Comparative effect of organic amendments on physio-biochemical traits of young and old bean leaves grown under cadmium stress: a multivariate analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The current study investigated the influence of organic amendments on cadmium (Cd) uptake and its effects on biochemical attributes of young and old...     

Bioremediation of tannery effluent by Cr- and salt-tolerant bacterial strains

Microorganisms have great potential to control environmental pollution, particularly industrial sources of water pollution. Currently, leather industry is regarded as the most polluting and suffering from negative impacts due to the pollution it adds to the environment. Chromium, one of the hazardous pollutants discharged from tanneries, is highly toxic and carcinogenic in nature. Effective treatment of tannery effluent is a dire need of the era as a part of environmental management. Among all the wastewater treatment technologies, bioremediation is the most effective and environment-friendly tool to manage the water pollution. The present study evaluated the potential of 11 previously isolated bacterial strains, tolerant to high concentrations of salts and Cr for the bioremediation of tannery effluent. Among all the tested strains, Enterobacter sp. HU38, Microbacterium arborescens HU33, and Pantoea stewartii ASI11 were found most effective in reducing biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), and chromium (Cr) 70, 63, 57, 87, and 54%, respectively, of tannery effluent and proliferated well under highly toxic conditions, at 9 days of incubation. The pollutant removal efficacy of these bacterial strains can be improved by extending the incubation period or by increasing the amount of inoculum.     

Nanocarrier-mediated co-delivery systems for lung cancer therapy: recent developments and prospects

Environmental Chemistry Letters - Research has recently focused on combinational therapy using nanocarriers to overcome the obstacles associated with conventional therapy of lung cancer. The...     

Correlation of cadmium and aluminum in blood samples of kidney disorder patients with drinking water and tobacco smoking: related health risk

The combined exposure to aluminum (Al) and cadmium (Cd) causes more pronounced adverse health effects on humans. The kidneys are the main organs affected by internal exposure to Cd and Al via food and non-food items. The objective of present study was to measure the Al and Cd concentrations in cigarettes tobacco (branded and non-branded) and drinking water (domestic treated, ground and lake water) samples in southern part of Pakistan, to assess the risk due to ingestion of water and inhalation of cigarettes smoke containing high concentrations of both elements. The study population (kidney disorder and healthy) divided into two group based on consuming lake and ground water, while smoking non-branded cigarette as exposed, while drinking domestic treated water and smoking branded cigarette as non-exposed. Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determined Cd and Al concentrations in tobacco, drinking water and blood samples. The resulted data indicated that the levels of Al and Cd in lake and underground water were higher than the permissible limit in drinking water recommended by the World Health Organization. The biochemical parameters of exposed and referent patients, especially urinary N-acetyl-h-glucosaminidase, were used as a biomarkers of kidney disorder. Exposed kidney disorder patients have higher levels of Cd and Al than the exposed referents subjects, while difference was significant when compared to resulted data of non-exposed patients and referents (p = 0.01–0.001). The pearson correlation showed positive correlation between both toxic element concentrations in water, cigarettes versus blood samples of exposed subjects (r = 0.20–0.67 and 0.71–0.82), while lower values were observed for non-exposed subjects (r = 0.123–0.423 and 0.331–0.425), respectively.

     

Adsorptive removal of Drimarine Red HF-3D dye from aqueous solution using low-cost agricultural waste: batch and column study

This study involves the utilisation of peanut husk for the removal of Drimarine Red HF-3D dye from aqueous solutions. Batch study experiments were conducted with native, HNO₃-treated and Na-alginate-immobilised peanut husk biomass. Maximum dye removal (95.24 mg/g) was obtained with HNO₃-treated biomass. The experimental data were successfully explained with a pseudo-second-order kinetic model for all types of biosorbents. The equilibrium data fitted well to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model. A thermodynamic study was also carried out to check the nature of the adsorption process. A fixed-bed column study for Drimarine Red HF-3D was carried out to optimise the effect of bed height, flow rate and initial dye concentration using peanut husk biomass. The column study showed that biosorption capacity increased with the increase in initial dye concentration and bed height, but decreased with increased flow rate. Data for Drimarine Red HF-3D were in very good agreement with the bed depth service time model. Fourier transform infrared analysis demonstrated the involvement of different functional groups in dye biosorption. These results showed that peanut husk biomass possessed good potential for the removal of Drimarine Red HF-3D from aqueous solution.     

Estimation of aerosol optical depth in relation to meteorological parameters over eastern and western routes of China Pakistan economic corridor

This study finds out seasonal and monthly variations in Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) over eastern and western routes of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the relationship between AOD and meteorological parameters (i.e., temperature, rainfall and wind speed). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) data was used from the terra satellite for the period of 2000-2016. This study aims to overtake the conventional view of the purpose of using the satellite datasets. This study takes on to the concept that validated satellite data sets rather should be used for the analysis instead of just validation specifically for our study region. Hence, after comparing MODIS AOD with MISR AOD, only MISR AOD dataset is used for further analysis. The results show a decreasing trend of AOD in summer season, a positive relationship between temperature and AOD during winter and spring seasons whereas a positive relationship between wind speed and AOD in winter and spring seasons over eastern and western routes. Periodic analysis of MODIS AOD and MISR AOD depicts May-Aug as the peak period of aerosol concentration over central Pakistan. The inter-annual analysis shows the aerosol trend remained higher during summer season however rainfall shows the washout effect. Eastern route has higher standard deviation and larger values for aerosol prevalence as compared to western route. The trajectory analysis using the HYSPLIT model suggests the bias of air mass trajectory caused deviation in the aerosol trend in the year 2014.     

International tourism,digital infrastructure,and CO2 emissions: fresh evidence from panel quantile regression approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The main motivation behind this study is the importance of tourism and ICT industry in the economic development of a country and their potential...     

Re-evaluating the dynamic role of shadow economy and environmental policy stringency in the energy-growth nexus in China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper examines the impact of shadow economy and environmental policy stringency on energy consumption and economic growth in the case of China...     

The coupling of sand with ZVI/oxidants achieved proportional and highly efficient removal of arsenic

• Simply doping sands with ZVI achieved an even activation of ZVI by oxidants. • Sand doping facilitated proportional As trapping along the ZVI/oxidants column. • ZVI/sand/oxidants are highly efficient for arsenic removal. • ZVI/sand/oxidants reduced significantly the Fe²⁺ leaching and effluent turbidity. • More than 54% of arsenic was reduced to As(III) in ZVI/sand/oxidants system. The coupling of zero-valent iron (ZVI) with common oxidants has recently achieved very rapid and highly efficient removal of Heavy metals from wastewater. However, the uniform activation of ZVI throughout the column and the proportional removal of target contaminants are urgently required for the prevention of premature filter clogging and the extension of the effective column operational time. In this study, we successfully achieved this objective by simply doping granular sand with ZVI at appropriate weight ratios. When pure ZVI packed column was spiked with oxidants, the majority of As trapping occurred between the column inlet and the first sampling point. In a packed column with a 1:20 mixture of ZVI and sand, the average As removal efficiency was 36 (1st), 13.1 (2nd), 18.5 (3rd), 19.2 (4th) and 5.9% (5th outlet). The overall arsenic removal performance of the composite filling system of ZVI/sand was equally as efficient as that of the previous pure ZVI-packed system. Moreover, the leaching of Fe was significantly reduced with an increased sand ratio, resulting in clearer water with less turbidity. The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrated that more than 54% of the arsenic was reduced to As(III). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the extensive corrosion of the ZVI surface, which resulted in various species of iron oxyhydroxides responsible for the highly efficient sequester of arsenic through reduction, adsorption, and coprecipitation.