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Abstract The global scientific community is deeply concerned about the deterioration of water quality resulting from the release of industrial effluents. This issue is of utmost importance as it serves to safeguard the environment and combat water pollution. The objective of this work is to elaborate a biomaterial of vegetable origin, based on the twigs of Aleppo pine, and to use it as an abundant and less expensive material for the treatment of wastewater. For this reason, the twigs were treated physically to get the powder called biomaterial FPA (Aleppo pine fiber), which was characterized by physicochemical, and spectroscopic analyses namely scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The crystallinity index of FPA was evaluated by the peak height method. The findings indicate that the FPA powder has an acidic nature, exhibiting a porous structure that promotes the adsorption and binding of molecules. Additionally, it has a zero charge point of 5.8 and a specific surface area of 384 m2.g−1. It is primarily composed of hydroxyl, carboxyl, and amine functional groups, along with mineral compounds and organic compounds, including cellulose and other mineral elements such as Ca, Mg, Fe, Na, P, Al, K, Ni, and Mo. Combining these characteristics, FPA biomaterial has considerable potential for use as an effective adsorbent biomaterial for various wastewater pollutants. Its abundance and relatively low cost make it an attractive solution to the growing challenges of water pollution worldwide. Graphical Abstract

Summary: Background: We studied the poorly-known dynamics of circulating DNA (cir-nDNA), as monitored prospectively over an extended post-surgery period, in patients with cancer. Methods: On patients with stage III colon cancer (N = 120), using personalised molecular tags we carried out the prospective, multicenter, blinded cohort study of the post-surgery serial analysis of cir-nDNA concentration. 74 patients were included and 357 plasma samples tested. Findings: During post-operative follow-up, the patients’ median cir-nDNA concentration was greater (P 18 months post-surgery, the data suggest that the persistence of NETs formation is not due to the adjuvant CT. Interpretation: (1), Given the inter-patient heterogeneity, the post-surgery cir-nDNA level cannot be considered a reliable value, and caution must be exercised when determining mutation allele frequency or the mutation status; and (2), specific studies must be undertaken to investigate the possible clinical impact of the persistent, low-grade inflammation resulting from elevated NETs levels, such as observed in these post-surgery patients, given that such levels are known to potentially induce adverse cardiovascular or thrombotic events. Funding: This work was supported by the H2020 European ERA-NET grant on Translational Cancer Research (TRANSCAN-2).

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA; or 4,4′-isopropylidenediphenol) is an endocrine disrupting chemical. It was widely used in a variety of plastic-based manufactured products for several years. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently reduced the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for BPA by 20,000 times due to concerns about immune-toxicity. Objective: We used human biomonitoring (HBM) data to investigate the general level of BPA exposure from 2007 to 2014 of European women aged 18–73 years (n = 4,226) and its determinants. Methods: Fifteen studies from 12 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) were included in the BPA Study protocol developed within the European Joint Programme HBM4EU. Seventy variables related to the BPA exposure were collected through a rigorous post-harmonization process. Linear mixed regression models were used to investigate the determinants of total urine BPA in the combined population. Results: Total BPA was quantified in 85–100 % of women in 14 out of 15 contributing studies. Only the Austrian PBAT study (Western Europe), which had a limit of quantification 2.5 to 25-fold higher than the other studies (LOQ=2.5 µg/L), found total BPA in less than 5 % of the urine samples analyzed. The geometric mean (GM) of total urine BPA ranged from 0.77 to 2.47 µg/L among the contributing studies. The lowest GM of total BPA was observed in France (Western Europe) from the ELFE subset (GM=0.77 µg/L (0.98 µg/g creatinine), n = 1741), and the highest levels were found in Belgium (Western Europe) and Greece (Southern Europe), from DEMOCOPHES (GM=2.47 µg/L (2.26 µg/g creatinine), n = 129) and HELIX-RHEA (GM=2.47 µg/L (2.44 µg/g creatinine), n = 194) subsets, respectively. One hundred percent of women in 14 out of 15 data collections in this study exceeded the health-based human biomonitoring guidance value for the general population (HBM-GVGenPop) of 0.0115 µg total BPA/L urine derived from the updated EFSA’s BPA TDI. Variables related to the measurement of total urine BPA and those related to the main socio-demographic characteristics (age, height, weight, education, smoking status) were collected in almost all studies, while several variables related to BPA exposure factors were not gathered in most of the original studies (consumption of beverages contained in plastic bottles, consumption of canned food or beverages, consumption of food in contact with plastic packaging, use of plastic film or plastic containers for food, having a plastic floor covering in the house, use of thermal paper…). No clear determinants of total urine BPA concentrations among European women were found. A broader range of data planned for collection in the original questionnaires of the contributing studies would have resulted in a more thorough investigation of the determinants of BPA exposure in European women. Conclusion: This study highlights the urgent need for action to further reduce exposure to BPA to protect the population, as is already the case in the European Union. The study also underscores the importance of pre-harmonizing HBM design and data for producing comparable data and interpretable results at a European-wide level, and to increase HBM uptake by regulatory agencies.

BackgroundChildren’s mental health, including their well-being, is a major public health concern, as the burden of related disorders may last throughout one’s life. Although epidemiological mental health surveillance systems for children and adolescents have been implemented in several countries, they are sorely lacking in France. ObjectiveThis study aims to describe the first step of the implementation of a novel surveillance system in France called Enabee (Etude nationale sur le bien-être des enfants), which focuses on the issue of mental health in children. The system aims to (1) describe the temporal trends in the population-based prevalence of the main mental health disorders and well-being in children aged 3 to 11 years, (2) explore their major determinants, and (3) assess mental health care use by this population. To do this, Enabee will rely on results from a recurrent national cross-sectional homonymous study. This paper presents the protocol for the first edition of this study (called Enabee 2022), as well as initial results regarding participation. MethodsEnabee 2022 is a national cross-sectional study that was implemented in French schools in 2022. It used a probabilistic, multistage, stratified, and balanced sampling plan as follows: first, schools were randomly drawn and stratified according to the type of school. Up to 4 classes per school were then randomly drawn, and finally, all the pupils within each class were selected. The study covered children from preschool and kindergarten (aged 3 to 6 years, US grading system) to fifth grade (aged 6 to 11 years). Children from first to fifth grades provided a self-assessment of their mental health using 2 validated self-administered questionnaires: the Dominic Interactive (DI) and the KINDL. Parents and teachers completed a web-based questionnaire, including the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Parents also answered additional questions about their parenting attitudes; their own mental health; known social, economic, and environmental determinants of mental health in children; and their child’s life habits. Health, education, and family stakeholders were involved in designing and implementing the study as part of a large consultation group. ResultsData were collected from May 2, 2022, to July 31, 2022, in 399 schools across metropolitan France. Teachers completed questionnaires for 5721 pupils in preschool and kindergarten and for 15,263 pupils from first to fifth grades. Parents completed questionnaires for 3785 children in preschool and kindergarten and for 9227 children from first to fifth grades. Finally, 15,206 children from first to fifth grades completed the self-administered questionnaire. ConclusionsEnabee 2022 constitutes the first milestone in the development of a novel national epidemiological surveillance system, paving the way for improved children’s mental health policies in France.

Abstract We consider the following convective Neumann systems: ( S ) { − Δ p 1 u 1 + | ∇ u 1 | p 1 u 1 + δ 1 = f 1 ( x , u 1 , u 2 , ∇ u 1 , ∇ u 2 ) in Ω , − Δ p 2 u 2 + | ∇ u 2 | p 2 u 2 + δ 2 = f 2 ( x , u 1 , u 2 , ∇ u 1 , ∇ u 2 ) in Ω , | ∇ u 1 | p 1 − 2 ∂ u 1 ∂ η = 0 = | ∇ u 2 | p 2 − 2 ∂ u 2 ∂ η on ∂ Ω , $$ ( \mathrm{S} ) \quad \textstyle\begin{cases} -\Delta _{p_{1}}u_{1}+ \frac{ \vert \nabla u_{1} \vert ^{p_{1}}}{u_{1}+\delta _{1} }=f_{1}(x,u_{1},u_{2}, \nabla u_{1},\nabla u_{2}) & \text{in } \Omega , \\ -\Delta _{p_{2}}u_{2}+ \frac{ \vert \nabla u_{2} \vert ^{p_{2}}}{u_{2}+\delta _{2} }=f_{2}(x,u_{1},u_{2}, \nabla u_{1},\nabla u_{2}) & \text{in } \Omega , \\ \vert \nabla u_{1} \vert ^{p_{1}-2}\frac{\partial u_{1}}{\partial \eta }=0= \vert \nabla u_{2} \vert ^{p_{2}-2}\frac{\partial u_{2}}{\partial \eta } & \text{on } \partial \Omega ,\end{cases} $$ where Ω is a bounded domain in R N $\mathbb{R}^{N}$ ( N ≥ 2 $N\geq 2$ ) with a smooth boundary ∂Ω, δ 1 , δ 2 > 0 $\delta _{1}, \delta _{2} >0$ are small parameters, η is the outward unit vector normal to ∂Ω, f 1 , f 2 : Ω × R 2 × R 2 N → R $f_{1}, f_{2}:\Omega \times \mathbb{R}^{2}\times \mathbb{R}^{2N} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ are Carathéodory functions that satisfy certain growth conditions, and Δ p i $\Delta _{p_{i}}$ ( 1 < p i < N $1< p_{i}< N$ , i = 1 , 2 $i=1,2$ ) are the p-Laplace operators Δ p i u i = div ( | ∇ u i | p i − 2 ∇ u i ) $\Delta _{p_{i}}u_{i}=\operatorname{div}(|\nabla u_{i}|^{p_{i}-2}\nabla u_{i})$ for u i ∈ W 1 , p i ( Ω ) $u_{i}\in W^{1,p_{i}}(\Omega )$ . To prove the existence of solutions to such systems, we use a subsupersolution method. We also obtain nodal solutions by constructing appropriate subsolution and supersolution pairs. To the best of our knowledge, such systems have not been studied yet.

With the aim to establish clean and sustainable sludge treatment, green conditioning using natural flocculants has recently gained a growing interest. In this study, a variety of plant materials, namely Moringa (Moringa oleifera) seeds, Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) seeds, Potato (Solanum tuberosum) peels, Aloe (Aloe vera) leaves, Cactus (Opuntia ficus indica) cladodes, and Phragmites (Phragmites australis) stems, were evaluated for their potential bioflocculant activity in conditioning sewage sludge. They were thoroughly characterized to determine their active flocculating compounds. Sludge dewaterability was evaluated by assessing various sludge parameters, including specific resistance to filtration (SRF), dryness of filtration cake (DC), and total suspended solid removal (TSS) from sludge filtrate. The collected results from various physicochemical characterizations of plant materials suggest that the main flocculating agents are carbohydrates in Cactus and Fenugreek and proteins in Moringa, Potato, and Phragmites. Additionally, all tested plant-based flocculants demonstrated effective dewatering performance. Interestingly, compared to the chemical flocculant polyaluminum chloride, Moringa and Cactus showed superior conditioning effects, yielding the lowest SRF values and the highest DC. As a result, the use of these natural flocculants improved sewage sludge filterability, leading to a significant removal of total suspended solids from the filtrate. The conditioning properties of Moringa and Cactus can be attributed to their high protein and sugar content, which facilitates the effective separation of bound water from solids through charge neutralization and bridging mechanisms. Thus, green conditioning using plant-based flocculants, particularly Moringa and Cactus materials, presents a promising and eco-friendly approach to enhance sewage sludge dewatering for safer disposal and valorization.

Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) represents a major challenge for the poultry industry, causing significant economic losses. This problem is exacerbated by the misuse use of antibiotics in Veterinary Medicine, leading to the emergence of resistant strains and thus creating a significant risk to Public Health. This study, carried out on 38 poultry farms in Algeria, involved the collection of 200 samples for the isolation of E. coli strains. The resistance of these strains to frequently used antibiotics was assessed using the agar diffusion method. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was used to determine potential risk factors. The obtained results revealed that E. coli was present in 30% of samples. Alarming levels of resistance were observed against Tetracycline (81.6%), Ampicillin (78.3%), Ciprofloxacin (68.3%) and Nalidixic acid (60%). Stressful environmental conditions in poultry houses, such as temperature variations, high humidity, poor ventilation and stocking density were identified as key factors in the development of avian colibacillosis. In conclusion, the current study highlights the urgent need to strictly monitor and regulate the use of antibiotics in Veterinary Medicine and improve animal welfare in order to minimize the risk it pose to Public Health originated in the farms. In addition, it is essential that farmers maintain optimal environmental conditions in chicken rearing.

Herein, it is revealed for the first time that oxidized detonation nanodiamonds (Ox‐DND) can produce hydrogen under solar irradiation without addition of cocatalyst or formation of heterojunction with another semiconductor. This hydrogen production is investigated using two sacrificial reagents and compared to the one of hydrogenated detonation nanodiamonds (H‐DND). The effect of the Ox‐DND and sacrificial reagent concentrations on the hydrogen production is also studied. At its maximum, a H2 production yield of 32 μmol h−1 is obtained for a Ox‐DND concentration of 12.5 μg mL−1 (using only 1 vol% of triethanolamine as sacrificial reagent), similar to the one of TiO2 nanoparticles tested at the same concentration in the same illumination conditions.