Acidity, Electric Conductivity, Dissolved Oxygen Total Dissolved Solid and Salinity Profiles of Marine Water in Gaza: Influence of Wastewater Discharge

Effects of wastewater discharge on the coastal area in Gaza strip Palestine are not fully investigated. This study investigated the effect wastewater discharge of the physical and chemical properties of marine water in the coastal area over a period of 2 year. Sea water and sediment samples were collected from about 20 different sites. The water and the sediments were collected wastewater/sea water mixing zone at depth 0, 2.5 and 5 m water column depth at a direct wastewater discharging pipe line from different location and similarly from other locations. Water temperature T, electric conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, total dissolved solid (TDS) and salinity were determined for water samples using field equipment such as pH-meter, DO meter, TDS-/ and EC-meter. On the other hand, NO3-, SO42-, PO43- were determined in the laboratory using chemical methods, details are described in materials and method section. Results showed average and standard deviation of T, EC, DO, pH, TDS and salinity were 22.02°C ± 4.1°C, EC: 58.41 ± 4.8 ms/cm;DO: 6.96 ± 1.8 mg/L;pH: 7.69 ± 0.37;TDS: 30.51 ± 3.29 and salinity 4.39 ± 0.12 (%);whereas, average and standard deviation of NO3-: were 299.8 ± 204.1 mg/L;SO42-, 5736.9 ± 817.1;and PO43-: 164.35 ± 120.7 mg/L. The measured values indicate significant differences due to high value of standard deviation of some measured parameters. This indicates the influence of wastewater discharge in sea water as shown inside the manuscript in the appropriate section. The study recommends efficient treatment of wastewater and reuses it for agricultural purposes instead of discharging it in sea.

Extraction Methods of Cyanotoxins Aqueous Media and Sediments

Cyanotoxins are chemical compounds produced by cyanobacterial mats grown in aquatic ecosystems. These may threaten human health and aquatic organisms. Extraction of these toxins is usually associated with many difficulties due to their concentration in aquatic ecosystems. This study is designed to provide suitable and effective extraction procedures that can effectively extract low concentration cyanotoxin from water and bacterial cells. The methodology is based on collecting raw material of cyanobacterial mats from naturally growing sites such as Wadi Gaza along with 16 liters of aquatic surrounding media. The materials were left in the Lab for 24 - 48 h for stabilization of the mats. The floating mats were collected using special funnel and allowed to air drying. The aqueous phase was extracted by liquid/liquid extraction using solvent mixture (hexane + ethylacetate 10% w:w), and by liquid solid extraction using several types of organoclays complexes. The solid phase was extracted by acetone and ultrasonic device. Results showed some difficulties were associated with liquid/liquid extraction whereas effective and easy extraction procedures were obtained by liquid solid extraction using either organoclay complex or activated charcoal. In contrast combination of both solid materials did not show improvement in the extracted cyanotoxin. Thus we recommend the use of organoclays or activated charcoal separately for extracting cyanotoxin. Further improvement of extraction can be tailored by using a specific organoclay complex that has some similarity in the chemical structure between the pre-adsorbed organic cation to the clay mineral and the chemical structure of cyanotoxin.

Challenges of deep-sea biodiversity assessments in the Southern Ocean

Despite recent progress in deep-sea biodiversity assessments in the Southern Ocean （SO）, there remain gaps in our knowledge that hamper efficient deep-sea monitoring in times of rapid climate change. These include geographical sampling bias, depth and size-dependent faunal gaps in biology, ecology, distribution, and phylogeography, and the evolution of SO species. The phenomena of species patchiness and rarity are still not well understood, possibly because of our limited understanding of physiological adaptations and thresholds. Even though some shallow water species have been investigated physiologically, community-scale studies on the effects of multiple stressors related to ongoing environmental change, including temperature rise, ocean acidification, and shifts in deposition of phytoplankton, are completely unknown for deep-sea organisms. Thus, the establishment of long-term and coordinated monitoring programs, such as those rapidly growing under the umbrella of the Southern Ocean Observing System （SOOS） or the Deep Ocean Observing Strategy （DOOS）, may represent unique tools for measuring the status and trends of deep-sea and SO ecosystems.

Cardiotoxicity among Children Accidentally Exposed to Organophosphate Insecticides Coupled with Scorpion Bites in Gaza

Insecticides are toxic chemicals used at homes for controlling insects of public health importance and controlling agricultural pests at home gardens. Their application may result in accidental poisoning. Four accidental insecticide-poisoning children coupled with a scorpion bitten child were brought to the main hospital in southern Gaza for medical treatment. Primary investigation showed severe breath shortness, low heartbeat, and low blood pressure (hypotension). These symptoms are indications of potential cardiotoxicity among children. Electrocardiograms were measured and indicated various heart complications between cases. Complete blood count (CBC) determination showed the highest white blood cells (WBC) in the scorpion-bitted child suggesting the development of immune defense system. Blood electrolyte (Na+, K+, Ca2+) concentrations indicated disturbances due to poisoning. An interesting outcome of the study is the dramatic alteration in blood glucose concentration. Additionally, activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) indicated normal activity in poisoning case 1, moderate inhibition in poisoning case 2 and case 3, normal activity in poisoning case 4 and severe inhibition in poisoning case 5. The levels of Aminotransferase (ALT) and Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) were within the acceptable range whereas the level of Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) was above the acceptable reference range suggesting potential Hepato-toxicity. Scorpion bitten child did not receive atropine whereas two poisoned cases were successfully cured by atropine injection. Additionally, alternative safe medical management may be used for cardiotoxicity using vitamin C, vitamin E, quercetin, and curcumin. These vitamins may be recommended as alternative medical treatments for cardiotoxicity.

Normalized Area Solar Cell and Potential Applications

Nowadays in laboratories and in industries, distribution of solar cells sizes could be very large, hence;for the first time it is rather difficult to compare photovoltaic parameters which are size dependent (current, serial resistance, shunt resistance...) and performances of these cells. Also, it will be useful for scale effect to extrapolate performances calculated on a unit size solar cell to commercial products, especially in the case of heterogeneous wafers used for the device.

Rapid Method for Greywater Treatment and Their Potential Reuse in Agriculture

Greywater, a type of wastewater, may be hazardous to human health and ecosystems. Greywater is a large fraction of wastewater that needs adequate attention for remediation and reuse in the agricultural sector so that a part of the water problem can be sorted out. This study aims to develop a rapid method for greywater treatment and reuse in agriculture. A microfilter consisting of sand, clay, organo-clay, charcoal, and biochar was designed and tested for greywater treatments. Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), Total Dissolved Salts (TDS), Electric Conductivity (EC), turbidity and pH values were measured before and after using the microfilter. Results showed tremendous removal efficiency of BOD, COD, TKN, by using the developed microfilter. The microfilter was also effective in treating and placing pH, EC and TDS in the acceptable range for suitable agricultural use. Using the treated greywater for irrigation in corn, tomato seedlings showed increased growth compared with the control group (plants irrigated with tap water). This microfilter treatment was economical, safe, easy to handle and easily applicable. These encouraging results suggest the application of this method in many countries for solving the water scarcity problem.

The POM-DOM piezophilic microorganism continuum(PDPMC)—The role of piezophilic microorganisms in the global ocean carbon cycle

The deep ocean piezosphere accounts for a significant part of the global ocean,hosts active and diverse microbial communities which probably play a more important role than hitherto recognized in the global ocean carbon cycle.The conventional biological pump concept and the recently proposed microbial carbon pump mechanism provide a foundation for our understanding of the role of microorganisms in cycling of carbon in the ocean.However,there are significant gaps in our knowledge and a lack of mechanistic understanding of the processes of microbially-mediated production,transformation,degradation,and export of marine dissolved and particulate organic matter(DOM and POM)in the deep ocean and the ecological consequence.Here we propose the POM-DOM piezophilic microorganism continuum(PDPMC)conceptual model,to address these important biogeochemical processes in the deep ocean.We propose that piezophilic microorganisms(bacteria and archaea)play a pivotal role in deep ocean carbon cycle where microbial production of exoenzymes,enzymatic breakdown of DOM and transformation of POM fuels the rapid cycling of marine organic matter,and serve as the primary driver for carbon cycle in the deep ocean.

Weak solutions for a bi-fluid model for a mixture of two compressible non interacting fluids

We investigate a version of one velocity Baer-Nunziato model with dissipation for the mixture of two compressible fluids with the goal to prove for it the existence of weak solutions for arbitrary large initial data on a large time interval.We transform the one velocity Baer-Nunziato system to another"more academic"system which possesses the clear"Navier-Stokes structure".We solve the new system by adapting to its structure the Lions approach for solving the(mono-fluid)compressible Navier-Stokes equations.An extension of the theory of renormalized solutions to the transport equation to more continuity equations with renormalizing functions of several variables is essential in this process.We derive a criterion of almost uniqueness for the renormalized solutions to the pure transport equation without the classical assumption on the boundedness of the divergence of the transporting velocity.This result does not follow from the DiPerna-Lions transport theory and it is of independent interest.This criterion plays the crucial role in the identification of the weak solutions to the original one velocity Baer-Nunziato problem starting from the weak solutions of the academic problem.As far as we know,this is the first result on the existence of weak solutions for a version of the one velocity bi-fluid system of the Baer-Nunziato type in the mathematical literature.