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Topic Review
Application of Hydroxyapatite in Environmental Protection
Hydroxyapatite is, first of all, a natural occurring mineral. As such, the use of natural-derived hydroxyapatite (HAP) is encountered in several published works. The environmental application of such materials is briefly presented. 
  • 463
  • 20 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Exposure Assessment of Nanoplastics
Nanoplastics (NPs) are particles ranging in size between 1 and 1000 nm, and they are a form of environmental contaminant of great ecotoxicological concern. The detection of these contaminants in complex matrices is a real challenge. Developing suitable and reliable analytical methods for quantifying the environmental occurrences of NPs is pivotal. 
  • 460
  • 13 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Transformation Pathway in a Model Organism
The scientific community has increasingly focused on forming transformation products (TPs) from environmental organic pollutants. However, there is still a lot of discussion over how these TPs are generated and how harmful they are to living terrestrial or aquatic organisms. Potential transformation pathways, TP toxicity, and their mechanisms require more investigation. 
  • 458
  • 22 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Microplastics in Freshwater
The low production costs and useful properties of synthetic polymers have led to their ubiquitous use, from food packaging and household products to high-tech applications in medicine and electronics. Incomplete recycling of plastic materials results in an accumulation of plastic waste, which slowly degrades to produce tiny plastic particles, commonly known as “microplastics” (MPs).
  • 456
  • 11 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Zeolite Types Used in Catalytic Methane Combustion
The emission of methane leads to the increase in the methane concentration in the atmosphere, which not only wastes resources but also intensifies the greenhouse effect and brings about serious environmental problems. Catalytic combustion can completely convert methane into carbon dioxide and water at low temperatures. However, the catalytic activities of the conventional supported palladium catalysts (e.g., Pd/Al2O3 and Pd/ZrO2) are easy to decrease or the two catalysts can even be deactivated under actual harsh reaction conditions (high temperatures, steam- and sulfur dioxide-containing atmospheres, etc.). Noble metal catalysts supported on zeolites with ordered pores and good thermal stability have attracted much attention. 
  • 456
  • 08 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Vermicompost Application in the Remediation of Soils
Vermicompost improves soil quality, increases nutrient availability, boosts crop productivity, and enhances pest and disease tolerance. It acts as an organic fertilizer, enriching the soil with essential nutrients, humic acids, growth-regulating hormones, and enzymes, improving plant nutrition, photosynthesis, and overall crop quality. Furthermore, vermicompost shows promise in mitigating soil degradation and sequestering organic carbon while demonstrating the potential for pest management, including effectiveness against pests like fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda).
  • 456
  • 20 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Sustainable Transportation to Mitigate Climate Change
The build-up of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is causing warmness in the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in climate change. The transport sector is one of the active causes of GHG emissions and it is imperative to use sustainable transport sources to control climate change. There is a measure that aims to encourage citizens to stop using their own vehicles as their choice of transport and instead opt for joint sustainable mobility during traveling.
  • 452
  • 26 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Plastic Pollution
Plastic is a word that initially meant “material that can be easily shaped, formed, molded by providing heat and pressure”. It only recently became a name for a category of materials called synthetic polymers. The polymer means “of many parts” and is a long chain of repeating smaller or larger molecules (monomers) bonded in subunits. Generally, natural polymers and synthetic polymers are used for making plastics. Synthetic polymers differ from natural polymers (such as silk, cellulose, muscle fiber, rubber, hair, and DNA). They are manufactured using raw materials such as oil, coal, and natural gas. There are two other types of plastics that do not fall into the above category of materials (natural or synthetic) and are known as biodegradable plastics and bioplastic materials. Biodegradable plastic is made from petroleum- or biomass-based resources. Bioplastic products are manufactured using biomass-based materials only. Both plastic materials are substitutes for synthetic plastic. 
  • 452
  • 11 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Preparing Public Opinion to Accept Distributed Energy Systems
Global energy consumption has reached unprecedented levels over the last century due to population growth and economic growth. There have been significant changes in the global energy economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. Due to this trend, many countries around the world are promoting electric technologies as fuel-saving alternatives. Israelis know too little about smart meters, energy storage systems, and other modern power grid technology, which enables a decentralized approach to energy management referred to as distributed energy systems (DES). Using distributed energy systems to generate energy on-site and manage loads can reduce costs, improve reliability, and secure revenue. An effective public education program can help prepare public opinion and reduce barriers to smart use and energy efficiency in the home. 
  • 451
  • 28 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Mechanism of Microalgal Phycoremediation
Microalgae are continually exposed to heavy metals and metalloids (HMMs), which stifles their development and reproduction due to the resulting physiological and metabolic abnormalities, leading to lower crop productivity. They must thus change their way of adapting to survive in such a hostile environment without sacrificing their healthy growth, development, reproductive capacity, or survival. The mode of adaptation involves a complex relationship of signalling cascades that govern gene expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, which consequently produces altered but adapted biochemical and physiochemical parameters. Algae have been reported to have altered their physicochemical and molecular perspectives as a result of exposure to a variety of HMMs.
  • 451
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Chitosan Based Composites for Metal Contaminated Wastewater Treatment
Heavy metals, known for their toxic nature and ability to accumulate and magnify in the food chain, are a major environmental concern. The use of environmentally friendly adsorbents, such as chitosan (CS)—a biodegradable cationic polysaccharide, has gained attention for removing heavy metals from water. 
  • 451
  • 21 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Mechanisms of Magnetoreception of Hypomagnetic Fields
The Earth’s magnetic field is one of the basic abiotic factors in all environments, and organisms had to adapt to it during evolution. On some occasions, organisms can be confronted with a significant reduction in a magnetic field, termed a “hypomagnetic field—HMF”, for example, in buildings with steel reinforcement or during interplanetary flight. HMFs can modify cell signalling by affecting the contents of ions (e.g., calcium) or the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, which participate in cell signal transduction. Additionally, HMFs have different effects on the growth or functions of organ systems in different organisms, but negative effects on embryonal development have been shown. Embryonal development is strictly regulated to avoid developmental abnormalities, which have often been observed when exposed to a HMF. Only a few studies have addressed the effects of HMFs on the survival of microorganisms. Studying the magnetoreception of microorganisms could be useful to understand the physical aspects of the magnetoreception of the HMF.
  • 450
  • 02 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Technological Innovation for Climate Change Mitigation
}} Climate change has worsened at the hands of human activity for centuries, and many scientific efforts have been made since the first political acknowledgment. In order to avoid the ongoing and potential impacts of climate change, mitigation technologies have been developed in order to adapt to the issue, each invention belonging to one of four specific groups of effort. These groups include energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy (RE), nuclear power/energy (NE), and carbon capture storage (CCS). However, concerns regarding mitigating and adapting to climate change commonly have a priority focus on the groups of carbon capture storage and renewable energy efforts. Traditionally, areas of western civilization around the world have the resources and finances to successfully develop and maintain technological mitigators to climate change. The research and development of these technologies require funding and incur high costs. There is a global inconsistency in producing these inventions, leaving developing countries without the means to defend themselves against the issue of climate change. Ironically, some of these areas are powerless enough while being the most inflicted by climate change in the world. Climate change was mentioned as early as 1896 by Swedish chemist, Svante Arrhenius. The topic did not emerge as a political issue until the 1950s. Public policy is its own actor in the business of climate innovations through its control over the activity of emitting and reducing pollution inventions. Predominantly, legislature works to control the innovations particularly through placing restrictions on the amount of pollution that can be produced, and time crunches on when certain changes by companies using polluting inventions need to be completed by. It is up to the state that is implementing policy and the pollution-contributing businesses to work towards the implemented legal requirements in order to reach environmental goals by a set date.
  • 449
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Constructed Wetlands in the Hospitality Industry
The hospitality industry is increasing its awareness of how the integration of nature-based solutions can decrease its environmental impact while maintaining or increasing the service level of the sector. Constructed wetlands (CWs) constitute a promising sustainable solution for proper in situ domestic wastewater treatment but its use in the hospitality industry is scattered among both the technical and scientific literature. The research was to collect an updated profile of CWs implemented as wastewater treatment technologies in hospitality units worldwide, with the ultimate aim of creating a database containing information on the location, treatment design, and performance of these systems for use as a reference tool for future stakeholders.
  • 448
  • 01 Aug 2023
Topic Review
SIFT-MS for Volatile Organic Compounds Pollution Monitoring
The pollution of air and water with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), both hazardous and odorous, is of significant concern due to impacts on human health and quality of life, as well as the environment. The selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) technique has been increasingly adopted to monitor source emissions and their dispersion, enabling a more rapid response to pollution incidents. To this end, the flexibility of SIFT-MS instrumentation for both laboratory- and field-based analysis, including in mobile laboratories, has been valuable. 
  • 448
  • 29 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Earth Rainfall Climatology
Earth rainfall climatology Is the study of rainfall, a sub-field of meteorology. Formally, a wider study includes water falling as ice crystals, i.e. hail, sleet, snow (parts of the hydrological cycle known as precipitation). The aim of rainfall climatology is to measure, understand and predict rain distribution across different regions of planet Earth, a factor of air pressure, humidity, topography, cloud type and raindrop size, via direct measurement and remote sensing data acquisition. Current technologies accurately predict rainfall 3–4 days in advance using numerical weather prediction. Geostationary orbiting satellites gather IR and visual wavelength data to measure realtime localised rainfall by estimating cloud albedo, water content, and the corresponding probability of rain. Geographic distribution of rain is largely governed by climate type, topography and habitat humidity. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes. The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities. Warming may also cause changes in the precipitation pattern globally, including wetter conditions at high latitudes and in some wet tropical areas. Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres (121,000 cu mi) of water falls as precipitation each year; 398,000 cubic kilometres (95,000 cu mi) of it over the oceans. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres (39 in). Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, making it the world's driest continent. Australia's rainfall is mainly regulated by the movement of the alien monsoon trough during the summer rainy season, with lesser amounts falling during the winter and spring in its southernmost sections. Almost whole North Africa is semi-arid, arid or hyper-arid, containing the Sahara Desert which is the largest hot desert in the world, while central Africa (known as Sub-Saharan Africa) sees an annual rainy season regulated by the movement of the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough, though the Sahel Belt located at the south of the Sahara Desert knows an extremely intense and a nearly permanent dry season and only receives minimum summer rainfall. Across Asia, a large annual rainfall minimum, composed primarily of deserts, stretches from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia west-southwest through Pakistan and Iran into the Arabian Desert in Saudi Arabia. In Asia, rainfall is favored across its southern portion from India east and northeast across the Philippines and southern China into Japan due to the monsoon advecting moisture primarily from the Indian Ocean into the region. Similar, but weaker, monsoon circulations are present over North America and Australia . In Europe, the wettest regions are in the Alps and downwind of bodies of water, particularly the Atlantic west coasts. Within North America, the drier areas of the United States are the Desert Southwest, Great Basin, valleys of northeast Arizona, eastern Utah, central Wyoming, and the Columbia Basin. Other dry regions within the continent are far northern Canada and the Sonoran Desert of northwest Mexico. The Pacific Northwest United States, the Rockies of British Columbia, and the coastal ranges of Alaska are the wettest locations in North America. The equatorial region near the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), or monsoon trough, is the wettest portion of the world's continents. Annually, the rain belt within the tropics marches northward by August, then moves back southward into the Southern Hemisphere by February and March.
  • 447
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Impacts of Exotic Pests on Forest Ecosystems
Pests (e.g., insects, pathogens) affect forest communities through complex interactions with plants, other animals, and the environment. While the effects of exotic (non-native) pests on trees received broad attention and were extensively studied, fewer studies addressed the ecosystem-level consequences of these effects. Related studies so far mostly only targeted a very few dominant pests (e.g., hemlock woolly adelgid—HWA, beech bark disease—BBD, and spongy moth—SM) and were limited to aspects of the complex situation such as (1) pests’ direct physical disturbance to forest ecosystems, (2) altered geochemical elements of soils, water, and air (e.g., excretion), and (3) feedback effects from the alteration of ecosystems on plants, native insects, and present and future pest invasions. New studies also show that, in general, planted forests appear to be more prone to exotic pest invasions and thus suffer greater impacts than natural forests. Integrated studies are critically needed in the future to address (1) direct/indirect interactions of pests with ecosystem elements, (2) both short- and long-term effects, and (3) feedback effects. The implications of the new findings and corresponding management strategies are discussed.
  • 447
  • 11 May 2023
Topic Review
Influence of Digital Economy on Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Massive emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are endangering not only sea level rise and extreme weather but also agricultural production and human life. Digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence have been increasingly integrated into different commercial and social domains. The subsequent wave of the digital economy has become a massive force in transforming the traditional economic model, restructuring the global value chain, and promoting the economy’s green transformation. 
  • 445
  • 02 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Janpan's Air Quality during 30Years
The trends and characteristics of air pollutant concentrations, especially PM2.5, ozone, and related substances, over the past 30 years, are analyzed, and the relationships between concentrations and emissions are discussed quantitatively. We found that PM2.5 mass concentrations have decreased, with the largest reduction in elemental carbon (EC) as the PM2.5 component. The concentrations of organic carbon (OC) have not changed significantly compared to other components, suggesting that especially VOC emissions as precursors need to be reduced. In addition, the analysis of the differences in PM2.5 concentrations between the ambient and the roadside showed that further research on non-exhaust particles is needed. For NOx and SO2, there is a linear relationship between domestic anthropogenic emissions and atmospheric concentrations, indicating that emission control measures are directly effective in the reduction in concentrations. Also, recent air pollution episodes and the effect of reduced economic activity, as a consequence of COVID-19, on air pollution concentrations are summarized
  • 444
  • 07 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Climate Smart Forestry in the Southern United States
In the United States, Climate Smart Forestry (CSF) has quickly become a popular topic within the academic, political, and industry realms. Southern plantation forests in the United States are one of the most globally productive timberland systems.
  • 443
  • 22 Sep 2022
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