Emerging applications of green coconut: A promising lignocellulosic biomass

Waste accumulation is a grave concern and becoming a transboundary challenge for environment. During Covid-19 pandemic, diverse type of waste were collected due to different practices employed in order to fight back the transmission rate of the virus. Covid-19 was proved to be capricious catastrophe of this 20th century and even not completely eradicated from the world. The havoc created by this imperceptible quick witted, pleomorphic deadly virus can't be ignored. Though a number of vaccines have been developed by the scientists but there is a fear of getting this virus again in our life. Medical studies prove that immunity drinks will help to reduce its reoccurrences. Coconut water is widely used among all drinks available globally. Its massive consumption created an incalculable pile of green coconut shells around the different corners of the world. This practice generating enormous problem of space acquisition for the environment. Both the environment and public health will benefit from an evaluation of quantity of coconut waste that is being thrown and its potential to generate value added products. With this context, present article has been planned to study different aspects like, coconut waste generation, its biological properties and environmental hazards associated with its accumulation. Additionally, this review illustrates, green technologies for production of different value added products from coconut waste.     

Literary and economic impact of the Bhopal gas tragedy

The 1984 Bhopal disaster is widely regarded as a watershed event in the field of process-safety and has been largely responsible for a paradigm shift in the outlook of both industry and the public towards risk management within the processing industries. The Bhopal disaster has led to increased regulations and awareness for process-safety related activities across the globe. This paper reports the effect of the infamous Bhopal incident on the research community and examines the performance of manufacturing industries following the disaster.

For this paper, databases of scientific publications were used to investigate research trends in the safety area following the 1984 Bhopal disaster. Our analysis focuses on prominent safety-related research fields that have emerged following the gas tragedy as well as economic indicators of the processing industries. The study reveals that the process industry has consistently progressed over the years, in spite of added regulations and a worsened public image following the Bhopal disaster, and promises to be a stable economy in the future.     

Development and evaluation of air pollution–linked quality of life (AP-QOL) questionnaire: insight from two different cohorts

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, the air pollution–related quality of life (AP-QOL) questionnaire was carried out in two geographically and economically different...     

Cognitive and institutional influences on farmers’ adaptive capacity: insights into barriers and opportunities for transformative change in central Arizona

The prospect of unprecedented environmental change, combined with increasing demand on limited resources, demands adaptive responses at multiple levels. In this article, we analyze different attributes of farm-level capacity in central Arizona, USA, in relation to farmers’ responses to recent dynamism in commodity and land markets, and the institutional and social contexts of farmers’ water and production portfolios. Irrigated agriculture is at the heart of the history and identity of the American Southwest, although the future of agriculture is now threatened by the prospect of “mega-droughts,” urbanization and associated inter-sector and inter-state competition over water in an era of climatic change. We use farm-level survey data, supplemented by in-depth interviews, to explore the cross-level dimensions of capacity in the agriculture–urban nexus of central Arizona. The surveyed farmers demonstrate an interest in learning, capacity for adaptive management and risk-taking attitudes consistent with emerging theory of capacity for land use and livelihood transformation. However, many respondents perceive their self-efficacy in the face of future climatic and hydrological change as uncertain. Our study suggests that the components of transformational capacity will necessarily need to go beyond the objective resources and cognitive capacities of individuals to incorporate “linking” capacities: the political and social attributes necessary for collective strategy formation to shape choice and opportunity in the future.     

Influence of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes and confounding factors on the frequency of sister chromatid exchange and micronucleus among road construction workers

In the present study, we have investigated the influence of polymorphism of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes and confounding factors such as age, sex, exposure duration and consumption habits on cytogenetic biomarkers. Frequency of sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs), high frequency cell (HFC) and cytokinesis blocked micronuclei (CBMN) were evaluated in peripheral blood lymphocytes of 115 occupationally exposed road construction workers and 105 unexposed individuals. The distribution of null and positive genotypes of glutathione-S transferase gene was evaluated by multiplex PCR among control and exposed subjects. An increased frequency of CBMN (7.03 ± 2.08); SCE (6.95 ± 1.76) and HFC (6.28 ± 1.69) were found in exposed subjects when compared to referent (CBMN - 3.35 ± 1.10; SCE - 4.13 ± 1.30 and HFC - 3.98 ± 1.56). These results were found statistically significant at p < 0.05. When the effect of confounding factors on the frequency of studied biomarkers was evaluated, a strong positive interaction was found. The individuals having GSTM1 and GSTT1 null genotypes had higher frequency of CBMN, SCE and HFC. The association between GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes and studied biomarkers was found statistically significant at p < 0.05. Our findings suggest that individuals having null type of GST are more susceptible to cytogenetic damage by occupational exposure regardless of confounding factors. There is a significant effect of polymorphism of these genes on cytogenetic biomarkers which are considered as early effects of genotoxic carcinogens.     

Inorganic Acid Emission Factors of Semiconductor Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

A huge amount of inorganic acids can be produced and emitted with waste gases from integrated circuit manufacturing processes such as cleaning and etching. Emission of inorganic acids from selected semiconductor factories was measured in this study. The sampling of the inorganic acids was based on the porous metal denuders, and samples were then analyzed by ion chromatography. The amount of chemical usage was adopted from the data that were reported to the Environmental Protection Bureau in Hsin-chu County according to the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency regulation. The emission factor is defined as the emission rate (kg/month) divided by the amount of chemical usage (L/month). Emission factors of three inorganic acids (i.e., hydrofluoric acid [HF], hydrochloric acid [HQ], and sulfuric acid [H₂SO₄]) were estimated by the same method. The emission factors of HF and HCl were determined to be 0.0075 kg/L (coefficient of variation [CV] = 60.7%, n = 80) and 0.0096 kg/L (CV = 68.2%, n = 91), respectively. Linear regression equations are proposed to fit the data with correlation coefficient square (R²) = 0.82 and 0.9, respectively. The emission factor of H₂SO₄, which is in the droplet form, was determined to be 0.0016 kg/L (CV = 99.2%, n = 107), and its R² was 0.84. The emission profiles of gaseous inorganic acids show that HF is the dominant chemical in most of the fabricators.     

World demand for cobalt: An econometric study

This article analyses the world demand for cobalt. It estimates short- and long-run elasticities with respect to price, activity and in some cases with respect to substitute-complement variables. For the USA these estimates have been obtained for all the important end-use categories. Aggregate elasticities are estimated for Japan, West Germany, France and for the non-communist world (excluding the USA). The appendix to the paper models price setting in the cobalt market and presents two simple simulations conducted on the world cobalt market.     

Air pollution modeling for an industrial complex and model performance evaluation

Jamshedpur, the steel city of India situated in the eastern part of India is affected by increasing air pollution levels as a result of concentrated industrial activities. The impact of NOx emissions resulting from various air pollution sources, viz. industries, vehicles and domestic, was estimated using Industrial Source Complex Short-Term gaussian dispersion model. The contribution of NOx concentration from industrial, vehicular and domestic sources was found to be 53, 40 and 7%. Further statistical analysis was carried out to evaluate the model performance by comparing measured and predicted NOx concentrations. The model performance was found good with an accuracy of about 68%.     

Refinery evaluation of optical imaging to locate fugitive emissions

Fugitive emissions account for approximately 50% of total hydrocarbon emissions from process plants. Federal and state regulations aiming at controlling these emissions require refineries and petrochemical plants in the United States to implement a Leak Detection and Repair Program (LDAR). The current regulatory work practice, U.S. Environment Protection Agency Method 21, requires designated components to be monitored individually at regular intervals. The annual costs of these LDAR programs in a typical refinery can exceed US$1,000,000. Previous studies have shown that a majority of controllable fugitive emissions come from a very small fraction of components. The Smart LDAR program aims to find cost-effective methods to monitor and reduce emissions from these large leakers. Optical gas imaging has been identified as one such technology that can help achieve this objective. This paper discusses a refinery evaluation of an instrument based on backscatter absorption gas imaging technology. This portable camera allows an operator to scan components more quickly and image gas leaks in real time. During the evaluation, the instrument was able to identify leaking components that were the source of 97% of the total mass emissions from leaks detected. More than 27,000 components were monitored. This was achieved in far less time than it would have taken using Method 21. In addition, the instrument was able to find leaks from components that are not required to be monitored by the current LDAR regulations. The technology principles and the parameters that affect instrument performance are also discussed in the paper.     

Prenatal diagnosis of complete atrioventricular septal defect with truncus arteriosus

Truncus arteriosus (TA) is a rare cardiac anomaly constituting less than 1% of all congenital heart defects. Its association with complete atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) is extremely unusual and only 12 cases diagnosed postnatally or postmortem have been reported so far. We describe the first case of truncus arteriosus with AVSD to be diagnosed prenatally by fetal echocardiography. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.