The degradation of paraben preservatives: Recent progress and sustainable approaches toward photocatalysis.

Parabens are a class of compounds primarily used as antimicrobial preservatives in pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, and foodstuff. Their widely used field leads to increasing concentrations detected in various environmental matrices like water, soil, and sludges, even detected in human tissue, blood, and milk. Treatment techniques, including chemical advanced oxidation, biological degradation, and physical adsorption processes, have been widely used to complete mineralization or to degrade parabens into less complicated byproducts.

Global challenges in microplastics: From fundamental understanding to advanced degradations toward sustainable strategies.

Currently, the global production and usage of plastics have increased rapidly with the expansion of synthetic polymers. Since plastics' degradation processes are prolonged and thus microplastics (MPs) potentially persist for very long periods in the environment. To date, there is a need for knowledge on the relevance of different potential entry pathways and the number of MPs entering the environment via different routes.

Optimization of sampling frequency for coastal seawater quality monitoring.

The selection of an appropriate sampling frequency is very important in monitoring coastal seawater quality. The present study sought to optimize the sampling frequency for coastal seawater quality monitoring. We combined mathematical models with natural and human activities by the analytic hierarchy process method.

Enhancing decomposition rate of perfluorooctanoic acid by carbonate radical assisted sonochemical treatment.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a recalcitrant organic pollutant in wastewater because of its wide range of applications. Technologies for PFOA treatment have recently been developed. In this study, PFOA decomposition by sonochemical treatment was investigated to determine the effects of NaHCO3 concentrations, N2 saturation, and pH on decomposition rates and defluorination efficiencies.

Calculating of river water quality sampling frequency by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

River water quality sampling frequency is an important aspect of the river water quality monitoring network. A suitable sampling frequency for each station as well as for the whole network will provide a measure of the real water quality status for the water quality managers as well as the decision makers. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is an effective method for decision analysis and calculation of weighting factors based on multiple criteria to solve complicated problems.