Innovative Approaches to Solar Desalination: A Comprehensive Review of Recent Research

Solar desalination systems are a promising solution to the water scarcity problem since the majority of the earth’s water resources are salty. With the increasing focus on desalination research, many innovative methods are being developed to extract salts from saline water. Energy consumption is a significant concern in desalination, and renewable energy, particularly solar energy, is considered a viable alternative to fossil fuel energy. In this review, we will focus on direct and indirect solar desalination methods, specifically traditional direct solar desalination methods such as solar still and humidification dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems. We will also briefly discuss a recent advancement in the desalination method known as the fogging process, which is a development of the HDH desalination system

Selective Calpain Inhibition Improves Functional and Histopathological Outcomes in a Canine Spinal Cord Injury Model

Calpain activation has been implicated in various pathologies, including neurodegeneration. Thus, calpain inhibition could effectively prevent spinal cord injury (SCI) associated with neurodegeneration. In the current study, a dog SCI model was used to evaluate the therapeutic potential of a selective calpain inhibitor (PD150606) in combination with methylprednisolone sodium succinate (MPSS) as an anti-inflammatory drug. SCI was experimentally induced in sixteen mongrel dogs through an epidural balloon compression technique. The dogs were allocated randomly into four groups: control, MPSS, PD150606, and MPSS+PD150606. Clinical evaluation, serum biochemical, somatosensory evoked potentials, histopathological, and immunoblotting analyses were performed to assess treated dogs during the study. The current findings revealed that the combined administration of MPSS+PD150606 demonstrated considerably lower neuronal loss and microglial cell infiltration than the other groups, with a significant improvement in the locomotor score. The increased levels of inflammatory markers (GFAP and CD11) and calcium-binding proteins (Iba1 and S100) were significantly reduced in the combination group and to a lesser extent in MPSS or PD150606 treatment alone. Interestingly, the combined treatment effectively inhibited the calpain-induced cleavage of p35, limited cdk5 activation, and inhibited tau phosphorylation. These results suggest that early MPSS+PD150606 therapy after acute SCI may prevent subsequent neurodegeneration via calpain inhibition