Search Results (13,679)

Superhydrophobic magnetic nanomaterials (SHMNMs) are emerging as multifunctional platforms for efficient oil–water separation due to their combination of extreme water repellency, strong oil affinity, and external magnetic responsiveness. This review presents a comprehensive analysis of recent advances in the design, synthesis, and environmental application of SHMNMs. The theoretical foundations of superhydrophobicity and the physicochemical behavior of magnetic nanoparticles are first outlined, followed by discussion of their synergistic integration. Key fabrication techniques—such as sol–gel synthesis, electrospinning, dip-coating, laser-assisted processing, and the use of biomass-derived precursors—are critically assessed in terms of their ability to tailor surface morphology, chemical functionality, and long-term durability. The review further explores the mechanisms of oil adsorption, magnetic separation, and material reusability under realistic environmental conditions. Special attention is paid to the scalability, mechanical resilience, and environmental compatibility of SHMNMs in the context of water treatment technologies. Current limitations, including reduced efficiency in harsh media, potential environmental risks, and challenges in material regeneration, are discussed. This work provides a structured overview that could support the rational development of next-generation superhydrophobic materials tailored for sustainable and high-performance separation of oil and organic pollutants from water. Full article

With the rapid development of the social economy, human activities have increasingly disrupted water environments, and the continuous input of pollutants poses significant challenges for water environment management. Taking the Xiaoxingkai Lake basin as the study area, this paper develops a social–economic–water environment model based on the system dynamics methodology, incorporating subsystems for population, agriculture, and water pollution. The model focuses on four key indicators of pollution severity, namely, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), and simulates the changes in pollutant loads entering the river under five different scenarios from 2020 to 2030. The results show that agricultural non-point sources are the primary contributors to TN (79.5%) and TP (73.7%), while COD primarily originates from domestic sources (64.2%). NH₃-N is mainly influenced by urban domestic activities (44.7%) and agricultural cultivation (41.2%). Under the status quo development scenario, pollutant loads continue to rise, with more pronounced increases under the economic development scenario, thus posing significant sustainability risks. The pollution control enhancement scenario is most effective in controlling pollutants, but it does not promote socio-economic development and has high implementation costs, failing to achieve coordinated socio-economic and environmental development in the region. The dual-reinforcement scenario and moderate-reinforcement scenario achieve a balance between pollution control and economic development, with the moderate-reinforcement scenario being more suitable for long-term regional development. The findings can provide a scientific basis for water resource management and planning in the Xiaoxingkai Lake basin. Full article

Contemporary muralism has gained increasing cultural and social relevance in recent years, becoming a prominent form of urban artistic expression. However, its outdoor exposure makes it highly vulnerable to environmental degradation, raising significant challenges for long-term preservation. While solar radiation is widely recognized as a main agent of deterioration, the impact of rainfall has received comparatively little attention. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the durability of commercial protective coatings applied to modern paints (alkyd, acrylic, and styrene-acrylic) under simulated rain exposure. The ageing protocol replicates approximately 10 years of cumulative rainfall in Central-Southern Europe. A key innovation of this research is the use of a custom-built rain chamber, uniquely designed to expose a large number of samples simultaneously under highly uniform and controlled rain conditions. The system ensures reproducible exposure through a precision-controlled moving platform and programmable rain delivery. A comprehensive set of analytical techniques was employed to assess morphological, chemical, and functional changes in the coatings and paints before and after ageing. Results highlight the limited performance of current protective materials and the need for more effective solutions for the conservation of contemporary outdoor artworks. Full article

This research contributes to advance the sustainable production of biofuels and provides insights into the energy and exergy assessment of bio-oil, which is essential for developing environmentally friendly energy production solutions. Energy and exergy analyses were performed to evaluate the pyrolysis of beech wood biomass at 500 °C in an Auger reactor. To improve the quality of the obtained bio-oil, its catalytic deoxygenation was performed within an in-line fluidized catalytic bed reactor using a catalyst based on HZSM5 zeolite modified with 5 wt.% Iron (5%FeHZSM-5). A thermodynamic analysis of the catalytic and non-catalytic pyrolysis system was carried out, as well as a comparative study of the calculation methods for the energy and exergy evaluation for bio-oil. The required heat for pyrolysis was found to be 1.2 MJ/kg_biomass in the case of non-catalytic treatment and 3.46 MJ/kg_biomass in the presence of the zeolite-based catalyst. The exergy efficiency in the Auger reactor was 90.3%. Using the catalytic system coupled to the Auger reactor, this efficiency increased to 91.6%, leading to less energy degradation. Calculating the total energy and total exergy of the bio-oil using two different methods showed a difference of 6%. In the first method, only the energy contributions of the model compounds, corresponding to the major compounds of each chemical family of bio-oil, were considered. In contrast, in the second method, all molecules identified in the bio-oil were considered for the calculation. The second method proved to be more suitable for thermodynamic analysis. The novelties of this work concern the thermodynamic analysis of a coupled system of an Auger biomass pyrolysis reactor and a fluidized bed catalytic deoxygenation reactor on the one hand, and the use of all the molecules identified in the oily phase for the evaluation of energy and exergy on the other hand. Full article

Electrocoagulation (EC) processes have emerged as an efficient solution for different inorganic and organic effluents. The main characteristics of this versatile process are its ease of operation and low sludge production. The literature indicates that EC can be successfully used as a single process or a step within a combined treatment system. If used in a combined system, this process could be employed as a pre-, a post-, or middle treatment step. Additionally, the EC process has been used in both continuous and batch modes. In most studies, EC has achieved significant improvements in the treated water quality and relatively low total energy consumption. This review presents a comprehensive evaluation and analysis of standalone and combined continuous EC processes. The influence of key operational parameters on continuous EC performance is thoroughly discussed. Furthermore, recent advancements in reactor design, modeling, and process optimization are addressed. The benefits of integrating other treatment processes with the EC process, such as advanced oxidation, membranes, chemical coagulation, and adsorption, are also evaluated. The performance of most standalone and combined EC processes used for organic pollutant treatment and published in the last 25 years is critically analyzed. This review is expected to give researchers many insights to improve their treatment scenario with recent and efficient environmental experiences, sustainability, and circular economy. The clearly presented information is expected to guide researchers in selecting efficient, cost-effective, and time-saving treatment alternatives. The findings ensure the considerable potential of continuous EC treatment processes for organic pollutants. However, more research is warranted to enhance process design, operational efficiency, scale-up, and economic viability. Full article

Superficial fungal infections of the feet, such as tinea pedis and onychomycosis, are highly prevalent and frequently recurrent, often due to persistent contamination of footwear, textiles, and foot care instruments. Despite growing concern over antifungal resistance, environmental sources of reinfection remain under-recognized in clinical practice. This review critically examines historical and contemporary methods used to sanitize shoes, socks, podiatric tools, and related materials. Evidence from peer-reviewed studies published between 1938 and 2025 was analyzed across multiple disinfection categories, including chemical agents, thermal methods, laundering, ultraviolet- and ozone-based technologies, antimicrobial textiles, and sterilization protocols. Findings reveal a range of efficacies, limitations, and practical considerations across methods, with steam sterilization emerging as the most reliable for reusable instruments. A multifaceted approach combining pharmacologic treatment with consistent environmental hygiene is essential for breaking reinfection cycles and reducing antifungal resistance. This review highlights the need for clinical education and research into scalable, effective disinfection strategies. Full article

Due to human activities and the invasion of Spartina alterniflora, the population of Scirpus mariqueter (S. mariqueter) in the Yangtze River Estuary has gradually declined. To address this issue, numerous restoration efforts have been undertaken. To investigate the changes and influencing factors of soil bacterial communities during the restoration of S. mariqueter wetlands, we selected S. mariqueter populations as the research focus and divided the samples into two years, S1 and S2. High-throughput sequencing technology was employed for observation and analysis. The results revealed that from S1 to S2, soil bacterial diversity in the S. mariqueter wetland increased significantly and displayed clear seasonal patterns. The dominant bacterial phyla included Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, and Acidobacteriota. Among these, Proteobacteria had the highest relative abundance, while Acidobacteriota showed the most pronounced increase, surpassing Bacteroidota and Firmicutes to become the second most abundant group. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that soil organic matter and electrical conductivity were the key factors influencing the composition and diversity of the soil bacterial community, with Acidobacteriota playing a dominant role during wetland restoration. In conclusion, during the ecological restoration of the S. mariqueter wetlands, attention should be given to environmental factors such as soil organic matter and electrical conductivity, while the regulatory role of Acidobacteriota in wetland soils should not be overlooked. This study provides a microscopic perspective on the interactions between microbial diversity and ecosystem functions in coastal wetlands, offering valuable guidance for the ecological restoration of degraded wetlands. Full article

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the chemical composition of bottom ash samples generated during municipal waste incineration. A total of 52 samples were collected and subjected to statistical analysis for 17 elements and 2 element sums using techniques such as correlation analysis and one-way ANOVA. The results confirm a high degree of heterogeneity in the elemental content, reflecting the variability of waste streams and combustion processes. Strong correlations were identified between certain elements, including Cu-Zn, Co-Ni, and HREE-LREE, indicating common sources and similar geochemical properties. The analysis also revealed significant seasonal variability in the content of Ba and Sr, with lower average values observed during the spring season and greater variability noted during summer and winter. Although Al and HREE did not reach classical significance levels, their distributions suggest possible seasonal differentiation. These findings underscore the need for long-term monitoring and seasonal analysis of incineration bottom ash composition to optimize resource recovery processes and assess environmental risk. The integration of chemical data with operational data on waste composition and combustion parameters may contribute to a better understanding of the variability of individual elements, ultimately supporting the development of effective strategies for ash management and element recovery. Full article

Widespread antibiotic residues are accumulating in the environment, potentially causing adverse effects for humans, animals, and the ecosystem, including an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in worldwide concern. There are various commonly used physical, chemical, and biological treatments for the degradation of antibiotics. However, the elimination of toxic end products generated by physicochemical methods and the need for industrial applications pose significant challenges. Hence, environmentally sustainable, green, and readily available approaches for the transformation and degradation of these antibiotic compounds are being sought. Herein, we review the impact of sustainable fungal laccase-based bioremediation strategies. Fungal laccase enzyme is considered one of the most active enzymes for biotransformation and biodegradation of antibiotic residue in vitro. For industrial applications, the low laccase yields in natural and genetically modified hosts may constitute a bottleneck. Methods to screen for high-laccase-producing sources, optimizing cultivation conditions, and identifying key genes and metabolites involved in extracellular laccase activity are reviewed. These include advanced transcriptomics, proteomics, and metagenomics technologies, as well as diverse laccase-immobilization technologies with different inert carrier/support materials improving enzyme performance whilst shifting from experimental assays to in situ monitoring of residual toxicity. Still, more basic and applied research on laccase-mediated bioremediation of pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics that are recalcitrant and prevalent, is needed. Full article

The rapid expansion of peptide libraries and the increasing functional diversity of peptides have highlighted the significance of predicting the multifunctional properties of peptides in bioinformatics research. Although supervised learning methods have made advancements, they typically necessitate substantial amounts of labeled data for yielding accurate prediction. This study presents MvAl-MFP, a multi-label active learning approach that incorporates multiple feature views of peptides. This method takes advantage of the natural properties of multi-view representation for amino acid sequences, meets the requirement of the query-by-committee (QBC) active learning paradigm, and further significantly diminishes the requirement for labeled samples while training high-performing models. First, MvAl-MFP generates nine distinct feature views for a few labeled peptide amino acid sequences by considering various peptide characteristics, including amino acid composition, physicochemical properties, evolutionary information, etc. Then, on each independent view, a multi-label classifier is trained based on the labeled samples. Next, a QBC strategy based on the average entropy of predictions across all trained classifiers is adopted to select a specific number of most valuable unlabeled samples to submit them to human experts for labeling by wet-lab experiments. Finally, the aforementioned procedure is iteratively conducted with a constantly expanding labeled set and updating classifiers until it meets the default stopping criterion. The experiments are conducted on a dataset of multifunctional therapeutic peptides annotated with eight functional labels, including anti-bacterial properties, anti-inflammatory properties, anti-cancer properties, etc. The results clearly demonstrate the superiority of the proposed MvAl-MFP method, as it can rapidly improve prediction performance while only labeling a small number of samples. It provides an effective tool for more precise multifunctional peptide prediction while lowering the cost of wet-lab experiments. Full article

Mechanical friction offers a frequent approach for sustainable energy harvesting, as it can be captured and transformed into electricity by means of the triboelectric phenomenon. Theoretically, this electricity may subsequently be employed to drive electrochemical water purification processes. Herein, the experimental results confirm that the SiC particles effectively trigger the tribocatalytic decomposition of Rhodamine B (RhB). During the tribocatalytic decomposition of dye, mechanical friction is generated at the contact surface between the tribocatalyst and a custom-fabricated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) rotating disk, under varying conditions of stirring speed, temperature, and pH value. Hydroxyl radicals and superoxide radicals are confirmed as the dominant reactive species participating in tribocatalytic dye decomposition, as demonstrated by reactive species inhibition experiments. Furthermore, the SiC particles demonstrate remarkable reusability, even after being subjected to five consecutive recycling processes. The exceptional tribocatalytic performance of SiC particles makes them potentially applicable in water purification by harnessing environmental friction energy. Full article

Background: The implementation of advanced agronomical strategies, including the use of antitranspirant, in order to mitigate the negative effects of environmental stress, particularly heat stress on plants, has become a focal area of research in the Mediterranean basin. This region is characterized by hot and dry summer that affects plant physiology. Methods: The experiment was carried out in Sicily (South Italy) on 12-year-old avocado cv. Hass grafted onto Walter Hole rootstock. Two subplots each of forty homogenous trees were selected and treated (1) with calcium carbonate (DECCO Shield^®) and (2) with water (control) at the following phenological phases: 711, 712 and 715 BBCH. The climatic parameters were recorded throughout the year. Physiological measurements (leaf transpiration, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, leaf water potential) were measured at 105, 131 and 168 days after full bloom. Fruit growth was monitored, and physico-chemical analyses were carried out at harvest. Results: The antitranspirant increased photosynthesis and stomatal conductance and reduced leaf transpiration (−26.1%). Fruit growth rate increased during summer, although no morphological and qualitative difference was observed at harvest. PCA highlighted the positive effect of the calcium carbonate on overall plant physiology. Conclusions: Antitranspirant foliar application reduced heat stress effects by improving physiological responses of avocado trees. Full article

Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) are one of the most environmentally friendly ways to control a plethora of chewing insects such as T. pityocampa, G. mellonella, and A. grisella. Bioassay of EPF on these highly damaging pests is considered important in the face of climate change in order to research alternative solutions that are capable of limiting chemical control, the overuse of which increases insects’ resistance to chemical compounds. In this study, the insecticidal virulence of Metarhizium robertsii isolates, retrieved from forest ecosystems, was tested on second-instar larvae of T. pityocampa, G. mellonella, and A. grisella. Bioassays were carried out in the laboratory, where experimental larvae were sprayed with 2 mL of a six-conidial suspension from each isolate. Mortality was recorded for 144 h after exposure. Mean mortality, lethal concentrations, sporulation percentage, and sporulation time were estimated for each isolate. Metarhizium isolates resulted in the highest mortality (89.2% for G. mellonella and 90.2% for A. grisella). Based on the LC₅₀ estimates determined by the concentration–mortality relationships for the tested fungal isolates, we demonstrated significant virulence on larvae of G. mellonella, A. grisella, and T. pityocampa. Our results indicate that entomopathogenic fungi have the potential to become a very useful tool in reducing chemical applications. Full article

This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of phosphorus (P) dynamics relevant to salmonid aquaculture, with a particular focus on Atlantic salmon. It explores the global P cycle, the chemical forms of P in aquatic systems, and the implications of P sourcing, processing, and availability in aquafeeds. The review distinguishes between digestibility and availability of P, summarizes requirement studies, and evaluates the contribution of marine, animal, vegetable, and inorganic sources to dietary P. It also examines how aquaculture system design, particularly recirculating aquaculture systems (RASs), influences P accumulation and emissions. By integrating nutritional, physiological, and environmental perspectives, this review offers a uniquely holistic view of P efficiency and sustainability in salmonid aquaculture. Full article

Avocado (Persea americana), originally from Mesoamerica, has emerged as a focus of intense scientific and industrial interest due to its unique combination of nutritional richness, bioactive potential, and technological versatility. Its pulp, widely consumed across the globe, is notably abundant in monounsaturated fatty acids, especially oleic acid, which can comprise over two-thirds of its lipid content. In addition, it provides significant levels of dietary fiber, fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K, carotenoids, tocopherols, and phytosterols like β-sitosterol. These constituents are consistently associated with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, glycemic regulatory, and cardioprotective effects, supported by a growing body of experimental and clinical evidence. This review offers a comprehensive and critical synthesis of the chemical composition and functional properties of avocado, with particular emphasis on its lipid profile, phenolic compounds, and phytosterols. It also explores recent advances in environmentally sustainable extraction techniques, including ultrasound-assisted and microwave-assisted processes, as well as the application of natural deep eutectic solvents. These technologies have demonstrated improved efficiency in recovering bioactives while aligning with the principles of green chemistry. The use of avocado-derived ingredients in nanostructured delivery systems and their incorporation into functional foods, cosmetics, and health-promoting formulations is discussed in detail. Additionally, the potential of native cultivars and the application of precision nutrition strategies are identified as promising avenues for future innovation. Taken together, the findings underscore the avocado’s relevance as a high-value matrix for sustainable development. Future research should focus on optimizing extraction protocols, clarifying pharmacokinetic behavior, and ensuring long-term safety in diverse applications. Full article