The working conditions of underground mining are complex and variable, and roof fall and rib spalling are one of the main types of accidents that can occur. Building an integrated model to evaluate the risk of roof fall and rib spalling is the foundation of mine safety. On the basis of the inherent attributes of event risk, the fuzzy evaluation set and probability of basic events are obtained by using the fuzzy fault tree analysis method based on the sample’s fuzzy information. Subsequently, the likelihood of roof fall and rib spalling is determined. Consequence severity data are obtained by using the dynamic fuzzy logic method, and the consequence severity grade of roof fall and rib spalling is evaluated via the dynamic fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. The event risk level is determined by the risk matrix method. Roof fall and rib spalling in a non-coal mine is analyzed and evaluated by using fuzzy fault tree analysis and dynamic fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. The weak links in the operation of an underground mine are identified by fuzzy fault tree analysis as “mining process, roof management, support and reinforcement.” Then, the risk development trend is determined by the dynamic fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. The risk matrix method is integrated to determine whether the risk level of the mine is “high risk, unacceptable” and expected to deteriorate in the future. The results show the validity and feasibility of the risk analysis and prediction model for roof fall and rib spalling.

In this study, copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) analyses were performed, and the results were modelled by artificial neural networks (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). Samples were taken from 3 stations selected on the Bartin River for 1 year between December 2012 and December 2013. Radial basis neural network (RBANN), multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks models, and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) were applied to the data in order to predict the heavy metal concentrations. As a result of the study, the RMSE and MAE values of all the heavy metal models were found to have very low error values during the test phase, and it was found that the models created using MLP had R² values higher than 0.77 during the test phase; the test phase R² values of the models using RBN method were found to be ranging between 0.773 and 0.989, and the test phase R² value of the ANFIS model was higher than 0.80. If sorted from the best model to the worst by taking the MAE and RMSE values into consideration based on the test evaluation results, according to the heavy metal types, where all of the MLP, RBN, and ANFIS models were generally approximate to each other, RBN was successful for Cu, Zn, and Mn, while MLP model was successful for Ni and ANFIS model for Fe and Pb. According to the results, it can be inferred that the heavy metal contents can be estimated approximately with artificial intelligence models and relatively easy-to-measure parameters; it will be possible to detect heavy metals which are harmful to the viability of the rivers, both quickly and economically.

Plants can improve indoor air quality, and affect the work efficiency and subjective perceptions. However, the conclusions of existing experiments regarding how plants affect work efficiency are not uniform. To further explore this subject, this study designed five different working conditions, and selected a variety of “general tasks” and “tasks requiring concentration” as operational tasks. The effects of the plant arrangement and quantity on work efficiency were studied by analyzing the performance of subjects in different working conditions. The effects of the plants on the subjective perceptions were investigated using questionnaires. The experimental results show that the effects of plants on work efficiency were related to the nature of the work, the placement of the plants, and the number of plants. Plants had no effect on the efficiency of general tasks such as “symmetry breadth,” but had a positive impact on the efficiency of general tasks such as “operational breadth.” Moreover, by changing the arrangement and quantity of plants, the efficiency of general tasks could be increased by up to 19.1%. In contrast, plants placed within a coincident view had a negative impact on the efficiency of “tasks requiring concentration,” and the work efficiency could be reduced by up to 12.4%. In addition, plants could increase enthusiasm and willingness to work by 12.5% and 11.8%, respectively.

The present study has tried to investigate how the intentions of people to consume green and clean products, that create less air pollution, can affect their actual behavior in reducing urban air pollution. In this regard, the intentions to use green and clean products and behavior has been estimated using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in this study. The targeted population of the current study is the faculty of different public and private educational institutions in Lahore. The results of the study showed that attitude, perceived behavior control (PBC), and knowledge of people about using green products in reducing urban air pollution significantly affect their behavior. The core finding of this study was that subjective norms do not play a significant role in determining the intentions and behaviors with respect to clean and green products. The analysis has been done using IBM SPSS statistics 20 applying PCA (principal component analysis), linear regression model, and AMOS path analysis to analyze the TPB. This research can contribute for a direction in the marketing industry of green products. Moreover, it can provide a guide for the policy makers to target attitude, awareness, the intentions, and behavior of people for reducing air pollution with respect to clean and green products.

Green roofs of young age (≤ 5 years old) have boomed in China since the Sponge City Construction initiative was implemented. To use green roofs for better urban stormwater management, it is necessary to investigate the runoff quality of field-scale young green roofs as well as to examine common plant-media combination in green roof projects of China. The influence of two Sedum-vegetated extensive green roofs of different designs at the early stage of operation on runoff water quality was investigated by a field-scale study in Chengdu, southwest China. The water quality parameters of pH, suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen (TN) of rainwater (that is, input water for roofs), runoff from the two green roofs, and runoff from a conventional concrete control roof were compared. The results indicate that both green roofs mainly act as pollutant sources with greater concentrations of SS, COD, and TP when compared with rainwater quality. When compared with runoff quality from the control roof, greater TP concentrations in runoff from one green roof with commercially available substrate were observed. Attention should be paid to TP leaching in runoff for retrofitted green roofs with imported commercial substrates in that region. Adoption of pre-cultivated S. lineare mats of low fertility and localized soils may reduce nutrient leaching in green roof runoff. A nitrogen-rich substrate is not recommended for a plant community of a single species. Investigation of the effect of green roofs on water quality involving various pollutants in the long run is recommended.

This study explored the effects of two hydro- and osmo-priming durations (8 and 16 h) on growth and yield components of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L.) under water stress. The pot experiment, performed under a rain shelter, consisted of 9 treatments replicated five times: unprimed seeds as control (C), hydro-primed seeds (T0), osmo-primed seeds in 10, 20, and 30% PEG-6000 (T1, T2, and T3, respectively). Severe water stress was applied for 12 days to all treatments at the beginning of the flowering stage. Statistical analysis revealed a very highly significant positive effect (p < 0.01) by all treatments on sunflower seed germination compared with the control. Moreover, primed seeds improved significantly for all growth parameters and yield components, but no significant differences were observed according to either priming technique or duration. The highest value of germination capacity, for fresh and dry biomasses, was obtained with PEG-primed seeds at 10% for 16 h. The grain number per anthodium and grain yield per plant from primed seeds were higher than those in the control (1.9- to 2.5-fold and 2.8- to 3.3-fold respectively). Under conditions of water stress, the proline content in primed plants was significantly higher than that in unprimed ones, with the exception of T3 treatment primed for 8 h. Soluble sugars and chlorophyll contents increased significantly with all applied treatments compared with the control. The study showed that the applied priming treatments improved germination characteristics in particular and increased growth and yield components for sunflowers under drought stress conditions.

Humic-like substances (HULIS) are an important mixture of organic compounds, which account for a great part of water-soluble organic compounds in ambient aerosols. In this study, individual carboxylic and hydroxylic species in HULIS extracts of PM₂.₅ samples collected in Hong Kong during summer were measured by gas chromatography mass spectrometry with prior chemical derivatization. Significantly higher levels of HULIS were observed on days mainly impacted by regional pollution (regional days, 4.11 ± 1.76 μg m⁻³) than on days under local emission influences (local days, 0.56 ± 0.30 μg m⁻³). Positive matrix factorization was applied to identify the major sources and apportion their contributions to HULIS. Simultaneous monitoring and analysis data from four different sampling sites showed that sources of HULIS in Hong Kong were mainly regional with small spatial variations. Secondary aerosol formation (both organic and inorganic) had a predominant contribution (52.7%) to HULIS during the whole sampling period. It accounted for 1.88 ± 0.91 μg m⁻³ of HULIS on regional days, which was about 5 times higher than its contribution (0.39 ± 0.34 μg m⁻³) on local days. Of the three identified primary sources, biomass burning had the largest contribution on both regional (34.9%) and local days (24.6%). Marine vessels were also a significant contributor, especially on local days (20.3%). Vehicle exhaust, on the other hand, showed a negligible contribution to HULIS (2.1%) in Hong Kong in this study.

In this study, the magnetic fraction (MF) of a low-grade titanium ore (TO) was successfully used as an alternative Fe²⁺ source in five reuse cycles, in combination with persulfate (PS) and simulated sunlight (SSL) for the degradation of ciprofloxacin (CIP). The best response of the CIP initial concentration, irradiation time, and doses of MF and PS to degrade completely this pollutant were determined based on an experimental design. However, the individual application of MF, PS, or SSL fails to achieve this goal at the optimal experimental condition. Furthermore, the MF-PS-SSL system showed a higher production of sulfate radicals and a concentration of dissolved Fe²⁺ ions compared with data obtained for the MF-PS system. The best performance attained by the former system is due to the synergy produced between the photo-generated electrons, and the reaction of PS with the Fe²⁺ ions leached gradually from the MF, which increased sulfate radical production. After five reuse cycles of the MF, the oxidation system showed a CIP degradation of 100% in 100 min, no residual content of PS, a CIP mineralization of 6%, a marginal increase in the biodegradability (BOD₅/COD ratio), a MF loss of 7.5%, and a twofold increase in toxicity; however, this parameter was lower than the effective concentration at 50% inhibition (EC₅₀). The substitution of MF with an iron salt decreased the degradation efficiency of the antibiotic by 14%, probably owing to the immediate excess of Fe²⁺ in the solution, which can be oxidized to Fe³⁺ ions, and as a consequence of this, the production rate of the sulfate radical was also reduced.

Carbon dioxide emission and greenhouse gas emissions are considered core issue in the world that influence agricultural production and also cause climate change. The present study seeks to investigate the linkage of methane emissions, nitrous oxide emissions, carbon dioxide emission, and greenhouse gas emissions with agricultural gross domestic product in China. The long-term association was checked by using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, fully modified least squares method, and canonical cointegrating regression analysis. The results from long-run analysis exposed that carbon dioxide emission and greenhouse gas emissions have positive coefficients that demonstrate the long-run linkage with the agricultural gross domestic product having p values of 0.5709 and 0.3751, respectively. Similarly, results also revealed that agricultural methane emissions and agricultural nitrous oxide emissions have a negative association with the agricultural gross domestic product having p values of 0.1737 and 0.0559. China is a huge emitter of CO₂ emission and greenhouse gas emissions. Possible conservative policies are required to form the Chinese government to tackle this challenge to decrease CO₂ emission in order to increase agricultural production.

In this work, the β-cyclodextrin modified magnetic graphene oxide (β-CD/MGO) composite was fabricated by the in situ co-precipitation method and characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and particle size analysis. The adsorption behavior of dichromate ions on the β-CD/MGO was investigated, and the mechanism of adsorption was also studied using FT-IR and XPS. The results from SEM and TEM showed that the graphene oxide (GO) layer became rough, and many fine particles were attached after compounding with ferroferric oxide and β-cyclodextrin. The characterization results of FT-IR and XPS show that that β-cyclodextrin and ferroferric oxide have been perfectly compounded to the graphene oxide layer and β-CD/MGO has a particle size of about 460 nm, a specific surface area of 252.3 m²g⁻¹, and a saturation magnetization of 73.5 emu g⁻¹. The adsorption amount of dichromate ions on the β-CD/MGO is affected by pH, adsorbent dosage, and adsorption time. Kinetic studies showed that the adsorption process followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Equilibrium data agreed very well with the Langmuir model, the maximum adsorption amount of dichromate ions on the β-CD/MGO was 49.95 mg g⁻¹. After five successive adsorbent reuses, the reuse rate is still 73%, indicating the excellent potential reusability of β-CD/MGO adsorbent. β-CD/MGO exhibits excellent adsorption performance for dichromate ions. As an environmentally friendly magnetic adsorbent, β-CD/MGO is suitable for the treatment of dichromate-containing wastewater.