Global NEST Journal

In this study, Mieczkowski's Tourism Climate Index (TCI) was used for Iran to investigate the climate change impacts on outdoor human comfort. The long-term data covering a network of 153 stations were used to compute TCI under baseline conditions (1981–2015) and a climate change scenario (HadCM3-A1B) for 2016-2045. In this study LARS-WG was used for downscaling of large spatial resolution GCM outputs to a finer spatial resolution. User-friendly and multi-platform software which is called ITCIC (Iran Tourism Climate Index Calculator) was designed to calculate TCI. The spatial distribution of TCI for baseline and climate change conditions was investigated and the covered area by each TCI class was calculated by using ArcGIS 10. The annual distributions of TCI were investigated based on Scott and McBoyle (2001) Models. Also, a suite of multiple linear and non-linear regression models was used to determine the relationship between TCI, latitudes, longitudes and elevations of regions. Root mean square error (RMSE), mean error (ME), mean absolute relative error (MARE) and coefficient of determination (R2) were used to evaluate the modeling accuracy. The best time and regions for outdoor activities in the base and future periods were determined. Comparison of the covered area by each TCI class in the base and future periods showed that the climate change occurrence was led to improving climate comfort. The results of error evaluation criteria showed that non-linear regression was appropriate for all month except January and October.

The Pharmaceutical contaminants specialist antibiotics into environment can create problems for both human health and environment. Ciprofloxacin (CIP), an antibiotic Fluoroquinolones group, has recently been used widely for infections treatment. The main purpose of the research was to develop a Full factorial method for degradation of CIP in aqueous solution by Fenton Homogenous process (Fe2+/H2O2). In order to compare the effects of the four parameters considered in the optimization of the oxidative process, a two level Full factorial experimental design (24) was utilized using JMP® software. These parameters were concentration of CIP ( ), concentration of Fe2+ ( ), concentration of H2O2 ( ) and time ( ) at ambient temperature and an acidic pH. In the optimal conditions of the initial concentration of CIP 80 mg/l, Fe2+ concentration of 5 mM, and H2O2 concentration of 51.2 mM degradation efficiency of CIP was 76% within 15 min. Under these conditions, the highest correlation coefficient proved between observed and predicted degradation efficiencies with R2= 0.996 and Adj-R2= 0.968. The reaction intermediates have been identified by LC-MS and BOD5/COD ratio for study biodegradability enhanced from zero to 0.32, showed that the Fenton Homogenous process was agreeable to biological treatment. Based on the results, this may be concluded that Fenton Homogenous process by Full factorial experimental design could be used to degrade CIP from aqueous solutions efficiently.

In the present study, the adsorption of Remazol Brillant Green 6B (RBG 6B) on chitin which characterized by BET, FTIR, XRD and SEM analysis was studied. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to determine interaction between solution pH, initial RBG 6B concentration and chitin dosage being individual variables and to optimize operating conditions. According to results of variance analysis (ANOVA), the second order polynomial model was statistically significant (P<0.0001) and coefficient of determination value (R2=0.98) was high. It was determined that dye removal efficiency increased when low solution pH and initial RBG 6B dye concentration and high chitin dosage were used. The maximum dye removal efficiency was obtained as 88% at solution pH of 3.0, initial RBG 6B concentration of 75 mg L-1 and chitin dosage of 5.0 g L-1. The isotherms and kinetics studies showed that Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics model fitted well to the RBG 6B adsorption data.

The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of solar photo-catalyst of titanium oxide (TiO2/Solar) process to treat rainwater. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in rainwater were chosen to be investigated in this study. The rainwater characterization results revealed that PAHs (NAP, FLT, and PYR) were more predominant in industrial and urban residential areas, whereas OCPs (LIN and DDT) were found to contaminate more on the agricultural and rural residential areas. Central composite design with response surface methodology was used to evaluate the relationships between operating variables for TiO2 dosage, pH, and and initial concentration to identify the optimum operating conditions. Quadratic models for FLT, PYR, LIN, and DDT prove to be significant with low probabilities (<0.0001). The obtained optimum conditions included pH (7), TiO2 concentration (1.54 g/L), and initial concentration (125 µg/L). The maximum removal rates were for FLT (88%), PYR (90%), LIN (66%), and DDT (79%). The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) removal rates correspond well with the predicted models. The photo-degradation process of FLT, PYR, LIN, and DDT followed pseudo first order rate of reaction through L-H kinetic model. The proposed treatment process achieved higher degradation efficiencies for FLT, PYR, LIN, and DDT.