A new study has investigated the movement of antibiotic resistance genes between farm animals, soil and water in Finland. The results show that many of these genes are spread from animals to the soil through manure application; however, these genes do not appear to persist in soil. The study suggests that practices that minimise the use of antibiotics, as used in Finland, may lead to lower levels of clinically relevant resistance genes in agricultural soils.

Neonicotinoids are pesticides applied to plants to protect them from insects. The use of neonicotinoids may lead to contamination of aquatic environments through, among other routes, the input of contaminated plant material into waterways. While it is well established that direct exposure to contaminated water endangers aquatic invertebrates, scientists have now published findings indicating that dietary exposure through the consumption of contaminated plant material puts leaf-shredding species at increased risk. The researchers recommend that policymakers registering systemic insecticides (those whose active ingredients are transported throughout the plant tissues) consider dietary exposure, and its potential implications for ecosystem integrity, in addition to other exposure pathways.

Plastic waste in the environment presents cause for concern, but scientific understanding of its exact impacts is still in its infancy. A team of Dutch scientists has presented recommendations on how to develop a new assessment method which provides clear, specific evidence on the risks of plastic waste. Once developed, this method could inform scientifically sound policies for managing plastic waste.

Advances in nanotechnology mean that a rapidly increasing number of products are being produced using engineered nanomaterials, for example, nano-enabled thermoplastics. Many of these nano-enabled products are destined to reach their end-of-life through waste incineration or accidental fire. Now, an original study has revealed that the presence of nanofiller in thermoplastics significantly enhances both the concentration and toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) produced during thermal decomposition at the product’s end- of-life, resulting in concentrations of total PAHs and more toxic PAHs that are up to eight times higher than those found in pure (non nano-enabled) thermoplastics. This finding has significant environmental health implications.

Water pollution by toxic elements is a major economic and environmental concern, and mercury is one of the most poisonous of the elements to be released into the environment by industry. Mercury exposure can cause severe ill health. Efficient, simple and convenient methods to remove mercury from industrial and other waste streams and drinking water are essential. This study successfully trialled a new technique, using magnetised multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), to remove mercury from waste water.

The presence of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water is an emerging health concern. DBPs come in many classes and are chemically diverse, making them challenging to monitor. Swedish researchers have evaluated a new method for the simultaneous determination of a broader range of DBPs than typically possible using other available techniques. The method uses gas chromatography (a laboratory technique that separates and analyses vaporisable compounds in a mixture), together with a halogen-specific detector (XSD). Having been tested in real water samples from two municipal waterworks in Sweden, the method has been optimised for the simultaneous determination of a wide range of neutral DBPs.

Currently laws and regulations governing nanotechnology are fragmented and do not take account of the unique properties of nanomaterials, the effect of which on humans and the environment are not yet fully understood, argue researchers in a new study. In the study, a network of European researchers propose a new universal regulatory framework that deals specifically with nanomaterials. The framework should help policymakers, organisations and researchers evaluate the risks of any existing materials and new nanomaterials entering the market. It should also help SMEs and large companies use safer products and processes, limit the potential adverse effects of nanomaterials on workers and consumers, reduce the cost of insurance and reduce the risk of governments having to pay out money in the future due to unforeseen accidents or diseases.

Parasitoid wasps (Trichogramma pretiosum) are increasingly being used as a biological control agent in agriculture. Since insecticides are often applied to the same crops, it is necessary to assess the effects of different insecticides on this insect. However, the majority of studies have focused on evaluating the lethal, but not sublethal, effects of insecticides. A new study has evaluated the sublethal effects on T. pretiosum of nine insecticides commonly used in soybean production in Brazil. Overall, just three of the nine insecticides tested did not appear to have any harmful sublethal effects on T. pretiosum. This study highlights the importance of considering sublethal, as well as lethal, effects when assessing insecticide selectivity.

Silver nanoparticles present in the effluent from waste-water treatment plants could have toxic effects on aquatic organisms, new research suggests. The lab-based study tested the effects of nanoparticle-containing effluent on several crustacean and algae species. The researchers observed that epibenthic crustaceans (those living in or on sediments at the bottom of water bodies) were the most sensitive; notably, a 20–45% higher death rate was observed compared with those exposed to nanoparticle-free effluent.

Soil biodiversity, soil quality, and soil health are integral to protecting the natural environment. Soils are crucial to food production and human well-being, as highlighted by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The abundance of soil biota is of great importance for the provision of associated ecosystem services (ES) and fundamental driver of self-regulation in soil. This study explores how the presence, or absence, of earthworms affects aspects of crop health and productivity, focusing on their shielding of winter wheat from the toxic plant fungi Fusarium.

A new study has raised safety concerns over PFO4DA, a substance increasingly used as a substitute for PFOA, a harmful persistent organic pollutant (POP), in plastic production. PFO4DA was found to cause liver damage to mice in lab tests, and is also an environmental pollutant. The researchers caution that it may not be a suitable alternative to PFOA.

European scientists have conducted the first ever long-term study into the breakdown of alternative plastic bags compared to conventional plastic bags, across multiple habitats — open air, soil and sea. Oxo-degradable, compostable and biodegradable bags are often marketed as being recycled back into nature more quickly than normal bags; however, the long-term environmental studies to back this up are lacking and there is concern regarding microplastic pollution from these alternative plastic bags.

Rare earth elements (REE) are used to make many low-carbon technologies, including electric vehicles and wind turbines. Mining and processing of REE, which mostly takes place in China, has a reputation for causing environmental damage. A new study presents a method for evaluating the environmental impacts of REE production based on life-cycle assessment (LCA: a way of determining a product's overall impact during some or all of its journey from extraction to end-of-life). The researchers applied the method to a prospective REE mine in Malawi, south-east Africa, to reveal the most environmentally impactful stages of production, and the greenest source of energy.

Today, I'm writing about how to create animated PNG (APNG) files, such as this one:... read more >>

The 3rd edition of Digital Image Processing Using MATLAB (DIPUM3E) has just been published, at long last. The new edition includes extensive new coverage of image transforms, spectral color models, geometric transformations, clustering, superpixels, graph cuts, active contours, maximally-stable extremal regions, SURF and similar feature detection, and deep learning networks.... read more >>

I like to think of geometric transformations of images (stretching, shrinking, rotating, etc.) by starting with the geometric transformations of points. You could think of a geometric point transformation as just moving a point from one location to another, like this:... read more >>

Baylis, Françoise, 1961- author

A new liquid has been designed to selectively capture sulphur dioxide emissions, one of the primary causes of acid rain. The capture process is reversible so the sulphur dioxide can be released at a later stage. This means, for example, that sulphur dioxide could be captured from power plants and reused later in other industrial processes.

A new study highlights the need for new policies to stop the rise of nitrogen oxide emissions in China. The researchers suggest that the positive impact of policies to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions are not enough in themselves to avoid soil acidification, as they will be outweighed over the next decade by the impact of nitrogen emissions.

Several pollutants that are not covered by UN regulations could be harmful to humans, according to new research in the Balkans. By sampling air at various urban sites, the research showed that polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAHs) have the potential to be a major health risk.

New research reveals that indoor air pollution is an important indicator of the impact of emissions from an oil refinery on nearby communities. It suggests policies based on outdoor monitoring alone are not sufficient to safeguard health, especially with regards to breast cancer.

Reductions in air pollution in European cities significantly reduce the number of premature deaths, according to researchers. However, these results need to be communicated effectively to policy makers in order to have an impact.

Large benefits can be achieved for society by reducing global emissions of mercury. Global savings of US$1.8-2.2 billion (€1.3-1.6 billion) can be made by reducing damage to IQ alone, according to recent research.

Measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have the additional benefit of reducing air pollutants. However, these benefits are rarely included in the design and evaluation of climate change policies. A new study suggests that considering these benefits in climate change policy could reduce the cost of such policies, and engage stakeholders who are otherwise unmotivated to tackle climate change.

20 years of policies in Europe to reduce emissions that contribute to the formation of ozone have successfully reduced short-term peak ozone levels, according to a new study conducted in central England. However, tougher targets are needed to further reduce average annual levels.

New research has found a possible link between traffic-related air pollution outside people's homes and the onset of asthma in children during the first eight years of life. Higher levels of nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 and soot were more likely to be recorded at the homes of those children who developed asthma and asthma symptoms.

A recent study has compared the impact of future power generated from large, central stations with power generated from smaller distributed generators (DG) in California on air quality. It concluded that although DG produces more emissions, its impact on air quality is likely to be smaller than central power stations due to complex interactions between air chemistry and transport.

A recent assessment suggests that reducing black carbon emissions, produced by burning carbon-based materials, would prevent millions of premature deaths in developing countries as well as helping meet climate change mitigation targets.

A recent analysis suggests climate change policies may have to include a 'pollution safety margin' which accounts for the warming impact of many air pollutants. Available evidence suggests that policies to reduce the harmful effects of air pollutants could accelerate climate change over coming decades by cutting emissions that currently contribute to cooling the climate.

Combining policies that tackle local air pollution and global climate change will deliver enhanced benefits for climate change mitigation, according to researchers. Medium-term efforts to control air pollution will provide additional benefits to long-term strategies that aim to curb climate change.

Environmental policy makers increasingly rely on computer models to test traffic policies. Researchers have investigated the impact of reducing speed limits on traffic emissions using two different models, but the models produced some contradictory results. The researchers therefore warn policy makers to interpret model results very carefully and to avoid relying on simple 'macroscopic' models.

Assessing the impact of large urban areas on air quality and climate change needs an integrated approach with a range of spatial and temporal scales, according to researchers. The EU-funded MEGAPOLI project considers time scales from seconds to decades and spatial scales from local to global.

A new study has compared treatments to reduce odour from wastewater treatment plants, and has suggested that biotrickling filtration and activated sludge diffusion are the two most promising technologies. These appear to perform best on a combination of environmental, economic and social indicators.

A recent study assesses new methods for comparing and predicting air quality data in Helsinki, Finland and Thessaloniki, Greece, that significantly improve the capability to analyse and predict air quality in these cities. There are good indications that the methods could be applied to other European cities.

Companies with environmental standard ISO 14001 certification may emit just as much air pollution as non-certified companies, according to a recent study. The results suggest companies see ISO 14001 as a way to appear environmentally responsible rather than to actively improve their environmental credentials.

For the first time, scientists have identified an ‘ozone hole’ over the Arctic, in addition to the well-known ozone hole over the Antarctic. Unusually persistent low temperatures over the arctic in early 2011 caused an unprecedented amount of chemical destruction of stratospheric ozone there. The authors warn that this is likely to happen again, although it is presently difficult to predict when this might be.

A study in the Czech Republic has found a link between exposure to certain air pollutants and an increase in DNA damage for people exposed to high levels of the pollution. They found that breathing small quantities of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), called benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), caused an increase in the number of certain ‘biomarkers’ in DNA associated with a higher risk of diseases, including cancer.

The nitrogen dioxides (NOX) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of some light-duty petrol and diesel vehicles are higher during on-road driving than during standard laboratory tests, according to a new study. This means that in normal on-road driving, light-duty vehicles, which include passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, may exceed European emissions limits and could be having a greater impact on urban air quality than previously thought.

Using hydrogen as an energy carrier can help reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with fossil fuels, according to recent research. However, if used on a large-scale, it is important that hydrogen does not leak significantly into the atmosphere as it might have some negative environmental effects, such as increasing the lifetime of methane, increasing climate effects and causing some depletion of the ozone layer.

Scientists have created a new, easy-to-use tool that allows health professionals to monitor the day-to-day risks posed by short-term exposure to main urban air pollutants. The tool could enable vulnerable groups, such as asthmatics, to take precautionary measures and to increase public awareness of the health impacts of air pollution, say the researchers.

Relying less on cars and switching to walking and cycling improves both our health and the environment. A recent study quantifies these benefits in financial terms to inform active transport projects and policies. It demonstrates how benefits from increased physical activity outweigh any costs of increased exposure to air pollution.

The Earth is now absorbing more energy from the Sun than it is radiating into space. A recent analysis indicates that most models of this energy imbalance underestimate the impacts of human-made aerosols and overestimate time lags in response to the climate. As such, the energy imbalance and future impacts on climate may be greater than predicted.

Researchers have measured the presence of carbon nanoparticles in the air over the Mediterranean Sea. The results revealed that higher concentrations are found in air that has moved over areas of industrial activity, and that the lowest layers of the atmosphere are likely to be responsible for transporting the nanoparticles.

Extending the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances to include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) could have important benefits for climate change action, say scientists in a recent analysis. HFCs are currently part of the Kyoto Protocol as greenhouse gases, but this protection will end with the expiry of Kyoto commitments this year.

City dwellers who grow their own fruit and vegetables may be consuming high levels of pollutants. In a recent study, researchers found that vegetables grown on plots in Berlin, Germany, often contained higher concentrations of some heavy metals than shop-bought vegetables, with those grown close to busy roads containing the greatest quantities.

Pollen allergy is a common cause of allergic respiratory diseases such as hay fever and asthma. A recent continent-wide study suggests that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the last 30 years may be increasing pollen counts especially in European cities, which could have serious consequences for public health.

Planting vegetation in city streets could significantly reduce air pollution in urban street canyons, according to new research. Traffic pollutants are deposited on vegetation at a higher rate than on hard, built surfaces and could reduce the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and PM10 in the air by as much as 40% and 60%, respectively, under certain conditions.

New research has modelled the impacts of Athens and Istanbul in the eastern Mediterranean, on local and regional air quality. Results indicate that the impacts of megacity pollution vary significantly according to the time of year and that air quality improvements will require coordinated efforts within the eastern Mediterranean region and beyond.

A recent global study has estimated that, each year, 1.5 million people die early from cardiopulmonary diseases and 0.1 million people die early from lung cancer caused by exposure to PM2.5 pollution. A further 0.4 million people are estimated to die early from respiratory diseases caused by exposure to surface ozone (O3) pollution. Although short-lived air pollutants have the largest influence on air quality and premature deaths, controlling methane emissions as well would improve air quality and reduce the number of people dying prematurely each year, the study suggests.

Low emission zones (LEZs) that restrict old vehicles in city centres may need implementation in combination with other traffic policies to have greater impacts on air quality, according to new research. A study that measured emission levels before and after the introduction of LEZs in five Dutch cities indicated that air pollution concentrations were reduced but not to a statistically significant level.