Providing sufficient quantity of drinking water to the inhabitants of poor countries and rural areas is one of the difficult challenges for water treatment authorities, where it was reported, by the World Health Organisation (WHO), that nowadays there are more than 800 million people in the poor countries and rural areas do not have sufficient quantity of drinking water, which subjected those people for outbreaks of different water-related diseases. Water companies therefore seek to provide affordable and reliable methods of treatment in order to solve this life-threatening issue. In this vein, the goal of the current study is to develop and analyse the effectiveness of affordable eco-friendly coagulants that derived from the seed of Strychnos potatorum. The applicability of this new type of coagulants for water treatment has been validated by treating turbid water sample, which was synthesized using kaolinites. The experimental work was also focused on optimising the effects of coagulants dosage; retention period and pH of water on turbidity removal by applying the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The final results demonstrated that the new eco-friendly coagulants are suitable for water treatment as they removed about 93% of kaolinite turbidity when the unit was operated at natural pH (7) for 70.0 min with a dosage of the new coagulants of 40.0 mg.L−1.

Chemosensory systems display exceptional variation between species, but little is known about how the evolution of gene expression and cell types contribute to this diversity. We have generated transcriptomes for five chemosensory tissues across six ecologically diverse Drosophila species and integrated their analyses with single-cell datasets to address these questions. The evolution of chemosensory transcriptomes has been predominantly shaped by stabilizing selection, but several thousand genes have nevertheless evolved expression changes in each tissue. Phylogenetic analyses of differentially expressed genes revealed strong evidence that their expression changes have been driven by a combination of cis-regulatory and cell composition evolution. We have also found that chemosensory-related gene families have undergone pervasive expression level changes and numerous species-specific expression gains/losses. Follow-up experiments revealed several chemoreceptors that evolved novel patterns of tissue and cellular expression that likely contribute to sensory differences. Finally, analyses of the genes that are differentially expressed between sexes uncovered extensive species-specific differences. Among these rapid changes, we discovered a D. melanogaster-specific excess of male-biased gene expression in its forelegs and identified sensory and muscle cells as the primary source of this dimorphism. Together, our analyses provide new insights for understanding evolutionary changes in ecologically key tissues at both global and individual gene levels.

The discharge of industrial effluents containing dyes such as methylene blue (MB) and safranine T (ST) into water resources has caused serious problems for humans and organisms which live in water. On the other hand, the seeds of nigella sativa have been known to be effective and economical materials that present an excellent performance of dye removal from various types of wastewater. In this study, a different method from the existing literature was used, where the black cumin seeds (HBCS) were heated for a twenty-four hour period at 85 °C and ground to 300 µm particle size to obtain new adsorbents for (MB) and (ST) dye adsorption from aqueous solutions. Four operating variables, which show a strong impact on adsorption, were tested by conducting a batch mode adsorption experiment and these were: the dye solution's initial pH (pH), the contact time (t), the initial concentration of the dye (C o ), and the mass of the adsorbent (m a ). The sorption capacity of the adsorbent (q) and the dye removal efficiency (% Rem) were utilized as indicators of the impacts of selected operating variables on adsorption processes. It was found that the adsorption of MB and ST dyes increased when the initial concentration of the solution is higher. The adsorption of MB and ST dyes onto HBCS with initial concentration of 50 mg/L was 3.39 mg/g and 4.36 mg/g, respectively. The equilibrium values for the MB and ST dyes corresponded with the Freundlich isotherm model onto HBCS highlighting the multi-layer adsorption process occurring which describes the interactions between the modified HBCS and the two dyes. The findings demonstrate that the optimum adsorption processes of the MB and ST dyes accrued in the 120 minutes and obtained at pH 10.7 and 11 for MB and ST, respectively. These conditions provide a negative charge for the surface of HBCS, causing its attraction to the positive charge of the MB and ST dyes. Kinetic studies elucidated that the MB and ST dyes adsorption onto HBCS most corresponded with pseudo-second order. The findings of this study could be implemented functionally in the industrial wastewater treatment sector.

A novel application of building demolition waste for removal benzene from aqueous solutions. In this research, demolition waste from buildings has been studied for possible use as benzene removal adsorbent from aquatic solution. The effect of adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial benzene concentration, and initial pH on benzene adsorption capacity have been investigated in the batch adsorption experiments. The adsorption effects initially happened very rapidly and achieved equilibrium within 180 min. Benzene removal was observed to decrease by an increase in the initial concentration of benzene of 300–700 mg·L–1, an increase in the adsorbent dose of 0.4–2.4 g per 100 mL, where an optimum adsorbent dose equal to 1.2 g per 100 mL was found. The potential of adsorption increases with pH 3.0–7.0 to reach the maximum removal efficiency at pH 6.0. The findings showed that equilibrium data were adequately adapted and correlated with the Freundlich isotherm models. The average percentage of the removal at room temperature was about 98%. Results suggest that building demolition waste can be used effectively in industrial wastewater treatment for the removal of aromatic hydrocarbon, benzene, as a low-cost option.

Acoustic conditions, considered an indicator of the level of comfort, are a major concern in educational facilities since they are linked to students’ well-being and learning capacity. In this study, measurements of the acoustical comfort conditions were performed using portable IEQ meter have been assessed in four selected areas of environmental engineering department building (The classroom for fourth year, student’s corridor, teacher’s corridor and reception area) in the University of Babylon in Hillah City. This was done by analyzing the data measured for 13 months from August (2020) to August (2021). Statistical analysis by using the linear regression test was performed to determine the relationship between the selected areas. Noise is the major parameter for the educational areas that can interfere with the students’ activities and eventually, this will have a detrimental effect on the students’ physical and psychological health. The acquired results were compared to the reference values specified in the handbook to international standards for noise compliance in academic educational facilities. The results show that all the studied areas in the Environmental Engineering Department had back-ground noise levels out of the recommended threshold limit values (>50 dB) revealed that the indoor environment of these areas was of poor quality, indicating the require for interventions. This study can be considered a pilot study for future comparable research on Iraqi universities.