Landfilled municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing countries generally produces a large amount of leachate due to high moisture content. The estimation of leachate production and level is of great importance to the capacity design of leachate treatment plants and the stability analysis of landfills. In this study, the leachate production ratios (the ratio of leachate mass to waste mass) in different countries and cities were first summarized to reveal the basic status of leachate generation. Then, a model was established to calculate the leachate production and level that considers the rainfall infiltration and the water released from MSW due to both primary and secondary compression (ignored in previous models). Finally, the proposed model was used in a case study of Laogang Landfill in Shanghai, China. It was found that the leachate proportion produced by compression was much higher compared with that produced by rainfall infiltration, ranging from 49 (rainy season) to 93% (dry season). The leachate released from waste due to secondary compression accounted for a high proportion (up to 25%) of the total leachate production, especially for aged MSW. The calculated leachate discharge amount and leachate level were close to the measured values because the possible low permeability layer at the bottom of the landfill was considered in this model.

This study evaluates the potential of kriging-based (kriging and kriging-logistic) and machine learning models (MARS, GBRT, and ANN) in predicting the effluent arsenic concentration of a wastewater treatment plant. Two distinct input combination scenarios were established, using seven quantitative and qualitative independent influent variables. In the first scenario, all of the seven independent variables were taken into account for constructing the data-driven models. For the second input scenario, the forward selection k-fold cross-validation method was employed to select effective explanatory influent parameters. The results obtained from both input scenarios show that the kriging-logistic and machine learning models are effective and robust. However, using the feature selection procedure in the second scenario not only made the architecture of the model simpler and more effective, but also enhanced the performance of the developed models (e.g., around 7.8% performance enhancement of the RMSE). Although the standard kriging method provided the least good predictive results (RMSE = 0.18 ug/l and NSE=0.75), it was revealed that the kriging-logistic method gave the best performance among the applied models (RMSE = 0.11 ug/l and NSE=0.90).

The extensive application of chemically synthesized anionic surfactants would cause serious pollution of water and increase health risk to humans. However, the adverse impact of anionic surfactant on human cells has never been systematically demonstrated. In this paper, a series of fluorescent anionic surfactants containing a varying length of alkyl chain from C8 to C18 and a fixed hydrophilic head of 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) were synthesized and utilized for visualizing the interaction between surfactants and cells. The obtained molecules exhibited blue fluorescence presenting a decreasing fluorescent intensity with the increasing length of alkyl chain from C8 to C18 while showed the same sequence of HPTS-C16>HPTS-C18>HPTS-C12>HPTS-C8 on either surface activity, cellular adsorption, or cytotoxicity. In opposite, HPTS which contained no hydrophobic chain and thus exhibited no surface activity showed no cellular adsorption and cytotoxicity. It seems that the ligand of the appropriate chain length (C16) onto the hydrophilic HPTS molecules could cause the largest surface activity, the most distinguished cellular adsorption as well as the most adverse cytotoxicity. As reflected by the dynamic fluorescent visualization, the surfactant molecules of HPTS-C16 initially bound with cell membrane and entered into the intracellular lumen before finally localized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and damaged it into a swollen structure. It is most likely that the structure of hydrophobic chain could determine the surface activities of surfactants and hence affect their cellular uptake and cytotoxicity. This study could help us to understand the adverse impact of anionic surfactant on human cells and its correlation with the surface activities or, in another word, the hydrophobic chain length.

In the last 3 decades, developing economies continuously have increased their manufacturing industries with an impressive growth rate. Rising the trend of globalization, these underdeveloped economies are receiving economic growth at the cost of environmental degradation. In this context, this study investigates the impact of globalization and human capital on carbon emissions (CO₂) in the 78 developing economies from 1990 to 2016. Our findings based on robust system generalized method of moments (GMM) indicate that human capital and political globalization significantly reduce environmental degradation while economic, social, and overall globalization decrease the environmental quality. Furthermore, our empirical results support the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. However, globalization (without interactive term with human capital) appears to have no significant association with CO₂ emissions, while (with an interactive term) it appears to have a significant negative influence on environmental quality. Moreover, our results are robust to various robustness checks; I have performed for scrutiny the consistency of our findings. This study also offers useful policy implications for stakeholders, policymakers, and governments for promoting environmental sustainability.

In the process of urinary stone formation, several heavy metals and trace elements (HMTE) have been identified among the major constituents of the calculi. The micro-elements within the stones cannot be identified by ordinary laboratory analytical techniques, the latter can only detect the major crystalline component. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the different types of HMTE (no. 22) and their concentrations within the urinary stones. The stone samples were obtained from patients living in different geographical locations (10 countries: 5 Western and 5 non-Western). The number of retrieved stones after open or endoscopic procedures was 1177. The concentrations of the 22 HMTE in the stones were assessed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The statistical data were analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis, one-way ANOVA, and SPSS software (version 20). The biochemical stone analysis showed that calcium oxalate was present as a major component in 650 patients (55.2%), calcium phosphate in 317 (26.9%), and uric acid and cystine stones in 210 (17.8%). The analyzed stones showed the presence of HMTE in different concentrations. Significantly higher concentrations of 17 elements (Al, As, Ba, B, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, S, Se, Sr, and Zn) were noted in all stones. Seven elements (Al, As, Se, Sr, Fe, Zn, and Ni) were present in higher concentrations in calcium-based stones. In comparison, eight elements (Mg, B, Ba, Cd, Se, Pb, Sr, and Zn) in higher concentrations were associated with phosphate-based stones. Both uric acid and cystine stones had a higher concentration of sulfur. The concentrations of HMTE in calcium phosphate stones were higher than in calcium oxalate and uric acid stones. Calculi obtained from patients living in western countries contained higher levels of 13 HMTE (B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mo, P, Pb, and Se) than those in non-western countries. The age of calculi-forming patients from non-western countries was younger than those living in western countries. These results may indicate the role of many significant heavy metals and trace elements in the pathogenesis of urinary stone formation. The types and contents of HMTE within urinary stones differ from one country to another. The conventional stone analysis techniques cannot either identify the stone micro-elements or the concentrations of HMTE, so a specific and additional instrument such as the ICP-OES is necessary. Further research work on the urinary stone micro-elemental structure could lead to a new strategy for the prevention of stone formation and recurrence.

Herein, MI-Ag-TiO₂ was prepared by one-step sol-gel method, and its photocatalytic and characterization performance were fully analyzed. Within 120 min, the photocatalytic degradation rate of MI-Ag-TiO₂ to ethyl paraben was 93.4%, which was 1.48 times that of naked TiO₂. Compared with Ag-TiO₂, MI-TiO₂, and TiO₂, the photocatalytic selectivity of MI-Ag-TiO₂ to target pollutants increased by 24.5%, 31.5%, and 100%, respectively. Hence, the one-step molecular imprinting method can simply and quickly improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂. This research may help to further promote the practical application of molecularly imprinted photocatalysts in the future.

With the growth of the number of old buildings in urban cities, there is an imperative demand for retrofitting those buildings to minimize their energy consumption and maximize their sustainability. This article seeks to provide a multi-criteria assessment of different retrofitting scenarios in the Malaysian context, focusing replacement of windows. Four different criteria assessed operation energy usage, global warming potential (GWP) emission, embodied energy, and the cost of each alternative. Life cycle analysis is used for each scenario using the Energy Plus software program to estimate the energy demand. The preliminary result showed that a louvered window is unsuitable for operational energy usage compared to other options. In embodied energy and GWP, double-glazing shows an optimal choice by 532 MJ kg/m² and 101 kg/M² CO₂ between the other two alternatives for retrofitting. However, in the operational energy category, triple glazing has the best performance by 1.06 kW/a day. Finally, comparing the cost of each other options, plenum windows have the lowest rate by 825 kg/M² MYR. Thus, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is used to select the most sustainable window for buildings. The result shows that the best option is a double-glazing window, followed by a plenum window. This study revealed the requirement for utilization of MCDM handles to guarantee the correct choice of design strategies for the best decision.

Petrochemical industry is one of the major and rapidly growing industry that generates a variety of toxic and recalcitrant organic pollutants as by-products, which are not only harmful to the aquatic animals but also affects human health. The majority of the components of petrochemical wastewater (PW) are carcinogenic, genotoxic and phytotoxic in nature; hence, this complex wastewater generated from different petrochemical processes should be efficiently treated prior to its disposal in natural water bodies. The established technologies like advanced oxidation, membrane bioreactor, electrocoagulation and activated sludge process employed for the treatment of PW are highly energy intensive and incurs high capital and operation cost. Moreover, these technologies are not effective in completely eliminating petroleum hydrocarbons present in PW. Thus, to reduce the energy requirement and also to transform the chemical energy trapped in these organic matters present in this wastewater into bioelectricity and other value-added products, microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) can be efficaciously used, which would also compensate the treatment cost by transforming these pollutants into bioenergy and valuables. In this regard, this review elucidates the feasibility and application of different METs as an appropriate alternative for the treatment of PW. Furthermore, the numerous bottlenecks towards the real-life application and commercialization of pioneering METs have also been articulated.

The effect of quality institutions on growth-environmental nexus is a generally ignored topic, especially in South Asia economies affiliated with the belt and road initiatives (BRIs). To fill this gap, we have examined the effect of BRI policy, economic freedom (EF), and institutional quality (IQ) on growth-environmental nexus in the South Asian region from 1984 to 2019. We have used CO₂ emission as a proxy for the environment in this study. To prevent variable bias, we also included energy consumption (EN) and trade openness (TO) as key factors in the model. To solve the problem of cross-sectional dependence, we have used the second-generational unit root test. The results of unit root tests indicate that the variable IQ is stationary at the level and other variables are stationary at the first difference. Furthermore, all of the variables are cointegrated, according to the panel cointegration test. Thus, we have used the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method to estimate the long-run (LR) and short-run (SR) impact of response factors on economic growth. Furthermore, this research utilized the Granger causality test among the selected variables to inquire into the causalities. The basic findings are as follows: (i) A significantly positive interaction variable (CO₂IQ) among CO₂ and IQ suggests that effective and fair political institutions are critical for increasing economic development and decreasing CO₂ emissions simultaneously. (ii) Economic growth is invigorated by energy consumption, trade, economic freedom, and institutional quality. (iii) Since 2013, more significant economic growth has been stimulated by BRI policy in BRI-associated countries; thus, both the SR and LR results are significantly positive. Hence, it is essential to improve the quality of institutions to reduce carbon emissions during economic growth.

The microbial community plays an important role in the biogeochemical cycle in coastal groundwater ecosystems. However, the composition and controlling factors of the microbial community in coastal closed groundwater systems (CCGSs) with high salinity have rarely been studied. Here, we investigated and analyzed the hydrochemical characteristics and microbial community composition of seven brine samples with high total dissolved solid (TDS) values ranging from 74.5 to 132.3 g/L within and across three coastal saltworks (Yangkou, Hanting, and Changyi) in southern Laizhou Bay (SLB). The bacterial diversity was independent of salinity. Compared with those of low-salinity groundwater, the diversity of the microbial community in brine was lower, but the richness was slightly higher. There was a significant correlation between the microbial community diversity and groundwater sources, which indicated that the microbial communities were affected by groundwater sources. A comparison of the microbial community compositions of the three saltworks showed that the Hanting and Changyi saltworks had similar microbial communities due to their similar sampling depths. In addition, the main force shaping the differences in the microbial communities in both coastal open groundwater systems (COGSs) and CCGSs was identified as the hydraulic connection with the seawater controlled by hydrogeological conditions formed throughout geological history. This study can help to elucidate the biogeochemical processes in coastal aquifers.