Although airborne urban particles are a concern for air quality and human health, little information exists on the levels and characteristics of microplastics MPs and microrubbers MRs in this setting In the present study, MPs and MRs are quantified and characterised in road dusts and accumulations captured passively and up to elevations of 177 cm above road level in the steps of utility poles at 18 locations throughout the city of Shiraz, southwest Iran Dust accumulation rates were greatest at road level median = 45 g m-2 month-1 and declined with elevation median = 20 g m-2 month-1 at 177 cm The accumulation rates and concentrations per g of dust of MPs and MRs were more variable between locations but accumulation declined with elevation for both particle types and MR concentration up to ∼27,000 MR g-1 was always greater than corresponding MP concentration up to ∼3300 MP g-1 Increasing elevation was also accompanied by an increasing proportion of fine ≤100 μm and fibrous particles, and in particular for MPs Fractionation in the quantities and characteristics with elevation above road level are attributed to the extent of resuspension of MPs and MRs from the road surface by wind and passing traffic, with aerodynamic considerations predicting the greatest and most widespread resuspension of fibrous MPs The fractionation of MPs and MRs with elevation above road level also results in different exposures for adults and childrenDue to the toxicity, bioaccumulation, non-biodegradability and perseverance of heavy metals, their risk assessment is essential for soil quality management The Hakanson potential ecological risk index RI, which considers the effects of heavy metal concentration and toxicity, has been widely used in soil ecological risk assessment However, RI overlooks the influence of soil properties on the mobility and availability of heavy metals in risk assessment To fill this gap, this study sought to develop an improved ecological risk index IRI, which incorporates soil adsorption into RI, and applied it to evaluate the ecological risk of heavy metals in the soil of the Taihu basin, China The soil adsorption models based on the Gradient Boosting Decision Tree GBDT was used to predict the soil adsorption capacity of five heavy metals ie cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, zinc The soil adsorption capacity in 1446 sites in the Taihu basin was predicted by the GBDT models and was assigned as the weight of IRI The risk assessment results of the five metals in the Taihu basin showed that 40 of the sites were at a moderate risk level and 60 of the sites were at a slight risk level based on the RI The value of IRI in the basin ranged from 111 to 755, with a mean value of 281 IRI differed from RI in spatial distribution due to the influence of soil adsorption The comparative analysis between the metal contents in sediments and surrounding soils confirmed the tremendous influence of soil adsorption on ecological risks, indicating that soil adsorption should be taken into consideration in soil risk assessmentThis study comprises a critical review of modeling of pesticides in surface waters The aim was to update the status of the use of models to simulate the fate of pesticides from diffuse sources ISI papers were selected on Scopus and the information concerning the study areas, type of pesticides herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, the model, and the methodology adopted ie, calibration and/or validation, spatial and temporal scales were analyzed The studies were carried out in Europe 555, North America 223, Asia 139 and South America 83 The Soil and Water Assessment Tool proved to be the most used model 4595 Herbicides were the most modeled pesticides 714, followed by insecticides 182 and fungicides 104 The main herbicides modeled were atrazine, metolachlor, isoproturon, glyphosate, and acetochlor Insecticides such as chlorpyrifos and metaldehyde Chlorothalonil, and fungicides ie, tebuconazole were the most widely investigated Based on published studies, it was found that modeling approaches for assessing the fate of pesticides are constantly evolving and the model algorithms work well with diverse watershed conditions, management strategies, and pesticide properties Several papers reported concentrations of pesticides exceeding ecotoxicological thresholds revealing that water contamination with pesticides used in agriculture and urban areas is a priority issue of current global concernThe effects of heavy metals cadmium, lead, and mercury and their mixtures on sleep duration in pre-and postmenopausal women, particularly the molecular mechanisms, remain unknown  https//wwwselleckchemcom/products/fl118html  Here, we assessed the interaction between heavy metals and sleep duration among pre-and postmenopausal women n = 1134 Furthermore, molecular mechanisms related to sleep disorders induced by studied heavy metals were further analyzed to support the previous findings We found that serum lead levels were positively related to weekend and weekday sleep duration in premenopausal women There were interactions between serum lead and mercury and menopausal status for sleep duration Serum lead and mercury levels were shown to be inversely related to sleep duration in postmenopausal women Despite the lack of statistically significant associations between mixed heavy metals and sleep duration, there were increasing trends in premenopausal women's sleeping patterns and decreasing trends in postmenopausal women's sleeping patterns In silico analysis, IL1B, hsa-21-5p, hsa-887-3p, hsa-877-3p, and NR4A1 were identified as the most relevant genes, miRNAs, and transcription factors linked with sleep disorders induced by combined heavy metals cadmium, lead, and mercury Furthermore, "type 1 melanocortin receptor binding," "endocrine hormone secretion," "interleukin-1 receptor antagonist activity," "altered melanocortin system," and "sleep wake disorders" were identified as the predominant molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of sleep disorders induced by the studied heavy metals Cut off point values and miRNA sponge templates for heavy metal exposure levels relevant to sleep disorders in pre- and postmenopausal women were reported Future research is needed to verify our findings and provide insight into the molecular processes of long-term mixed heavy metal exposure in various populations, such as children and the elderlyArsenic As and cadmium Cd co-contaminate agricultural systems worldwide and threaten water resources, food security and human health This column leaching study examined As and Cd mobility in an acidic sandy loam Alfisol soil collected from the dry zone of Sri Lankafor four co-contaminant concentration combinations spiked and 1 year aged As at 20 amp; 100 mg kg-1 with co-added Cd at 3 amp; 20 mg kg-1 i, and under the influence of high rainfall RF, phosphorus fertilizer P and lime amendments In almost all treatments a synergistic co-contaminant adsorption effect was evident which reduced leaching of both elements, significantly in the higher spiked soil concentration treatments The magnitude of leaching decrease varied with treatment but was greater for As due to its weaker retention in the soil The co-sorbing effects, evident even under RF, were attributed to electrostatic sorption interactions, the formation of ternary bridging complexes and surface precipitation at higher concentrations Liming significantly retarded mobilisation of both elements in all treatments, whereas P enhanced As leaching but suppressed Cd leaching, and both amendments moderated co-contaminant effects An antagonistic effect of Cd on As sorption was evident in two treatments which showed increased As leaching with added Cd the RF low spike concentration treatment, accredited to washout of stable As-Cd soluble complexes; the P high concentration treatment considered due to P disruption of As-Cd bridging complexes This work is important for effective risk mitigation in these widely occurring co-contaminated agronomic systems, and demonstrates a strong system effect on synergistic or antagonistic co-contaminant interactionsVolatile organic compounds VOCs are major precursors of ozone O3 and secondary organic aerosols SOA, which degrade air quality and pose a serious risk to human health and ecological systems Previous studies on the emission characteristics of VOCs have predominantly focused on petrochemical and solvent-using sources, while localized studies on the cement industry are scarce in China Field measurements for four cement plants were carried out in this study to investigate the emission levels, source profiles, and secondary pollutant generation potential of 98 VOCs species emitted from rotary and shaft kilns in China Furthermore, a species-differentiated VOCs emission inventory was compiled for the Chinese cement industry in 2019 The results demonstrated that the mass concentration of VOCs emitted from shaft kiln was more than 20-fold higher than that emitted from rotary kilns, and the alkanes was the dominant species 56 in shaft kilns, while oxygenated VOCs OVOCs and halocarbons were the main species in rotary kilns Moreover, alkenes amp; alkyne were the dominant contributors to ozone formation potential OFP in shaft kilns, whereas alkenes amp; alkyne and OVOCs were comparable and prominent contributors in rotary kilns In contrast, secondary organic aerosol potential SOAP for the two types of kilns was dominated by aromatics In 2019, approximately 1818 kt VOCs were emitted from cement production and were found to be largely concentrated in the southeast and central provinces of China Considering the influence on environmental conditions, high OFP-contributing species in cement kilns are suggested to be a priority in the pollution mitigation of O3 This study provides a new, comprehensive, and reasonable cognition of the current VOCs emissions from both rotary and shaft kilns in China, which will aid in a better understanding of VOCs emission characteristics and guide future policy-makingEvidence of the health impacts from environmental noise has largely been drawn from studies in high-income countries, which has then been used to inform development of noise guidelines It is unclear whether findings in high-income countries can be readily translated into policy contexts in low-middle-income-countries LMICs We conducted this systematic review to summarise noise epidemiological studies in LMICs We conducted a literature search of studies in Medline and Web of Science published during 2009-2021, supplemented with specialist journal hand searches Screening, data extraction, assessment of risk of bias as well as overall quality and strength of evidence were conducted following established guidelines eg Navigation Guide 58 studies were identified, 53 of which were from India, China and Bulgaria Most 92 were cross-sectional studies 53 of studies assessed noise exposure based on fixed-site measurements using sound level meters and 17 from propagation-based noise models Mean noise exposure among all studies ranged from 48 to 120 dB Leq, with over half of the studies 52 reporting the mean between 60 and 80 dB The most studied health outcome was noise annoyance 43 of studies, followed by cardiovascular 17 and mental health outcomes 17 Studies generally reported a positive ie adverse relationship between noise exposure and annoyance Some limited evidence based on only two studies showing that long-term noise exposure may be associated with higher prevalence of cardiovascular outcomes in adults Findings on mental health outcomes were inconsistent across the studies Overall, 4 studies 6 had "probably low", 18 31 had "probably high" and 36 62 had "high" risk of bias Quality of evidence was rated as 'low' for mental health outcomes and 'very low' for all other outcomes Strength of evidence for each outcome was assessed as 'inadequate', highlighting high-quality epidemiological studies are urgently needed in LMICs to strengthen the evidence base