The primary goal of this research is to isolate mycotoxin-producing fungus from the Nagavali River. Examining isolated fungi involved analyzing their mycelium growth on culture media and detailed microscopic inspection. We employed PCR analysis utilizing universal primers ITS1 and ITS4 to accurately identify the species. Furthermore, we sequenced the amplified ITS region and rigorously analyzed the sequences using NCBI-BLASTn and the ITS2 database. The analysis found a high 96.38% genetic similarity to the Aspergillus flavus strain, resulting in a 600-base pair fragment size. The sequence was given the accession number OR536222 in the NCBI GenBank database. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to ascertain the particular strain of A. flavus and its source. Remarkably, this analysis led to the identification of a single new strain gene, which represents a novel discovery in the field of fungal research. These results underscore the vital significance of molecular techniques in promptly and precisely identifying organisms. This research enhances our understanding of mycotoxin contamination in water, providing valuable insights to improve detection and prevention strategies. It accentuates the overarching importance of conserving our water resources and upholding ecological equilibrium, ultimately safeguarding the well-being of both humanity and the environment.

The main purpose of the study is to identify the thin-bed reservoirs of the Eastern Folded Belt (Sylhet and Bandarban) and characterize them with diligence. A detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis has been carried out. It is based on thin-section petrographic analyses of sandstone samples. These samples are from the reservoir horizons of the Sylhet region and Bandarban region fields. The purpose of this analysis is to characterize the textural and mineralogical properties. Additionally, it aims to evaluate the post-depositional diagenetic changes. The results obtained from the field and laboratory analysis are studied extensively to characterize the thin-bed reservoirs. Samples from the Sylhet area are medium-coarse-grained, fairly sorted, tight packing, submature-mature sublithic characteristics. Contrarily, samples from the Bandarban region are mature-submature sublithic arenites, which are fine-medium-grained, moderately well-sorted, and moderately loosely packed. Despite the similarity of the detrital elements (quartz, feldspar, lithic grains, mica, etc.) in the two areas, silica cementation is more frequent in Sylhet region samples than early carbonate cementation in Bandarban region samples. Comparatively speaking, the sediments in the Sylhet region are more compact than those in the Bandarban region. The most important outcome of this study is that the thin bed of the unconventional reservoir and the conventional reservoir are in close proximity. The Thin-bed reservoir units of the Eastern Folded Belt are found to be medium to fine-grained and well sorted, with frequent alteration of sand-shale with the prevalence of parallel bedded sandstone. Average porosity is 4% to 12%, and pore spaces are interconnected. So, the permeability rate is good enough to flow the hydrocarbon through these pore spaces. Most importantly, the thin bed and tight reservoir (average porosity 4% to 12%, but pore spaces are not interconnected) are not more prominent than 1 meter or 2 meters. Subsequently, though the vertical thickness is not so high, they keep up a momentous tirelessness of horizontal progression. On the contrary, at whatever point it comes to a conventional reservoir, the vertical thickness is higher than that of the unconventional reservoir. But their lateral persistence is not as long as unconventional ones.

The consumption of contaminated fruits and vegetables is the prime cause of outbreaks of various human diseases. Although fruits and vegetables have high nutritional value, today because of their contamination during handling while performing harvesting and post-harvesting techniques, they are harmful to human health. Most of them are eaten raw without being washed or without providing any treatment. Vegetables and fruits, being rich nutritional sources, can act as carriers or vectors of pathogenic microorganisms, which can create a serious issue for the health of the community targeted. This entire research is based on an emerging field of Forensic Microbiology. Various types of microbial agents can be utilized as bioweapons to conduct the bio crime or bioterrorism through food and water. This research also represents that the identification of microbial agents is very much necessary for the welfare of humans. Identification and isolation of different pathogenic bacteria from raw vegetables and fruits can also shed some light on the terms of the necessity of Forensic Microbiology.

In order to ensure water sustainability, alarming levels of water scarcity across the globe is a critical issue warranting urgent address. The present study aims to bring to light the perception of farmers regarding water conservation and management practices from the selected five districts of the Haryana region of India. By analyzing the responses of 125 farmers, collected through a self-administered questionnaire, the impact of socio-demographic factors, current irrigation system, and cost-benefit perception of the farmers was studied on water conservation and management practices. Using ordinal regression analysis, the study revealed that the cost-benefit perception of the farmers, viz. willingness to pay an additional price for canal water and an increase in the availability of water due to canal lining, are the major factors responsible for undertaking conservation and sustainability measures. Further, socio-demographic variables such as age and education also influence water conservation behavior. The study recommends vital policy reforms and initiatives for efficient water use and management to resolve the grave concern of scarcity of usable water. The present study is unique in its suggestion of a comprehensive water conservation and management framework.

The total soluble protein-mediated morphological traits in mustard treated with Thiourea and Salicylic acid were investigated. In addition, it tested the hypothesis that the growth regulator salicylic acid protects the photosynthetic apparatus by up-regulating morphological traits. Under natural environmental conditions, seeds were sown in the field, and seed emergence was recorded. For three days after the 15-day stage, plants in the area were treated with thiourea and salicylic acid and allowed to grow for 90 days. Plants were harvested to assess various morphological traits. A follow-up application of SA and Thiourea plants improved plant height, leaf area, internodal length, leaf number, and accelerated plant activity. The up-regulation of morphological traits may have occurred in SA and Thiourea-mediated plants. After treatments, the level of total soluble protein was estimated in the leaves at proposed day intervals.

This article is oriented to the degradation of nickel in an ionic state at laboratory level from synthetic water made with nickel sulfate, using the electrocoagulation process with aluminum cathodes and modifying this process by the addition of the Fenton reagent, which results from the combination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) being this reagent a catalyst and oxo-coagulant agent, The efficiency of this reagent will be compared with the typical treatment with aluminum sulfate, which is a typical process based on ion exchange/coagulation at the same percentage concentrations as the Fenton reagent. For this purpose, the optimum conditions of the advanced electrocoagulation process were determined, which consisted of determining the concentrations of Fenton’s reagent at concentrations of 150 ppm, 300 ppm, and 450 ppm, in addition to the operating variables such as pH of 8 and 10, voltage of 17.5 V and 19 V and their reaction time, which were compared with aluminum sulfate at 300 ppm, 600 ppm, and 900 ppm. The results obtained with respect to the typical treatment were 0% nickel degradation. However, with the advanced oxidation treatment, an average reduction of 97.5% was found at the conditions of 19 V, pH 10, and Fenton 150 ppm in a time of 30 min.

The present work studied the effects of alkali pretreatment on the cellulosic biomass of rice straw. The improvement in the cellulose content and reduction in the lignin and hemicellulose percentage was observed with alkali pretreatment. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirm the modification in the surface structure of alkali rice straw. Further, the study investigated the potential of different types of seed sludge as inoculum sources for dark fermentative biohydrogen production. In comparison to other sludge samples (beverage industry, food industry, and sewage treatment plant sludge), the mixed culture of sewage treatment plant sludge had the highest cumulative volume of biohydrogen (90.52 mL), as well as the highest hydrogen production yield (0.75 moleH2/mole) with the substrate utilization of 86.72%. The results provide information on the best sludge source for enhancing biohydrogen production in the dark fermentation method.

Biochar (BC) is a well-established physical treatment method. The high-cost BC limits their use as adsorbents in wastewater. Thus, deriving BC from cheap and locally available waste materials is needed to develop a feasible waste removal technology. Nowadays, BC technology makes it possible to envision a new strategy to manage invasive plants by converting them into value-added products like BC. Hence, the present study was designed to evaluate the potential utilization of BC as an efficient filter medium made by invasive aquatic plants, Salvinia spp., and Eichhornia spp. A mass of 50 g of prepared activated and nonactivated BC was incorporated in a sand and gravel filter to treat rubber-manufactured wastewater. Wastewater was passed through the filter, and both raw and treated water samples were analyzed for pH, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), Ammoniacal-Nitrogen (NH3-N), Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Phosphates (TP), Nitrate (NO3-N), turbidity and heavy metals (Zinc, Chromium). The control filter was developed only with sand and gravel, excluding BC. Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to analyze BC’s chemical and physical characteristics. A brine shrimp lethality assay was carried out for toxicological evaluation. OH stretching (3,550-3,200 cm−1), C=C aromatic stretching (1400-1660 cm−1), and Phenol-O-H bending (1,300-1,400 cm−1) were recorded in all BC samples that involved the adsorption mechanism. Observed images indicated differences in surface morphology of both activated and nonactivated BC were observed under SEM observation. The study concludes that the filter unit incorporated with activated Eichhornia spp. Gave the best treatment efficiency when compared to filter units incorporated with other activated and nonactivated BC. The toxicity assay revealed 100% mortality in the control setup and raw wastewater but only 60–70% in the nonactivated BC integrated filters. Activated BC-incorporated filters showed no mortalities. Hence, the study’s outcomes suggest a green approach using invasive aquatic plants for sustainable wastewater treatment.

The rapid development of industry has led to the generation of a large amount of electroplating wastewater. The direct discharge of untreated electroplating wastewater may lead to the formation of toxic metal-organic complexes, which is a challenging problem for human health and the living environment of organisms. Due to the high solubility of heavy metals in aquatic environments and their easy absorption by organisms, effective treatment of electroplating wastewater is of great significance. The ultimate goal of electroplating wastewater treatment should be to recover metals and water from electroplating wastewater. In indoor experiments, pilot tests, and industrial applications of electroplating wastewater treatment, membrane treatment technology commonly used in wastewater terminal treatment has attracted great attention. Membrane treatment technology seems to be the most promising method for removing heavy metals and organic pollutants from electroplating wastewater. This article reviews the membrane treatment technologies for electroplating wastewater, introduces the advantages and disadvantages of various membranes in the treatment of electroplating wastewater, the removal efficiency of pollutant types, and their comparison. The focus is on the treatment effects of nano-filtration membrane, ultra-filtration membrane, micro-filtration membrane, reverse osmosis membrane, ceramic membrane, biofilm, etc., on electroplating wastewater. Compared with a single treatment method, the combination of different processes shows higher efficiency in removing various pollutants.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is highly corrosive to electric generators, which is the main problem of biogas utilization. The industrial scale of the biofilter system relies on the performance of sulfide-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) via the activity of sulfur oxidation (soxABXYZ) and flavocytochrome sulfide dehydrogenase (fccAB) enzymes to reduce to a concentration below 100 ppm before using in industrial machinery. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the SOB community in full-scale H2S removal and their gene expression (fccAB and soxABXYZ) associated with H2S elimination efficiency. In this study, SOB communities were obtained from 2 sampling sites of the full-scale biofilter of palm oil factory (PPG), comprising starting sludge (PPG1) and recirculating sludge (PPG2). The abundance of SOB strains was examined by next-generation sequencing analysis (NGS) based on the 16S rRNA gene. The changes in the expression of genes involved in sulfur oxidation, namely soxABXYZ, and fccAB, between the 2 sampling sites were evaluated by using a comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) microarray. The results indicate that the high abundance of SOB genera that could play a vital role in biofilters belonged mainly to Sulfurovum, Paracoccus, Acidihalobacter, Acidithiobacillus, Thioalkalispira, Thiofaba, Caldisericum, Bacillus, were rapidly increased in the biofilter tank. Interestingly, expressions of soxAXYZ gene cluster at PPG2 were increased in Paracoccus pantotrophus J40 and Paracoccus alkenifer DSM 11593 for 1.1188 and 1.0518-fold, respectively, while in Acidihalobacter prosperus F5, the expression of fccAB genes was up to 1.3704 fold in comparison with PPG1. Increasing both relative abundance and gene expressions at PPG2 were correlated with 95% H2S removal efficiency. Hence, stabilization of the SOB microbiome is vital to H2S removal in industrial-scale biogas applications.