Sources of heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) in the road dust of Bandar Abbas city, Iran, and its west suburb were apportioned and the related source-specific ecological and health risks were assessed. The level of heavy metal pollution and the related ecological risk for suburban road dust (suburban RD) were far higher than those of urban RD. Accordingly, probabilistic health risk assessment showed no significant health risk in urban region but significant health risk in the suburb, especially for As with cancer risk above 10−4. Source apportionment using positive matrix factorization (PMF) identified lithogenic source (45.9%) and traffic emission (47.6%) as the main sources of heavy metals in urban and suburban region

Adsorption of Cefixime (CFX), a β-lactam antibiotic, from aqueous solution was studied by activated carbons (ACs) derived from date press cake (DPC), an agro-industrial waste. The ACs were prepared through dry thermochemical activation of carbonized DPC by NaOH (NAC) and KOH (KAC). NAC and KAC showed microporous structure with BET surface areas of 2623.2 and 2760.0?m2/g, respectively. The adsorption of CFX onto both ACs was optimal at pH 4. Both NAC and KAC successfully adsorbed CFX from aqueous solution with maximum monolayer adsorption capacities of 557.9 and 571.5 mg/g, respectively. The kinetic and isotherm studies indicated that CFX was mainly chemically adsorbed onto both ACs and the rate of adsorption was controlled by film diffus

In this study, the ambient air quality had monitored in views of particulate matter levels and their heavy metals content in a high-altitude region, Shahr-e Kord for the first time. The levels of Total Suspended Particles (TSP), PM10, PM2.5, PM1, TSP-bound Heavy metals, and the related health risks had evaluated from December 2018 to March 2019. The average concentrations of TSP, PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 were 61.85, 51.57, 19.28, and 3.03??g/m3in December, 54.15, 19.68, 7.37, and 4.89??g/m3in February, 24.05, 11.32, 4.42, and 2.88??g/m3in January, 68.22, 33.72, 14.21, and 3.73??g/m3in March respectively. The concentrations of HMs in TSP ranked in the following decreasing order: Hg>As>Mn> Ni> Cr> Cu>Pb (ng/m3). The health risk asses

Introduction: Air pollution in primary schools is of concern, because young students, as a sensitive group, are present in such enclosed environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of particulate matter pollution in indoor and outdoor air of primary schools in Bandar Abbas, Iran.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, during 9 sampling runs form winter to spring of 2018, the concentrations of particulate matters with aerodynamic diameters equal or below 10 ?m (PM10) and 2.5 ?m (PM2. 5) were measured in indoor and outdoor air of 10 governmental primary schools of Bandar Abbas city using a HazDust-EPAM-5000 sampler. The PM10 and PM2. 5 concentrations were analyzed by Excel software and the mean and standard deviation v

In a biological treatment of an industrial effluent, the indigenous bacteria have already been used. In this study, the three bacteria strains which are potent in the decolorization of azo dyes were isolated from dairy effluent and used for decolorization of Reactive Black5 and Reactive Red120 azo dyes and decolorization test of each dye was conducted at five concentration levels (10, 50, 100, 150, and 200?mg/l). The pH of which was adjusted to 7 and incubated at 37??C for 3?days. The strains were identified as Staphylococcus sp. and Micrococcus luteus strains by 16S rRNA gene sequences analysis. The strains were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers of KX180131, KX180132, and KX180133 and submitted to laboratory identi

Mathematical modeling of biofiltration systems improves our understanding and design of such complex systems. This study focused on the theoretical and technical aspects of the modeling of xylene biofiltration in the absence and presence of a nonionic surfactant. In this regard, a mathematical model was developed based on mass balance principles in gas and biofilm phases. The developed model was calibrated and validated using the experimental data obtained from a lab‐scale scoria‐compost biofilter, which operated for 151 days in the absence and presence of Tween‐20, a nonionic surfactant. First, the model was calibrated using the experimental data obtained at empty bed retention time (EBRT) of 90 s and then validated with the dat

Exposure to hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and malodorous pollutant, is a public health concern. Therefore, its removal from polluted air streams is crucial. This study aimed to evaluate the removal of H2S in a biofilter packed with a mixture of polyurethane foam and palm fiber with no pH control. The kinetics of H2S biofiltration were also analyzed using Michaelis–Menten and Haldane models. The biofilter was operated for 72?days at empty bed retention times (EBRT) of 47 and 30?s. During the operation of the biofilter, in addition to measurement of inlet and outlet H2S concentrations, the concentration profiles along the reactor length were also monitored. Moreover, the sulfate contents and pH values of packing bed and leachate

One of the equations that used in this article Eq. (4) was applied incorrectly. The correct form of the equation is as below:lnqeq-q=lnqeq-K1t Also, the K1 (1/min) value reported in Table 2 was incorrect. The correct value of K1 (1/min) is 0.0131. The authors would appreciate from Dr. Yuan-dong Huang who detected this error. Moreover, the authors rechecked precisely the article and presented the following corrections: – Page 250, left column: The sentence below Eq. (3) was corrected as “Where, qe is the milligram of AMX adsorbed on grams of adsorbent at equilibrium condition, C0 and Ce are the initial and equilibrium concentrations of AMX after adsorption, in mg/L, respectively.”– Page 254, left column, the second sentence below Eq.

We consider the task of faithfully simulating a distributed quantum measurement, wherein we provide a protocol for the three parties, Alice, Bob and Eve, to simulate a repeated action of a distributed quantum measurement using a pair of non-product approximating measurements by Alice and Bob, followed by a stochastic mapping at Eve. The objective of the protocol is to utilize minimum resources, in terms of classical bits needed by Alice and Bob to communicate their measurement outcomes to Eve, and the common randomness shared among the three parties, while faithfully simulating independent repeated instances of the original measurement. To achieve this, we develop a mutual covering lemma and a technique for random binning of distributed qua

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of KOH-activated carbon derived from date press cake (DPC) for the adsorption of Pb (II) from aqueous solutions. Raw DPC was first converted into a carbonized material (CM) and then activated at dry KOH: CM weight ratios of 1: 1 (AC1) and 4: 1 (AC4). The adsorbents were characterized using FTIR, FESEM-EDX, BET and Boehm titration method. AC1 and AC4 showed microporous structure with BET surface areas of 1237.2 and 2938.7 m2 g–1, respectively. The prepared activated carbons (ACs) successfully adsorbed Pb (II) from aqueous solution with maximum monolayer adsorption capacities of 59.0 mg g–1 (AC1) and 101.3 mg g–1 (AC4). The adsorption of Pb (II) onto both ACs was well described by Elo

This study considers the feasibility of uptake of cephalexin, an emerging contaminant, from aqueous solutions by using green local montmorillonite (GLM), montmorillonite coated with ZnO (ZnO/GLM) and montmorillonite coated with TiO2 (TiO2/GLM) in the presence of H2O2. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out as a function of pH, initial concentration of the cephalexin, adsorbent dosage, contact time, and temperature. Finally, the adsorbents were characterized by XRD, SEM and FTIR analyses. XRD patterns showed dramatic changes in the adsorbents after loading with the nanoparticles, confirming successful placing of the nanoparticles onto GLM. The GLM mineral surface after nanoparticle loading appears to be fully exposed an

Nitrate has been identified as a major pollutant in water resources. In this study, two new adsorbents, namely, red local montmorillonite (RLM) and green local montmorillonite (GLM) were used as adsorbents, and their characteristics and performance in nitrate adsorption has been investigated. The most important factors in the adsorption process such as initial pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time and initial concentration of nitrate were investigated. Also, EDAX, BET, SEM and FTIR techniques were used to determine adsorbent characteristics. The results showed that the highest nitrate adsorption for both adsorbents obtained at low pH values, and removal efficiency increased by increasing the dosage and contact time and decreased by increasing