Effective removal of dyes has been widely investigated by the adsorption of powder activated carbon and photodegradation by titanate nanotubes (TNTs). In this study, a facile one-step alkaline-hydrothermal method was applied to synthesize powder activated charcoal–supported TNTs (TNTs@PAC). Adsorption of three representative dyes, i.e., cationic methylene blue (MB), cationic rhodamine B (RhB), and anionic methyl orange (MO), onto TNTs@PAC was evaluated by the adsorption kinetic experiments and adsorption isotherms. The first 30 min is the main time phase of adsorption, and MB, RhB, and MO obtained the experimental equilibrium uptake of 173.30, 115.06, and 106.85 mg/g, respectively, indicating their final removal efficiencies of 100%, 69.36%, and 64.11%, respectively. The increase of pH value reduced adsorption capacity of MO (from 149.35 mg/g at pH of 2 to 96.99 mg/g at pH of 10), but facilitated MB adsorption, which was attributed to the charge distribution on the surface of TNTs@PAC and the charge of dyes at different pH. Furthermore, good capacity recoveries of MB by TNTs@PAC (> 99%) were observed after UV irradiation treatment, indicating the used TNTs@PAC can be easily recycled for the adsorption of MB by UV irradiation. Overall, TNTs@PAC is an effective process for remediation of dye-contaminated water because of its adsorption performance for all selected dyes and good regeneration capacity for MB.

The Tibetan Plateau is known as the “Asian water tower,” and the Yarlung Tsangpo (YT) River is the largest river that originates in and flows across the southern Tibetan Plateau. Although the solute source of YT River has been extensively and qualitatively analyzed, there is a lack of the quantitative analysis for the whole basin and seasonal variation of hydrochemical characteristics. Here, 212 samples obtained in the mainstream and tributary of YT River in different (wet, normal, and dry) periods were used for the solute apportionment using the mass balance model. The results showed that the solutes in YT River water were mainly derived from the carbonate and silicate rock weathering that accounts 42.2% and 26.9% in the total solute source, respectively, as the complex geological conditions in the basin. A part of the ions (7.5%) was also originated from the atmospheric precipitation as the abundant rainfall in the wet period. Meanwhile, the contribution of solute sources had no significantly seasonal variation in the upstream, whereas it had significantly seasonal variation in the downstream with the tropical climate and heavy rainfall. Importantly, the rock weathering of the basin could consume so much atmospheric CO₂ (0.54% of the consumption at global with the only 0.16% of the global surface area) that could mitigate the global warming, which followed an increasing trend from upstream to downstream. The quantitative analysis of the solute source for YT River fills in the gaps in the chemically characteristic cognition of the basin. It is beneficial for the water resource management for the Asian. The proportion of solute sources in the YT River and its tributaries for wet (W), normal (N), and dry (D) periods

China is currently the largest CO₂ emitter in the world. Within China, more than 60% of CO₂ emissions originate from high energy-intensive (HEI) industries. Therefore, controlling and reducing CO₂ emissions from HEI industries is crucial if China is to achieve its 2030 emission reduction targets. This study aims to investigate regional differences in the impact of HEI industries on CO₂ emissions in China. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of HEI industries on CO₂ emissions at the national and regional levels using a modified STIRPAT model and provincial panel data from 2000 to 2015 in China. The results show that HEI industries are significant contributors to China’s CO₂ emissions owing to the growth in industries, coal-based energy structure, low level of technology, and outstanding conduction effects. The impact intensity of HEI industries on CO₂ emissions decreases from the western to the central and eastern regions in China because of a huge regional difference in industrial structure, energy structure, R&D investment, and industrial transfer. Our findings have important implications for policymakers in China by indicating that regional policies concerning HEI industries should be differentiated to successfully reduce CO₂ emissions and meet national targets.

A Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) provides an economically feasible and efficient wastewater treatment solution especially in developing countries. It has an enormous potential for developing a sustainable environmental sanitation system. In this study, the treatment efficiency of eight DEWATS plants was evaluated in the state of Maharashtra, India, for their performance in terms of selected physico-chemical parameters of the wastewater. Although the efficiency of some of the plants was lower than that reported in literature, the effluent quality of all the plants was within the permissible discharge limits of the Central Pollution Control Board for all the parameters. Comprehensive assessment of Plant I was carried in terms of its technical and socio-economic aspects. Moreover, LCA tool has been utilized to evaluate the environmental impacts of the operation stage of DEWATS. The midpoint, CML 2001 (April 2015) methodology was adopted, in which 11 impact categories were considered. From the life cycle impact assessment and interpretation, the main impacts are identified as releases of COD, P-PO₄³⁻, and N-NH₄⁺ to water bodies and disposal of sludge. Due to negligible energy consumption, the operation stage was found to be less damaging to the environment. It was concluded that DEWATS can be a good alternative for treating wastewater with negligible energy and chemical consumption.

Researchers dealing with heat stress experiments use different cell kinds and use trypsin that has been reported to affect the cellular proteins of cultured cells. Therefore, we compared the effects of acute and chronic exposures to high temperature (45 °C) on camel skin fibroblast and granulosa cells. Primary culture of fibroblasts and granulosa cells tolerated the acute heat shock for 2 h; however, granulosa cells cultured for long duration (20 h) showed thermotolerance when compared with the fibroblasts. Moreover, the effect of cell dispersion method (trypsin and mechanical dissociation) on the thermotolerance of sub-cultured cells was examined. Trypsin altered the morphology of fibroblasts and granulosa cells exposed to 45 °C for 4 h. Moreover, trypsin significantly reduced the fibroblast and granulosa cell migration in the wound healing assay. The current results demonstrate that cell passaging and cell type can affect the thermotolerance of the cells; it also revealed that trypsin could alter the cellular response to the heat shock. We raise the demand for another alternative method for cell dispersion in experiments dealing with cellular responses to the heat shock.

The Loess Plateau is the most severely degraded soil area worldwide and represents one of the lowest areas of soil productivity. To solve the conundrum between increasing populations and decreasing agricultural acreage, enhancing the quantity of cultivated land, gully land consolidation projects has been implemented. However, the new creation farmland soil is not enough to satisfy the demand of agricultural production. An incubation experiment was conducted to determine the effects of biochar on the new creation farmland soil. Five levels of amendments (0, 1%, 2%, 5%, and 10% (wt%) biochar soil) were used, and the soil columns remained in the laboratory for approximately 2 months. The results show that biochar proportion was a more important factor than incubation time across all soils tested. The soil moisture content and particle size clearly increased as the amendment level increased; however, the soil pH decreased gradually with incubation time and tended to slow soil salinization. These findings will have to be verified under field conditions.

In this study, the long-term operational performance of an on-site NF facility at a full-scale oil-field wastewater desalination plant was monitored. The NF facility with poor permeability due to membrane fouling enables efficient multivalent salt removal (rejections of Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Fe³⁺, and Al³⁺ were approximately 100%). Moreover, a comparison of the cleaning efficiencies of two on-site cleaning modes indicated that PL-007 cleaning helped to improve the effectiveness of subsequent acid cleaning in the removal of inorganic foulants. Furthermore, a spiral-wound NF membrane module harvested from the plant was unfolded and autopsied. The results showed that both anionic polyacrylamide (APAM) and crude oil were identified as the predominant organic matter on the membrane surface and collectively accounted for a substantial fraction (86.3%) in terms of dry weight. Additionally, dissolved organics with a high molecular weight were prone to accumulation on the membrane surface. Multivalent elements, including Mg, Ca, Al, Fe, and Si, were the primary inorganic species in the fouling layer. Among the inorganic elements, Si occupied a high proportion and existed in the form of SiO₂ in the fouling layer. According to the autopsy results, organic fouling combined with inorganics was responsible for the decline in the flux.

Ecological modernization theories suggest that it is hard to determine a priori the environmental effects of urbanization, while neoliberal doctrine advocates a positive role of globalization in developing economies especially in terms of reducing poverty and inequality. Yet, the environmental effect of globalization is not unanimous. This study employs second-generation panel regression techniques that account for heterogeneous slope coefficients and cross-sectional dependence to estimate the impacts that urbanization and globalization have on CO₂ emissions for a panel of 44 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries for the period 1984–2016. Also, a causality test that considers both these issues is performed. The estimated coefficient of urbanization is positive, statistically significant, and highly consistent across different estimation techniques. The magnitude of the coefficient and level of significance are different in different econometric estimations. In most specifications, the estimated coefficient on the globalization variable is statistically insignificant. Urbanization is found to cause emissions. The environmental implications of these results are discussed with a set of policy recommendations for an environmentally better SSA region.

Issues that are associated with climate change have global importance. Most related studies take a national or regional perspective on the impact of climate change. Taiwan is constrained by its geographical conditions, which increase its vulnerability to climate change, especially in its western coastal areas. The county that is most affected by climate change is Yunlin. In 2013–2014, projects that were sponsored by Taiwan’s government analyzed the relationship among synthesized vulnerability, ecological footprint (EF) and adaptation to climate change and proposed 15 categories of synthesized vulnerability and EF values. This study further examines the relationship between vulnerability and EF values and examines how residents of four townships—Linnei, Sihu, Mailiao, and Huwei—cope with the effects of climate change. This study investigates whether the residents of the four townships vary in their attitudes to climate change, their perceptions of disaster risk, and their behavioral intentions with respect to coping with climate change. The structural equation model (SEM) is used to examine the relationships among attitudes to climate change, perceptions of disaster risk, and the behavioral intentions of residents in townships with various vulnerabilities to climate change. The results that are obtained using the SEM reveal that climate change mitigation/adaptation behavior is affected by attitudes to climate change and perceptions of disaster risk. However, the effects of attitudes and perceptions on mitigation and adaptation that are mediated by place attachment are not statistically significant.

In this study, poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers grafted with 4-vinyl pyridine (PET-g-4VP) was synthesized with using a radical polymerization method and its removal capacity for bromate ions in the aqueous solution was explored. The synthesized graft copolymer was structurally characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The effect of some parameters such as pH, grafting rate, processing time, and ion concentration on bromate removal was examined with batch experiments. The sorptions of bromate onto the PET-g-4VP fibers were both verified with FTIR and X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) and the remaining amount of bromate after adsorption process was determined with an ion chromatography (Shimadzu). Moreover, kinetic and isotherm studies were also performed for adsorption of bromate with the grafted fibers. The point of zero charge (pHₚzc) of the PET-g-4VP fibers was found to be 7.5 and the fibers removed maximum amount of bromate from aqueous solution at pH 3. Equilibrium time of adsorption was determined to be 75 min and the adsorption kinetic was found to be pseudo-second-order model. It was observed that the increase in the amount of grafted 4VP onto the PET fibers increased the bromate removal capacity of the fibers; however, when the grafting yield of 4VP was over 80%, the bromate removal ability of the fibers decreased. The maximum bromate removal capacity of the PET-g-4VP was determined to be 183 mg/g when the initial bromate amount was 800 mg/L, treatment time was 75 min, pH of the solution was 3, and 4VP grafting yield was 80%. When the initial bromate concentration was higher than 800 mg/L, the removal rate of the PET-g-4VP fibers was not changed. In addition, bromate ion adsorption data indicated compliance with the Freundlich isotherm. The adsorbent fibers obtained by this study may be promising candidates for the removal of bromate ions from the aqueous media.