Immobilized enzyme/microorganism complexes for degradation of microplastics: A review of recent advances, feasibility and future prospects.

Environmental prevalence of microplastics has prompted the development of novel methods for their removal, one of which involves immobilization of microplastics-degrading enzymes. Various materials including nanomaterials have been studied for this purpose but there is currently a lack of review to present these studies in an organized manner to highlight the advances and feasibility. This article reviewed more than 100 peer-reviewed scholarly papers to elucidate the latest advances in the novel application of immobilized enzyme/microorganism complexes for microplastics degradation, its feasibility and future prospects.

Advancement of biorefinery-derived platform chemicals from macroalgae: a perspective for bioethanol and lactic acid.

The extensive growth of energy and plastic demand has raised concerns over the depletion of fossil fuels. Moreover, the environmental conundrums worldwide integrated with global warming and improper plastic waste management have led to the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly biofuel (bioethanol) and biopolymer (lactic acid, LA) derived from biomass for fossil fuels replacement and biodegradable plastic production, respectively. However, the high production cost of bioethanol and LA had limited its industrial-scale production.

The impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on sustainable environment: a new perspective from ecological footprint in five OECD countries.

The paper explores the short-run and long-run asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed lag (NARDL) approach in selected five OECD countries, we find that ecological footprint responds to positive and negative fiscal decentralization asymmetrically in the long run and short run. However, the nature of the response varies significantly across countries.

A Sustainable Reuse of Agro-Industrial Wastes into Green Cement Bricks.

The fabrication of bricks commonly consumes relatively high natural resources. To reduce the carbon footprint in the brick production industry, repurposing industrial wastes in the making of sustainable bricks is a recent trend in research and application. Local wastes, such as oil palm shell (OPS), palm oil fuel ash (POFA), and quarry dust (QD), are massively produced annually in the palm oil-exporting countries.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in environmental matrices: Occurrence, fate, health impact, physio-chemical and bioremediation technology.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are an emerging category of toxicity that adversely impacts humans and the environment's well-being. Diseases like cancer, cardiovascular risk, behavioral disorders, autoimmune defects, and reproductive diseases are related to these endocrine disruptors. Because these chemicals exist in known sources such as pharmaceuticals and plasticizers, as well as non-point sources such as agricultural runoff and storm water infiltration, the interactive effects of EDCs are gaining attention.

Green approaches for the synthesis of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles using microbial and plant extracts.

Green synthesis approaches are gaining significance as promising routes for the sustainable preparation of nanoparticles, offering reduced toxicity towards living organisms and the environment. Nanomaterials produced by green synthesis approaches can offer additional benefits, including reduced energy inputs and lower production costs than traditional synthesis, which bodes well for commercial-scale production. The biomolecules and phytochemicals extracted from microbes and plants, respectively, are active compounds that function as reducing and stabilizing agents for the green synthesis of nanoparticles.

Epidemiology, clinical characteristics and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children: A narrative review.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected millions of people around the world, with most cases recorded among adults. The cases reported among children have been acknowledged to be minimal in comparison to adults. Nevertheless, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been reported to affect children of all ages, including newborns.

Recent progress and evolution of coolant usages in conventional machining methods: a comprehensive review.

This paper reviews recent progress and applications of usage of cutting fluids in conventional machining processes. In addition to reviewing the various conventional and advanced cooling techniques during machining, the paper also discusses the use of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) in several types on metals such as steel, aluminum, alloy, and titanium alloys. Due to the toxicity of conventional cutting fluid resulting in ecological problems, the demand for environmentally friendly cutting fluid is rising.

Psychological Adjustment and Guidance for Ageing Urban Women.

The number of older women are increasing more rapidly and it is estimated that by 2050, the number of elderly women over 60 years old will be 3.2 times that of 2000. Moreover, the number and rate of elderly women in cities where widowed life alone has increased.

Third-generation L-Lactic acid production by the microwave-assisted hydrolysis of red macroalgae Eucheuma denticulatum extract.

The development of an efficient third-generation L-lactic acid (L-LA) production process from Eucheuma denticulatum extract (EDE) was achieved in this study. Microwave-assisted dilute acid hydrolysis (MADAH) and microwave-assisted hydrothermal hydrolysis (MAHTH) were chosen as the hydrolysis of EDE for the objective of increasing galactose yield. Single-factor optimization of hydrolysis of the EDE was studied, MADAH had high performance in galactose production relative to MAHTH, in which the yield and optimal conditions for both processes were 50.

Facile asymmetric modification of graphene nanosheets using κ-carrageenan as a green template.

The synthesis of Janus nanosheets using κ-carrageenan (κ-Ca) as a green template endows a greener and more straightforward method compared to traditional approaches of using wax template. We hypothesize that the hydrogen bonding interaction between κ-Ca and graphene oxide (GO) allows partial masking of GO's single facet, paving the way for the asymmetric modification of the exposed surface. GO is first encapsulated within the porous hydrogel matrix formed by κ-Ca to isolate one of the facets.

COVID-19 and social wellbeing in Malaysia: A case study.

The world has witnessed the largest single disruption to social wellbeing since the first known case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in China in December 2019. In Malaysia, the government implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) on 18 March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this paper highlights how the Malaysian government responded to COVID-19 in comparison with some Asian countries; and what has and has not worked for the MCO imposed by the government.

Portable Micro-Doppler Radar with Quadrature Radar Architecture for Non-Contact Human Breath Detection.

Recently, rapid advances in radio detection and ranging (radar) technology applications have been implemented in various fields. In particular, micro-Doppler radar has been widely developed to perform certain tasks, such as detection of buried victims in natural disaster, drone system detection, and classification of humans and animals. Further, micro-Doppler radar can also be implemented in medical applications for remote monitoring and examination.

Life-cycle assessment of hydrogen production via catalytic gasification of wheat straw in the presence of straw derived biochar catalyst.

The environmental footprints of Hproductionviacatalytic gasification of wheat straw using straw-derived biochar catalysts were examined. The functional unit of 1 kg of Hwas adopted in the system boundaries, which includes 5 processes namely biomass collection and pre-treatment units (P1), biochar catalyst preparation using fast pyrolysis unit (P2), two-stage pyrolysis-gasification unit (P3), products separation unit (P4), and Hdistribution to downstream plants (P5). Based on the life-cycle assessment, the hot spots in this process were identified, the sequence was as follows: P4 > P2 > P1 > P3 > P5.

Characterization of microplastics in the water and sediment of Baram River estuary, Borneo Island.

The Baram River is one of the largest rivers in Sarawak, where many large industries, such as plywood, sawmills, shipyards, interisland ports, and other wood-based industries are located along the river. Microplastic contamination has become a widespread and growing concern worldwide because of the small sizes of microplastics and their presence in seafood such as fish, squid, scallop, crabs, shrimp, and mussels. In this study, microplastics were found in all sampling stations.

Correlations between control of COVID-19 transmission and influenza occurrences in Malaysia.

Objectives: The transmission of COVID-19 has sent Malaysia into cycles of tightening and relaxation of movement control, which are still continuing currently in line with local fluctuations of new COVID-19 cases. During movement control, measures comprising physical distancing, hand cleaning or sanitizing, and sanitization of premises are consistently implemented while self-isolation and travel restrictions are adaptively enforced. This study aims to examine if the control of COVID-19 transmission has an effect on the national influenza occurrences as some measures for COVID-19 control are similar to those for influenza.

A Prospective Concept on the Fabrication of Blend PES/PEG/DMF/NMP Mixed Matrix Membranes with Functionalised Carbon Nanotubes for CO/N Separation.

With an ever-increasing global population, the combustion of fossil fuels has risen immensely to meet the demand for electricity, resulting in significant increase in carbon dioxide (CO) emissions. In recent years, CO separation technology, such as membrane technology, has become highly desirable. Fabricated mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have the most desirable gas separation performances, as these membranes have the ability to overcome the trade-off limitations.

A Molecular Simulation Study of Silica/Polysulfone Mixed Matrix Membrane for Mixed Gas Separation.

Polysulfone-based mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) incorporated with silica nanoparticles are a new generation material under ongoing research and development for gas separation. However, the attributes of a better-performing MMM cannot be precisely studied under experimental conditions. Thus, it requires an atomistic scale study to elucidate the separation performance of silica/polysulfone MMMs.

Displacement Rate Effects on the Mode II Shear Delamination Behavior of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composites.

This paper studies the influence of displacement rate on mode II delamination of unidirectional carbon/epoxy composites. End-notched flexure test is performed at displacement rates of 1, 10, 100 and 500 mm/min. Experimental results reveal that the mode II fracture toughness increases with the displacement, with a maximum increment of 45% at 100 mm/min.

Joint angle estimation with wavelet neural networks.

This paper presents a wavelet neural network (WNN) based method to reduce reliance on wearable kinematic sensors in gait analysis. Wearable kinematic sensors hinder real-time outdoor gait monitoring applications due to drawbacks caused by multiple sensor placements and sensor offset errors. The proposed WNN method uses vertical Ground Reaction Forces (vGRFs) measured from foot kinetic sensors as inputs to estimate ankle, knee, and hip joint angles.

Recent advances in green solvents for lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment: Potential of choline chloride (ChCl) based solvents.

Biomass wastes exhibit a great potential to be used as a source of non-depleting renewable energy and synthesis of value-added products. The key to the valorization of excess lignocellulosic biomass wastes in the world lies on the pretreatment process to recalcitrant barrier of the lignocellulosic material for the access to useful substrates. A wide range of pretreatment techniques are available and advances in this field is continuously happening, in search for cheap, effective, and environmentally friendly methods.

Investigating the Efficacy of Adhesive Tape for Drilling Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers.

In the present research work, an effort has been made to explore the potential of using the adhesive tapes while drilling CFRPs. The input parameters, such as drill bit diameter, point angle, Scotch tape layers, spindle speed, and feed rate have been studied in response to thrust force, torque, circularity, diameter error, surface roughness, and delamination occurring during drilling. It has been found that the increase in point angle increased the delamination, while increase in Scotch tape layers reduced delamination.

Microplastic contamination in the Skipjack Tuna (Euthynnus affinis) collected from Southern Coast of Java, Indonesia.

Indonesia is the second-largest contributor of microplastics (MPs) pollution in the marine ecosystem. Most MPs pollution-related studies in Indonesia focus on seawater, sediment, with less information found on the commercially important fish species used for human consumption. Skipjack Tuna (Euthynnus affinis) is one of the major exporting fishery commodities from Indonesia.

Sustainable and green pretreatment strategy of Eucheuma denticulatum residues for third-generation l-lactic acid production.

Managing plastic waste remains an urgent environmental concern and switching to biodegradable plastics can reduce the dependence on depleting fossil fuels. This study emphasises the efficacy of macroalgae wastes, Eucheuma denticulatum residues (EDRs), as potential alternate feedstock to produce l-lactic acid (l-LA), the monomer of polylactic acid, through fermentation. An innovative environmental friendly strategy was explored in this study to develop a glucose platform from EDRs: pretreatment with microwave-assisted autohydrolysis (MAA) applied to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis of EDRs.