behaviour of plane energy geostructures subjected to bending thermal action. The first method uses the subgrade reaction theory, particularly the Winkler’s model, in order to estimate the soil-structure interaction of such elements. Comparisons with finite element models outline that this method generally slightly underestimates the deformation, but captures well the internal forces. An extension of this method to more complex structures, such as cut and cover structures, showed its conveniency to estimate the behaviour of connected elements. The second method is based on design charts that have been developed in order to capture the behaviour of the structure. Those charts give graphically the maximum response for a beam which is subjected to various loads, including thermal load. This work also showed that the behaviour of plane energy geostructures subjected to thermal bending is strongly related to the boundary conditions, such as the end conditions and the supporting soil. A structure characterised by a low degree of freedom leads to small deformation, but high internal forces, and vice versa