The impact of technological innovation and financial development on environmental pollution in gulf cooperation council - A linear and nonlinear ARDL approach.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are highly vulnerable to climate change, including rising sea levels, extreme weather, and other environmental and social issues. GCC countries showed remarkable economic growth and development. However, this growth and development put severe pressure on the environment, leading to the degradation of the Environment. Therefore, it is essential to investigate essential factors of environmental degradation, such as technological innovation and financial development. However, per capita income and energy consumption are also crucial factors of environmental degradation. Henceforth, the study carried out panel data from 2001 to 2019 to examine the influence of technological innovation, financial development, energy consumption, and per capita income on environmental degradation in GCC. After conducting necessary preliminary tests, the study employed a symmetric and asymmetric ARDL approach to quantify the numerical estimates. Both symmetric and asymmetric models show that technological innovation reduces environmental degradation, while energy consumption, per capita, and financial development expedite the ecological deterioration in GCC. The Wald tests demonstrate the asymmetric relationship between technological innovation, energy consumption, financial development, and environmental degradation. However, the study fails to find a significant asymmetric relationship between per capita and ecological degradation. The recommendations are added in the recommendation part of the paper.

Recent advancements in engineered biopolymeric-nanohybrids: A greener approach for adsorptive-remediation of noxious metals from aqueous matrices.

Industrial wastewater is causing serious health problems due to presence of large concentrations of toxic metals. Removal of these metals is still a big challenge using pristine natural biopolymers due to their low surface area, water solubility, and poor recovery. Developing biopolymeric composites with other materials has attained attention because they possess a high surface area and structural porosity, high reactivity, and less water solubility. In simple words, biopolymeric nanohybrids have great adsorption capacity for heavy metals. Biopolymeric materials are abundant, low cost, biodegradable, and possess different functional moieties (carboxyl, amine, hydroxyl, and carbonyl) which play a vital role to adsorb metal ions through various inter-linkages (i.e., electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, ion exchange, chelation, etc.). Biopolymeric nanohybrids have been proven a potent tool in environmental remediation such as the abatement of heavy metal ions from polluted water. Herein, we have reported the adsorption potential of various biopolymers (cellulose, chitosan, pectin, gelatin, and silk proteins) for the removal of heavy metals. This review discusses the suitability of biopolymeric nanohybrids as an adsorbent for heavy metals, their synthesis, modification, adsorption potential, and adsorption mechanism along with best fitted thermodynamic and kinetic models. The influence of pH, contact time, and adsorbent dose on adsorption potential has also been discussed in detail. Lastly, the challenges, research gaps and recommendations have been presented. This review concludes that biopolymers in combination with other materials such as metal-based nanoparticles, clay, and carbon-based materials are excellent materials to remove metallic ions from wastewater. Significant adsorption of heavy metals was obtained at a moderate pH (5-6). Contact time and adsorbent dose also affect the adsorption of heavy metals in certain ways. The Pseudo-first order model fits the data for the initial period of the first step of the reaction. Kinetic studies of different adsorption processes of various biopolymeric nanohybrids described that for majority of bionanohybrids, Pseudo-second order fitted the experimental data very well. Functionalized biopolymeric nanohybrids being biodegradable, environment friendly, cost-effective materials have great potential to adsorb heavy metal ions. These may be the future materials for environmental remediation.

Effect of torrefaction conditions on the physicochemical characterization of agricultural waste (sugarcane bagasse).

Pakistan is an agricultural country whose agricultural sector employs 43% of the labour force. However, a substantial amount of agricultural waste contributes little economic benefit to the farmers. The annual production of agricultural waste studied in this work, i.e., sugarcane bagasse, is approximately 12 million tonnes per year, and most of that is burned inefficiently. The present work shows that agricultural waste is a significant energy resource that could be used to generate electricity after the application of a simple thermal processing technique (i.e., torrefaction). Torrefaction is a mild pyrolysis treatment in an inert atmosphere that is carried out to improve the physical and chemical properties of biomass. In this study, sugarcane bagasse was torrefied at five different temperatures (200 °C, 225 °C, 250 °C, 275 °C and 300 °C) for four different residence times (15, 30, 45 and 60 min). The physical and chemical properties, such as proximate and ultimate analysis, true density, grindability and hydrophobicity, of the raw and torrefied sugarcane bagasse were investigated. No significant improvement in the characteristics of torrefied waste was found at low torrefaction temperatures (200 °C and 225 °C). However, with the increase in the temperature and residence time torrefaction conditions to 300 °C and 60 min, respectively, a significant improvement was found. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed that owing to torrefaction, the hydroxyl group content is decreased and carbonyl group content is increased within the fuel. Moreover, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study indicated that tiny dispersed particles in the raw sample fused together at a higher torrefaction temperature of 300 °C, forming a tubular structure due to lignin degradation, and the biomass became easy to grind. Thus, torrefaction is an effective approach for improving the characteristics of sugarcane bagasse.

Field evaluation of some bait additives against Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) (Rodentia: Hystricidae).

This research study evaluated the effect of different additives on the bait consumption by Indian crested porcupine, a serious forest and agricultural pest, under field conditions. Different additives (saccharin, common salt, bone meal, fish meal, peanut butter, egg yolk, egg shell powder, yeast powder, mineral oil and coconut oil) at 2 and 5% each were tested for their relative preference, using groundnut-maize (1:1) as basic bait. All the additives were tested under a no-choice test pattern. For control tests, no additive was mixed with the basic bait. Saccharin at 5% concentration significantly enhanced the consumption of bait over the basic bait, while 2% saccharin supplemented bait resulted in a non-significant bait consumption. All other additives did not enhance the consumption of the bait material; rather, these worked as repellents. However, the repellency was lowest with the common salt, followed by egg yolk, egg shell powder, bone meal, peanut butter, mineral oil, fish meal and yeast powder, while coconut remained the most repellent compound. The present study suggested that groundnut-maize (1:1) supplemented with 5% saccharin was the preferred bait combination, and can be used with different rodenticides for the management of Indian crested porcupine.