The projected increase of civil aviation activity, the degradation of air quality and the location of Beirut Airport embedded in a very urbanized area, in addition to the special geography and topography surrounding the airport which plays a significant role in drawing emissions to larger distances, demanded an assessment of the spatial impact of the airport activities on the air quality of Beirut and its suburbs. This is the first study in the Middle East region that model pollutant concentrations resulting from an international airport’s activities using an advanced atmospheric dispersion modelling system in a country with no data. This followed validation campaigns showing very strong correlations (r = 0.85) at validation sites as close as possible to emission sources. The modelling results showed extremely high NO₂ concentrations within the airport vicinity, i.e., up to 110 µg∙m^-3 (which is greater than the World Health Organization annual guidelines) posing a health hazard to the workers in the ramp. The major contribution of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport to the degradation of air quality was in the airport vicinity; however, it extended to Beirut and its suburbs in addition to affecting the seashore area due to emissions along the aircraft trajectory; this is an aspect rarely considered in previous studies. On the other hand, elevated volatile organic compound levels were observed near the fuel tanks and at the aerodrome center. This study provides (i) a methodology to assess pollutant concentrations resulting from airport emissions through the use of an advanced dispersion model in a country with no data; and (ii) a tool for policy makers to better understand the contribution of the airport’s operations to national pollutant emissions, which is vital for mitigation strategies and health impact assessments.

Increasing urbanization related to land pressure and the soil arising from it are aggravating factors of flood risk in urban areas, including storm water runoff. Therefore, urban sanitation networks face an excess of water that exceeds their absorption capacity. This article deals with the effect of impermeability in densely populated urban areas and the function of a combined sewer system under higher rainfall intensities using the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). The objective is to simulate a possible increase in rainfall intensities for reducing overflow points in the combined sewage system at the study area, which was the city of Ahmed Rachdi, Mila in Algeria. The excessive rainfall intensities were modeled using the SWMM software program to estimate maximum water volumes inside the combined sewage system of the study area. To evaluate the model’s performance, a comparison process was used between the values of the flow rates of the pipelines of the sewerage system combined with the design flow rates in the current state and the flow rates of a single modeling of future events available during the study interval. The comparison results showed a good and convergent performance for these models. The results of the flooding volumes using different values of rainfall intensities and different return periods, which were 2, 5, 10 and 25 years, in the modeling of the combined sewage system are 3626, 6888, 8636 and 12676 m³, respectively. The suggested scenario included increasing diameters of some pipes in the combined sewage system pipelines. The results using this scenario showed reductions in the total percentage of overflow points from the integrated sewage system of 52.42%, 40.63%, 31.83% and 20.51% using the rainfall intensities for the return periods of 2, 5, 10 and 25 years, respectively. The present study can provide technical support for using software in the planning, controlling and tests of the sewer systems, which contribute to solving the sewer systems’ problems.

Farmers in Khi Lek Subdistrict, Muang District, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand have been known to persistently use pesticides, especially carbofuran, in their agricultural fields. This indeed poses a risk to farmers’ health and ecosystem. However, there has been no report pointing out this problem. The purpose of this study was to determine carbofuran residues in soil in four villages in Khi Lek Subdistrict, Muang District, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, where pesticides were widely used for vegetables. The quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) method was used to extract the samples, which were then analyzed utilizing high-performance liquid chromatography with a mass spectrometry detector. The health risks of carbofuran exposure through soil ingestion among 485 farmers were investigated by using the hazard quotient (HQ). The concentration of carbofuran in 10 soil samples was less than 0.01 mg/kg. The overall average of the farmers’ daily dose of carbofuran in Villages 5, 8, 9 and 10 ranged from 3.9×10^-9 mg/kg-day to 5×10^-9 mg/kg-day, and the hazard quotient (HQ) indicated an acceptable level for health risks. However, this study found that 98.97% of the farmers ate food and 97.53% drank water while farming. As a result of this, they may still be exposed to pesticides. Since the factors contributing to human health risks include the length of exposure, frequency of exposure, and farmer body weight, this study suggests that the government should be concerned because the current pattern of pesticide use still poses an immediate health risk to the farmers. While The farmers should be trained in safe pesticide usage while safe pesticide practice should also be promoted.

Currently, most countries are moving towards digitalization, and their energy consumption is increasing daily. Thus, power networks face major challenges in controlling energy consumption and supplying huge amounts of electricity. Again, using excessive power reduces the stored fossil fuels and affects the environment in terms of CO₂ emissions. Keep these issues in mind; this study focuses on energy-efficient products in an energy supply chain management model under credit sales, variable production, and stochastic demand. Here, the manufacturer grants a credit period for the retailer to get more orders; thus, the order quantity is related to the credit period envisaged in this model. Considering such components, supply chain members can reduce negative environmental impacts and significant energy consumption, achieve optimal results and avoid drastic financial losses. Additionally, including a credit period increases the possibility of default risk, for which a certain interest is charged. The marginal reduction cost for limiting carbon emissions, flexible production to meet fluctuating demand, and continuous investment to improve product quality are considered here. The global optimality of system profit function and decision variables (credit period, quality improvement, and production rate) is ensured through the classical optimization method. Interpretive sensitivity analyses and numerical investigations are performed to validate the proposed model. The results demonstrate that the idea of credit sales, flexible production, and quality improvement increases total system profit by 28.64% and marginal reduction technology reduces CO₂ emissions up to 4.01%.

The effect of pipeline vandalism among other pipeline disasters has been drastic on the Nigerian economy. The research aims to examine the level of awareness of stakeholders on the immediate and remote causes of pipeline disasters in Nigeria. This involved comprehensive review of literature along with semi-structured and open-ended interviews (as a pilot study) to enrich and strengthen the literature in Nigerian context and subsequently follow-up with semi-structured questionnaire survey; analyzed through content analysis using both descriptive and inferential statistics. In the methodology, three levels were adopted: confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), measurement model and structural model in the carrying out of structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. The CFA analyzes the relationship between the dominant’s variables and their related indicators. Based on the analysis carried out, activities of vandals has the highest influence on pipeline disasters. Human impacts resulting from pipeline disasters are very significant in Nigeria. Also, ecological impacts resulting from pipeline disasters have been extremely significant in Nigeria. There is high level of awareness of pipeline disasters among the different stakeholders interviewed.

A long-run manufacturing system can experience machine breakdown at any time for various reasons such as unskilled labor or outdated machinery technology. In an integrated green inventory model, the produced green products cannot all be perfect throughout a cycle, particularly when machines malfunction. Therefore, an inspection policy is introduced to clean the production process from unusable defect products, the correctness of which depends on the discussion of the inspected errors. The perfect products detected via the inspection process are delivered to the retailer as well as the market. To transport green products, it is essential to control the capacity of the containers and the quantities of green products transported per batch. In this study, the greenhouse gas equivalence factor of CO₂ emissions is calculated for all green products’ manufacturing and transportation mediums. These types of energies are used in the manufacturing process: electricity, natural gas, and coal. Whereas within transportation, four transportation modes are considered: railways, roadways, airways, and waterways. The retailer can agree to transport their inventories to the customers’ house according to their requirement by requiring a third-party local agency via outsourcing criteria. The model solves the problem of CO₂ emissions through production and transportation within the machine breakdown.

Microorganisms make use of heavy metals through enzymatic, non-enzymatic processes or bioaccumulation in bacterial cells in insoluble or particulate forms and by-products. Increasing effectiveness of bioremediation is still being explored and other stimulation techniques cited by various authors used mostly EDTA, nitrogen fertiliser and other amendments. The use of mechanical aeration combined with bioremediation using Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas fluoresecens offer a greener approach with more efficient remediation capabilities. Zinc exceeded the permissible limit recommended by FAO/WHO by more than two folds while other metals were close to the threshold limit posing a dangerous threat to human health. Implementation of the current package treatment showed statistically significant decreases in heavy metal concentrations in both soils and coastal sediments in a 90 days experiment under atmospheric conditions. For sediments, 21.4% to 100% bioremediation was achieved under mechanical aeration conditions representing an increase of up to 60% efficiency compared to non-aeration while for soil highest efficacy achieved was 63.1%. However, the mechanisms and pathways of bioremediation were noticed to depend according to biotic and abiotic factors. This article provides an insight on the comparison between proposed stimulation technique and other methods reported.

Options are financial contracts that are based on an underlying security and are useful for both hedging and speculating on future market trends. New financial tools are constantly being developed for sustainable financial management. In order to define new financial instruments, the BS Hamiltonian, in conjunction with a potential function, is particularly important for modelling path-dependent options. It is demonstrated here how supersymmetry provides a natural framework for generating various options, particularly using higher order supersymmetry to find and examine numerous isospectral partners of the double knock out barrier option.

One of the indicators of water pollution is the presence of coliform bacteria, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli). The development of resistance properties to several antibiotics by this pathogen is a serious health problem. Therefore, this study aims to isolate and identify antibiotic-resistant E. coli using the 16S rRNA gene. Samples were taken along the Kedukan, PU, and Buah rivers in Palembang City, South Sumatra, Indonesia, using the purposive sampling method. Each river consists of 9 sampling points, namely, the lower, middle and the upstream regions. The water quality result for the three rivers show that several water quality parameters do not meet the water quality standards: namely, BOD levels in the Kedukan and Buah rivers, Fe levels in the Kedukan and PU rivers, and chlorine in the three rivers. The results showed that E. coli isolates from the Kedukan, PU and Buah rivers were sensitive to 9 antibiotics. The highest resistance (100%) of E. coli isolates to tobramycin was in the Kedukan and PU rivers, while those from the Buah river were resistant to ampicillin. The phylogenetic tree analysis showed genetic diversity. Two main groups were formed from E. coli, namely, A and B, which consist of 17 and 4 isolates, respectively. Furthermore, the water quality analysis results of the Kedukan, PU, and Buah rivers in Palembang City, South Sumatra, revealed that they are polluted.

In order to predict the temperature change of Laoshan scenic area in Qingdao more accurately, a new back propagation neural network (BPNN) prediction model is proposed in this study. Temperature change affects our lives in various ways. The challenge that neural networks tend to fall into local optima needs to be addressed to increase the accuracy of temperature prediction. In this research, we used an improved genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the weights and thresholds of BPNN to solve this problem. The prediction results of BPNN and GA-BPNN were compared, and the prediction results showed that the prediction performance of GA-BPNN was much better. Furthermore, a screening test experiment was conducted using GA-BPNN for multiple classes of meteorological parameters, and a smaller number of parameter sets were identified to simplify the prediction inputs. The values of running time, root mean square error, and mean absolute error of GA-BPNN are better than those of BPNN through the calculation and analysis of evaluation metrics. This study will contribute to a certain extent to improve the accuracy and efficiency of temperature prediction in the Laoshan landscape.