Effect of particle size on the transport of polystyrene micro- and nanoplastic particles through quartz sand under unsaturated conditions.

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are contaminants of emerging concern recently found in soil ecosystems. Their presence in terrestrial environments and their migration to aquatic environments may become a risk for the health of ecosystems and, through them, of humans. Understanding the interaction between particle properties and physicochemical and hydrodynamic factors is crucial to evaluate their fate and their potential infiltration towards groundwater.

Soil amendments and water management to improve attenuation and recovery of wastewater originated nutrients through a vegetation filter.

Vegetation filters (VFs) are on-site wastewater (WW) treatments that can be considered as a nature-based solution (NbS). They are green infrastructures that provide several environmental benefits such as non-potable water reuse, contamination reduction, biomass production, landscaping improvements and CO fixation, among others. However, nutrient leaching, especially nitrate, partially exists.

Amended Vegetation Filters as Nature-Based Solutions for the Treatment of Pharmaceuticals: Infiltration Experiments Coupled to Reactive Transport Modelling.

In small populations and scattered communities, wastewater treatment through vegetation filters (VFs), a nature-based solution, has proved to be feasible, especially for nutrient and organic matter removal. However, the presence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater and their potential to infiltrate through the vadose zone and reach groundwater is a drawback in the evaluation of VF performances. Soil amended with readily labile carbon sources, such as woodchips, enhances microbial activity and sorption processes, which could improve pharmaceutical attenuation in VFs.

A nationwide monitoring of atmospheric microplastic deposition.

Plastic production continues to increase every year, yet it is widely acknowledged that a significant portion of this material ends up in ecosystems as microplastics (MPs). Among all the environmental compartments affected by MPs, the atmosphere remains the least well-known. Here, we conducted a one-year simultaneous monitoring of atmospheric MPs deposition in ten urban areas, each with different population sizes, economic activities, and climates.

Evaluation of contaminants of emerging concern attenuation through a vegetation filter managed using different operating conditions.

In wastewater treatment using Vegetation Filters (VFs), natural processes reduce contaminants present in water although some of them can reach the environment. In this study, 39 contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are evaluated in a pilot VF under different operating conditions during almost four years. The use of woodchip amendments and the change from surface irrigation through furrows to drip irrigation (and from weekly to daily water application) provide CEC concentration reductions in the water infiltrating through the vadose zone.

Untargeted metabolomic analysis to explore the impact of soil amendments in a non-conventional wastewater treatment.

As non-conventional wastewater treatment, vegetation filters make the most of the natural attenuation processes that occur in soil to remove contaminants, while providing several environmental benefits. However, this practice may introduce contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and their transformation products (TPs) into the environment. A potential improvement to the system was tested using column experiments containing soil (S) and soil amended with woodchips (SW) or biochar (SB) irrigated with synthetic wastewater that included 11 selected CECs.

Analytical method to monitor contaminants of emerging concern in water and soil samples from a non-conventional wastewater treatment system.

Nonconventional wastewater treatments, such as vegetation filters (VFs), are propitious systems to attenuate contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in small municipalities. The development of standardised multiresidue and multimatrix methods suitable for measuring a reliable number of CEC in environmental samples is crucial for monitoring infiltrating concentrations and for ensuring these systems' treatment capacity. The objective of this study is to develop and validate an analytical method for the simultaneous determination of CECs, including transformation products (TPs), with diverse physico-chemical properties, in environmental samples.

Attenuation mechanisms and key parameters to enhance treatment performance in vegetation filters: A review.

In times when environmental concerns are on the rise and the search of ways to reduce waste generation and to create a circular economy is booming, Nature Based Solutions (NBSs) play a very important role. Vegetation Filters (VFs) are a type of Land Application System (LAS) in which wastewater is used to irrigate a forestry plantation to treat the water and produce biomass. VFs show multiple benefits that render this technology a suitable solution for wastewater treatment, especially for scattered populations or isolated buildings that lack of connection to sewer systems.

Pharmaceutical and transformation products during unplanned water reuse: Insights into natural attenuation, plant uptake and human health impact under field conditions.

In urban and periurban areas, agricultural soils are often irrigated with surface water containing a complex mixture of contaminants due to wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent discharges. The unplanned water reuse of these resources for crop irrigation can represent a pathway for contaminant propagation and a potential health risk due to their introduction in the food chain. The aim of this study is to provide data about the magnitude of attenuation processes and plant uptake, allowing for a reliable assessment of contaminant transfer among compartments and of the human health risk derived from unplanned water reuse activities.

Sustainable soil amendments to improve nature-based solutions for wastewater treatment and resource recovery.

Vegetation Filters (VFs) can be a sustainable solution to treat wastewater and to recover resources such as nutrients, water and biomass from small municipalities and isolated dwellings. However, under certain conditions, the leakage of nutrients, especially of nitrate, can represent a limitation. The addition of two sustainable soil amendments, woodchips and biochar, has been tested as a strategy to improve nutrient attenuation in VFs increasing sorption sites and microbial activity.

Pharmaceuticals and trace metals in the surface water used for crop irrigation: Risk to health or natural attenuation?

The use of surface water impacted by wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents for crop irrigation is a form of unplanned water reuse. Natural attenuation processes can buffer contamination spreading. However, this practice can promote the exposure of crops to contaminants of emerging concern, such as pharmaceuticals, trace metals (TMs) and metalloids, posing a risk to health.

Social Sentiment Sensor in Twitter for Predicting Cyber-Attacks Using ₁ Regularization.

In recent years, online social media information has been the subject of study in several data science fields due to its impact on users as a communication and expression channel. Data gathered from online platforms such as Twitter has the potential to facilitate research over social phenomena based on sentiment analysis, which usually employs Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques to interpret sentimental tendencies related to users’ opinions and make predictions about real events. Cyber-attacks are not isolated from opinion subjectivity on online social networks.

Removal of emerging organic contaminants in a poplar vegetation filter.

Vegetation filters (VFs), a type of land application system, are a robust technology based on natural treatment mechanisms for the removal of wastewater contaminants. Their capacity to attenuate emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) has not yet been evaluated. The present study reports the results of a 2-year EOC monitoring carried out using a poplar VF receiving wastewater primarily treated by an Imhoff tank.

Clinoptilolite and palygorskite as sorbents of neutral emerging organic contaminants in treated wastewater: Sorption-desorption studies.

Water reuse for aquifer recharge could be an important route for the introduction of emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) into the environment. The installation of a Horizontal Permeable Reactive Barrier (H-PRB) could constitute a tertiary treatment process to remove EOCs from treated domestic wastewater prior to recharge activities. The sorption-desorption behaviour of six neutral EOCs present in treated domestic wastewater (acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine, cotinine, 4-acetamidoantipyrine (4-AAA) and 4-formylaminoantipyrine (4-FAA)) has been evaluated.

Soil amendment using poplar woodchips to enhance the treatment of wastewater-originated nutrients.

Vegetation filters, a nature based wastewater regeneration technology, have been reported as a feasible solution for small municipalities and scattered populations with limited access to sewage networks. However even when such a treatment is properly planned, the leaching of contaminants through the unsaturated zone may occur. The amendment of soil with a readily-labile source of carbon is supposed to ameliorate the removal of contaminants by stimulating microbial activity and enhancing sorption processes.

The role of sorption and biodegradation in the removal of acetaminophen, carbamazepine, caffeine, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole during soil contact: A kinetics study.

In countries like Spain, where water is a limited resource, reusing effluents from wastewater treatment plants may imply the introduction of incompletely eliminated pollutants into the environment. Therefore, this work identified the role of sorption and biodegradation in attenuating pharmaceutical compounds (acetaminophen, carbamazepine, caffeine, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole) in natural soil. It also determined which sorption and removal ("sorption+biodegradation") kinetics models describe the behaviour of these substances in the water-soil system.

Hypertensive Retinopathy as the First Manifestation of Advanced Renal Disease in a Young Patient: Report of a Case.

The purpose of this paper was to report the case of a 23-year-old patient suffering from bilateral acute visual loss who received the diagnosis of hypertensive retinopathy. After systemic evaluation, he was diagnosed with bilateral renal disease and chronic renal failure, requiring a kidney transplantation to manage the systemic illness, followed by gradual improvement of his visual acuity.

Sorption/desorption of non-hydrophobic and ionisable pharmaceutical and personal care products from reclaimed water onto/from a natural sediment.

In the present work, the sorption of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) (acetaminophen, atenolol, carbamazepine, caffeine, naproxen and sulphamethoxazole) onto the natural organic matter (NOM) and the inorganic surfaces of a natural sandy loam sediment was quantified separately. The quantification was based on the PPCP charge, their degree of ionisation, their octanol-water partitioning coefficient (KOW) and the sediment organic carbon fraction (ƒOC). PPCP desorption from the sediment was examined under conditions of infiltrating water containing a high concentration of inorganic ions (mimicking infiltrating reclaimed water), and a low concentration (and smaller diversity) of inorganic ions (mimicking rainwater infiltration).

Response of microcrustacean communities from the surface-groundwater interface to water contamination in urban river system of the Jarama basin (central Spain).

In order to evaluate the water quality at the surface/groundwater interface (hyporheic zone), the pattern of microcrustacean assemblages in response to environmental stress caused by urban industrial contamination was studied in the Jarama River basin (central Spain) during high water discharges (March and April 2011). The clustering of biological variables and the concentration of urban contaminants in hyporheic waters showed that pristine hyporheic waters have moderate species diversity (two to seven species) and dominance of k strategist stygobites, whereas excessively contaminated sites are devoid by crustaceans. An intermediate level of disturbance in hyporheic waters is associated with a peak of species taxonomic diversity (four to nine species) and proliferation of r strategist more tolerant species.

Removal of trace organic chemicals in onsite wastewater soil treatment units: a laboratory experiment.

Onsite wastewater treatment is used by 20% of residences in the United States. The ability of these systems, specifically soil treatment units (STUs), to attenuate trace organic chemicals (TOrCs) is not well understood. TOrCs released by STUs pose a potential risk to downstream groundwater and hydraulically-connected surface water that may be used as a drinking water source.