Moreover, the current study supplemented the theoretical basis for beneficial elements application as an environment-friendly resource to facilitate cleaner production in heavy metal contaminated soil.The present study aimed to provide a systematic review of studies on the prevalence of secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure in the Iran population as a serious indoor health hazard. A literature review of studies that considered SHS exposure, available in multiple electronic databases including Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus published 2009-2020 in English and two Persian databases (SID and Magiran), was carried out following the PRISMA recommendations. A total of 55 studies were included based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the quality assessment. The results showed no specific decrease in the prevalence of exposure to secondhand smoke in Iran; however, it appeared that the exposure has been increasing. Distribution of studies in terms of age group revealed that most studies (38%) investigated adults (more than 18 years old), while 34% of the studies considered less than 18 years of age group and a single article considered infants (6-24 months). Based on the present study results, a large population of Iran was exposed to SHS. Moreover, based on Iran's STEPs 2016 (Stepwise Non-communicable Diseases Risk Factors Survey in Iran) study, the overall prevalence of SHS exposure at home (57.5%) was higher than in workplaces (49.2%). The results of the present study recommended that protection measures should be comprehensive in terms of exposure places, and since the exposure prevalence in some provinces was higher than the others, it is especially important to consider the local measures and cultural aspects in SHS control programs.Much more attention has been poured into microplastic pollution in freshwater systems recently. In the present study, the pollution of microplastics (MPs) in surface water and freshwater fish (crucian carp, etc.) were investigated from Gehu Lake, which is the second largest lake in southern Jiangsu after Taihu Lake. read more The result manifested that the average abundance of MPs was respectively 6.33±2.67 n/L for surface water and 10.7 items per individual for freshwater fish. The distribution of MPs in Gehu Lake varied from place to place, with the highest abundance of MPs was observed in the two estuaries of the eastern part of the lake. It was speculated that topographical factors and human factors were the main factors affecting the abundance and distribution of MPs. Transparent fibers were the main type of MPs in water samples, accounting for 69.70% of all detected particles. Meanwhile, most of the MPs ingested by freshwater fish were fibers, and the main colors were transparent and blue. In addition, the dominant size of the MPs was between 0.1 to 0.5 mm in water and fish samples. Moreover, PES, man-made fiber, and PP were the dominant polymer types in the surface water and fish samples. The results of this investigation can provide basic data for the research and management of MPs in freshwater systems.This research aims to look into the effect of COVID-19 on emerging stock markets in seven of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN-7) member countries from March 21, 2020 to April 31, 2020. This paper uses a ST-HAR-type Bayesian posterior model and it highlights the stock market of this ongoing crisis, such as, COVID-19 outbreak in all countries and related industries. The empirical results shown a clear evidence of a transition during COVID-19 crisis regime, also crisis intensity and timing differences. The most negatively impacted industries were health care and consumer services due to the Covid-19 drug-race and international travel restrictions. More so, study results estimated that only a small number of sectors are affected by COVID-19 fear including health care, consumer services, utilities, and technology, significance at the 1%, 5%, and 10%, that measure current volatility's reliance on weekly and monthly variables. Secondly, it is found that there is almost no chance that the COVID-19 pandemic would positively affect the stock market performance in all the countries, mainly Indonesia and Singapore were the countries most affected. Thirdly, results shown that Thailand's stock market output has dropped by 15%. Results shows that COVID-19 fear causes an eventual reason of public attention towards stock market volatility. The study presented comprehensive way forwards to stabilize movement of ASEAN equity market's volatility index and guided the policy implications to key stakeholders that can better help to mitigate drastic impacts of COVID-19 fear on the performance of equity markets.Glucocorticoids (GCs) have drawn great concern due to widespread contamination in the environment and application in treating COVID-19. Most studies on GC removal mainly focused on aquatic environment, while GC behaviors in soil were less mentioned. In this study, degradation of three selected GCs in soil has been investigated using citric acid (CA)-modified Fenton-like processes (H2O2/Fe(III)/CA and CaO2/Fe(III)/CA treatments). The results showed that GCs in soil can be removed by modified Fenton-like processes (removal efficiency gt; 70% for 24 h). CaO2/Fe(III)/CA was more efficient than H2O2/Fe(III)/CA at low oxidant dosage ( 4 h). Besides the chemical assessment with GC removal, effects of Fenton-like processes were also evaluated by biological assessments with bacteria and plants. CaO2/Fe(III)/CA was less harmful to the richness and diversity of microorganisms in soil compared to H2O2/Fe(III)/CA. Weaker phytotoxic effects were observed on GC-contaminated soil treated by CaO2/Fe(III)/CA than H2O2/Fe(III)/CA. This study, therefore, recommends CaO2-based treatments to remediate GC-contaminated soils.
This study aimed to investigate the association between biocides' reduced susceptibility and the presence of efflux pump genes including cepA, qacEΔ1 and qacE in multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
The MDR P. aeruginosa isolates were collected and identified from different clinical samples. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of four biocides (chlorhexidine gluconate 1%, benzalkonium chloride 1%, Kohrsolin® extra, and SEPTI-Turbo) were determined by microbroth dilution with and without carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed for detecting the efflux pump genes. In total, 92 MDR P. aeruginosa isolates were collected. The reduced susceptibility (8-128µg/ml) was seen against chlorhexidine gluconate 1%, benzalkonium chloride 1%, Kohrsolin® extra, and SEPTI-Turbo in 63 (68.5%), 59 (64.1%), 64 (69.6%), and 65 (70.6%) isolates, respectively. The Kohrsolin® extra was the most effective biocide. The cepA, qacE, and qacEΔ1 were detected in 56 (60.read more
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