A review on application of activated carbons for carbon dioxide capture: present performance,preparation, and surface modification for further improvement

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The atmosphere security and regulation of climate change are being continuously highlighted as a pressing issue. The crisis of climate change owing to...     

Physiopathology and effectiveness of therapeutic vaccines against human papillomavirus

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a well-known sexually transmitted disorder globally. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the 3rd most common cancer that...     

Chemically degraded soil rehabilitation process using medicinal and aromatic plants: review

In recent decades, the increasing number of degraded lands worldwide makes their rehabilitation essential and crucial. Various techniques have emerged to fulfill these needs but most of them are expensive and difficult to be applied. Revegetation is a cost effective, environmental friendly, and aesthetically pleasing approach suitable for degraded areas. However, the use of edible crops, especially for areas with heavy metals (HM) contamination, is not ecologically suitable because the HM may enter the food chain. Alternatively, non-edible, fast-growing, deep-rooting, and metal-stabilizing plants with high biomass, which can produce high-value products hold a great potential and have been regarded as potential candidates of edible crops. This current review presents the benefits of using aromatic and medicinal plants (AMPs) and their associated microorganisms for revegetation of degraded sites as they are high-value economic crops. We discussed the effect of various stress on productivity of secondary metabolites in AMPs in addition to the potential health risk with human consumption of these plants and their products. A focus was also given to the effect of HM stress on the essential oil (EO) content of certain AMPs. Reported data showed that AMPs growing on HM-contaminated soils are safe products to use as they are not significantly contaminated themselves by HM.

     

Regional disparities in Preventive measures of COVID-19 pandemic in China. A study from international students’ prior knowledge,perception and vulnerabilities

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The COVID-19 pandemic needs immediate solution before inflicting more devastation. So far, China has successfully controlled transmission of COVID-19...     

Photocatalytic degradation of crystal violet dye under sunlight by chitosan-encapsulated ternary metal selenide microspheres

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Organic dyes that are extensively released in wastewater from various industries remain the priority concern in the modern world. Therefore, a novel...     

On the sensitivity of the value of information to risk aversion in two-action decision problems

This paper discusses the sensitivity of the value of information to the risk aversion in two-action decision problems when the initial wealth is uncertain. We demonstrate that there is no general monotonicity between information value and the Arrow–Pratt risk aversion in this setting. We then show that monotonicity exists in the sense of Rubinstein’s measure of risk aversion when the lottery is independent of the initial wealth. Finally, we show that if the lottery is dependent on the initial wealth, then Ross’s measure of risk aversion is needed to characterize this monotonic relation. Our results explain the shape of the sensitivity analysis curve of the value of information to risk aversion and interpret various measures of risk aversion based on their monotonicity with information value.     

The management of process control deployment using interactions in risks analyses

The purpose of this article is to present the concept of risk typology and its use in the management of process control deployment at a fab-wide level. This research provides a comprehensive method based on Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis to control failures that count throughout an organization.The method employed in this research uses a model of risk analysis and typology to operate a demonstration and to infer management practices.It results from this model: (1) the demonstration of equalities among some typologies and (2) a practical manner to use it to manage the deployment of controls and feedbacks throughout an entire manufacturing system. A four years observation of process control deployment underlines the potential of this method to remove silos-effects among risks analyses.To conclude, the concept of typology can sustain process control management and especially the deployment of controls and feedbacks. An industrial observation evaluates its potential of development.     

Sensitive and selective determination of phenylhydrazine in the presence of hydrazine at a ferrocene-modified carbon nanotube paste electrode

The determination of hydrazine derivatives is of special interest because they are toxic and widely used in industry, agriculture and explosives. Electrochemical analysis has become of growing importance in industrial process control, environmental monitoring, and different applications in medicine and biotechnology. In the present work, we used a carbon paste electrode modified by ferrocene and carbon nanotubes for simultaneous determination of phenylhydrazine and hydrazine. The modified electrode showed an excellent character for electrocatalytic oxidization of phenylhydrazine and hydrazine with a 310 mV separation of both peaks. Differential pulse voltammetric peak currents of phenylhydrazine and hydrazine increased linearly with their concentrations at the range of 0.85–700 and 16–800 μM, and the detection limits (3σ) were determined to be 0.6 and 14 μM, respectively. Here, we show that this electrode could be used as an electrochemical sensor for determination of phenylhydrazine and hydrazine in real samples (water and urine) with advantages such as short time of analysis, lack of pretreatment procedures and more cheaper in comparison with some routine analysis methods such as chromatography or spectroscopy. The modified electrode showed good reproducibility, remarkable long-term stability, and especially good surface renewability by simple mechanical polishing.     

The effect of application time of mobilising agents on growth and phytoextraction of lead by Brassica napus from a calcareous mine soil

Phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated sites is often limited by the low-bioavailability of the contaminants. Complexing agents can help to improve this technique by enhancing heavy metal solubility. Pot experiments were conducted to determine the best time for the application of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and sheep manure extract (SME) for phytoremediation of a contaminated soil by Brassica napus. The plant was grown on a mine calcareous soil treated with increasing concentrations of EDTA or SME 30 and 10?days before sowing (T1 and T2) and 10 and 30?days after sowing (T3 and T4). Soil available Pb and lead concentrations in plant organs of Brassica napus increased with EDTA concentration. The EDTA application before seed germination significantly reduced rapeseed seedling emergence and dry weight. However, the actual amount of phytoextracted Pb by rapeseed did not decrease significantly, due to severe growth depression, at high EDTA concentrations when it had applied at a suitable time (T4). SME application after sowing increased plant dry weight and Pb concentration in the soil solution and enhanced the accumulated metal concentrations in shoots and roots. Comparing the effect of EDTA and SME on Pb phytoextraction, the study showed that SME is not more effective than EDTA. The efficiency of EDTA on Pb phytoextraction by Brassica napus depends on the time of application. The most efficient treatment for Pb phytoextraction by rapeseed was application of 2?g EDTA/kg soil at T4.     

Comparative cancer risk assessment of THMs in drinking water from well water sources and surface water sources

This research evaluates the lifetime cancer risks from trihalomethanes in Tehran's drinking water. The Trihalomethanes were measured in seven different water districts. Sixty-three samples were taken from tap water across the city for 7 months. The samples were analyzed for trihalomethanes using US EPA method 524.2. The average concentration of total trihalomethanes in different districts were between 0.81 and 9.0 μg/L, and the highest concentrations were detected in district 2 at 19.5 μg/L. Total lifetime cancer risks assessment from exposure to trihalomethanes in drinking water (ingestion, inhalation, and skin routes) were performed for people living in different districts in Tehran. The lifetime cancer risk was 7.19 × 10(-5) in district 2 (a more affluent neighborhood) where mostly surface water sources is used to supply drinking water and 9.38 × 10(-6) in district 7 (a less affluent neighborhood) which is mainly supplied with well water sources. Based on the population data, the total expected lifetime cancer cases from exposure to trihalomethanes are 104, 108, 81, 81, 41, 27, and three for districts 1 through 7, respectively. The average lifetime cancer risk was 4.33 × 10(-5) which means a total of 606 lifetime cancer cases for the entire province of Tehran. The highest risk from THMs seems to be from the inhalation route followed by ingestion and dermal contacts.