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The complex composition of real-produced wastewater from oil processing poses significant challenges for wastewater treatment. The employed conventional methods have disadvantages such as low efficiency, high-cost demand, secondary waste, adverse effects on the environment and need to be intensified. The combined treatment of coagulation (carried out with Al2(SO4)3) and photocatalysis (UV/TiO2) was studied on wastewater produced from a SOCAR (Pirallahi dry well) oil extraction plant and synthetic paracetamol-based wastewater. Two different dosages of Degussa P25 catalyst at different pH conditions and ion presence were studied. Characterization of the produced wastewater showed the complexity of the treated matrix given the presence of inorganic ions and aromatic and aliphatic contaminants, and an important parameter that was reduced through coagulation was turbidity. The initial concentration expressed as THC was 714 mg/L. At the end of the treatment, a THC value of 210 mg/L was reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two composite materials were synthesized based on sodium alginate and biochar derived from licorice processing waste functionalized with silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2) and iron oxide (Fe2O3), respectively, enabling the valorization of industrial waste. The adsorptive capacities of the two materials (Alg-SiO2 and BCLFe2O3) toward CO2 in the gaseous stream with nitrogen were evaluated by acid titration of carbonates present in a trap for CO2 consisting of a KOH solution placed downstream of the adsorption column. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the CO2 adsorption capacity of material functionalized by nanoparticles. Adams-Bohart, Thomas models, and % removal efficiency curves for the adsorption were examined to investigate the dynamic behavior of the column. From the tests performed in CO2 and N2 flow, the BCL-Fe2O3 material was demonstrated to have an adsorbent higher capacity than Alg-SiO2, respectively CO2 adsorbed 25 and 6 mg/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, photocatalytically active titanium oxide nanoparticles were synthesized for the treatment of contaminated water under visible light. Various Ag, Sr and Fe-based synthesis and doping techniques (mainly hydrothermal and sol-gel methods) were performed. Adsorptive and photocatalytic properties were studied by testing in batch mode for the decontaminating a synthetic methylene blue solution (used as a model contaminant) using a simple 13 W LED bulb as the light source. The best material in terms of both activity (high removal kinetics) and simplicity of synthesis was found to be titanium oxide doped with Fe via "solid-state" method. This method enabled the synthesis of titania nanoparticles about 70 nanometers in size with Fe3+ effectively substituting titanium atoms (Ti4+) in the crystalline bulk of titania. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model was found to represent the behavior of the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the soil improvement technique via Enzyme Induced Carbonate Precipitation (EICP) was investigated by employing, as an alternative to expensive pure enzymes, enzymes extracted from agro-food wastes (tomato, apple, and soybean) such that the process is economically viable and fully embraces the concept of the circular economy. The feasibility of the process was evaluated by monitoring calcium carbonate precipitation in a sand sample. The effect of selected operative parameters was investigated during the injection into different grain size sand samples. The optimal operating conditions in terms of sand grain size, temperature, Urea/Calcium concentration were found. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of this alternative solution for EICP method in term of acquired material strength and the possibility to operate sand consolidation through an economically sustainable process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a complex disease affecting young adults. It is a pathological condition impairing myocardium activity that leads to heart failure and, in the most severe cases, transplantation, which is currently the only possible therapy for the disease. DCM can be attributed to many genetic determinants interacting with environmental factors, resulting in a highly variable phenotype. Due to this complexity, the early identification of causative gene mutations is an important goal to provide a genetic diagnosis, implement pre-symptomatic interventions, and predict prognosis. The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has opened a new path for mutation screening, and exome sequencing provides a promising approach for identifying causal variants in known genes and novel disease-associated candidates. We analyzed the whole-exome sequencing (WES) of 15 patients affected by DCM without overloading (hypertension, valvular, or congenital heart disease) or chronic ischemic conditions. We identified 70 pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants and 1240 variants of uncertain clinical significance. Gene ontology enrichment analysis was performed to assess the potential connections between affected genes and biological or molecular function, identifying genes directly related to extracellular matrix organization, transcellular movement through the solute carrier and ATP-binding cassette transporter, and vitamin B12 metabolism. We found variants in genes implicated to a different extent in cardiac function that may represent new players in the complex genetic scenario of DCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO) and titania (TiO2) nanoparticles were entrapped in calcium alginate (Ca-Alg) beads to form a composite photocatalytic adsorbent material. The adsorption and photocatalytic properties of ZnO and TiO2 Ca-Alg beads were investigated for different amount of encapsulated nanoparticles. In particular, 2% w/w, 5% w/w, 7% w/w of ZnO and 2% w/w, 5% w/w, 10% w/w of TiO2 calcium alginate beads were synthetized and Methylene Blue (MB) was selected as target pollutant. Adsorption batch test revealed the existence of a maximum removal percentage of MB (at equilibrium conditions) according to the nanoparticles concentration: 54% and 40% of MB removal was obtained for 2% w/w of ZnO and 5% w/w of TiO2 respectively. Moreover, it was also observed that the kinetic of the process improves increasing the amount of nanoparticles in the beads. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model was used for fitting and it reproduces very well the behavior of experimental data. Photocatalytic batch tests revealed that, in the range of time analysed, negligible photocatalytic activity was recorded for ZnO Ca-Alg beads, while an intense photocatalytic activity was observed for TiO2 Ca-Alg beads. In the latter case the stability of the alginate structure was compromised as detected by a spectrophotometric analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]