Effects of silver nanoparticles on the freshwater snail Physa acuta: The role of test media and snails' life cycle stage.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used worldwide, most likely leading to their release into the environment and a subsequent increase of environmental concentrations. Studies of their deleterious effects on organisms is crucial to understand their environmental impacts. The freshwater snail Physa acuta was chosen to evaluate the potential deleterious effects of AgNPs and their counterpart AgNO3 , through water-only exposures. The toxicity of AgNPs is greatly influenced by medium composition. Thus, 2 media were tested: artificial pond water (APW) and modified APW (adapted by removing calcium chloride). Acute tests (96 h) were performed with juvenile and adult snails in both media to assess lethality, and egg mass chronic tests were conducted with APW medium only to assess embryo viability and mortality, carried out until 90% hatching success was reached in the control. Acute toxicity increased with decreasing shell length for both silver forms (ion and nanoparticle); that is, juveniles were more sensitive than adults. Different test media led to dissimilar median lethal concentrations, with chloride playing an important role in toxicity, most likely by complexation with silver ions, which would reduce the bioavailability, uptake, and toxicity of silver. Chronic tests showed that hatching success was more sensitive to silver in the ionic form than in the particulate form. Different forms of silver, exposure media, and life cycle stages led to different patterns of toxicity, highlighting an impairment in the snails' life cycle. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:243-253. © 2016 SETAC.

Geographically distributed classification of surface water chemical parameters influencing fate and behavior of nanoparticles and colloid facilitated contaminant transport.

The current production and use of nanomaterials in consumer products have increased the concern about the possibility that these enter the rivers during their entire life cycle. Further, many aquatic contaminants undergo partitioning to the ubiquitous aquatic colloids. Here is presented the development of a set of European water types for environmental risk assessment of chemicals transported as nanovectors as is the case of environmental fate of manufactured nanoparticles and colloid-bound contaminants. A compilation of river quality geochemical data with information about multi-element composition for near 800 rivers in Europe was used to perform a principal component analysis (PCA) and define 6 contrasting water classes. With the aid of geographical information system algorithms, it was possible to analyse how the different sampling locations were predominantly represented within each European water framework directive drainage basin. These water classes and their associated Debye-Hückel parameter are determining factors to evaluate the large scale fate and behaviour of nanomaterials and other colloid-transported pollutants in the European aquatic environment.

Corrections in grasp posture in response to modifications of action goals.

There is ample evidence that people plan their movements to ensure comfortable final grasp postures at the end of a movement. The end-state comfort effect has been found to be a robust constraint during unimanual movements, and leads to the inference that goal-postures are represented and planned prior to movement initiation. The purpose of this study was to examine whether individuals make appropriate corrections to ensure comfortable final goal postures when faced with an unexpected change in action goal. Participants reached for a horizontal cylinder and placed the left or right end of the object into the target disk. As soon as the participant began to move, a secondary stimuli was triggered, which indicated whether the intended action goal had changed or not. Confirming previous research, participants selected initial grasp postures that ensured end-state comfort during non-perturbed trials. In addition, participants made appropriate on-line corrections to their reach-to-grasp movements to ensure end-state comfort during perturbed trials. Corrections in grasp posture occurred early or late in the reach-to-grasp phase. The results indicate that individuals plan their movements to afford comfort at the end of the movement, and that grasp posture planning is controlled via both feedforward and feedback mechanisms.