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Urban road sediments act as large basins for heavy metal contaminants produced as a result of natural processes and anthropogenic activities. This study is aimed at reviewing research over recent decades on heavy metal contamination in different cities around the world. The study reviews literature from Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus journal publications. Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, and Cd levels vary from one city to another. Based on the collected results, the pollution level and geoaccumulation index are estimated in each city. The levels of pollution in these cities range from low to extremely high, depending on the sources of pollution at each site (geogenic and anthropogenic sources, etc.) and factors like the distribution of industrial activities, population, and traffic emissions. This review shows that the development of modern cities and rapid urbanization are the major causes of heavy metal contamination in the environment. The contamination of the urban environment has different sources, both natural and anthropogenic in character. Solving the problem of heavy metal contamination in the urban environment requires the use of different techniques such as urban road control treatment and soil remediation.

Agricultural suitability analysis using traditional methods is still arguable due to the uncertainty and subjectivity resulting from manual evaluations. The current work provides a novel framework for integrating the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with fuzzy logic under the geographic information system (GIS) platform to generate suitability maps for cultivating wheat, broad bean, and maize under center pivot irrigation systems. The research was executed in an arid region (30229 ha) in the western Nile Delta fringes, Egypt. Meteorological data, digital elevation model, and samples collected from seventy soil profiles and fourteen artesian wells were analyzed to characterize local climate conditions, landscape characteristics, and irrigation water quality. The main and sub-criteria were prone to AHP to specify the relative importance (weight) of each factor. Using GIS tools, raster layers were created, assigned scores (fuzzy membership functions) according to crop requirements, and complied in accordance with the weighted sum algorithm to produce final crop suitability maps. Results revealed that climate conditions were highly (S1) and moderately (S2) suitable for winter crops (wheat and broad bean) but marginally suitable (S3) for summer crop (maize). Soil salinity, sodicity, and depth were the most important determinants of landscape suitability. Accordingly, the land resources in the studied region were suitable (S1, S2, and S3) for the selected crops; nevertheless, 193 and 275 ha were currently not suitable (N1) for broad bean and maize, respectively. Potential salinity and specific ion (sodium and chloride) toxicity hazards were the main constraints for groundwater irrigation. The center pivot irrigation would meet wheat and maize requirements but adversely affect broad bean yield. Overall, groundwater quality contributed to 46% of site suitability for crop production followed by landscape factors that contributed to 42% and climate conditions that accounted for 13%. The final suitability maps affirmed high priority for wheat cultivation in the studied region since the S1 and S2 classes encompassed 90 and 10%, respectively. Moreover, maize ranked as the second suitable crop with 55, 42, and 35 of the total area fitting the S1, S2, and S3 classes, respectively. The third place was due to broad bean with S2 and S3 classes representing 53 and 47% of the total area, respectively. Our study can offer a replicable framework to integrate AHP with GIS-fuzzy logic for sustainable food crop production in drylands.

Control over morphology and crystallinity of metal halide perovskite films is of key importance to enable high-performance optoelectronics. However, this remains particularly challenging for solution-printed devices due to the complex crystallization kinetics of semiconductor materials within dynamic flow of inks. Here we report a simple yet effective meniscus-assisted solution printing (MASP) strategy to yield large-grained dense perovskite film with good crystallization and preferred orientation. Intriguingly, the outward convective flow triggered by fast solvent evaporation at the edge of the meniscus ink imparts the transport of perovskite solutes, thus facilitating the growth of micrometre-scale perovskite grains. The growth kinetics of perovskite crystals is scrutinized by in situ optical microscopy tracking to understand the crystallization mechanism. The perovskite films produced by MASP exhibit excellent optoelectronic properties with efficiencies approaching 20% in planar perovskite solar cells. This robust MASP strategy may in principle be easily extended to craft other solution-printed perovskite-based optoelectronics. The morphology control of metal halide perovskite crystalline films is of importance to enable high-performance solar cells. Here, He et al . use a meniscus-assisted solution-based method to print microsized perovskite grains at 60 °C, which results in high optoelectronic device efficiency of 20%.

Background Bio-products from stem/progenitor cells, such as extracellular vesicles, are likely a new promising approach for reprogramming resident cells in both acute and chronic kidney disease. Forty CKD patients stage III and IV (eGFR 15–60 mg/ml) have been divided into two groups; twenty patients as treatment group “A” and twenty patients as a matching placebo group “B”. Two doses of MSC-derived extracellular vesicles had been administered to patients of group “A”. Blood urea, serum creatinine, urinary albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) have been used to assess kidney functions and TNF-α, TGF-β1 and IL-10 have been used to assess the amelioration of the inflammatory immune activity. Results Participants in group A exhibited significant improvement of eGFR, serum creatinine level, blood urea and UACR. Patients of the treatment group “A” also exhibited significant increase in plasma levels of TGF-β1, and IL-10 and significant decrease in plasma levels of TNF-α. Participants of the control group B did not show significant improvement in any of the previously mentioned parameters at any time point of the study period. Conclusion Administration of cell-free cord-blood mesenchymal stem cells derived extracellular vesicles (CF-CB-MSCs-EVs) is safe and can ameliorate the inflammatory immune reaction and improve the overall kidney function in grade III-IV CKD patients.

In the present study, the transfer factors of the natural radionuclides 238 U, 232 Th, and 40 K were estimated for several crops cultivated in farms in the suburbs of Baghdad and one farm in Al-Najaf. The transfer factor (T F ) is the ratio of activity transfers from soil to plant. The specific activities of the natural radionuclides were measured with a gamma-ray spectrometer with a HPGe detector. The crops include cereals (rice and wheat), fruits (lemons and oranges), podded vegetables (vigna and okra), fruity vegetables (chili peppers and Solanum melongena ), and leafy vegetables ( Apium graveolens , Raphanus sativus , and Ocimum basilicum ). The results showed that the highest transfer factors for 238 U, 232 Th, and 40 K are 0.32, 0.70, and 3.44, respectively, in wheat. The average transfer factors for 238 U and 232 Th were founded 0.23 and 0.2 which are lower than the default unitiy value but the 1.85 were reported for 40 K higher than unity.

Concrete structures are highly vulnerable to fire exposure, which accelerates the degradation of mechanical properties and may lead to partial or total structural failure. Externally bonded carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) systems are widely used for post-fire strengthening; however, the bond behavior at the interfaces between CFRP and fire-damaged concrete, particularly under different cooling conditions, is not yet fully understood. In this study, the bond behavior was investigated experimentally and theoretically. Double-lap joint tests of thirty-nine specimens were conducted, including three unheated control specimens and thirty-six specimens exposed to temperatures of 200 °C, 400 °C, and 600 °C for durations of one and two hours. Two cooling methods, natural air cooling and water cooling, were applied prior to CFRP bonding. The results indicated that bond strength increased under exposure conditions of no more than 400 °C, whereas a significant reduction was observed at 600 °C. Water cooling resulted in lower bond strength compared with air cooling, while longer exposure durations improved bond performance under certain thermal conditions. The reasons behind the phenomena were analyzed in detail. Based on the experimental results, an analytical model for predicting the bond strength at the interfaces between fire-damaged concrete and CFRP sheets was developed. The model can account for the effects of peak temperatures, exposure durations, and cooling methods, and demonstrated high predictive accuracy (R2 = 0.94). The findings provide valuable insight into CFRP–concrete interaction after fire exposure and offer practical guidance for the assessment and rehabilitation of fire-damaged concrete structures.

The present work aims to study the structure and physical properties of PVA doped with two rare-earth oxides (dysprosium (III) oxide and erbium (III) oxide). Pure and doped polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) samples with 10 wt% and 30 wt% Er +3 and Dy +3 nanoparticles (NPs) have been fabricated via the casting method. The optical and radiation shielding properties of these composites were studied. The UV–Vis absorbance spectra of the doped PVA samples were investigated to study and characterize the alteration of the bandgap structure due to optically induced electronic transitions. UV–Vis was measured using a Shimadzu UV-2450 spectrophotometer at a range of (190–900 nm). The direct band gap and indirect band gap for both films depend on doping materials as given in indirect values (4.36–5.16 eV) and direct value (5.23–5.64 eV). The radiation attenuation properties were investigated experimentally with gamma spectroscopy at an energy range of (81–2614 keV). These properties were in good agreement with results provided by the XCOM software. Using 0.662 MeV, the studied samples exhibited experimental half value layer (HVL), of 7.30287 cm, 3.14412 cm, 2.80605 cm, 2.76987 cm and 2.37733 for Pure PVA, PVA10Dy, PVA10Er, PVA30Dy and PVA30Er samples. Furthermore, the results show that the sample with 30 wt% Er +3 has the highest LAC and MAC values and the lowest MFP, HVL and TVL values, making it the best sample for blocking out gamma radiation.

The composite concrete-encased steel (CCES) column member is made by the steel section embedded and covered in concrete from all sides. Due to the ability of the composite sections to bear heavy loads while using smaller sections, CCES columns have been widely used. Analytical studies on the CCES columns’ behavior using crushed dolomite coarse aggregate (CDCA) with different shear connectors (SCs) types/shapes and sizes under axial loads are described here. This study also aims to evaluate the current design methods to determine the ultimate capacity of the CCES with CDCA concrete columns using nine available codes. The results show that the finite element (FE) analysis could accurately predict the ultimate capacity of the CCES columns; the column’s capacity improved by about 41.75% as fcu increased by 60%. Increasing the IPE-shaped steel strength (fss) strategy is not very effective and gives brittle behavior even though enhancing the fss improves the capacity. The column's capacity increased as the tie stirrups and steel bars ratios increased. The column’s capacity increased by about 17.63%, as steel bars ratios increased by 155.49%. The efficiency factors increased slightly as tie stirrups were raised but slightly decreased as steel bar ratios increased. Using the SCs system increases the columns’ capacity by an average value of about 4.9% of the specimen without SCs. The computed capacities using the nine available codes are conservative and safe. The closest estimates made by the YB9082-06 code are 26% less on average than the test results; in contrast, the safest predictions made by the ECP-LRFD code are 68% less, on average, than test results.

We present a systematic study of the effect of higher-multipolar order plasmon modes on the spectral response and plasmonic coupling of silver nanoparticle dimers at nanojunction separation and introduce a coupling mechanism. The most prominent plasmonic band within the extinction spectra of coupled resonators is the dipolar coupling band. A detailed calculation of the plasmonic coupling between equivalent particles suggests that the coupling is not limited to the overlap between the main bands of individual particles but can also be affected by the contribution of the higher-order modes in the multipolar region. This requires an appropriate description of the mechanism that goes beyond the general coupling phenomenon introduced as the plasmonic ruler equation in 2007. In the present work, we found that the plasmonic coupling of nearby Ag nanocubes does not only depend on the plasmonic properties of the main band. The results suggest the decay length of the higher-order plasmon mode is more sensitive to changes in the magnitude of the interparticle axis and is a function of the gap size. For cubic particles, the contribution of the higher-order modes becomes significant due to the high density of oscillating dipoles localized on the corners. This gives rise to changes in the decay length of the plasmonic ruler equation. For spherical particles, as the size of the particle increases (i.e., ≥80 nm), the number of dipoles increases, which results in higher dipole– multipole interactions. This exhibits a strong impact on the plasmonic coupling, even at long separation distances (20 nm).

Emerging evidence supports the notion that inflammation fosters the development of common benign gynecologic disorders, including uterine leiomyoma, endometriosis, and adenomyosis. Numerous cytokines, chemokines, and growth and transcription factors have indisputable roles in the establishment and maintenance of benign gynecologic disorders by initiating complex cascades that promote proliferation, angiogenesis, and lesion progression. The interaction between inflammation and benign gynecologic disorders is orchestrated by a plethora of factors, including sex steroids, genetics, epigenetics, extracellular matrix, stem cells, cardiometabolic risk factors, diet, vitamin D, and the immune system. The role of inflammation in these disorders is not limited to local pathobiology but also extends to involve clinical sequelae that range from those confined to the reproductive tract, such as infertility and gynecologic malignancies, to systemic complications such as cardiovascular disease. Enhanced understanding of the intricate mechanisms of this association will introduce us to unvisited pathophysiological perspectives and guide future diagnostic and therapeutic implications aimed at reducing the burden of these disorders. Utilization of inflammatory markers, microRNA, and molecular imaging as diagnostic adjuncts may be valuable, noninvasive techniques for prompt detection of benign gynecologic disorders. Further, use of novel as well as previously established therapeutics, such as immunomodulators, hormonal treatments, cardiometabolic medications, and cyclooxygenase-2 and NF-κB inhibitors, can target inflammatory pathways involved in their pathogenesis. In this comprehensive review, we aim to dissect the existing literature on the role of inflammation in benign gynecologic disorders, including the proposed underlying mechanisms and complex interactions, its contribution to clinical sequelae, and the clinical implications this role entails. Summary sentence Reconceptualizing common benign gynecologic disorders as having inherent inflammatory pathobiology will introduce us to previously unvisited perspectives of their development and devise novel clinical implications aimed at reducing their burden. Graphical Abstract