Environmental factors affecting the frequency of road traffic accidents: a case study of sub-urban area of Pakistan

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are among the life-threatening issues facing rural as well as sub-/urban communities. Several factors contribute to RTAs ranging from human to technical and natural/environmental impacts. Anthropogenic air pollution and corresponding environmental factors also increase the probability of RTAs. Current study reports the relationship of the weather conditions to RTAs. The study establishes the relevancy of different weather conditions like rainfall, temperature, fog, and wind storm with the incidences of RTAs in rural and urban settings of Vehari, Punjab—Pakistan. The results of the study showed that rainfall, severe coldness, fog, and heat conditions were directly related with the occurrence of RTAs. The percentage of RTAs which occurred due to fog, rainfall, temperature, and other weather-related factors was 34, 25, 21, and 20%, respectively. The age of the driver significantly correlated (R²?=?0.60) with RTAs; the drivers in the age group 40–60 years caused the least RTAs during their drive. Since the smaller vehicles were involved in maximum RTAs, it relates negatively (R²?=?0.82) to vehicles power. Among different vehicles motor bikes were involved in most (42%) of the reported RTAs. Therefore, during severe weather conditions, vehicles with smaller size and young drivers must be dealt with carefully while interacting (crossing, overtaking, and maneuvering) on the roads regardless of rural or urban conditions. Factors including civic sense, traffic education, vehicle size, drivers’ maturity, road conditions, and environmental impacts may be considered while designing traffic rules and traffic aware campaigns specific for developing countries such as Pakistan.

     

Hydrous ferric oxide nanoparticles hosted porous polyethersulfone adsorptive membrane: chromium (VI) adsorptive studies and its applicability for water/wastewater treatment

In this present study, adsorptive membranes for Cr(VI) ion removal were prepared by blending polyethersulfone (PES) with hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) nanoparticles (NPs). The effects of HFO NPs to PES weight ratio (0–1.5) on the physicochemical properties of the resultant HFO/PES adsorptive membranes were investigated with respect to the surface chemistry and roughness as well as structural morphologies using different analytical instruments. The adsorptive performance of the HFO NPs/PES membranes was studied via batch adsorption experiments under various conditions by varying solution pH, initial concentration of Cr(VI), and contact time. The results showed that the membrane made of HFO/PES at a weight ratio of 1.0 exhibited the highest adsorption capacity which is 13.5 mg/g. Isotherm and kinetic studies revealed that the mechanism is best fitted to the Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order model. For filtration of Cr(VI), the best promising membranes showed improved water flux (629.3 L/m² h) with Cr(VI) ion removal of 75%. More importantly, the newly developed membrane maintained the Cr(VI) concentration below the maximum contamination level (MCL) for up to 9 h.

     

Growth and physiological response of spinach to various lithium concentrations in soil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Lithium (Li) exploitation for industrial and domestic use is resulting in a buildup of the element in various environmental components that results in...     

Graphene and its derivatives: synthesis,modifications, and applications in wastewater treatment

Graphene was discovered in 2004 and has attracted intensive interests because of its unique mechanical, electric, thermal, optical, and structural properties, which makes graphene a potential candidate for various applications. Graphene is being used as a composite or filler material with metals, metal oxides, and polymers for potential advanced applications in solar cells, lithium-ion batteries, photocatalysis and sensing. These applications depend upon the distinctive properties of graphene, which in turn depend on the adopted synthetic approach. This article reviews the recent developments in synthesis of graphene and related composite materials. The synthesis of graphene through exfoliation, epitaxial growth and direct growth via carbon source, and modification approaches by covalent and noncovalent methodologies are discussed. Graphene-based metal and metal oxide composites for the purification of wastewater using photolytic process are also presented.     

Supercritical water oxidation of phenol and process enhancement with in situ formed Fe2O3 nano catalyst

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - During the past few decades, the treatment of hazardous waste and toxic phenolic compounds has become a major issue in the pharmaceutical, gas/oil,...     

Robust bioinspired surfaces and their exploitation for petroleum hydrocarbon remediation

The current improvement in science and engineering, actively dealing with surfaces and interfaces, turns into a functioning control with a thriving advancement propensity. Superlyophobic/superlyophilic phenomena in surface sciences have pulled in broad considerations of researchers and specialists. Inspired by the natural and living organism, researchers have designed different biomimetic materials with exceptional surface wettability, such as the smart wetting of asymmetric spider silk surfaces. These smart materials with superlyophobic/superlyophilic wettability are generally utilized for water assortment, self-cleaning, fluid transportation and separation, and many researchers’ domains. Among them, emulsion separation, including division of oil-water blend, mixtures of immiscible liquids and oil-water emulsions, is highlighted by an increasing number of researchers. Numerous materials with one- and two-dimensional morphology, smart surfaces, and super wettability have been effectively designed and utilized in various scientific research applications. We expect that these bioinspired materials with super wettability can have promising applications in practical for emulsion destabilization and liquid transportation.

     

A review on proliferation of artificial intelligence in wind energy forecasting and instrumentation management

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Energy is the source of economic growth, and energy consumption indicates the country’s state of development. Energy engineering is a relatively...     

Aging-independent and size-dependent genotoxic response induced by titanium dioxide nanoparticles in mammalian cells

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles(TiO_2 NPs) are subjected to various transformation processes(chemical, physical and biological processes) in the environment, potentially affecting their bioavailability and toxic properties. However, the size variation of TiO_2 NPs during aging process and subsequent effects in mammalian cells are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to illustrate the adverse effects of TiO_2 NPs in different sizes(5, 15 and 100 nm) during aging process on human-hamster hybrid(A_L) cells. There was an aging-time dependent enhancement of average hydrodynamic size in TiO_2 NPs stock suspensions. The cytotoxicity of fresh TiO_2 NPs increased in a size-dependent manner; in contrast, their genotoxicity decreased with the increasing sizes of NPs. No significant toxicity difference was observed in cells exposed to either fresh or 60 day-aged TiO_2 NPs. Both Fresh and aged TiO_2 NPs efficiently induced mitochondrial dysfunction and activated Caspase-3/7 in a size-dependent manner.Using mitochondrial-DNA deficient(ρ~0) ALcells, we further discovered that mitochondrial dysfunction made significant contribution to the size-dependent toxicity induced by TiO_2 NPs during the aging process. Taken together, our data indicated that TiO_2 NPs could significantly induced the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in an aging time-independent and size-dependent manner, which were triggered by mitochondrial dysfunction. Our study suggested the necessity to include size as an additional parameter for the cautious monitoring of TiO_2 NPs disposal before entering the environment.     

Modeling the influencing factors of electronic word-of-mouth about CSR on social networking sites

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) information can now be disseminated via social networking sites. An organization’s image and upcoming...     

Understanding the dynamics of natural resources rents,environmental sustainability,and sustainable economic growth: new insights from China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - There is a close relationship between natural resources and production in many sectors, and production and consumption can also have an environmental...