Water Harvesting Strategies through Solar Steam Generator Systems.

Solar steam generator (SSG) systems have attracted increasing attention, owing to its simple manufacturing, material abundance, cost-effectiveness, and environmentally friendly freshwater production. This system relies on photothermic materials and water absorbing substrates for a clean continuous distillation process. To optimize this process, there are factors that are needed to be considered such as selection of solar absorber and water absorbent materials, followed by micro/macro-structural system design for efficient water evaporation, floating, and filtration capability. In this contribution, we highlight the general interfacial SSG concept, review and compare recent progresses of different SSG systems, as well as discuss important factors on performance optimization. Furthermore, unaddressed challenges such as SSG's cost to performance ratio, filtration of untreatable micropollutants/microorganisms, and the need of standardization testing will be discussed to further advance future SSG studies.

Metals extraction processes from electronic waste: constraints and opportunities.

The skyrocketing demand and progressive technology have increased our dependency on electrical and electronic devices. However, the life span of these devices has been shortened because of rapid scientific expansions. Hence, massive volumes of electronic waste (e-waste) is generating day by day. Nevertheless, the ongoing management of e-waste has emerged as a major threat to sustainable economic development worldwide. In general, e-waste contains several toxic substances such as metals, plastics, and refractory oxides. Metals, particularly lead, mercury, nickel, cadmium, and copper along with some valuable metals such as rare earth metals, platinum group elements, alkaline and radioactive metal are very common; which can be extracted before disposing of the e-waste for reuse. In addition, many of these metals are hazardous. Therefore, e-waste management is an essential issue. In this study, we critically have reviewed the existing extraction processes and compared among different processes such as physical, biological, supercritical fluid technologies, pyro and hydrometallurgical, and hybrid methods used for metals extraction from e-waste. The review indicates that although each method has particular merits but hybrid methods are eco-friendlier with extraction efficiency > 90%. This study also provides insight into the technical challenges to the practical realization of metals extraction from e-waste sources.

Removal process of antibiotics during anaerobic treatment of swine wastewater.

High concentrations of antibiotics in swine wastewater pose potentially serious risks to the environment, human and animal health. Identifying the mechanism for removing antibiotics during the anaerobic treatment of swine wastewater is essential for reducing the serious damage they do to the environment. In this study, batch experiments were conducted to investigate the biosorption and biodegradation of tetracycline and sulfonamide antibiotics (TCs and SMs) in anaerobic processes. Results indicated that the removal of TCs in the anaerobic reactor contributed to biosorption, while biodegradation was responsible for the SMs' removal. The adsorption of TCs fitted well with the pseudo-second kinetic mode and the Freundlich isotherm, which suggested a heterogeneous chemisorption process. Cometabolism was the main mechanism for the biodegradation of SMs and the process fitted well with the first-order kinetic model. Microbial activity in the anaerobic sludge might be curtailed due to the presence of high concentrations of SMs.

Evaluation of cell-surface displayed synthetic consensus dengue EDIII cells as a potent oral vaccine candidate.

BACKGROUND: Dengue is a rapidly spreading mosquito borne tropical viral disease affecting hundreds of millions of people across the globe annually. The dengue virus (DENV) includes four genetically distinct serotypes that cause serious life-threatening infections, including dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome. Dengue vaccine development is complicated by the possibility of vaccine-enhanced severe dengue disease due to antibody-dependent enhancement by pre-existing cross-reactivity, as well as homotypic antibodies. Thus, the development of an efficacious dengue vaccine conferring simultaneous and durable immunity to each of the four DENV serotypes has not yet been developed despite years of research. For mass immunization in deeply affected resource-limited countries, oral vaccination is considered more beneficial than conventional approaches. Therefore, in a continuing effort towards designing economical and potent vaccine candidates, the current study applied yeast surface display technology to develop an oral dengue vaccine candidate using whole recombinant yeast cells displaying the recombinant fusion protein of M cell targeting ligand Co1 fused to the synthetic consensus dengue envelope domain III (scEDIII). Female Balb/c mice were orally fed with recombinant yeast cells and immunogenicity in terms of systemic and mucosal immune responses was monitored. RESULTS: Immunofluorescence microscopy with dengue specific antibody and fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-mouse IgG antibody clearly showed that recombinant protein Co1-scEDIII-AGA was localized on the cell surface of the respective clones in comparison with scEDIII-Co1 and Mock cells with no fluorescence. Oral dosage applications of surface displayed Co1-scEDIII-AGA stimulated a systemic humoral immune response in the form of dengue-specific serum IgG, as well as a mucosal immune response in the form of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). Antigen-specific B cell responses in isolated lymphoid cells from the spleen and Peyer's patches further supported an elevated mucosal immune response. In addition, surface displayed Co1-scEDIII-AGA feeding elicited strong immune responses in comparison with scEDIII-Co1 and Mock following intraperitoneal booster with purified scEDIII antigen. CONCLUSIONS: Surface displayed preparations of Co1-scEDIII-AGA induced strong immunogenicity compared with non-displayed scEDIII-Co1. Prior studies have supported the neutralization potential of scEDIII constructs against all four serotypes. Thus, the oral administration of genetically engineered yeast whole cells displaying biologically active Co1-scEDIII fusion protein without any further processing shows prospective as a potent oral vaccine candidate against dengue viral infection.