The healthy development of biodiversity has been threatened frequent water eutrophication. In recent years, photocatalytic technology, which has attracted researchers’ attention, not only showed increasing potential in the field of organic pollutant degradation, but also many kinds of photocatalysts were used in the field of red tide pollution control at present, which showed superior ability to inactivate harmful algae and degrade algal toxins. Researches have also explored the mechanisms of photocatalytic algae inhibition. In this study, the current research progress in the field of photocatalytic algae inhibition was systematically discussed from several aspects, such as common types of photocatalysts, modification methods of photocatalysts, types of tested algae for photocatalytic algae inhibition, and action mechanism of inactivated algae cells, so as to provide a certain theoretical basis for further application research of photocatalysts in the field of algae removal in the later period.

Slowing and reversing climate change and keeping energy prices at affordable levels are the main important achievements of the use of renewable energy. About 210% increase in energy consumption from 1990 to 2018, reduction in fossil fuel reserves, and high capacity of renewable energy in Arab countries encourage them to increase the use of renewable and sustainable energy sources as a key way to supply the energy in future and have a sustainable economy. There is no a comprehensive review study to focus on the capacity and strategies of renewable energy in Arab countries at the transnational level until 2030. To fill this gap, this article investigates the current and future capacities and strategies of renewable energy production by 22 Arab countries, which are the center of fossil energy production in the world, until 2030. Indeed, it provides a roadmap for advancement towards energy production from renewable sources in these countries. It is observed that Egypt and Morocco with an installed capacity of 5980 and 3447 MW, respectively, had the highest installed renewable energy capacity among the Arab countries in 2020. The results also showed that most ambitious goal is related to Djibouti, where it is targeted to supply 100% of energy from renewable resource by 2035. Finally, it should be mentioned that most Arab countries focus on solar and wind energy, and very little attention is paid to geothermal, biomass, and hydroelectric energy.

Over the years, many researches have shown the potential protective effects of ginseng for preventing and treating neurological damage and their related diseases. Neuronal disturbance is one of the most common serious effects of cisplatin chemotherapy that triggers memory impairment and cognitive disability. Based on the hypothesis that mechanistic pathways of ginseng against the neurological and biochemical disturbance remain unclear, therefore, this study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of ginseng extract against neurological and behavior abnormality induced by cisplatin in male rats. Animals were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 served as a control, group 2 was orally administrated with ginseng (100 mg/kg BW) daily for 90 days, group 3 was injected intraperitoneally with cisplatin (4 mg/kg BW) once a week for 90 days, and group 4 received ginseng and cisplatin. Cisplatin induced a learning and memory dysfunction in the Morris water maze task and locomotor disability in the rotarod test. In addition, cisplatin disrupted the oxidant/antioxidant systems, neuroinflammatory molecules (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-1β), neurotransmitters, and apoptotic (caspase-3, P53, and Bax) and dementia markers (amyloid-β40 and amyloid-β 42). Co-treatment with ginseng extracts successfully ameliorated the cognitive behaviors and intramuscular strength and presented a good protective agent against neurological damage. Histopathological and histochemical studies proved the neuroprotective effect of ginseng. Our data showed that ginseng capable to counteract the memory dysfunction is induced by cisplatin via reducing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation restoring the neurological efficiency.

A large amount of fresh tobacco waste with high water content are produced in farmland, and it may cause environmental pollution if it is not properly treated. The fresh tobacco waste is not easily collected and transported, resulting in its centralized treatment is expensive. This study is to clarify whether it is feasible to treat fresh tobacco wastes by co-composting of them and soil in farmland and applied the obtained compost product into the soil instead of a part of tobacco-specific fertilizer. The results showed that, compared with that in original soil, the relative abundance of Pseudomonas, Azotobacter, and Coprinus of the co-composted products increased by roughly 244%, 323%, and 675%, respectively, and effective nitrogen and available potassium increased by roughly 157% and 132%, respectively. In addition, the nicotine content in co-composted products decreased dramatically compared with the discarded tobacco leaves. The application of the co-composted products and 20% fertilizer amount (15 g/plant) (YD5) exhibited the highest relative abundance of beneficial microbial communities in the soil and the best growth of tobacco plants. The co-composting of fresh tobacco waste and soil in farmland is an effective measure to treat the fresh tobacco waste, and its products increased beneficial microorganisms and stimulate the growth of tobacco plants by replacing an amount of the fertilizer.

Odiel river basin is located in the Iberian Pyritic Belt (IPB) and mostly of its tributaries are severely affected by acid mine drainage (AMD). It is originated when pyritic minerals from abandoned mines, especially mineral residues from waste rock dams, get in contact with air and water. Fifteen sampling points were chosen to analyze interactions between diatom communities and water hydrogeochemistry. Considering physicochemical characteristics, sampling points were assigned as highly, moderately, and unpolluted by AMD. No correlation was observed between ecological diversity indexes and physico-chemical parameters. However, a dependency relationship between diatom species distribution and specific pH, conductivity, redox potential, sulfate, and metal concentrations was observed. Cluster analysis based on Pearson correlation and rs values of the non-parametric Spearman correlation allowed to identify Pinnularia acidophila, Pinnularia subcapitata var. elongata, and Eunotia exigua as the main bioindicators of AMD-polluted Odiel streams. Finally, a principal component analysis led to associate the most abundant diatoms species to specific physico-chemical parameters.

This research assesses the effect of health expenditure and sanitation on life expectancy in Mediterranean countries. We also consider other drivers of life expectancy, such as CO₂ emissions and economic growth. The study covers the period 2000–2018, and the recently developed method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) approach was utilised to assess these interconnections. This method is immune to outliers and creates an asymmetric interrelationship between variables. The outcomes from the MMQR unveiled that economic growth, health expenditure, and sanitation enhanced life expectancy in all quantiles (0.1–0.90). Furthermore, in all quantiles (0.1–0.90), the effect of CO₂ emissions on life expectancy was negative. Moreover, as a robustness check, the FMOLS, DOLS, and FE-OLS long-run estimators were applied, and the outcomes validated the MMQR outcomes. Based on the results generated, policymakers in these nations should implement effective environmental and public health measures that will pay off in the long run through improved health as a result of lower emissions of CO₂, as well as increased economic expansion and productivity.

With the rapid development of China’s economy, high energy consumption and high pollution emission have become serious problems. To solve these problems, many studies have been done to evaluate energy and environmental efficiency, as the results can provide valuable information to improve performance. However, the previous research mainly evaluates China’s regional energy and environmental efficiency by considering each region’s industry as a whole system, ignoring the internal structure. In reality, each region mainly includes three parallel types of industry: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Therefore, this paper provides a parallel data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to evaluate China’s regional energy and environment efficiency by considering these parallel industrial systems. The following findings can be obtained based on the empirical results: (1) the overall energy efficiency of China is low, and the inefficiency of the economic system is mainly sourced from the lower energy and environmental performance of the primary industry and the tertiary industry. (2) the introduction of the environmental variable (CO₂) leads to the increase of some backward areas’ efficiencies. (3) the energy efficiency of each provincial region is different, and most of them have their own inefficient industries. (4) the total factor productivity of China is declining, mainly because of the decline of technical efficiency.

Green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an essential indicator to measure economic and environmental efficiency. Moreover, formulating a reasonable environmental regulation system and promoting green technological innovation is a systematic way to improve GTFP. However, previous related studies lack to investigate the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP from the perspective of green technological innovation. For this purpose, this paper aims to examine the specific impact of environmental regulation on GTFP based on the perspective of green technology innovation, so as to provide some policy insights for the formulation of more effective implementation of environmental regulation, improve green technology innovation level, and achieve a win–win situation for both economic growth and environmental protection. Furthermore, epsilon-based measure (EBM), which includes both radial and non-radial distance functions, is used to measure the GTFP. The spatial autoregressive method is also employed to quantify the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP from the perspective of green technological innovation using panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2018. The main findings indicate that there is a significant spatial autocorrelation between environmental regulation and GTFP. Environmental regulation has a significant positive effect on GTFP. Environmental regulation in the local regions also significantly contributes to GTFP in neighboring regions. Besides, environmental regulation indirectly promotes GTFP by enhancing green technological innovation level. Regional heterogeneity results show that environmental regulation can not only directly promote GTFP but also indirectly significantly promote GTFP through green technological innovation in the eastern and central regions, but insignificant in the western region. Based on the above findings, we conclude that policymakers should not only develop differentiated environmental regulation standards and steadily improving the intensity and rationality of environmental regulation but also add green innovation funds supply, enhance green innovation factor allocation efficiency, and strengthen R&D talents, funds, and policies to green technology innovation, so as to drive GTFP improvement.

Selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH₃ (NH₃-SCR) is one of the most common technique for elimination of NOₓ. The promotional effect of Fe additive on the NH₃-SCR activity of the CeVO₄/TiO₂-graphene (GE) is systematically studied. The results exhibited that the low-temperature NOₓ conversion could be enhanced dramatically via the addition of Fe and Fe₀.₅Ce₀.₅VO₄/TiO₂-GE displayed the highest conversion of NOₓ in the wide temperature window (200–400 °C). It is because that Fe³⁺ + Ce³⁺ ↔ Fe²⁺ + Ce⁴⁺ facilitated the oxidization of NO to NO₂ at low temperature and led to the “Fast SCR,” thereby raising the SCR performance. What is more, the introduction of Fe enhanced redox ability, the surface relative percentage of Ce³⁺, V⁵⁺ and the chemical adsorbed oxygen. Furthermore, the high surface concentration of Ce³⁺ species can produce more active oxygen and leads to the “Fast SCR” reaction. In addition, the Fe₀.₅Ce₀.₅VO₄/TiO₂-GE catalyst showed excellent H₂O/SO₂ tolerance, which may be due to the decomposition of ammonium bisulphite under high temperature and the hydrophobicity of graphene. What is more, it displayed outstanding the stability. This work would provide theoretical reference for the practical application of NOₓ abatement via NH₃-SCR.

Agriculture is the main occupation of the majority of people in India. The majority of the population in India is dependent (directly or indirectly) on agriculture as an occupation. The agriculture sector requires more freshwater and power for better yield in the current scenario. Nevertheless, the ever-increasing rate of energy consumption, limited fossil fuels, and rising pollution have made the expansion of renewable resources essential. Due to the suitable solar potential available in India, the deployment of solar energy has been more as compared to other renewable resources. The current study aims to discuss the various technologies, initiatives and policies of solar energy usage in agriculture. This work delivers an assessment of the advancement of solar energy vis-à-vis agricultural applications through the greenhouse concept and photovoltaic approach in India. Various agricultural applications of solar energy, such as solar water desalination system, solar water pumping system, solar crop dryer system for food safety, etc. are discussed as a means to promote solar-based technology. It also highlights the scenario of solar energy in India with important accomplishments, developmental approaches, and future potential. In-depth studies of various policies and government initiatives including those in research and development are also discussed. The current survey on solar technologies will be an aid to agribusiness frameworks to comprehend the statuses, obstructions, and extent of advancement. Finally, some future recommendations for further developments in this approach are discussed. This work sheds light on varied areas of solar energy-assisted agricultural systems as a potentially sustainable and eco-friendly pathway.