Assessing environmental quality through natural resources,energy resources,and tax revenues

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Developing countries have depleted their natural resources in economic interest to achieve high economic growth. Current urbanization patterns and...     

A pathway toward future sustainability: Assessing the influence of innovation shocks on CO2 emissions in developing economies

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The prior empirical research focuses on examining only the procyclical impact of innovation on carbon emissions (CO2e), in the majority of cases, for...     

Amelioration of toxicopathological effects of cadmium with silymarin and milk thistle in male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Cadmium is an important widely distributed heavy metal in the environment due to its several industrial uses, while milk thistle is an important herb...     

Nexus between green finance and climate change mitigation in N-11 and BRICS countries: empirical estimation through difference in differences (DID) approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Green finance is inextricably linked to investment risk, particularly in emerging and developing economies (EMDE). This study uses the difference in...     

Endocrine disrupting pesticides in soil and their health risk through ingestion of vegetables grown in Pakistan

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - A comprehensive study was conducted to appraise the concentrations of 30 endocrine disrupting pesticides (EDPs) in soil and vegetable samples...     

Assessment of major food crops production-based environmental efficiency in China,India, and Pakistan

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Global warming and food security have led to increasing concern about agricultural crop production efficiency, especially wheat and rice farming. The...     

Heavy metals in cooler waters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Water samples were collected from 400 coolers in Riyadh area. From each cooler, one feed and one cooled water samples were collected. These samples were analyzed for trace metals like Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Spectrophotometer equipped with ultrasonic nebulizer. Out of 400 coolers, water from 382 (95.50%) were found to meet World Health Organization (WHO), Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO), and United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) drinking water standards whereas water from 18 coolers (4.50%) were found to have elevated levels of Fe, Pb, and Ni metals. In one cooler, water was allowed to stand for 12 h and a 1 L sample collected every 2 h. All the metals mentioned above with the exception of Pb were found to increase due to standing time.     

Design and Characterization of PVA–Methacrylic Acid Based Smart Polymeric System for Controlled Release of Metoprolol

In the present work covalently crosslinked smart polymeric system of hydrogel based on poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and methacrylic acid (MA) was designed by free radical polymerization with different compositions using glyoxal (40 % water solution) as crosslinker. It was observed that swelling of hydrogel had a pronounced enhancing effect on increasing the concentration of MA due to availability of more ionized carboxylic groups of MA but produced an opposite effect on increasing the concentration of glyoxal owing to less porous structure. As far as PVA is concerned, swelling did not show significant effect on increasing the concentration of PVA. Hydrophilic polymer PVA rich in hydroxyl group pertained to be highly interactive with water. It was examined that the release of metoprolol tartrate decreased with increased concentration of glyoxal, but increased with increase in concentration of MA. PVA/MA hydrogel was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to study the structure and crystallinity of hydrogel respectively. Morphology was studied through scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis were also performed to characterize thermal stability. It may be concluded that the mechanism of drug release was mainly non-Fickian diffusion.     

Mass,energy and material balances of SRF production process. Part 1: SRF produced from commercial and industrial waste

This paper presents the mass, energy and material balances of a solid recovered fuel (SRF) production process. The SRF is produced from commercial and industrial waste (C&IW) through mechanical treatment (MT). In this work various streams of material produced in SRF production process are analyzed for their proximate and ultimate analysis. Based on this analysis and composition of process streams their mass, energy and material balances are established for SRF production process. Here mass balance describes the overall mass flow of input waste material in the various output streams, whereas material balance describes the mass flow of components of input waste stream (such as paper and cardboard, wood, plastic (soft), plastic (hard), textile and rubber) in the various output streams of SRF production process. A commercial scale experimental campaign was conducted on an MT waste sorting plant to produce SRF from C&IW. All the process streams (input and output) produced in this MT plant were sampled and treated according to the CEN standard methods for SRF: EN 15442, EN 15443. The results from the mass balance of SRF production process showed that of the total input C&IW material to MT waste sorting plant, 62% was recovered in the form of SRF, 4% as ferrous metal, 1% as non-ferrous metal and 21% was sorted out as reject material, 11.6% as fine fraction, and 0.4% as heavy fraction. The energy flow balance in various process streams of this SRF production process showed that of the total input energy content of C&IW to MT plant, 75% energy was recovered in the form of SRF, 20% belonged to the reject material stream and rest 5% belonged with the streams of fine fraction and heavy fraction. In the material balances, mass fractions of plastic (soft), plastic (hard), paper and cardboard and wood recovered in the SRF stream were 88%, 70%, 72% and 60% respectively of their input masses to MT plant. A high mass fraction of plastic (PVC), rubber material and non-combustibles (such as stone/rock and glass particles), was found in the reject material stream.     

Spatial and temporal characterization of trace elements and nutrients in the Rawal Lake Reservoir,Pakistan using multivariate analysis techniques

Rawal Lake Reservoir is renowned for its ecological significance and is the sole source of drinking water of the third largest city of Pakistan. However, fish kill in recent years and anthropogenic impacts from human-related activities in its catchment area have resulted in deterioration of its surface water quality. This study aims to characterize spatial and temporal variations in surface water quality, identify contaminant sources, and compare their levels with quality guidelines. Surface water samples were collected from 10 sites and analyzed for 27 physicochemical parameters for a period of 2 years on a seasonal basis. Concentration of metals in surface water in pre-monsoon were in the order: Fe > Mg > Ca > Mn > Zn > Ni > Cr > Cu > Co > Pb, whereas in post-monsoon, the order of elemental concentrations was: Ca > Mg > Na > Fe > K > Zn > Cr > Li > Pb > Co > Ni > Cu > Mn > Cd. Metals (Ni, Fe, Zn, and Ca), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and nutrients (PO₄³⁻, NO₃–N, and SO₄²⁻) were measured higher in pre-monsoon, whereas concentration of Cu, Mn, Cr, Co, Pb, Cd, K, Na, Mg, Li, Cl⁻, and NH₄–N were recorded higher in post-monsoon. Results highlighted serious metal pollution of surface water. Mean concentration of Zn, Cd, Ni, Cu, Fe, Cr, and Pb in both seasons and Mn in post-monsoon were well above the permissible level of surface water quality criteria. Results stress the dire need to reduce heavy-metal input into the lake basin and suggest that heavy-metal contamination should be considered as an integral part of future planning and management strategies for restoration of water quality of the lake reservoir.