Performance of thin film composite membranes for ammonium removal and reuse of ammonium-enriched solution for plant growth

Ammonium is known to be one of the most significant pollutants in water bodies. The presence of ammonium in water is mainly originated from agricultural activities, domestic sewage and industrial effluent. This study evaluates the performance of two commercial thin film composite (TFC) membranes, i.e., NF270 and XLE from FilmTec™ for ammonium removal using synthetic wastewater and domestic sewage. The filtration experiment was conducted at different feed ammonium concentrations, humic acid concentrations, pHs and pressure. Results showed that the membrane rejection against ammonium increased dramatically with increasing ammonium concentration. However, the membrane flux was slightly compromised at higher ammonium concentration. With respect to pH, highest ammonium removal rate was able to be achieved at an optimum pH of 10. Besides, the permeation flux increased gradually with increasing feed pressure. From the results, the XLE membrane outperformed the NF270 membrane in terms of ammonium rejection. The retentate of XLE membrane filtration process was found to be useful as liquid fertiliser for plant growth. The results indicated that the TFC membrane process is not only able to produce permeate with an ammonium concentration below the acceptable limit of 10 mg/L but also able to produce retentate with enriched ammonium for plant growth

Association Between Sensitization to Outdoor Spider Mites and Clinical Manifestations of Asthma and Rhinitis in the General Population of Adults

It has been demonstrated that spider mites such as the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) are important allergens for fruit farmers. A total of 2,467 adults (795 metropolitan urban, 788 non-metropolitan urban, and 884 rural subjects) were enrolled. They responded to the questionnaire, and underwent methacholine bronchial provocation tests as well as skin prick tests to locally common aeroallergens including the two-spotted spider mite. The prevalences of asthma and rhinitis as reported on the questionnaire were 7.8% and 16.4% of adults aged 20-35, 9.4% and 24.7% of those 36-50, and 17.7% and 21.7% of those older than 50, respectively. Among the older group, the two-spotted spider mite was the most common sensitizing allergen, although it was second of that of house dust mites among the other two age groups. Sensitization to the two-spotted spider mite was significantly associated with the prevalence of asthma and rhinitis among the younger age group, and associated with the prevalence of rhinitis among the older age group. The two-spotted spider mite might be a common sensitizing allergen in the general population of adults, and sensitization to this mite may play a role in the manifestation of asthma and rhinitis symptoms during adulthood

The burden of cardiovascular disease in Asia from 2025 to 2050: a forecast analysis for East Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, Central Asia, and high-income Asia Pacific regions.

Summary Background Given the rapidly growing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Asia, this study forecasts the CVD burden and associated risk factors in Asia from 2025 to 2050. Methods Data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study was used to construct regression models predicting prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributed to CVD and risk factors in Asia in the coming decades. Findings Between 2025 and 2050, crude cardiovascular mortality is expected to rise 91.2% despite a 23.0% decrease in the age-standardised cardiovascular mortality rate (ASMR). Ischaemic heart disease (115 deaths per 100,000 population) and stroke (63 deaths per 100,000 population) will remain leading drivers of ASMR in 2050. Central Asia will have the highest ASMR (676 deaths per 100,000 population), more than three-fold that of Asia overall (186 deaths per 100,000 population), while high-income Asia sub-regions will incur an ASMR of 22 deaths per 100,000 in 2050. High systolic blood pressure will contribute the highest ASMR throughout Asia (105 deaths per 100,000 population), except in Central Asia where high fasting plasma glucose will dominate (546 deaths per 100,000 population). Interpretation This forecast forewarns an almost doubling in crude cardiovascular mortality by 2050 in Asia, with marked heterogeneity across sub-regions. Atherosclerotic diseases will continue to dominate, while high systolic blood pressure will be the leading risk factor. Funding This was supported by the NUHS Seed Fund (NUHSRO/2022/058/RO5+6/Seed-Mar/03), National Medical Research Council Research Training Fellowship (MH 095:003/008-303), National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine's Junior Academic Fellowship Scheme, NUHS Clinician Scientist Program (NCSP2.0/2024/NUHS/NCWS) and the CArdiovascular DiseasE National Collaborative Enterprise (CADENCE) National Clinical Translational Program (MOH-001277-01)

The burden of cardiovascular disease in Asia from 2025 to 2050: a forecast analysis for East Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, Central Asia, and high-income Asia Pacific regions

Background: Given the rapidly growing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Asia, this study forecasts the CVD burden and associated risk factors in Asia from 2025 to 2050. Methods: Data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study was used to construct regression models predicting prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributed to CVD and risk factors in Asia in the coming decades. Findings: Between 2025 and 2050, crude cardiovascular mortality is expected to rise 91.2% despite a 23.0% decrease in the age-standardised cardiovascular mortality rate (ASMR). Ischaemic heart disease (115 deaths per 100,000 population) and stroke (63 deaths per 100,000 population) will remain leading drivers of ASMR in 2050. Central Asia will have the highest ASMR (676 deaths per 100,000 population), more than three-fold that of Asia overall (186 deaths per 100,000 population), while high-income Asia sub-regions will incur an ASMR of 22 deaths per 100,000 in 2050. High systolic blood pressure will contribute the highest ASMR throughout Asia (105 deaths per 100,000 population), except in Central Asia where high fasting plasma glucose will dominate (546 deaths per 100,000 population). Interpretation:This forecast forewarns an almost doubling in crude cardiovascular mortality by 2050 in Asia, with marked heterogeneity across sub-regions. Atherosclerotic diseases will continue to dominate, while high systolic blood pressure will be the leading risk factor

A study of the plastic life cycle assessment

Traditionally, treatment of solid waste has been given limited attention in connection with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Often, only the amounts of solid wastes have been noted. This is unsatisfactory since treatment of solid waste, e.g., by landfilling or incineration, is an operation, requiring inputs and producing outputs, which should be described in the inventory of an LCA. This paper analyses the plastics from the LCA perspective, determines the main environmental burdens and expands the analysis on the improvement areas of the product for the purpose of lowering the environmental burdens. Within the constraints and boundaries imposed by the study, assumptions made, this paper describes different ways of disposing three plastic fractions in municipal solid waste. This study also provides solid waste decision-makers and environmental researchers with a mind set to evaluate waste management plans and to improve the environmental performance of solid waste management strategies. The results illustrated that recycling of plastic material, preferably combined with the use of plastics replacing plastics made from virgin materials, leads to decreased use of total energy and emissions of gases contributing to global warming effect

Improvement of SVR-Based Drought Forecasting Models using Wavelet Pre-Processing Technique

Drought is a damaging natural hazard due to the lack of precipitation from the expected amount for a period of time. Mitigations are required to reduced its impact. Due to the difficulty in determining the onset and offset of droughts, accurate drought forecasting approaches are required for drought risk management. Given the growing use of machine learning in the field, Wavelet-Boosting Support Vector Regression (W-BS-SVR) was proposed for drought forecasting at Langat River Basin, Malaysia. Monthly rainfall, mean temperature and evapotranspiration for years 1976 - 2015 were used to compute Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) in this study, producing SPEI-1, SPEI-3 and SPEI-6. The 1-month lead time SPEIs forecasting capability of W-BS-SVR model was compared with the Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Boosting-Support Vector Regression (BS-SVR) models using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), coefficient of determination (R2) and Adjusted R2. The results demonstrated that W-BS-SVR provides higher accuracy for drought prediction in Langat River Basin

Improvement of SVR-Based Drought Forecasting Models using Wavelet Pre-Processing Technique

Drought is a damaging natural hazard due to the lack of precipitation from the expected amount for a period of time. Mitigations are required to reduced its impact. Due to the difficulty in determining the onset and offset of droughts, accurate drought forecasting approaches are required for drought risk management. Given the growing use of machine learning in the field, Wavelet-Boosting Support Vector Regression (W-BS-SVR) was proposed for drought forecasting at Langat River Basin, Malaysia. Monthly rainfall, mean temperature and evapotranspiration for years 1976 - 2015 were used to compute Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) in this study, producing SPEI-1, SPEI-3 and SPEI-6. The 1-month lead time SPEIs forecasting capability of W-BS-SVR model was compared with the Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Boosting-Support Vector Regression (BS-SVR) models using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), coefficient of determination (R2) and Adjusted R2. The results demonstrated that W-BS-SVR provides higher accuracy for drought prediction in Langat River Basin

Laboratory and Numerical Studies of Rainfall Infiltration into Residual Soil Slope Improved by Biomediated Soil Cover

The capillary barrier system is a widely researched method used to control rainfall infiltration into soil slopes for mitigating rainfall-induced landslides. Conventional capillary barrier systems, however, are subjected to several weaknesses, such as the inability of the upper fine layer to function effectively under intense or prolonged rainfall, and sliding failure or erosion may occur in the fine layer as a result of excessive lateral seepage. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of using biomediated soil cover in a capillary barrier system to minimize rainfall infiltration into a residual soil slope. Firstly, the engineering properties of the original and biomediated residual soils were investigated. Secondly, an instrumented one-dimensional physical soil column was set up to investigate the infiltration behaviour of the tropical residual soil with and without biomediated soil cover. A numerical seepage model was simulated to compare the experimental and numerical results, as well as to verify the input parameters of the numerical simulation. Lastly, a two-dimensional slope model was simulated to investigate the effectiveness of the biomediated soil cover in minimizing infiltration under both intense (1-h, 4-h, 8-h, 24-h extreme rainfalls) and prolonged (72-h extreme rainfall) rainfall conditions. The results showed that the soil column with biomediated soil cover could effectively maintain the soil in an unsaturated state for a longer period of infiltration (i.e., 60 min) as compared with the original residual soil (i.e., 10 min only). The numerical simulation results agreed reasonably well with the experimental findings. The two-dimensional seepage analysis results indicated that the slopes with biomediated soil cover could reduce the infiltration of water into the underlying soil slope, and hence resulted in a shallower wetting front, particularly under short and intense extreme rainfall conditions

Performance Evaluation of Reverse Osmosis Desalination Pilot Plants using ROSA Simulation Software

Desalination allows the use of non-conventional water sources such as seawater for the production of potable water. The performance of three pilot plants in Mallard Slough, namely RO1, RO2 and NF3 were investigated. Reverse Osmosis System Analysis (ROSA), a simulation software was adopted for verifying the performance of the existing pilot plants in treating seawater. By inserting the specific system configuration and selecting the membrane specification of the pilot plants, ROSA would help to generate the operating parameters such as feed pressure, flux, recovery ratio, permeate quality of the plants. These results were subsequently being used to compare with the experimental data of the pilot plants to determine their absolute deviations. It was found that all ROSA simulated feed pressures for RO1, RO2 and NF3 fell in the range of operational feed pressures of the existing pilot plants. Besides, the deviation of total dissolved solutes removal between the results simulated by the ROSA software and the results obtained from the experiments were noticeably insignificant. In terms of flux and recovery ratio, the simulated results and the experimental data showed a marginal discrepancy with deviations < 2% and < 8% for RO1 and NF3, respectively. In conclusion, the findings of this study confirmed the feasibility of adopting this ROSA software to verify the performance of a pilot plant with all operational parameters being ideally optimized