Remediation of wastewater by biosynthesized manganese oxide nanoparticles and its effects on development of wheat seedlings

IntroductionNanoparticles play a vital role in environmental remediation on a global scale. In recent years, there has been an increasing demand to utilize nanoparticles in wastewater treatment due to their remarkable physiochemical properties.MethodsIn the current study, manganese oxide nanoparticles (MnO-NPs) were synthesized from the Bacillus flexus strain and characterized by UV/Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.ResultsThe objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of biosynthesized MnO-NPs to treat wastewater. Results showed the photocatalytic degradation and adsorption potential of MnO-NPs for chemical oxygen demand, sulfate, and phosphate were 79%, 64%, and 64.5%, respectively, depicting the potential of MnO-NPs to effectively reduce pollutants in wastewater. The treated wastewater was further utilized for the cultivation of wheat seedlings through a pot experiment. It was observed that the application of treated wastewater showed a significant increase in growth, physiological, and antioxidant attributes. However, the application of treated wastewater led to a significant decrease in oxidative stress by 40%.DiscussionIt can be concluded that the application of MnO-NPs is a promising choice to treat wastewater as it has the potential to enhance the growth, physiological, and antioxidant activities of wheat seedlings

Impact of different levels of zinc and nitrogen on growth, productivity, and quality of aromatic rice cultivated under various irrigation regimes in two districts of Pakistan

Rice is a staple food for more than 50% of the global population and it is one of the most valuable cereal crops. To fulfill the dietary requirement of the ever-growing world population, an increase in per-unit production of rice is direly required. In Pakistan, it stands as the 2nd in consumption after wheat, which is a staple food. A huge gap is observed between yield potential and actual yield of the aromatic rice cultivars at a farmer-field level. The significant limitations responsible for this gap are shortage of irrigation water, inappropriate application of fertilizers, less plant population, deficiency of micronutrients, and improper and poor plant protection measures. A field study was planned to assess the yield response and quality attributes of aromatic rice to three levels of zinc (Zn) and nitrogen (N) under three irrigation regimes (8-, 12-, and 16-acre inches) in the Sheikhupura and Sargodha districts of Pakistan. Irrigation treatments significantly influenced the growth, yield, and quality attributes; however, maximum improvement was observed by the application of irrigation at 12-acre inches. Among the Zn treatments, application of Zn at 10 kg ha–1 was observed to be more responsive to improving the growth and quality parameters of aromatic rice crops. In the case of N treatments, application of N at 140 kg ha–1 produced the maximum total tillers, as well as productive tillers per hill, spikelets per panicle, leaf area index, leaf area duration, crop growth rate, total dry matter, harvest index, kernel length, kernel width, and 1,000-kernel weight. Application of N at 140 kg ha–1 not only improved the growth attributes but also increased the net assimilation rate, photosynthetically active radiation, and radiation use efficiency, with respect to total dry matter and kernel yield. The maximum percentage of normal kernels and minimum percentage of opaque, abortive, and chalky kernels were also recorded by application of N at 140 kg ha–1. The outcomes of current experiments depicted that application of irrigational water, zinc, and nitrogen at 12-acre inches, 10, and 140 kg ha–1, respectively, are responsible to achieve maximum resource utilization efficiency, along with increased yield and quality of rice

Economic instruments for managing industrial waste in Malaysia

Rapid development process of manufacturing industry in Malaysia has resulted to increasing amount of industrial and hazardous waste generation. It is recognized that industrialization has economic, environmental and social trade-offs. Where there are trade-offs between environmental preservation and economic development, several alternatives are employed to mitigate those harmful effects. Such actions are required under the existing and currently reviewed environmental laws and regulations and proposed economic incentives. In the past Malaysia emphasized the economic benefits of development. Now there is an emphasis on the environment. The Government of Malaysia should consider that like many developed countries, the use of appropriate economic tools and incentives in order to achieve a resilient developed country. These instruments are needed to encourage environmentally responsible decision-making by investors, consumers and other economic actor

A framework to estimate the willingness to pay of household for air quality improvement : a case study in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

The main objective of this study is to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of the household for improving the air quality in Klang Valley, Malaysia as a result of implementation of two types of transport hypothetical policy options. Survey method will be conducted to estimate how much the household in Klang Valley would value lowering the health risks associated with poor air quality. The popular method, contingent valuation method (CVM) has been used to estimate WTP for avoiding the ill health episodes due to air pollution or to improve the air quality in Klang Valley. The survey results will be analyzed using Binary Logit Model. This study is expected to minimize the problem of mismatch in terms of services that can be supplied by government and what the public really wants and is willing to pay for

Economic instruments for managing industrial waste in Malaysia

Rapid development process of manufacturing industry in Malaysia has resulted to increasing amount of industrial and hazardous waste generation. It is recognized that industrialization has economic, environmental and social trade-offs.Where there are trade-offs between environmental preservation and economic development, several alternatives are employed to mitigate those harmful effects.Such actions are required under the existing and currently reviewed environmental laws and regulations and proposed economic incentives. In the past Malaysia emphasized the economic benefits of development. Now there is an emphasis on the environment. The Government of Malaysia should consider that like many developed countries, the use of appropriate economic tools and incentives in order to achieve a resilient developed country. These instruments are needed to encourage environmentally responsible decision-making by investors, consumers and other economic actor

Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of N1-(3-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)-N4-substituted semicarbazone derivatives

A series of 16 N1-(3-chloro-4-fluorophenyl)-N4-substituted semicarbazone derivatives were synthesized and subjected to computational pharmacokinetic studies to predict molecular properties. All the title compounds (4a–p) followed the Lipinski “Rule of Five”. The synthesized compounds were characterized by elemental analyses and spectral data and the compounds (4a–p) were evaluated for antimicrobial activities. Among them the compound 2-(4-hydroxybenzylidene)-N-(3-chloro-4-fluorolphenyl)hydrazinecarboxamide (4f) was found to be the most active compound that showed good antibacterial activity while the compound 2-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-N-(3-chloro-4-fluorolphenyl)hydrazinecarboxamide (4g) was moderately active against fungal strains. We have noticed that the compounds, (4f, 4k and 4d) bearing OH and NO2 groups on the phenyl ring at position 4 exhibited good antibacterial activity while compound (4g) bearing OCH3 on the phenyl ring at position 4 exhibited moderate antifungal activity

Micro enterprises in Malaysia: an empirical assessment on financial obstacles

This study was designed to empirically determine how and to what extent the micro enterprises in Malaysia are able to overcome the problems of accessing finance. The primary data is collected from the administered survey questions in Klang Valley (Selangor and Kuala Lumpur) and the analysis is conducted using statistical analysis and Logistic Regression analysis. It outlines an approach on how micro enterprises perceive the constraints of financial access emerge as the binding constraint. Micro enterprises are considered as risky business and thus strict loan conditions have been imposed on them by financial institutions. Among the conditions imposed by the financial institutions are strict collateral requirement, high cost of financing, strict documentation requirement and good financial and business track record. Unfortunately, most of them cannot fulfill these conditions and continue to face the problem of accessing finance. The results of the study revealed that lack of accessing to finance has hampered the development of micro enterprises in Malaysia

Toll-like receptor 4 stimulates gene expression via Smad2 linker region phosphorylation in vascular smooth muscle cells

Atherosclerosis begins in the vessel wall with the retention of low density lipoproteins to modified proteoglycans with hyperelongated glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains. Bacterial infections produce endotoxins such as lipopolysaccharide that exacerbate the outcome of atherosclerosis by generating a heightened state of inflammation. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) via its toll-like receptor (TLR) is well-known for its role in mediating an inflammatory response in the body. Emerging evidence demonstrates that TLRs are involved in regulating vascular functions. In this study we sought to investigate the role of LPS in proteoglycan modification and GAG chain elongation, and we hypothesize that LPS will signal via Smad2 dependent pathways to regulate GAG chain elongation. The model used human aortic vascular smooth muscle cells. GAG gene expression was assessed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Western blotting was performed using whole-cell protein lysates to assess the signaling pathway. LPS via TLR4 stimulates the expression of GAG synthesizing enzymes to an equal extent to traditional cardiovascular agonists. LPS phosphorylates the Smad2 linker region via TAK-1/MAPK dependent pathways which correlated with genes associated with GAG chain initiation and elongation. The well-characterized role of LPS in inflammation and our data on GAG gene expression demonstrates that GAG chain elongation is the earliest marker of the inflammatory cascade in atherosclerosis development

Generalized Structures for Switched-Capacitor Multilevel Inverter Topology for Energy Storage System Application

The apparent advantages of Multilevel Inverter (MLI) topologies in handling medium and high power with less loss in switching and lower harmonic distortion in an output voltage waveform makes it better than the conventional inverter. However, the MLI topologies utilize a large number of DC power supplies and power semiconductor devices. They also have a higher value of total standing voltage (TSV). Moreover, capacitor voltage balancing problems, self-voltage boosting inability, and complex control techniques require a relook and improvement in their structure. More recently, Switched-Capacitor Multilevel Inverter (SCMLI) topologies have been proposed to overcome the shortcomings of MLIs. In this paper, a generalized structure for a single-phase switched capacitor multilevel inverter (SCMLI) with self-voltage boosting and self-voltage balancing capability is proposed. A detailed analysis of a general structure of SCMLI is presented. The comparative analysis of the structures is carried out with recently reported topologies to demonstrate superiority. An optimized low-frequency modulation controls the output voltage waveform. The simulation and experimental results are included in the paper for single-unit symmetric (9-level voltage) and asymmetric (17-level voltage) configurations