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This study develops a rapid algorithm coupled with the finite element method to predict the fatigue crack propagation process and select the enhancement factor for the equivalent random load spectrum of accelerated fatigue tests. The proposed algorithm is validated by several fatigue tests of an aluminum alloy under the accelerated random load spectra. In the validation process, two kinds of panels with different geometries and sizes are used to calculate the stress intensity factor, critical crack length, and crack propagation life. The simulated and experimental findings indicate that when the aluminum alloy is in a low plasticity state, the crack propagation life exhibits a linear relationship with the acceleration factor. When the aluminum alloy is in a high plasticity state, this study proposes an empirical formula to calculate the equivalent stress intensity factor and crack propagation life. The normalized empirical formula is independent of the geometry and size of different samples, although the fracture processes are different in the two kinds of panels used in our study. Overall, the numerical method proposed in this paper can be applied to predict the fatigue crack propagation life for the random spectrum of large samples based on the results of the simulated accelerated crack propagation process and the accelerated fatigue tests of small samples to reduce the cost and time of the testing.

The impact of microplastics (MPs) as emerging pollutants on plant heavy metal toxicity has been extensively reported in vegetable–soil systems over recent years. However, little attention has been given to cultivar variations between degradable and non-degradable MPs. This study investigated the effects of degradable polylactic acid (PLA) and nondegradable polypropylene (PP) MPs on plant growth and biomarker (malonaldehyde (MDA) and antioxidant enzymes) performance in Cd-contaminated arable soil. The results show that both types of MPs significantly impacted plant biomass and biomarker contents across all three Cd levels. The degree of impact was significantly sensitive to both the type and dose of MPs, as they reduced the soil pH and cation exchange capacity (CEC) while increasing soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial biomass carbon, and nitrogen. PP exhibited greater root growth inhibition and phytotoxicity at higher doses of 1% and 5% compared to PLA. Specifically, the highest MDA contents were 1.44 and 2.20 mmol mg−1 protein for shoots and roots, respectively, in the 5% PLA treatment under a 10.1 mg kg−1 Cd level, which were 1.22 and 1.18 times higher than those in corresponding treatments of 5% PP. Overall, PLA had less significant effects on plant phytotoxicity, Cd availability, and soil properties compared to PP. Regression pathway analysis indicated that MPs increased shoot Cd uptake by altering both soil physical–chemical and microbial characteristics. Among the soil variables, pH, CEC, and Cd bioavailability were found to play vital roles. Yet, no single variable acts alone in the mechanism for plant Cd uptake. PLAs are suggested to replace conventional non-biodegradable plastics to control environmental MP pollution, particularly in agricultural systems with higher Cd contamination. However, the long-term effects of the by-products generated during the biodegradation process require further investigation.

The damage excessive neodymium (Nd) causes to animals and plants should not be underestimated. However, there is little research on the impact of pH and associated ions on the toxicity of Nd. Here, a biotic ligand model (BLM) was expanded to predict the effects of pH and chief anions on the toxic impact of Nd on wheat root elongation in a simulated soil solution. The results suggested that Nd3+ and NdOH2+ were the major ions causing phytotoxicity to wheat roots at pH values of 4.5–7.0. The Nd toxicity decreased as the activities of H+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ increased but not when the activities of K+ and Na+ increased. The results indicated that H+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ competed with Nd for binding sites. An extended BLM was developed to consider the effects of pH, H+, Ca2+, and Mg2+, and the following stability constants were obtained: logKNdBL = 2.51, logKNdOHBL = 3.90, logKHBL = 4.01, logKCaBL = 2.43, and logKMgBL = 2.70. The results demonstrated that the BLM could predict the Nd toxicity well while considering the competition of H+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and the toxic species Nd3+ and NdOH2+ for binding sites.

Microplastics (MPs) increase the effective state of heavy metals (HMs) in soil and seriously threaten the yield and quality of peanuts (Arachis Hypogea L.). Kaolinite (KL) has the potential to ameliorate MP- and HM- contaminated soils, but the mechanism of action between them is not well understood. Therefore, 60-day experiments were conducted, where KL (1 %, 2 %) and MPs (0.1 %, 1 %) were individually or jointly mixed into soils with different cadmium (Cd) concentrations (0.5, 2.5, and 5.0 mg·kg−1) to cultivate peanuts in a greenhouse. Finally, soil-bioavailable Cd, peanut dry weight, peanut Cd concentrations, the pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) were determined. It was shown that MPs negatively affected the peanut dry weight and increased the content of soil-bioavailable Cd and Cd concentration in peanut. In the MP- and Cd-contaminated soils, KL mitigated the negative influence of MPs by increasing the dry weight of peanuts by 8.40 %−40.59 %, decreasing the soil-bioavailable Cd by 23.70–35.74 %, and significantly decreasing peanut Cd concentrations by 9.65–30.86 %. The presence of MPs decreased soil pH (7.69–7.87) and the CEC (20.96–23.95 cmol·L−1) and increased the soil DOC (1.84–2.26 mg·kg−1). KL significantly increased soil pH (7.79–8.03) and the CEC (24.96–28.28 cmol·L−1) and mitigated the adverse influence of MPs on the pH and CEC of Cd-contaminated soils. A regression path analysis (RPA) evidenced that KL decreased Cd accumulation in plants by changing the properties of soil contaminated with MPs and Cd. The research results revealed the mechanism of KL on peanut growth and Cd absorption in MP- and Cd-contaminated soil. The results of this study provide a foundation to improve the quality of MP- and HM-contaminated soils and realize safe peanut production.

An economical and effective method is still lacking for cadmium (Cd) toxicity reduction and food product safety improvement in soil–vegetable systems. Therefore, this study aimed to reduce the Cd toxicity to pak choi (Brassica campestris L.) by jointly using passivators and organic fertilizer, highlighting food products’ safety based on pot experiments. The results showed that compared with the control, organic fertilizer decreased the Cd content in edible parts and the soil’s available Cd by 48.4% and 20.9% on average, respectively, due to the 0.15-unit increases in soil pH. Once jointly applied with passivators, the decrements increased by 52.3–72.6% and 32.5–52.6% for the Cd content in edible parts and for the soil’s available Cd, respectively, while the pH increment increased by 0.15–0.46 units. Compared with the control, the transport factor of Cd was reduced by 61.9% and 50.9–55.0% when applying organic fertilizer alone and together with the passivators, respectively. The combination treatment of biochar and organic fertilizer performed the best in decreasing the Cd content in the edible parts and the soil’s available Cd. The combination treatment of fish bone meal and organic fertilizer induced the greatest increases in soil pH. The grey relational analysis results showed that the combination treatment of biochar and organic fertilizer performed the best in reducing the potential Cd pollution risk, thereby highlighting the vegetable food safety. This study provides a potential economical and effective technology for toxicity reduction and food safety in Cd-polluted soil.

Tire–road characteristics are a critical focus of research in the automotive and transportation industries. On the one hand, the research can help optimize tires’ structural design; on the other hand, it can analyze the mechanical response of the pavement structure under the vehicle load. In addition, the non-uniformity distribution of the tire ground stress will also have a direct impact on the skid resistance, which determines the driving safety. Due to the limitation of testing technology, the measurement of tire ground pressure was mainly carried out on a flat test platform, ignoring the roughness of the actual pavement surface texture. The tire–road contact characteristics research on the macro-texture and micro-texture of asphalt pavement needs to be broken through. A high-precision pressure-sensitive film measurement system is utilized to examine the actual contact characteristics between two types of automobile tires and three types of asphalt pavement in this paper. The influence law of pavement texture and patterned tires on the contact area and stress was explored, and the concentration effect of tire–road contact stress was evaluated. The results indicate that the contact area of grounding tires exhibits a nearly linear relationship with tire inflation pressure and load. Notably, the change in load has a more significant influence on the contact area than tire inflation pressure. On asphalt pavement, the contact reduction rate decreases by approximately 5–10% for block pattern tires and 10–15% for longitudinal pattern tires. Furthermore, as the texture depth of the pavement increases, the contact area between tires and the pavement texture decreases. The actual tire–road interface experiences significant stress concentration due to the embedding and meshing effects between the tire and road surface. Even on a flat steel surface, the peak stress at the edge of the tread block exceeds the 0.7 MPa design load, which is about 2.5–3 times higher than the design uniform load. The peak stress between the tire and asphalt pavement reaches 4–10 times the design uniform load, with a rising trend as the pavement texture depth increases. This study can provide relevant experimental technical support for tire design and functional design of asphalt pavement.

Background. The role of disulfidptosis-related lncRNAs remains unclear in lung adenocarcinoma. Methods. Analysis in R software was conducted using different R packages, which are based on the public data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The transwell assay was used to evaluate the invasion and migration abilities of lung cancer cells. Results. In our study, we identified 1401 lncRNAs significantly correlated with disulfidptosis-related genes (|Cor| > 0.3 and P

In order to determine the average behavior time of widespread fatigue damage (WFD) in an aircraft multi-site damage (MSD) structure and complete the fatigue analysis of WFD sensitive parts, this paper adopts a probabilistic method to analyze the crack initiation and crack propagation of a single row of collinear seven-hole plates. The simulation analysis of the whole process from crack initiation to structural failure is realized. First, through statistical analysis of the test data of the LY12-CZ alloy single-detail plate with hole, the probability distribution of crack initiation life and growth rate is obtained, and this probability distribution is expressed by the randomization of variables. Then, using the related theories of fracture mechanics and fatigue statistics, the whole process of initiation, propagation, and connection of multiple cracks in the MSD structure to the occurrence of WFD was realized through the Monte Carlo method. Finally, a group of single-row seven-hole plate examples are used to verify the accuracy of the calculation results. The results show that the calculated results in this paper are in good agreement with the experimental data, and can accurately predict the life of MSD structures under a certain reliability.

As one of the most serious microvascular complications of diabetes and a major cause of end stage renal disease, diabetic nephropathy (DN) is calling for effective treatment strategies. Here, we provide evidence that hyperglycemia can induce proliferation and decreasing apoptosis of mesangial cells (MCs) and subsequent renal dysfunction by up-regulating cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (cFLIP). Treatment with emodin significantly turns down the accelerated cell cycle and proliferation of MCs cultured in high glucose (HG) via inhibiting cFLIP. In vitro, knockdown of cFLIP can arrest cell cycle and accelerate cell death by activating caspase-8, caspase-3 and caspase-9, and down-regulate proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Our results also suggest that emodin regulates cFLIP expression in transcriptional level. Importantly, emodin lessens proteinuria and fibronectin expression in early-stage of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. These findings demonstrate that emodin represent a promising strategy to prevent renal dysfunction in early-stage of diabetes mellitus.

The overall protection and comprehensive management of one-person life community of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasses is an important measure to improve the service function of terrestrial ecosystem and ensure the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. This study produced biochar using three agricultural wastes and modified them with graphene to remedy mercurycontaminated soil in soil remediation experiments designed for environmental specialized courses. Results showed that the biochar production yield followed the descending order of rice straw (RSB) > peanut shell (PSB) > corn straw (CSB), while the ash content had a reversed order. The pH values of all the six biochar exceeded 7. The adsorption kinetics and isothermal mercury adsorption curve fitted the pseudo-second order kinetic equation and Langmuir model better, respectively. The adsorption ability of the six followed the descending order of G-PSB> GCSB> PSB>CSB>G-RSB>RSB with the maximum adsorption capacities of 7.64, 8.67, 7.93, 7.49, 6.00, 3.60 g/kg, respectively. The study provides a practicable experiment regarding of mercury-polluted soil remediation for environmental specialized courses. The results well support the idea of "human and natural life community". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the mitigation effect of molybdenum application on chromium-stressed rice, the effects of 4 different molybdenum gradients (0, 0.05, 0.5 and 1.0mg·L-1) on growth, physiological biochemistry, chromium enrichment for rice under low-1) and high chromium-1) were studied using a culture experiment. The results showed that molybdenum application with low concentration (0.05 and 0.5mg·L-1) could promote shoot and root length of rice, and increase the soluble protein and chlorophyll content under chromium stress. Molybdenum application with different concentration could decrease malondialdehyde (MDA) content, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, peroxidase (POD) activity and catalase (CAT) activity. In addition, molybdenum application could effectively inhibit the chromium enrichment for rice. The chromium tolerance of rice was significantly improved, characterized by biomass level of rice, improving its physiological and biochemical performances, reducing the chromium absorption through participating in the physiological processes of rice, and thus improving its tolerance to rice. In conclusion, exogenous molybdenum can effectively reduce the toxic effect of chromium stress on rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil cadmium (Cd) pollution endangers the human health through the food chain and has become a serious concern in China. The study was to investigate the effects of amendments on Cd availability and uptake by crop in contaminated soils after calcined lime (C), hydroxyapatite (H) and pig manure (P) were applied alone and combination to the purple and black soils under com-wheat rotation. Results showed that crop biomass, Cd concentration, soil pH, DTPA extractable Cd and Cd fractions were significantly changed when applying amendments into both soils. Calcined lime and hydroxyapatite could significantly decline Cd availability in both soils regardless of crop type, and application of hydroxyapatite and pig manure increased the crop biomass. More obviously Cd fractions changes were observed in com growing period, especially applied with calcined lime and hydroxyapatite. Calcined lime increased carbonate-bound (Carb-Cd) Cd fractions resulted from 17.17% to 29.23% and from 17.26% to 35.38%, and hydroxyapatite increased Fe- and Mn oxide-bound (Ox-Cd) Cd fractions from 29.54% to 42.91% and from 19.32% to 36.54% in the purple and black soils. However, the exchangeable (Ex-Cd) and organic matter-bound (Org-Cd) Cd fractions were slightly increased after applying pig manure into both soils. Moreover, combined amendments prepared from alkaline materials and organic fertilizers could decrease grain Cd concentrations and increase crop biomass simultaneously. The immobilization effects of combined amendments were more remarkable in the black soil, such as hydroxyapatite + pig manure (HP) and calcined lime + hydroxyapatite + pig manure (CHP). This research demonstrated that Cd availability in soil and Cd uptake by crop root were the main factors to affect Cd immobilization, while the translocation in crop could hardly influence the Cd immobilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil cadmium (Cd) pollution has become a serious environmental focus of attention of the worldwide. Cd availability in soils and uptake by rape (Brassia campestris L.) grown in Cd-contaminated soils after supplied the mixture of wheat or com straw and chicken manure as organic amendments (labeled as WC and CC) into soils were studied. Results showed that WC amendments application generally promoted the dry matter of rape tissues at the first 50 days and significantly improved antioxidant enzymes activity of rape leaves regardless of planting period. Application with WC amendment might be more advantageous in decreasing Cd uptake by rape than CC amendment. It was worth mentioning that Cd contents in roots, stems and leaves reduced by 50.84% and 63.14% at the second 50 days when supplied WC amendment of 12.0g kg"1 of TOC into soils. Application with WC amendment could effectively decline the Cd availability on account of the Cd form redistribution from exchangeable Cd to unavailable Cd. Additionally, significantly negative correlations (P<0.01) between the soil pH, SOM content and exchangeable Cd were observed. After supplied with WC amendment into soil, the increases of soil pH and SOM content were also contributed to the reduction of Cd availability in soils and rape uptake. Accordingly, the mixture of wheat straw and chicken manure can be used as an organic amendment to reduce soil Cd availability and plant uptake in heavy metal contaminated soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new type of adsorption material, biochar has become a hotspot in the environmental field such as soil remediation and enhancement of carbon storage. However, little attention has been given to relationship between the deceased heavy metal bioavailability and the changes in soil humus composition with biochar addition. In this experiment, a pot experiment was conducted to apply different proportions of biochar (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2% and 5%) to cadmium (Cd) -contaminated soil, and the soil physical and chemical properties, humic components, available Cd and Cd concentration in wheat were determined. Results showed that soil pH and soil organic matter (SOM) was significantly increased and the DGT-Cd was significantly decreased under all biochar treatments, with 5% biochar addition had the greatest impact. The content of fulvic acid (FA) and humin (HM) in soil increased with the increase of biochar addition, while the content of humic acid (HA) showed a decrease trend with the application of biochar. The Cd concentration in wheat roots, stems and grains was significantly negatively correlated with soil pH, HM, SOM and FA content, but positively with soil available cadmium (DGT-Cd) and HA. The results demonstrated that biochar can effectively immobilize heavy metals, thereby increasing soil pH, changing the humus component, and reducing heavy metal bioavailability in contaminated soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inoculation of Bacillus may mediate plant growth and decrease uptake of heavy metals, but the combined effects and the mechanisms of Bacillus sp. and biochar on the cadmium availability and plant uptake are far less investigated. The effects of a plant growth-promoting B. amyloliquefaciens NS16, biochar, and their combination on the plant biomass and Cd accumulation in pakchoi and the mechanisms involved were characterized. Results showed that the biochar addition and NS16 inoculation, in combination or alone, significantly promoted plant biomass and decreased Cd uptake by plants with increased organic matter contents (by 13.2-44.5%) and increased microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (by 6.91-56.3%), and populations of bacteria and fungi (by 11.2-103%), and the decreased available Cd concentrations measured by DGT (by 13.2-44.5%), in the rhizosphere soils. Compared with the initial pH, the inoculation of NS16 did not affect the pH values significantly, while the treatments of biochar and biochar + NS16 increased that of the rhizosphere soil significantly. Results suggested that the alkalinized rhizosphere, promoted organic matter contents, enhanced microbial biomass and community, and decreased Cd availability may have contributed to the decreased Cd accumulation in plants under effects of biochar addition and NS16 inoculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coking is a main industrial emission source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in China. A comprehensive study was conducted of the concentrations, spatial distribution, sources, and the potential human health risks of 16 priority PAHs in agricultural soil within 2000 m of a Coking Plant in Shanxi, North China, which has been in production for more than 20 years. Diagnostic ratios were employed to identify the sources of PAHs. Toxic equivalency factors of benzo[a]pyrene were used to evaluate the health-risk of PAHs. Results showed that the total concentrations of the 16 PAHs ranged from 2297 to 9421 ng/g. The mean total concentrations of 15 relatively stable PAHs (£15PAHs) in agricultural soil around the coking plant were 6591, 4518 and 2208 ng/g at the distances of 1000, 1000~1500 and 1500~2000 m, respectively. £15PAHs decreased with the increasing distance from the emission source. The 4-5-rings PAHs of fluoranthene, pyrene, benz[a]anthracene and chrysene were the most dominant components with an average percentage contribution of 52.72%. The PAHs in soils were mainly from pyrogenic sources, especially coal combustion. The benzo[a]pyrene concentrations of 7 carcinogenic PAHs accounted for 83% of the total 15 PAHs. The £PAHs7c mainly contributed to the potential carcinogenic risk for humans, which declined with distances increasing in 2000 m. Long-term exposure to coking plants potentially induce human health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fertilization and irrigation greatly affect the soil heavy metals bioavailability and thereby the transport and uptake by plants. In this study, pot experiments of wheat were conducted to investigate the effects of fertilization five organic materials such as corn straw, rice straw, pig manure, sludge, partially instead of chemical fertilizer, and irrigation on the transport characteristics of lead in the soil-wheat system. The results showed that compared with control, the combined application of organic and chemical fertilizer and irrigation (OCI) increased the fresh weight and dry weight of wheat by 0~51% and 0~46%, respectively. The OCI mode inhibited the accumulation of lead by wheat, with the decreases of 0.01%-7.7% in the wheat lead accumulation. The bioavailable parts of lead in soil was reduced by 3%-23%. The combined application of rice straw and flat year water irrigation performed well in the inhibition of lead transport from soil to wheat. This study provides an effective fertilization and irrigation mode for the reduction of heavy metal transport from soil to crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar application has been identified as the effective method to prevent the agricultural diffuse pollution, which takes more serious risks to water-body under combined pollution. The cadmium and glyphosate were respectively selected as the typical diffuse heavy metal and herbicide pollutants as the dominant proportion in applications. The ammonium dihydrogen phosphate-modified pig manure biochar (PAB) was employed in the sorption experiments to investigate the removal of cadmium and glyphosate in both single- and binary-solute systems. The sorption ability was assessed depending on sorption time, biochar addition load and initial concentration. Results showed that pseudo sorption equilibrium were achieved within 12 and 6 h in APB for cadmium and glyphosate, respectively. The recommended biochar load was 0.1 g in 20 mL of solution. The equilibrium sorption quantity of cadmium and glyphosate respectively increased from 87.40 to 7353 mg/kg and 34.05 to 1018 mg/kg with the initial concentrations climbing in the single system. Compared to the single-solute system, the equilibrium sorption quantity of cadmium and glyphosate in the binary-solute system increased respectively by 4.771%-13.03% and 3.296%-11.26% at different equilibrium concentration condition. The sorption parameters n of cadmium and glyphosate reduced by 17.07% and 5.878%, respectively. The apparent adsorption maximums reached 11925 and 2562 mg/kg, respectively. Results indicates that pig manure biochar addition is an effective way to remove diffuse pollutant from agricultural wastewaters or to reduce the loss of heavy metal and/or organic contaminants into waterbody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of plastic film mulching technology poses a great threat to the safety and health of the agricultural environment while improving the agricultural productivity of China. In this paper, 27 representative crop planting areas were selected in five major agricultural production areas in Qingdao City, and the status of mulch residue in the soil of perennial mulched farmland was investigated. The results showed that the average residue was 32.3 kg⋅ hm-2, and the median value was 27.3 kg⋅ hm-2. Among them, the residual film volume of 7 crops was over 40 kg hm-2, and the average residue reached 69.3 kg/hm², with a certain residual film pollution crop damage risk. There was no significant correlation between the amount of mulching film in the farmland soil and the planting pattern and the age of the film, however, it was related to the recovery rate of the residual film in the current season. The residual film size in the farmland soil is about 100 cm², and more than 90% of the residual film is distributed in the 0-20 cm tillage layer. In order to control the residual pollution of farmland soil film, the biodegradable film should be actively researched and developed to solve the problem of PE film residual pollution from the source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of diffuse heavy metal pollution due to improper fertilization causes great pressure on the environment. This study investigated the total heavy metal loss originated from nitrogen fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer and livestock and poultry manure in Qingdao. The diffuse heavy metal pollution loss load was estimated. The results showed that As, Cd, Cr, Hg and Pb in the phosphate fertilizer led the pollution level of more than 80 percent areas in Qingdao a higher than the IV level (serious threat). Cu and Zn in animal mature induced the pollution level of the whole Qingdao a higher than the IV level (serious threat), while Cr, Hg and Pb led that of more than 60 percent areas in Qingdao a higher than the II level (slight threat). The seven heavy metals in nitrogenous fertilizer lead the lowest pollution level of Qingdao. Forty percent of the loss of heavy metal in nitrogenous fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer decreased from 2007 to 2017, when the loss of heavy metal in animal mature made the greatest contribution to the pollution load in Qingdao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a graphene/biochar composite (BG composite) were synthesized by mixing the graphene (Gr) onto com cob biomass followed by slow pyrolysis, and tested for the sorption characteristics of cadmium (Cd) from aqueous solutions. The structure and morphology analysis of the adsorbents showed that graphene was coated on the surface of biochar, resulting in a larger surface area, more functional groups, greater thermal stability, and higher removal efficiency of Cd compared to original biochar. The optimum pH values were 5.0-9.0 and the optimal dosages of BC, BG 1 and BG5 were 0.5-2, 1-3 or 2-4 g/L for 10 mg/L Cd removal, respectively. The Cd adsorption kinetics and isotherm for BG composites can be described using the pseudo second-order model and Freundlich model. The biochar's characteristics and adsorption experiments demonstrated that electrostatic attraction, precipitation, complexation and ion exchange are the possible Cd removal mechanisms. Results suggested that the BG composite is an efficient, economic, and environmentally friendly multifunctional adsorbent for environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term fertilization and livestock farm wastes discharges aggravate water eutrophication via agricultural non-point source pollution (ANSP) process. The ANSP loss load is hard to quantify due to the complexity and randomness, especially in coastal cities. This study quantified the ANSP loads response to the 11 year-long fertilization and livestock sewage discharges in a typical coastal city of the Yellow Sea, Qingdao, East China. The agricultural non-point loss load coefficient K was introduced to evaluate the environmental threat (ET) of the ANSP. The results showed that the loss loads of nitrogen and phosphorus respectively were 10-80 kg/ha and 1-20 kg/ha after 11 years' fertilization. The ANSP loss loads induced by livestock sewage discharges of BODs, COD, total phosphorus and total nitrogen were 2-35 kg/ha, 3-35 kg/ha, 1-15 kg/ha and 2-18 kg/ha, respectively. The long-term fertilization and livestock sewage discharges respectively induced the K values of ANSP to exceed 80 in six and five of 9 districts in Qingdao, indicating serious ET. The ANSP potentially had more serious agri-en-vironmental threat to the main agricultural producing areas along the Dagu River Basin of the Jiaozhou Bay. The results provide basic information for the ANSP of the Jiaozhou Bay and the methods used in this study should be applied in similar agricultural and coastal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar performs well in the remediation of heavy metals or pesticides-polluted soil and thereby reduces agricultural diffuse pollution, which is rarely applied to organic and inorganic combined pollution. The study selected thiourea-modified pig manure biochar to remedy soil and simultaneously to reduce cadmium and glyphosate diffuse loss based on sorption process. The results showed that the Freundlich and Langmuir model well fit the adsorption of cadmium and glyphosate. Compared with pig manure biochar, the pH value and the ash content of thiourea-modified pig manure biochar decreased by 0.82 and 5.02%, respectively. The adsorption capacity and binding ability of biochar to cadmium and glyphosate increased. The thiourea-modified pig manure biochar-amended soil responded differently to different initial Cd and glyphosate concentrations in the single- and binary-system. This study provides an economic and environmental technical means to solve the problem of composite pollution in the actual environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]