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...     

Biological treatment of the dye Reactive Blue 19 by cattails and anaerobic bacterial consortia

This study demonstrates the bioremediation potential of anaerobic sludge and cattail (Typha angustifolia) for the treatment of the dye Reactive Blue 19 (RB19). The anaerobic sludge and cattails used in this study were not previously exposed to dyes or other xenobiotics. Different anaerobic sludge concentrations (30%, 50%, and 70%) were used along fixed dye concentrations at pH 8.0 and 25 °C. Subsequently, 50% sludge was selected to treat RB19 at various concentrations. The discoloration of non-hydrolyzed dye was between 70% and 85% using 50% biomass. For the hydrolyzed form of RB19, the range of decoloration was 70%–90%. Dye treatment efficiencies between 50% and 75% were observed for the two forms of the dye when treated with T. angustifolia. Overall, the anaerobic biomass at pH 8.0 showed better potential than cattails to treat RB19. The observation that non-enriched anaerobic sludge can decolorize RB19 is important because it opens up the prospects of developing anaerobic treatment systems, which can easily decolorize dyes in industrial wastewaters and also possesses potential advantages over systems using defined bacterial cultures.     

Green synthesis and characterization of metal ions-mixed titania for application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to synthesize various metal ions mixed TiO₂ nanoparticles using a continuous hydrothermal synthesis pilot reactor for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). In the pilot plant, aqueous solutions of the metal salts are mixed with a flow of supercritical water (450?°C and 24.1?MPa) in a confined jet mixer for continuous synthesis of metal ions-mixed nano-titania. Characterization of the particles was made using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller technique for specific surface area, powder X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy for identification and crystallite size, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for surface analysis and infrared spectroscopy for distinct group identification. Following the already existing procedures and using the titanates synthesized, dye-sensitized cells of 1?cm² area were assembled and their photovoltaic parameters were evaluated under standard test conditions. The power conversion efficiencies (η %) for 40?mol % Zn²⁺, 5?mol % Zr⁴⁺ and 10?mol % Zn⁴⁺ titania were obtained to be 4.8, 4.95 and 4.9, respectively. The promising efficiency results from a greener and large-scale production of nano-titania is a step forward towards commercializing DSC technology.     

Proteomics study of Southern Punjab Pakistani cobra (Naja naja: formerly Naja naja karachiensis) venom

Because of the potential of significant geographic variation in the compositions of snake venoms, much insight can be gained by examining individuals originating from diverse locations, and detailed characterization of any species can only be done by including animals from the entire range. Pakistani N. naja (formerly N. naja karachiensis) venom was decomplexed by applying diverse techniques and found a concoction of proteins (a total of 43 venomous proteins comprising 11 super families) from 6 to 200 kilodaltons in size. Among them three finger toxins (58%), phosphoplipses A₂ (19%), snake venom metalloproteinases (5%), l-amino acid oxidases (5%), helvepryns (3%), vespryns (2%), cobra venom factor (2%), 5′-nucleotidases (2%), venom nerve growth factor (2%), and Kunitz type serine protease inhibitor (2%) were included. It is the first report that this venom possesses significantly higher percentage of three finger toxins belonging to the cytotoxins (32% overall) and α‐neurotoxins (32% overall, predominately long chain neurotoxins, 24% overall) compared to N. naja from other geographic locations. Better understanding of intraspecific variations in venom can improve the development of location-specific anti-venoms. Furthermore, this pool of diverse toxins could potentially be a source of novel drug candidates for the treatment of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors mediated nervous disorders.     

Adsorptive removal of direct dyes by PEI-treated peanut husk biomass: Box–Behnken experimental design

This paper reports the application of Box-Behnken experimental design to illustrate the adsorption of direct dyes (Indosol Black NF and Indosol Orange RSN) using polyethyleneimine (PEI)-treated peanut husk biomass. The effect of three independent variables (initial dyes concentration, biosorbent dose and pH) was investigated during the study. Maximum biosorption capacity (141 and 98.2 mg/g) of PEI-pretreated biomass was achieved with 200 mg/L initial dye concentration and 0.05 g/50 mL biomass dose for Indosol Black NF and Indosol Orange RSN, respectively. Acidic pH was found to be favourable for maximum dyes removal. Characterisation of biosorbent was carried out through Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and point of zero charge determination. FT-IR analyses confirmed the involvement of carboxylic and carbonyl groups. The desorption study was also conducted to check out the possibility of regeneration of dyes and adsorbent and it was found that 51.58 and 76.6% of Indosol Black NF and Indosol Orange RSN, respectively, can be desorbed from the loaded biosorbent by using 1 M NaOH solution. The results indicated that PEI-treated peanut husk biomass can be used as an efficient biosorbent for the removal of Indosol Black NF and Indosol Orange RSN dyes from aqueous solutions.     

Radioactive Isotopes of Strontium,Caesium and Plutonium in Sediments of the Northern Adriatic Sea

Changes in nitrification rates of an acid grassland soil with and without air drying have been monitored over 9 days, after first flushing native nitrate from the soils with deionised water. The results confirmed that full re-establishment of nitrification after air drying takes several days, supporting the hypothesis that any immediate first flush of nitrate from air-dried soils originates from cell lysis or flushing of ‘stored’ nitrate. Ammonium spiking confirmed that nitrification was not ammonium substrate limited. It was also found that ammonium accumulates in the soil during the drying process, providing a substrate pool once the population of nitrifiers has re-established. Over the first week of incubation, nitrate immobilisation was less conspicuous in the soil that had been rewetted after air drying compared with the incubated field moist soil.