Functionality of wheat straw-derived biochar enhanced its efficiency for actively capping Cd and Pb in contaminated water and soil matrices: Insights through batch adsorption and flow-through experiments.

The impact of functionality of biochar on pressing environmental issue of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) co-contamination in simultaneous soil and water systems has not sufficiently reported. This study investigated the impact of Fe- and Mg-functionalized wheat straw biochar (Fe-WSBC and Mg-WSBC) on Cd and Pb adsorption/immobilization through batch sorption and column leaching trials. Importantly, Fe-WSBC was more effective in adsorbing Cd and Pb (82.84 and 111.24 mg g-1), regeneration ability (removal efficiency 94.32 and 92.365), and competitive ability under competing cations (83.15 and 84.36%) compared to other materials (WSBC and Mg-WSBC). The practical feasibility of Fe-WSBC for spiked river water verified the 92.57% removal of Cd and 85.73% for Pb in 50 mg L-1 and 100 mg L-1 contamination, respectively. Besides, the leaching of Cd and Pb with Fe-WSBC under flow-through conditions was lowered to (0.326 and 17.62 mg L-1), respectively as compared to control (CK) (0.836 and 40.40 mg L-1). In short, this study presents the applicable approach for simultaneous remediation of contaminated water and soil matrices, offering insights into environmentally friendly green remediation strategies for heavy metals co-contaminated matrices.

A Modified Model for Quantitative Heavy Metal Source Apportionment and Pollution Pathway Identification.

Current source apportionment models have successfully identified emission sources and quantified their contributions. However, when being utilized for heavy metal source apportion in soil, their accuracy needs to be improved, regarding migration patterns. Therefore, this work intended to improve the pre-existing principal component analysis and multiple linear regression with distance (PCA-MLRD) model to effectively locate pollution pathways (traffic emissions, irrigation water, atmospheric depositions, etc.) and achieve a more precise quantification. The dataset of soil heavy metals was collected from a typical area in the Chang-Zhu-Tan region, Hunan, China in 2021. The identification of the contribution of soil parent material was accomplished through enrichment factors and crustal reference elements. Meanwhile, the anthropogenic emission was identified with principal component analysis and GeoDetector. GeoDetector was used to accurately point to the pollution source from a spatial differentiation perspective. Subsequently, the pollution pathways linked to the identified sources were determined. Non-metal manufacturing factories were found to be significant anthropogenic sources of local soil contamination, mainly through rivers and atmospheric deposition. Furthermore, the influence of irrigation water on heavy metals showed a more pronounced effect within a distance of 1000 m, became weaker after that, and then gradually disappeared. This model may offer improved technical guidance for practical production and the management of soil heavy metal contamination.

Predicting the governing factors for the release of colloidal phosphorus using machine learning.

Predicting the parameters that influence colloidal phosphorus (CP) release from soils under different land uses is critical for managing the impact on water quality. Traditional modeling approaches, such as linear regression, may fail to represent the intricate relationships that exist between soil qualities and environmental influences. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the major determinants of CP release from different land use/types such as farmland, desert, forest soils, and rivers. The study utilizes the structural equation model (SEM), multiple linear regression (MLR), and three machine learning (ML) models (Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost)) to predict the release of CP from different soils by using soil iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), pH, total organic carbon (TOC) and precipitation as independent variables. Results show that colloidal-cations (Fe, Al, Ca) and colloidal-TOC strongly influence CP release, while bioclimatic variables (precipitation) and pH have weaker effects. XGBoost outperforms the other models with an R2 of 0.94 and RMSE of 0.09. SHapley Additive Explanations described the outcomes since XGBoost is accurate. The relative relevance ranking indicated that colloidal TOC had the highest ranking in predicting CP. This was supported by the analysis of partial dependence plots, which showed that an increase in colloidal TOC increased soil CP release. According to our research, the SHAP XGBoost model provides significant information that can help determine the variables that considerably influence CP contents as compared to RF, SVM, and MLR.

Mitigating cadmium exposure risk in rice with foliar nano-selenium: Investigations through Caco-2 human cell line in-vivo bioavailability assay.

The contamination of paddy fields by cadmium and lead is a major issue in China. The consumption of rice grown in heavy metals contaminated areas poses severe health risks to humans, where bioavailability and bioaccessibility remains the critical factor for risk determination. Selenium nanoparticles (Se-NPs) can mitigate the toxicity of heavy metals in plants. However, there exists limited information regarding the role of Se-NPs in dictating cadmium (Cd) toxicity in rice for human consumption. Moreover, the impact of Se-NPs under simultaneous field and laboratory controlled conditions is rarely documented. To address this knowledge gap, a field experiment was conducted followed by laboratory scale bioavailability assays. Foliar application of Se-NPs and selenite (at 5, 10 mg L-1) was performed to assess their efficiency in lowering Cd accumulation, promoting Se biofortification in rice grains, and evaluating Cd exposure risk from contaminated rice. Obtained results indicate that foliar treatments significantly reduced the heavy metal accumulation in rice grains. Specifically, Se-NP 10 mg L-1 demonstrated higher efficiency, reducing Cd and Pb by 56 and 32 % respectively. However, inconsistent trends for bioavailable Cd (0.03 mg kg-1) and bioaccessible (0.04 mg kg-1) were observed while simulated human rice intake. Furthermore, the foliage application of Se-NPs and selenite improved rice quality by elevating Se, Zn, Fe, and protein levels, while lowering phytic acid content in rice grains. In summary, this study suggests the promising potential of foliage spraying of Se-NPs in lowering the health risks associated with consuming Cd-contaminated rice.

Enhancing the phytoextraction efficiency of heavy metals in acidic and alkaline soils by Sedum alfredii Hance: A study on the synergistic effect of plant growth regulator and plant growth-promoting bacteria.

Plant growth regulators (PGR) and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have the potential in phytoremediation of heavy metals (HMs) contaminated soils. However, their sole application may not yield the optimal results, thus necessitating the combined application. The present study aimed to enhance the phytoremediation efficiency of Sedum alfredii Hance (S. alfredii) in acidic and alkaline soils through the combination of PGR (Brassinolide, BR) and PGPB (Pseudomonas fluorescens, P. fluorescens). The combination of BR and P. fluorescens (BRB treatment) effectively increased the removal efficiency of S. alfredii for Cd, Pb, and Zn by 355.2 and 155.3 %, 470.1 and 128.9 %, and 408.4 and 209.6 %, in acidic and alkaline soils, respectively. Moreover, BRB treatment led to a substantial increase in photosynthetic pigments contents and antioxidant enzymes activities, resulting in a remarkable increase in biomass (86.71 and 47.22 %) and dry mass (101.49 and 42.29 %) of plants grown in acidic and alkaline soils, respectively. Similarly, BRB treatment significantly elevated the Cd (109.4 and 71.36 %), Pb (174.9 and 48.03 %), and Zn levels (142.8 and 104.3 %) in S. alfredii shoots, along with cumulative accumulation of Cd (122.7 and 79.47 %), Pb (183.8 and 60.49 %), and Zn (150.7 and 117.9 %), respectively. In addition, the BRB treatment lowered the soil pH and DTPA-HMs contents, while augmenting soil enzymatic activities, thereby contributing soil microecology and facilitating the HMs absorption and translocation by S. alfredii to over-ground tissues. Furthermore, the evaluation of microbial community structure in phyllosphere and rhizosphere after remediation revealed the shift in microbial abundance. The combined treatment altered the principal effects on S. alfredii HMs accumulation from bacterial diversity to the soil HMs availability. In summary, our findings demonstrated that synergistic application of BR and P. fluorescens represents a viable approach to strengthen the phytoextraction efficacy of S. alfredii in varying soils.

Occurrence of micropollutants in rural domestic wastewater in Zhejiang Province, China and corresponding wastewater-based epidemiology analysis.

By 2021, rural regions in China were occupied by over 500 million residents, generating an annual volume of 19.5 billion m3 of rural domestic wastewater (RDW). This study aimed to investigate the occurrence and removal of micropollutants (MPs) in RDW treatment facilities and to perform a corresponding wastewater-based epidemiology analysis (WBE). Our findings indicated the significantly high levels of influent MPs, particularly pharmaceuticals, such as ofloxacin and diclofenac being most prevalent (ranging from several to tens of µg/L) across different facilities. After various treatments, regular water indexes in the effluent, like NH3 -N and COD, have basically satisfied the local discharge standard. However, the concentration of certain dominant MPs in effluent remained notably high, ranging from hundreds of ng/L to several µg/L. The risk quotients of MPs like diclofenac, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, diuron, and isoproturon were all above 1 in the effluent, signifying significant hazards to aquatic organisms. The quantitative meta-analysis revealed higher average standardized removal efficiency for membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment (-11 %) compared to anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (A2O) treatment (11 %), indicating the higher efficiency of MBR treatment in outperforming the A2O as a secondary treatment. Additionally, employing biofilter as a tertiary treatment proved to be more effective as compared to flocculation-air flotation and artificial wetlands. Moreover, the results of WBE analysis showed that diclofenac and ofloxacin emerged as the most commonly used pharmaceuticals (of seven), with consumption levels recorded at 1222 and 517 mg/(d·103 capita), with daily defined doses per day per 103 capita of 12.2/1000 and 1.29/1000, respectively. This study addresses the existing knowledge gaps regarding the occurrence and removal of MPs in RDW and offers valuable insights into pharmaceutical consumption patterns in rural regions, thereby improving our understanding of public health.

Co-foliar application of zinc and nano-silicon to rice helps in reducing cadmium exposure risk: Investigations through in-vitro digestion with human cell line bioavailability assay.

Foliar application of zinc (Zn) or silicon nanoparticles (Si-NPs) may exert regulatory effects on cadmium (Cd) accumulation in rice grains, however, their impact on Cd bioavailability during human rice consumption remains elusive. This study comprehensively investigated the application of Zn with or without Si-NPs in reducing Cd accumulation in rice grains as well to exactly evaluate the potential risk of Cd exposure resulting from the rice consumption by employing field experiment as well laboratory bioaccessibility and bioavailability assay. Sole Zn (ZnSO4) or in combination with Si (ZnSO4 +Si and ZnO+Si) efficiently lowered the Cd concentration in rice grains. However, the impact of bioaccessible (0.1215-0.1623 mg kg-1) and bioavailable Cd (0.0245-0.0393 mg kg-1) during simulated human rice consumption depicted inconsistent trend. The straw HCl-extractable fraction of Cd (FHCl-Cd) exhibited a significant correlation with total, bioaccessible, and bioavailable Cd in grains, indicating the critical role of FHCl-Cd in Cd accumulation and translocation from grains to human. Additionally, foliar spraying of Zn+Si raised the nutritional value of rice grains, leading to increased protein content and reduced phytic acid concentration. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of foliar application of ZnSO4 +Si in mitigating the Cd levels in rice grains and associated health risks upon consumption.

A Review and Comparative Analysis of Relevant Approaches of Zero Trust Network Model.

The Zero Trust safety architecture emerged as an intriguing approach for overcoming the shortcomings of standard network security solutions. This extensive survey study provides a meticulous explanation of the underlying principles of Zero Trust, as well as an assessment of the many strategies and possibilities for effective implementation. The survey begins by examining the role of authentication and access control within Zero Trust Architectures, and subsequently investigates innovative authentication, as well as access control solutions across different scenarios. It more deeply explores traditional techniques for encryption, micro-segmentation, and security automation, emphasizing their importance in achieving a secure Zero Trust environment. Zero Trust Architecture is explained in brief, along with the Taxonomy of Zero Trust Network Features. This review article provides useful insights into the Zero Trust paradigm, its approaches, problems, and future research objectives for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. This survey contributes to the growth and implementation of secure network architectures in critical infrastructures by developing a deeper knowledge of Zero Trust.

Federated Learning Approach for Secured Medical Recommendation in Internet of Medical Things Using Homomorphic Encryption.

The concept of Federated Learning (FL) is a distributed-based machine learning (ML) approach that trains its model using edge devices. Its focus is on maintaining privacy by transmitting gradient updates along with users' learning parameters to the global server in the process of training as well as preserving the integrity of data on the user-end of internet of medical things (IoMT) devices. Instead of a direct use of user data, the training which is performed on the global server is done on the parameters while the model modification is performed locally on IoMT devices. But the major drawback of this federated learning approach is its inability to preserve user privacy complete thereby resulting in gradients leakage. Thus, this study first presents a summary of the process of learning and further proposes a new approach for federated medical recommender system which employs the use of homomorphic cryptography to ensure a more privacy-preservation of user gradients during recommendations. The experimental results indicate an insignificant decrease with respect to the metrics of accuracy, however, a greater percentage of user-privacy is achieved. Further analysis also shows that performing computations on encrypted gradients at the global server scarcely has any impact on the output of the recommendation while guaranteeing a supplementary secure channel for transmitting user-based gradients back and forth the global server. The result of this analysis indicates that the performance of federated stochastic modification minimized gradient (FSMMG) algorithm is greatly increased at every given increase in the number of users and a good convergence is achieved as well. Also, experiments indicate that when compared against other existing techniques, the proposed FSMMG outperforms at 98.3% encryption accuracy.

Foliar application of plant growth regulators for enhancing heavy metal phytoextraction efficiency by Sedum alfredii Hance in contaminated soils: Lab to field experiments.

The phytoremediation efficiency of plants in removing the heavy metals (HMs) might be influenced by their growth status and accumulation capacity of plants. Herein, we conducted a lab-scale experiment and a field try out to assess the optimal plant growth regulators (PGRs) including indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)/brassinolide (BR)/abscisic acid (ABA) in improving the phytoextraction potential of Sedum alfredii Hance (S. alfredii). The results of pot experiment revealed that application of IAA at 0.2 mg/L, BR at 0.4 mg/L, and ABA at 0.2 mg/L demonstrated notable potential as optimal dosage for Cd/Pb/Zn phytoextraction in S. alfredii. The findings of subcellular level of Cd/Pb/Zn in leaves showed that IAA (0.2 mg/L), BR (0.4 mg/L) or ABA (0.2 mg/L) promoted the HMs storage in the soluble and cell wall fraction, therefore contributing HMs subcellular compartmentation. In addition, application of PGRs notably enhanced the antioxidant system (SOD, CAT, POD, APX activities) while reducing lipid peroxidation (MDA content) in S. alfredii, consequently improving HMs tolerance and growth of S. alfredii. Moreover, the results of field trial showed that application of BR, IAA, or ABA+BR substantially improved the growth of S. alfredii by inducing plants biomass and augmenting the levels of photosynthetic pigment contents. Notably, ABA+BR noticed the highest theoretical biomass by 42.9 %, followed by IAA (41.6 %), and BR (36.4 %), as compared with CK. Additionally, ABA+BR treatment showed effectiveness in removing the Cd by 103.4 %, while BR and IAA led to a significant increase of Pb and Zn removal by 239 % and 116 %, respectively, when compared with CK. Overall, the results of this study highlights that the foliar application of IAA, BR, or ABA+BR can serve as viable strategy to boosting phytoremediation efficiency of S. alfredii in contaminated soil by improving the biomass and metal accumulation in harvestable parts.

Seed nano-priming with multiple nanoparticles enhanced the growth parameters of lettuce and mitigated cadmium (Cd) bio-toxicity: An advanced technique for remediation of Cd contaminated environments.

Seed nano-priming can be used as an advanced technology for enhancing seed germination, plant growth, and crop productivity; however, the potential role of seed nano-priming in ameliorative cadmium (Cd) bio-toxicity under Cd stress has not yet been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, in this study we investigated the beneficial impacts of seed priming with low (L) and high (H) concentrations of nanoparticles including nSiO2 (50/100 mg L-1), nTiO2 (20/60 mg L-1), nZnO (50/100 mg L-1), nFe3O4 (100/200 mg L-1), nCuO (50/100 mg L-1), and nCeO2 (50/100 mg L-1) on lettuce growth and antioxidant enzyme activities aiming to assess their efficacy for enhancing plant growth and reducing Cd phytotoxicity. The results showed a significant increase in plant growth, biomass production, antioxidant enzyme activities, and photosynthetic efficiency in lettuce treated with nano-primed nSiH + Cd (100 mg L-1), nTiH + Cd (60 mg L-1), and nZnL + Cd (50 mg L-1) under Cd stress. Moreover, nano-priming effectively reduced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in lettuce shoots. Interestingly, nano-primed nSiH + Cd, nTiH + Cd, and nZnL + Cd demonstrated efficient reduction of Cd uptake, less translocation factor of Cd with high tolerance index, ultimately reducing toxicity by stabilizing the root morphology and superior accumulation of critical nutrients (K, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Zn). Thus, this study provides the first evidence of alleviating Cd toxicity in lettuce by using multiple nanoparticles via priming strategy. The findings highlight the potential of nanoparticles (Si, Zn, and Ti) as stress mitigation agents for improved crop growth and yield in Cd contaminated areas, thereby offering a promising and advanced approach for remediation of Cd contaminated environments.

Assessing the effectiveness of 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) inhibitor in mitigating N2O emissions from contrasting Cd-contaminated soils.

Improving nitrogen use efficiency of chemical fertilizers is essential to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of nitrogen. Nitrification, the conversion of ammonium to nitrate via nitrite by soil microbes, is a prominent source of nitrogen loss in soil systems. The effectiveness of nitrification inhibitors in reducing nitrogen loss through inhibition of nitrification is well-documented, however, their efficacy in heavy metals-contaminated soils needs thorough investigations. The current study assessed the efficacy of nitrification inhibitor 3, 4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) in reducing nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in cadmium (Cd) contaminated paddy and red soils under lab-controlled environment. Obtained results indicated the substantial reduction in N2O emissions with DMPP in paddy and red soil by 48 and 35 %, respectively. However, Cd contamination resulted in reduced efficacy of DMPP, thus decreased the N2O emissions by 36 and 25 % in paddy and red soil, respectively. It was found that addition of DMPP had a significant effect on the abundance of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA). Notably, the reduction in N2O emissions by DMPP varied with the abundance of AOB. Moreover, Cd pollution resulted in a significant (P < 0.05) reduction in the abundance of archaeal and bacterial amoA genes, as well as bacterial nirK, nirS, and nosZ genes. The combined treatment of Cd and DMPP had a detrimental impact on denitrifiers, thereby influencing the overall efficiency of DMPP. These findings provide novel insights into the application of DMPP to mitigate nitrification and its potential role in reducing N2O emissions in contaminated soils.

Effect of foliar application of nanoparticles on growth, physiology, and antioxidant enzyme activities of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) plants under cadmium toxicity.

Nanotechnology has attracted the interest of scientists due to its wide range of application specifically in agriculture. Nanoparticles (NPs) may act as a promising materials to alleviate cadmium (Cd) stress in plants. This study aims to assess the impact of multiple nanoparticles including nSiO2 (50 mg L-1:100 mg L-1), nTiO2 (20 mg L-1:60 mg L-1), nZnO (50 mg L-1:100 mg L-1), nFe3O4 (100 mg L-1:200 mg L-1), nCuO (50 mg L-1:100 mg L-1), and nCeO2 (50 mg L-1:100 mg L-1) in combination with CdCl2 (5 µM) to mitigate Cd toxicity in lettuce through foliar application in hydroponic solution. Current findings indicate that foliar application of nSiL + Cd (50 mg L-1), nZnL + Cd (50 mg L-1), and nTiL + Cd (20 mg L-1) is more effective in improving growth, biomass, root architecture, and elevated photosynthetic efficiency, which might be attributed to the increasing uptake of essential micronutrient (K, Mg, Ca, Fe, Zn) under Cd stress. Similarly, treatment with nanoparticles leads to reduced accumulation of ROS and MDA in lettuce, while enhancing the SOD, POD, CAT, and APX activities. The results showed that nanoparticles have high tolerance against Cd as depicted by the inhibition in Cd accumulation by 3.2-58% and 10-72% in roots as well as edible parts of lettuce, respectively. In addition, Cd alone reduces the morphological traits, antioxidant enzyme activity, and photosynthetic activity, while increasing the ROS, MDA, and Cd accumulation in lettuce. This comprehensive study suggests the role of nanoparticles in reducing Cd toxicity in lettuce, signifying their importance as stress mitigation agents. However, long-term pot, priming, and field trials are needed to identify the optimal nanoparticle for the lettuce under variable environmental conditions.

Algorithmic Approach to Virtual Machine Migration in Cloud Computing with Updated SESA Algorithm.

Cloud computing plays an important role in every IT sector. Many tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook as deploying their data centres around the world to provide computation and storage services. The customers either submit their job directly or they take the help of the brokers for the submission of the jobs to the cloud centres. The preliminary aim is to reduce the overall power consumption which was ignored in the early days of cloud development. This was due to the performance expectations from cloud servers as they were supposed to provide all the services through their services layers IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. As time passed and researchers came up with new terminologies and algorithmic architecture for the reduction of power consumption and sustainability, other algorithmic anarchies were also introduced, such as statistical oriented learning and bioinspired algorithms. In this paper, an indepth focus has been done on multiple approaches for migration among virtual machines and find out various issues among existing approaches. The proposed work utilizes elastic scheduling inspired by the smart elastic scheduling algorithm (SESA) to develop a more energy-efficient VM allocation and migration algorithm. The proposed work uses cosine similarity and bandwidth utilization as additional utilities to improve the current performance in terms of QoS. The proposed work is evaluated for overall power consumption and service level agreement violation (SLA-V) and is compared with related state of art techniques. A proposed algorithm is also presented in order to solve problems found during the survey.

Seed priming with nano-silica effectively ameliorates chromium toxicity in Brassica napus.

Plant yield is severely hampered by chromium (Cr) toxicity, affirming the urgent need to develop strategies to suppress its phyto-accumulation. Silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) have emerged as a provider of sustainable crop production and resistance to abiotic stress. But, the mechanisms by which seed-primed SiO2 NPs palliate Cr-accumulation and its toxic impacts in Brassica napus L. tissues remains poorly understood. To address this gap, present study examined the protective efficacy of seed priming with SiO2 NPs (400 mg/L) in relieving the Cr (200 µM) phytotoxicity mainly in B. napus seedlings. Results delineated that SiO2 NPs significantly declined the accumulation of Cr (38.7/35.9%), MDA (25.9/29.1%), H2O2 (27.04/36.9%) and O2• (30.02/34.7%) contents in leaves/roots, enhanced the nutrients acquisition, leading to improved photosynthetic performance and better plant growth. SiO2 NPs boosted the plant immunity by upregulating the transcripts of antioxidant (SOD, CAT, APX, GR) or defense-related genes (PAL, CAD, PPO, PAO and MT-1), GSH (assists Cr-vacuolar sequestration), and modifying the subcellular distribution (enhances Cr-proportion in cell wall), thereby confer tolerance to ultrastructural damages under Cr stress. Our first evidence to establish the Cr-detoxification by seed-primed SiO2 NPs in B. napus, indicated the potential of SiO2 NPs as stress-reducing agent for crops grown in Cr-contaminated areas.

Heavy metal content and health risk assessment of atmospheric particles in China: A meta-analysis.

In recent decades, China has devoted significant attention to the heavy metals pollution in particulate matter. However, the majority of studies have only focused on the field monitoring in relatively remote areas, which may not be representative of air quality across the country. This study reevaluated the characteristics, temporal and spatial changes, and health concerns associated with heavy metal pollution in atmospheric particulates on a national scale by coupling Meta-analysis and Monte Carlo simulation analysis. In terms of spatial distribution, the heavy metals pollution levels in the northern coast and northeastern regions are relatively high, whereas it is low along the middle Yellow River, middle Yangtze River, as well as Southwest. With the exception of Cu, the distribution of all elements in PM2.5 steadily decreased over time Moreover, PM10 and PM2.5 performed similar where Cd and Ni both first increased followed by a decline while, Cr displayed a decrease before it showed an increment. And since the implementation of prevention and control policies about the atmospheric release, the focus of industrial emission has gradually shifted from energy production and processing to living products manufacturing. Moreover, the carcinogenic risk was shown to be Cr > As, Pb > Ni, Cd, while the non-carcinogenic risk was as follows: As, Ni > Cr, Cd. Among all contaminants, Cd, As, and Cr in PM2.5 and PM10 exceeded the WHO standard in the cities with worst air quality. It was observed that As posed the largest non-carcinogenic risk to adults while, Cr caused the most carcinogenic risk to adults and children, where the carcinogenic risk of children remains higher than that of adults. Therefore, the findings of this study may offer data support to the China's heavy metal pollution standards in airborne particles and offer theoretical data support for pollution management.

Cadmium mobility and health risk assessment in the soil-rice-human system using in vitro biaccessibility and in vivo bioavailability assay: Two year field experiment.

Humans are mainly exposed to cadmium (Cd) due to the rice consumption, however there exist considerable differences across rice cultivars in terms of Cd absorption and accumulation in the grains, and subsequent release after digestion (bioaccessibility), as well as uptake by Caco-2 cells of humans (bioavailability). This study comprised of field and lab simulation trials where in the field, firstly 39 mid-rice cultivars were screened for their phytoremediation potential coupled with safe production in relation to uptake and translocation of Cd. Lower Cd concentrations (˂0.2 mg kg-1) in polished rice of 74 % cultivars were ascribed to the increased root to straw translocation indicating that straw may acquire higher accumulation of Cd. Furthermore, the ionomic profile demonstrated that the spatial distribution of metals in different rice organs corresponds to the plant growth morphology. In the second year, in vitro-in vivo assay model was employed to assess the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of Cd in polished rice and to further estimate the daily Cd intake by humans through rice grains. The results of bioaccessibility and bioavailability assays and daily estimated Cd intake presented the corresponding values of 39.02-59.76 %, 8.69-24.26 %, and 0.0185-0.9713 µg kg-1 body weight day-1, respectively. There exists a strong connection between total Cd and bioaccessible Cd to humans (R2 = 0.94, P < 0.01). Polynomial fitting (R2 = 0.91, P < 0.01) showed a better statistically significant correlation between total Cd contents and bioavailable levels, suggesting that in vitro-in vivo assays should be considered in future studies. The results of field experiments and in vitro-in vivo assays recommended the Tianyouhuazhan (MR-29), Heliangyou1hao (MR-17), and Yongyou15 (MR-1) as suitable mid-rice cultivars for the phytoremediation of slightly Cd contaminated soils coupled with rice agro-production due to their high nutritional value and low total and bioavailable Cd for human.

Fluorine in 20 vegetable species and 25 lettuce cultivars grown on a contaminated field adjacent to a brick kiln.

Crops grown in areas contaminated by industrial and agricultural fluorine (F) have gained increasing attention, however F levels in different vegetables and lettuce cultivars are rarely reported. In situ-field experiment was designed to investigate the concentration, translocation, and health risks of F in 20 vegetable species and 25 lettuce cultivars. After the growth of 150 d for vegetables and 60 d for lettuce, F concentration (12.83-138.07 mg kg-1), translocation factor (0.16-6.32), and bio-concentration factor (1.90-13.73) varied significantly between vegetable species and lettuce cultivars. According to the hazard quotient values (based on the reference dose of F), all the vegetable species appears to pose no risk to human health, while 60% of the lettuce cultivars present potential health risks to children. Therefore, the limit value of F in vegetables for adults and children should be enacted in the future. Moreover, cabbage, green radish, spinach, leaf mustard, and Frisee lettuce (Huayu) were considered as a safe dietary product. These findings contributed to the safe cultivation of vegetables and the control of fluorosis in the areas contaminated by industrial and agricultural activities.

Role of biochar-based free radicals in immobilization and speciation of metals in the contaminated soil-plant environment.

The structure of biochar produced at various pyrolysis temperatures influences metal geochemical behavior. Here, the impact of wheat straw-derived biochar (300, 500, and 700 °C) on the immobilization and transformation of metals in the contaminated soil-plant system was assessed. The findings of the sequential extraction revealed that biochar additives had a substantial influence on the speciation of Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the contaminated soil. The lowest F1 (exchangeable and soluble fraction) + F2 (carbonate fraction) accounted for Cr (44%) in WB-300, Ni (43.87%) in WB-500, Pb (43.79%), and Zn (49.78%) in WB-700 with applied amendments of their total amounts. The characterization results indicated that high pyrolysis temperatures (300-700 °C) increased the carbon-containing groups with the potential to adsorb metals from the soil-plant environment. The bioconcentration and translocation factors (BCF and TF) were less than 1, indicating that metal concentration was restricted to maize roots and translocation to shoots. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) intracellularly influence metal interactions with plants. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) was performed to determine hydroxyl radical generation (•OH) in plant segments to assess the dominance of free radicals (FRs). Consequently, the formation of •OH significantly depends on the pyrolysis temperature and the interaction with a contaminated soil-plant environment. Thus, metal transformation can be effectively decreased in the soil-plant environment by applying WB amendments.

Software architecture for pervasive critical health monitoring system using fog computing.

Because of the existence of Covid-19 and its variants, health monitoring systems have become mandatory, particularly for critical patients such as neonates. However, the massive volume of real-time data generated by monitoring devices necessitates the use of efficient methods and approaches to respond promptly. A fog-based architecture for IoT healthcare systems tends to provide better services, but it also produces some issues that must be addressed. We present a bidirectional approach to improving real-time data transmission for health monitors by minimizing network latency and usage in this paper. To that end, a simplified approach for large-scale IoT health monitoring systems is devised, which provides a solution for IoT device selection of optimal fog nodes to reduce both communication and processing delays. Additionally, an improved dynamic approach for load balancing and task assignment is also suggested. Embedding the best practices from the IoT, Fog, and Cloud planes, our aim in this work is to offer software architecture for IoT-based healthcare systems to fulfill non-functional needs. 4 + 1 views are used to illustrate the proposed architecture.