Deciphering the role of nanoparticles for management of bacterial meningitis: an update on recent studies

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes called meninges and fluid adjacent the brain and spinal cord. The inflammatory progression...     

Does foreign direct investments impair the ecological footprint? New evidence from the panel quantile regression

This study examines the impact of foreign direct investments on ecological footprint along with other explanatory variables of 92 countries from the year 2001 to 2016. Here, we applied the panel quantile regression model to meet the purpose of our study as it considers unobserved country heterogeneity, unlike other statistical methods. The study reveals that foreign direct investment has a positive relationship with the ecological footprint in each quantile except one, which proves the constancy of the pollution haven hypothesis. Moreover, we also tried to detect the impact of economic growth, manufacturing value-added, the percentage of world exports, and institutional quality on the ecological footprint in this study. The findings of this study also reveal that economic growth and manufacturing value-added are negatively associated with the ecological footprint. With respect to the percentage of world exports and institutional quality, we found a positive relationship with the ecological footprint. From the result of our study, different policy implications have been proposed for host countries and foreign investors on improving the economy through foreign direct investment with minimal ecological footprint.

     

A GIS-based approach for geospatial modeling of groundwater vulnerability and pollution risk mapping in Bou-Areg and Gareb aquifers,northeastern Morocco

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Groundwater resources are the main supply of freshwater for human activities. Nevertheless, during the last 50 years, groundwater has become very...     

Uncurtaining the pivotal role of ABC transporters in diabetes mellitus

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The metabolic disorders are the edge points for the initiation of various diseases. These disorders comprised of several diseases including diabetes,...     

Seasonal food insecurity in Bangladesh: evidences from northern areas

Seasonal food insecurity in Bangladesh is a multidimensional socioeconomic issue emanated from more than just access and availability of food. In general, it has been considered that the northern areas of Bangladesh, treated as monga-prone, is more vulnerable to seasonal food insecurity as compared to any other region of the country. The manifestation of monga is essentially food insecurity and consequent vulnerabilities. The paper investigates the seasonal food insecurity status, coping strategies along with its possible determinants linked to socioeconomic conditions of the affected households in Kurigram, one of the monga-prone districts of northern Bangladesh. A primary survey was conducted to explore the food insecurity status and diverse factors leading to food insecurity in terms of food consumption, livelihood and consequent family experiences in mitigating the severity of food insecurity during the monga (lean) period. The nature of household food insecurity seems to be an outcome of a variety of risk factors, as well as inability to manage those risks due to income and resource constraints. Moreover, a reduction in food intake during the monga period is one of the common scenarios in the study area. Marginal effects and elasticities after probit regression reveal that household’s income, share of per capita medical expenditure, safety net(s) involvement and the area of residence appear to be the leading factors affecting seasonal food insecurity during the monga period to a significant extent. Households with more medical expenditure (68 %), cultivable landholding (9 %) and households residing by the riverside (4 %) have a higher probability of food insecurity than their counterparts. On the contrary, relatively large size family (-16 %), higher income (-4 %) and safety net coverage (-19 %) have reduced the probability of food insecurity during the monga period. Finally, the paper concludes with some policy issues based on on-site observation and econometric analysis to overcome this transitory food insecurity in the monga-prone areas.     

Automated micro-transfer printing with cantilevered stamps

This paper demonstrates the use of a flexible instrumented stamp to enable automated micro transfer printing as a route to large-area, deterministic assembly of microstructured device components or ‘inks’. The ability to instrument the stamp, a critical component for retrieval and placement of a micro device, to detect contact and monitor localized forces during critical events in the printing process not only allows for the development of a robust manufacturing process, but also for a unique vantage point from which to study fundamental issues and phenomena associated with adhesion and delamination of thin films from a variety of substrate materials. This paper presents basic design analysis on the requirements of the cantilevers for compatibility with a typical transfer printing environment. Off-the-shelf thin film strain gages are integrated with a thin elastomeric post as a preliminary prototype and the feasibility of transfer printing with it is demonstrated. Further, the set-up is calibrated to produce force signals for event detection and in situ diagnosis of the process.     

Analysis of radiocaesium in the Lebanese soil one decade after the Chernobyl accident

Fallout from the Chernobyl reactor accident due to the transport of a radioactive cloud over Lebanon in the beginning of May 1986 was studied 12 years after the accident for determining the level of (137)Cs concentration in soil. Gamma spectroscopy measurements were performed by using coaxial high sensitivity HPGe detectors. More than 90 soil samples were collected from points uniformly distributed throughout the land of Lebanon in order to evaluate their radioactivity. The data obtained showed a relatively high (137)Cs activity per surface area contamination, up to 6545Bqm(-2) in the top soil layer 0-3cm. The average activity of (137)Cs in the top soil layer 0-3cm in depth was 59.7Bqkg(-1) dry soil ranging from 15 to 119Bqkg(-1) dry soil. The horizontal variability was found to be about 45% between the sampling sites. The depth distribution of total (137)Cs activity in soil showed an exponential decrease. Estimation of the annual effective dose due to external radiation from (137)Cs contaminated soil for selected sites gave values ranging from 19.3 to 91.6 micro Svy(-1).     

TiO2 nanotubes as solid-phase extraction adsorbent for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in environmental water samples

An analytical method based on TiO2 nanotubes solid-phase extraction (SPE) combined with gas chromatography (GC) was established for the analysis of seven polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): acenaphtylene, acenaphthene, anthracene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene. Factors a ecting the extraction e ciency including the eluent type and its volume, adsorbent amount, sample volume, sample pH and sample flow rate were optimized. The characteristic data of analytical performance were determined to investigate the sensitivity and precision of the method. Under the optimized extraction conditions, the method showed good linearity in the range of 0.01–0.8 g/mL, repeatability of the extraction (RSD were between 6.7% and 13.5%, n = 5) and satisfactory detection limits (0.017–0.059 ng/mL). The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis of surface water (tap, river and dam) samples. The recoveries of PAHs spiked in environmental water samples ranged from 90% to 100%. All the results indicated the potential application of titanate nanotubes as solid-phase extraction adsorbents to pre-treat water samples.     

A quantitative approach to the traffic air quality problem: the Traffic Air Quality index

The Traffic Air Quality (TAQ) model is a simple tool to estimate traffic fine particulate emissions on roadways (g/km) and can be used for both real-time analysis and for localized conformity analysis ("hot-spot" analysis for nonattainment areas) as defined by 40 CFR 93.123. This paper is a follow-up to a study published earlier regarding the development of the TAQ model. This paper shows how local air quality levels can be a factor in traffic management in nonattainment areas. Similar to the industrial source quotas measured in tons per year, it is proposed that road segments are to be assigned emission quotas (or TAQ indices) measured in pollutant mass emitted per road length (g/km) above which traffic-measures have to be taken to reduce the fine-particulates emissions on such road links. The TAQ model as well as traffic-rerouting measures along with the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) protocols can be used to have a real-time control of the traffic conditions along expressways to maintain the fine-particulates emissions below the quota assigned per road link and consequently improving the over all local air quality in nonattainment areas.     

The Distribution and Sources of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Surface Sediments Along the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast

Coastal marine sediment samples were collected from 31 sampling stations along the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea coast. All sediment samples were analyzed to determine aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as well as total organic carbon (TOC) contents and grain size analysis. Total concentrations of 16 EPA-PAHs in the sediments were varied from 88 to 6338 ng g⁻¹ with an average value of 154 ng g⁻¹ (dry weight). However, the concentrations of total aliphatic were varied from 1.3 to 69.9 ng g⁻¹ with an average value of 15.6 ng g⁻¹ (dry weight). The highest contents of PAHs were found in the Eastern harbor (6338 ng g⁻¹), Manzala (5206 ng g⁻¹) and El-Jamil East (4895 ng g⁻¹) locations. Good correlations observed between a certain numbers of PAH concentrations allowed to identify its origin. The average total organic carbon (TOC) percent was varied from 0.91 to 4.54%. Higher concentration of total pyrolytic hydrocarbons (∑COMB) than total fossil hydrocarbons (∑PHE) declared that atmospheric fall-out is the significant source of PAHs to marine sediments of the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. The selected marked compounds, a principal component analysis (PCA) and special PAHs compound ratios (phenanthrene/anthracene vs fluoranthene/pyrene; ∑COMB/∑EPA-PAHs) suggest the pyrogenic origins, especially traffic exhausts, are the dominant sources of PAHs in most locations. Interferences of rather petrogenic and pyrolytic PAH contaminations were noticed in the harbors due to petroleum products deliveries and fuel combustion emissions from the ships staying alongside the quays.