Emerging contaminants of high concern and their enzyme-assisted biodegradation – A review

Sustainability of mining companies is of of high concern. The problem is specifically acute at companies that are monotownor monosettlement-forming. Sustainability of a mine depends in many ways on product quality and production resource-intensity. This article discusses formation of mineral quality indexes in terms of an open pit chrysotile mine. The studies took into account specific features of operation procedures implemented by each structural division of the mine. The analysis has found managerial and technological inconsistencies which affect quality and marketable product output, as well as efficiency of the mine in whole. The background for efficiency enhancement at a company is, by the authors’ opinion, consolidation of personnel subject to the single development strategy, namely: improvement of production and control efficiency, as well as use of available reserves and resources by means of better setup for production. The proposed approaches to planning mining operations and forming mineral quality allow higher quality of processing stock. In addition, a new model proposed for interaction between structural divisions of a mining company ensures improvement of general production indexes.

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Recent Advances in Obesity: The Role of Turmeric Tuber and Its Metabolites in the Prophylaxis and Therapeutical Strategies

Current Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.2174/0929867324666161118095443 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (37) ◽

pp. 4837-4853 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Agata Jarząb ◽

Wirginia Kukula-Koch

Keyword(s):

Body Weight ◽

21St Century ◽

The Body ◽

Excess Body Weight ◽

Inflammatory Reactions ◽

Drug Candidates ◽

Scientific Papers ◽

Important Health ◽

High Concern

Background: Obesity in the 21st century society became an important health problem, alarming both the scientists and medicine doctors around the world. That is why, the search for new drug candidates capable to reduce the body weight is of high concern. Objective: This contribution tends to collect current findings on the biochemistry of obesity and on the application of plants and in particular turmeric tuber – a commonly used spice - as an anti-obesity agent. Methods: Following an introduction on the biochemical characteristics of obesity, the description of Curcuma secondary metabolites, their pharmacological applications and a study on the plants’ regulatory properties in obesity was summarized. Particular attention was paid to curcumin – the major metabolite present in the extracts of Curcuma spp., which is known to exhibit a variety of pharmacological actions. Also, the characteristics of some semisynthetic analogues of this ferulic acid derivative, characterized by a higher polarity and better bioavailability will be discussed. Results: Numerous scientific papers treat on the influence of turmeric on weight loss. Additionally, some of them describe its anti-inflammatory properties. Conclusions: This important spice tends to fight the 21st century plague, which is an excessive weight gain, related to the development of metabolic syndrome, to the occurrence of cardiovascular problems and diabetes, and, in consequence, leading to a significant shortening of life span. As herein proven, the extracts of turmeric play an important role in the regulation of inflammatory reactions which are evoked in the overweight patients, helping them reduce the excess body weight.

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An Efficient, Secure, and Queryable Encryption for NoSQL-Based Databases Hosted on Untrusted Cloud Environments

International Journal of Information Security and Privacy ◽

10.4018/ijisp.2019040102 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 14-31

Author(s):

Mamdouh Alenezi ◽

Muhammad Usama ◽

Khaled Almustafa ◽

Waheed Iqbal ◽

Muhammad Ali Raza ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Query Processing ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Data Communication ◽

Nosql Databases ◽

High Concern ◽

Cloud Environments ◽

High Scalability ◽

And Performance ◽

Secure Query Processing ◽

Security Concern

NoSQL-based databases are attractive to store and manage big data mainly due to high scalability and data modeling flexibility. However, security in NoSQL-based databases is weak which raises concerns for users. Specifically, security of data at rest is a high concern for the users deployed their NoSQL-based solutions on the cloud because unauthorized access to the servers will expose the data easily. There have been some efforts to enable encryption for data at rest for NoSQL databases. However, existing solutions do not support secure query processing, and data communication over the Internet and performance of the proposed solutions are also not good. In this article, the authors address NoSQL data at rest security concern by introducing a system which is capable to dynamically encrypt/decrypt data, support secure query processing, and seamlessly integrate with any NoSQL- based database. The proposed solution is based on a combination of chaotic encryption and Order Preserving Encryption (OPE). The experimental evaluation showed excellent results when integrated the solution with MongoDB and compared with the state-of-the-art existing work.

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Environmental impact of emerging contaminants from battery waste: A mini review

Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.cscee.2021.100104 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 100104

Author(s):

Elda M. Melchor-Martínez ◽

Rodrigo Macias-Garbett ◽

Alonso Malacara-Becerra ◽

Hafiz M.N. Iqbal ◽

Juan Eduardo Sosa-Hernández ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Emerging Contaminants

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Persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT) and very persistent and very mobile (vPvM) substances pose an equivalent level of concern to persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) and very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvB) substances under REACH

Environmental Sciences Europe ◽

10.1186/s12302-020-00440-4 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Sarah E. Hale ◽

Hans Peter H. Arp ◽

Ivo Schliebner ◽

Michael Neumann

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Human Health ◽

Regulatory Decision ◽

Drinking Water Resources ◽

Trade Name ◽

Chemicals Regulation ◽

Range Transport ◽

High Concern ◽

Level Of Concern

Abstract Background Under the EU chemicals regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals EC 1907/2006), registrants are not obliged to provide information related to intrinsic substance properties for substances that pose a threat to the drinking water resources. In 2019, perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) and 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoro-2-(heptafluoropropoxy)-propanoic acid (HFPO-DA trade name GenX) were demonstrated to have an equivalent level of concern (ELoC) to persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic or very persistent and very bioaccumulative (PBT/vPvB) substances owing to their persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT) substance properties and very persistent and very mobile (vPvM) substance properties, respectively. They were both subsequently identified as substances of very high concern (SVHC) applying Article 57(f) in REACH. This work follows up on this regulatory decision by presenting a science based, conceptual level comparison that all PMT/vPvM substances pose an ELoC to PBT/vPvB substances. Using the two cases named above, as well as 1,4-dioxane, 16 categories were developed to evaluate a) serious effects on human health, b) serious effects on the environment and c) additional effects. 1,4-dioxane has recently been proposed to be classified as Carcinogenic 1B by the Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC). The aim was to enable an objective and scientifically justified conclusion that these classes of substances have an equivalent level of concern for the environment and human health. Results In all of the categories related to human health, the environment and other effects, the PMT/vPvM case study substances exhibited comparable effects to PBT/vPvB substances. A difference in the human and environmental exposure pathways of PMT/vPvM and PBT/vPvB substances exists as they vary temporally and spatially. However, effects and impacts are similar, with PMT/vPvM substances potentially accumulating in (semi-)closed drinking water cycles and pristine aquatic environments, and PBT/vPvB substances accumulating in humans and the food chain. Both PMT/vPvM and PBT/vPvB substances share the common difficulty that long term and long-range transport and risk of exposure is very difficult to determine in advance and with sufficient accuracy. Conclusion The registration process of substances under REACH should reflect that PMT/vPvM substances pose an equivalent level of concern to PBT/vPvB substances.

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Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Water Using Environmentally Friendly Processes: Photocatalysts Preparation, Characterization, Intermediates Identification and Toxicity Assessment

Nanomaterials ◽

10.3390/nano11010215 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 215

Author(s):

Nina Finčur ◽

Paula Sfîrloagă ◽

Predrag Putnik ◽

Vesna Despotović ◽

Marina Lazarević ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emerging Contaminants ◽

Sol Gel ◽

Toxicity Assessment ◽

Emerging Pollutants ◽

Simulated Sunlight ◽

Aquatic Life ◽

Mgo Nanoparticles ◽

Emerging Pollutant ◽

Wheat Germination ◽

Modern Technologies

Pharmaceuticals and pesticides are emerging contaminants problematic in the aquatic environment because of their adverse effects on aquatic life and humans. In order to remove them from water, photocatalysis is one of the most modern technologies to be used. First, newly synthesized photocatalysts were successfully prepared using a sol–gel method and characterized by different techniques (XRD, FTIR, UV/Vis, BET and SEM/EDX). The photocatalytic properties of TiO2, ZnO and MgO nanoparticles were examined according to their removal from water for two antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone) and two herbicides (tembotrione and fluroxypyr) exposed to UV/simulated sunlight (SS). TiO2 proved to be the most efficient nanopowder under UV and SS. Addition of (NH4)2S2O8 led to the faster removal of both antibiotics and herbicide fluroxypyr. The main intermediates were separated and identified for the herbicides and antibiotic ciprofloxacin. Finally, the toxicity of each emerging pollutant mixture and formed intermediates was assessed on wheat germination and biomass production.

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Chitosan Adsorbent Derivatives for Pharmaceuticals Removal from Effluents: A Review

Macromol ◽

10.3390/macromol1020011 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 130-154

Author(s):

Efstathios V. Liakos ◽

Maria Lazaridou ◽

Georgia Michailidou ◽

Ioanna Koumentakou ◽

Dimitra A. Lambropoulou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emerging Contaminants ◽

Low Cost ◽

Value Added ◽

Ph Effects ◽

Hydroxyl Groups ◽

Research Papers ◽

Natural Polysaccharide ◽

Best Fitting ◽

Isotherm And Kinetic Models ◽

Published Research

Chitin is mentioned as the second most abundant and important natural biopolymer in worldwide scale. The main sources for the extraction and exploitation of this natural polysaccharide polymer are crabs and shrimps. Chitosan (poly-β-(1 → 4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-d-glucose) is the most important derivative of chitin and can be used in a wide variety of applications including cosmetics, pharmaceutical and biomedical applications, food, etc., giving this substance high value-added applications. Moreover, chitosan has applications in adsorption because it contains amino and hydroxyl groups in its molecules, and can thus contribute to many possible adsorption interactions between chitosan and pollutants (pharmaceuticals/drugs, metals, phenols, pesticides, etc.). However, it must be noted that one of the most important techniques of decontamination is considered to be adsorption because it is simple, low-cost, and fast. This review emphasizes on recently published research papers (2013–2021) and briefly describes the chemical modifications of chitosan (grafting, cross-linking, etc.), for the adsorption of a variety of emerging contaminants from aqueous solutions, and characterization results. Finally, tables are depicted from selected chitosan synthetic routes and the pH effects are discussed, along with the best-fitting isotherm and kinetic models.

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