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91 to 0.99 for the G phase and from 0.72 to 0.97 for the GI phase. This test can be used at least as a first-tier screening to assess the oral bioaccessibility of As, Cd, and Pb. Interest in biodiesel research has escalated over the years due to dwindling fossil fuel reserves. The implementation of a carbon-based solid acid catalyst in biodiesel production eradicates the separation problems associated with homogeneous catalysis. However, its application in the glycerol-free interesterification process for biodiesel production is still rarely being studied in the literature. In this study, novel environmentally benign catalysts were prepared from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) derived activated carbon (AC) which is sustainable and low cost via direct sulfonation using concentrated sulfuric acid. The effects of synthesizing variables such as carbonization and sulfonation temperatures with different holding times towards the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield in interesterification reaction with oleic acid and methyl acetate were investigated in detail. It was found that the optimum carbonization temperature and duration together with sulfonation temperature and duration were 600 °C, 3 h, 100 °C and 6 h, respectively. The catalyst possessed an amorphous structure with a high total acid density of 9.0 mmol NaOH g-1 due to the well-developed porous framework structure of the carbon support. Under these optimum conditions, the OPEFB derived solid acid catalyst recorded an excellent catalytic activity of 50.5% methyl oleate yield at 100 °C after 8 h with 501 methyl acetate to oleic acid molar ratio and 10 wt% catalyst dosage. The heterogeneous acid catalyst derived from OPEFB had shown promising properties that made them highly suitable for cost-effective and environmental-friendly glycerol-free biodiesel production. The assessment of substances of Unknown or Variable composition, Complex reaction products or Biological materials (UVCBs) presents significant challenges when determining biodegradation potential and environmental persistence for regulatory purposes. An example of UVCBs is the gas-to-liquid (GTL) products, which are synthetic hydrocarbons produced from natural gas using a catalytic process known as the Fischer-Tropsch process. These synthetic hydrocarbons are fractionated into a wide array of products equivalent in function to their petroleum-derived analogues. Here we summarise the results of an extensive testing program to assess the biodegradability of several GTL products. This program highlights the challenges associated with UVCBs and provides a case study for the assessment of such substances that are also poorly soluble and volatile. When tested with the appropriate methods, all the GTL products assessed in this study were found to be readily biodegradable indicating they are not likely to be persistent in the environment. Phosphorus recovery from water is not only necessary for the protection of aquatic environments but also to meet the needs of sustainable development. We find that the adsorption capacity of nano-MgO is far from being fully utilized because of its simultaneous hydration into brucite. NIBR-LTSi Annealing is a useful method of recovering its adsorption capacity without the need for desorption. Phosphate can be accumulated to a much higher level, even surpassing its theoretical equilibrium adsorption limit, so that high-quality fertilizer can be obtained (115.9 mg-P/g-MgO). Phosphate ions exist as HPO42- and PO43- in the sorbent during its phase transition from periclase to brucite, which is the main reason for its extremely high and reactivatable phosphorus recovery properties. This finding not only provides a new efficient phosphorous recovery strategy but will also lead to new understandings of traditional reactive nano-sorbents. V.Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is an important factor that influences the weather and climate changes which have an impact on life and Earth. In this study, we attempt to forecast PM10 (particulate matters with diameters that are less than or equal to 10 μm) concentration by using data from Nan Province of Thailand as a case study because the main agricultural occupation of Nan is corn growing and air pollution is always the major problem in this region, especially PM10 that is the result from burning corn fields after harvesting. In order to forecast PM10 concentration at each monitoring station 1 h ahead, a novel model based on a combination of genetic algorithm, multilayer perceptron neural network, and modified depth-first search algorithm is proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed model (in Fig. 6) performs better than other models when forecasting 1 h ahead. Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine use in at-risk populations is a public health concern that claims over 550,000 lives annually. Self-reported surveys from college students often reveal overconsumption of these substances. Unfortunately, the costs of these surveys are high, and consequently, the results from few studies are often extrapolated across the entire target population. Here we employed wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to directly measure the levels of these three psychotropic substances and their metabolites in sewage from a large public Southwestern U.S. university campus during the 2017-2018 academic year. Results showed per person alcohol consumption was 11.3 ± 7.5 g d-1 person-1 or 0.8 ± 0.5 drinks d-1 person-1, similar to averages of nationwide estimates from self-reporting of this subpopulation aged 18-25 years (10.1 ± 0.8 g d-1 person-1 or 0.7 ± 0.06 drinks d-1 person-1). Caffeine and nicotine consumption determined by WBE were significantly lower (p  less then  0.05) than nationwide estimates from self-reporting (caffeine 114 ± 49 vs. 178 ± 19 mg d-1 person-1; nicotine 627 ± 219 vs. 927 ± 243 μg d-1 person-1). Strong positive correlations were found for consumption of alcohol and nicotine (Spearman rs 0.71; p  less then  0.01), and nicotine and caffeine (0.59, p  less then  0.01), but not alcohol and caffeine (0.17). Alcohol and nicotine consumption were significantly higher on weekends compared to weekdays (p  less then  0.01), while caffeine consumption was higher during the week (p  less then  0.05). This first U.S. WBE study on alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine use among U.S. college students demonstrated the feasibility and practicality of longitudinally tracking the behavior of an entire campus population of 60,000 students directly, repeatedly, and more inexpensively (US$0.58/person) compared to conventional questionnaires (US$127/person).