Agricultural wastes have promising potential for the production of low-cost and sustainable adsorbents for heavy metals, while the characteristics of those biosorbents and the stability of the passivated heavy metals under natural conditions need to be studied further. In this paper, the oilseed rape plant after seed harvesting was divided into three parts: root (RT), stem (ST), and pod (PD). The isotherm adsorption of cadmium (Cd(II)) on the biomass was conducted. In practice, the biomass was aged in the Cd(II)-contaminated soil, and the concentration of Cd(II) in the leachate was measured after the continuous eluent of typical acid rain. The components and elements of the biomass were determined for the analysis of the differences between the immobilization abilities of the biomass. Results showed the CC (corn cob, as a comparison), ST, RT, and PD had the adsorption capacities of 6.34, 7.58, 9.22, and 9.87 mg/g for Cd(II) through the Langmuir fitting of the isothermal adsorption experiments, respectively. The leached Cd(II) were reduced 1063, 2073, 2824, and 3621 μg by CC, ST, RT, and PD biomass aging, respectively. Compared that by CC, the immobilization differences between the biomass in soil were much greater than that in isotherm adsorption, indicating the biosorption ability of rape biomass was enlarged during the 30 days of aging. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur contents showed sequences as pod>root>stem and had high correlations with the reduced amount of leached Cd(II), which indicated protein might be beneficial for the enhancement of adsorption/immobilization in the soil.

The original publication of this paper contains a mistake.

The relationship between sustainable development and climate change has been extensively addressed, but with few studies focusing on the Amazonian Rainforest. Due to its dimension and importance, preserving it is critical in order to mitigate the problem of climate change associated with rising temperatures, lower precipitation, and the increase of extreme weather events. This paper studies the effects of climate change on the sustainable development of Amazonia. A scientometric analysis was carried out which reveals the evolution of the research field in terms of the growing number of works that have been published in top journals and the main drivers of climate change in Amazonia, such as deforestation, global warming, and land use. Our results indicate that the environmental dimension of sustainable development has been the issue most studied. Our analysis leads us to recommend that policymakers implement incentives for better forest management, design policies with realistic expectations, and rely more on technical reports and approaches to implement policies. Better integration of policies at local, regional, national, and international levels is necessary in order to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Several measures to intensify the scientific approaches joining economic and social dimensions are also proposed. This work contributes to the systematization of the literature on sustainable development and climate change in Amazonia, which has not yet been done, and provides policy recommendations to researchers and professionals for a better understanding of climate change and sustainable development in the Amazonia region of Brazil.

The subchronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) and high-fat diet (HFD) consumption lead to glucose intolerance by different mechanisms involving oxidative stress and inflammation. Under stressful conditions, the cells exert a heat shock response (HSR), by releasing the 72-kDa heat shock proteins (eHSP72), fundamental chaperones. The depletion of the HSR can exacerbate the chronic inflammation. However, there are few studies about the early effects of the association of HFD consumption and exposure to low concentrations of PM₂.₅ in the oxidative stress and HSR, in the genesis of glucose intolerance. Thus, we divided 23 male B6129SF2/J mice into control (n = 6), polluted (n = 6), HFD (n = 6), and high-fat diet + polluted (HFD + polluted) (n = 5) groups. Control and polluted received a standard diet (11.4% of fats), while HFD and HFD + polluted received HFD (58.3% of fats). Simultaneously, polluted and HFD + polluted received 5 μg/10 μL of PM₂.₅, daily, 7×/week, while control and HFD were exposed to 10 μL of saline solution 0.9% for 12 weeks. At the 12th week, animals were euthanized. We collected the metabolic tissues to analyze oxidative parameters, total blood to the hematological parameters, and plasma to eHSP72 measurement. The association of HFD and PM₂.₅ impaired glucose tolerance in the 12th week. Besides, it triggered an antioxidant defense by the adipose tissue, which was negatively correlated with eHSP72 levels. In conclusion, a low concentration of PM₂.₅ exposure associated with HFD consumption leads to glucose intolerance, by impairing adipose tissue antioxidant defense and systemic eHSP72 levels.

With the rapid industrialization, increasing of fossil fuel consumption and the environmental impact, it is an inevitable trend to develop clean energy and renewable energy. Hydrogen, for its renewable and pollution-free characteristics, has become an important potential energy carrier. Hydrogen is regarded as a promising alternative fuel for fossil fuels in the future. Therefore, it is very necessary to summarize the technological progress in the development of hydrogen energy and research the status and future challenges. Hydrogen production and storage technology are the key problems for hydrogen application. This study applied bibliometric analysis to review the research features and trends of hydrogen production and storage study. Results showed that in the 2004–2018 period, China, USA and Japan leading in these research fields, the research and development in the world have grown rapidly. However, the development of hydrogen energy still faces the challenge of high production cost and high storage requirements. Photocatalytic decomposition of water to hydrogen has attracted more and more research in hydrogen production research, and the development of new hydrogen storage materials has become a key theme in hydrogen storage research. This study provides a comprehensive review of hydrogen production and storage and identifies research progress on future research trend in these fields. It would be helpful for policy-making and technology development and provide suggestions on the development of a hydrogen economy.

The extensive use of synthetic fertilizers is increasing continuously to meet the growing demand of food worldwide. This excessive use of fertilizer not only pose a threat to the sustainability but also cause negative externalities in form of hidden social cost to the society The present study estimated social costs and benefits associated with excessive use of chemical fertilizers at tea farms and also evaluated eco-efficiency of tea growers in Rize Province of Turkey. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used in this study. Tea growers are 68% eco-efficient in the locality. They can reduce their average fertilizer use from 115.45 to 66.45 kg and labor from 9.88 to 8 days per decare. The overuse of fertilizers at tea farms emits 289.3 kg/hectare of greenhouse gases. Therefore, by applying the eco-efficient fertilizer target level, 1574.48 tons of gas emissions only in Rize Province and 23,997.57 tons in whole Turkey can be reduced. The cost of 1 kg gas emissions was calculated as 0.3316 TL. The optimal level of fertilizers (social costs = social benefits) was also similar to the target level. The fertilizer use efficiency analysis showed that the tea growers cannot only reduce their fertilizer quantity by 49.03 kg/decare without compromising the crop yield, but can also contribute to the healthy environment with a low level of greenhouse gas emissions. Tea growers should replace their older tea orchards with new ones in order to achieve social and eco-efficient levels as well as to maintain viable yield level.

Malachite green (MG) is a triphenylmethane dye that is widely used in aquaculture as a fungicide, bactericide, ectoparasiticide, and antiprotozoal. There is great debate regarding the potential for this compound to trigger adverse effects. Here, we review the previous findings and then evaluate the lethal and sublethal effects of MG in the species Hemichromis bimaculatus (jewelfish). The lethal concentration for 50% of the fish in 96 h was 1 mg/L. We observed a dose-dependent increase in the percentage of fish mortality as well as physical and behavioral changes. We further found that the highest tested sublethal dose significantly increased the DNA damage index identified using the comet assay (74.97 ± 13.8 at a significant level of P < 0.05 for the 0.75 mg/L concentration), but did not significantly alter the results of the micronucleus test. Although our results suggest that MG confers risks on exposed fish, the findings were significant only at the highest exposure concentration (0.75 mg/L). At lower concentrations (0.25 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L), no adverse effect was observed. The maximum MG concentration recommended for use in ornamental fish farming is 0.2 mg/L. Therefore, our results suggest that, specifically for the parameters analyzed in this work, MG does not have any adverse effect when users strictly adhere to the recommended concentration criteria for ornamental fish.

Mesoporous silica (MCM-48) was synthesized and used as a catalyst for supporting the nickel oxide photocatalyst. The loading of nickel oxide on MCM-48 results in a considerable reduction in the bandgap energy to 2.4 eV. MCM-48 was used as a catalyst and back-supporter for the nickel oxide to enhance its photocatalytic properties along with adsorption capacity. Therefore, the adsorption capacity of MCM-48/Ni₂O₃ was enhanced by 17.5% and 32.2% compared to Ni₂O₃ and MCM-48, respectively. Furthermore, the percentage of photocatalytic degradation was improved by approximately 68.2% relative to the free-standing Ni₂O₃. The MCM-48/Ni₂O₃ proved the chemisorption adsorption mechanism that happens in multilayer form through the heterogeneous surface. This through fixing such Ni₂O₃ particles over the nanoporous topography to provide more exposed hot adsorption and photocatalytic sites for the incident light photons. Therefore, supporting Ni₂O₃ catalytic particles onto MCM-48 produces a new category of photocatalytic systems with promising active centers for the efficient degradation of Congo red dye molecules.

In present study, an efficient ternary Ag/TiO₂/mesoporous g-C₃N₄ (M-g-C₃N₄) photocatalyst was successfully synthesized through depositing Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the surface of TiO₂/M-g-C₃N₄ heterojunction. Ag/TiO₂/M-g-C₃N₄ nanocomposite displayed the highest degradation efficiency for amoxicillin (AMX) compared to TiO₂/M-g-C₃N₄ heterojunction, M-g-C₃N₄, and bulk-g-C₃N₄ (B-g-C₃N₄). The removal efficiency of AMX in real situation, surface water (SW), hospital wastewater (HW), and waste water treatment plant (WWTP) also were studied to illustrate the effectiveness of Ag/TiO₂/M-g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts. The vulnerable atoms in AMX structure were revealed through DFT calculation. Additionally, the dominating active groups produced in time of the photocatalytic procedure were determined on account of free radical trapping experiments and ESR spectra. The mechanism of photocatalytic degradation was proposed and verified. The transfer of the electrons and the inhibition of the recombination of photogenerated electron-holes were enhanced effectively under the synergistic effect of the Ag NPs and TiO₂. As a consequence, the catalytic activity of the composite was improved under visible light.