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At the end of the time-courses, maximum total concentrations were 38.9, 0.81, 0.014 and 0.10 μg g-1 for Fe, Mn, Co and Pb, respectively, with maximum respective percentage bioaccessibilities of around 60, 80, 50 and 80. When compared with toxicity reference values for seabirds, the significance of metals acquired by microplastics from the environment and exposed to avian digestive conditions is deemed to be low, but studies of a wider range of plastics and metal associations (e.g. as additives) are required for a more comprehensive risk assessment. The integration of sampling and instant metabolite readout can fundamentally elevate patient compliance. To circumvent the need for complex in-lab apparatus, here, an all-in-one sampling and display transdermal colorimetric microneedle patch was developed for sensing hyperglycemia in mice. The coloration of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) is triggered by the cascade enzymatic reactions of glucose oxidase (GOx) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) at abnormally high glucose levels. The HRP in the upper layer is biomineralized with calcium phosphate (CaP) shell to add a pH responsive feature for increased sensitivity as well as protection from nonspecific reactions. This colorimetric sensor achieved minimally invasive extraction of the interstitial fluid from mice and converted glucose level to a visible color change promptly. Quantitative red green and blue (RGB) information could be obtained through a scanned image of the microneedle. This costless, portable colorimetric sensor could potentially detect daily glucose levels without blood drawing procedures. This paper aims to develop a method for high-resolution damage imaging for a sparsely distributed sensor network on a plate-like structure. Techniques for dispersion removal and signal decomposition are indispensable to accurate damage localization. By combining the dispersion-removed wave packets with the damage-imaging algorithm, a point-like damage can be precisely localized. In this article, a matching pursuit algorithm was utilized to decompose overlapping wave packets and then recompress the dispersion. The matching pursuit dictionary was constructed based on an asymptotic solution of the dispersion relation for Lamb waves in toneburst wave packets. The dispersion-based Hanning-window dictionary provided the parametric information for the extracted wave packets, such as propagation time-delay, dispersion extent, and phase. The parameters were leveraged for the dispersion-removal algorithm. Results of the simulation indicate that the proposed algorithm is capable of recompressing multiple dispersive wave packets with the different modes. Finally, the proposed approach was validated by the results of the experiment using a sparse array of piezoelectric wafers on an aluminum plate. Extracting the parameters of individual wave packets and removing the dispersion through matching pursuit, the algorithm for minimum-variance imaging produced a high-quality image with a fine spatial resolution. selleck compound The image artifacts were significantly suppressed, and the accuracy was improved by 62.1% compared to conventional minimum-variance imaging. Published by Elsevier B.V.This study provided an overview of established and emerging nanomaterial (NM)-enabled processes and devices for water disinfection for both centralized and decentralized systems. In addition to a discussion of major disinfection mechanisms, data on disinfection performance (shortest contact time for complete disinfection) and energy efficiency (electrical energy per order; EEO) were collected enabling assessments firstly for disinfection processes and then for disinfection devices. The NM-enabled electro-based disinfection process gained the highest disinfection efficiency with the lowest energy consumption compared with physical-based, peroxy-based, and photo-based disinfection processes owing to the unique disinfection mechanism and the direct mean of translating energy input to microbes. Among the established disinfection devices (e.g., the stirred, the plug-flow, and the flow-through reactor), the flow-through reactor with mesh/membrane or 3-dimensional porous electrodes showed the highest disinfection pey efficiency of NM-enabled disinfection processes and devices but also the overall feasibility of system construction and operation for practical application. While in many countries, people have access to cheap and safe potable tap water, the global consumption of bottled water is rising. Flanders, Belgium, where this study is located, has an exceptionally high consumption of bottled water per capita. However, in the interest of resource efficiency and global environmental challenges, the consumption of tap water is preferable. To our knowledge, an integrated analysis of the main reasons why people consume tap and bottled water is absent in Flanders, Belgium. Using Flemish survey data (N = 2309), we first compared tap and bottled water consumers through bivariate correlation analysis. Subsequently, path modelling techniques were used to further investigate these correlations. Our results show that bottled water consumption in Flanders is widespread despite environmental and financial considerations. For a large part, this is caused by negative perceptions about tap water. Many consumers consider it unhealthy, unsafe and prefer the taste of bottled water. Furthermore, we found that the broader social context often inhibits the consumption of tap water. On the one hand, improper infrastructures (e.g. lead piping) can limit access to potable tap water. On the other hand, social norms exist that promote bottled water. Lastly, results suggest that the consumption of bottled water is most common among men, older people and less educated groups. We conclude that future research and policy measures will benefit from an approach that integrates all behavioural aspects associated with water type consumption. This will enable both governments and tap water companies to devise more effective policies to manage and support tap water supply networks. The Coupled Aerobic-anoxic Nitrous Decomposition Operation (CANDO) is a two-stage process for nitrogen removal and resource recovery in the first, ammonia is oxidized to nitrite in an aerobic bioreactor; in the second, oxidation of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) drives reduction of nitrite to nitrous oxide (N2O) which is stripped for use as a biogas oxidant. Because ammonia oxidation is well-studied, tests of CANDO to date have focused on N2O production in anaerobic/anoxic sequencing batch reactors. In these reactors, nitrogen is provided as nitrite; PHA is produced from acetate or other dissolved COD, and PHA oxidation is coupled to N2O production from nitrite. In a pilot-scale study, N2O recovery was affected by COD/N ratio, total cycle time, and relative time periods for PHA synthesis and N2O production. In follow-up bench-scale studies, different reactor cycle times were used to investigate these operational parameters. Increasing COD/N ratio improved nitrite removal and increased biosolids concentration. Shortening the anaerobic phase prevented fermentation of PHA and improved its utilization. Efficient PHA synthesis and utilization in the anaerobic phase correlated with high N2O production in the anoxic phase. Shortening the anoxic phase prevented reduction of N2O to N2. By shortening both phases, total cycle time was reduced from 24 to 12 h. This optimized operation enabled increased biomass concentrations, increased N2O yields (from 71 to 87%), increased N loading rates (from 0.1 to 0.25 kg N/m3-d), and shorter hydraulic residence times (from 10 to 2 days). Long-term changes in operational performance for the different bioreactor systems tested were generally similar despite significant differences in microbial community structure. Long-term operation at short anaerobic phases selected for a glycogen-accumulating community dominated by a Defluviicoccus-related strain. Streams and rivers are now recognized to be sites of intense carbon (C) emissions, yet the lack of C emission estimates that integrate beyond individual river systems has slowed their inclusion in landscape C budgets. Here we apply empirical models of CO2 and CH4 concentrations and gas exchange continuously along entire fluvial networks to derive the total fluvial CO2 and CH4 emissions in large (3000 to 30,000 km2) watersheds located across the boreal biome of Québec (Canada). We assess how total fluvial network C emissions vary with landscape and climate properties, and compare their magnitude to other components of the landscape C budget. The total fluvial network emissions expressed as per unit watershed area ranged from 0.7 to 29.2 g C m-2 yr-1 for CO2, and 4-1780 mg C m-2 yr-1 for CH4, and neither was related to watershed area or drainage density. Rather, watershed slope and terrestrial net productivity were major drivers of the integrated network fluvial emissions. We also show that steeper watersheds had a greater proportion of emissions relative to downstream export of C from the watershed. Integrated fluvial emissions are of the same magnitude as the terrestrial C sink, yet these two fundamental components of the boreal landscape C budget are not tightly coupled. We use numerical simulations to study the possible spatiotemporal effects of brine release from five desalination plants, located along the Israeli Mediterranean coastline. It is commonly believed that salinity anomalies, associated with brine discharge from desalination plants, causes effects which are confined to an area of several hundreds of meters from the discharge outfall. We show that discharging brine using diffusers produces small but robust salinity anomalies that propagate tens of kilometers as density currents (DCs). In contrast, premixing the brine with power plant cooling water compensates the negative buoyancy and prevents their generation. The propagating DCs can impact coastal water dynamics by increasing the velocities and transports in alongshore and downslope directions. The spreading and trajectories of the DCs was strongly influenced by seasonal stratification. In winter, due to a mixed water column, the DCs were relatively focused and propagate downslope. While in the summer they are confined to a narrow band along the coastline. Our model results highlight the possibility that brine discharge might have a large scale, non-negligible effect on shelf circulation than previously considered. Further studies are needed to assess the environmental, dynamical and ecological effects of desalination brine propagation, especially in the far field. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) as well as complete ammonia oxidizers (comammox) aerobically catalyze ammonia oxidation which plays essential roles in riverine nitrogen cycle. However, performances of these ammonia oxidizers in high-elevation river sediments have rarely been documented. This study investigated the abundance, community, and activity of ammonia oxidizers in five high-elevation rivers of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). Comammox were dominant ammonia oxidizers in 23% of studied samples and the clade B was principal comammox type. amoA gene abundances of AOA and AOB in these high-elevation rivers were comparable to those in low-elevation rivers. However, in contrast to most studied low-elevation rivers, AOB amoA gene abundance outnumbered AOA in 92% samples, which might be caused by the lower temperature and more intense solar radiation of the QTP. Potential nitrification rates (PNRs) ranged from 0.02 to 2.95 nmol-N h-1 g-1 dry sediment. Ammonia concentration was the limiting factor to PNRs at some sites, and when ammonia was not limiting, the PNR ammonia ratio was greater at higher temperatures.