Identification and characterization of extracted microplastics from agricultural soil near industrial area: FTIR and X-ray diffraction method

Microplastics have been found in large quantities in agricultural soil and now become a major global issue. Different types of microplastic have adverse effects on agricultural soil. The most widely used method for the extraction of microplastics in agricultural soil is the density floatation method by using saturated NaCl solution. This method includes the pre-digestion of soil samples with H₂O₂ to remove all the organic matter present in the soil. Different types of microplastic particles were extracted and identified by using ATR-FTIR viz polypropylene, polybutylene tetrapthalate, polyethylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene tetrapthalate. The crystalline nature of extracted microplastic was checked by employing XRD analytical technique. Floatation with higher density saturated sodium chloride (NaCl) solution recovered approximately 80% MPs from soil. Floatation methods were found to be effective for extracting microplastics from soils.     

Indian dye yielding plants: Efforts and opportunities

The present review article deals with the information on the dye‐yielding plants of India. Dyes are intensively coloured compounds that are applied to a substrate such as fibre, paper, cosmetics, hair, etc. to give colours and can be extracted from the roots, fruits/berries, bark, leaves, flowers, and stem/wood, fungi, and lichens by various processes of extractions. In addition to their dye‐yielding characteristics, many of these plants possess medicinal values and can be used for multiple other purposes. Plant derived‐colours have an important role in human life because of their safe and eco‐friendly nature. But due to the availability of economically cheaper synthetic dyes, the indigenous knowledge of extraction, processing, and proper utilisation has been diminished. Nowadays, the demand for natural dyes has been increased worldwide due to awareness about their beneficial properties. It has been essential that proper documentation and measure of conservation should be undertaken to preserve these natural dye‐yielding plants. This review article is an aid to a collective inquiry into Indian dye plants.     

基于间隔偏最小二乘法短程硝化反硝化中无机盐氮的近红外光谱

采用序批式活性污泥反应器(SBR)研究短程硝化反硝化系统中稳定条件下无机盐氮的变化规律,利用小波去噪法对无机盐氮的近红外光谱进行预处理,并用间隔偏最小二乘法(iPLS)建立无机盐氮含量的校正模型(iPLS模型).结果表明:小波去噪法对原始光谱中的部分噪声进行滤除,从而提高了模型的精度.采用最小二乘法对预处理后的光谱进行建模,优选出最佳波长区间并将光谱划分为20个子区间,优选出的氨氮特征波数为8243~8663cm-1,亚硝酸盐氮特征波数为4000~4420cm-1.所建模型对氨氮、亚硝酸盐氮校正时的相关系数(rc)分别达到0.9582、0.9544,校正均方根误差(RMSECV)分别为0.0321、0.0406;预测时的相关系数(rp)分别为0.9184、0.8816,预测均方根误差(RMSEP)分别为0.0790、0.0451.采用实际污水为原水时校正模型对氨氮、亚硝酸盐氮预测的相关系数(rp￠)分别为0.9190、0.8739,预测均方根误差(RMSEP′)分别为0.0578、0.0229.模型对氨氮和亚硝酸盐氮的预测总体效果较好.用小波去噪和最小二乘法建立模型不仅能有效减少建模所需变量数、缩短运算时间,而且模型预测精度较高,为无机盐氮的快速测定提供了一种可行的分析技术.     

生物法脱氮新技术及研究进展

生物法脱氮技术一直是水处理领域所关注的热点和难点。本文对几种近年来新研究的生物法脱氮工艺和理论基础做了简要介绍和分析,并评述了它们的研究进展和发展方向,为污水生物脱氮技术更深入的研究提供了借鉴。     

Restoration of hyper-eutrophic water with a modularized and air adjustable constructed submerged plant bed

A modularized and air adjustable constructed submerged plant bed (CSPB) which can be used to restore the eutrophic water is introduced in this paper. This plant bed helps hydrophyte grow under poor conditions such as frequently changed water depth, impaired water transparency, algae bloom and substantial duckweed in summer, which are not naturally suitable for growing hydrophyte. This pilot study in Waihuan River of Tianjin, China, revealed that reduction of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) by the use of CSPB could be reached 30%–35%, 35%–40%, 30%–40% respectively in the growing season (from March to October) and 5%–10%, 5%–15%, 7%–20% respectively in the winter (from November to February) when the detention time was 6 d. The relationships between the concentration of COD, TN, TP and the detention time fit the first-order kinetic equation well and the coefficients of determination (R²) were all above 0.9. The attenuation coefficients k of the kinetic equation were a function of the water temperature. When the water temperature was quite low or quite high, k was not significantly changed with increasing or decreasing water temperature. While when the temperature was in a moderate range, an increase or decrease of water temperature would lead to a rapid increase or decrease in k.     

A simple and robust method for determination of neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) oil in neem oil coated urea

The production of neem oil coated urea (NOCU), a technology developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, has been grown to over 2.0 million tons per year. The estimation of neem oil content in NOCU is important due to its significance in ensuring agronomic efficiency. Therefore, this study was taken up to develop a simple method for the determination of neem oil in NOCU. The procedure involves extraction of neem oil from NOCU; saponification of extracted oil; oxidation of released glycerol to formaldehyde, and subsequent conversion of formaldehyde to a dihydrolutidine derivative. Its concentration was determined spectrophotometrically. The recoveries of neem oil from NOCU with oil load of 500 and 1000?ppm were 87.6?±?3.0% and 90.0?±?4.8% respectively with direct method; and improved to 92.6?±?4.0% and 96.7?±?3.8% after including the in situ purification. A simple method based on the Hantzsch reaction was developed for the determination of neem oil in NOCU. This method is superior to earlier methods in terms of sensitivity, simplicity, and time required.     

Estimation of Similarity in the Qualitative Composition of Humic Substance in Marine Sediments By Means of an Uv-Spectroscopic Library

In this paper a method for the study of the qualitative similarity of extractable humic substance (EHS) in marine sediments based on the realisation of UV spectral library of EHS is described. the spectral library was built including the digitised spectra of humic substance extracted from several marine sediments (46 samples) and two samples of standard materials (lignin sulphonate and humic substance) in a Statistica data file. the data matrix was elaborated by means of different multivariate statistic techniques such as Cluster Analysis (CA), Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and the univariate technique Spectral Correlation Analysis (SCA). This approach allows us to show the contribution of different organic compounds (aromatic, lipid and acid) to the composition of EHS and moreover it evidences also the structural characteristics of EHS in terms of similarities in the qualitative composition of samples such as presence of terrestrial and/or vegetal contributions. the UV library is an objective tool to study the qualitative composition of EHS and it represents a complementary approach to the most common methods based on the application of spectroscopic (IR, ¹³CNMR), potentiometric and chromatographic techniques.     

Characterization of fulvic acids during olive mill waste composting (Elemental,Thermal and fluorescence analyses)

Elemental analysis, fluorescence spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were applied to the study of fulvic acids isolated from different stages during olive mill waste composting. The fulvic extracted acids are characterized by a high nitrogen content and O/C ratio values that may result from the high degree of humification and the synthesis of more condensed humic complexes. This was confirmed by fluorescence spectroscopy in the synchronous-scan mode by the decrease of shoulder intensities at intermediate wavelengths indicating the increase of polycondensation and conjugation of unsaturated structures and the greater uniformity of fluorophores. Fluorescence spectra in the emission, excitation and synchronous modes became simpler with compost maturation. This was confirmed by DSC results which proved the high degree of polycondensation of aromatic nuclei of fulvic acid molecules during olive mill waste composting.     

土壤连续属性空间插值方法及其精度的研究进展

作为土壤变化的时空定量监测方法,土壤属性空间插值方法及其精度是计量土壤学和"数字土壤"领域的重要研究内容。文章首先介绍了土壤属性空间插值的常用方法,包括克立格插值法(Kriging)、反距离权重法(IDW)、样条插值法(Spline)、贝叶斯最大熵(BME)、地理加权回归(GWR)以及高精度曲面建模方法(HASM);其次阐述了土壤属性空间插值精度验证的方法和指标;再次总结了能够提高土壤属性插值精度的6种途径,包括合理选择插值方法、准确设定插值方法参数、合理设计采样数目和密度、注意空间自相关程度和范围的影响、科学安排实验分析顺序以及结合辅助信息进行插值;最后从插值方法的选择、验证指标的选取以及辅助信息的结合三个方面指出了土壤属性空间插值方法及其精度的未来研究方向。