Evaluating the ability of industrial based adsorbents to remove arsenic and fluoride from drinking water has global significance due to their easy and widespread availability. Present study aimed to ...assess selected industrial waste materials for simultaneous removal of arsenic and fluoride from drinking water in order to find cost effective adsorbent. Commercially available Hydrated Cement, Marble Powder (waste) and Brick Powder (waste) were used. Adsorbents were characterized by using X-Ray Diffractrometry techniques. The surface morphology of adsorbents was studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Batch adsorption tests were employed to evaluate the percent removal and adsorption capacity of adsorbents, under optimum conditions of adsorption time, dose, pH and adsorbate concentration. Removal percentage of studied adsorbents followed the decreasing trend: Hydrated Cement > Bricks Powder > Marble Powder. Hydrated Cement showed highest percentage removal, 97% and 80% for arsenic and fluoride respectively and was selected as the best media at neutral pH compared to other four adsorbents substantiating its potential for the drinking water treatment process. The applicability of the adsorbents for As was assessed under natural conditions with As contaminated groundwater samples collected from Tehsil Mailsi. In order to determine maximum adsorption capacity of adsorbents and to understand the nature of reaction on their surfaces, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm were calculated. This study revealed that this new adsorbent (Hydrate Cement) is indigenous, easily available and could be easily applied in order to diminish the arsenic and fluoride pollution from drinking water.
•Simultaneous removal of arsenic and fluoride from drinking water.•Industrial waste materials used for the removal of arsenic and fluoride.•Hydrated Cement, Marble Powder and Bricks Powder are efficient and cost effective adsorbents.•XRD and SEM were performed to assess the surface morphology of adsorbents.•Hydrated Cement, Marble Powder and Bricks Powder used first time for the simultaneous removal of arsenic and fluoride.
Climate change has been a concern in the public sphere throughout the decades. Also, a constant change in climate as a result of geologic history is posing a global problem. Many earlier studies have ...focused on various factors; however, this study intends to contribute distinctly; therefore, we select 22 countries among the top 30 forested countries in the world declared by CEO-WORLD in 2020. The study explores the relationship between energy consumption, agricultural value-added, agricultural land, forest area, and real GDP with CO
2
emissions from 1980 to 2019. For analysis, we account for heterogeneity in the cross sections by developing a novel panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model in order to capture within-group variations, which is the panel data form of the Shin et al. (
2014
) model. The Pesaran 2007, CADF and CIPS panel unit root testing results indicate that the investigated variables are stationary at their first differences. The empirical finding shows positive and negative shocks in electricity consumption and agricultural land have a favourable and statistically significant long-term effect on CO
2
emissions. Positive shocks in agricultural value-added and forest areas have a significant adverse influence on environmental degradation, while negative shocks have a substantial long-term positive effect on CO
2
emissions. Positive shock in real GDP is insignificant, whereas negative shock shows adverse and substantial long-term impacts on CO
2
emissions. This research's contributions will help policymakers evaluate energy needs and implement clean energy; combating deforestation will help reduce CO
2
emissions and improve the quality of the environment and climate change.
Neurotransmitters are important biochemical molecules that control behavioral and physiological functions in central and peripheral nervous system. Therefore, the analysis of neurotransmitters in ...biological samples has a great clinical and pharmaceutical importance. To date, various methods have been developed for their assay. Of the various methods, the electrochemical sensors demonstrated the potential of being robust, selective, sensitive, and real time measurements. Recently, conducting polymers (CPs) and their composites have been widely employed in the fabrication of various electrochemical sensors for the determination of neurotransmitters. Hence, this review presents a brief introduction to the electrochemical biosensors, with the detailed discussion on recent trends in the development and applications of electrochemical neurotransmitter sensors based on CPs and their composites. The review covers the sensing principle of prime neurotransmitters, including glutamate, aspartate, tyrosine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, histamine, choline, acetylcholine, nitrogen monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide. In addition, the combination with other analytical techniques was also highlighted. Detection challenges and future prospective of the neurotransmitter sensors were discussed for the development of biomedical and healthcare applications.
•Introduction to electrochemical biosensors for neurotransmitters.•Comprehensive overview of conducting polymers for biosensors.•Conducting polymer-based electrochemical neurotransmitters sensors.•Future trends in point-of-care analysis.
Hereditary hearing loss (HHL) is a neurosensory disorder that affects every 1/500 newborns worldwide and nearly 1/3 people over the age of 65. Congenital deafness is inherited as monogenetic or ...polygenic disorder. The delicacy, tissue heterogeneity, deep location of the inner ear down the brainstem, and minute quantity of cells present in cochlea are the major challenges for current therapeutic approaches to cure deafness. Targeted genome editing is considered a suitable approach to treat HHL since it can target defective molecular components of auditory transduction to restore normal cochlear function. With the advent of CRISPR/Cas9 technique, targeted genome editing and biomedical research have been revolutionized. The robustness and simplicity of this technology lie in its design and delivery methods. It can directly deliver a complex of Cas9 endonuclease and single guide RNA (sgRNA) into zygote using either vector-mediated stable transfection or transient delivery of ribonucleoproteins complexes. This strategy induces DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) at target site followed by endogenous DNA repairing mechanisms of the cell. CRISPR/Cas9 has been successfully used in model animals to edit hearing genes like calcium and integrin-binding protein 2, myosin VIIA, Xin-actin binding repeat containing 2, leucine-zipper and sterile-alpha motif kinase Zak, epiphycan, transmembrane channel–like protein 1, and cadherin 23. This review discusses the utility of lipid-mediated transient delivery of Cas9/sgRNA complexes, an efficient way to restore hearing in humans, suffering from HHL. Notwithstanding, challenges like PAM requirement, HDR efficiency, off-target activity, and optimized delivery systems need to be addressed.
•The deployment strategy for AGANET nodes in areas without public network access is formulated;•The mathematical description and modeling approach for the deployment of AGANET are proposed;•The novel ...DDPG-based method for the spatiotemporal dynamic deployment of AGANET nodes is designed.
In situations where natural disasters damage public communication networks, self-organized emergency communication networks play a vital role as important resources for disaster monitoring and emergency response. Geographical conditions, communication capacity, power availability, terminals’ position changes during disasters, and data volume, on the other hand, have a direct impact on emergency terminals’ effectiveness in disaster monitoring and data processing. As a result, the ability to detect calamities quickly and give real-time reactions suffers. To ensure effective emergency communication coverage when public networks are disrupted, intelligent, rapid and reliable optimization of the spatiotemporal dynamic deployment of Ad Hoc Network (ANET) is crucial for disaster monitoring and emergency response. The Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) method is used in this study to assist the spatiotemporal dynamic deployment of air-ground ANET (AGANET) nodes, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ANET nodes and ground-based ANET nodes. Its goal is to develop a reliable model for ensuring the deployment of AGANET nodes for multi-terminal disaster monitoring. The paper describes the spatiotemporal dynamic deployment of AGANET nodes and develops a reinforcement learning model. Subsequently, it describes a DDPG reinforcement-based optimization method for the spatiotemporal dynamic deployment of AGANET nodes. Specifically, this method includes a greedy matching strategy based on real-time environmental information of AGANET nodes and ground-based sensing terminals, a DDPG AGANET node three-dimensional initialization algorithm, and a DDPG dynamic solution algorithm for spatiotemporal dynamic deployment reinforcement learning model of AGANET. AGANET nodes and ground-based sensing terminals can all work together in this way to provide high-quality emergency AGANET services. When compared to traditional methods, it offers better communication dependability, enhanced efficiency, and cheaper costs associated with building emergency networks. It is also crucial for emergency response in instances where the public network fails.
Plant derived compounds have always been an important source of medicines and have received significant attention in recent years due to their diverse pharmacological properties. Millions of ...plant-based herbal or traditional medicines are used to cure various types of cancers especially due to activation of proliferative genes. The aim of the present study was to characterize the altered and attenuated gene expression of the selected growth factor namely Transforming growth factor Beta -1 (TGFβ1) and MYC in human hepatoma-derived (Huh7) liver cancer cell lines in response to extracts of Artemisia absinthium dissolved in selected organic solvents. Ethanolic, methanolic and acetone extract of different plant parts (leaf, stem and flowers) was used to access the antiproliferative activity by MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide) assay. Quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR revealed that the transcript levels of TGFβ1 are induced in the samples treated with methanolic extract of Artemisia absinthium. Furthermore, reduced expression levels of MYC gene was noticed in cancerous cells suggesting antiproliferative properties of the plant. This study further highlights the resistance profile of various microbes by antimicrobial susceptibility test with plant extracts. In addition, antidiabetic effect of Artemisia absinthium have also shown positive results. Our study elucidates the potentials of Artemisia absinthium as a medicinal plant, and highlights the differential expression of genes involved in its mitogenic and anti-proliferative activity with a brief account of its pharmacological action.
Pakistan is in a terrifying and devastating energy crisis. Recently, the prediction for energy consumption has intensified compared to its production capacity, which is problematic for Pakistan's ...social and economic stability. Hence, it is vital to examine the link between power consumption, power prices, urban transition, other electricity use, and economic expansion from 1970 to 2018 in Pakistan. For analysis, the second-generation econometric technique of Lee and Strazicich (2013), novel Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (AARDL), and Frequency Domain Causality (FDC) is useful to detect the long-medium and short-run association among the variables. The results show that power consumption stimulates economic expansion in the short and long-run, though the rise in power prices declines economic activity in the short and long-run. Also, urban transition and other electricity use are a substantial positive and negative impact on economic expansion in the short and long-run. The outcome suggests that efficient energy supply, low-cost power prices, proper urban transition management, and other energy use could be useful for policymakers to achieve SDGs 7 and 11 in Pakistan.
•The study examined the macroeconomic factors influence the Pakistan's economy.•Advanced econometric analysis established a substantive policy framework.•The results of energy consumption foster short- and long-term economic growth.•Urban transition has significant short- and long-term effects on economic growth.•The findings could help policymakers in Pakistan reach SDGs 7 and 11.
Herein, we report terahertz (THz) shielding of flexible MXene (Ti
3
C
2
T
x
)/MWCNT/PVA polymer composite films by using THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) in 0.1–2.0 THz frequency range. The ...polymer composite with 42 µm thickness exhibited an excellent shielding effectiveness of 36 dB at 2 THz which is much higher than most of the reported materials for THz shielding with comparable thickness. The absorption coefficient increases from 100 cm
−1
for pristine PVA to ~ 600 cm
−1
for 20 wt% MXene/1.5 wt% MWCNT/PVA composite. The high THz shielding of flexible MXene/MWCNT/polymer composite is ascribed to the good electrical conductivity and interfacial synergistic effect of 1D/2D nanostructures that promoted the shielding of electromagnetic waves. Our simple solution casting methodology for fabrication of thin films and subsequent high THz shielding opens possibilities to design MXene-based polymer composites for THz applications.
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