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Topic Review
Indoor Air Quality Improvement
Poor indoor air quality is a consequence of air contamination with pollutants whose sources may be natural or anthropogenic. The diversity of air contaminants range from particulate materials (PMs), biological pollutants, and over 400 different organic and inorganic chemical compounds, whose concentrations depend on both internal and external factors. Because people spend most of their time inside, poor indoor air quality causes serious human health issues, resulting in significant economic losses. Nature-based solutions using microalgae systems that mimic the role played by microalgae in the oceans, providing oxygen and biofixing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, may be installed in new and already existing buildings to improve indoor air quality in an energy-conserving manner while providing autonomy to the building. 
  • 1.5K
  • 08 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Distribution of Coastal Cigarette Butts
Litter on beaches is one of the most difficult problems in coastal management and every year, much efforts and public money are invested to try to alleviate and solve the problem. Cigarette butts (CB) are among the most widespread abandoned personal items in the world. In Spain, they are found on all types of beaches, where they are discarded by beach users; however, rivers and streams can also deposit CB on shores.
  • 1.5K
  • 03 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Africa
The concept of sustainability requires that the production of goods and services fulfills present demands without jeopardizing the potential to satisfy the needs of future generations. The environment is a finite resource; a healthy environment benefits the ecosystem and all life. Therefore, to sustain the planet, the ecosystem, and all life on it, it is critical that environmental resources be appropriately managed and preserved. Fighting environmental degradation has been a key priority for advanced and emerging countries. Environmental degradation has posed a danger to the economic well-being of the entire world, as it is linked to the success of various macroeconomic factors.
  • 1.5K
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
The Development of Biogas Plants
Agricultural biogas plants have a long history, beginning with early advancements in biogas technology and its application in agricultural contexts. Throughout history, several societies have used organic waste to make biogas, a renewable energy source. However, modern agricultural biogas plants as we know them today have changed greatly as a result of scientific and technological advances.
  • 1.5K
  • 07 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Peat Processing Technologies and Peat Applications
Peatlands can become valuable resources and greenhouse gas sinks through the use of different management practices. Peatlands provide carbon sequestration; however, they are also among the greatest greenhouse gas emissions sources. Peat is undervalued as a resource in the bioeconomy and innovation—a way that could save costs in peatland management. 
  • 1.5K
  • 11 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Policies and Responses of Microplastics
Although (micro)plastic contamination is a worldwide concern, most scientific literature only restates that issue rather than presenting strategies to cope with it. The knowledge are assembled on policies and responses to tackle plastic pollution, including peer-reviewed scientific literature, gray literature and relevant reports to provide: (1) a timeline of policies directly or indirectly addressing microplastics; (2) the most up-to-date upstream responses to prevent microplastics pollution, such as circular economy, behavioral change, development of bio-based polymers and market-based instruments as well as source-specific strategies, focusing on the clothing industry, tire and road wear particles, antifouling paints and recreational activities; (3) a set of downstream responses tackling microplastics, such as waste to energy, degradation, water treatment plants and litter clean-up strategies; and examples of (4) multifaceted responses focused on both mitigating and preventing microplastics pollution, e.g., approaches implemented in fisheries and aquaculture facilities.
  • 1.5K
  • 09 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Wastewater Treatment Processes
Wastewater generated from various industrial sectors contains micropollutants, nutrients (nitrogen, sulfur, copper, phosphorus), carbon-based pollutants (antibiotics, aromatic hydrocarbons, biocides, phenolic compounds, and surfactants etc.) and heavy metals (cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury nickel, lead, and zinc) . 
  • 1.5K
  • 19 May 2021
Topic Review
Nano/Microplastics in Plants
The ubiquitous presence of microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in the environment is an undeniable and serious concern due to their higher persistence and extensive use in agricultural production.
  • 1.5K
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Sensitive Clay Slope
Sensitive clays are known for producing retrogressive landslides, also called spread or flowslides. The key characteristics associated with the occurrence of these landslides on a sensitive clay slope must be assessed, and the potential retrogressive distance must be evaluated. Common risk analysis methods include empirical methods for estimating the distance of potential retrogression, analytical limit equilibrium methods, numerical modelling methods using the strength reduction technique, and the integration of a progressive failure mechanism into numerical methods. Methods developed for zoning purposes in Norway and Quebec provide conservative results in most cases, even if they don’t cover the worst cases scenario. A flowslide can be partially analysed using analytical limit equilibrium methods and numerical methods having strength reduction factor tools. Numerical modelling of progressive failure mechanisms using numerical methods can define the critical parameters of spread-type landslides, such as critical unloading and the retrogression distance of the failure. Continuous improvements to the large-deformation numerical modeling approach allow its application to all types of sensitive clay landslides.
  • 1.5K
  • 20 Aug 2020
Topic Review
The Evolution of Coral Reef under Changing Climate
Coral reefs are vital ecosystems with high biodiversity and ecological services for coastal communities. Climate change is accelerating, with detrimental consequences on coral reefs and related communities. 
  • 1.5K
  • 17 Mar 2023
Biography
Adriano Sofo
Adriano Sofo graduated with a Master Degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Bari, Italy, in 1997. He spent three years (1999-2002) at the University of Basilicata, Italy, with a Doctorate in Crop Productivity. From 2000 to 2001, he also was a Researcher at the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy. As Postdoctoral Traini
  • 1.4K
  • 11 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Biochar for Remediation of Polluted Soils
Soil contamination with organic contaminants and various heavy metals has become a global environmental concern. Biochar application for the remediation of polluted soils may render a novel solution to soil contamination issues.
  • 1.4K
  • 06 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Watershed Processes and Streamflow Prediction
Accurate streamflow prediction (SFP) is crucial for water resource management, flood and drought forecasting, and reservoir operations. However, complex interactions between surface and subsurface processes in watersheds make predicting extreme events challenging. This work highlights the importance of incorporating physical understanding and process knowledge into data-driven SFP models for reliable and robust predictions, especially during extreme events.
  • 1.4K
  • 26 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Air Quality in Mainland Southeast Asia
Air pollution, notably particulate matter pollution, has become a serious concern in Southeast Asia. The combustion of biomass has been recognized to considerably increase air pollution problems from particulate matter in this region. Consequently, its effect on people in this area is significant. 
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Building Mitigates Urban Heat Island
A consequence of urbanization was the intensification of urban heat islands, especially in tropical cities. There have been rapid developments in infrastructure that have displaced open spaces. 
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Oct 2021
Topic Review
George C. Marshall Institute
The George C. Marshall Institute (GMI) was a nonprofit conservative think tank in the United States. It was established in 1984 with a focus on science and public policy issues and was initially active mostly in the area of defense policy. Since the late 1980s, the Institute put forward environmental skepticism views, and in particular has promoted fringe views regarding the scientific consensus on climate change. The think tank received extensive financial support from oil companies. It closed in 2015, morphing somewhat into the CO2 Coalition.
  • 1.4K
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
The Plastisphere Micro-Niche and Biodegradation
The particular characteristics of the plastic matrix, such as its floating ability and hydrophobicity, have created a new unique substratum for microbial colonization. The new micro-niche thus created becomes occupied by a specific biofilm called the plastisphere.
  • 1.4K
  • 10 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Hockey Stick Graph
Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records. These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century, with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures. The term "hockey stick graph" was popularized by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman, to describe the pattern shown by the Mann, Bradley & Hughes 1999 (MBH99) reconstruction, envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick's "shaft" followed by a sharp, steady increase corresponding to the "blade" portion. The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports as evidence of global warming. Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science. Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century, and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s. In the 1960s, Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300, followed by Little Ice Age. This was the basis of a "schematic diagram" featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global. The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed, and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional. Bradley & Jones 1993 introduced the "Composite Plus Scaling" (CPS) method which, as of 2009, was still being used by most large-scale reconstructions. Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995. In 1998 Michael E. Mann, Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce Mann, Bradley & Hughes 1998 (MBH98), the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction (CFR). This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature, and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties (to two standard error limits) were much greater in earlier centuries. Jones et al. 1998 independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years, and Mann, Bradley & Hughes 1999 (MBH99) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000. A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR), which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that, in the Northern Hemisphere, the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years. The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional. In 2003, as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified, a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy. Later in 2003, Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published McIntyre & McKitrick 2003b disputing the data used in MBH98 paper. In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph, though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small. In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99. Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including Huybers 2005 and Wahl & Ammann 2007 which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology. Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the United States National Research Council, their North Report in 2006 supported Mann's findings with some qualifications, including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result. More than two dozen reconstructions, using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records, support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph, with variations in how flat the pre-20th century "shaft" appears. The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions, 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer, to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years. Further reconstructions, including Mann et al. 2008 and PAGES 2k Consortium 2013, have supported these general conclusions.
  • 1.4K
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Female Fertility and Environmental Pollution
Terrestrial ecosystems are contaminated by heavy metals and organic chemicals that can be taken up by and accumulate in crop plants, and water tables are heavily contaminated by untreated industrial discharges. As deadly particulates can drift far, poor air quality has become a significant global problem and one that is not exclusive to major industrialized cities. The consequences are a dramatic impairment of our ecosystem and biodiversity and increases in degenerative or man-made diseases. In this respect, it has been demonstrated that environmental pollution impairs fertility in all mammalian species. The worst consequences are observed for females since the number of germ cells present in the ovary is fixed during fetal life, and the cells are not renewable. This means that any pollutant affecting hormonal homeostasis and/or the reproductive apparatus inevitably harms reproductive performance. 
  • 1.4K
  • 18 Jan 2021
Topic Review
TiO2-NPs: Wastewater Treatment and Ago-Environment
The tremendous increase in the production and consumption of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) in numerous industrial products and applications has augmented the need to understand their role in wastewater treatment technologies. The use of TiO2 NPs as the representative of photocatalytic technology for industrial wastewater treatment is coming to the horizon. As the use of industrial wastewater to feed agriculture land has been a common practice across the globe and the sewage sludge generated from wastewater treatment plants is also used as fertilizer in agricultural soils. Therefore, it is necessary to be aware of possible exposure pathways of these NPs, especially in the perspective of wastewater treatment and their impacts on the agro-environment. 
  • 1.4K
  • 11 Aug 2020
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