While climate change is having serious impacts on agriculture and may require ongoing adaptation, short-run threats to global food security are also crucial for developing countries. We use dynamic and asymmetric panel autoregressive distributed lag estimators to investigate how the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity vary depending upon the short run and long run in Asia over the period of 1980–2016. The results confirmed that there is a long-run relationship between agricultural productivity and climate change variables; however, only CO₂ emissions could be linked to agricultural productivity in the short run. Moreover, while the direction of this effect is positive for the short run, it turns into negative in the long run confirming that carbon fertilization in the atmosphere can to some extent have a positive effect on agricultural productivity.

Bisphenol analogs (BPs) are widely used in industrial and commercial products and have been detected in surface water, sediment, sewage, and sludge. The presence of BPs in the natural environment poses threats to the aquatic ecosystem and human health. The concentration, distribution, seasonal variation, and risk assessment of BPA and BPA structural analogs including BPB, BPF, BPS, BPZ, BPAF, and BPAP in surface water and sediment during dry season and flood season in Luoma Lake and its inflow rivers in Jiangsu Province, China, were investigated in this study. The detection frequency of BPA and BPF was 100%. Although the use of BPA is restricted, BPA is still the dominant BPs in surface water and sediment. The concentration of BPs in surface water during flood season was higher than that in dry season. The concentrations of BPs in Fangting River, Zhongyun River, and Bulao River were higher than those in Luoma Lake. The average concentrations of BPs in surface water were in the order of BPA > BPF> BPS> BPB > BPZ > BPAF> BPAP. Compared with other studies, the concentration of BPs in Luoma Lake was moderate. There is no significant spatial distribution and difference in seasonal variation of BPs concentration in sediment (p > 0.05). Compared with other studies, the contamination of BPs in sediment of Luoma Lake was relatively low. Risk quotient (RQ) was used to evaluate the ecological risk of BPs in water environment, and the 17β estradiol equivalent (EEQ) method was used to estimate the estrogenic activity of BPs. The risk assessment showed no high ecological risk (RQ < 1.0) and estrogenic risk (EEQ < 1.0 ng/L) in dry season and flood season. The estimated RQ and EEQₜ indicated that the ecological and human health impacts were negligible in the short term.

The phosphorus-sulfur two-step production process was developed in the wet-process phosphoric acid industry to solve phosphogypsum pollution. However, phosphate rock acid-insoluble residue is produced during this process as a new type of solid waste, which had a high potential for recycling. For process reasons, this type of residue still contains a certain amount of fluorine and phosphorus, which has a massive impact on the potential uses of phosphate rock acid-insoluble residue. Therefore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman, electron probe spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy were used to examine the existing form and distribution of fluorine and phosphorus in phosphate rock acid-insoluble residue. The mass fraction of F and P₂O₅ were 9.407% and 11.862%, respectively. Fluorine existed mainly in the form of fluorite, fluorapatite and metal fluoride. Phosphorus existed mainly in the form of fluoroapatite, phosphate, hydrogen phosphate, and dihydrogen phosphate. The total phosphate, hydrogen phosphate and dihydrogen phosphate contents were much higher than that of fluoroapatite, whereas the fluoroapatite content was higher than that of fluorite and metal fluoride. Fluorine and phosphorus were distributed in the form of agglomerates in the phosphate rock acid-insoluble residue. Fluorine and phosphorus were partially correlated, showing a weak relationship in the high phosphorus area.

Despite the nutritional benefits, bivalves like mussels are also an excellent aquatic heavy metal biomonitoring agent due to their high tolerance to varying levels of temperature, salinity and oxygen, as well as pollutants. Although the accumulated toxic heavy metals may not exert direct negative impacts on the mussels, such toxicants in mussel tissues can give harmful effects on human body when consumed in toxic quantities and/or over prolonged period. The booming of urban and industrial activities, and consequently the increment of runoffs, as well as wastewater effluents and leaching, further exacerbated the magnitude of this issue. Hence, continuous monitoring of heavy metal contents in mussels is vital to ensure its compliance with food safety regulations, protecting consumers at large. This review paper discusses the occurrence of heavy metals in mussels especially that of Perna viridis in Malaysia and other parts of the world since year 2000 until 2021. Heavy metal concentration data and patterns from various coastal and/or estuaries were compared. Where applicable, statistical data that indicate variations between sampling sites, sampling months or years and chemical treatments for heavy metal removal were critically reviewed. Health risk assessment findings were also discussed. More importantly, related chemical-based interventions to minimize and/or eliminate toxic heavy metals from mussels are also reviewed.

Hearing loss has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence in cross-sectional studies. However, little is known about the prospective association between hearing loss and CVD incidence. We aimed to examine the associations of hearing loss with risk of incident CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke in a Chinese population. We included 13,880 individuals aged 63.3 years from the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort study (2013–2018). Hearing loss was categorized into normal, mild, moderate, severe, or greater by the pure-tone average of thresholds at speech and high frequency in both ears. Cox proportional hazard models and linear regression models were used for multivariate longitudinal analyses. After multivariate adjustments, we observed suggestive dose–response associations of increased high-frequency hearing loss with elevated risk of CVD and stroke incidence. Compared with normal hearing loss at high frequency, those with moderate and severe or greater hearing loss had a 4% (95% CI: 0.92, 1.18) or 13% (95% CI: 0.98, 1.30) higher risk of CVD and 52% (95% CI: 1.06, 2.17) or 51% (95% CI: 1.03, 2.20) higher risk of stroke, while the associations were almost consistent across most subgroups. No significant associations were observed for CHD and high-frequency hearing loss, as well as CVD and speech-frequency hearing loss. In addition, higher high-frequency hearing loss was related to unfavorably altered lipid profiles and fasting glucose. Our data suggested that increased hearing loss might increase the risk of incident CVD and stroke among middle-aged and older Chinese, which was partially explained by altered CVD-related biomarkers.

Safe, efficient, and simultaneous treatment of toxic industrial sludge and anionic contaminant crisis in one route still remains a persistent global challenge. Herein, we proposed a facile waste-control-waste conceptual design strategy to develop low-cost and high-performance sludge-based adsorbent for not only recycling of toxic waste nickel-containing sludge (NCS) but for the efficient removal of anionic contaminants in wastewater. The as-designed Ni–Al layered double oxides/calcined NCS (Ni–Al LDOs/CNCS) (216.96 m²/g, 0.44 cm³/g) with hierarchical porous structure possessed a larger specific surface area and well-developed porosity compared with raw NCS (60.52 m²/g, 0.26 cm³/g). It was proved that a higher hydrothermal temperature (180 °C) and a longer hydrothermal time (24 h) both promote the in situ assembly of LDHs nanosheets on CNCS surface. Significantly, the sludge-based adsorbent displayed high adsorption capacity towards five representative anions including F⁻ (~ 31.1 mg/g), SO₄²⁻ (~ 37.7 mg/g), NO₃⁻ (~ 21.8 mg/g), Cl⁻ (~ 28.0 mg/g), and H₂PO₄⁻ (~ 35.8 mg/g). Furthermore, the adsorbent maintained desirable adsorption capacity even after 6 adsorption/desorption cycles. Therefore, this study could be potentially extended toward design of other industrial waste sludge–derived high value-added advanced materials and for wastewater treatment applications.

Despite their important role in the fight against global climate change, the coordination of green pharmaceutical supply chains (GPSC) has rarely been studied. To fill this research gap and realize the optimal green performance of GPSC, this study aimed to investigate the coordination of a GPSC considering green investment, green logistics, and government intervention. Using a game-theoretic approach, we establish decision models and analyze the equilibrium strategies in several GPSC scenarios. A linked two-part tariff (LTPT) contract is proposed for the coordination of the GPSC. In addition, we explore the many important implications of changes in the parameters. This research shows that, under different conditions, governments should reasonably implement different interventions in order to promote the positive global performance of GPSC. Government intervention can increase the benchmark height and make more room for green improvement. The proposed LTPT contract can assist in the realization of GPSC coordination, obtain a greater consumer surplus, and achieve optimal green performance. Higher flexibility-influence coefficients of green degree on costs are conducive to the emission reductions and sustainable development of GPSC. Moreover, cultivating green preference in the market can save the government expenditures on subsidies. When the green investment coefficient of a GPSC is larger, the GPSC members lack motivation for green improvement, and the government needs to provide more subsidies rather than taxes in order to improve the green degree of the GPSC. Increased rewards from the government to the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the TPLSP will reduce the subsidies for the pharmaceutical retailer. Government intervention influences the scope of an LTPT contract. The findings provide rich managerial insights and implications for the GPSC policymakers and decision-makers in achieving sustainability goals.

This study aims to employ marble, pumice, and basalt combination for phosphate ions adsorption. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the preparation method. The optimum mixture of marble, pumice, and basalt was used as an adsorbent for phosphate removal, where RSM optimized the adsorption process. The maximum removal efficiency was obtained when the combination was 0.5 marble: 0.25 pumice: 0.25 basalt. All the developed models (preparation, capacity, and removal efficiency models) were found to be significant and adequately precise to describe model space. The maximum removal efficiency reached 94% at pH 2, initial phosphate ions concentration of 10 mg/L, and contact time of 60 min. The adsorption of phosphate ions onto the prepared adsorbent was found to follow the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second-order model. The phosphate adsorption onto the prepared adsorbent was feasible and naturally spontaneous. At the end of the study, the adsorption of phosphate onto the rock combinations was realized successfully and the generation of second-order pollutants was prevented since the prepared adsorbent can be utilized in the soil enrichment.

In order to make clear the role of intercalated anions in layered double hydroxides (LDHs) for catalytic hydrolysis of carbonyl sulfide (COS), the adsorption and reaction characteristics of COS over the simple Mg₂Al-Cl-LDH model catalyst were studied by both theoretical and experimental methods. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations by CASTEP found that the chloride ions in LDH function as the key Brønsted base sites to activate the adsorbed H₂O with enlarged bond length and angle, facilitate the dissociative adsorption of intermediates including mono-thiocarbonic acid (MTA) and hydrogen thiocarbonic acid (HTA), and participate in the formation of transient states and subsequent hydrogen transfer process with decreased energy barriers during COS hydrolysis. COS hydrolysis will preferentially go through the dissociated intermediates of mono-thiocarbonates (MT) and hydrogen thiocarbonates (HT) with dramatically decreased energy barriers, and the rate-determining step of COS hydrolysis over Mg₂Al-Cl-LDH will be the nucleophilic addition of C=O in COS by H₂O (Ea = 1.10 eV). The experimental results further revealed that the apparent activation energy (0.89 eV) of COS hydrolysis over Mg₂Al-Cl-LDH is close to theoretical value (1.10 eV), and the accumulated intermediates of MT, HT, or carbonate were also observed by FT-IR around 1363 cm⁻¹ on the used Mg₂Al-Cl-LDH, which are well in accordance with the theoretical prediction. The demonstrated participation of intercalated chlorine anions in the evolution of intermediates and transient states as Brønsted base sites during COS hydrolysis will give new insight into the basic sites in LDH materials.