Lead and cadmium exposure network in children in a periurban area in India: susceptibility and health risk

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - To investigate the complex Pb-Cd exposure network in school-going children, a thorough investigation of the probable exposure means (diet, water, and...     

The relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosures and financial performance: a mediating role of employee productivity

This study is trying to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures and financial performances (FP) through mediating role of the employee productivity (EP). This study classifies the CSR performances into four contexts, for instance, environment social governance (ESG), environmental improvement activity scores of CSR, social welfare activity score, and governance structure improvement score. The banking performance is classified into three different aspects such as returns on assets (ROA), returns on equity (ROE), and nominal interest margin profit (NIMP). The study covers the data set start from 2008 to 2019 regarding thirty commercial banks of China. The study uses the linear, non-linear, and quadratic techniques to explore the association between CSR disclosures and banking performances. The linear model result shows that the governance score is significant influencing the banking performance. Moreover, the employee productivities are also positive significant affecting the baking performances. The non-linear results of model show that composite score of ESG with employee productivity has significant influence on financial performance.

     

Proteomic insights into Lysinibacillus sp.-mediated biosolubilization of manganese

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - There has been alarming depletion of manganese (Mn) reserves owing to the ongoing extensive mining operations for catering the massive industrial...     

Microalgal bio-flocculation: present scenario and prospects for commercialization

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The need for sustainable production of renewable biofuel has been a global concern in the recent times. Overcoming the tailbacks of the first- and...     

Biomagnification of naturally-produced methoxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (MeO-PBDEs) in harbour seals and harbour porpoises from the Southern North Sea

Harbour seals and harbour porpoises are top predator species from the North Sea, have long life spans and hence, are known to accumulate high levels of anthropogenic contaminants. To gain knowledge about the behaviour of naturally-produced compounds in these marine mammals, the biomagnification of naturally-produced methoxylated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (MeO-PBDEs) was assessed. The biomagnification of MeO-PBDEs (2′-MeO-BDE 68 and 6-MeO-BDE 47) was lower in harbour seals (all biomagnification factors (BMFs) < 1) compared to the same age–gender groups of the harbour porpoises (all BMFs > 1). This may indicate a better metabolic breakdown of MeO-PBDEs in harbour seals, as was previously suggested for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). In both predators, 6-MeO-BDE 47 had the highest concentrations (range: 45–483 ng/g lw and 2–38 ng/g lw for harbour porpoises and seals, respectively) compared to 2′-MeO-BDE 68 (range: 2–28 ng/g lw and 1–6 ng/g lw for harbour porpoises and seals, respectively). In general, the highest concentrations were found in juveniles, suggesting an increased biotransformation capacity with age or the influence of dilution by growth for both species. Here we show that naturally-produced brominated organic compounds can biomagnify and accumulate in North Sea top predators, although to a lesser extent than anthropogenic lipophilic contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or PBDEs.     

A classification tree based modeling approach for segment related crashes on multilane highways

Introduction

This study presents a classification tree based alternative to crash frequency analysis for analyzing crashes on mid-block segments of multilane arterials.

Method

The traditional approach of modeling counts of crashes that occur over a period of time works well for intersection crashes where each intersection itself provides a well-defined unit over which to aggregate the crash data. However, in the case of mid-block segments the crash frequency based approach requires segmentation of the arterial corridor into segments of arbitrary lengths. In this study we have used random samples of time, day of week, and location (i.e., milepost) combinations and compared them with the sample of crashes from the same arterial corridor. For crash and non-crash cases, geometric design/roadside and traffic characteristics were derived based on their milepost locations. The variables used in the analysis are non-event specific and therefore more relevant for roadway safety feature improvement programs. First classification tree model is a model comparing all crashes with the non-crash data and then four groups of crashes (rear-end, lane-change related, pedestrian, and single-vehicle/off-road crashes) are separately compared to the non-crash cases. The classification tree models provide a list of significant variables as well as a measure to classify crash from non-crash cases. ADT along with time of day/day of week are significantly related to all crash types with different groups of crashes being more likely to occur at different times.

Conclusions

From the classification performance of different models it was apparent that using non-event specific information may not be suitable for single vehicle/off-road crashes.

Impact on Industry

The study provides the safety analysis community an additional tool to assess safety without having to aggregate the corridor crash data over arbitrary segment lengths.     

Social cost of environmental pollution and application of counter measures through clean development mechanism: in the context of developing countries

The developing countries i.e., the non-Annex-I countries (parties to the Kyoto Protocol but not responsible to any reduction target yet) in the Kyoto Protocol whose economies are in transition are also allowed to reduce GHG emissions. Among these, the countries that have accepted the Kyoto Protocol may be benefited from CDM projects to promote sustainable development. The developed countries i.e., the Annex-I countries (that have signed the Kyoto Protocol & are responsible to have specific GHG emission reduction target) or the investing countries, in return, have privilege to purchase CER credits (in units equivalent to one tonne of CO₂ gas emission reduction) to meet the emission target as specified in the Kyoto Protocol. The key step in understanding about CDM is to grasp the concept of “baseline” and “additionality”. The “Baseline” is the emissions level that would have existed if a CDM project had not happened. The feature of an approved CDM project is that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reduction credits; this concept is known as “Additionality”. According to environmental additionality concept, baseline emission minus project emission is equal to emissions reduction. “Investment Additionality,” ultimately rejected during negotiation of the “Marrakech Accords” and “Financial Additionality,” are the two important concepts. The concept of trading of CER matches to the idea of Pigovian tax (equal to the negative externality and which is considered one of the “traditional” means of bringing a modicum of market forces) in Economics, making pollution more costly to the polluter, as the polluters have negative cost since they save money by polluting; hence, there are supposed negative externalities associated with the market activity. Economic theory predicts that in an economy where the cost of reaching mutual agreement between parties is high and where pollution is diffuse, Pigovian tax will be an efficient way to promote the public interest and will lead to an improvement of the quality of life measured by the Genuine Progress Indicator and other human economic indicators, as well as higher gross domestic product growth. We can seek a level of pollution such that the marginal savings (MS) to one polluting unit from pollution (−MC) is equal to marginal damage (MD) from pollution over the entire population, since pollution is a public bad i.e., MS (x*) = ∑MD_i (x*) where ∑D_i (x) is the total damage. Though the responsibility of reduction in emission does not lie on the non-Annex-I countries, still effort of maintaining global emission balance can be expected equally from developed and developing countries. The responsibilities of Kyoto Protocol are (a) to reduce global GHG emissions, (b) to bring about sustainable development in the developing countries lie on above two groups since its effect on February 16, 2005. Different polluters have different costs of pollution control. The least costly way of controlling pollution from various sources that reflects different costs of pollution control making the set of environmental regulations to achieve the emission target at the lowest cost makes the regulation cost-effective. Though efficiency is not attainable for many regulations, cost-effectiveness is attainable.     

Mammalian cell-line based toxicological evaluation of paper mill black liquor treated in a soil microcosm by indigenous alkalo-tolerant Bacillus sp

Organic pollutants present in the soil of a microcosm containing pulp and paper mill black liquor were extracted with hexane/acetone (1:1 v/v) to study the biodegradation and detoxification potential of a Bacillus sp. gas chromatography-mass spectroscopic (GC-MS) analysis performed after biodegradation showed formation of simpler compounds like p-hydroxyhydrocinnamic acid (retention time [RT] 19.3 min), homovanillic acid methyl ester (RT 21.6 min) and 3,5-dimethoxy-p-coumaric alcohol (RT 24.7 min). The methyltetrazolium (MTT) assay for cytotoxicity, 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) assay for dioxin-like behavior and alkaline comet assay for genotoxicity were carried out in the human hepatocarcinoma cell line HuH-7 before and after bacterial treatment. Bioremediation for 15 days reduced toxicity, as shown by a 139-fold increase in black liquor’s LC₅₀ value, a 343-fold reduction in benzo(a)pyrene equivalent value and a 5-fold reduction in olive tail moment. The EROD assay positively correlated with both the MTT and comet assays in post biodegradation toxicity evaluation.     

Response surface optimization of a dynamic dye adsorption process: a case study of crystal violet adsorption onto NaOH-modified rice husk

The adsorption of crystal violet from aqueous solution by NaOH-modified rice husk was investigated in a laboratory-scale fixed-bed column. A two-level three factor (2³) full factorial central composite design with the help of Design Expert Version 7.1.6 (Stat Ease, USA) was used for optimisation of the dynamic dye adsorption process and evaluation of interaction effects of different operating parameters: initial dye concentration (100–200 mg L^?1), flow rate (10–30 mL min^?1) and bed height (5–25 cm). A correlation coefficient (R ²) value of 0.999, model F value of 1,936.59 and its low p value (<0.0001) along with lower value of coefficient of variation (1.38 %) indicated the fitness of the response surface quadratic model developed during the present study. Numerical optimisation applying desirability function was used to identify the optimum conditions for a targeted breakthrough time of 12 h. The optimum conditions were found to be initial solution pH?=?8.00, initial dye concentration?=?100 mg L^?1, flow rate?=?22.88 mL min^?1 and bed height?=?18.75 cm. A confirmatory experiment was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the optimised procedure. Under the optimised conditions, breakthrough appeared after 12.2 h and the column efficiency was determined as 99 %. The Thomas model showed excellent fit to the dynamic dye adsorption data obtained from the confirmatory experiment. Thereby, it was concluded that the current investigation gives valuable insights for designing and establishing a continuous wastewater treatment plant.     

Detecting diclofenac in livestock carcasses in India with an ELISA: a tool to prevent widespread vulture poisoning

Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has caused catastrophic vulture declines across the Indian sub-continent. Here, an indirect ELISA is used to detect and quantify diclofenac in 1251 liver samples from livestock carcasses collected across India between August 2007 and June 2008, one to two years after a ban on diclofenac manufacture and distribution for veterinary use was implemented. The ELISAs applicability was authenticated with independent data obtained using LC-ESI/MS. Of 1251 samples, 1150 (91.9%) were negative for diclofenac using both methods, and 60 (4.8%) were positive at 10-4348 and 10-4441 μg kg(-1) when analysed by ELISA and LC-ESI/MS, respectively. The residue level relationship in the 60 positive samples was highly significant (p < 0.001, r(2) = 0.644). Data suggest that this immunological assay could be used not only for cost effective sample screening, but also for residue level semi-quantification.