In agricultural cropping systems, crop residues are sources of organic carbon (C), an important factor influencing denitrification. The effects of red clover, soybean, and barley plant residues and of glucose on denitrifier abundance, denitrification gene mRNA levels, nitrous oxide (N(2)O) emissions, and denitrification rates were quantified in anoxic soil microcosms for 72 h. nosZ gene abundan...

A unique type of waste--air pollution control (APC) residues--has received increasing attention in China since the first large-scale incinerator, Shanghai Yuqiao municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration plant, was installed in the country in 2002. The APC residues of this particular plant are similar to other residues that will be produced in other incineration plants under construction in Chin...

Limited data are available on the fate of clothianidin under realistic agricultural production conditions. The present study is the first large-scale assessment of clothianidin residues in soil and bee-relevant matrices from corn and canola fields after multiple years of seed-treatment use. The average soil concentration from 50 Midwest US corn fields with 2 yr to 11 yr of planting clothianidin...

Recent monitoring shows that the majority of urban streams in the United States are contaminated by pesticide residues, and the contamination is mainly due to runoff from residential landscapes. In this study we evaluated the effect of landscape planting on persistence of the herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba in soil under laboratory conditions. The herbicides exhibited substantially different persi...

DDT is largely used in Brazil for the malaria vector control. Due to this application, problems related to contamination risks of exposed professionals are often detected. Analysis of this pesticide and its analogs in blood can be used to estimate their concentrations in human body. Studies of the determination of organochlorine pesticide residues in human serum have been accomplished in Brazil...

The usage and acceptability of biological control methods are set to increase in agriculture in the future because of food safety and pesticide residue issues. Biological control implementation in Turkey started with control of cottony cushion scale Icerya purchasi (Homoptera: Margarodidae) through the introduction and release of Rodolia cardinalis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in citrus plantati...

If pesticide residues are detected at over the uniform limit (0.01 ppm) in processed foods, the maximum residue limits of pesticides in each ingredient should be considered. For that purpose, analysis of pesticide residues in the ingredients would be required, but in many cases it is difficult to obtain ingredients from the same lot, or the processed foods may have been manufactured overseas. T...

In this study, point mutations were introduced in plant uncoupling mitochondrial protein AtUCP1, a typical member of the plant uncoupling protein (UCP) gene subfamily, in amino acid residues Lys147, Arg155 and Tyr269, located inside the so-called UCP-signatures, and in two more residues, Cys28 and His83, specific for plant UCPs. The effects of amino acid replacements on AtUCP1 biochemical prope...

In 2008, major areas of discussion at the ICPBR Bee Protection Group meeting were the development of a honey bee risk assessment scheme for systemic pesticides and revision of the test guidelines for semi-field and field studies. The risk assessment scheme for systemic pesticides is based on analysis of conditions for exposure of bees to residues. These are based on a stepwise approach, startin...