This study evaluated the effect of wood extracts from Tectona grandis, Dalbergia sissoo, Cedrus deodara, and Pinus roxburghii combined with linseed oil as protectants of two non-durable wood species against the termite, Heterotermes indicola. Heartwood blocks (19 × 19 × 19 mm) and wood shavings were extracted using an ethanol/toluene (2:1) solvent system. Results of choice and no-choice tests with solvent-extracted and non-extracted heartwood blocks showed greater wood mass loss from termite feeding on solvent-extracted blocks compared with non-extracted blocks for all wood species. Significantly higher termite mortality was observed after termite exposure to non-extracted blocks compared with extracted blocks for all durable species. Sapwood blocks of two non-durable wood species (southern pine and cottonwood) were vacuum/pressure impregnated separately with each of the four types of extract at a concentration of 7.5 mg ml⁻¹, linseed oil (20%) and a mixture of oil (20%) and extracts (4.25 mg ml⁻¹) for the laboratory and field tests. Results showed that extract-oil mixture imparted significantly higher termite resistance compared with linseed or extracts alone under laboratory conditions. This apparent synergistic effect was clearly noted when linseed oil was combined with extracts from T. grandis or D. sissoo followed by an extract-oil mixture using C. deodara. These extract oil mixtures showed significantly less weight loss for the treated non-durable wood species and higher termite mortality (83–100%) compared with the control treatments and other extract-linseed oil mixtures tested. Treatment of both non-durable wood species with T. grandis + oil and D. sissoo + oil prevented termite damage compared with other treatments when blocks and stakes were exposed in the field for a period of 2 years. Results of the current study indicated that a mixture of a particular heartwood extract with linseed oil has potential to be used as environmentally friendly wood protectants.

A semiconductor photocatalyst was prepared in facile, standard conditions by integrating 1% metal-free, sulphur-doped graphene oxide (sGO) as cocatalyst and Ag₃VO₄ as photocatalyst and characterised via spectroscopic, microscopic and voltammetric techniques. The catalytic activity was performed on notable water pollutants like textile dyes and fungicide employing various techniques. Cationic dyes such as methylene blue and rhodamine B were degraded > 99% with above 90% organic carbon content removal indicating total mineralisation while anionic dyes were degraded 75–80% in 1 h. For the first time, a dithiocarbamate fungicide thiram is degraded to give thiourea as a product in 1 h. Photocatalysis follows pseudo-first order kinetics with rate 3.67, 49.50 and 3.19 times higher than Ag₃VO₄, sGO and GO-Ag₃VO₄ respectively with excellent stability and recyclability. One percent sGO aided excellent carrier separation boosted by electrons and surface defects from sGO, morphology and n-n heterojunction formation. The catalyst efficiently removed 82.8% of the total organic carbon content of a real water sample from the textile mill under 2-h sunlight irradiation.

Wastewater rich in organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus may serve as a convenient source of carbon and nutrients for a year-long microalgae production. Scientific reports indicate that some single-cell microalgae such as Chlorella and Scenedesmus, are highly tolerant to wastewater environments and efficiently remove biogenic compounds. The aim of this study was to determine the possibility of using the effluent produced in the process of anaerobic degradation of whey as a culture medium for the multiplication of Chlorella vulgaris algae biomass and to characterise their growth efficiency and rate. The content of nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater was sufficient for conducting an effective culture of algae. The efficiency of nitrogen removal in the flow system was 15.61 ± 1.38 mg N/dm³/day.

The metal concentration in surface water of a river could be affected by season, position, and oceanic process such as tide. The current study aimed to (1) examine the heavy metal(loid) concentration in surface water from the Saigon River as affected by the combination of season, tide, and position and (2) apportion and quantify pollution sources. Ninety-six surface water samples were collected from 13 sites on the River in four campaigns (rainy season + ebb tide, rainy season + flood tide, dry season + ebb tide, and dry season + flood tide). Eight heavy metal(loid)s (Al, B, Bi, Fe, Mn, Pb, Sr, and Zn) were measured and subjected to multivariate analyses. Three-way ANOVA showed that in the rainy season, the total concentration of the metal(loid)s (TCM) in two tides was not clearly different from each other while in the dry season the TCM was significantly higher during the ebb tide than during the flood tide. Principal component analysis/factor analysis and Pearson correlation matrix showed that the TCM could be derived from three main sources, grouped into anthropogenic activities such as industrial, agricultural, and domestic wastes from inside Ho Chi Minh city, and natural origins from lowland area and acid sulfate soil. Three pollution sources explained 70% and 68% of the total variance of TCM in the rainy and dry seasons, respectively. In brief, the metal(loid) concentration was significantly affected by the season and tide and the pollution sources could be derived from inside Ho Chi Minh City and from lowland areas beyond the river estuary.

Cisplatin is an effective chemotherapeutic agent that has pronounced adverse effects. Using flavonoids is currently eliciting considerable interest. During extraction and conditioning, they usually undergo several physical treatments such as heat treatment, although it is not known whether thermal treatment might influence the pharmacological effects of flavonoids such as luteolin-7-O-glucoside (L7G). This study was undertaken to explore the protective role of native and heated L7G against DNA damage and oxidative stress induced by cisplatin. Balb/c mice were administered L7G before a single intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin (10 mg/kg). Animals were sacrificed 24 h after treatment with drugs. The geno-protective role of native and heated L7G was evaluated by comet assay. In addition to monitoring the activities of antioxidant enzymes, levels of malondialdehyde and reduced glutathione were assessed in the liver, kidney, brain, and spleen tissues. The results of the present study demonstrate that both heated and native L7G, at a dose of 40 mg/kg b.w, were able to reduce the genotoxicity of cisplatin. They attenuate the oxidative stress (malondialdehyde, catalase, GPx, SOD, and GSH) and tissue damage (creatinine, IFNγ). Heat treatment did not alter the antigenotoxic effect observed for native L7G and showed similar effects to those of native L7G for all of the evaluated parameters. Our study reveals that L7G attenuates the side effects of anticancer drug and heat treatment did not alter his antigenotoxic and antioxidant the potential.

A temperature control curtain can effectively mitigate the negative effect of outflow temperature on the river eco-environment downstream. To investigate the response of outflow temperature to influence factors (i.e., installation position of temperature control curtain, submerged depth, temperature distribution, and outflow discharge), experiments were conducted in a nonlinearly stratified fluid. The important degree of influence factors was determined by entropy weight method. The results indicated that the effect extent of influence factors on the outflow temperature was temperature distribution, submerged depth, outflow discharge, and installation position in turn. The installation position had little effect on the outflow temperature. Increasing the outflow discharge could withdraw more warm water near the surface and increase the outflow temperature. The outflow temperature also rose with decreasing submerged depth, and more warm water above the temperature control curtain level tended to be extracted when the submerged depth was enough. Although the outflow temperature increased, its variation amplitude depended on the temperature gradient of temperature distribution and was not affected by the structural form of selective withdrawal. From the point of operation management, the minimum submerged depth was determined using sensitivity analysis to obtain maximum improvement of outflow temperature.

Achieving the win-win goal of economic development and carbon intensity reduction, especially through industrial restructuring, is a challenge involving uncertainty and complexity. Determining which industry is green and whether it should be encouraged or limited at different stages of economic development are key issues. The relationship between industrial structure and carbon intensity was systematically analyzed in 21 industrial sectors from 1971 to 2014 in eight developed countries, with different levels of economic development, using an extended dynamic threshold model. The results indicated that there is a relationship between industrial composition and carbon intensity, and the impact trajectory of industrial structure on carbon intensity can be classified into four categories: contaminated, pollution-clean, cleaning hysteresis, and enhanced cleaning. Each type of sectoral relationship between GDP and carbon intensity would change at certain economic levels. The change points for most sectors were US$ 525 and US$ 3904 GDP per capita, which represent the points at which a country enters the mid-industrialization and high-tech industrialization stages, respectively. Therefore, the government and enterprises must upgrade their industrial structure as the national GDP increases, adjust the proportion of sectors operating according to the industrial characteristics, and improve production technology through environmental regulation.

Light-absorbing organic aerosol (brown carbon (BrC)) can significantly affect Earth’s radiation budget and hydrological cycle. Biomass burning (BB) is among the major sources of atmospheric BrC. In this study, day/night pair (10-h integrated) of ambient PM₂.₅ were sampled every day before (defined as T1, n = 21), during (T2, n = 36), and after (T3, n = 8) a large-scale paddy-residue burning during October–November over Patiala (30.2° N, 76.3° E, 250 m amsl), a site located in the northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). PM₂.₅ concentration varied from ~ 90 to 500 μg m⁻³ (average ± 1σ standard deviation 230 ± 114) with the average values of 154 ± 57, 271 ± 122, and 156 ± 18 μg m⁻³ during T1, T2, and T3 periods, respectively, indicating the influence of BB emissions on ambient air quality. The absorption coefficient of BrC (bₐbₛ) is calculated from the high-resolution absorption spectra of water-soluble and methanol-soluble organic carbon measured at 300 to 700 nm, and that at 365 nm (bₐbₛ_₃₆₅) is used as a general measure of BrC. The bₐbₛ_₃₆₅_Wₐₜₑᵣ and bₐbₛ_₃₆₅_Mₑₜₕₐₙₒₗ ranged ~ 2 to 112 Mm⁻¹ (avg 37 ± 27) and ~ 3 to 457 Mm⁻¹ (avg 121 ± 108), respectively, suggesting a considerable presence of water-insoluble BrC. Contrasting differences were also observed in the daytime and nighttime values of bₐbₛ_₃₆₅_Wₐₜₑᵣ and bₐbₛ_₃₆₅_Mₑₜₕₐₙₒₗ. Further, the levoglucosan showed a strong correlation with K⁺ (slope = 0.89 ± 0.06, R = 0.92) during the T2 period. We propose that this slope (~ 0.9) can be used as a typical characteristics of the emissions from paddy-residue burning over the IGP. Absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) showed a clear day/night variability during the T2 period, and lower AAEMₑₜₕₐₙₒₗ compared to AAEWₐₜₑᵣ throughout the sampling period. Further at 365 nm, average relative atmospheric radiative forcing (RRF) for BrCWₐₜₑᵣ is estimated to be ~ 17%, whereas that of BrCMₑₜₕₐₙₒₗ ~ 62% with respect to elemental carbon, suggesting that BrC radiative forcing could be largely underestimated by studies those use BrCWₐₜₑᵣ only as a surrogate of total BrC.

This study examines the association between transportation services (i.e., passenger and freight) and carbon emissions concerning the US economy. The monthly data for this study were collected for the period from 2000 M1 to 2019 M8. In this study, QARDL econometric approach as discussed by Cho et al. (2015) has been used to tests the relationship between transportation services and CO2 emissions. Due to the chaotic and nonlinear behavior of our concerning variables, it was quite difficult to gauge the principle properties of their variations. Therefore, we relied on QARDL, which has been missing in previous researches. By utilizing the QARDL method, this research assesses the long-term stability of the nexus across the quantiles to provide an econometric framework that is more flexible than the traditional ones. In particular, the authors have analyzed how the quantiles of transportation (i.e., passenger and freight) influence the quantiles of CO2 emissions (environmental degradation). The empirical evidence revealed the negative significant relationship of both the transportation system (i.e., passenger and freight) with carbon emissions; however, this relationship holds at low quantiles of freight transport, whereas the same relationship has been observed at the majority of quantiles of passenger transport. So, this depicts that the transportation system of the USA helps to reduce CO2 emissions. Therefore, to maintain this situation, the government shall introduce more technologies that are fuel-efficient and promote clean consumption, thus reducing CO2 emissions, boosting economic growth, and making green transportation services.

A range of methods have been developed specifically to analyze several tables of data simultaneously (variable × space × time) in the field of ecological research, although they have been less widely used to examine water quality. In this study, we assessed the spatiotemporal variability of water quality in the Medjerda River basin (Northern Tunisia). Partial triadic analysis (PTA) provides an effective framework for the assessment of spatiotemporal variability of water quality in the Medjerda River basin (Northern Tunisia). Fourteen physicochemical variables were monitored from 12 sampling sites monthly during 2013. PTA allowed correlations among different physicochemical parameters to be identified and to assess overall water quality in the Medjerda River. Salinity (S), Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ ions were associated with intensive agricultural activities (agricultural pollution sources) leading to salinization. However, NH₄⁺, PO₄³⁻, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) we more strongly associated with polluted urban sites. PTA helped illustrate that strong links exist between land uses and adjacent water quality. The advantages of this multi-table method approach for water quality monitoring include as follows: (1) identifying common multivariate spatial structures and problems associated with maintaining water quality, (2) allowing identification of consistent patterns in water chemistry, and (3) allowing analysis on the temporal variability of water chemistry.