Groundwater resources are of utmost importance in sustaining water related ecosystems, including humans. The long-lasting impacts from anthropogenic activities require early actions, owing to the natural time lag in groundwater formation and renewal. The European Union (EU) policy, within the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), requires Member States to identify and reverse any significant and sustained upward trend in the concentration of pollutants, defining specific protection measures to be included in the River Basin Management Plans (RBMP).  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/wrw4.html  In Italy, official guidelines for trend and trend reversal assessment have been published recently. Statistical methods, such as the Mann-Kendall test for trend analysis and the Sen's method for estimating concentration scenarios, should be applied at the fixed terms stated by the WFD implementation cycles to identify upward trends, while the Pettitt test is proposed for the identification of trend reversal. In this paper, we present an application of a slightly modified version of the Italian Guidelines to a groundwater body in Northern Italy featuring nitrate pollution and discuss its advantages and limitations. In addition to Pettitt test, for the trend reversal analysis, we apply the Mann-Kendall test in two sections and compare the results. We conclude that this method seems more reliable than Pettitt test to identify a reversal point in quality time series. The overall procedure can be easily applied to any groundwater body defined at risk across Europe, for the assessment of the upward trends of pollutants and their reversal, even with little chemical monitoring data. Although focused on the EU legislative framework, this procedure may be relevant for a wider context, allowing to individuate upward trend as early warning for contamination processes in an integrated water resources management context.The geo-referenced regional exposure assessment tool for European rivers (GREAT-ER) is designed to support river basin management or the implementation process within the EU Water Framework Directive by predicting spatially resolved exposure concentrations in whole watersheds. The usefulness of the complimentary application of targeted monitoring and GREAT-ER simulations is demonstrated with case studies for three pharmaceuticals in selected German watersheds. Comparison with monitoring data corroborates the capability of the probabilistic model approach to predict the expected range of spatial surface water concentrations. Explicit consideration of local pharmaceutical emissions from hospitals or private doctor's offices (e.g., for X-ray contrast agents) can improve predictions on the local scale without compromising regional exposure assessment. Pharmaceuticals exhibiting low concentrations hardly detectable with established analytical methods (e.g., EE2) can be evaluated with model simulations. Management scenarios allow for a priori assessment of risk reduction measures. In combination with targeted monitoring approaches, the GREAT-ER model can serve as valuable support tool for exposure and risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in whole watersheds.Mussels are widely used to monitor trace element pollution, but the role of their sex and sexual maturation in the element accumulation was not comprehensively studied and the number of elements under consideration never exceeded three dozen. In this work, concentrations of 67 elements in different tissues of females and males of the Mediterranean mussel are determined. Statistically significant differences are obtained in the element composition of analogous tissues of mussel males and females and in gonads of the same sex at different sexual maturation stages. The significantly higher concentrations of some elements found in gonads of females (Mn, Zn, As) and males (P) at most of the sexual maturation stages suggest essentiality of these elements in the reproduction. Elements exhibit several accumulation patterns in gonads during the ripening, with the most general one being the accumulation after spawning. Indications of a new phenomenon of circulation of most elements in gonads over the reproductive cycle are obtained, with the element concentrations decreasing at the first two stages and increasing at the posterior stages. Principal component analysis shows that the differences in the element accumulation are mainly due to the element uptake pathways and sexual differentiation. The most important identified factors determining the decrease in concentrations of tissue elements are their redistribution over mussel's body, biomass dilution, sequestration, and release with gametes. Five detected non-overlapping clusters of the non-normalized element concentrations in the pooled mussel tissues are associated with macroelements, two groups of trace elements, and two groups of ultratrace elements.Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (N = 6141) for the years 2003-2016 for US adults were analyzed to evaluate the impact of glomerular hyperfiltration on the observed concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorodecanoic acid, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) for several disease groups. Hyperfiltrators were defined as having an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥ 110 mL/min/1.73 m2, and normal filtrators were defined as those having an eGFR between 90 and 110 mL/min/1.73 m2. The seven disease groups for which the data were analyzed were as follows those (i) without any diseases; (ii) with hypertension only; (iii) with albuminuria only; (iv) with anemia only; (v) with diabetes only; (vi) with hypertension and one or more of diabetes, anemia, and albuminuria; and (vii) with two or more of diabetes, anemia, and albuminuria without hypertension. For almost every PFAA, for all seven dise the lowest for every PFAA as compared with other disease groups among hyperfiltrators.Aiming at perfecting the proposed three-stage cascade-scrubbing desulfurization technology, ASPEN PLUS simulations of seawater/seawater cascade-scrubbing desulfurization for an exhaust gas scrubber designed for a 10-MW large-scale marine diesel engine were performed to fix a reasonable desulfurization share for the main scrubbing section. Accordingly, three typical desulfurization share setups of 80%, 85%, and 90% were compared under various operational conditions by varying the fuel-sulfur content, liquid/gas ratio, and seawater alkalinity. In complying with the desulfurization requirements of emission control areas, 85% was obtained as the optimal desulfurization share among the three setups. Again, under the selected 85% setup, the cascade-scrubbing desulfurization was numerically compared with the conventional once-through open-loop solution, so as to confirm the seawater-saving advantage of the cascade-scrubbing desulfurization technology used for the exhaust gas of large-scale marine diesels. At relatively higher sulfur content above 3.