Water pollution is a global environmental problem that affects the ecosystem severely. Treatment of oily wastewater and organic pollutants is a major challenge that waits to be solved as soon as possible. Adsorbing is one of the most effective strategies to deal with this problem. Three-dimensional (3D) porous adsorbents made of graphene or graphene-based nanomaterials skeletons had attracted more attention in wastewater treatment because of their large surface area, high porosity, low density, high chemical/thermal stability, and steady mechanical properties, which allow different pollutants to easily access and diffuse into 3D networks of adsorbents. This work presents an extensive summarization of recent progress in the synthesis methodologies and microstructures of 3D graphene foams and 3D graphene-based foams and highlights their adsorption performance for oils and organic solvents. Advantages and disadvantages of various preparation strategies are compared and the corresponded structures of these skeletons are studied in detail. Furthermore, the effects of the structures on oil-adsorption properties are analyzed and some data and parameters of the oil-adsorption properties are listed and studied for easier comparison. At last, the future research directions and technical challenges are prospected, which is hoped that the researchers will be inspired to develop the new graphene-based adsorbents.

The failure of the centralized water supply system forced XY community to become more dependent on uncertain and unstable water sources. The results of surveying 50 households showed that 89.18% of total households depended on water collected from rivers, which contributed 58.3% of the total water volume used for the domestic demands. The average water volume consumed was 19.5 liters/person/day (l/p/d), and 86.5% of households used more than one source; 13.5% of households collected water only from rivers, and 45.94% of families had rainwater harvesting (RWH) for their activities (domestic water demand); however, RWH only provided 9.9% of total water consumption. In this study, basic methods were applied to calculate the storage tanks necessary to balance the water deficit created by drought months. Three levels of water demand (14, 20, and 30 l/p/d) can be the best choices for RWH; for a higher demand (40 and 60 l/p/d), small roof area (30–40 m²), and many people (six to seven) per family, RWH might be impractical because of unsuitable rainfall or excessively large storage tanks.

An attempt has been made to improve the treatment efficiency of mature landfill leachate prior to the existing biological treatment. In this study, electrochemical oxidation (EO) was applied as a pre-treatment to remove organic contaminants and was simultaneously combined with electrodialysis (ED) to remove ionic constituents, such as ammonium and phosphate. A laboratory-scale electrochemical reactor was designed by utilizing a carbon graphite anode and a stainless steel cathode and separated by an anion exchange membrane (AEM) and cation exchange membrane (CEM), creating a three-compartment reactor. The oxidation of the organic pollutant would occur in the anodic compartment, while the targeted ammonium and phosphate ions would be migrated and accumulated in the central compartment. The treatment process was performed in a batch recirculation time of 12 h at a constant supplied current of 0.25 A and evaluated by means of the initial leachate pH (i.e., original pH value of 7.85; adjusted pH value of 5.50 and 8.50) and three different initial chloride concentrations. The higher the chloride concentration in the leachate, the higher the removal efficiency, except for total phosphate. The highest chemical oxidation demand (COD) removal was 86.2% (0.88 g W⁻¹ h⁻¹), at an initial leachate pH value of 7.85 with the addition of 2 g L⁻¹ of NaCl. Furthermore, under the same conditions, the ammonium, total phosphate, and chloride removals were 85% (0.44 g W⁻¹ h⁻¹), 89% (0.08 g W⁻¹ h⁻¹), and 83% (0.69 g W⁻¹ h⁻¹), respectively. Also, the concentrated ionic compounds in the central compartment can lower the energy consumption and can possibly be further treated or managed.

A family of alkoxybenzoate derivatives was synthesized and were found to selectivity congeal protic/aprotic polar solvents, gasoline, and oils over water; therefore, these organogelators could be used in water remediation as removal agents of fuels and oils. Due to their thermoreversibility, they can be easily separated from the mixtures and be reused; being good candidates for fuel recovery. The π-π stacking interactions were evaluated to establish a relationship between their chemical structure and the gelation process through UV–vis spectroscopy; the three-dimensional network was studied with polarized optical microscopy (POM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the aromatic ring acts as a stacking unit due to the π-π interactions; the ester group provides a source of dipole–dipole interactions; and the alkyl chains in the ether group showed a significant influence in gelation with the increase of carbon atoms, which increases the effect of nonpolar dispersion interactions.

Phytoestrogens have been widely praised for their health-promoting effects, whereas synthetic environmental estrogens are considered a toxicological risk to human health. The aim of this study was therefore to compare in vitro the estrogenic, cytotoxic, and genotoxic profiles of three common estrogen-like endocrine-disrupting chemicals: the phytoestrogens 8-prenylnaringenine (8-PN) and genistein and the synthetic xenoestrogen tartrazine. As assessed by a yeast bioreporter assay and estrogen-dependent proliferative response in human mammary gland adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7), 8-PN showed the highest estrogen-like activity of the three compounds, followed by tartrazine and genistein. After 24-h incubation on MCF-7 cells, all three compounds exhibited low cytotoxicity in the lactate dehydrogenase assay and no genotoxicity in the micronucleus assay. These results demonstrate that 8-PN, genistein and tartrazine possess variable estrogenic activity but display little cellular toxicity in short-term tests in vitro. No difference between phytoestrogens and a synthetic xenoestrogen could be established.

The massive use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is potentially harmful to exposed humans. Although previous studies have found that AgNPs can induce cell autophagy, few studies have focused on the toxic pathways and mechanisms of autophagy induced by AgNPs in rat respiratory epithelial (RTE) cells. In this study, RTE cells were exposed to two kinds of AgNPs in vitro to ascertain the influence of mTOR-autophagy pathway-associated protein expression, including Beclin1, LC3B, Atg5, and Atg7. After exposure to different sizes and concentrations of AgNPs for 12 h, the uptake of silver in RTE cells reached 0.45 μg/L to 1.11 μg/L, indicating that AgNPs can enter RTE cells, leading to toxic effects. Our study found that this toxic effect was related to autophagy caused by ROS accumulation that was mediated by the mTOR pathway. With increasing AgNP exposure concentrations, the expression of p-mTOR was significantly downregulated, and expression of the autophagy-related proteins Beclin1, LC3B, Atg5, and Atg7 was significantly increased in RTE cells in all exposed groups. At a concentration of 1000 μg/L, the expression of LC3BII/LC3BI in all exposed groups was 24.49 times and 12.71 times that of the control, and the expression of Atg7 in all exposed groups was 23.21 times and 13.21 times that of the control. The upregulation of autophagy-related proteins in the AgNP-10 nm exposure groups was greater than that of the AgNP-100 nm exposure group. In summary, the mTOR pathway mediates AgNP-induced autophagy in RTE cells, which leads to damage to the respiratory system barrier and human health risks. This study can facilitate the development of prevention and intervention policies against adverse consequences induced by AgNPs.

We conducted the current analysis to determine the potential role of measles vaccination in the context of the spread of COVID-19. Data were extracted from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Health Observatory data repository about the measles immunization coverage estimates and correlated to overall morbidity and mortality for COVID-19 among different countries. Data were statistically analyzed to calculate the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (rho). There was a significant positive correlation between the vaccine coverage (%) and new cases per one million populations (rho = 0.24; p-value = 0.025); however, this correlation was absent in deaths per one million populations (rho = 0.17; p-value = 0.124). On further analysis of the effect of first reported year of vaccination policy, there was no significant correlation with both of total cases per one million populations (rho = 0.11; p-value = 0.327) and deaths per one million populations (rho = −0.02; p-value = 0.829). Claims regarding the possible protective effect of measles vaccination seem to be doubtful.

Cobalt exposure has adverse health effects on the cardiovascular system in occupational and laboratory studies, but these effects have not been assessed in the general population. We aimed to determine whether serum cobalt levels had relationship with the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (2015–2016), we performed the cross-sectional study. We analyzed the baseline characteristics of 3389 participants (1623 men and 1766 women). Generalized linear models and restricted cubic spline plots curve were undertaken to elucidate the relationship. Stratified subgroup analysis was tested to exclude interaction between different variates and cobalt. Our results showed that the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CVD prevalence across the quartiles of cobalt were 0.94 (0.67, 1.30), 1.55 (1.15, 2.10), and 1.74 (1.28, 2.35) compared with lowest quartile. The restricted cubic spline curve also suggested nonlinear and positive association between cobalt and CVD (P for nonlinearity = 0.007). In summary, our cross-sectional results verify that higher cobalt levels are associated with a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease.

A traffic noise system involves several subsystems like road traffic subsystem, human subsystem, environment subsystem, traffic network subsystem, and urban prosperity subsystem. The study’s main aim was to develop road traffic noise models using a graph theory approach involving the parameters related to road traffic subsystem. The road traffic subsystem variables selected for the modeling purposes included vehicular speed, traffic volume, carriageway width, number of heavy vehicles, and number of honking events. The interaction of the selected variables considered in the form of permanent noise function is given in the matrix form. Eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors are calculated for removing any human judgmental error. The permanent noise function matrix was then updated using the eigenvectors, which was ultimately utilized for obtaining the permanent noise index. Data regarding the selected variables were collected for three months, and the noise parameters included in the study were equivalent noise level (Lₑq,₁ₕ), maximum noise level (L₁₀,₁ₕ), and background noise level (L₉₀,₁ₕ). A logarithmic transformation was applied to the permanent noise index and linear regression models were developed for Lₑq,₁ₕ , L₉₀,₁ₕ , and L₁₀,₁ₕ respectively. The models were validated using the data collected from the same locations for nine months. The models were found to provide satisfactory results, although the results were somewhat overestimated. The method can prove beneficial for estimating future noise levels, given the expected changes in values for the independent variables considered in the study.

Microwave-assisted catalytic oxidation technology has become an effective technology for rapid removal of organic pollutants in wastewater. In this research, the removal of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous solution by CuFe₂O₄ loaded on carbon nanotubes (CuFe₂O₄/CNTs) under microwave irradiation was studied. The effects of different loadings (1:2, 1:4, 1:8) of CuFe₂O₄ on the dielectric loss, magnetic loss, dielectric loss factor, magnetic loss factor, and reflection loss of composite materials were studied. The results showed that the microwave adsorption performance was improved by loading CuFe₂O₄ on CNTs. These different composites were further characterized by SEM, FTIR, and XRD techniques. In addition, this article also studied the effects of different microwave irradiation time, pH, and ionic factors on the degradation of MO. In particular, the mechanism of MO degradation by composite materials under different pH conditions was also studied in detail. The results showed that the removal rate reaches 97% with 5 min under the best conditions, and the composite material had good anti-interference performance. This study may provide a new option to degrade organic dye in wastewater treating.