Water pollution by heavy metals due to discharge of industrial and anthropogenic waste leads to serious environmental and health problems as most of these heavy metals are carcinogenic in nature. In the present study chromium biosorption capacity of live and dead biomass of bacterial strain HGB1 isolated from Ganga River in Haridwar, which was examined as Bacillus subtilis, following 16S rDNA sequence analysis, was examined for different physical parameters such as pH, time of incubation and temperature. Experimental results indicate that the Bacillius subtilis has maximum tolerance capacity up to 1000 mg.L-1 with highest metal uptake of 95.64%, 97.25% and 97.11% at pH 3, 60 minutes, 2.5 mg/mL biomass respectively in case of dead biomass. In case of living biomass, highest metal uptake was 81.64%, 96.79 % and 95.89% at pH 7, 72hr and 32°C respectively. The surface chemical functional groups of Bacillus subtilis identified by FTIR were amino, carboxyl, hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. The morphological changes were examined by SEM analysis.

Industrial development and urbanization progress have been rapidly increasing in China, consequently accelerating infrastructure constructions, such as real estates and public facilities. Building construction dust has become one of the main sources of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) pollution in China. In this study, a typical building in Zhengzhou City was taken as an example, wherein the total suspended particle (TSP) and PM10 and PM2.5 indicators in the foundation excavation phase of the building construction were comprehensively monitored. The emission levels of both indicators were analyzed, and the periodic change laws of dust concentration and the correlations among TSP, PM10, and PM2.5 were quantitatively measured. Results indicate that the PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations at the monitoring points in the downwind direction of prevailing wind were higher than those in the upwind direction. TSP, PM10, and PM2.5 concentrations reached the maximum values at 10:00-12:00 in the morning of most days, and the TSP concentration was maintained at 250-500 μg/m3. Moreover, the coefficient of determination between TSP and PM10/PM2.5 was 0.8164/0.8376, signifying favorable correlations. The proposed management and control measures include perfecting the construction dust pollution control and management system, establishing the responsibility management mechanism of construction dust, realizing the comprehensive refined control of construction dust, promoting the innovation of building construction dust control technology, and improving the environmental consciousness for building construction dust control. These findings can serve as references for construction dust source pollutant emission control and as scientific decision-making bases for environmental researchers and managers in this field.

Hybrid membranes are currently being developed to find the membrane that is having good chemical and thermal resistance. This research devotes to the development of hybrid membrane from clay/TiO2 with PVA polymer and its application for colour wastewater filtration. The results show that the optimum concentration of PVA is 5%. At this condition, the hybrid membrane has a bulk density of 2 g/cc and porosity of 23.13%. The hybrid membrane produces the coefficient rejection of 79.48%. At the higher concentration of PVA, the filtration becomes not effective because the flux of membrane is very low.

Hydrogen is recognized as the green energy with the greatest potential for future development, but currently, China’s hydrogen production is highly dependent on raw fossil materials, which conflicts with the original intention of developing hydrogen energy. As the abandoned hydropower problem in Southwestern China is serious. The current strategy can be focused using surplus hydropower to produce hydrogen in a green way. In this study, the technical cost and advantage of hydrogen produced using surplus hydropower using the levelized cost of energy model was analyzed. The results show that cheap surplus hydropower will considerably reduce the cost of hydrogen produced using electrolyzing water, and the cost is comparable to that of coal gasification hydrogen production. The hydropower to be abandoned by Southwestern China annually can drive the hydrogen production with 1.2 million tons per year, providing a technically and economically feasible approach to developing hydrogen energy.

In the present research work, batch adsorption study was carried out to optimize the fluoride removal capacity of guar gum hydrogel beads from aqueous solution. The adsorption capacity was found to be 71.2 mg/g. The FTIR spectrum revealed the presence of functional groups that might be involved in fluoride adsorption. Adsorption of fluoride onto bio-sorbent was investigated as a function of pH, adsorbent dosage and time. The experimental equilibrium sorption data well fitted to the Langmuir mo del and the sorption kinetics for the bio-sorbent was found to follow second order rate expression. The negative values of ΔG° suggest that the sorption of fluoride onto the bio-sorbent was spontaneous and exothermic due to the negative value of ΔH°. The negative ΔS° value for the guar gum was found to be decreasing in randomness at the solid-liquid intersection.

Crown profile models are key components of growth and yield models and are crucial for estimating the crown volume and constructing 3D visualization of trees. We used a total of 431 trees collected from 98 pure even-aged temporary sample plots established in Fujian Province to develop crown profile models of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata).To describe the shape of tree crowns more accurately, significance tests of the effects of different stand conditions (stand age, site index, and stand density) on crown shape were conducted with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Multiple comparisons based on the ANOVA results were used to classify the crown data into three groups according to stand age: Group I (young forest), Group II (medium forest), and Group III (nearly mature and mature forest). We analysed the relationships between the crown variables and stand variables and used the reparameterization approach to develop three optimal crown profile models for different age groups. Stand variables (such as stand density) further improved the prediction efficacy of the models. Considering the correlation between repeated measurement data for the same tree crown, the non-linear mixed-effects modelling (NLME) method was used to account for autocorrelation. The determination coefficients (R2) of the above three optimal models fitted by the non-linear mixed-effects approach were 0.9214, 0.9398 and 0.9129, and their Root Mean Squared Errors (RMSEs) were 0.1246, 0.1409 and 0.1786, respectively. The determinant coefficients (R2) of the three models fitted by the nonlinear least squares (NLS) approach were 0.9015, 0.8794 and 0.8930, and their RMSEs were 0.1395, 0.2102 and 0.1878, respectively. The results indicated that the predicted accuracy was significantly increased by using non-linear mixed effects modelling compared with the NLS method.

Industrialization being the main force of development has caused many changes not only in the global phenomena but also on a regional level through its ill effects on plants and animals. The present study was thus undertaken to assess the biochemical alterations in plants subjected to polluted (industrial) and non-polluted (control) environments. The results revealed that all the studied biochemical parameters (ascorbic acid, protein, carbohydrate, total chlorophyll, catalase, and peroxidase activities) showed significant variation with respect to sites (p < 0.05). Excepting the peroxidase activity, all other biochemical parameters showed a decline in their concentration in the polluted environment as compared to their counterparts in a non-polluted environment. The highest concentration of biochemical parameters in plants of polluted sites were: ascorbic acid (4.85 mg/g), carbohydrate (0.905 mg/g), protein (28.07 mg/g), total chlorophyll (1.13 mg/g), catalase (0.394 μmoles/H2O2 decomposed/ min/g) and peroxidase (433.76 μmoles/GDHP/min/g) while that in the control site, the highest value of all the biochemical parameters were: ascorbic acid (8.97 mg/g), carbohydrate (1.283 mg/g), protein (48.68 mg/g), total chlorophyll (1.17 mg/g), catalase (0.434 μmoles/H2O2 decomposed/min/g) and peroxidase (271.25 μmoles/GDHP/min/g) respectively. Hence, it can be concluded that plants do undergo physiological stress when exposed to polluted environments and their biochemical synthesis is severely altered by pollution. However, they develop an inbuilt mechanism to counter the pollution and protect themselves in polluted or stressed environment. In the present study, peroxidase activity was primarily responsible to protect the plant in the stressed environment.

Biochar is thought to be a good adsorption material for the adsorption of heavy metals. In this study, biochar derived from Torreya grandis nutshell was prepared through to be pyrolyzed under oxygen limited conditions in a muffle furnace. The adsorption experiments of Cr(VI) were carried out. Through Elemental Analyzer, Specific Surface Area Meter, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, a fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical properties of biochar was gained. The results showed that it was a smooth sheet and irregular arrangement structure. The elements of C, H, O and N of biochar are 45.21%, 5.18%, 46.16% and 3.45% respectively. BET specific surface area of biochar is 42.24 m2/g. A lot of oxygencontaining functional groups (– OH, COO –, – C – OH and so on ) appeared on the surface of biochar. It can be described by the pseudo-second order kinetic rate model and Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption process is a monolayer chemical process. The adsorption mechanism of biochar on heavy metal Cr(VI) contains the electrostatic attraction between biochar and Cr2O7 2-, HCrO4 - and CrO4 2- ions in aqueous solution and complexation reaction of oxygen-containing functional groups (– OH, – COOH and so on) and Cr2O7 2- , HCrO4 - and CrO4 2- ions on the surface of biochar.

Pyrethroids are used in agricultural to control pests on a variety of crops. Bifenthrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, is a broad spectrum insecticide. It acts mainly on the nervous system of vertebrates as well as invertebrates. It is susceptible to the biodegradation by some soil bacteria. The present paper deals with the toxicological studies of bifenthrin and its metabolites benzene 1,1(methylthio) ethylidine, resorcinol and monochloro trifluromethane that were produced by a newly isolated strain of Paracoccus siganidrum APGM1 on earthworms, which play an important role in the improvement of the soil fertility. The toxicity was assessed by 48 hrs filter paper contact test, 14 days soil test and histopathological methods. The results of filter paper contact test revealed that the earthworms were more susceptible to bifenthrin than their metabolites. The LC50 value of bifenthrin and its metabolites was 6 ppm and 20 ppm respectively. The soil test showed that at 6 ppm concentration of bifenthrin, half the number of earthworms died after 14 days and with the increase in the concentration, mortality increased. At 10 ppm concentration, all the earthworms died. However, half the number of earthworms died after 14 days at the metabolite concentration of 20 ppm. The adverse effects of bifenthrin and very little effect of their metabolites on the morphological properties and structural integrity of the tissues were observed in histopathological studies. Thus, the metabolites of bifenthrin were less toxic to earthworms than the bifenthrin.

Chlorpyrifos is one of the toxic organophosphate insecticides that is often used by farmers in West Sumatra Province. This research was conducted with the aim to analyse the level of consumption, conversion ratio, and growth rate in fish cultivated in the twin lakes of West Sumatra. The concentration variations are 1/7 and 1/14 LC50-96h of chlorpyrifos. The study was conducted for 14 days. Research data analysis found the values of R = 0.75-1 for the relationship of oxygen level, conversion ratio, and growth of tilapia to the duration of exposure which means having a strong correlation. The results obtained were due to chlorpyrifos insecticide exposure on day 1 to day 14. At a concentration of 0.0054 mg/L, there was a decrease in the level of oxygen consumption of 0.0159 mgO2 /L, an increase in feed conversion ratio of 0.8253, and the deviation flow of 2.7048%. Whereas at a concentration of 0.0108 mg/L, there was a decrease in the oxygen level of 0.0213 mgO2 /L, increase in feed conversion ratio of 0.8201, and deviation growth by 2.7048%.