Primary Productivity in the Golden Horn

The shores of the Golden Horn—once most important seaport of the region—represented throughout history a romantic and recreational venue. This tributary to the Bosphorus, however, became seriously polluted with the extensive industrialization and rapid population growth in Istanbul over the past century. Two main tributaries, the Alibeykoy and the Kagithane, dumped both liquid and solid waste from residential areas and industry (small and large-scale) into the Golden Horn. As a result of this pollution, the landward three to four kilometers of the estuary became swamped with sediment. The dominance of anaerobic activity resulted in a highly unpleasant smell, and the shallow depth as one progressed up the bay restricted navigation. In early 1997 The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality began a dredging operation and gradually diverted all domestic and industrial wastewater discharge from the Golden Horn. Since then there have been remarkable improvements in water quality. This paper presents the state of eutrophication through the water body of the Golden Horn; parameters such as DO, TKN, NH₃-N, NO₃-N, the total phosphorus (TP) and dissolved phosphorus (PO₄-P), phytoplankton and chlorophyll-a have been were analyzed in samples of water taken from various points in the Golden Horn. The presence of DO and the phytoplankton, both indicators of primary productivity in an aquatic body, has been evaluated in relation to former conditions.     

Modification of exopolysaccharide composition and production by three cyanobacterial isolates under salt stress

Background, aim, and scope  

Polysaccharides are renewable resources representing an important class of polymeric materials of biotechnological interest, offering a wide variety of potentially useful products to mankind. Exopolysaccharides (EPSs) of microbial origin with a novel functionality, reproducible physico-chemical properties, stable cost and supply, became a better alternative to polysaccharides of algal origin. EPSs are believed to protect bacterial cells from desiccation, heavy metals or other environmental stresses, including hostimmune responses, and to produce biofilms, thus enhancing the cells chances of colonising special ecological niches. One of the most important stress factor is salt stress for microorganisms. The present investigation is aimed to determine correlation between salt resistance and EPS production by three cyanobacterial isolates (Synechocystis sp. BASO444, Synechocystis sp. BASO507 and Synechocystis sp. BASO511). It is also aimed to investigate the effect of salt concentrations on EPS production by cyanobacteria and effect of salt on monosaccharide composition of EPS.     

Advanced oxidation treatment of physico-chemically pre-treated olive mill industry effluent

In this study, the applicability of physico-chemical methods was investigated for the pre-treatment of the olive mill effluents prior to the discharge into the common sewerage ending with a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The samples were taken from an olive oil industry operated as three-phase process located in Turkey. Various pre-treatment methods including acid craking, polyelectrolyte and lime additions were applied. Advanced oxidation study using Fenton's process was also investigated following pre-treatment by acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte. Acid cracking alone gave satisfactory treatment efficiencies and polyelectrolite additions to the acid-cracked samples enhanced treatment efficiency. Since a complete treatment plant is available at the end of the sewer system, results indicated that the effluents of the investigated industry could be discharged into the municipal sewerage in the case of total chemical oxygen demand (COD(tot)), suspended solid (SS) and volatile suspended solid (VSS) concentrations according to the Turkish Water Pollution Control Regulation after pre-treatment with 5 ppm anionic polyelectrolyte following acid cracking. The minimum COD(tot), SS and VSS removals were observed when raw wastewater was pre-treated with lime and the discharge standards to the municipal sewer system could not be met. Advanced oxidation with Fenton's process was applied after acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte treatment in order to investigate further reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration for minimizing the influence of this industrial discharge on the existing municipal wastewater treatment plant. Results indicated that COD(tot) removal increased up to 89% from 74% after Fenton's oxidation for the acid cracked samples in which cationic polyelectrolite (10 ppm) was added.     

The relationships among tourism development,energy demand,and growth factors in developed and developing countries

The objective of the study is to explore the different factors that affect tourism development in the panel of 34 developed and developing countries, over the period of 2005–2013. Energy consumption, air pollution, health expenditures, and economic growth played a vital role to change tourism development indicators in the region. The results confirmed the long-run association between the energy, environment, growth, and tourism indicators in the panel of selected 34 countries. The results of fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) indicate that health expenditures have a positive relationship with the tourism indicators, while energy consumption exerts a negative association with the tourism indicators in the region. The results of dynamic ordinary least squares regression also confirmed the same results of FMOLS regarding health expenditures and energy consumption, that is, positive and negative impacts on the tourism indicators. However, carbon dioxide emissions exert a positive relationship with the tourism indicators in the region.     

Treatment of biologically treated effluents from baker's yeast industry by membrane and ozone technologies

This paper presents pilot‐scale membrane treatment results performed on biologically treated effluents from fermentation industry and ozone oxidation on concentrates from the same membrane treatment system. The results obtained from the ultrafiltration (UF) and/or the reverse osmosis (RO) systems indicate that membrane treatment are very effective for COD, Color, NH₃‐N and conductivity removal. Ozone oxidation of the membrane concentrates was tested to increase biodegradability of the wastes. The initial ratios of Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) to Chemical oxygen demand (COD) were increased significantly by applying chemicaloxidation with O₃ and O₃ + H₂O₂.     

Sharps injury prevention for hospital workers

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to collect data on self-reported sharps injuries to develop best practices to reduce them. Methods. Data on sharps injuries were collected for the period of January-October 2008 using Adverse Event Notification Forms already in use at Sema Hospital. Results. On average, 0.2% of all self-reported injuries were sharps injuries averaging one injury per month. Housekeeping staff sustained 64% of such injuries, nurses sustained 36% (5 incidents). Outpatient clinics experienced the most injuries at 28%, followed by the Internal Diseases Inpatient Unit with 21% and the Medical Waste Room with 14%. Injuries often occurred during contact with medical waste bags (28%) and while replacing full sharp-boxes (14%). Conclusion. In summary, reducing needle stick injuries is an important component of the occupational and patient safety program at Sema Hospital. The research described in this study allowed the hospital to provide targeted interventions to increase awareness of the risks of needle stick injuries and reduce such injuries. The steps used in the study can be used in any health care organization in the world to design a customized improvement plan to reduce risk and injury.     

Another outlook into energy-growth nexus in Mexico for sustainable development: Accounting for the combined impact of urbanization and trade openness

This study corroborates the importance of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG-7), intended to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable energy for all, and SDG-8, designed to promote decent work and sustainable economic growth. This article is motivated by the highlighted SDGs and empirically explores the long-run and causality relationship between energy consumption, urbanization, trade openness, and economic growth for annual frequency data from 1965 to 2021 for the case of Mexico. To this end, we leverage the use of fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, and canonical regression estimation methods, while for the direction of causality, the gradual shift and wavelet coherence methods are used. According to the Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), the bounds test traces a long-run relationship between the outlined variables over the sampled period. Empirical evidence validates the energy-induced growth hypothesis. This result resonates with the causality analysis, where energy consumption drives economic growth one way in Mexico. This suggests that Mexico cannot embark on energy-conservative policies, as such actions will hurt economic progress. In addition, unidirectional causality is seen between urbanization, trade openness, and economic growth. These findings have far-reaching implications for economic growth and macroeconomic indicators in Mexico. More insights are highlighted in the concluding section.     

Development of plant-friendly vermicompost using novel biotechnological methods

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - For the first time in the world, raw tea waste from tea plants was mineralized by rapid biotechnological methods using beneficial worms, enzymes...     

Income inequality and CO2 emissions: nonlinear evidence from Turkey

The income inequality-economy link has been argued by researchers a long time. But the impact of income inequality on environmental pollution is a new investigation topic for developing countries. Turkey is well known as an emerging economy which has a high level of income inequality and CO₂ emissions. Therefore, this paper concentrates on the income inequality-CO₂ emissions link in Turkish economy by applying a nonlinear analysis. This paper integrates economic growth and financial development to the CO₂ emissions specification over the period of 1987–2019. We employ the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag approach to explore the long-run nonlinear linkages between the series. Our findings reveal an asymmetric cointegration among variables. Positive and negative income inequality shocks positively affect CO₂ emissions implying that positive and negative shocks of income inequality enhance CO₂ emissions in the long run. Negative economic growth shocks decrease CO₂ emissions, while positive shocks to financial development increase CO₂ emissions in the long run. We provide important policy suggestions that might be useful to the policymakers to decrease CO₂ emissions in Turkey.