Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2020 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 5 Articles
Medical Geology can be defined as the branch of geology dealing with the relationship\nbetween natural geological aspects and health in organisms (humans\nand animals), trying to determine the influence of ordinary environmental\nfactors on the geographical distribution of health issues. The main\ngoals of this research were: 1) to evaluate the severity of dental fluorosis (DF)\nand fluoride concentration in groundwater, used for human consumption, as\nan indicator of overexposure to fluorides, 2) to estimate the Community Fluorosis\nIndex (CFI) in the Julimes municipality in Chihuahua, Mexico. Nine\nwater samples were collected in four locations in the Julimes area: Hacienda\nHumboldt, La Regina, Colonia San Jose, and Julimes. Samples were collected\nand stored in accordance with the Mexican standard ..................
Phosphates in wastewater at elevated concentrations cause eutrophication of water\nbodies and their removal from treated wastewater is essential before effluents are discharged to the\nenvironment. Phosphates are predominately removed during wastewater treatment by chemical\nprecipitation which is usually expensive and has a significant environmental footprint. The purpose\nof this study was to investigate the effectiveness of waste recycled bricks as adsorbent for phosphate\nremoval during wastewater treatment. The kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamics of adsorption\nwere investigated to establish the mechanisms of adsorption. The results showed that adsorption\ncapacities increased with an increase in contact time, adsorbent dosage, and initial phosphate\nconcentration. The kinetic study indicated that adsorption was governed by several mechanisms with\nvarious processes dominating different stages of the adsorption. The adsorption process was better\nrepresented by the pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm adequately described\nthe adsorption of phosphates onto brick particles with a maximum adsorption capacity of 5.35 mg/g.\nThe thermodynamic studies showed that the adsorption process was exothermic and proceeded\nspontaneously, demonstrating that waste bricks can be used as a sustainable alternative for the\neffective removal of phosphates from wastewater....
Environmental water quality issues have dominated global discourse and studies over the past five decades. Significant parameters\nof environmental water quality include changes in biological and physical parameters. Some of the biological parameters of\nsignificance include occurrence of enteric viruses. Enteric viruses can affect both human and animalâ??s health by causing diseases\nsuch as gastrointestinal and respiratory infections. In this study, the relationship between the occurrence of enteric viruses with\nreference to adenoviruses and enteroviruses and the physical water quality characteristics was assessed from water samples\ncollected from Lake Victoria (LV) in Kenya. In order to understand the dynamics of season driven enteric virusesâ?? contamination\nof the lake waters, we additionally analysed seasonal behavior of the lakeâ??s catchment area in terms of rainfall effects. Physical\nquality parameters were measured on-site while viral analysis was carried out by molecular methods using the nested polymerase\nchain reaction (nPCR). From 216 samples that were analysed for viral contamination, enteric viral genomes were discovered in 18\n(8.3%) of the samples. Out of half of the samples (108) collected during the rainy season, enteric viral genomes were detected in\n9.26% (10) while 8 (7.41%) samples tested positive from the other half of the samples (108) collected during the dry season. There\nwas, however, no significant correlation noted between the physical water quality characteristics and the enteric virusesâ?? occurrence.\nNeither wet season nor dry season was significantly associated with the prevalence of the viruses. In Lake Victoria\nwaters, most of the samples had an average of physical water quality parameters that were within the range accepted by the World\nHealth Organization (WHO) for surface waters with exemption of turbidity which was above the recommended 5 NTU as\nrecorded from some sampling sites. Continuous and long-term surveillance of the lake water to accurately monitor the contaminants\nand possible correlation between chemical, physical, and biological characteristics is recommended. This would be\nimportant in continuous understanding of the hydrological characteristics changes of the lake for proper management of its\nquality with reference to the WHO standards. A multiple varied-sampling approach in different geographical regions during\ndifferent seasons is recommended to establish the geographical distribution and relatedness to seasonal distribution patterns of the\nviruses. The data generated from this study will be useful in providing a basis for assessment of seasonally driven fecal pollution\nload of the lake and enteric virus contamination for proper management of the sanitary situation around the lake....
Snowpack is a unique indicator in assessing both local and transboundary contaminants.\nWe considered the features of the snow chemical composition of the Valday Upland, Russia, as a\nlocation without a direct influence of smelters (conditional background) in 2016â??2019. We identified\nthe influence of a number of geochemical (landscape), biological (trees of the forest zone, vegetation),\nand anthropogenic factors (technogenic elements-lead, nickel) on the formation of snow composition.\nWe found increases in the content of metals of technogenic origin in city snowfall in the snowpack:\ncadmium, lead, and nickel in comparison with snowfall in the forest. Methods of sequential and\nparallel membrane filtration (in situ) were used along with ion-exchange separation to determine\nmetal speciation (labile, unlabile, inorganic speciation with low molecular weight, connection with\norganic ligands) and explain their migration ability. We found that forest snow samples contain metal\ncompounds (Cu, Pb, and Ni) with different molecular weights due to the different contributions of\norganic substances. According to the results of filtration, the predominant speciation of metals in the\nurban snow samples is suspension emission (especially more 8 mkm). The buffer abilities of snowfall\nin the forest (in various landscapes) and in the city of Valday were assessed. Based on statistical\nanalysis, a significant difference in the chemical composition of snow in the forest and in the city,\nas well as taking into account the landscape, was shown. Snow on an open landscape on a hill is\nmost susceptible to airborne pollution (sulfates, copper, nickel), city snow is most affected by local\npollutants (turbidity, lead)....
This study utilizes multiple regression analysis and the technique for computing\neconomies of scale to evaluate the dynamics of NRW in the AER of\nGWCL. Data on monthly total production, billed consumption, total revenue,\ntotal production cost and the volume of NRW spanning the period January\n2015 to June 2019, was obtained from the headquarters of AER and used for\nthe analysis. The study showed that NRW averaged 59.3% for the period under\nconsideration, which far exceeds the 25% threshold set by the World\nBank for developing economies. It was also established that a fairly inelastic\nrelationship exists between NRW and total revenue. Results further show that\nresources are not optimally used in the AER as proof of diseconomies of scale\nwas observed....
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