Ammonia-Nitrogen Recovery from Synthetic Solution using Agricultural Waste Fibers

In this study, modification of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) fibers as a means to recover ammonianitrogen from a synthetic solution was investigated. Methods: The EFB fiber was modified using sodium hydroxide.Adsorption-desorption studies of ammonia nitrogen into the modified EFB fiber were investigated Findings: Theincrease in adsorption capacity was found to be proportional with the increase of pH up to 7, temperature and ammoniaconcentration. The maximum adsorption capacity is 0.53-10.89 mg/g. The attachment of ammonia nitrogen involves ionexchange-chemisorption. The maximum desorption capacity of 0.0999 mg/g. Applications: This study can be used as abaseline for designing a low cost adsorbent system for ammonia nitrogen recovery drainage and industrial wastewater aswell as EFBs-palm oil mill effluent composting

Prevalence, associated factors and predictors of anxiety: a community survey in Selangor, Malaysia

Background: Anxiety is the most common mental health disorders in the general population. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of anxiety, its associated factors and the predictors of anxiety among adults in the community of Selangor, Malaysia. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in three districts in Selangor, Malaysia. The inclusion criteria of this study were Malaysian citizens, adults aged 18 years and above, and living in the selected living quarters based on the list provided by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOS). Participants completed a set of questionnaires, including the validated Malay version of Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD 7) to detect anxiety. Results: Of the 2512 participants who were approached, 1556 of them participated in the study (61.90 %). Based on the cut-off point of 8 and above in the GAD-7, the prevalence of anxiety was 8.2 %. Based on the initial multiple logistic regression analysis, the predictors of anxiety were depression, serious problems at work, domestic violence and high perceived stress. When reanalyzed again after removing depression, low self-esteem and high perceived stress, six predictors that were identified are cancer, serious problems at work, domestic violence, unhappy relationship with family, non-organizational religious activity and intrinsic religiosity. Conclusion: This study reports the prevalence of anxiety among adults in the community of Selangor, Malaysia and also the magnitude of the associations between various factors and anxiety

Structure, spectroscopic measurement, thermal studies and optical properties of a new non-centrosymmetric hybrid compound

A novel inorganic-organic hybrid material of bis (5,7-dichloro-8-hydroxyquinolium) tetrachlorozincate (II) dihydrate was crystallized and characterized by IR, Raman, 13C NMR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermal analyses (TG/DTG/SDTA). The solid-state structures were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The compound was found to crystallizes in the non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic system, space group P212121 with the following cell parameters a = 10.4872(3) Å, b = 13.4464 (5) Å, c = 18.0305 (7) Å, V = 2542.57(15) Ǻ3 and Z = 4, to ensure that our samples are single-phase, the purity of our products was verified by X-Ray Powder Diffraction Analysis, while the composition of our phase was verified by semi-quantitative analysis EDXS. Thermal analysis showed that the complexes decompose in three steps: the structural water was firstly progressively lost, then the neutral ligand of 5,7-dichloro-8-hydroxyquinolium and lastly the second ligand with 4 mol of chlorine in the form of hydrochloric acid. The final phase solid product at 713 °C is zinc oxide. The theoretical calculations were conducted using B3LYP/LanL2DZ basis sets using GAUSSIAN09, for studying the structural parameters, vibrational and non-linear optical characterization (NLO) of the investigated compound. The analyses of the optical spectra indicate that this compound has a direct band gap energy equal to (2.72 eV) due to direct transition. This energy is much larger than 0.02 eV. The photoluminescence properties (PL) of the compound were investigated in the solid-state at room temperature.Financial support from Faculty of Science in University of Sfax, Tunisia, Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO-13-MAT2013-40950-R, MAT2016-78155-C2-1-R and FPI grant BES-2011-046948 to MSM.A.), Gobierno del Principado de Asturias (GRUPIN14-060) and FEDER funding are acknowledged

Phosphorus and ammonium removal characteristics from aqueous solutions by a newly isolated plant growth-promoting bacterium

An indigenous plant growth-promoting bacterium isolated from Peganum Harmala rhizosphere in the arid ecosystem was found to solubilize and accumulate phosphates. This isolate was identified as Pseudomonas sp. (PHR6) by partial 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Controlled batch experiments on nutrients removal by this isolate in mineral medium showed relatively high efficiencies after 24 h of aerobic incubation with average values of 117.59 and 335.38 mg gVSS for phosphorus (P-PO ) and nitrogen (N-NH ), respectively. Furthermore, the strain performed heterotrophic nitrification ranging from 48.81% to 84.24% of the total removed nitrogen. On the other hand, the experimental results showed that a short idle period (24 h) significantly enhanced P accumulation (up to 95%) and N assimilation (up to 50%) of the total removed amounts. However, long idle period (20 days) revealed firstly aerobic phosphorous release phase succeeded by another removal one within 24 h of incubation. Overall, the idle treatment enhances P removal efficiency from the mineral liquid medium without significant effects on N-NH removal performance. The isolated strain showed also significant nutrient removal ability from synthetic wastewater providing an accumulated fraction of 98% from the total removed phosphorus amount. This study highlights the potential contribution of the selected rhizobacterium PHR6 to both environmental nutrient recycling and pollution control especially regarding phosphorus

Modeling the Translocation and Transformation of Chemicals in the Soil-Plant Continuum: A Dynamic Plant Uptake Module for the HYDRUS Model

Food contamination is responsible for thousands of deaths worldwide every year. Plants represent the most common pathway for chemicals into the human and animal food chain. Although existing dynamic plant uptake models for chemicals are crucial for the development of reliable mitigation strategies for food pollution, they nevertheless simplify the description of physicochemical processes in soil and plants, mass transfer processes between soil and plants and in plants, and transformation in plants. To fill this scientific gap, we couple a widely used hydrological model (HYDRUS) with a multicompartment dynamic plant uptake model, which accounts for differentiated multiple metabolization pathways in plant's tissues. The developed model is validated first theoretically and then experimentally against measured data from an experiment on the translocation and transformation of carbamazepine in three vegetables. The analysis is further enriched by performing a global sensitivity analysis on the soil-plant model to identify factors driving the compound's accumulation in plants' shoots, as well as to elucidate the role and the importance of soil hydraulic properties on the plant uptake process. Results of the multilevel numerical analysis emphasize the model's flexibility and demonstrate its ability to accurately reproduce physicochemical processes involved in the dynamic plant uptake of chemicals from contaminated soils