Exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisins and linear growth of children in rural Ethiopia: a longitudinal study.

Objective: We hypothesise that exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisins, measured in serum, alters protein synthesis, reducing serum protein and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), increasing inflammation and infection, leading to child's linear growth failure.

Design: Children 6-35 months, stratified by baseline stunting, were subsampled from an intervention trial on quality protein maize consumption and evaluated at two time-points.

Setting: Blood samples and anthropometric data were collected in the pre-harvest (August-September 2015) and post-harvest (February 2016) seasons in rural Ethiopia.

Dissipation and runoff transport of metazachlor herbicide in rapeseed cultivated and uncultivated plots in field conditions.

The environmental fate of metazachlor herbicide was investigated under field conditions in rapeseed cultivated and uncultivated plots, over a period of 225 days. The cultivation was carried out in silty clay soil plots with two surface slopes, 1 and 5 %. The herbicide was detectable in soil up to 170 days after application (DAA), while the dissipation rate was best described by first-order kinetics and its half-life ranged between 10.

Dissipation and transport of quizalofop-p-ethyl herbicide in sunflower cultivation under field conditions.

In the present study, the field dissipation and transport of quizalofop-p-ethyl by water and sediment runoff were investigated in sunflower experimental cultivation under Mediterranean conditions. The cultivation was carried out in silty clay soil plots with two different slopes of 1 and 5%. The soil dissipation rate of quizalofop-p-ethyl was fast and can be described by both single first-order (SFO) and Gustafson and Holden (first-order multi compartment (FOMC)) kinetics.

2-Hydroxypyridine photolytic degradation by 254 nm UV irradiation at different conditions.

The degradation and mineralisation of (400 mL, 3.15 mM) aqueous solutions of 2-hydroxypyridine (2-HPY), a primary intermediate formed during the photolytic degradation of 2-chloropyridine (2-CPY), 2-bromopyridine (2-BPY) and 2-iodopyridine (2-IPY), was studied at 50 degrees C, under 254 nm UV irradiation in a range of conditions. The rate of 2-HPY disappearance was found to heavily depend on agitation, dissolved oxygen, pH and hydroxyl radical scavenger presence.