Uptake and concentration of heavy metals in dominant mangrove species from Hainan Island,South China

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - By investigating three dominant mangrove species, namely Aegiceras corniculatum, Kandelia candel, Ceriops tagal and their rhizosediment in Mangrove wetlands...     

Simultaneous removal of cyanobacterial blooms and production of clean water by coupling flocculation with a rotary drum filter

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - A mechanical harvesting technology based on coupling flocculation with a rotary drum filter (RDF, 35-μm) was applied to remove cyanobacterial...     

Investigating the malleable socioeconomic resilience pathway to urban cohesion: a case of Taipei metropolitan area

It is known that globalization has led first- and second-tier cities’ urban restructuring trajectories, excreted pressures, and caused tremendous socioeconomic volatility. This resulted in marginalized communities in dire of social empowerment, employment structure variance, and industry sectoral adjustment. Moreover, recent successive climate and health crisis unfolded and affirmed the state of our urban incompetence to sustain socioeconomic resilience or otherwise; lacking swift responses in providing critical management and services, cites are facing multifaceted challenges. Urban well-being and resilience are at stake. Although the environmental and health dimensional effects are apparent, this study ascertains that the transept multi-scalar analysis within the urban socioeconomic structure is crucial in sustaining core resilience to foster health and well-being of the community. As an integral part of the investigation, the revised DPSIR assessment framework is applied to evaluate the sectoral shift; spatial structure disarray and urban codependence degree are examined within the Taipei metropolitan area (TMA), a medium size but densely populated metropolitan area in Taiwan. The place-based DPSIR analysis ascertained the states and impacts in TMA: (1) A population decline speeded the restructuring of the urban core, while the impact of demographic aging and shrinkage rate mandates proper management and planning responses to the decline process; (2) the socioeconomic state effect is determined but does not critically affect the periphery zone, while an uneven demographic shift within the urban core necessitates dynamic adjustment responses to appropriately provide intergenerational services; (3) the uneven sector redistribution stimulated the core’s spatial and structural inter-dependency with peripheral zones, requiring governance with tighter cross-administration cooperation among respective public sectors; and (4) facing the sector/temporal and demographic pressure, urban cohesiveness in the TMA is greatly affected, which in turn disrupts the resilience pathway toward a cohesion. The study ascertained that the revised DPSIR framework could provide cities facing pressing socioeconomic drivers with effective analysis to allocate pressures, states, and impacts and formulate the necessary responses. To assure the socioeconomic resilience and urban cohesiveness, planning policy should carefully monitor and evaluate socio-demographic and sector redistribution factors to promote the urban resilience.

     

Preparation of Viscose Fibres Stripped of Reactive Dyes and Wrinkle-Free Crosslinked Cotton Textile Finish

The chemical recycling of cellulosic fibres may represent a next-generation fibre–fibre recycling system for cotton textiles, though remaining challenges include how to accommodate fibre blends, dyes, wrinkle-free finishes, and other impurities from finishing. These challenges may disrupt the regeneration process steps and reduce the fibre quality. This study examines the impact on regenerated viscose fibre properties of a novel alkaline/acid bleaching sequence to strip reactive dyes and dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneureas (DMDHEU) wrinkle-free finish from cotton textiles. Potentially, such a bleaching sequence could advantageously be integrated into the viscose process, reducing the costs and environmental impact of the product. The study investigates the spinning performance and mechanical properties (e.g., tenacity and elongation) of the regenerated viscose fibres. The alkaline/acid bleaching sequence was found to strip the reactive dye and DMDHEU wrinkle-free finish from the cotton fabric, so the resulting pulp could successfully be spun into viscose fibres, though the mechanical properties of these fibres were worse than those of commercial viscose fibres. This study finds that reactive dyes and DMDHEU wrinkle-free finish affect the viscose dope quality and the regeneration performance. The results might lead to progress in overcoming quality challenges in cellulosic chemical recycling.     

Cyclodextrin-based supramolecular assemblies: a versatile toolbox for the preparation of functional porous materials

The discovery of ordered mesoporous materials in 1992 by Mobil Oil Corporation scientists has opened great opportunities for new applications in many emerging fields such as heterogeneous catalysis, biocatalysis, energy conversion, biosensors, photocatalytic devices and environmental technologies. Porous materials are grouped by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) into three classes according to their pore diameter: microporous (<?2 nm), mesoporous (2–50 nm) and macroporous (>?50 nm). One of the most versatile methods for the preparation of those materials is the soft template approach which combines the sol–gel process with molecular self-assembly. While the micelles formed by ionic or nonionic surfactants, as well as amphiphilic polymers, have been extensively used as templates, the supramolecular assemblies formed between cyclodextrins and block copolymers have been less investigated, despite their large chemical and structural diversity. This review article focuses mainly on nanostructured porous inorganic materials derived from cyclodextrins or cyclodextrin-based assemblies. More than 100 references are described and discussed, in which we look both at their synthesis and characterization, as well as their applications in the emerging fields of heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. A special attention is paid to the evaluation of the critical parameters that need to be controlled for improving their (photo) catalytic performances.     

Promoting e-mobility in India: challenges,framework, and future roadmap

The purpose of the research is to identify the critical challenges that are impeding the adoption of e-mobility in India. It also aims to give a roadmap how to address these challenges while taking into considerations concerns of all the relevant stakeholders. Based on an in-depth literature review, an exploratory research design is employed to delve deep into various aspects of e-mobility. This is followed by a three-phase Delphi technique to identify and rate the e-mobility challenges in the Indian context. The study successfully identifies four different categories of challenges and proposes integrative framework for e-mobility. Further, the research goes on to lay out the future roadmap for mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India. The research is novel in terms of presenting a holistic viewpoint on e-mobility in India. Its originality lies in identifying the major inhibitors obstructing EVs adoption in India and then suggesting the roadmap how to overcome these impediments for mass adoption of e-mobility.     

三峡库区水土流失特点及其环境危害防治措施探讨

水土流失是三峡库区主要环境问题之一,也是库区产生大量泥沙的根本因素,更是造成库区人民生活贫困的根源。本文就三峡库区水土流失的特点及其环境危害作了分析,提出了相应的防治措施,为水土流失防治工程提供科学依据。