Diabetes is one of the most comprehensive metabolic disorders and is spread across the globe. The data from IDF Diabetes Atlas and National Diabetes Statistics mentions that the number of patients with diabetes is increasing at an exponential rate which is challenging the current therapeutics used for the management of diabetes. However, current therapies used for the treatment may provide symptomatic relief but lack in preventing the progression of the disease and thereby limiting the treatment of diabetes-associated complications. A thorough review and analysis were conducted using various databases including EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar to extract the available information on challenges faced by current therapies which have triggered the development of novel molecules or drugs. From the analysis, it was analyzed that transforming growth factor βs (TGF-βs) have been shown to exhibit pleiotropic activity and are responsible for maintaining homeostasis and its overexpression is convoluted in the pathogenesis of various disorders. Therefore, developing drugs that block TGF-β signaling may provide therapeutic benefits. This extensive review concluded that drugs targeting TGF-β signaling pathway and its subsequent blockade have shown promising results and hold the potential to become drugs of choice in the management of diabetes and associated complications.

A novel composite photocatalyst polyaniline/copper sulfide (PANI/CuS) was successfully prepared using an in situ precipitation method. The surface morphology, internal structure, thermal stability, electronegativity, and visible light photocatalytic activity of PANI/CuS were analyzed by a series of characterization methods. Sulfamethoxazole (SMX) was used as the representative pollutant; the degradation effect, degradation kinetic, and influencing factor of SMX by PANI/CuS under visible light were systematically investigated. The degradation mechanism of SMX by PANI/CuS was explained by a series of free radical quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy experiments. The following were the main conclusions through the above research. First, the degradation effect of SMX by composite PANI/CuS was better than that by pure CuS under the same experimental conditions, which indirectly proved that the addition of PANI could effectively delay the photochemical corrosion of CuS. Next, when the dosage of PANI/CuS was 0.04 g/L, initial concentration of SMX was 5 ppm, pH was 2.0, and the simulated visible light was 500 W, the degradation effect of SMX was as high as 72.13%. Last, the hole (h⁺) played a major role and the superoxide radical (·O₂⁻) played an auxiliary role in the degradation process of SMX by PANI/CuS; persistent free radicals exist simultaneously.

Noise has been reported as one of the most important risk factors for asthma, but there are some disagreements. This study aimed to investigate the effect of road noise on asthma prevalence in adults. In the current study, 3172 adults were interviewed through the ECRHS standardized questionnaire in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Exposure to road noise was assessed considering distance of individual participants from the noise monitoring stations via the spatial analysis in GIS software. Logistic regression was used to assess the effect of noise on the symptoms of asthma. Findings showed a significant positive association between wheezing with dyspnea as the best marker for asthma and noise levels at daytime (OR 1.03; 0.98–1.05) and nighttime (OR 1.05; 0.84–1.09). Also, a significant positive association was obtained between daytime and nighttime noise levels and other asthma symptoms including wheezing, nocturnal chest tightness, nocturnal dyspnea, wheezing without cold, nocturnal cough, and asthma medication. Association between current asthma and noise level was not significant. There was a significant association between population age and current asthma prevalence (P = 0.001). Therefore, chronic exposure to road noise especially in the nighttime could increase asthma prevalence. So, control of noise sources can be suggested to diminish asthma in adults.

Urbanised areas are known to cause plastic pollution, which consequently ends up in water sources. In this study, we measured microplastic concentrations in two lowland rivers flowing through two different cities. In both cases, the lowest downstream sites were located below local wastewater treatment plants. Samples were processed according to ricin oil separation and visual counting methods (considering abundance as well as shape, size, and colour groups). Microplastic concentrations in the surface water within the two studied rivers were found to be similar despite the differences in the cities they flow through. Mean microplastic abundance in the rivers was 10.83 MP/L in the Biała River and 10.29 MP/L in the Czarna Hańcza River. Regarding microplastic shapes, films were the dominant type (Biała River 47.8%, Czarna Hańcza River 51.9%), but higher proportions of less abundant plastic types such as fragments (Biała River 20.6%, Czarna Hańcza River 18.6%), foams (Biała River 12.1%, Czarna Hańcza River 14.2%), and fibres (Biała River 12.9%, Czarna Hańcza River 11.1%) were also found. The least common type of plastic was pellet (Biała River 6.6%, Czarna Hańcza River 4.2%), which was increasing significantly on stations situated downstream, behind the wastewater treatment plants. The results of our study show that city river systems are influenced by plastic waste, especially after precipitation and the snowmelt season. For small and medium urban rivers, hydrology does not play as important a role as it does for large rivers.

We employ the pool mean group method of estimation and panel causality to investigate the effect of financial integration and industrial development on pollution in 36 African countries between 1990 and 2019. Result shows a unidirectional causality running from industrial development to financial integration and pollution in Africa. Also, the panel regression shows that financial integration insignificantly abates pollution in the short run, but significantly worsens the long-run pollution in the continent. Again, the result indicates that industrial development insignificantly heightens pollution in both periods, while interplay between financial integration and industrial development exerts a negative impact on both short- and long-run pollution in Africa. The study recommends that African leaders should harness the benefits of financial integration to accelerate African industrial development and ensure the full implementation of environmentally sustainable policies to checkmate pollution emissions.

In this study, PBET (Physiologically Based Extraction Test), IVG (In Vitro Gastrointestinal), and SBRC (Solubility Bioavailability Research Consortium) were used to compare the bioavailability of Cd in 10 potato varieties and evaluate the risks to human health. The results show that the dissolved Cd content in the gastric and small intestine phase under the three methods is IVG > SBRC > PBET. The most bioavailable method in the gastric and small intestine phases is IVG, and the varieties are Weiyu 5 and Weiyu 7. In the gastric phase, Weiyu 7 had the highest availability, at 73.36%, and in the small intestine phase, Weiyu 5 had the highest availability at 67.48%, and compared with SBRC and PBET, the difference reached a significant level; the varieties with higher bioavailability are Weiyu 5 and Weiyu 7, and the lower varieties are Lishu 13 and Lishu 15 among the 10 potato varieties. Three methods were used to assess the human health risk of Cd in potatoes. The HQ values ​of different varieties were all less than 1. The ADD and HQ values of Cd ingested by adults and children through potato are generally IVG > SBRC > PBET.

Energy consumption efficiency is gaining momentum due to climate change, increased carbon emissions by firms, and paucity of fossil fuels. Energy management systems (EMS) and environmental awareness came into the spotlight few decades ago and are said to improve energy efficiency of firms. The purpose of this paper is to unveil the association and serial mediation between EMS and firm performance through pro-environmental energy consumption (PEC) and pro-environmental energy consumption performance (PECP), and the moderating role of environmental awareness (EA). The obtained data from industrial Turkish firms (n = 189) were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. Results revealed that (1) EMS exerts a significant impact on PEC, (2) EMS impact on PECP is not significant, (3) PEC exerts a significant impact on PECP, (4) PECP exerts a significant impact on firm performance, (5) PEC and PECP serially mediated the association between EMS and firm performance, and (6) EA moderated the association between EMS and PECP, such that the association became stronger when EA is high compare to when it is low. Implications for theory and practice are discussed alongside future research directions.

The self-compacting concrete (SCC) mix design is much more complex than that of ordinary concrete. Increased testing on fresh concrete and a substantial volume of materials is consequently needed. The concrete equivalent mortar (CEM) method proposes an approach that simplifies and speeds up the experimental testing programmes. This paper seeks to establish the relationships between the rheological properties of SCC and the corresponding CEM mixes. Another aim is to validate the unconventional tools used to test the flow properties of CEM relative to the procedures applied for SCC. Different series of SCC and CEM mixes, based on natural and recycled aggregates, with various superplasticizer contents were tested. The flow behaviour of SCC was tested in line with procedures recommended by EFNARC; that of self-compacting concrete equivalent mortar (SC-CEM) was carried out with unconventional tools (mini-slump cone, slump flow time T₂₅₀, mini L-Box, 2.5-mm sieve, and mini LCPC Box), described in detail in this paper. A rheometer equipped with vane geometry was also used to show the close relationship between SCC and the SC-CEM yield stress. The experimental results indicate that the fresh properties of the mixture series are congruent with the acceptance criteria of SCC, but they are affected when increasing the superplasticizer dosage and further impacted when recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) replace natural coarse aggregates (NCAs). The slump flow test appears to be a good practical means for predicting the yield stress of SC-CEM. The cross-referencing results reveal significant relationships between SCC and the corresponding SC-CEM, particularly for filling ability and passing properties. Reasonable correlation coefficients from 0.70 to 0.85 were found.

Moving to a more sustainable and low-carbon footprint urban water cycle is essential in the light of climate change. In this paper, we estimate the implicit cost of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for several English and Welsh water companies from 2013 to 2019. Using econometric techniques, we compute the shadow prices of direct and indirect CO₂ emissions associated with the provision of drinking water. This methodological approach also allows us to investigate the impact of a set of environmental variables on the costs of water companies and therefore on the costs of reducing GHG emissions. We then compute the returns to scale, technical change, and technical efficiency of the water companies. The empirical results show the following: (1) the average shadow price of CO₂ across years was 0.114 £/kgCO₂, which means that the English and Welsh water industry needs to spend an extra £0.114 in operating expenditure to prevent the emission of one kilogramme of CO₂; (2) the cost of reducing GHG emissions is very variable among water companies and across years; (3) water taken from boreholes and average pumping head increases cost requirements and therefore the inefficiency of water companies; and (4) the water industry may lower its production costs and thus the costs of reducing GHG emissions by improving its daily operations and adopting new technologies. From a policy perspective, this study evidences that in the English and Welsh water industry, a market-based approach may be more suitable to reduce GHG emissions than a carbon tax policy.

The impact and optimal control of non-point source (NPS) pollution on water environment have become the hot issues of current research. This paper simulates the characteristics of NPS pollution of Danjiang River Basin in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2018 based on SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. The spatial and temporal distribution is analyzed, and the critical source areas (CSA) according to the intensity of pollution loss are identified. Then, we set up nine single best management practices (BMPs) and three combined BMPs in the CSA, and the reduction effects of NPS pollution load of BMPs at the HRU scale and sub-basin scale are evaluated. The main research conclusions are as follows: (1) Based on the measured water quality and quantity data of Danfeng section from 2011 to 2019, the mean concentration method and the runoff division method are used to estimate the NPS pollution load at the Danfeng section, the NPS pollution loads of the total phosphorus (TP), ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N) and COD account for a large proportion in the total loads, which are 60.95–75.91%, 39.43–56.40%, and 59.37–74.37%, respectively. (2) In terms of temporal distribution, the impact to NPS pollution load is ranked as runoff > sediment > rainfall. In terms of spatial distribution, sediment has a great impact on nitrogen and phosphorus NPS pollution load. (3) The unit area load index method and the natural crack point classification method are used to identify the CSA in the basin. The information-entropy-basedmulti-attribute decision-making method to evaluate the cost-benefit value of management measures shows that control measures preferentially use combined BMPs, and the comprehensive cost-benefit attribute value reaches above 0.8. When using a single BMP, the comprehensive attribute value of returning the grain plots to forestry is high, reaching 0.62, which is suitable for NPS pollution control in a small area; for large-scale NPS pollution control, terrace project, supplemented by residue cover and grassed waterways is the more effective way in the river basin.