Tapping into haloalkaliphilic bacteria for sustainable agriculture in treated wastewater: insights into genomic fitness and environmental adaptation.

The increasing salinity and alkalinity of soils pose a global challenge, particularly in arid regions such as Tunisia, where about 50% of lands are sensitive to soil salinization. Anthropogenic activities, including the use of treated wastewater (TWW) for irrigation, exacerbate these issues. Haloalkaliphilic bacteria, adapted to TWW conditions and exhibiting plant-growth promotion (PGP) and biocontrol traits, could offer solutions.

S211 as a microbial cell factory for direct bioconversion of waste cooking oil into medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates.

The present study examines the use of waste cooking oil (WCO) as a substrate for medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA) production by S211. The genome analysis revealed that the S211 strain has a mcl-PHA cluster () encoding two class II PHA synthases (PhaC1 and PhaC2) separated by a PHA depolymerase (PhaZ), a transcriptional activator (PhaD) and two phasin-like proteins (PhaFI). Genomic annotation also identified a gene encoding family I.

Impact of mitigating obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity on type 2 diabetes mellitus burden in Oman: insights from mathematical modeling.

Introduction: To estimate the impact of reducing obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity (PIA) prevalence, and of introducing physical activity (PA) as an explicit intervention, on the prevalence, incidence, and mortality of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Oman.

Research Design And Methods: A deterministic population-level mathematical model was employed to investigate the impact of different scenarios for reducing T2DM risk factors on T2DM epidemiology. The model was stratified by sex, age group, risk factor status, T2DM status, and intervention status and parameterized with nationally representative data.

Brucella pituitosa strain BU72, a new hydrocarbonoclastic bacterium through exopolysaccharide-based surfactant production.

Hydrocarbon and heavy metal pollution are amongst the most severe and prevalent environmental problems due to their toxicity and persistence. Bioremediation using microorganisms is considered one of the most effective ways to treat polluted sites. In the present study, we unveil the bioremediation potential of Brucella pituitosa strain BU72.

Removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater using two-dimensional transition metal carbides.

Water is an indispensable material for human life. Unfortunately, the development of industrial activities has reduced the quality of water resources in the world. Meantime, heavy metals are an important factor in water pollution due to their toxicity.

CdInSe@chitosan heterojunction nanocomposite with ultrahigh photocatalytic activity under sunlight driven photodegradation of organic pollutants.

This research focused on synthesizing a CdInSe@Ch nanocomposite by doping CdInSe into chitosan using a photolysis assisted ultrasonic process. The aim was to enhance the photodegradation efficiency of ofloxacin and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid under sunlight. The synthesized CdInSe@Ch nanocomposite was investigated via different techniques, including XRD, XPS, FTIR, TEM, DSC, TGA, UV-Vis and PL.

A Context-Aware, Computer-Vision-Based Approach for the Detection of Taxi Street-Hailing Scenes from Video Streams.

With the increasing deployment of autonomous taxis in different cities around the world, recent studies have stressed the importance of developing new methods, models and tools for intuitive human-autonomous taxis interactions (HATIs). Street hailing is one example, where passengers would hail an autonomous taxi by simply waving a hand, exactly like they do for manned taxis. However, automated taxi street-hailing recognition has been explored to a very limited extent.

From complexity to evolution: Mapping resilience management practices in the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the hospitality industry. Many have treated the crisis as a temporary shock. However, there are those who see it as a turning point.

High-Performance Solar Steam Generator Using Low-Cost Biomass Waste Photothermal Material and Engineering of the Structure.

In this work, high-performance, low-cost, environmentally friendly multilayered solar steam generation systems are fabricated by engineering the structure and using a biomass photothermal material. Remarkably, the biomass photothermal material is extracted from the pyrolysis waste of linseed (flax) grains. The introduced system desalinates water using solar energy as the renewable source of energy, and its light absorber is from the waste of a renewable source.

Identification, molecular docking, and kinetic studies of six novel angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides derived from Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) seed.

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) seed is a valuable protein source that could be used to prepare protein hydrolysates with antihypertensive properties. However, the potential of using kenaf seeds for health food and pharmaceutical applications has not been fully exploited.

Hierarchical Analysis Process for Belief Management in Internet of Drones.

Group awareness is playing a major role in the efficiency of mission planning and decision-making processes, particularly those involving spatially distributed collaborative entities. The performance of this concept has remarkably increased with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT). Indeed, a myriad of innovative devices are being extensively deployed to collaboratively recognize and track events, objects, and activities of interest.

A possibilistic-robust-fuzzy programming model for designing a game theory based blood supply chain network.

This paper presents a bi-level blood supply chain network under uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak using a Stackelberg game theory technique. A new two-phase bi-level mixed-integer linear programming model is developed in which the total costs are minimized and the utility of donors is maximized. To cope with the uncertain nature of some of the input parameters, a novel mixed possibilistic-robust-fuzzy programming approach is developed.

A new humanitarian relief logistic network for multi-objective optimization under stochastic programming.

Millions of affected people and thousands of victims are consequences of earthquakes, every year. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a proper preparedness and response planning. The objectives of this paper are ) minimizing the expected value of the total costs of relief supply chain, ) minimizing the maximum number of unsatisfied demands for relief staff and ) minimizing the total probability of unsuccessful evacuation in routes.

Extremophilic Bacterium G11 as a Cell Factory for Poly-3-Hydroxybutyrate-co-3-Hydroxyvalerate Copolymer's Production.

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are biodegradable and biocompatible bio-based polyesters, which are used in various applications including packaging, medical and coating materials. In this study, an extremophilic hydrocarbonoclastic bacterium, previously isolated from saline sediment in the Tunisian desert, has been investigated for PHA production. The accumulation of intracellular PHA granules in G11 was detected by Nile blue A staining of the colonies.

Designing an integrated responsive-green-cold vaccine supply chain network using Internet-of-Things: artificial intelligence-based solutions.

In this paper, a new responsive-green-cold vaccine supply chain network during the COVID-19 pandemic is developed for the first time. According to the proposed network, a new multi-objective, multi-period, multi-echelon mathematical model for the distribution-allocation-location problem is designed. Another important novelty in this paper is that it considers an Internet-of-Things application in the COVID-19 condition in the suggested model to enhance the accuracy, speed, and justice of vaccine injection with existing priorities.

Designing a sustainable closed-loop supply chain network considering lateral resupply and backup suppliers using fuzzy inference system.

Sustainability is key factor for transforming traditional supply chain networks into modern ones. This study, for the first time, considers the impacts of the backup suppliers and lateral transshipment/resupply simultaneously on designing a Sustainable Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network (SCLSCN) to decrease the shortage that may occur during the transmission of produced goods in the network. In this manner, the fuzzy multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed to design an efficient SCLSCN resiliently.

Designing a new multi-echelon multi-period closed-loop supply chain network by forecasting demand using time series model: a genetic algorithm.

Demand plays a vital role in designing every closed-loop supply chain network in today's world. The flow of materials and commodities in the opposite direction of the standard supply chain is inevitable. In this way, this study addresses a new multi-echelon multi-period closed-loop supply chain network to minimize the total costs of the network.

Designing a sustainable closed-loop supply chain network of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic: Pareto-based algorithms.

This study develops a novel mathematical model to design a sustainable mask Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network (CLSCN) during the COVID-19 outbreak for the first time. A multi-objective Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is proposed to address the locational, supply, production, distribution, collection, quarantine, recycling, reuse, and disposal decisions within a multi-period multi-echelon multi-product supply chain. Additionally, sustainable development is studied in terms of minimizing the total cost, total pollution and total human risk at the same time.

A stochastic bi-objective simulation-optimization model for plasma supply chain in case of COVID-19 outbreak.

As of March 24, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized to bleed the newly recovered from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), i.e., the ones whose lives were at risk, separate Plasma from their blood and inject it to COVID-19 patients.

Quantitative Analysis of Different Environmental Factor Impacts on Land Cover in Nisos Elafonisos, Crete, Greece.

Land Cover monitoring is an essential task for a better understanding of the ecosystem's dynamicity and complexity. The availability of Remote Sensing data improved the Land Use Land Cover mapping as it is routine work in ecosystem management. The complexity of the Mediterranean ecosystems involves a complexity of the surrounding environmental factors.

Challenges to rutile-based geoscientific tools: low-temperature polymorphic TiO transformations and corresponding reactive pathways.

Rutile, a common accessory mineral in a wide variety of rocks, is the most stable naturally occurring TiO polymorph. The relationship between its trace element composition and formation conditions has provided geoscientists with discriminant tools for fingerprinting geological processes, such as magmatic evolution and subduction zone metamorphism, alongside applications to the study of sediment provenance. In the present work, volcaniclastic rock samples belonging to Fara and Saiq Formations, outcropping in Jebel Akhdar mountains, Oman, are studied with Raman spectroscopy and Electron Microprobe (EMP) aiming: of (i) the identification of different naturally-occurring TiO polymorphs, (ii) the evaluation of their trace element contents in relation with hydrothermal alteration features, and (iii) the analysis of the mineral reactive pathways behind the observed textural relationships.

Analysis of the Sugar Content in Food Products by Using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry and Enzymatic Methods.

The aim of this study is to develop and optimise a method of sugar content determination in food products. Date juice (syrup) was used as a sample natural food resource for the analysis because of its potential usage as an alternative substrate for a variety of fermentation processes. Hence, qualifying and quantifying its sugar content is a crucial step.

Stable Isotope Signatures of Middle Palaeozoic Ahermatypic Rugose Corals - Deciphering Secondary Alteration, Vital Fractionation Effects, and Palaeoecological Implications.

This study investigates stable isotope signatures of five species of Silurian and Devonian deep-water, ahermatypic rugose corals, providing new insights into isotopic fractionation effects exhibited by Palaeozoic rugosans, and possible role of diagenetic processes in modifying their original isotopic signals. To minimize the influence of intraskeletal cements on the observed signatures, the analysed specimens included unusual species either devoid of large intraskeletal open spaces ('button corals': Microcyclus, Palaeocyclus), or typified by particularly thick corallite walls (Calceola). The corals were collected at four localities in the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland), Mader Basin (Morocco) and on Gotland (Sweden), representing distinct diagenetic histories and different styles of diagenetic alteration.