In 2014, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development Strategy (hereinafter the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy) was formally proposed as a major national strategy, providing an unprecedented opportunity for the overall development of Hebei. This article evaluates the treatment effects of the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy on Hebei’s economy and environment. Employing a panel data program evaluation method developed by Hsiao et al. (2012), we construct hypothetical counterfactuals for the GDP growth rate, the percentage of tertiary industry in GDP, and the geographic mean PM₂.₅ concentrations for Hebei in the absence of the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy using the outcomes of selected untreated provinces. The results show that the Jing-Jin-Ji Strategy increased the percentage of tertiary industry in GDP by an average of 2.53 percentage points per year between 2014 and 2018 and decreased the geographic mean PM₂.₅ concentrations by an average of 11.1 percentage points per year between 2014 and 2017. However, it does not appear to have had significant effects on Hebei’s GDP growth rate. The leave-one-out method demonstrates the robustness of the above results. This article suggests that Hebei should speed up its economic growth and bridge the gap with Beijing and Tianjin while ensuring the quality of its economic development and a sound ecological environment.

Progressive freezing is a solvent purification technology with low energy requirements and high concentration efficiency. Although these advantages make it a promising technology, the technique has never been explored for draw solution recovery for forward osmosis (FO). Hence, in this study, the progressive freezing process was used to concentrate three common diluted draw solutions: NaCl, MgCl₂, and EDTA-2Na with different ice front speeds, stirring rates, and initial draw solution concentrations. Effective partition and intrinsic partition constants were also evaluated. The results reveal that the freezing process can achieve a draw solution recovery rate of 99.73%, 99.06%, and 98.65% with NaCl, MgCl₂, and EDTA-2Na, respectively, using an ice front speed of 0.5 cm/h, a stirring rate of 2.62 m/s, and 30% of percentage of ice phase. Higher concentration efficiency for NaCl and MgCl₂ was achieved due to the high solubility of NaCl and MgCl₂ increased solute diffusion into the liquid phase solutions. The concentration factors for all three draw solutions exceeded 1.9, indicating that the draw solutes could be reused for the FO process. In addition, the two mass transfer coefficients depended on the ice front speed and the stirring rates were also obtained for scaling up the experiment in the future.

The aims of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of fermented horse manure (HM) over vermicompost (VC), bamboo biochar (BB), and fly ash (FA) in suppressing Cd accumulation in rice plants and further to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of HM. Greenhouse experiments were conducted to determine the Cd concentration in rice tissues after the application of amendments to different Cd-contaminated soils. Chemical properties of root Fe plaque and pore water were also determined, including the amount of Fe in Fe plaque, and the changes in redox potential (Eh) and concentration of Cd and Fe in pore water with cultivation time. The results showed that HM was the most effective of all amendments in suppressing Cd accumulation in rice (by at least 57%), and the effect increased with the application rate. Furthermore, the application of HM can decrease the concentration of Cd in soil pore water and promote the formation of root Fe plaque (a barrier to prevent Cd uptake by rice plants) by decreasing the Eh and increasing the Fe concentration in pore water. The decrease in Cd concentration in soil pore water and the increase in root Fe plaque were the main reasons for the considerable reduction in the uptake and accumulation of Cd in rice plants by HM.

Aedes aegypti is the main mosquito vector of dengue, zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever diseases. The low effectiveness of vector control options is mainly related to the increased insect’s resistance and to the toxicity of products used for non-target organisms. The development of new environmentally friendly and safer products is imperative. Technical cashew nut shell liquid (tCNSL), mostly composed by cardanol (C), is an abundant by-product of the cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) production chain, available at low cost, and with proven larvicidal activity. However, chemical modifications in both tCNSL and cardanol were required to increase their water solubilities. Our objectives were to synthesise and characterise sustainable, low-cost and easy-to-use multiple function products based on tCNSL, cardanol, and the sulphonates obtained from both; and to evaluate all these products efficacy as surfactants, larvicidal, and antimicrobial agents. None of the sulphonates presented antimicrobial and larvicidal activities. tCNSL and cardanol were successfully emulsified with sodium technical cashew nut shell liquid sulphonate (NatCNSLS, complex mixture of surfactants). The emulsions obtained presented larvicidal activity due to the presence of tCNSL and cardanol in their composition. Our results showed that the tCNSL+NatCNSLS mixture emulsion was an effective larvicide and surfactant multiple function product, with high availability and easy-to-use, which can facilitate its large-scale use in different environments. Graphical abstract

Global warming is considered as the main environmental stress affecting ecosystems as well as physiological and biochemical characteristics, and survivability of living organisms. High temperature induces various stresses and causes reduction of fertility through reducing the oocyte developmental competence and alteration in surrounding cells’ functions. This causes major economic loss to livestock creating a selective pressure on animals to the advantage of better adapted genotypes and to the detriment of others. In this review, a search in Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and SID databases until 2020 was conducted. Keywords which include heat stress, shock, high temperature, oocyte, cumulus, and animals were investigated. Studies have exhibited that heat stress can disturb the development and function of oocyte and cumulus cells (CCs) concerning reproductive efficiency. Heat stress has deleterious consequences on oocyte maturation and development via reduced number of polar body extrusion, adenosine monophosphate, and guanosine monophosphate synthesis. Heat stress caused the alteration of cytoplasmic and nuclear features as well as trans-zonal projections and gap junctions. In addition, heat stress is accompanied with reduced mitochondrial activity (copy mDNA number, distribution, and membrane potential) in cumulus–oocyte complexes. This review targets the description of results in the most recent studies that aimed to call attention to the influences of heat stress on molecular, functional, and cellular changes in oocytes and CCs in animals to design evidence on the acting mechanisms as the core of this problem from a comparative review.

In the last decade, the approach to waste management has undergone severe changes. The urgent need to face the sustainable demand for energy and materials while limiting the burdens associated to traditional waste handling practices have figured out the concept of waste as a resource. New strategies boosting the extensive recovery and diverting waste from disposal activities have been promoted and framed in the wider context of the urban mining, promoting the full exploitation of waste as resource for either new materials or energy production. Such approach has been recently proposed to handle over 5 million tons of pretreated municipal solid waste produced and stored in the form of bales in Campania Region, in southern Italy, between 2000 and 2009. However, since the feasibility of this approach is related to the waste composition as well as to the selection process, an experimental study was performed at an industrial mechanical treatment plant to assess the potential for valorisation of this waste. Results showed that the overall sustainability of the urban mining strategies for the management of Campania waste bales is tightly linked to the flexibility of the selection process scheme to be adopted, which should make the waste recovery fit the market demand of either material or energy.

The role of capital abundance and income in the trade openness and environmental quality debate has long been a concern among academic researchers. The researchers of this paper empirically analyze the effects of trade and other core factors on emissions of four pollutants (SO₂, SM, VOC, and NHX), using panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2015. Then the scale, composition, technique, and trade elasticities are calculated, based on lower and higher levels of capital abundance and relative income. Furthermore, the researchers calculate the province-specific trade elasticities and analyze the relationship between the province-specific trade elasticities and capital abundance and relative income, respectively. They find a negative effect of trade openness on pollutant emissions in China. The analysis of the elasticities in terms of China’s pollutant emissions shows that the scale and composition elasticities are positive, while technique and trade elasticities are negative. Moreover, provinces with lower capital abundance tend to have more negative trade elasticities, while provinces with higher relative income tend to have more negative trade elasticities. The result implies that both pollution haven effect and factor abundance effect may be at work in Chinese provinces, but the dominance of one effect over the other depends on a province’s level of capital abundance and income.

Parabens are chemical compounds widely used that act as preservatives. Liquid-liquid extraction could be considered an efficient technique, as does not need special devices and is economically viable. Thus, the present research had the objective of developing and validating an analytical method for liquid-liquid extraction using fewer solvents and liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector for the analysis of methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butylparaben in sanitary sewage samples from the São Carlos wastewater treatment plant before and after treatment; it was also accomplished in surface water samples from Santa Maria Madalena, Tijuco Preto, Gregório, and Monjolinho streams. To optimize the process conditions the factorial design was used to determine the most significant variables, through a central composite design. In addition, environmental risk analysis was performed to assess the risk of the paraben’s presence in surface waters for aquatic biota. The validation tests showed a good fit of the developed method. The methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butylparaben were detected in the range of μg L⁻¹, and ethyl and butylparaben were detected in every collected sample in a range of 0.38 to 11 μg L⁻¹. The species sensitivity distributions were calculated to assess the ecological risk of parabens, and the results showed a low risk for aquatic biota.

The Algerian dams are in a more or less silted state. Fergoug dam is the most silted dam since it records a rate of siltation of 95%. The siltation of the dam is undoubtedly the most dramatic consequence of the problem of erosion in Algeria. The investigations are at two levels: either prevent the solids to arrive in the dam (that is to put obstacles to break the forces of the runoff water, but we can only hope partial results) or the evacuation of sediments by appropriate management of bottom. But in our opinion, their valorisation in the field of construction is the most appropriate solution. This valorisation helps protect the environment and natural materials. Many mud treatment methods are often used to improve the insufficient geotechnical properties before reuse for a certain function in the structure. Lime treatment is one of the most common methods of converting soils to new materials that provide the desired performances. The objective of this work is to study the mud behaviour of the Fergoug dam (Algeria) for its use in the application of road engineering. The study consists of reconstituting samples of the Fergoug dam mud with various proportions of lime in the laboratory and subjecting them to various tests (Proctor, VBS, CBR index, DRX, etc.). The results obtained are encouraging and therefore allow the valorisation of sediments of the Fergoug dam which are a cumbersome waste for the environment.

Pharmaceutical effluent disposal is a serious problem in the present times. The manufacturing process involves the use of both organic and inorganic compounds, which contribute to high chemical oxygen demand and dissolved solids. The common techniques used to extract available salts and to produce reusable waters are evaporation and cooling. Evaporators are equipment used for evaporation which is a kind of heat transfer system in which transfer mechanism is controlled by natural or forced convection. Multi-effect evaporators in many industries are used for volume reduction and cutting down the waste handling cost. This paper focusses on studying the efficiency of multi-effect evaporators in the pharmaceutical industry for the treatment of high total dissolved solids (HTDS) waste streams. The feed and condensate parameters were monitored for three years. Competence of the treatment process is presented in terms of reduction in TDS and COD. The current study evaluates the efficiency of MEE in terms of removal of total dissolved solids and chemical oxygen demand. Removal efficiencies are more than 98% for TDS and 50% for COD.