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Cherry Whitfield posted an update 1 week, 1 day ago
The sum of the dry deposition flux for crustal elements (1301.9 ± 880.7 μg m-2 d-1) was in agreement with global dust cycle models. Air-parcel trajectory cluster analysis revealed that S, K, and Cl were influenced by biomass and coal burning in predominantly in central, and northwestern India, while reconstructed soil was influenced by air masses from the Arabian and Thar deserts. Finally, human exposure risk assessment to carcinogens (As, Cr, Cd, Pb and Ni) and non-carcinogens (Cu, Zn, Mn, V, Hg, Se and Al) revealed that no significant risk was posed by these elements. The assessment in this study was a screening for severe adverse effects, rather than a speciated health assessment. Thus, over the study region, monitoring, health risk assessment and mitigation measures, where needed, must be enhanced to ensure that trace elements induced health effects continue to be within safe levels.Despite a large amount of published research on the production of ligninolytic enzymes, the latter are not yet being applied to combat environmental pollution. No cost-effective process has been developed to date. This study describes an improvement of the solid-state fermentation procedure for the production of ligninolytic enzymes via Phanerochaete chrysosporium ATX by applying the Taguchi method and using an agro-industrial waste as substrate. The production of lignin peroxidase (LiP), manganese peroxidase (MnP), and laccase (Lac) were simultaneously increased within a packed-bed column. The factors and levels studied were humidity (A 60, 70, 80%), inoculum concentration (B 7.5, 10.0, 12.5 × 105 spores/mL), packed density (C 0.14, 0.16, 0.18 g/mL), and time (D 6, 8, 10 days). TPEDA The results showed that humidity was the factor with a higher effect upon LiP and Lac’s production, while time was for MnP. Humidity exerted the greatest influence on the global desirability of the process. Improved conditions (A, 60%; B, 1.0 × 106 spores/mL; C, 0.17 g/mL; D, 8 days) were further validated the results revealed an overall desirability increase of 237% over the unoptimized process. Process performance was likewise maintained at a higher scale (110). The results contribute to establishing a cost-effective bioprocess to produce ligninolytic enzymes by reducing the cost associated with raw materials and purification steps.Anodizing wastewater contains principally phosphate (PO43-) anions according to previous studies, but with the purpose to promote water reuse in this type of industry, a complete characterization of wastewater was made to remove other anions and cations also present in significant concentration. Particularly, the adsorption of sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), fluoride (F-), sulfate (SO42-) and phosphate (PO43-) was studied using different sorbents such as coconut shell activated carbon, bone char, bituminous coal activated carbon, natural zeolite, silica, anionic and cationic exchange resins, a coated manganese-calcium zeolite, coconut shell activated carbon containing iron and iron hydroxide. All sorbents were characterized using FT-IR spectroscopy, potentiometric titration, nitrogen adsorption isotherms at 77 K, X-ray diffraction and SEM/EDX analysis to study the adsorption mechanism. The adsorption studies were performed in batch systems under constant agitation using both standard solutions of each ion and real anodizing wastewater. Results showed that, in general, the adsorption of all anions and cations is higher when mono-component standard solutions were used, since in the anodizing wastewater all species are competing for the active sites of the adsorbent. Na+ present in anodizing wastewater was efficiently adsorbed on coated manganese-calcium zeolite (20.55 mg/g) and natural zeolite (18.55 mg/g); while K+ was poorly adsorbed on all sorbents (less than 0.20 mg/g). Anions such as F-, SO42- and PO43-, were better adsorbed on the anionic resin (0.17, 45.38 and 2.92 mg/g, respectively), the iron hydroxide (0.14, 7.96 and 2.87 mg/g, respectively) and the bone char (0.34, 8.71 and 0.27 mg/g, respectively). All these results suggest that adsorption is a promising tertiary treatment method to achieve water reuse in the anodizing industry.Olive oil production shapes the socio-economic and environmental life of many areas of the Mediterranean basin, especially southern Spain, the highest olive oil-producing region worldwide. Olive grove cultivation is tending to intensify from traditional low-density to intensive and high-density cropping systems, which might result in higher environmental impacts. The aim of this study is to estimate the environmental impacts, carbon (C) footprint and carbon balance of producing virgin origin olive oil in Spain from four traditional rainfed, four irrigated, and three intensive olive farms, including the processing phase. Environmental impacts of producing 1 kg of unpacked virgin olive oil at the farm and industrial phases were quantified with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool and a “cradle-to-gate” approach using data from surveys at these farms and 12 olive oil mills. On average, the farming phase accounted for 76.3% of the EIs. Therefore, to reduce the impact of the virgin olive oils production, most of t application of organic sources of fertilizer and the implementation of temporary spontaneous cover crops, both technically and economically feasible, are sound strategies to achieve a positive carbon balance and reduce the impacts of olive cultivation.Previous studies have demonstrated that seasonal variation is often the most important factor affecting aquatic bacterial assemblages. Whether anthropogenic activities can dominate community dynamics remains unknown. Based on 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing technology, this study revealed and compared the relative influence of water diversions and seasonality on bacterial and archaeal communities in river sediments from a region with obvious seasonality. The results indicate that the influence of water diversion on bacteria and archaea in water-receiving river sediments exceeded the influence of seasonal variation. Water diversion affected microbes by increasing EC, salinity, water flow rate, and organic matter carbon and nitrogen contents. Seasonal variations affected microbes by altering water temperature. Diversion responders but no season responders were classified by statistical methods in the microbial community. Diversion responder numbers were related to nitrogen concentrations, complex organic carbon contents and EC values, which were mainly affected by water diversion.