工业工程最新文献

{"title":"Exploring the influence of redox and temperature variations on the attenuation of pharmaceuticals in groundwater: Insights from parallel batch reactor experiments","authors":"Alejandra Villa ,&nbsp;Nafiseh Salehi Siavashani ,&nbsp;Estanislao Pujades-Garnes ,&nbsp;Nicola Montemurro ,&nbsp;Sandra Pérez ,&nbsp;Jan Willem Foppen ,&nbsp;Marc Teixidó ,&nbsp;Anna Jurado","doi":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100537","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100537","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pharmaceuticals are present in the environment from anthropogenic pollution sources, leading to groundwater contamination when reaching urban aquifers. Once in the subsurface, their fate depends on the hydrochemical processes and environmental conditions within the aquifer. In this context, this study investigates how different redox and temperature conditions affect the natural attenuation of pharmaceuticals in the subsurface. Batch experiments were conducted under oxic and suboxic (i.e., up to nitrate reduction) conditions and at two temperatures (25 °C and 35 °C). The controlled conditions achieved with parallel batch reactor systems allowed us a systematic investigation of the processes and factors involved in the fate of ten pharmaceuticals (atenolol, citalopram, climbazole, irbesartan, lamotrigine, sitagliptin, carbamazepine, metoprolol, trimethoprim, and venlafaxine), providing insights into the mechanisms governing their attenuation. The results showed that oxic conditions were highly effective in reducing pharmaceuticals concentrations, achieving up to 91 % attenuation for irbesartan, followed by citalopram (90 %), climbazole (77 %), sitagliptin (76 %) and metoprolol (75 %). Atenolol and climbazole were also attenuated regardless of redox conditions. High temperatures increased the total removal of citalopram, irbesartan, sitagliptin, and trimethoprim by 5–12 %, while slightly enhancing the sorption affinity of carbamazepine, irbesartan, and atenolol by 5 %. However, trimethoprim, carbamazepine, and lamotrigine were the most persistent compounds, with average removal rates of 6 %, 15 %, and 24 %, respectively. Overall, more than half of the targeted pharmaceuticals showed significant average removal (&gt;60 %), highlighting the influence of the processes involved in groundwater on the natural attenuation of these compounds. Sorption seemed to be the primary process contributing to the target pharmaceuticals attenuation in oxic conditions, while biodegradation played a secondary role, particularly for atenolol and metoprolol. These findings contribute to improve our understanding of the behaviour of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environment and thus to improve management practices for better water quality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11539,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Contaminants","volume":"11 3","pages":"Article 100537"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144522280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"VMGP: A unified variational auto-encoder based multi-task model for multi-phenotype, multi-environment, and cross-population genomic selection in plants","authors":"Xiangyu Zhao ,&nbsp;Fuzhen Sun ,&nbsp;Jinlong Li ,&nbsp;Dongfeng Zhang ,&nbsp;Qiusi Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhongqiang Liu ,&nbsp;Changwei Tan ,&nbsp;Hongxiang Ma ,&nbsp;Kaiyi Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Plant breeding stands as a cornerstone for agricultural productivity and the safeguarding of food security. The advent of Genomic Selection heralds a new epoch in breeding, characterized by its capacity to harness whole-genome variation for genomic prediction. This approach transcends the need for prior knowledge of genes associated with specific traits. Nonetheless, the vast dimensionality of genomic data juxtaposed with the relatively limited number of phenotypic samples often leads to the “curse of dimensionality”, where traditional statistical, machine learning, and deep learning methods are prone to overfitting and suboptimal predictive performance. To surmount this challenge, we introduce a unified Variational auto-encoder based Multi-task Genomic Prediction model (VMGP) that integrates self-supervised genomic compression and reconstruction with multiple prediction tasks. This approach provides a robust solution, offering a formidable predictive framework that has been rigorously validated across public datasets for wheat, rice, and maize. Our model demonstrates exceptional capabilities in multi-phenotype and multi-environment genomic prediction, successfully navigating the complexities of cross-population genomic selection and underscoring its unique strengths and utility. Furthermore, by integrating VMGP with model interpretability, we can effectively triage relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms, thereby enhancing prediction performance and proposing potential cost-effective genotyping solutions. The VMGP framework, with its simplicity, stable predictive prowess, and open-source code, is exceptionally well-suited for broad dissemination within plant breeding programs. It is particularly advantageous for breeders who prioritize phenotype prediction yet may not possess extensive knowledge in deep learning or proficiency in parameter tuning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":52814,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture","volume":"15 4","pages":"Pages 829-842"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144534365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recognizing and localizing chicken behaviors in videos based on spatiotemporal feature learning","authors":"Yilei Hu ,&nbsp;Jinyang Xu ,&nbsp;Zhichao Gou ,&nbsp;Di Cui","doi":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Timely acquisition of chicken behavioral information is crucial for assessing chicken health status and production performance. Video-based behavior recognition has emerged as a primary technique for obtaining such information due to its accuracy and robustness. Video-based models generally predict a single behavior from a single video segment of a fixed duration. However, during periods of high activity in poultry, behavior transition may occur within a video segment, and existing models often fail to capture such transitions effectively. This limitation highlights the insufficient temporal resolution of video-based behavior recognition models. This study presents a chicken behavior recognition and localization model, CBLFormer, which is based on spatiotemporal feature learning. The model was designed to recognize behaviors that occur before and after transitions in video segments and to localize the corresponding time interval for each behavior. An improved transformer block, the cascade encoder-decoder network (CEDNet), a transformer-based head, and weighted distance intersection over union (WDIoU) loss were integrated into CBLFormer to enhance the model's ability to distinguish between different behavior categories and locate behavior boundaries. For the training and testing of CBLFormer, a dataset was created by collecting videos from 320 chickens across different ages and rearing densities. The results showed that CBLFormer achieved a [email protected]:0.95 of 98.34 % on the test set. The integration of CEDNet contributed the most to the performance improvement of CBLFormer. The visualization results confirmed that the model effectively captured the behavioral boundaries of chickens and correctly recognized behavior categories. The transfer learning results demonstrated that the model is applicable to chicken behavior recognition and localization tasks in real-world poultry farms. The proposed method handles cases where poultry behavior transitions occur within the video segment and improves the temporal resolution of video-based behavior recognition models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":52814,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture","volume":"15 4","pages":"Pages 816-828"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144480996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Efficient photocatalytic degradation of metoprolol using activated carbon supported NiFe-layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDH/C) under solar-driven simulation","authors":"Raphael N. Biata ,&nbsp;Wendy Mabhulusa ,&nbsp;Lethula E. Mofokeng ,&nbsp;Rudzani Ratshiedana ,&nbsp;Tshimangadzo S. Munonde ,&nbsp;Edward N. Nxumalo","doi":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100532","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100532","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The efficient photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceuticals in wastewater is critically important for environmental protection. The synthesis and characterization of NiFe-LDH/C for the photocatalytic degradation of selected β-blockers, specifically metoprolol, under UV light conditions were investigated in this study. The study aimed to explore the potential of NiFe-LDH/C as a catalyst for the degradation of metoprolol, a commonly used pharmaceutical compound in the treatment of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and chest pains, which is frequently detected in wastewater. The selection of NiFe-LDH/C was driven by the need for materials with high photocatalytic activity, the ability to generate reactive oxygen species and enhance charge separation, and stability under solar light. Activated carbon was employed as a support to increase the surface area and improve the dispersion of the LDH particles, thereby enhancing overall photocatalytic efficiency. The results showed that NiFe-LDH/C exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity in degrading metoprolol under both UV and sunlight-mediated conditions, with degradation efficiencies of over 89 %. Furthermore, the characterization of the NiFe-LDH/C catalyst revealed its stability and recyclability, making it a promising candidate for the efficient removal of pharmaceutical compounds from wastewater through photocatalytic degradation. The characterization results showed that the NiFe-LDH/C exhibited a high degree of crystallinity and a well-defined layered structure. The photocatalytic experiments demonstrated that the NiFe-LDH/C was effective in degrading metoprolol and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) was used to elucidate the degradation products of metoprolol in water.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11539,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Contaminants","volume":"11 3","pages":"Article 100532"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144364950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elucidation of chemicals of emerging concern in placenta by non-targeted and suspect screening approaches","authors":"A. Domínguez-Liste ,&nbsp;L. Espín-Moreno ,&nbsp;M.O. Schweiss ,&nbsp;A. Rodríguez-Carrillo ,&nbsp;V. Mustieles ,&nbsp;M.F. Fernandez ,&nbsp;J. Arrebola ,&nbsp;C. Freire ,&nbsp;O. Ballesteros ,&nbsp;J. Pérez-del-Palacio ,&nbsp;F. Vela-Soria","doi":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100536","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100536","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the past century, anthropic activities in industrialized countries have generated exposure to a vast array of environmental chemical families. Many of these may have harmful effects on human health, and xenobiotic exposure during the fetal period is particularly concerning. Large-scale, open-ended characterization of the chemical exposome is increasingly investigated using non-targeted screening (NTS) and suspect screening (SS) approaches. The aim of this study was to increase knowledge of fetal exposure to xenobiotics by using NTS and SS to identify the presence of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in human placenta samples. After comparing the performances of salt-assisted liquid-liquid extraction plus dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (SALLE-DLLME) and enhanced matrix removal (EMR) as sample preparation techniques, EMR was applied in 65 placenta samples from the BAZA Spanish cohort. Twenty-one compounds from various chemical classes were identified, including agrochemicals, preservatives, plasticizers, cosmetics, fabric dyes, fragrances, additives, industrial intermediates, and drugs, and some of these have not previously been reported in placenta samples. The findings confirm the crucial value of non-targeted methodologies for the comprehensive assessment of human exposure during the prenatal period and their potential to unveil previously unknown or overlooked exposures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11539,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Contaminants","volume":"11 3","pages":"Article 100536"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144517487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Effect of Posterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Operations on Contact Mechanics of the Tibiofemoral Joint","authors":"Xin Jin,&nbsp;Peilin Wang,&nbsp;Dangdang Wang,&nbsp;Hui Ma,&nbsp;Zhihao Tang,&nbsp;Junyan Li","doi":"10.1049/bsb2.70007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/bsb2.70007","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Patients undergoing posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) reconstruction may experience changes in the mechanical environment of cartilage and meniscus; however, limited information is available regarding the contact mechanism of the tibiofemoral joint following different PCL reconstruction techniques. In this study, finite element (FE) models of the PCL-reconstructed tibiofemoral joint—including the femur, tibia, fibula, menisci, cartilage and ligaments (ACL, PCL, MCL and LCL)—were developed with contact interactions among these tissues considered. Joint angles and axial forces based on the ISO 14243-3 were used as inputs. Using these FE models, the effect of different PCL reconstruction techniques on contact pressure, stresses of the cartilages and menisci and tibiofemoral kinematics was evaluated. Compared to the intact model, PCL-reconstructed models exhibited reduced anterior translation during swing phase and reduced external rotation during stance phase. The external rotation of the TA model was greater than that of the intact model, TI model and TL model during swing phase. The medial meniscus of the PCL-reconstructed models experienced lower contact pressure and stresses compared to that in the intact model. The altered kinematics and contact mechanics of the PCL-reconstructed models demonstrate that the typical PCL reconstruction techniques should be improved or adjusted to better restore the natural biomechanical function of the joint.</p>","PeriodicalId":52235,"journal":{"name":"Biosurface and Biotribology","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1049/bsb2.70007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"FGPointKAN++ point cloud segmentation and adaptive key cutting plane recognition for cow body size measurement","authors":"Guoyuan Zhou ,&nbsp;Wenhao Ye ,&nbsp;Sheng Li ,&nbsp;Jian Zhao ,&nbsp;Zhiwen Wang ,&nbsp;Guoliang Li ,&nbsp;Jiawei Li","doi":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate and efficient body size measurement is essential for health assessment and production management in modern animal husbandry. In order to realize the segmentation of the point clouds at the pixel-level and the accurate calculation of body size for the dairy cows in different postures, a segmentation model (FGPointKAN++) and an adaptive key cutting plane recognition (AKCPR) model are developed. FGPointKAN++ introduces FGE module and KAN that enhance local feature extraction and geometric consistency, significantly improving dairy cow part segmentation accuracy. The AKCPR utilizes adaptive plane fitting and dynamic orientation calibration to optimize the key body size measurement. The dairy cow body size parameters are then calculated based on the plane geometry features. The experimental results show that mIoU scores of 82.92 % and 83.24 % for the dairy cow pixel-level point cloud segmentation results. The calculated Mean Absolute Percentage Errors (MAPE) of Wither Height (WH), Body Width (BW), Chest Circumference (CC) and Abdominal Circumference (AC) are 2.07 %, 3.56 %, 2.24 % and 1.42 %, respectively. This method enables precise segmentation and automatic body size measurement of dairy cows in various walking postures, showing considerable potential for practical applications. It provides technical support for unmanned, intelligent, and precision farming, thereby enhancing animal welfare and improving economic efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":52814,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture","volume":"15 4","pages":"Pages 783-801"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Distribution of legacy, precursor and emerging per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances in environmental waters in South Africa and their potential health risk to the population","authors":"Bulelwa Batayi ,&nbsp;Cornelius Rimayi ,&nbsp;Peter Daso ,&nbsp;Jonathan Okonkwo","doi":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100534","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100534","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We present a study of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in water samples from 48 sites in 8 South African provinces. Twenty-six targeted PFASs were analysed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), after solid phase extraction (SPE). Of the different PFAS classes detected, the PFAS precursor 8:2 Fluorotelomer alcohol (8:2 FTOH) was among the prominent PFAS detected, with the sum concentration (∑8:2 FTOH, all sites) of 1042.1 ng L⁻¹ (mean = 4.9 ng L⁻¹, median = 1.1 ng L⁻¹). In comparison, the most dominant legacy PFAS was PFBA, with the sum concentration (∑PFBA, all sites) of 8174.8 ng L⁻¹ (mean = 146.7 ng L⁻¹, median = 25.7 ng L⁻¹). Out of the groups of PFASs, perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) were the most detected PFASs, though the average concentrations were not statistically significant (p &gt; 0.05) between all the provinces assessed. Seasonally, the individual concentrations varied in each province, but generally, the concentrations were higher during the wet season than the dry season. Moreover, detection frequency (DF%) amongst the PFASs varied with only detections during the dry season achieving &gt;70 %. Since PFASs were never manufactured in South Africa, the potential sources of PFAS contamination were linked to the use of PFAS containing products that may be used in the surroundings of the sampling sites. The potential sources identified were domestic and industrial discharges, agricultural activities, wastewater effluents and other anthropogenic activities. The non-dominance of the long-chain legacy PFASs may indicate a shift on the use of fluorinated alternatives. The trend could also be due to long chain PFAS adsorption on to solids such as sediments in the aquatic environment. In addition, the health assessment risk to humans from contaminated surface water was low to moderate for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), and no significant risk was observed for the rest of the compounds at the detected concentrations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11539,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Contaminants","volume":"11 3","pages":"Article 100534"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"EU-GAN: A root inpainting network for improving 2D soil-cultivated root phenotyping","authors":"Shangyuan Xie ,&nbsp;Jiawei Shi ,&nbsp;Wen Li ,&nbsp;Tao Luo ,&nbsp;Weikun Li ,&nbsp;Lingfeng Duan ,&nbsp;Peng Song ,&nbsp;Xiyan Yang ,&nbsp;Baoqi Li ,&nbsp;Wanneng Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.aiia.2025.06.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Beyond its fundamental roles in nutrient uptake and plant anchorage, the root system critically influences crop development and stress tolerance. Rhizobox enables in situ and nondestructive phenotypic detection of roots in soil, serving as a cost-effective root imaging method. However, the opacity of the soil often results in intermittent gaps in the root images, which reduces the accuracy of the root phenotype calculations. We present a root inpainting method built upon Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) architecture In addition, we built a hybrid root inpainting dataset (HRID) that contains 1206 cotton root images with real gaps and 7716 rice root images with generated gaps. Compared with computer simulation root images, our dataset provides real root system architecture (RSA) and root texture information. Our method avoids cropping during training by instead utilizing downsampled images to provide the overall root morphology. The model is trained using binary cross-entropy loss to distinguish between root and non-root pixels. Additionally, Dice loss is employed to mitigate the challenge of imbalanced data distribution Additionally, we remove the skip connections in U-Net and introduce an edge attention module (EAM) to capture more detailed information. Compared with other methods, our approach significantly improves the recall rate from 17.35 % to 35.75 % on the test dataset of 122 cotton root images, revealing improved inpainting capabilities. The trait error reduction rates (TERRs) for the root area, root length, convex hull area, and root depth are 76.07 %, 68.63 %, 48.64 %, and 88.28 %, respectively, enabling a substantial improvement in the accuracy of root phenotyping. The codes for the EU-GAN and the 8922 labeled images are open-access, which could be reused by researchers in other AI-related work. This method establishes a robust solution for root phenotyping, thereby increasing breeding program efficiency and advancing our understanding of root system dynamics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":52814,"journal":{"name":"Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture","volume":"15 4","pages":"Pages 770-782"},"PeriodicalIF":8.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144307336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing contamination and risk profiles of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances across various types of water in South Africa: trends over the past decade (2014–2024)","authors":"Nhlanhla Hlongwa ,&nbsp;Victor Parry ,&nbsp;Kevin Winter ,&nbsp;David Ikumi ,&nbsp;Amber Abrams ,&nbsp;Kirsty Carden","doi":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100535","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.emcon.2025.100535","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the occurrence, spatial distribution, and ecological and human health risks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in South African water systems over the period 2014–2024. In the absence of direct drinking water data, ecological risk assessments and indirect human exposure evaluations via potential crop irrigation were conducted using PFAS concentrations measured in surface water and wastewater across four regional zones: north (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northwest), west (Northern Cape), east (KwaZulu-Natal, Free State), and south (Eastern and Western Cape). Among the compounds analysed, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was the most prevalent, with concentrations ranging from 315 ng/L in the Eastern Cape to 420 ng/L in the Vaal River (Gauteng), yielding ecological risk quotient (RQ) values of 3.15 and 4.05, respectively, both exceeding the RQ safety threshold of 1. Perfluoro butanoic acid (PFBA) and perfluoro hexanoic acid (PFHxA) also presented moderate ecological risks, with peak concentrations of 380 ng/L (west) and 267 ng/L (north), corresponding to RQ values of 1.10–1.78. The north zone, particularly sites like the Vaal River and Hartbeespoort Dam, exhibited the highest PFAS burden. A strong correlation (r = 0.95) between PFOA and PFHxA suggests common sources of contamination. Spatial variability was more pronounced for PFHxA (CV = 12.84 %) than for PFOA (CV = 9.92 %). Indirect human health risks from crop ingestion were negligible, with hazard quotient (HQ) values below 0.019 and incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) estimates below 2.70 × 10⁻⁸. Despite minimal human health risks, the persistent ecological threats particularly in the north zone underscore the need for enhanced regulatory oversight, long-term monitoring, and targeted PFAS treatment strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11539,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Contaminants","volume":"11 3","pages":"Article 100535"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144322938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}