Phytoremediation of Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals Resulting from Acidic Sludge of Eshtehard Industrial Town using Native Pasture Plants

Phytoremediation of heavy metals is considered as an inexpensive and practical technique for purifying contaminated soil, especially when eco-friendly native pasture plants of the contaminated area are used. In this study, heavy metals in soil including Cr, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Ni and native pasture plants around Eshtehard industrial town, which were contaminated due to the entry of acidic sludge, were examined. In this regard, the hyperaccumulation and phytostabilization potential of the plants in the study area were investigated. Accordingly, A.tenuifolia in Cd, Pb and Ni, C.persica in Zn, C. arenarius in Ni, P. piptostigma in Cr and Zn, B. tectorum in Cd and Zn, S. hohenackeriana in Cr, Pb and Cd, P.aucheri in Zn, and P. harmala L in Pb and Ni.  Species with stabilizing potential include A. tenuifolia In Cd and Ni, N. persica in Zn, A.tauschii and B. tectorum in Ni, P.aucheri and P.harmala in Pb. Hyperaccumulating plants can be disposed of easily just like industrial wastes with heavy metals. Plants with stabilizing capacity can prevent the spread of heavy metal contamination to uncontaminated areas like the surrounding farms in addition to providing visual beauty for the region. Keywords: acidic sludge, heavy metals, phytoremediation, Eshtehard industrial tow

Phytoremediation of Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals Resulting from Acidic Sludge of Eshtehard Industrial Town using Native Pasture Plants

Phytoremediation of heavy metals is considered as an inexpensive and practical technique for purifying contaminated soil, especially when eco-friendly native pasture plants of the contaminated area are used. In this study, heavy metals in soil including Cr, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Ni and native pasture plants around Eshtehard industrial town, which were contaminated due to the entry of acidic sludge, were examined. In this regard, the hyperaccumulation and phytostabilization potential of the plants in the study area were investigated. Accordingly, A.tenuifolia in Cd, Pb and Ni, C.persica in Zn, C. arenarius in Ni, P. piptostigma in Cr and Zn, B. tectorum in Cd and Zn, S. hohenackeriana in Cr, Pb and Cd, P.aucheri in Zn, and P. harmala L in Pb and Ni.  Species with stabilizing potential include A. tenuifolia In Cd and Ni, N. persica in Zn, A.tauschii and B. tectorum in Ni, P.aucheri and P.harmala in Pb. Hyperaccumulating plants can be disposed of easily just like industrial wastes with heavy metals. Plants with stabilizing capacity can prevent the spread of heavy metal contamination to uncontaminated areas like the surrounding farms in addition to providing visual beauty for the region. Keywords: acidic sludge, heavy metals, phytoremediation, Eshtehard industrial town

Physicochemical traits of seedless barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) fruits stored under refrigeration as affected by heat and calcium chloride treatments

The loss of chemical characteristics and quality of the fresh seedless barberry fruit during storage and qualitative losses of its dried fruit are the most important postharvest challenges in barberry industry and its exports. The fresh harvested fruit samples were dried using an electrical drier at 50°C to 50% moisture content. Thereafter, the effects of hot water alone (65°C for 45 sec), and hot water + 2% calcium chloride were carried out on the quality maintenance and chemicals during the cold storage of seedless barberry. The results showed that the samples treated with calcium chloride stored at 2°C had the highest TSS over time, whereas the titratable acidity of barberry fruits was not significantly affected by postharvest treatments. Hot water alone or in combination with calcium chloride treatment increased redness and chroma values result in better appearance quality than control. In addition, the treatments reduced the variable L* and thereby enhanced fruit lightness. The highest antioxidant content (% 77.92) was observed in hot water treated samples and the lowest (% 54.28) was obtained on control. Also, the highest amount of anthocyanins and antioxidants were obtained from samples treated with hot water. Only calcium chloride treatment had a significant effect on Ca content of the samples. The results revealed that postharvest application of hot water and calcium chloride treatments improved the appearance quality and nutritional values of fresh seedless barberry fruit, as well as extend the cold storage life, likely due to reduced pathogen contamination

Metastatic eccrine porocarcinoma: report of a case and review of the literature

Eccrine porocarcinoma (EPC) is a rare type of skin cancer arising from the intraepidermal portion of eccrine sweat glands or acrosyringium, representing 0.005-0.01% of all cutaneous tumors. About 20% of EPC will recur and about 20% will metastasize to regional lymph nodes. There is a mortality rate of 67% in patients with lymph node metastases. Although rare, the occurrence of distant metastases has been reported

Treatment of eccrine porocarcinoma with metastasis to the parotid gland using intensity-modulated radiation therapy: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Cutaneous eccrine porocarcinomas are uncommon malignant tumors of the sweat gland.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>A 76-year-old Caucasian man presented to our hospital with a left temporal mass. We describe a case of eccrine porocarcinoma with metastasis to the parotid gland with special emphasis on the role of surgical resection and adjuvant radiation therapy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Besides surgical resection, little is known about the role of adjuvant therapy in managing eccrine porocarcinomas. Radiation therapy should be considered within a multidisciplinary approach in patients with primary or recurrent eccrine porocarcinomas.</p

Sono-photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline and pharmaceutical wastewater using WO3/CNT heterojunction nanocomposite under US and visible light irradiations: A novel hybrid system

In this paper, in-situ fabrication of tungsten oxide (WO3) on carbon nano-tube (CNT) was performed via sol-gel/hydrothermal method to prepare WO3/CNT nanocomposites and then coupled with visible light and ultrasound (US) irradiations for sono-photocatalytic removal of tetracycline (TTC) and pharmaceutical wastewater treatment. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, TEM, UV-VIS DRS, FESEM, EDS, TGA, BET, BJH, EIS, and EDX techniques. The characterization tests, indicated successful incorporation of CTNs into the WO3 framework and efficient reduction of charge carries recombination rate after modifying with CNT. The investigation of experimental parameters verified that 60 mg/L TTC could be perfectly degraded at optimum operational parameters (WO3/CNT: 0.7 g/L, pH: 9.0, US power: 250 W/m2, and light intensity: 120 W/m2 over 60 min treatment. Trapping experiments results verified that HOrad radicals and h+ were the main oxidative species in degradation of TTC. The as-prepared photocatalysts could be reused after six successive cycles with an approximately 8.8 % reduction in removal efficiency. Investigation of the effect of real pharmaceutical wastewater revealed that this system is able to eliminate 83.7 and 90.6 % of TOC and COD, respectively after 220 min of reaction time. Some compounds with lower toxic impact and molecular weight, compared to raw pharmaceutical wastewater, were detected after treatment by sono-photocatalysis process. The biodegradability of real pharmaceutical wastewater was improved significantly after treatment by WO3/CNT sono-photocatalysis. © 2020 Elsevier B.V

A numerical scheme for solving a class of logarithmic integral equations arisen from two-dimensional Helmholtz equations using local thin plate splines

This paper presents a numerical method for solving logarithmic Fredholm integral equations which occur as a reformulation of two-dimensional Helmholtz equations over the unit circle with the Robin boundary conditions. The method approximates the solution utilizing the discrete collocation method based on the locally supported thin plate splines as a type of free shape parameter radial basis functions. The local thin plate splines establish an efficient and stable technique to estimate an unknown function by a small set of nodes instead of all points over the solution domain. To compute logarithm-like singular integrals appeared in the method, we use a particular nonuniform Gauss–Legendre quadrature rule. Since the scheme does not require any mesh generations on the domain, it can be identified as a meshless method. The error estimate of the proposed method is presented. Numerical results are included to show the validity and efficiency of the new technique. These results also confirm that the proposed method uses much less computer memory in comparison with the method established on the globally supported thin plate splines. Moreover, it seems that the algorithm of the presented approach is attractive and easy to implement on computer