Search Results (1,648)

Protein-bound uraemic toxins (PBUTs), such as indoxyl sulphate (IS) and p-cresyl sulphate (PCS), are poorly cleared by conventional haemodialysis (HD) or haemodiafiltration (HDF). Haemoadsorption combined with HD (HAHD) using the novel pHA130 cartridge may increase PBUT removal, and this trial aimed to compare its efficacy and safety with HDF in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). In this single-centre, open-label trial, 30 maintenance HD patients were randomized (1:1:1) to HDF once every two weeks (HDF-q2w), HAHD once every two weeks (HAHD-q2w), or HAHD once weekly (HAHD-q1w) for 8 weeks, with the primary endpoint being the single-session reduction ratio (RR) of IS. The combined HAHD group (n = 20) demonstrated a significantly greater IS reduction than the HDF-q2w group (n = 10) (46.9% vs. 31.8%; p = 0.044) and superior PCS clearance (44.6% vs. 31.4%; p = 0.003). Both HAHD regimens significantly reduced predialysis IS levels at Week 8. Compared with HDF, weekly HAHD provided greater relief from pruritus and improved sleep quality, with comparable adverse events among groups. In conclusion, HAHD with the pHA130 cartridge is more effective than HDF for enhancing single-session PBUT removal and alleviating uraemic symptoms in patients with ESRD, with weekly application showing optimal symptomatic benefits. Full article

This study evaluated the inhibitory efficacy of sulphur dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, copper sulphate pentahydrate, chlorine-based formulations, a chlorine-free formulation, ethanol, and acetic acid against Cladosporium cladosporioides, Aspergillus niger, and Penicillium expansum. An in vitro inhibition test was employed to investigate the inhibitory properties. The results demonstrated different sensitivities of filamentous fungi to the inhibitors. All tested substances displayed fungicidal properties. Sulphur dioxide (40% NH₄HSO₃ solution) inhibited growth at a 4% v/v concentration. No minimum effective concentration was established for H₂O₂; only a 30% w/v solution inhibited P. expansum. CuSO₄·5H₂O completely inhibited fungal growth at 5% w/v solution, with 2.5% w/v also proving effective. For the chlorine-based product, 40% w/v solution (48 g∙L⁻¹ active chlorine) had the most substantial effect, though it only slowed growth, and NaClO solution completely inhibited growth at 2.35 g NaClO per 100 g of product (50% w/v solution). FungiSAN demonstrated fungicidal effects; however, the recommended dose was insufficient for complete inhibition. Ethanol exhibited the lowest efficacy, while the inhibitory threshold for CH₃COOH was found to be a 5% v/v solution. The findings of this study may serve as a basis for informed decision-making when selecting the most suitable product, depending on specific application conditions. Full article

This paper presents a comprehensive review of dealuminated metakaolin (DK), a hazardous industrial by-product generated by the aluminium sulphate (alum) industry and evaluates its potential as a component in cementitious systems for the partial or full replacement of Portland cement (PC). Positioned within the context of waste valorisation in concrete, the review aims to establish a critical understanding of DK formation, properties, and reactivity, particularly its pozzolanic potential, to assess its suitability for use as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM), or as a precursor in alkali-activated cement (AAC) systems for concrete. A systematic methodology is used to extract and synthesise relevant data from existing literature concerning DK and its potential applications in cement and concrete. The collected information is organised into thematic sections exploring key aspects of DK, beginning with its formation from kaolinite ores, followed by studies on its pozzolanic reactivity. Applications of DK are then reviewed, focusing on its integration into SCMs and alkali-activated cement (AAC) systems. The review consolidates existing knowledge related to DK, identifying scientific gaps and practical challenges that limit its broader adoption for cement and concrete applications, and outlines future research directions to provide a solid foundation for future studies. Overall, this review highlights the potential of DK as a low-carbon, circular-economy material and promotes its integration into efforts to enhance the sustainability of construction practices. The findings aim to support researchers’ and industry stakeholders’ strategies to reduce cement clinker content and mitigate the environmental footprint of concrete in a circular-economy context. Full article

The electrooxidation (EO) of three important environmental contaminants, anticorrosive 1H-benzotriazole (BTA), plasticizer dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100 (tert-octylphenoxy[poly(ethoxy)] ethanol, t-OPPE), was studied as a possible means to improve their elimination from wastewaters, which are an important emission source. EO was performed in a batch reactor with a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode and a stainless steel cathode. Different supporting electrolytes were tested: NaCl, H₂SO₄, and Na₂SO₄. Results were analysed from the point of their efficacy in terms of degradation rate, kinetics, energy consumption, and transformation products. The highest degradation rate, shortest half-life, and lowest energy consumption was observed in the electrolyte H₂SO₄, followed by Na₂SO₄ with only slightly less favourable characteristics. In both cases, degradation was probably due to the formation of persulphate or sulphate radicals. Transformation products (TPs) were studied mainly in the sulphate media and several oxidation products were identified with all three contaminants, while some evidence of progressive degradation, e.g., ring-opening products, was observed only with t-OPPE. The possible reasons for the lack of further degradation in BTA and DBP are too short of an EO treatment time and perhaps a lack of detection due to unsuitable analytical methods for more polar TPs. Results demonstrate that BDD-based EO is a robust method for the efficient removal of structurally diverse organic contaminants, making it a promising candidate for advanced water treatment technologies. Full article

Phycocyanin is a natural, non-toxic, blue pigment-protein with many commercial applications. Its exploitation in various biotechnological sectors strongly depends on its purity grade (P). Phycocyanin is largely used in food industry where a low purity grade is required, while its widespread use in sectors requiring a higher purity is hampered by the cost of large-scale industrial production. Industry, in fact, needs simple, easily scalable and cost-effective procedures to ensure sustainable production of high-quality pigment. In this work we applied the innovative two-step ultrasound-based process UltraBlu to the pilot-scale production of phycocyanin. A total of 50 L of biomass suspension of commercial Spirulina were processed in batch mode. The pigment extract was obtained in one day, including the biomass harvesting. Food/cosmetic grade (P = 1.41–1.76) and a good yield (Y = 59.2–76.1%) were achieved. The initial results obtained suggest that UltraBlu can be an effective scalable process suitable to produce phycocyanin also on an industrial scale. Full article

Xylanase is an essential industrial enzyme for degrading plant biomass, pulp and paper, textiles, bio-scouring, food, animal feed, biorefinery, chemicals, and pharmaceutical industries. Despite its significant industrial importance, the extensive application of xylanase is hampered by high production costs and concerns regarding the safety of xylanase-producing microorganisms. The utilisation of renewable polymers for enzyme production is becoming a cost-effective alternative. Among the prospective candidates, non-pathogenic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are promising for safe and eco-friendly applications. Our investigation revealed that Pediococcus pentosaceus G4, isolated from plant sources, is a notable producer of extracellular xylanase. Improving the production of extracellular xylanase is crucial for viable industrial applications. Therefore, the current study investigated the impact of various medium components and optimised the selected medium composition for extracellular xylanase production of P. pentosaceus G4 using Plackett–Burman Design (PBD) and Central Composite Design (CCD) statistical approaches. According to BPD analysis, 8 out of the 19 investigated factors (glucose, almond shell, peanut shell, walnut shell, malt extract, xylan, urea, and magnesium sulphate) demonstrated significant positive effects on extracellular xylanase production of P. pentosaceus G4. Among them, glucose, almond shells, peanut shells, urea, and magnesium sulphate were identified as the main medium components that significantly (p < 0.05) influenced the production of extracellular xylanase of P. pentosaceus G4. The optimal concentrations of glucose, almond shells, peanut shells, urea, and magnesium sulphate, as determined via CCD, were 26.87 g/L, 16 g/L, 30 g/L, 2.85 g/L, and 0.10 g/L, respectively. The optimised concentrations resulted in extracellular xylanase activity of 2.765 U/mg, which was similar to the predicted extracellular xylanase activity of 2.737 U/mg. The CCD-optimised medium yielded a 3.13-fold enhancement in specific extracellular xylanase activity and a 7.99-fold decrease in production costs compared to the commercial de Man, Rogosa and Sharpe medium, implying that the CCD-optimised medium is a cost-effective medium for extracellular xylanase production of P. pentosaceus G4. Moreover, this study demonstrated a positive correlation between extracellular xylanase production, growth, lactic acid production and the amount of sugar utilised, implying the multifaceted interactions of the physiological variables affecting extracellular xylanase production in P. pentosaceus G4. In conclusion, statistical methods are effective in rapidly assessing and optimising the medium composition to enhance extracellular xylanase production of P. pentosaceus G4. Furthermore, the findings of this study highlighted the potential of using LAB as a cost-effective producer of extracellular xylanase enzymes using optimised renewable polymers, offering insights into the future use of LAB in producing hemicellulolytic enzymes. Full article

Barite, a mineral composed of barium sulphate, holds global significance due to its wide range of industrial applications. It plays a crucial role as a weighting agent in drilling fluids for the oil and gas industry, in radiation shielding, and as a filler in paints and plastics. Although there are significant deposits of the mineral in commercial quantities in Nigeria, the use of barite of Nigerian origin has been low in the industry due to challenges that require further research and development. This research employed nanoindentation experiments using a model Ti950 Tribo indenter instrument equipped with a diamond Berkovich tip. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), we gained information about the structure and elements in the samples. The load–displacement curves were examined to determine the hardness and reduced elastic modulus of the barite samples. The SEM images showed that barite grains have a typical grainy shape, with clear splitting lines and sizes. XRD and EDX analysis confirmed that the main components are chlorite, albite, barium, and oxygen, along with small impurities like silicon and calcium from quartz and calcite. The average hardness of the IB3 and IB4 samples was 1.88 GPa and 1.18 GPa, respectively, meaning that the IB3 sample will need more energy to crush because its hardness is within the usual barite hardness range of 1.7 GPa to 2.0 GPa. The findings suggest further beneficiation processes to enhance the material’s suitability for drilling and other applications. Full article

With the large-scale closure of coal mines leading to groundwater pollution, in order to systematically identify the sources of major chemical ions in surface water and groundwater. This study comprehensively applied methods such as Piper’s trilinear diagram, linear fitting, and correlation analysis to quantitatively analyze the hydrochemical characteristics of closed coal mining areas in southwest Shandong and to clarify the sources of geochemical components in surface water and groundwater, and the PMF model was used to analyze the sources of chemical components in mine water and karst water. The results show that the concentrations of TDS ( Total Dissolved Solids), SO₄²⁻, Fe, and Mn in the mine water of the closed coal mine area are higher than in the karst water. Both water bodies are above groundwater quality standards. Ca²⁺, SO₄²⁻, and HCO₃⁻ dominate the ionic components in surface water and different types of groundwater. The hydrochemical types of surface, pore, and mine waters are mainly SO₄-HCO₃-Ca, whereas SO₄-HCO₃-Ca and HCO₃-SO₄-Ca dominate karst waters. SO₄²⁻ is the leading ion in the TDS of water bodies. The mineralization process of surface water is mainly controlled by the weathering of silicate minerals, while that of the groundwater is mainly controlled by the dissolution of carbonate minerals. The impact of mining activities on surface water and groundwater is significant, while the impact of agricultural activities on surface water and groundwater is relatively small. The degree of impact of coal mining activities on SO₄²⁻ concentrations in surface water, pore water, and karst water, in descending order, is karst water, surface water, and pore water. The PMF (Positive Matrix Factorization) model analysis results indicate that dissolution of carbonate minerals with sulphate and oxidation dissolution of sulfide minerals are the main sources of chemical constituents in mine waters. Carbonate dissolution, oxidation dissolution of sulfide minerals, domestic sewage, and dissolution of carbonate minerals with sulphate are ranked as the main sources of chemical constituents in karst water from highest to lowest. These findings provide a scientific basis for the assessment and control of groundwater pollution in the areas of closed coal mines. Full article

Thermal mud produced by spas of the Euganean Thermal District (Italy) has been used since ancient times for therapeutic purposes. Recently, the anti-inflammatory activity of microbial polysaccharides (M-PS), extracted from traditionally maturated muds, was demonstrated using the zebrafish model organism. However, the downstream signalling pathways regulated by M-PS remain largely unknown. In this study, to investigate the underlying mechanisms of inflammation resolution, we performed a transcriptome analysis on zebrafish larvae inflamed with copper sulphate and treated with M-PS. Our findings revealed that M-PS treatment down-regulated the expression of key genes involved in several inflammatory pathways. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis identified eleven up-regulated pathways (e.g., TNF-α signalling via NFκB, IL6–JAK–STAT signalling, p53 pathway, apoptosis, and interferon response) with components reduced in number and expression level in M-PS-treated larvae compared to the inflamed ones. Additionally, seven down-regulated pathways were identified (e.g., transcription factors E2F, MYC, and the G2M checkpoint). DEG-pseudotime analysis further confirmed the association of these genes with the pathways identified by GSEA. These results provide valuable insights into the anti-inflammatory properties of M-PS and the therapeutic potential of Euganean thermal muds for inflammatory diseases. Full article

Coal-fired power plants exacerbate hazy weather under low winter temperatures, while sulphate ions (SO₄²⁻) in condensable particulate matter (CPM) emitted from ultra-low emission coal-fired power plants accelerate sulphate formation. The transformation of gaseous precursors (SO₂, NOx, NH₃) is the main pathway for sulphate formation by homogeneous or non-homogeneous reactions. For the sustainability of the world, in this paper, the effects of condensation temperature, H₂O, NO_X and NH₃ on the SO₄²⁻ generation characteristics under low-temperature rapid condensation conditions are investigated. With lower temperatures, especially from 0 °C cooling to −20 °C, the concentration of SO₄²⁻ was as high as 26.79 mg/m³. With a greater proportion of H₂SO₄ in the aerosol state, and a faster rate of sulphate formation, H₂O vapour condensation can provide a reaction site for sulphuric acid aerosol generation. SO₄²⁻ in CPM is mainly derived from the non-homogeneous reaction of SO₂. SO₃ is an important component of CPM and provides a reaction site for the formation of SO₄²⁻. SO₂ and SO₃, in combination with Stefan flow, jointly play a synergistic role in the generation of SO₄²⁻. The content of SO₄²⁻ was as high as 36.18 mg/m³. While NO_X sometimes inhibits the formation of SO₄²⁻, NH₃ has a key role in the nucleation process of CPM. NH₃, SO₂ and NO_X have been found to rapidly form sulphate with particle sizes up to 5 µm at sub-zero temperatures and promote the formation of sulphuric acid aerosols. Full article

Currently, the cement industry stands as one of the sectors with the most significant environmental impact, primarily due to its substantial greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. To mitigate this impact, a roadmap has been followed in recent years, outlining a set of objectives aimed at diminishing the environmental footprint of the construction industry. This research focuses on the development of mortars with different water/cement ratios employing an alternative cement, specifically magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) formulated with secondary sources. The goal of this research relays in developing mortars based on MPC by using waste from the metallurgical industry, named tundish deskulling waste (TUN), as an MgO source. The results revealed the optimal water/cement (W/C) ratio for MPC-TUN mortars production through the assessment of various characterization techniques, which was 0.55. This ratio resulted in the highest compressive strength after 28 days of curing and the formation of a stable K-struvite matrix. Furthermore, it demonstrated the effectiveness of aluminum sulphate in preventing efflorescence caused by carbonates. The development of alternative masonry mortars for application in building materials represents a significant stride towards advancing the principles of a circular economy, in alignment with the objectives laid out in the 2030 roadmap. Full article

Keeping drinking water safe is a critical aspect of protecting public health. Traditional laboratory-based methods for evaluating water potability are often time-consuming, costly, and labour-intensive. This paper presents a comparative analysis of four transformer-based deep learning models in the development of automatic classification systems for water potability based on physicochemical attributes. The models examined include the enhanced tabular transformer (ETT), feature tokenizer transformer (FTTransformer), self-attention and inter-sample network (SAINT), and tabular autoencoder pretraining enhancement (TAPE). The study utilized an open-access water quality dataset that includes nine key attributes such as pH, hardness, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloramines, sulphate, conductivity, organic carbon, trihalomethanes, and turbidity. The models were evaluated under a unified protocol involving 70–15–15 data partitioning, five-fold cross-validation, fixed random seed, and consistent hyperparameter settings. Among the evaluated models, the enhanced tabular transformer outperforms other models with an accuracy of 95.04% and an F1 score of 0.94. ETT is an advanced model because it can efficiently model high-order feature interactions through multi-head attention and deep hierarchical encoding. Feature importance analysis consistently highlighted chloramines, conductivity, and trihalomethanes as key predictive features across all models. SAINT demonstrated robust generalization through its dual-attention mechanism, while TAPE provided competitive results with reduced computational overhead due to unsupervised pretraining. Conversely, FTTransformer showed limitations, likely due to sensitivity to class imbalance and hyperparameter tuning. The results underscore the potential of transformer-based models, especially ETT, in enabling efficient, accurate, and scalable water quality monitoring. These findings support their integration into real-time environmental health systems and suggest approaches for future research in explainability, domain adaptation, and multimodal fusion. Full article

Aiming at the existing fertilizer distributor’s lack of stability of fertilizer discharge and uniformity of fertilizer discharge, which affects the precise application of fertilizer, a design and testing of a multi-row spiral quantitative fertilizer distributor was designed. The design principle and working principle of the fertilizer distributor are described, and the parameter ranges of centrifugal cone discs’ cone angle, cone disc inclination, cone disc rotation speed, etc., are determined. The Elementary Discrete Element Method (Referred to as EDEM in the following) simulation analysis software was adopted to carry out the simulation analysis of the fertilizer discharge process of the fertilizer discharger, to study the influence of each parameter on the fertilizer discharge performance and the optimal combination parameters of the fertilizer discharger. Taking the coefficient of variation for the consistency of fertilizer application amount among rows and the coefficient of variation for the consistency of fertilizer application amount within the same row as the evaluation indicators, and taking the cone angle of the centrifugal cone disk, the cone disk inclination angle, and the cone disk rotational speed as the test factors, multi-factor and multi-level experiments were carried out. The simulation test results show that the optimal parameter combination of the fertilizer discharger is the rotational speed of the centrifugal cone disk at 95 r/min, the cone angle of the cone disk at 16.7°, and the blade inclination angle of the cone disk at 2.7°. Using potassium sulphate compound fertilizer as the test material, the bench test on the fertilizer discharge performance and adaptability of the fertilizer distributor when the speed of centrifugal cone discs was 30~110 r/min was carried out to verify the fertilizer discharge performance of the fertilizer distributor. The results of the validation test showed that the coefficient of variation for the consistency of fertilizer application amount among rows of fertilizer distributor at different rotational speeds was lower than 4.25%, the coefficient of variation for the consistency of fertilizer application amount within the same row was lower than 3.21%, which meets the requirement of fertilizer discharge quality. The research provides technical support for enhancing the performance of fertilizer distributors and achieving precise fertilizer application, thereby playing an active role in improving fertilization efficiency and promoting sustainable agricultural development. Full article

Background: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDPs) are a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Very little progress has been made in reducing HDP-related maternal deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including South Africa, over the past decade. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe maternal deaths arising from HDPs at tertiary/quaternary hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, with specific focus on maternal characteristics, management, timing of death, causes, and avoidable factors and to use the information to inform clinical practice. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of patient clinical records covering the period 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2018. Data on maternal demographic and pregnancy characteristics, management, causes, and timing of death were extracted from the clinical records and transferred into a Microsoft Excel^® Spreadsheet and analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: During the study period, 70 maternal deaths were recorded, of which 23 (32.8%) were due to HDP-related complications. The majority of the maternal deaths, 20 (86.9%), occurred during the postpartum period, predominantly affecting Black African women, 23 (100%), with a median age of 27 years. Notably, 18 (78.2%) of the deceased had booked early and attended antenatal care (ANC). Eclampsia emerged as the most common final cause of death. Key avoidable factors included non-adherence to established protocols, particularly failure to initiate aspirin prophylaxis in at-risk women, as well as incorrect or inadequate administration of antihypertensive therapy and magnesium sulphate (MgSO₄) prophylaxis. Conclusions: HDP-related maternal deaths are largely preventable. They primarily result from poor quality of care due to a lack of adherence to evidence-based protocol. Full article

Next-generation recycling technologies must be urgently innovated to tackle huge volumes of spent batteries, photovoltaic panels or printed circuit boards (WPCBs). Current e-waste recycling industrial technology is dominated by traditional recycling technologies. Herein, ionic liquids (ILs), deep eutectic solvents (DESs) and promising oxidizing additives that can overcome some traditional recycling methods of metal ions from e-waste, used in our works from last year, are presented. The unique chemical environments of ILs and DESs, with the application of low-temperature extraction procedures, are important environmental aspects known as “Green Methods”. A closed-loop system for recycling zinc and manganese from the “black mass” (BM) of waste, Zn-MnO₂ batteries, is presented. The leaching process achieves a high efficiency and distribution ratio using the composition of two solvents (Cyanex 272 + diethyl phosphite (DPh)) for Zn(II) extraction. High extraction efficiency with 100% zinc and manganese recovery is also achieved using DESs (cholinum chloride/lactic acid, 1:2, DES 1, and cholinum chloride/malonic acid, 1:1, DES 2). New, greener recycling approaches to metal extraction from the BM of spent Li-ion batteries are presented with ILs ([N_8,8,8,1][Cl], (Aliquat 336), [P_6,6,6,14][Cl], [P_6,6,6,14][SCN] and [Benzet][TCM]) eight DESs, Cyanex 272 and D2EHPA. A high extraction efficiency of Li(I) (41–92 wt%) and Ni(II) (37–52 wt%) using (Cyanex 272 + DPh) is obtained. The recovery of Ni(II) and Cd(II) from the BM of spent Ni-Cd batteries is also demonstrated. The extraction efficiency of DES 1 and DES 2, contrary to ILs ([P_6,6,6,14][Cl] and [P_6,6,6,14][SCN]), is at the level of 30 wt% for Ni(II) and 100 wt% for Cd(II). In this mini-review, the option to use ILs, DESs and Cyanex 272 for the recovery of valuable metals from end-of-life WPCBs is presented. Next-generation recycling technologies, in contrast to the extraction of metals from acidic leachate preceded by thermal pre-treatment or from solid material only after thermal pre-treatment, have been developed with ILs and DESs using the ABS method, as well as Cyanex 272 (only after the thermal pre-treatment of WPCBs), with a process efficiency of 60–100 wt%. In this process, four new ILs are used: didecyldimethylammonium propionate, [N_10,10,1,1][C₂H₅COO], didecylmethylammonium hydrogen sulphate, [N_10,10,1,H][HSO₄], didecyldimethylammonium dihydrogen phosphate, [N_10,10,1,1][H₂PO₄], and tetrabutylphosphonium dihydrogen phosphate, [P_4,4,4,4][H₂PO₄]. The extraction of Cu(II), Ag(I) and other metals such as Al(III), Fe(II) and Zn(II) from solid WPCBs is demonstrated. Various additives are used during the extraction processes. The Analyst 800 atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) is used for the determination of metal content in the solid BM. The ICP-OES method is used for metal analysis. The obtained results describe the possible application of ILs and DESs as environmental media for upcycling spent electronic wastes. Full article