To enter new markets and remain competitive in the existing markets, companies need to shift their focus from traditional means and ways to some innovative approaches. Though the paper industry in India has improved remarkably on its technological and environmental issues, yet it shows a low rate of innovation. The present paper attempts to review the industry in the perspective of technological innovations and investigates empirically the role of innovations in performance improvement and pollution control. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis are applied for data processing. The findings reveal that the mean scores on the factors, such as sales, quality, and flexibility, are higher for the good innovators than those for the poor innovators. Conversely, the factors which are likely to be reduced as a result of innovations, such as time, cost, emissions, and disposal of waste, have shown higher means for the poor innovators.
Escherichia coli is a pathogenic microorganism that may cause severe gastrointestinal illness in humans. This pathogen may be transmitted in a variety of ways, including food and water. As with most waterborne pathogens E. coli is difficult to detect and enumerate with accuracy in drinking waters due to methodological limitations. The aim of this study was to develop a PCR protocol for the detection of E. coli O157:H7 and E. coli virulence gene SLT-I (Shiga like toxin) in drinking water using a double enrichment step. This method is comprised of bacterial DNA purification using Genomic DNA extraction kit followed by PCR detection. The PCR optimization was done with E. coli O157:H7 strain EDL 933 (ATCC 43895). The oligonucleotide primers Rfb and SLT-I were used for targeting O157 and SLT-I genes respectively. The specific PCR product of these primers were obtained at 292 bp and 210 bp for Rfb and SLT-I respectively, which were visualized by gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining. In spiked water samples, PCR results showed high sensitivity (<100 CFU/L) for Escherichia coli. The results obtained showed that the developed protocol would be utilized as a routine analysis for monitoring drinking water contamination. Furthermore, the simple and rapid protocol of the proposed technique provides results at a fraction of time required by the traditional culture techniques (24 hours compared to 2-6 days).
Climate change may have multi-faceted adverse effects on forests worldwide such as pest outbreaks, fires, heat waves, and drought. These stresses including changes in water and nutrient availability, cause an imbalance in carbon uptake by plants. In this study, two species Eucalyptus camaldulensis (evergreen) and Populus deltoides (deciduous) were selected for carbon content and allocation analysis with the application of nitrogen fertilizer and water stress treatments. A pot experiment was done by planting 2 years old seedlings in 5kg pots in a glasshouse for four weeks. The experiment was a 2factor factorial completely randomized design having three water stress levels D0, D1, D2 (1000, 500 and 250 mL) and three nitrogen treatments N0, N1, N2 (0, 0.5 and 1 gNkg-1). Significant and non-significant nitrogen into drought interactions (NxD) were observed for each treatment. Results showed that in Populus deltoides, at N2D2 treatment, shoot carbon content was increased up to 63% to 75%. Whereas in Eucalyptus camaldulensis, shoot carbon content was increased up to 51% to 52% at N0D2 treatment. Leaf carbon contents were increased 23% to 44% in E. camaldulensis and 0.3% to 4% in P. deltoides, at N1D1 treatment respectively. Dry shoot biomass was increased 3.8g to 7g at N2D2 treatment in E. camaldulensis whereas 45g to 81g at N1D2 in P. deltoides. Increased root biomass production was observed in N1D0 of P. deltoides (31.96g) and E. camaldulensis (2.73g). Leaf biomass was more observable in E. camaldulensis, at N1D2, up to 4.72g and in P. deltoides at N2D1 up to 3.4g. A significant increase at NxD interactions was observed in root carbon content, shoot length, root length, root biomass and Relative Water Content (RWC) in E. camaldulensis. Likewise, root length, shoot biomass, root biomass, Water Use Efficiency (WUE) and RWC was significantly increased in P. deltoides at NxD interactions. These significant improvements related to carbon allocation and physiological growth, with NxD interactions, can be attributed to the improved acquisition of nutrients by these species in the drought-stressed environments.
2012) Distribution, toxicity level, and concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface soil and groundwater of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Desalination and Water Treatment,[240][241][242][243][244][245][246][247] In this study, the distribution, toxicity level, and relationship of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with total organic content (TOC) have been investigated using surface soil and ground water samples from an area adjacent to petrochemical plant in Pakistan. Six PAHs, naphthalene, acenaphthene, phenanthrene, anthracene, flouranthene, and chrysene, were selected from the 16 Environment Protection Agency priority pollutants list. RPAHs range from 2,700 to 4,443 lg/g (average: 3,672 ± 592 lg/g) in soil and 201-1,634 ng/L (average: 763 ± 377 ng/L) in water. The compositional profile of PAHs revealed that low molecular weight 3-4 ring PAHs were predominant. The ratios of phenanthrene/anthracene reflected the pyrogenic origin of PAHs. The relationship of PAHs with TOC has also been investigated and a positive correlation was observed between RPAHs and TOC. This indicates that partitioned in organic matter may be the possible source of PAHs in water. An assessment using widely cited guidelines indicates that water samples do not pose biological impact, while soil can pose a threat of lung cancer.
Reclaimed wastewater reuse for irrigation to crop plants is evaluated in a laboratory-scale experiment to assess growth and water saving potential from natural resources. A prototype laboratory-scale treatment plant was established for this purpose with suspended and attached growth configurations.Chakwal wheat variety was selected to examine growth parameters. The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were evaluated to check the quality of treated water. It was found that a suspended growth sequencing batch bioreactor (SGSBBR) achieved 97% ± 2 removal efficiency over a 4 h hydraulic retention time (HRT). For an attached growth sequencing batch bioreactor (AGSBBR) results showed 98% ± 2 removal efficiencies with polyurethane. TN and TP removal efficiency was 58.7 ± 3% and 64 ± 4.8% in SGSBBR, 53 ± 0.17% and 67 ± 2.7% in polyurethane. AGSBBR enhanced performance with AGSBBR may be due to enforced anoxic/aerobic conditions in the inner layers of biofilm formed on biocarriers which facilitate the required metabolic conditions for treating high strength wastewater. Plant growth was visibly greater in SGSBBR treated wastewater than AGSBBR because of less nutrient removal.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.