In order to study the radon release behavior when heap leaching uranium ores with dilute sulfuric acid, unleached uranium ores from a uranium mine in southern China were selected as test samples. Adopting parameters from leaching processes commonly used in uranium mines, a laboratory experiment was carried out for 21 days with a one-dimensional acid heap leaching experimental column. The surface radon exhalation rate of uranium ore column was determined by static accumulation method while spraying with deionized water and dilute sulfuric acid. The uranium leaching rate and ore column height for all 21 days of the experiment were also measured. The results show that (1) when sprayed with a leaching agent, the surface radon exhalation rate of uranium ore column initially increased with time sharply. After a maximum value was reached, the rate gradually decreased and stabilized. When the spraying stopped, the surface radon exhalation rate of uranium ore column initially decreased, before increasing until it tended to stabilize. (2) During the entirety of the 21-day leaching experiment, the cumulative leaching rate of uranium increased gradually with time. On the other hand, the surface radon exhalation rate of uranium ore column fluctuated, but the leaching of uranium from uranium ores had almost no effect on the radon exhalation rate. (3) There was no linear correlation between the surface radon exhalation rate and the residual height of ore column during leaching, but the collapsing event of ore column was the direct inducing factor of the fluctuation of surface radon exhalation rate.

This paper investigates the relationship between “replacing business tax with value-added tax” (RBTVT) and the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of the logistics industry using regression discontinuity (RD) method, and the research shows that the TFEE of the logistics industry in China has presented a benign growth trend. RBTVT has significantly promoted the development of TFEE in the logistics industry, and its influence has mainly stemmed from the improvement of green technology progress. Moreover, the promotion mechanism of policy in the eastern region reacts more sharp than that in the central and western regions does. So this paper claims that the government should built a tax incentive mechanism of green production and energy conservation. It is necessary to use RBTVT to promote the high-quality development of the logistics industry and create an environment which coexist low-carbon environmental protection and economic benefits.

Currently, the quantitative assessment of the public excess risk for the update of the air quality guidelines only considered the mortality and morbidity without disease burden indicators. To provide evidences for the update of air quality guidelines and the policy analysis of air control, a simple framework to identify the excess disease burden of PM₁₀ was used in this study. Daily data on PM₁₀, meteorological factors, and deaths were collected in this 10-year (2001–2010) time series study in Tianjin, China. The excess disease burden advanced by PM₁₀ was assessed when the PM₁₀ levels exceeded the expected levels. Generalized additive model was used to estimate the associations of PM₁₀ with mortality and years of life lost (YLL). Our study found that the exposure of PM₁₀ was associated with the increasing of mortality and YLL in different diseases. The excess deaths and YLL of different diseases advanced by PM₁₀ when the PM₁₀ levels exceeded the expected levels were high and showed a decreasing trend from 2001 to 2010. The annual deaths and YLL standardized per million population advanced by PM₁₀ when the annual PM₁₀ levels exceeded the China national ambient air quality secondary standard targets (70 μg/m³) and WHO guideline (20 μg/m³) were 126 persons, 2670 person years and 260 persons, 5449 person years, respectively. This study may provide a simple framework to identify the excess disease burden of PM and provide basic and intuitive evidences to update the air quality guidelines. Furthermore, these findings may also provide decisionmakers with intuitive quantitative information for policymaking and emphasize health considerations in air quality policy discussions.

Degradation of photovoltaic system’s power due to dust deposition is one of the important concerns of photovoltaic investors, especially the PV modules which are installed in the hot and dry parts of a country. This issue requires to be more understood and quantify its impact on the PV module performance in installation site. This study experimentally studied the dust deposition using several glasses which were fixed in the wooden frames at different tilt angles and directions in the southeast of Iran. The dust deposition on the glasses, solar energy reduction of the dusty glasses, and PV power reduction due to dust deposition were measured in all months of the year. The results showed that the average dust deposition on the glasses is 4.6 × 10⁻³ gr/m²day during the year. In case of no rain precipitation and no cleaning, this value reached 2.74 × 10⁻²gr/m²day. The percentage of solar energy reduction due to dust deposition was varied between 2 and 16% during the year. A correlation for prediction of the solar energy transmittance reduction based on the settled dust on the glass samples was developed in the studied region using 1-year data collection. The average solar energy reduction was obtained 7% during the year, and this value reached 44% in case of no rain precipitation and no glass cleaning. Results showed that in the most months of the year the wind direction and the direction of the glasses with the maximum dust deposition were coincided with each other. Furthermore, the experimental measurement showed that the calculated optimum monthly tilt angle in some months of the year is not the same with the measured tilt angle due to dust deposition. The difference between the calculated and measured tilt angles in these months was 15°.

The extreme temperatures and uneven distribution of rainfall associated with climate change are expected to affect agricultural productivity and food security. A study was conducted to evaluate the impact of climate change on wheat in southeastern regions of Turkey. The CERES-wheat crop simulation model was calibrated and evaluated with data from eight surveyed farms. The four farms were used for calibration and four for evaluation. Climate change scenarios were developed for the middle (2036–2065) and late 21st century (2066–2095) under representative concentration pathways (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5) for study sites in Islahiye and Nurdagi. Model calibration results showed a good agreement between observed and simulated yield with only a 1 to 11% range of error. The model evaluation results showed good fit between observed and simulated values of all parameters with % error ranged from 0.51 to 13.3%. Future climate change projections showed that maximum temperature (Tmax) will increase between 1.6 °C (RCP4.5) and 2.3 °C (RCP8.5), while minimum temperature (Tmin) will increase between 1.0 °C (RCP4.5) and 1.5 °C (RCP8.5) for mid-century. At the end of the century, Tmax is projected to increase from 2 °C (RCP4.5) to 4 °C (RCP8.5) and Tmin from 1.3 °C (RCP4.5) to 3.1 °C (RCP8.5). Climate change impacts results showed that future rise in temperature will reduce wheat yield by 16.3% in mid-century and 16.8% at the end of the century at Islahiye and for Nurdagi, while 13.0% in mid and 14.4% end of the century. The use of climate and crop modeling technique provides useful information in evaluating the climate change impacts and may assist stakeholders to make decisions to overcome the negative impacts in the near and long term.

Various types of micropollutants, e.g., pharmaceuticals and their metabolites and resistant strains of pathogenic microorganisms, are usually found in hospital wastewaters. The aim of this paper was to study the presence of 74 frequently used pharmaceuticals, legal and illegal drugs, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 5 hospital wastewaters in Slovakia and Czechia and to compare the efficiency of several advanced oxidations processes (AOPs) for sanitation and treatment of such highly polluted wastewaters. The occurrence of micropollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria was investigated by in-line SPE-LC-MS/MS technique and cultivation on antibiotic and antibiotic-free selective diagnostic media, respectively. The highest maximum concentrations were found for cotinine (6700 ng/L), bisoprolol (5200 ng/L), metoprolol (2600 ng/L), tramadol (2400 ng/L), sulfamethoxazole (1500 ng/L), and ranitidine (1400 ng/L). In the second part of the study, different advanced oxidation processes, modified Fenton reaction, ferrate(VI), and oxidation by boron-doped diamond electrode were tested in order to eliminate the abovementioned pollutants. Obtained results indicate that the modified Fenton reaction and application of boron-doped diamond electrode were able to eliminate almost the whole spectrum of selected micropollutants with efficiency higher than 90%. All studied methods achieved complete removal of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria present in hospital wastewaters.

Previous studies have shown that exposure to particulate matter (PM) increased variety of health problems, particularly cardiovascular diseases leading to premature mortality. The cardiac effects of particulate matter containing PM₁₀ include increased infarct size, decreased heart function, and increased arrhythmias in experimental ischemia-reperfusion models in rats. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of particles with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm (PM₁₀) on isolated-rat heart and also to determine the efficacy of gallic acid (GA) as a preventive agent in oxidative damage. The healthy rats were divided into 8 equal groups which served as, control, GA, PM₁₀ (0.5, 2.5, and 5 mg/kg), and PM₁₀+GA groups. PM₁₀ administered into the lungs via the trachea in two stages with 48-h interval. After all experiments, the electrocardiogram was recorded. Then, the hemodynamic parameters and ventricular arrhythmias in rat isolated-hearts were assessed using Langendorff apparatus and according to the Lambeth conventions. In addition, the inflammation and oxidative stress factors in cardiac tissues were evaluated in all groups. The obtained results showed that the exposure to PM caused to decrease in cardiac hemodynamic and electrocardiogram parameters. Also, in PM₁₀ rat groups, the IL-6, TNF-α, and oxidative stress parameters were increased. Gallic acid preserved the value of cardiac parameters and inflammation in rat hearts. In summary, we added a novel therapeutic effect of gallic acid for cardiac dysfunction induced by particulate matter. These findings could be related to antioxidant and antiinflammation properties and the obtained results suggest that natural antioxidant like gallic acid could be a therapeutic agent in prevention and management of health issues in the polluted areas of the world.

In the present research, investigation of the practical utility of barberry stem powder (BSP) and barberry stem ash (BSA) for humic acid (HA) removal from an aqueous medium by adsorption was carried out. The adsorption process was tested by varying of pH (3–11), reaction time (5–20 min), initial HA concentration (5–40 mg/L), adsorbent dosage (1–4 g/L), and temperature (15–35 °C). The isothermal results revealed that the adsorption process is favorable for both used adsorbents and it is highly described using the Freundlich and Langmuir models (R² > 0.960). Also, the maximum uptakes of BSP and BSA for HA were 20.220 and 16.950 mg/g at the abovementioned optimized conditions (pH = 7, reaction time = 10 min, temperature = 15 °C, initial HA concentration = 40 mg/L, and adsorbent amount = 1.0 g/L), respectively. The results achieved from the fitting of the experimental data with Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm model showed that the HA molecules are adsorbed onto the BSP and BSA by physiosorption process. From the thermodynamic study, it appeared that the biosorption process of the HA onto two studied adsorbents was of exothermic nature. The kinetics of the adsorption process of HA has been found to be pseudo-second-order model (R² = 0.930–0.999). Thus, the results obtained from this paper elucidated that the BSP exhibited higher adsorption capacity in comparison to BSA, for HA removal up to permissible concentrations.

In this paper, a magnetic nano-Fe₃O₄/triethanolamine/GO composite (TEA-GO-FE) was prepared by using graphene oxide (GO), triethanolamine (TEA), and ferric chloride. The result indicates that triethanolamine acted as an important role for the growing of Fe₃O₄ and adsorption ability of composite material. The synthesis mechanism of TEA-GO-FE was investigated through the medium of SEM-EDS, XRD, FT-IR, and TEM. The characterization results indicated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles have been successfully loaded on the surface of graphene oxide and they were encapsulated by TEA and have excellent stability. According to the results of XRD, the general particle size of Fe₃O₄ on TEA-GO-FE was 27.5 nm. In order to understand the adsorption properties of TEA-GO-FE for Pb²⁺ and Cu²⁺, this article uses a static adsorption study method. The optimized adsorption conditions are as follows: pH = 5.0, temperature is 293.15 K, and the ion concentration is 100 mg/L. Under the optimized prerequisites, the adsorption capacities of Pb²⁺ and Cu²⁺ were 121.5 mg/g and 68.7 mg/g, separately. Through thermodynamic as well as kinetic studies, the adsorption process of Pb²⁺ and Cu²⁺ on TEA-GO-FE is a self-heating process.

To analyze the distribution pattern concerning multi-nozzle interference spray particle granularity between hydraulic supports, the present study conducts atomization interference experimental characterization for three types of nozzles used in coal mines based on a Doppler laser interference spray dust suppression simulation experimental system. The results indicate that for single-nozzle atomization, the impact of spray pressure on spray droplet size is gradually subdued, and a spray pressure of 8 MPa yields the best result; compared with single-nozzle spray, the multi-nozzle atomization interference effect can downsize the spray field overlapping zone, leading to an improved uniformity of overall spray particle distribution. As the spray field overlapping coefficient k increases, the particle size of the interference spray field decreases first and then increases. As the spray field overlapping coefficient reaches 0.4, the distribution of spray droplet size is most concentrated, corresponding to the optimal atomized dust suppression effect. Practical testing indicates that the optimal spray field overlapping coefficient measured at a fully mechanized mining face agrees well with the experimental result. Under the optimal parameters, the average total dust and respirable dust suppression rates measured at various measuring points on the downwind side during support relocation reach 78.93% and 80.53%, respectively.