Groundwater quality management is a priority in arid and semi-arid zones where water is scarce. Leachate from open dumping of municipal solid wastes may threaten groundwater quality. This research aimed at assessing groundwater quality of the aquifer of Shur river basin in Tehran province, Iran. The pollution potential of leachate from a landfill, located at the center of the basin, was estimated to assess its impact on the aquifer. Samples from 38 wells and 2 leachate ponds around the landfill were analyzed for their physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals. Leachate Pollution Index (LPI) and Water Quality Index (WQI) were calculated and multivariate statistical techniques were employed through geostatistical models to predict the spatial variability of groundwater quality and assess its contamination sources. The groundwater quality map was developed by GIS Interface. LPI indicated that leachate from the closed cell (LPI = 36) was more contaminating than that of the active site (LPI = 25). Kriging and cokriging geostatistical interpolation methods were applied to groundwater quality parameters. The best interpolation model was then identified through cross-validation with RMSE and GSD criteria. Cokriging yielded more accurate results than kriging. Spatial distribution maps showed high groundwater contamination and degraded water quality mainly in the central part of the basin, where the landfill was. Also, 293.7 ha of the study area possessed poor and very poor water quality, unsuitable for drinking. This study implicated multiple approaches for groundwater quality assessment and estimated its spatial structure as an effort toward effective groundwater quality management in Shur river basin.

The superior photocatalytic activity of semiconductor-based photocatalytic materials has attracted great attention. In this work, a series of novel Ag₃PO₄/g-C₃N₄₋ₓ (APO/CNx) composites with the Z-scheme structure were fabricated through a facile precipitation method. B naphthol, a typical phenolic compound, was selected to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of all as-prepared photocatalysts. The obtained APO/CNx composites exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for degradation of B naphthol under visible-light irradiation. Experimental results showed that the degradation rate toward B naphthol could reach to 90.5% for 180 min, which was almost 3.66 times higher than pure g-C₃N₄, indicating that the presence of nitrogen vacancies and Z-scheme structure could efficiently improve the photocatalytic performance of pure g-C₃N₄. Furthermore, the results of trapping experiments and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy manifest that •O₂⁻ and •OH radicals were the predominant active substances for B naphthol degradation, and the possible mechanism of improved photocatalytic performance was elucidated. This work will provide an innovative perspective for constructing Z-scheme photocatalysts for the application of photocatalytic in the field of wastewater treatment.

The COVID-19 pandemic became a challenge to human well-being. The rapid spread of the coronavirus diseases with quarantine measures make people use social media platforms more than before. The bad use of social media platforms affects the mental health of users leading to spread of panic among persons. This study aimed to determine the impact of social media on spreading panic about COVID-19 among adults in Egypt. This was a cross-sectional study that enrolled 2032 participants through online snowball sampling approach conducted during May 2021 to collect data from adults in Egypt. A self-administered questionnaire was used. It consists of three sections as follows: demographic characteristics, the social media platforms employed during the pandemic, the impact of social media on study participants. Nearly half of both sexes believed that spreading news about COVID-19 on social media platforms has a major role in spreading fear among people. More than half of the study participants reported that the level of Egyptian pages on social media covering COVID-19 was not good. A total of 46% females and 30.1% of males; those with primary, preparatory, higher, and postgraduate education; and 46.7% of medical and 32.1% of nonmedical were psychologically affected. The impact of social media on spreading panic among Egyptians varies according to gender, level of education, and occupation. Therefore, social media played an important role in spreading panic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aflatoxin is one of the dangerous fungal toxins that is produced in the presence of humidity and heat and lack of proper storage conditions and is considered as a dangerous substance threatening human health. The work aimed to determination of aflatoxin M1 (AFM) level in raw, pasteurized, and sterilized milks offered in the study area and to evaluate the risk of its consumption. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 60 samples of milk types supplied in the region were collected during two series of sampling (cold and hot seasons) and analyzed by ELISA method. LCR, MoE, and HI indices were used to assess the possible risk of consuming milk containing AFM. In all taken samples AFM was found, the toxin concentration range in the first and second series of sampling was 57.5–270.6 ng/L and 57–185.9 ng/L, respectively. The level of toxin in pasteurized and sterilized milks in both sampling series was higher than raw milks. Based on the obtained data and in order to assess the risk of milk consumption in the target population, associated values with EDI, LCR, MoE, and HI were also calculated and obtained in the range of 0.145–0.3 ng/k.d b.w, 0.0008–0.0017 additional case per one million population, 1892.9–3921.6 and 0.72–1.5 ng/kg b.w, respectively. According to the findings, all samples tested are contaminated and although it is within the range of the WHO recommendation, however, based on the calculated indicators, the risk of liver cancer threatens the consumers of these milks. Therefore, it is necessary to manage this issue through educational control and monitoring measures.

To accomplish the high-quality development target in Yellow River Basin, the current study investigates the impact factors of the rural sustainable development efficiency in Yellow River Basin from the period of 1997 to 2017, by using Super efficiency Slack-based Measure, improved STIRPAT, and the OLS regression. The findings illustrate that rural sustainable development efficiency in Yellow River Basin is maintaining a fluctuating upward trend during the investigation. The impact factor analysis reveals that at the entire basin level, the population density and industrial structure have the greatest impact on rural sustainable development efficiency, while the technology level has the least impact. The industrial structure and GDP per capita negatively impacted rural sustainable development efficiency in the upper and middle basin, while they have non-significant positive impact in the lower basin. Besides, urbanization level inhibited rural sustainable development efficiency in upper basin (except middle basin and lower basin), and technology level has promotional effect in rural sustainable development efficiency at the entire basin as well as at the 3 sub-basins, while the influence effect is not significant in the lower basin. Therefore, these empirical results indicate that the impact effect of these factors exist spatial heterogeneity. Thus, decision-makers should consider this reality fully and make differential measures when they construct the development long-term strategies for rural sustainable development efficiency in yellow river basin.

In this study, a multimethodological analysis involving optical and physical/chemical diagnostic techniques and 3D photogrammetric survey was successfully applied, for the first time, on the large oil on canvas St. Michael defeating Evil painting by Mattia Preti, located inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Sarria (Floriana) in Malta. Pigmenting agents, binder media, and raw materials were first characterized, both at elemental and molecular scales, through X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), optical stereo microscopy (SM), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The main goal was to properly identify the execution technique of this famous painter, the artist’s palette, and possible nondocumented interventions. The 3D photogrammetric survey, on the other side, allowed us to noninvasively evaluate the extension of the areas that experienced restorations, and to properly map the domains of the different canvasses observed. The joints between canvasses suggested that the painting was folded and rolled up. In addition, the employment of a thermal camera gave evidence of the different consolidating material injection points used during the restoration to strengthen the painting. The obtained results offer useful information for the development of optimized restoration and conservation strategies to be applied and provide, at the same time, answers to open questions related to provenance and dating of the investigated artwork.

The Fe₃O₄@nSiO₂@mSiO₂/NTA (FNMs-NTA) was prepared by grafting magnetic mesoporous microspheres with nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) and applied as an adsorbent for the removal of Cr(III) from complex solutions. Some characterization techniques including Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), small-angle X-ray diffraction (SAXS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize functional groups and pore structure of FNMs-NTA, which proved that NTA was successfully decorated onto the magnetic Fe₃O₄@nSiO₂@mSiO₂ (FNMs) and FNMs-NTA featured a regular mesoporous structure. The batch adsorption of Cr(III) by FNMs-NTA exhibited high adsorption capacity (16.0 mg·g⁻¹ at pH 3.0, and 25 °C). Adsorption data followed Freundlich isotherm and adsorption process was a spontaneous adsorption process. Moreover, the kinetics of adsorption were well explained by pseudo-second-order kinetic model. FNMs-NTA showed resistance to interfering inorganic cations (Na⁺, Ca²⁺) and complexing agents (EDTA). Furthermore, FNMs-NTA exhibited remarkable regeneration performance and easy separation under external magnetic field. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed the FNMs-NTA had excellent adsorption ability for Cr(III) because of the ion exchange and surface complexation.

This study investigates the effects of human capital, bio-capacity, energy use, and economic growth on the ecological footprint of G20 countries for the period 1970–2016, using the panel dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE) model. In the study, the G20 was considered in two groups, as developed and emerging economies. According to the DCCE estimation results, the long-term impact of human capital on the ecological footprint is negative and statistically strong in the developed economies while it is insignificant in the emerging economies. The impact of bio-capacity on the ecological footprint is positive in the short and long term in the emerging economies, and only in the short term in the developed economies. In addition, economic growth and energy use undermine the environmental quality in both groups of countries. The error correction coefficients are negative and statistically significant, which means that the deviations from the short-term equilibrium converge the long-term equilibrium level for both groups.

Amorphous mesoporous titania (AM-TiO₂) was prepared through the solvothermal-assisted sol–gel method. AM-TiO₂ exhibited a large specific surface area (675 m²/g) and a high adsorption capacity (252.7 ± 5.6 mg/g) for the removal of Sb(III) from aqueous solution, which was beyond the majority of previously reported Sb(III) adsorbent. The isotherms and kinetics studies indicated that the adsorption followed the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetics equation. Choosing N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as the solvent, as-synthesized AM-TiO₂ exhibited a remarkably enhanced adsorption capacity of Sb(III) compared with other solvents including acetone (209.6 mg/g), methyl alcohol (195.5 mg/g), ethyl alcohol (180.5 mg/g), and water (106.7 mg/g). Furthermore, the background ionic such as CO₃²⁻, Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, and NO₃⁻ had a negligible impact on the adsorption properties of AM-TiO₂. The synergy among negative surface charge, large specific surface area, and abundant hydroxyl groups facilitates the adsorption of Sb(III). AM-TiO₂ was further utilized to the removal of Sb(III) in real polluted textile wastewater; meanwhile, Mn and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the textile wastewater were simultaneously reduced as well.

Mining activities within the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa, have led to many studies, particularly focusing on the generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) in the basin and the associated environmental effects. This study assesses whether gypsum in the Whitehill Formation is connected to acid rock drainage (ARD) resulting from reactions between the pyrite-bearing shale and carbonaceous rocks. To investigate this, the geochemical, geological and palaeoclimatic settings were investigated and a laboratory experiment with Whitehill Formation rock samples was conducted. XRF data of the rocks and modal analysis were used to determine the mineral composition of the Whitehill Formation. In addition, pH-redox equilibrium (PHREEQC) modelling was used for simulations. The results of this study show that metals precipitated from the water–rock solution form various mineral phases like those of the Witwatersrand Basin. Large-scale dolomite dissolution might not be expected.