To assess the association between the concentration of ambient particulate matter (PM) and the pediatric clinical visits for wheezing among children under 3 years old, data of daily air pollutants (PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, NO₂, SO₂, CO), meteorological reports, along with the number of daily clinical visits of the children with wheezing at the Pediatric Department of Shanghai Renji Hospital (South Campus) were collected from January through December 2014. Correlation between the levels of air pollutants and the number of clinical patients for wheezing were analyzed by a time series analysis with a generalized addictive model (GAM). During the study period, the daily average concentrations of PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, NO₂, SO₂, and CO were 51.84 ± 32.51, 72.69 ± 41.15, 43.25 ± 18.07, 17.45 ± 10.42, and 0.82 ± 0.26 μg/m³, respectively, which were abnormally higher compared to the standard defined by the Chinese Ministry of Environment Protection. The average number of daily clinical patients with wheezing was 23 ± 14 persons/day. The number of clinical visit by children with wheezing was significantly correlated with concentration of PM₂.₅ or PM₁₀ when the effect of SO₂ and NO₂ was adjusted (P < 0.05). It was also found that exposure-response relationship was a linear non-threshold mode when it was analyzed by the GAM, and the percent of the clinical visits of children with wheezing increased from 0 to nearly 20 % with every interquartile increase of PM₂.₅. The visiting number of children at a pediatric outpatient clinic increased due to the increase of PM₂.₅ in Pujiang, Shanghai, China.

Soil balls containing the so-called effective microorganisms (EM) have been applied to improve water quality of small ponds, lakes, and streams worldwide. However, neither the physical conditions facilitating their proper application nor the diversity of microbial community in such soil balls have been investigated. In this study, the application of 0.75 % of hardener to the soil balls exerted almost neutral pH (pH 7.3) which caused up to a fourfold increased hardness of the soil ball. Moreover, the 0.75 % of hardener in the soil ball also improved the water quality due to a significant reduction in dissolved oxygen, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen contents. Metagenomic analysis of the microbial community in the soil ball with 0.75 % hardener was compared with control (traditional soil ball) through next-generation sequencing. The traditional soil ball microbial community comprised 96.1 % bacteria, 2.7 % eukaryota, and 1 % archaea, whereas the soil ball with 0.75 % hardener comprised 71.4 % bacteria, 27.9 % eukaryota, and 0.2 % viruses. Additionally, metagenomic profiles for both traditional and improved soil balls revealed that the various xenobiotic biodegradation, such as those for caprolactam, atrazine, xylene, toluene, styrene, bisphenol, and chlorocyclohexane might be responsible for organic waste cleanup.

The use of a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) is often regarded as a viable option to reduce sulfuric acid mist emitted from the wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) tower in coal-fired power plants. In this study, a pilot-scale wet electrostatic precipitator equipped with a wall-cooled collection electrode is investigated for the control of sulfuric acid mist from a simulated WFGD system. The results show that due to partial charging effect, the removal efficiency of sulfuric acid aerosol decreases when the aerosol size decreases to several tens of nanometers. Moreover, due to the plasma-induced effect, a large number of ultrafine sulfuric acid aerosols below 50 nm formed at a voltage higher than 24 kV inside the WESP. The percentages of submicron-sized aerosols significantly increase together with the voltage. To minimize the adverse plasma-induced effect, a WESP should be operated at a high gas velocity with an optimum high voltage. Even at a high flue gas velocity of 2.3 m s⁻¹, the mass concentration and the total number concentration of uncaptured sulfuric acid aerosols at the WESP outlet are as low as ca. 0.6 mg m⁻³ and ca. 10⁴ 1 cm⁻³ at 28 kV, respectively. The corresponding removal efficiencies were respectively higher than 99.4 and 99.9 % and are very similar to that at 1.1 and 1.6 m s⁻¹. Moreover, the condensation-induced aerosol growth enhances the removal of sulfuric acid mist inside a WESP and enables a low emission concentration of ca. 0.65 mg m⁻³ with a corresponding removal efficiency superior to 99.4 % even at a low voltage of 21 kV, and of ca. 0.35 mg m⁻³ with a corresponding removal efficiency superior to 99.6 % at a higher voltage level of 26 kV.

Building roofs are responsible for the huge heat gain in buildings. In the present work, an analysis of the influence of insulation location inside a flat roof exposed directly to the sun’s radiation was performed to reduce heat gain in buildings. The unsteady thermal response parameters of the building roof such as admittance, transmittance, decrement factor, and time lags have been investigated by solving a one-dimensional diffusion equation under convective periodic boundary conditions. Theoretical results of four types of walls were compared with the experimental results available in literature. The results reveal that the roof with insulation placed at the outer side and at the center plane of the roof is the most energy efficient from the lower decrement factor point of view and the roof with insulation placed at the center plane and the inner side of the roof is the best from the highest time lag point of view among the seven studied configurations. The composite roof with expanded polystyrene insulation located at the outer side and at the center plane of the roof is found to be the best roof from the lowest decrement factor (0.130) point of view, and the composite roof with resin-bonded mineral wool insulation located at the center plane and at the inner side of the roof is found to be energy efficient from the highest time lag point (9.33 h) of view among the seven configurations with five different insulation materials studied. The optimum fabric energy storage thicknesses of reinforced cement concrete, expanded polystyrene, foam glass, rock wool, rice husk, resin-bonded mineral wool, and cement plaster were computed. From the results, it is concluded that rock wool has the least optimum fabric energy storage thickness (0.114 m) among the seven studied building roof materials.

Demand for green energy production is arising all over the world. A lot of emphasis is laid in making the buildings green. Even a small amount of energy savings made contribute to saving the environment. In this study, an idea is proposed and studied to extract power from the high head water in the pipelines of a building. A building of height 15 m is considered for this study. Water flowing in the pipe has sufficient energy to run a micro hydro turbine. The feasibility of producing electrical energy from the energy of pipe water is found. The motivation is to find the feasibility of generating power using a low-cost turbine. The experimental setup consists of micro turbine of 135 mm diameter coupled to a 12-V DC generator; LEDs and resistors are employed to validate the results. The theoretical calculations were presented using the fundamental equations of fluid mechanics. The theoretical results are validated using experimental and numerical results using CFD simulation. In addition, exergy analysis has been carried out to quantify the irreversibilities during the process in the system.

Low-cost water defluoridation technique is one of the most important issues throughout the world. In the present study, shale, a coal mine waste, is employed as novel and low-cost adsorbent to abate fluoride from simulated solution. Shale samples were collected from Mahabir colliery (MBS) and Sonepur Bazari colliery (SBS) of Raniganj coalfield in West Bengal, India, and used to remove fluoride. To increase the adsorption efficiency, shale samples were heat activated at a higher temperature and samples obtained at 550 °C are denoted as heat-activated Mahabir colliery shale (HAMBS₅₅₀) and heat-activated Sonepur Bazari colliery shale (HASBS₅₅₀), respectively. To prove the fluoride adsorption onto different shale samples and ascertain its mechanism, natural shale samples, heat-activated shale samples, and their fluoride-loaded forms were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction study, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The effect of different parameters such as pH, adsorbent dose, size of particles, and initial concentration of fluoride was investigated during fluoride removal in a batch contactor. Lower pH shows better adsorption in batch study, but it is acidic in nature and not suitable for direct consumption. However, increase of pH of the solution from 3.2 to 6.8 and 7.2 during fluoride removal process with HAMBS₅₅₀ and HASBS₅₅₀, respectively, confirms the applicability of the treated water for domestic purposes. HAMBS₅₅₀ and HASBS₅₅₀ show maximum removal of 88.3 and 88.5 %, respectively, at initial fluoride concentration of 10 mg/L, pH 3, and adsorbent dose of 70 g/L.

The aim of this study was to find the effect of synthetic γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on the performance, antioxidant status, and immune response in broiler exposed to summer stress. A total of 400-day-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) was randomly distributed into five treatments (5 replicates). One group served as a control (basal diet only) while the others were supplemented with GABA at the rate of 25 (GABA-25), 50 (GABA 50), 75 (GABA-75), and 100 (GABA-100) mg/kg feed. The experiment was continued for 35 days. Feed intake during the third week was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in GABA-75 and GABA-100, however, it increased significantly (P < 0.05) in GABA-100 during the fourth and fifth week. Overall mean feed intake was significantly (P < 0.05) high in GABA-75 and GABA-100. From the results, we found that body weight improved significantly (P < 0.05) in GABA-50 in week-3. During the fourth, fifth, and overall, body weight increased significantly (P < 0.05) in GABA-100. Significantly, high (P < 0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) was found in GABA-100 during the third, fourth, fifth, and on an overall basis. Mean Malondialdehyde (MDA) decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in GABA-100 while Paraoxonase (PON1) and Newcastle disease (ND) titer increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the same group. We concluded that performance traits, antioxidant status, and immune response improved in broiler supplemented 100 mg/kg GABA, exposed to cyclic heat stress.

The aim of this review is to generate awareness and understand the importance of earthworms in sustainable agriculture and effect of pesticides on their action. The natural resources are finite and highly prone to degradation by the misuse of land and mismanagement of soil. The world is in utter need of a healthy ecosystem that provides with fertile soil, clean water, food and other natural resources. Anthropogenic activities have led to an increased contamination of land. The intensification of industrial and agricultural practices chiefly the utilization of pesticides has in almost every way made our natural resources concave. Earthworms help in a number of tasks that support many ecosystem services that favor agrosystem sustainability but are degraded by exhaustive practices such as the use of pesticides. The present review assesses the response of earthworm toward the pesticides and also evaluates the relationship between earthworm activity and plant growth. We strictly need to refresh and rethink on the policies and norms devised by us on sustainable ecology. In an equivalent way, the natural resources should be utilized and further, essential ways for betterment of present and future livelihood should be sought.

A field experiment was conducted in a Cd-contaminated rice paddy field to evaluate the effect of inorganic and organic metal stabilizers on Cd mobility and rice uptake. A dose of inorganic stabilizer of calcium hydroxide (CH), silicon slag (SS), and wheat straw biochar (BC) was amended respectively to topsoil before rice transplanting. Rice production was managed with the same water regime and fertilization practices consistently between treatments including a control without amendment. Samples of topsoil and rice plant were collected at rice harvest to analyze the Cd mobility and uptake by rice. Without affecting rice grain yield, the stabilizers significantly decreased CaCl₂-extractable Cd in a range of 44 to 75 % compared to the control, corresponding to soil pH changes under the different treatments. Accordingly, Cd concentrations both in rice tissue and in rice grain were very significantly decreased under these treatments. The decrease in rice Cd uptake was correlated to the decrease in extractable Cd, which was again correlated to soil pH change under the different treatments, indicating a prevalent role of liming effect by the amendments. While applied at a large amount in a single year, organic stabilizer of BC decreased Cd extractability by up to 43 % and Cd rice uptake by up to 61 %, being the most effective on Cd immobilization. However, the long-term effect on soil health and potential tradeoff effects with different stabilizers deserve further field monitoring studies.

Environmental controls of 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) degradation are poorly understood. We investigated whether microbial MCPA degraders are stimulated by (maize) litter and whether this process depends on concentrations of MCPA and litter. In a microcosm experiment, different amounts of litter (0, 10 and 20 g kg⁻¹) were added to soils exposed to three levels of the herbicide (0, 5 and 30 mg kg⁻¹). The treated soils were incubated at 20 °C for 6 weeks, and samples were taken after 1, 3 and 6 weeks of incubation. In soils with 5 mg kg⁻¹ MCPA, about 50 % of the MCPA was dissipated within 1 week of the incubation. Almost complete dissipation of the herbicide had occurred by the end of the incubation with no differences between the three litter amendments. At the higher concentration (30 mg kg⁻¹), MCPA endured longer in the soil, with only 31 % of the initial amount being removed at the end of the experiment in the absence of litter. Litter addition greatly increased the dissipation rate with 70 and 80 % of the herbicide being dissipated in the 10 and 20 g kg⁻¹ litter treatments, respectively. Signs of toxic effects of MCPA on soil bacteria were observed from related phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analyses, while fungi showed higher tolerance to the increased MCPA levels. The abundance of bacterial tfdA genes in soil increased with the co-occurrence of litter and high MCPA concentration, indicating the importance of substrate availability in fostering MCPA-degrading bacteria and thereby improving the potential for removal of MCPA in the environment.