Nowadays, sustainable agriculture is globally considered a path to achieving the goals of sustainable development. Assessing the sustainability of agriculture can help develop better policies and plans that contribute to sustainable agriculture. Hence, the present study developed new composite indices to assess regional and national agricultural sustainability over time using a four-stage process. The indices were used to conduct an empirical assessment of agricultural sustainability in Iranian provinces during 2007–2017. Initially, 24 individual sustainability indicators were determined in economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Then, the indicators were normalized using the min–max method and were weighted using the pairwise comparisons and Analytic Hierarchy Process method. Finally, the composite economic, social, and environmental, and overall indices were constructed using the weighted sum of indicators and the most important results were analyzed using sustainability maps and diagrams. The individual indicators show the current status of resources used in the agriculture sector, and the constructed composite indices can be helpful tools for policymakers and planners to identify the strengths and weaknesses of agriculture in achieving sustainable development, comparing different regions in terms of agricultural sustainability status, evaluating agricultural sustainability over time, and directing agricultural policies. The empirical results indicated that sustainability statuses were different and following an irregular trend in Iranian provinces (except for the economic index in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province and social index in Hamedan and Gilan) throughout the studied period. By adopting regular and proper policies, agricultural sustainability can be increased in Iran.

In this study, nanoporous anodic film was produced by anodization of niobium, Nb in a fluoride ethylene glycol electrolyte. The effect of anodization voltage and electrolyte temperature was studied to find an optimum condition for circular, ordered, and uniform pore formation. The diameter of the pores was found to be larger when the applied voltage was increased from 20 to 80 V. The as-anodized porous film was also observed to comprise of nanocrystallites which formed due to high field-induced crystallization. The nanocrystallites grew into orthorhombic Nb₂O₅ after post-annealing treatment. The Cr(VI) photoreduction property of both the as-anodized and annealed Nb₂O₅ samples obtained using an optimized condition (anodization voltage: 60 V, electrolyte temperature: 70 °C) was compared. Interestingly, the as-anodized Nb₂O₅ film was found to display better photoreduction of Cr(VI) than annealed Nb₂O₅. However, in terms of stability, the annealed Nb₂O₅ presented high photocatalytic efficiency for each cycle whereas the as-anodized Nb₂O₅ showed degradation in photocatalytic performance when used continually.

This paper describes a simple, quick, and solvent-free multi-residue method to determine 90 pesticides in groundwater samples from 30 different chemical groups. The extraction was carried out by solid-phase microextraction in direct immersion mode (DI-SPME) using a polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene fiber (65 µm thickness) followed by GC–MS detection. The main parameters affecting the DI-SPME process were studied in detail: temperature, NaCl addition, stirring rate, and extraction time. The validation parameters as linearity, precision (repeatability and reproducibility), and accuracy were evaluated. The limits of quantification (LOQs) were in the range of 0.009–0.976 µg L⁻¹. The analytes recoveries in groundwater samples varied from 60 to 120% and were appropriate for this type of water. The validated analytical method was successfully applied to the analysis of groundwater from wells located in agricultural sites in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The pesticides p, p’-DDT, bifenthrin, 2,4’-D ethylhexyl ester, and aldrin were below the LOQs in 73% of the analyzed samples. Oxyfluorfen and fenoxycarb were quantified at 0.08 and 0.2 µg L⁻¹, respectively. Fenoxycarb was above the maximum allowable concentration of 0.1 µg L⁻¹ for drinking water established by the European Union.

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is made from the monomer, ethylene. It is mainly used as food packing material and is difficult to recycle. Thus, we attempted to identify the fungal compositions from a plastic disposal site and use them to degrade LDPE. We identified five isolates as belonging to Rhizopus spp. and Aspergillus spp. according to their morphologies. The fungal isolates were tested using a biodegradation assay with LDPE-supplemented growth medium. Among the five fungal isolates identified, strain A effectively degraded LDPE as evidenced by its increased biomass and greater reduction of the LDPE weight (60%). PCR amplification of the 18S rRNA from genomic DNA isolation of this strain revealed that the strain had 96% similarity to Rhizopus oryzae according to BLAST searches. As an LDPE-degrading fungus, the sequence was submitted to GenBank under the accession number MT259131. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis provided evidence for the functional group and morphological changes in the LDPE. We further substantiated its ability to degrade plastic by docking the LDPE and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates with the chitinase enzyme from Rhizopus oryzae and a control enzyme. The docking scores for the chitinase enzyme (AAP57213) were − 7.0 kJ/mol for LDPE and − 6.7 kJ/mol for PET. The docking score for the control was − 5.5 kJ/mol. These results suggest that degradation of LDPE and PET helps with societal recycling of plastic waste.

Rising tropospheric ozone concentrations can cause rice yield losses and necessitate the breeding of ozone-tolerant rice varieties. However, ozone tolerance should not compromise the resistance to important biotic stresses such as the rice blast disease. Therefore, we investigated the interactive effects of ozone and rice blast disease on nine different rice varieties in an experiment testing an ozone treatment, blast inoculation, and their interaction. Plants were exposed to an ozone concentration of 100 ppb for 7 h per day or ambient air throughout the growth period. Half of the plants were simultaneously infected with rice blast inoculum. Grain yield was significantly reduced in the blast treatment (17%) and ozone treatment (37%), while the combination of both stresses did not further decrease grain yields compared to ozone alone. Similar trends occurred for physiological traits such as vegetation indices, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), photochemical reflectance index (PRI), Lichtenthaler index 2 (Lic2), and anthocyanin reflectance index 1 (ARI1), as well as stomatal conductance and lipid peroxidation. Ozone exposure mitigated the formation of visible blast symptoms, while blast inoculation did not significantly affect visible ozone symptoms. Although different genotypes showed contrasting responses to the two types of stresses, no systematic pattern was observed regarding synergies or trade-offs under the two types of stresses. Therefore, we conclude that despite the similarities in physiological stress responses to ozone and blast, the tolerance to these stresses does not appear to be genetically linked in rice.

The low-cost composite of g-C₃N₄ modified by Zn-doped SnO₂ nanoparticles was prepared for the first time in this work. The characterization results of XRD and SEM demonstrated that Zn was successfully doped into SnO₂. The formed Sn-O-Zn bonds and interaction between the Zn-doped SnO₂ sample and g-C₃N₄ in the composite were explored by FT-IR and XPS technologies. Photocatalytic degradation experiments showed that the as-prepared optimal composite photocatalyst displayed enhanced photocatalytic reactivity towards both dyes and antibiotics, which could degrade 85.6% of RhB and 86.8% of tetracycline within 30 and 90 min, respectively. The oxygen vacancies formed in SnO₂ after Zn doping could capture the photogenerated electrons of g-C₃N₄, thereby promoting the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, then more ·O₂⁻ and holes can be generated during the visible light-driven photocatalytic reaction, so that the composite of Zn-doped SnO₂/g-C₃N₄ acquired higher photocatalytic activity and accelerated the degradation of target organics. Active species capturing experiments and ESR detection results also confirmed that ·O₂⁻ and holes were the main active species in the reaction process. This work developed a novel g-C₃N₄-based photocatalyst with no noble metal, low price, and high photocatalytic activity, which could provide a cost-effective and high-efficiency strategy for wastewater treatment.

Activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) by Fe²⁺ is a green oxidation process for degradation of organic contaminants. However, the formation of iron mud and low PMS utilization lead to the decreased oxidation efficiency. In this work, commercial MoS₂ particles were used as the catalyst for boosting the Fe²⁺/PMS process for carbamazepine (CBZ) removal. The CBZ removal efficiency by the MoS₂/Fe²⁺/PMS process was significantly enhanced, increasing to 6.5 times that of the Fe²⁺/PMS process. The Fe³⁺ was reduced to Fe²⁺ by the exposed Mo⁴⁺ on the surface of MoS₂, leading to the enhanced PMS utilization rate and increased Fe²⁺ concentration. The relative intensity of DMPO-HO• and DMPO- SO₄–• followed the order of MoS₂/PMS < Fe²⁺/PMS < MoS₂/Fe²⁺/PMS, also suggesting the enhanced oxidation activity with the addition of MoS₂ in the process of Fe²⁺/PMS. The commercial MoS₂ had good stability shown by the CBZ removal efficiency remaining almost unchanged during 8-time cycling use. Finally, a possible CBZ degradation pathway was proposed for helping understand the oxidation mechanism of the MoS₂/Fe²⁺/PMS process.

Heavy metal pollution bears a substantial threat to flora, fauna, humans, and milieu. The elimination of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] from polluted water is of considerable research interest from a health and environmental viewpoint. This work aims for photocatalytic reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) using TiO₂ and SnO₂ as catalysts. The process parameters varied are catalyst dosage, pH, initial concentration of model pollutant with citric acid (CA) as a scavenger. TiO₂-SnO₂ (in the molar ratios 10:1, 20:1, 30:1, and 40:1)-based catalysts were synthesized using the hydrothermal method. The 40:1 catalyst showed higher photoactivity than other catalysts and could extend the optical activity in the visible light region. The complete reduction of Cr(VI) with a concentration of 15 mg/L and pH 3.0 was achieved when catalyst concentration was 0.6 g/L over a period of 30 min. The XRD (X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy) and ATR-FTIR (Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) results confirm the Ti-Sn heterojunction formation, and XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) analysis corroborate the presence of trivalent chromium [Cr(III)] on TiO₂-SnO₂ catalyst after reduction.

India is one of the highly developing countries in the world and it has the second-largest agricultural source of income, which covers 61% of the entire income of the country. The most valuable income group, by giving the appropriate training in this technology, will make their entire country to become one of the most highly developing counties in the world. In recent years, many developing, developed, and underdeveloped countries face shortages of fish, fruits, and vegetables due to natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, and any other unexpected events. Now the main issue of this paper is to preserve the food products from post-harvest to consumer-level, which cover 60% of losses due to the unavailability of preservative methods. This paper mainly focused on the conventional methods to advanced solar drying technologies for perseverating fish, fruits, and vegetables and also it discusses the technology used for drying the yield range of fish like Atheriniformes, Catfish, Chilwa, etc. Fruits like banana, mango, and papaya, and vegetables like bitter gourd, cabbage, and cocoa beans have been reviewed and also discussed some problems along with their solutions in concern with food products drying, thereby the selection of dryer for drying products will be made easy by this review article. On the whole, this investigation would help researchers in fish drying to choose the better drying methods for acquiring better results for particular fish, fruits, and vegetables that enable any entrepreneur to select the appropriate method reducing the cost and time.

How the vast majority of nitrous oxide (N₂O) in the aerobic zone of nitrogen bio-removal process is produced is still a controversial issue. To solve this issue, this study measured the activities of two key denitrifying enzymes (nitric oxide reductase (Nor) and nitrous oxide reductase (N₂OR)) in an A/O SBR with different chemical nitrogen demand (COD)/total nitrogen (TN) ratios. By analyzing the Spearman’s correlations between the N₂O production, the enzyme activities, and the factors, the main N₂O production process was identified. By comparing the activities of these enzymes, this study analyzed the reasons for the N₂O production. Results show that Nor activities had a linear relationship with total N₂O concentrations (y = 0.34749 + 31.31365x, R² = 0.83362) and were not affected by COD (r = 0.299, N = 15, P = 0.279 > 0.05), which showed that most of the N₂O released and produced came from the autotrophic denitrification. N₂OR activities had a positive correlation with COD (r = 0.692, N = 15, P = 0.004 < 0.01), which showed that heterotrophic denitrification played a role as an N₂O consumer. Nor activities were much higher than N₂OR activities and the gap between them increased when the total N₂O concentration increased, showing that the heterotrophic denitrification was difficult to consume all the N₂O produced by the autotrophic denitrification. Reducing autotrophic denitrification is the best way to reduce N₂O production in aerobic phase.