Degradation of crystal violet over heterogeneous TiO2-based catalysts: The effect of process parameters

In this study, modified sol-gel method was employed to synthesize the pure and Zr-doped titania catalysts. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method was applied to determine porosity, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to study crystal structure, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate morphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to examine surface properties/total acidity of the obtained catalysts samples. Photocatalytic activity was tested in the reaction of crystal violet (CV) dye decolourization/degradation under UV light irradiation. The effects of several photocatalysis operational parameters were considered, such as catalyst dosage, initial dye concentrations, duration of UV irradiation treatment, as well as catalysts calcination temperatures and dopant amounts. The obtained results indicated faster dye decolourization/degradation with the increase of the catalyst dosage and the decrease of initial CV concentrations. The Zr-doping affects photocatalytic properties, i.e. CV decolourization/degradation of the prepared catalytic materials. Thus, addition of 5 wt.% of ZrO2 to titania increases photocatalytic effect for similar to 15% and addition of 10 wt.% of ZrO2 improves the photocatalytic efficiency of titania for nearly 30%

Decolorization of crystal violet over TiO2 and TiO2 doped with zirconia photocatalysts

Titania based catalyst and TiO2 doped with zirconia were prepared by modified sol-gel method. The synthesized catalysts samples were characterized by BET, XRD, SEM and FTIR techniques. Photocatalytic activity was tested in the reaction of crystal violet (CV) dye decolorization/decomposition under UV light irradiation. The effect of several operational parameters, such as catalyst dosage, initial dye concentrations, duration of UV irradiation treatment and number of reaction cycles were also considered. The obtained results indicated faster dye decolorization with the increase of the catalyst amount and a decrease of initial CV concentrations. An influence of doping with zirconia on the physico-chemical properties of bare titania was studied. The doping procedure had affected photocatalytic properties of the final catalytic material, and had improved photocatalytic performances of doped catalyst on crystal violet decolorization/degradation in comparison to bare titania

Burden of disease attributable to risk factors in European countries: a scoping literature review

Objectives: Within the framework of the burden of disease (BoD) approach, disease, and injury burden estimates attributable to risk factors are a useful guide for policy formulation and priority setting in disease prevention. Considering the important differences in methods, and their impact on burden estimates, we conducted a scoping literature review to: (1) map the BoD assessments including risk factors performed across Europe, and (2) identify the methodological choices in comparative risk assessment (CRA) and risk assessment methods. Methods: We searched multiple literature databases, including grey literature websites, and targeted public health agencies' websites. Results: A total of 113 studies were included in the synthesis and further divided into independent BoD assessments (54 studies) and studies linked to the Global Burden of Disease (59 papers). Our results showed that the methods used to perform CRA varied substantially across independent European BoD studies. While there were some methodological choices that were more common than others, we did not observe patterns in terms of country, year, or risk factor. Each methodological choice can affect the comparability of estimates between and within countries and/or risk factors since they might significantly influence the quantification of the attributable burden. From our analysis, we observed that the use of CRA was less common for some types of risk factors and outcomes. These included environmental and occupational risk factors, which are more likely to use bottom-up approaches for health outcomes where disease envelopes may not be available. Conclusions: Our review also highlighted misreporting, the lack of uncertainty analysis, and the under-investigation of causal relationships in BoD studies. Development and use of guidelines for performing and reporting BoD studies will help understand differences, and avoid misinterpretations thus improving comparability among estimates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Burden of infectious disease studies in Europe and the United Kingdom: a review of methodological design choices

This systematic literature review aimed to provide an overview of the characteristics and methods used in studies applying the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) concept for infectious diseases within European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and the United Kingdom. Electronic databases and grey literature were searched for articles reporting the assessment of DALY and its components. We considered studies in which researchers performed DALY calculations using primary epidemiological data input sources. We screened 3053 studies of which 2948 were excluded and 105 studies met our inclusion criteria. Of these studies, 22 were multi-country and 83 were single-country studies, of which 46 were from the Netherlands. Food- and water-borne diseases were the most frequently studied infectious diseases. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of burden of infectious disease studies was 1.6 times higher compared to that published between 2000 and 2014. Almost all studies (97%) estimated DALYs based on the incidence- and pathogen-based approach and without social weighting functions; however, there was less methodological consensus with regards to the disability weights and life tables that were applied. The number of burden of infectious disease studies undertaken across Europe has increased over time. Development and use of guidelines will promote performing burden of infectious disease studies and facilitate comparability of the results

Burden of disease attributable to risk factors in European countries: a scoping literature review

Abstract Objectives Within the framework of the burden of disease (BoD) approach, disease and injury burden estimates attributable to risk factors are a useful guide for policy formulation and priority setting in disease prevention. Considering the important differences in methods, and their impact on burden estimates, we conducted a scoping literature review to: (1) map the BoD assessments including risk factors performed across Europe; and (2) identify the methodological choices in comparative risk assessment (CRA) and risk assessment methods. Methods We searched multiple literature databases, including grey literature websites and targeted public health agencies websites. Results A total of 113 studies were included in the synthesis and further divided into independent BoD assessments (54 studies) and studies linked to the Global Burden of Disease (59 papers). Our results showed that the methods used to perform CRA varied substantially across independent European BoD studies. While there were some methodological choices that were more common than others, we did not observe patterns in terms of country, year or risk factor. Each methodological choice can affect the comparability of estimates between and within countries and/or risk factors, since they might significantly influence the quantification of the attributable burden. From our analysis we observed that the use of CRA was less common for some types of risk factors and outcomes. These included environmental and occupational risk factors, which are more likely to use bottom-up approaches for health outcomes where disease envelopes may not be available. Conclusions Our review also highlighted misreporting, the lack of uncertainty analysis and the under-investigation of causal relationships in BoD studies. Development and use of guidelines for performing and reporting BoD studies will help understand differences, avoid misinterpretations thus improving comparability among estimates. Registration The study protocol has been registered on PROSPERO, CRD42020177477 (available at: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ )