The role of disinfectants and sanitizers during COVID-19 pandemic: advantages and deleterious effects on humans and the environment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Disinfectants and sanitizers are essential preventive agents against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, the pandemic crisis...     

A research on conventional and modern algorithms for maximum power extraction from wind energy conversion system: a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In the last few decades, wind energy has become a significant source of the renewable energy system, and it is essential to use wind energy for...     

Deciphering the impact of novel coronavirus pandemic on agricultural sustainability,food security,and socio-economic sectors—a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and Swine flu, among others, have had a significant impact on agriculture,...     

Growth and properties of hydrothermally derived crystalline ZnSe quantum dots

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Chalcogenide nanostructures are the materials with diverse applications. Here, we report rapid hydrothermal synthesis of crystalline ZnSe quantum dots...     

Does foreign private investment affect the clean industrial environment? Nexus among foreign private investment,CO2 emissions,energy consumption,trade openness,and sustainable economic growth

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study examines to what extent foreign private investment (FPI) affects the clean industrial environment and sustainable economic growth through...     

The relationship between staple food crops consumption and its impact on total factor productivity: does green economy matter?

The agriculture sector is a key driver of economic growth and provides employment opportunities across the globe generally. However, in today’s world, agricultural product demand is more influenced by taste, prices, and nutritional value due to climatic variation. The study has analyzed the current situation grain productivity by using the data of farm inputs and major grain crops of Pakistan from (1960–2020). The study consists of a two-stage analysis in the first stage, the total factor productivity (TFP) variable is obtained by using the parametric Tornqvisit-Theil index output-input-aggregation method separately for each crop; rice, maize, and wheat. After that, the unit root test is used to check the stationarity and trend of the variables in the long run. Subsequently, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is applied to check the existence of cointegration in the long run and short run among the variables. The results of the study disclosed that the consumption of rice has a positive relationship with its total factor productivity, but, wheat and maize have a negative long-run cointegration relationship with the respective productivities. The study results have shown that the consumption pattern of staple crops has substantially changed, due to climatic variation, and the current food consumption trend is revealing new dimensions and trends owing to variation in climate change and anthropogenic pressure which demands to adapt climate resilient farm practices.

     

Mutagenicity and genotoxicity assessment of industrial wastewaters

The genotoxicity of industrial wastewaters from Jajmau (Kanpur), was carried out by Ames Salmonella/microsome test, DNA repair-defective mutants, and Allium cepa anaphase–telophase test. Test samples showed maximum response with TA98 strain with and without metabolic activation. Amberlite resins concentrated wastewater samples were found to be more mutagenic as compared to those of liquid–liquid extracts (hexane and dichloromethane extracts). The damage in the DNA repair defective mutants in the presence of Amberlite resins concentrated water samples were found to be higher to that of liquid–liquid-extracted water samples at the dose level of 20 μl/ml culture. Among all the mutants, polA exhibited maximum decline with test samples. Mitotic index (MI) of root tip meristematic cells of A. cepa treated with 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 % (v/v) wastewaters were significantly lower than the control. Complementary to the lower levels of MI, the wastewaters showed higher chromosomal aberration levels in all cases investigated.     

Levellised electricity cost for wind and PV–diesel hybrid system in Oman at selected sites

Solar and wind energy data available for Oman indicate that these two resources are likely to play an important role in the future energy generation in this country. In this paper, a model is designed to assess wind and solar power cost per kWh of energy produced using different sizes of wind machines and photovoltaic (PV) panels at two sites in Oman, which then can be generalised for other locations in Oman. Hourly values of wind speed and solar radiation recorded for several years are used for these locations. The wind profiles from Thumrait and Masirah island are modelled using the Weibull distribution. The cost of wind-based energy is calculated for both locations using different sizes of turbines. Furthermore, this paper presents a study carried out to investigate the economics of using PV only and PV with battery as an energy fuel saver in two villages. The results show that the PV energy utilisation is an attractive option with an energy cost of the selected PV ranges between 0.128 and 0.144 $/kWh at 7.55% discount rate compared to an operating cost of 0.128–0.558 $kWh for diesel generation, considering the capital cost of diesel units as sunk.