Ammonium nitrate is a risk for environment: A case study of Beirut (Lebanon) chemical explosion and the effects on environment.

An attempt has been made in correspondence to explain the consequences of chemical pollution after the explosion of ammonium nitrate (AN) in Beirut (capital of Lebanon). The effects of chemicals in the air, soil, and water have been discussed. In addition, the study emphasizes on the research to restore the environment and enhanced safety measurements.

Exposure of broiler chickens to chronic heat stress increases the severity of white striping on the pectoralis major muscle.

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of cyclic or chronic heat stress (HS) on the incidence and severity of white striping (WS) and histopathological changes in breast muscle of broiler chickens. One hundred eighty 1-day-old male chickens were randomly assigned to three research groups: control (standard temperature throughout the experiment), cyclic HS (32 ºC between 0800 and 2000 h from day 21 until the end of the experiment), and chronic HS (32 ºC from day 21 onwards). Cyclic and chronic HS groups showed a significant (P < 0.05) decrease in body weight gain and feed intake and poor feed conversion ratio in grower, finisher, and overall period. Serum biochemical profile was not different among the groups except globulin and P which were significantly higher (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively), in cyclic and chronic HS groups. Overall, WS incidence was numerically higher in control birds followed by chronic HS and cyclic HS birds, respectively. The chronic HS group had a lower incidence of mild (score 1) and a higher incidence of severe (score 2) WS lesions compared to control and cyclic HS groups. Histopathological analysis revealed that broilers subjected to chronic HS showed increased severity of myodegenerative changes, perivenular CD3 + cell infiltration, and lipidosis compared to control group. However, control and cyclic HS groups were not different in terms of histopathological lesions. In conclusion, this study confirms that cyclic or chronic HS may adversely affect the growth performance and that chronic HS may increase the severity of WS in broiler chickens.

Pulp waste extracted reinforced powder incorporated biodegradable chitosan composite film for enhancing red grape shelf-life.

Chitosan (CS) is widely used as a natural biopolymer due to its semi-crystalline structure, good film-forming properties, and easy availability. CS-based composite films are widely used in industry, particularly in the food sector as active food packaging. Despite all of these advantages, their wide range of applications are constrained by poor mechanical properties. Therefore, this work introduced refined bamboo cellulose powder (RBCP), a reinforcing material that is extracted from waste bamboo pulp and applied to CS composite films to enhance their mechanical and physicochemical properties. The chemical composition and crystallinity properties of CS composite films with RBCP addition were observed by ATR-FTIR and XRD. The homogeneous and heterogeneous surfaces of the RBCP incorporated films before biodegradation and after biodegradation (20 days) were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The increase in reinforcing RBCP materials from 0.00 to 5.00 % resulted in an increase in tensile strength for CS/RBCP films from 2.9 to 8.3 MPa. The application of the CS/RBCP/5 composite film as red grapefruit storage was also investigated, which performed much better than commercial plastic and control CS films with 92.8 and 88.6 % viability of S. aureus and E. coli bacteria. Overall achieved properties demonstrated strong potential for usage as active packaging materials to preserve and lengthen the shelf life of red grapefruits.

A Synergistic Combination of AuNRs and C Dots as a Multifunctional Material for Ice Recrystallization Inhibition and Rapid Rewarming.

Robust platforms and advanced biocompatible materials having diverse performances are in tremendous demand for cryopreservation of biocells, which are greatly limited by the crystallization, formation, and growth of ice crystals. The fickle structure and the arduous extraction process of modern attainable antifreezing proteins cause fatal cryoinjury of the cells making it challenging to develop anti-icing materials. Thus, designing Au colloids is an effective way to combat cell-damaging concerns during the ice freezing-thawing process. Herein, we propose an emerging biomimetic hybrid nanomaterial (AuNR@SiO2-CDs) prepared by combining the photoheating and rewarming controlling characteristics of carbon dots (CDs) and gold nanorods (AuNRs), respectively, via a SiO2 scaffold that has an optimal aspect ratio of ∼4.4. The performance of the material is applied in the freezing and resuscitation of Hela cells. The typical linkage between the AuNR and CDs not only retains the stable structure but also possesses the symmetric functional characteristics of affirmative cryoprotectant materials and sustained low cytotoxicity of cell viability >90%. The cell recovery rate of the Hela cell is significantly improved to ∼60%, which is propped up to >4% higher by the laser irradiation dose. The above hybrid material is paving a path toward novel bionic antifreezing proteins and is envisioned for ice recrystallization inhibition and rapid rewarming.

Carbonized zeolitic imidazolate framework-67/polypyrrole: A magnetic-dielectric interface for enhanced microwave absorption properties.

Due to the high electromagnetic interference (EMI) pollution, electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials have risen as an important research area in material science and technology. Herein, the prepared carbonized ZIF-67 (CZIF) nanocomposites with polypyrrole (PPy) showed significantly enhanced electromagnetic wave absorption performance. The CZIF-PPy nanocomposites were prepared by the solvothermal and in-situ polymerization method. The CZIF-PPy nanocomposites possess a decent reflection loss (RL) value between the 2-18 GHz frequency range. The enhanced surface properties and magnetic-dielectric interfacial polarization plays an important role to achieve higher reflection loss and broader absorption bandwidth. This work explains the importance of magnetic-dielectric interface and may lead to design of more advanced hybrid electromagnetic wave absorption systems.