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Fulltext Transformation of Oil Palm Waste-Derived Cellulose into Solid Polymer Electrolytes: Investigating the Crucial Role of Plasticizers

Abouloula CN, Rizwan M, Selvanathan V, Yahya R, Althubeiti K, Alkhammash HI, et al.

Polymers (Basel), 2021 Oct 26;13(21).
PMID: 34771242 DOI: 10.3390/polym13213685

This study explores the possibility of transforming lignocellulose-rich agricultural waste materials into value-added products. Cellulose was extracted from an empty fruit bunch of oil palm and further modified into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), a water-soluble cellulose derivative. The CMC was then employed as the polymeric content in fabrication of solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) films incorporated with lithium iodide. To enhance the ionic conductivity of the solid polymer electrolytes, the compositions were optimized with different amounts of glycerol as a plasticizing agent. The chemical and physical effects of plasticizer content on the film composition were studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. FTIR and XRD analysis confirmed the interaction plasticizer with the polymer matrix and the amorphous nature of fabricated SPEs. The highest ionic conductivity of 6.26 × 10-2 S/cm was obtained with the addition of 25 wt % of glycerol. By fabricating solid polymer electrolytes from oil palm waste-derived cellulose, the sustainability of the materials can be retained while reducing the dependence on fossil fuel-derived materials in electrochemical devices.
Natural and synthetic estrogens in leafy vegetable and their risk associated to human health

Adeel M, Zain M, Fahad S, Rizwan M, Ameen A, Yi H, et al.

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2018 Dec;25(36):36712-36723.
PMID: 30377972 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-3588-4

Since the inception of global industrialization, the growth of steroid estrogens becomes a matter of emerging serious concern for the rapid population. Steroidal estrogens are potent endocrine-upsetting chemicals that are excreted naturally by vertebrates (e.g., humans and fish) and can enter natural waters through the discharge of treated and raw sewage. Steroidal estrogens in plants may enter the food web and become a serious threat to human health. We evaluated the uptake and accumulation of ethinylestradiol (EE2) and 17β-estradiol (17β-E2) in lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa) grown under controlled environmental condition over 21 days growth period. An effective analytical method based on ultrasonic liquid extraction (ULE) for solid samples and solid phase extraction (SPE) for liquid samples with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) has been developed to determine the steroid estrogens in lettuce plants. The extent of uptake and accumulation was observed in a dose-dependent manner and roots were major organs for estrogen deposition. Unlike the 17β-E2, EE2 was less accumulated and translocated from root to leaves. For 17β-E2, the distribution in lettuce was primarily to roots after the second week (13%), whereas in leaves it was (10%) over the entire study period. The distribution of EE2 at 2000 μg L-1 in roots and leaves was very low (3.07% and 0.54%) during the first week and then was highest (12% in roots and 8% in leaves) in last week. Bioaccumulation factor values of 17β-E2 and EE2 in roots were 0.33 and 0.29 at 50 μg L-1 concentration as maximum values were found at 50 μg L-1 rather than 500 and 2000 in all observed plant tissues. Similar trend was noticed in roots than leaves for bioconcentration factor as the highest bioconcentration values were observed at 50 μg L-1 concentration instead of 500 and 2000 μg L-1 spiked concentration. These findings mainly indicate the potential for uptake and bioaccumulation of estrogens in lettuce plants. Overall, the estrogen contents in lettuce were compared to the FAO/WHO recommended toxic level and were found to be higher than the toxic level which is of serious concern to the public health. This analytical procedure may aid in future studies on risks associated with uptake of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in lettuce plants.
Fulltext Cryptic footprints of rare earth elements on natural resources and living organisms

Adeel M, Lee JY, Zain M, Rizwan M, Nawab A, Ahmad MA, et al.

Environ Int, 2019 06;127:785-800.
PMID: 31039528 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.03.022

BACKGROUND: Rare earth elements (REEs) are gaining attention due to rapid rise of modern industries and technological developments in their usage and residual fingerprinting. Cryptic entry of REEs in the natural resources and environment is significant; therefore, life on earth is prone to their nasty effects. Scientific sectors have expressed concerns over the entry of REEs into food chains, which ultimately influences their intake and metabolism in the living organisms.
OBJECTIVES: Extensive scientific collections and intensive look in to the latest explorations agglomerated in this document aim to depict the distribution of REEs in soil, sediments, surface waters and groundwater possibly around the globe. Furthermore, it draws attention towards potential risks of intensive industrialization and modern agriculture to the exposure of REEs, and their effects on living organisms. It also draws links of REEs usage and their footprints in natural resources with the major food chains involving plants, animals and humans.
METHODS: Scientific literature preferably spanning over the last five years was obtained online from the MEDLINE and other sources publishing the latest studies on REEs distribution, properties, usage, cycling and intrusion in the environment and food-chains. Distribution of REEs in agricultural soils, sediments, surface and ground water was drawn on the global map, together with transport pathways of REEs and their cycling in the natural resources.
RESULTS: Fourteen REEs (Ce, Dy, Er, Eu, Gd, Ho, La, Lu, Nd, Pr, Sm, Tb, Th and Yb) were plighted in this study. Wide range of their concentrations has been detected in agricultural soils (<15.9-249.1 μg g-1) and in groundwater (<3.1-146.2 μg L-1) at various sites worldwide. They have strong tendency to accumulate in the human body, and thus associated with kidney stones. The REEs could also perturb the animal physiology, especially affecting the reproductive development in both terrestrial and aquatic animals. In plants, REEs might affect the germination, root and shoot development and flowering at concentration ranging from 0.4 to 150 mg kg-1.
CONCLUSIONS: This review article precisely narrates the current status, sources, and potential effects of REEs on plants, animals, humans health. There are also a few examples where REEs have been used to benefit human health. However, still there is scarce information about threshold levels of REEs in the soil, aquatic, and terrestrial resources as well as living entities. Therefore, an aggressive effort is required for global action to generate more data on REEs. This implies we prescribe an urgent need for inter-disciplinary studies about REEs in order to identify their toxic effects on both ecosystems and organisms.
Effect of green synthesized cerium oxide nanoparticles on fungal disease of wheat plants: A field study

Alotaibi MO, Alotaibi NM, Ghoneim AM, Ain NU, Irshad MA, Nawaz R, et al.

Chemosphere, 2023 Oct;339:139731.
PMID: 37557994 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139731

Recently, there has been considerable attention towards the production of environmentally friendly nanoparticles (NPs). In this investigation, the successful synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) was achieved by employing an eco-friendly technique that utilized an extract from the leaves of local plant quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa L.). The synthesized CeO2 NPs were subjected to characterization using state-of-the-art methods. The prepared CeO2 NPs contained a round shape with clusters and have a size of 7-10 nm. To assess how effective CeO2 NPs derived from C. quinoa were against Ustilago tritici, a fungal disease that negatively affects wheat crop globally, a study was performed on two varieties of wheat crop comprised of Arooj (V1) and Akber (V2), cultivated under field conditions. CeO2 NPs were applied foliarly twice to the wheat crop at four different concentrations: T0 (0 mg/L), T1 (50 mg/L), T2 (75 mg/L), and T3 (100 mg/L). The results revealed that the control group (T0) exhibited the highest disease severity index (DSI) with a value of 75% compared to the other concentrations of CeO2 NPs on both varieties. At a concentration of 100 mg/L of CeO2 NPs, the DSI dropped to a minimum of 35% and 37% on both V1 and V2 respectively. These findings indicated that an increase in the concentration of CeO2 NPs has a beneficial impact on disease severity. Similar patterns have also been observed with disease incidence (DI), with the greatest efficacy observed at a concentration of 100 mg/L of CeO2 NPs. Our investigation has shown that CeO2 NPs exhibitd significant antifungal potential against U. tritici which may be a promising strategy to mitigate fungal disease and crop losses globally.
Fulltext AI inspired EEG-based spatial feature selection method using multivariate empirical mode decomposition for emotion classification

Asghar MA, Khan MJ, Rizwan M, Shorfuzzaman M, Mehmood RM

Multimed Syst, 2021 Apr 21.
PMID: 33897112 DOI: 10.1007/s00530-021-00782-w

Classification of human emotions based on electroencephalography (EEG) is a very popular topic nowadays in the provision of human health care and well-being. Fast and effective emotion recognition can play an important role in understanding a patient's emotions and in monitoring stress levels in real-time. Due to the noisy and non-linear nature of the EEG signal, it is still difficult to understand emotions and can generate large feature vectors. In this article, we have proposed an efficient spatial feature extraction and feature selection method with a short processing time. The raw EEG signal is first divided into a smaller set of eigenmode functions called (IMF) using the empirical model-based decomposition proposed in our work, known as intensive multivariate empirical mode decomposition (iMEMD). The Spatio-temporal analysis is performed with Complex Continuous Wavelet Transform (CCWT) to collect all the information in the time and frequency domains. The multiple model extraction method uses three deep neural networks (DNNs) to extract features and dissect them together to have a combined feature vector. To overcome the computational curse, we propose a method of differential entropy and mutual information, which further reduces feature size by selecting high-quality features and pooling the k-means results to produce less dimensional qualitative feature vectors. The system seems complex, but once the network is trained with this model, real-time application testing and validation with good classification performance is fast. The proposed method for selecting attributes for benchmarking is validated with two publicly available data sets, SEED, and DEAP. This method is less expensive to calculate than more modern sentiment recognition methods, provides real-time sentiment analysis, and offers good classification accuracy.
Fulltext An Innovative Multi-Model Neural Network Approach for Feature Selection in Emotion Recognition Using Deep Feature Clustering

Asghar MA, Khan MJ, Rizwan M, Mehmood RM, Kim SH

Sensors (Basel), 2020 Jul 05;20(13).
PMID: 32635609 DOI: 10.3390/s20133765

Emotional awareness perception is a largely growing field that allows for more natural interactions between people and machines. Electroencephalography (EEG) has emerged as a convenient way to measure and track a user's emotional state. The non-linear characteristic of the EEG signal produces a high-dimensional feature vector resulting in high computational cost. In this paper, characteristics of multiple neural networks are combined using Deep Feature Clustering (DFC) to select high-quality attributes as opposed to traditional feature selection methods. The DFC method shortens the training time on the network by omitting unusable attributes. First, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is applied as a series of frequencies to decompose the raw EEG signal. The spatiotemporal component of the decomposed EEG signal is expressed as a two-dimensional spectrogram before the feature extraction process using Analytic Wavelet Transform (AWT). Four pre-trained Deep Neural Networks (DNN) are used to extract deep features. Dimensional reduction and feature selection are achieved utilising the differential entropy-based EEG channel selection and the DFC technique, which calculates a range of vocabularies using k-means clustering. The histogram characteristic is then determined from a series of visual vocabulary items. The classification performance of the SEED, DEAP and MAHNOB datasets combined with the capabilities of DFC show that the proposed method improves the performance of emotion recognition in short processing time and is more competitive than the latest emotion recognition methods.
Fulltext Guar gum/poly ethylene glycol/graphene oxide environmentally friendly hybrid hydrogels for controlled release of boron micronutrient

Azeem MK, Islam A, Khan RU, Rasool A, Anees Ur Rehman Qureshi M, Rizwan M, et al.

R Soc Open Sci, 2023 Dec;10(12):231157.
PMID: 38094268 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231157

The present study was aimed at synthesis of polymeric hydrogels for controlled boron (B) release, as B deficiency is a major factor that decreases crops yield. Thus, graphene oxide incorporated guar gum and poly (ethylene glycol) hydrogels were prepared using the Solution Casting method for boron release. 3-Glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GLYMOL) was used as a cross-linker. Characterizations of hydrogels were carried out by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis and Scanning Electron scope. The FTIR outcomes confirmed the existence of functional groups, bindings and development of hydrogel frameworks from incorporated components. The quantity of GLYMOL directly increased the thermal stability and water retention but decreased the swelling %. The maximum swelling for the hydrogel formulations was observed at pH 7. The addition of GLYMOL changed the diffusion from quasi-Fickcian to non-Fickcian diffusion. The maximum swelling quantities of 3822% and 3342% were exhibited by GPP (control) and GPP-8 in distilled water, respectively. Boron release was determined in distilled water and sandy soil by azomethine-H test using UV-Visible spectrophotometer while 85.11% and 73.65% boron was released from BGPP-16, respectively. In short, water retentive, water holding capacities, swelling performances, biodegradability and swelling/deswelling features would offer an ideal platform for boron release in sustained agricultural applications.
Fulltext Factors Associated With Highest Symptoms of Anxiety During COVID-19: Cross-Cultural Study of 23 Countries

Burkova VN, Butovskaya ML, Randall AK, Fedenok JN, Ahmadi K, Alghraibeh AM, et al.

Front Psychol, 2022;13:805586.
PMID: 35664191 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805586

The COVID-19 restrictions have impacted people's lifestyles in all spheres (social, psychological, political, economic, and others). This study explored which factors affected the level of anxiety during the time of the first wave of COVID-19 and subsequent quarantine in a substantial proportion of 23 countries, included in this study. The data was collected from May to August 2020 (5 June 2020). The sample included 15,375 participants from 23 countries: (seven from Europe: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia; 11 from West, South and Southeast Asia: Armenia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey; two African: Nigeria and Tanzania; and three from North, South, and Central America: Brazil, Canada, United States). Level of anxiety was measured by means of the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the 20-item first part of The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-State Anxiety Inventory (SAI). Respondents were also asked about their personal experiences with COVID-19, attitudes toward measures introduced by governments, changes in attitudes toward migrants during a pandemic, family income, isolation conditions, etc. The factor analysis revealed that four factors explained 45.08% of variance in increase of anxiety, and these components were interpreted as follows: (1) personal awareness of the threat of COVID-19, (2) personal reaction toward officially undertaken measures and attitudes to foreigners, (3) personal trust in official sources, (4) personal experience with COVID-19. Three out of four factors demonstrated strong associations with both scales of anxiety: high level of anxiety was significantly correlated with high level of personal awareness of the threat of COVID-19, low level of personal reaction toward officially undertaken measures and attitudes to foreigners, and high level of presence of personal experience with COVID-19. Our study revealed significant main effects of sex, country, and all four factors on the level of anxiety. It was demonstrated that countries with higher levels of anxiety assessed the real danger of a pandemic as higher, and had more personal experience with COVID-19. Respondents who trusted the government demonstrated lower levels of anxiety. Finally, foreigners were perceived as the cause of epidemic spread.
Fulltext Solution Processed PVB/Mica Flake Coatings for the Encapsulation of Organic Solar Cells

Channa IA, Chandio AD, Rizwan M, Shah AA, Bhatti J, Shah AK, et al.

Materials (Basel), 2021 May 12;14(10).
PMID: 34065936 DOI: 10.3390/ma14102496

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) die due to their interactions with environmental gases, i.e., moisture and oxygen, the latter being the most dangerous, especially under illumination, due to the fact that most of the active layers used in OPVs are extremely sensitive to oxygen. In this work we demonstrate solution-based effective barrier coatings based on composite of poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) and mica flakes for the protection of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-based organic solar cells (OSCs) against photobleaching under illumination conditions. In the first step we developed a protective layer with cost effective and environmentally friendly methods and optimized its properties in terms of transparency, barrier improvement factor, and bendability. The developed protective layer maintained a high transparency in the visible region and improved oxygen and moisture barrier quality by the factor of ~7. The resultant protective layers showed ultra-flexibility, as no significant degradation in protective characteristics were observed after 10 K bending cycles. In the second step, a PVB/mica composite layer was applied on top of the P3HT film and subjected to photo-degradation. The P3HT films coated with PVB/mica composite showed improved stability under constant light irradiation and exhibited a loss of <20% of the initial optical density over the period of 150 h. Finally, optimized barrier layers were used as encapsulation for organic solar cell (OSC) devices. The lifetime results confirmed that the stability of the OSCs was extended from few hours to over 240 h in a sun test (65 °C, ambient RH%) which corresponds to an enhanced lifetime by a factor of 9 compared to devices encapsulated with pristine PVB.
Fulltext Contrasting Computational Models of Mate Preference Integration Across 45 Countries

Conroy-Beam D, Buss DM, Asao K, Sorokowska A, Sorokowski P, Aavik T, et al.

Sci Rep, 2019 11 15;9(1):16885.
PMID: 31729413 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-52748-8

Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across these many preference dimensions into summaries of the overall mate value of their potential mates. Here we explore the computational design of this mate preference integration process using a large sample of n = 14,487 people from 45 countries around the world. We combine this large cross-cultural sample with agent-based models to compare eight hypothesized models of human mating markets. Across cultures, people higher in mate value appear to experience greater power of choice on the mating market in that they set higher ideal standards, better fulfill their preferences in choice, and pair with higher mate value partners. Furthermore, we find that this cross-culturally universal pattern of mate choice is most consistent with a Euclidean model of mate preference integration.
Perceiving societal pressure to be happy is linked to poor well-being, especially in happy nations

Dejonckheere E, Rhee JJ, Baguma PK, Barry O, Becker M, Bilewicz M, et al.

Sci Rep, 2022 02 17;12(1):1514.
PMID: 35177625 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-04262-z

Happiness is a valuable experience, and societies want their citizens to be happy. Although this societal commitment seems laudable, overly emphasizing positivity (versus negativity) may create an unattainable emotion norm that ironically compromises individual well-being. In this multi-national study (40 countries; 7443 participants), we investigate how societal pressure to be happy and not sad predicts emotional, cognitive and clinical indicators of well-being around the world, and examine how these relations differ as a function of countries' national happiness levels (collected from the World Happiness Report). Although detrimental well-being associations manifest for an average country, the strength of these relations varies across countries. People's felt societal pressure to be happy and not sad is particularly linked to poor well-being in countries with a higher World Happiness Index. Although the cross-sectional nature of our work prohibits causal conclusions, our findings highlight the correlational link between social emotion valuation and individual well-being, and suggest that high national happiness levels may have downsides for some.
Integrative transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveals the toxicity and mechanistic insights of bioformulated chitosan nanoparticles against Magnaporthe oryzae

Hafeez R, Guo J, Ahmed T, Ibrahim E, Ali MA, Rizwan M, et al.

Chemosphere, 2024 Apr 04;356:141904.
PMID: 38582174 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141904

Rice blast, an extremely destructive disease caused by the filamentous fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, poses a global threat to the production of rice (Oryza sativa L.). The emerging trend of reducing dependence on chemical fungicides for crop protection has increased interest in exploring bioformulated nanomaterials as a sustainable alternative antimicrobial strategy for effectively managing plant diseases. Herein, we used physiomorphological, transcriptomic, and metabolomic methods to investigate the toxicity and molecular action mechanisms of moringa-chitosan nanoparticles (M-CNPs) against M. oryzae. Our results demonstrate that M-CNPs exhibit direct antifungal properties by impeding the growth and conidia formation of M. oryzae in a concentration-dependent manner. Propidium iodide staining indicated concentration-dependent significant apoptosis (91.33%) in the fungus. Ultrastructural observations revealed complete structural damage in fungal cells treated with 200 mg/L M-CNPs, including disruption of the cell wall and destruction of internal organelles. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed the intricate mechanism underlying the toxicity of M-CNPs against M. oryzae. The transcriptomics data indicated that exposure to M-CNPs disrupted various processes integral to cell membrane biosynthesis, aflatoxin biosynthesis, transcriptional regulation, and nuclear integrity in M. oryzae., emphasizing the interaction between M-CNPs and fungal cells. Similarly, metabolomic profiling demonstrated that exposure to M-CNPs significantly altered the levels of several key metabolites involved in the integral components of metabolic pathways, microbial metabolism, histidine metabolism, citrate cycle, and lipid and protein metabolism in M. oryzae. Overall, these findings demonstrated the potent antifungal action of M-CNPs, with a remarkable impact at the physiological and molecular level, culminating in substantial apoptotic-like fungal cell death. This research provides a novel perspective on investigating bioformulated nanomaterials as antifungal agents for plant disease control.
Cellulose supported magnetic nanohybrids: Synthesis, physicomagnetic properties and biomedical applications-A review

Haniffa MACM, Munawar K, Chee CY, Pramanik S, Halilu A, Illias HA, et al.

Carbohydr Polym, 2021 Sep 01;267:118136.
PMID: 34119125 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118136

Cellulose and its forms are widely used in biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability and lack of cytotoxicity. It provides ample opportunities for the functionalization of supported magnetic nanohybrids (CSMNs). Because of the abundance of surface hydroxyl groups, they are surface tunable in either homogeneous or heterogeneous solvents and thus act as a substrate or template for the CSMNs' development. The present review emphasizes on the synthesis of various CSMNs, their physicomagnetic properties, and potential applications such as stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems, MRI, enzyme encapsulation, nucleic acid extraction, wound healing and tissue engineering. The impact of CSMNs on cytotoxicity, magnetic hyperthermia, and folate-conjugates is highlighted in particular, based on their structures, cell viability, and stability. Finally, the review also discussed the challenges and prospects of CSMNs' development. This review is expected to provide CSMNs' development roadmap in the context of 21st-century demands for biomedical therapeutics.
Corrigendum: The Associations of Dyadic Coping and Relationship Satisfaction Vary between and within Nations: A 35-Nation Study

Hilpert P, Randall AK, Sorokowski P, Atkins DC, Sorokowska A, Ahmadi K, et al.

Front Psychol, 2016;7:1404.
PMID: 27698648

[This corrects the article on p. 1106 in vol. 7, PMID: 27551269.].
Fulltext The Associations of Dyadic Coping and Relationship Satisfaction Vary between and within Nations: A 35-Nation Study

Hilpert P, Randall AK, Sorokowski P, Atkins DC, Sorokowska A, Ahmadi K, et al.

Front Psychol, 2016;7:1106.
PMID: 27551269 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01106

OBJECTIVE: Theories about how couples help each other to cope with stress, such as the systemic transactional model of dyadic coping, suggest that the cultural context in which couples live influences how their coping behavior affects their relationship satisfaction. In contrast to the theoretical assumptions, a recent meta-analysis provides evidence that neither culture, nor gender, influences the association between dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction, at least based on their samples of couples living in North America and West Europe. Thus, it is an open questions whether the theoretical assumptions of cultural influences are false or whether cultural influences on couple behavior just occur in cultures outside of the Western world.
METHOD: In order to examine the cultural influence, using a sample of married individuals (N = 7973) from 35 nations, we used multilevel modeling to test whether the positive association between dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction varies across nations and whether gender might moderate the association.
RESULTS: RESULTS reveal that the association between dyadic coping and relationship satisfaction varies between nations. In addition, results show that in some nations the association is higher for men and in other nations it is higher for women.
CONCLUSIONS: Cultural and gender differences across the globe influence how couples' coping behavior affects relationship outcomes. This crucial finding indicates that couple relationship education programs and interventions need to be culturally adapted, as skill trainings such as dyadic coping lead to differential effects on relationship satisfaction based on the culture in which couples live.
Fulltext A scientometric analysis approach on the plastic sand

Iftikhar B, Alih SC, Vafaei M, Alrowais R, Bashir MT, Khalil A, et al.

Heliyon, 2023 Mar;9(3):e14457.
PMID: 36950647 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14457

The purpose of this research was to conduct a scientometric evaluation of the literature pertaining to plastic sand in order to evaluate its many aspects. Conventional review studies have several limitations when it comes to their capacity to completely and properly link different sections of the published research. Some of the more complicated features of advanced research are co-occurrence analysis, science mapping and co-citation analysis. During the study, the most inventive authors/researchers renowned for citations, the sources with the largest number of publications, the actively involved domains, and co-occurrences of keywords in the research on plastic sand are investigated. This study is limited to scientometric analysis of the available literature data on plastic sand. The VOSviewer application (version 1.6.18) was used to perform the analysis after bibliometric data for 4512 publications were extracted from the Scopus database and utilised in the extraction process from the year 2021 to June 2022. With the support of a statistical and graphical description of researchers and nations that are contributing, this study will aid researchers in the establishment of collaborative ventures and the exchange of fresh techniques and ideas with one another.
Fulltext Synthesis, characterization and advanced sustainable applications of titanium dioxide nanoparticles: A review

Irshad MA, Nawaz R, Rehman MZU, Adrees M, Rizwan M, Ali S, et al.

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf, 2021 Apr 01;212:111978.
PMID: 33561774 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.111978

Nanotechnology is capturing great interest worldwide due to their stirring applications in various fields. Among nanoparticles (NPs), titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs have been widely used in daily life and can be synthesized through various physical, chemical, and green methods. Green synthesis is a non-toxic, cost-effective, and eco-friendly route for the synthesis of NPs. Plenty of work has been reported on the green, chemical, physical and biological synthesis of TiO2 NPs and these NPs can be characterized through high tech. instruments. In the present review, dense data have been presented on the comparative synthesis of TiO2 NPs with different characteristics and their wide range of applications. Among the TiO2 NPs synthesis techniques, the green methods have been proven to be efficient than chemical synthesis methods because of the less use of precursors, time-effectiveness, and energy-efficiency during the green synthesis procedures. Moreover, this review describes the types of plants (shrubs, herbs and trees), microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and algae), biological derivatives (proteins, peptides, and starches) employed for the synthesis of TiO2 NPs. The TiO2 NPs can be effectively used for the treatment of polluted water and positively affected the plant physiology especially under abiotic stresses but the response varied with types, size, shapes, doses, duration of exposure, metal species along with other factors. This review also highlights the regulating features and future standpoints for the measurable enrichment in TiO2 NPs product and perspectives of TiO2 NPs reliable application.
Fulltext Enhancing chromium removal and recovery from industrial wastewater using sustainable and efficient nanomaterial: A review

Irshad MA, Sattar S, Nawaz R, Al-Hussain SA, Rizwan M, Bukhari A, et al.

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf, 2023 Sep 15;263:115231.
PMID: 37429088 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115231

Water contamination can be detrimental to the human health due to higher concentration of carcinogenic heavy metals such as chromium (Cr) in the wastewater. Many traditional methods are being employed in wastewater treatment plants for Cr removal to control the environmental impacts. Such methods include ion exchange, coagulation, membrane filtration, and chemical precipitation and microbial degradation. Recent advances in materials science and green chemistry have led to the development of nanomaterial that possess high specific surface areas and multiple functions, making them suitable for removing metals such as Cr from wastewater. Literature shows that the most efficient, effective, clean, and long-lasting approach for removing heavy metals from wastewater involves adsorbing heavy metals onto the surface of nanomaterial. This review assesses the removal methods of Cr from wastewater, advantages and disadvantages of using nanomaterial to remove Cr from wastewater and potential negative impacts on human health. The latest trends and developments in Cr removal strategies using nanomaterial adsorption are also explored in the present review.
Fulltext Graphene Oxide-Functionalized Bacterial Cellulose-Gelatin Hydrogel with Curcumin Release and Kinetics: In Vitro Biological Evaluation

Khan MUA, Stojanović GM, Rehman RA, Moradi AR, Rizwan M, Ashammakhi N, et al.

ACS Omega, 2023 Oct 31;8(43):40024-40035.
PMID: 37929099 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c06825

Biopolymer-based bioactive hydrogels are excellent wound dressing materials for wound healing applications. They have excellent properties, including hydrophilicity, tunable mechanical and morphological properties, controllable functionality, biodegradability, and desirable biocompatibility. The bioactive hydrogels were fabricated from bacterial cellulose (BC), gelatin, and graphene oxide (GO). The GO-functionalized-BC (GO-f-BC) was synthesized by a hydrothermal method and chemically crosslinked with bacterial cellulose and gelatin using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a crosslinker. The structural, morphological, and wettability properties were studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and a universal testing machine (UTM), respectively. The swelling analysis was conducted in different media, and aqueous medium exhibited maximum hydrogel swelling compared to other media. The Franz diffusion method was used to study curcumin (Cur) release (Max = 69.32%, Min = 49.32%), and Cur release kinetics followed the Hixson-Crowell model. Fibroblast (3T3) cell lines were employed to determine the cell viability and proliferation to bioactive hydrogels. Antibacterial activities of bioactive hydrogels were evaluated against infection-causing bacterial strains. Bioactive hydrogels are hemocompatible due to their less than 0.5% hemolysis against fresh human blood. The results show that bioactive hydrogels can be potential wound dressing materials for wound healing applications.
Fulltext Social mindfulness predicts concern for nature and immigrants across 36 nations

Kirkland K, Van Lange PAM, Van Doesum NJ, Acevedo-Triana C, Amiot CE, Ausmees L, et al.

Sci Rep, 2022 Dec 21;12(1):22102.
PMID: 36543793 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25538-y

People cooperate every day in ways that range from largescale contributions that mitigate climate change to simple actions such as leaving another individual with choice - known as social mindfulness. It is not yet clear whether and how these complex and more simple forms of cooperation relate. Prior work has found that countries with individuals who made more socially mindful choices were linked to a higher country environmental performance - a proxy for complex cooperation. Here we replicated this initial finding in 41 samples around the world, demonstrating the robustness of the association between social mindfulness and environmental performance, and substantially built on it to show this relationship extended to a wide range of complex cooperative indices, tied closely to many current societal issues. We found that greater social mindfulness expressed by an individual was related to living in countries with more social capital, more community participation and reduced prejudice towards immigrants. Our findings speak to the symbiotic relationship between simple and more complex forms of cooperation in societies.

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