Incorporating oral bioaccessibility into human health risk assessment due to potentially toxic elements in extractive waste and contaminated soils from an abandoned mine site.

The waste rock, tailings and soil around an abandoned mine site in Gorno (northwest Italy) contain elevated concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTE) exceeding the permissible limits for residential uses. Specifically, the maximum concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, and Zn were 107 mg/kg, 340 mg/kg, 1064 mg/kg, and 148 433 mg/kg, respectively. A site-specific human health risk assessment (HHRA) was conducted for residential and recreational exposure scenarios, using an approach based on Risk Based Corrective Action (RBCA) method, refined by incorporating oral bioaccessibility data.

Fingerprinting ambient air to understand bioaerosol profiles in three different environments in the south east of England.

Molecular and chemical fingerprints from 10 contrasting outdoor air environments, including three agricultural farms, three urban parks and four industrial sites were investigated to advance our understanding of bioaerosol distribution and emissions. Both phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOC) profiles showed a different distribution in summer compared to winter. Further to this, a strong positive correlation was found between the total concentration of MVOCs and PLFAs (r = 0.

Predicting uncertainty of machine learning models for modelling nitrate pollution of groundwater using quantile regression and UNEEC methods.

Although estimating the uncertainty of models used for modelling nitrate contamination of groundwater is essential in groundwater management, it has been generally ignored. This issue motivates this research to explore the predictive uncertainty of machine-learning (ML) models in this field of study using two different residuals uncertainty methods: quantile regression (QR) and uncertainty estimation based on local errors and clustering (UNEEC). Prediction-interval coverage probability (PICP), the most important of the statistical measures of uncertainty, was used to evaluate uncertainty.

Predicting bioavailability change of complex chemical mixtures in contaminated soils using visible and near-infrared spectroscopy and random forest regression.

A number of studies have shown that visible and near infrared spectroscopy (VIS-NIRS) offers a rapid on-site measurement tool for the determination of total contaminant concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons compounds (PHC), heavy metals and metalloids (HM) in soil. However none of them have yet assessed the feasibility of using VIS-NIRS coupled to random forest (RF) regression for determining both the total and bioavailable concentrations of complex chemical mixtures. Results showed that the predictions of the total concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), PHC, and alkanes (ALK) were very good, good and fair, and in contrast, the predictions of the bioavailable concentrations of the PAH and PHC were only fair, and poor for ALK.

The effect of soil type on the extraction of insensitive high explosive constituents using four conventional methods.

Explosive contamination is commonly found at military and manufacturing sites (Hewitt et al., 2005; Clausen et al., 2004; Walsh et al.

A novel machine learning-based approach for the risk assessment of nitrate groundwater contamination.

This study aimed to develop a novel framework for risk assessment of nitrate groundwater contamination by integrating chemical and statistical analysis for an arid region. A standard method was applied for assessing the vulnerability of groundwater to nitrate pollution in Lenjanat plain, Iran. Nitrate concentration were collected from 102 wells of the plain and used to provide pollution occurrence and probability maps.

Linking oral bioaccessibility and solid phase distribution of potentially toxic elements in extractive waste and soil from an abandoned mine site: Case study in Campello Monti, NW Italy.

Oral bioaccessibility and solid phase distribution of potentially toxic elements (PTE) from extractive waste streams were investigated to assess the potential human health risk posed by abandoned mines. The solid phase distribution along with micro-X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis were also performed. The results showed that the total concentrations of PTE were higher in <250 μm size fractions of waste rock and soil samples in comparison to the <2 mm size fractions.

Factors governing the solid phase distribution of Cr, Cu and As in contaminated soil after 40 years of ageing.

The physico-chemical factors affecting the distribution, behavior and speciation of chromium (Cr), copper (Cu) and arsenic (As) was investigated at a former wood impregnation site (Fredensborg, Denmark). Forty soil samples were collected and extracted using a sequential extraction technique known as the Chemometric Identification of Substrates and Element Distributions (CISED) and a multivariate statistical tool (redundancy analysis) was applied. CISED data was linked to water-extractable Cr, Cu and As and bioavailable Cu as determined by a whole-cell bacterial bioreporter assay.

Prediction of bioavailability and toxicity of complex chemical mixtures through machine learning models.

Empirical data from a 6-month mesocosms experiment were used to assess the ability and performance of two machine learning (ML) models, including artificial neural network (NN) and random forest (RF), to predict temporal bioavailability changes of complex chemical mixtures in contaminated soils amended with compost or biochar. From the predicted bioavailability data, toxicity response for relevant ecological receptors was then forecasted to establish environmental risk implications and determine acceptable end-point remediation. The dataset corresponds to replicate samples collected over 180 days and analysed for total and bioavailable petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals/metalloids content.

Linking bioavailability and toxicity changes of complex chemicals mixture to support decision making for remediation endpoint of contaminated soils.

A six-month laboratory scale study was carried out to investigate the effect of biochar and compost amendments on complex chemical mixtures of tar, heavy metals and metalloids in two genuine contaminated soils. An integrated approach, where organic and inorganic contaminants bioavailability and distribution changes, along with a range of microbiological indicators and ecotoxicological bioassays, was used to provide multiple lines of evidence to support the risk characterisation and assess the remediation end-point. Both compost and biochar amendment (p = 0.

Insights into mixed contaminants interactions and its implication for heavy metals and metalloids mobility, bioavailability and risk assessment.

Mobility of heavy metals at contaminated sites is mainly influenced by the soil physicochemical properties and environmental conditions, therefore assessing heavy metals (HMs) and metalloids fractionation can provide insights into their potential risk and the mechanisms that regulate bioavailability. A 12-months mesocosms experiment was setup to investigate the effect of physicochemical factors (pH, moisture, and temperature) and weathering (time) on HMs and metalloids fractionation in three different multi-contaminated soil matrices (low, medium, and high contamination) collected from a soil treatment facility located in the United Kingdom, and two rural contaminated soil samples. The study demonstrates that even though Pb and Zn were found associated with the exchangeable fraction in the soil with the highest contamination (total average Pb 3400 mg/kg, and total average Zn 2100 mg/kg in Soil C), neither the condition applied nor the weathering caused an increase in their mobility.

Evaluation of vis-NIR reflectance spectroscopy sensitivity to weathering for enhanced assessment of oil contaminated soils.

This study investigated the sensitivity of visible near-infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIR) to discriminate between fresh and weathered oil contaminated soils. The performance of random forest (RF) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) for the estimation of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) throughout the time was also explored. Soil samples (n = 13) with 5 different textures of sandy loam, sandy clay loam, clay loam, sandy clay and clay were collected from 10 different locations across the Cranfield University's Research Farm (UK).

Assessing bioavailability of complex chemical mixtures in contaminated soils: Progress made and research needs.

Understanding the distribution, behaviour and interactions of complex chemical mixtures is key for providing the evidence necessary to make informed decisions and implement robust remediation strategies. Much of the current risk assessment frameworks applied to manage land contamination are based on total contaminant concentrations and the exposure assessments embedded within them do not explicitly address the partitioning and bioavailability of chemical mixtures. These oversights may contribute to an overestimation of both the eco-toxicological effects of the fractions and the mobility of contaminants.

Compositional and physicochemical changes in waste materials and biogas production across 7 landfill sites in UK.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the spatial distribution of the paper and fines across seven landfill sites (LFS) and assess the relationship between waste physicochemical properties and biogas production. Physicochemical analysis of the waste samples demonstrated that there were no clear trends in the spatial distribution of total solids (TS), moisture content (MC) and waste organic strength (VS) across all LFS. There was however noticeable difference between samples from the same landfill site.

[Cardiac sympathetic innervation imaging with myocardial MIBG scintigraphy].

Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) was developed initially as a tracer for oncological imaging; when labeled with 123 I or 131 I, it may detect APUDomas, such as pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas. In the last years, MIBG has found an important role also in neurology and cardiology, as cardiac innervation tracer. Actually, MIBG cardiac imaging is a universally accepted method to estimate cardiac sympathetic innervations.

[Whole Body Magnetic Resonance and CT/PET in patients affected by multiple myeloma during staging before treatment].

The diagnostic imaging plays a pivotal role in the staging of multiple myeloma (MM). Traditional imaging techniques allow a precise disease extension before treatment, but some drawbacks have been demonstrated after treatment. WBMRI and CT/PET represent alterative procedures during staging, but few comparative data are available to date.

Myocardial (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy for differentiation of Lewy bodies disease from FTD.

Clinical distinction between Lewy bodies disease (LBD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is sometimes difficult. Nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration occurs in both LBD and FTD, limiting helpfulness of DAT imaging to differentiate these forms of dementia. Several studies have emphasized the usefulness of myocardial scintigraphy with (123)Metaiodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIGB) in assessing the sympathetic nerve terminals in LBD demonstrating that cardiac (123)I-MIGB uptake is decreased in patients with this disease.

Cardiac MIBG scintigraphy in Primary Progressive Freezing Gait.

Freezing of gait (FOG) generally occurs as a late manifestation of Parkinson's Disease (PD). FOG, however, can present in isolation, constituting the so-called "Primary Progressive Freezing Gait"(PPFG). Myocardial (123)Metaiodiobenzylguanidine (MIBG) enables the assessment of postganglionic sympathetic cardiac nerve terminals.

Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging for detecting bone metastases: comparison with bone scintigraphy.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the reliability of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) in detecting skeletal metastasis and to compare the results with those of bone scintigraphy (BS).

Materials And Methods: Thirty-three patients (21 women, 12 men, median age 58 years, range 27-78) were enrolled. Histological proof of malignancy was obtained in all cases.