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Papers
53 resultsShowing papers from Durban University of Technology
ClearEnvironmental Pollutants as Emerging Concerns for Cardiac Diseases: A Review on Their Impacts on Cardiac Health
This review examines how environmental pollutants, including micro- and nanoplastics along with air pollution, heavy metals, and PFAS chemicals, contribute to heart disease. These pollutants trigger inflammation, oxidative stress, and damage to blood vessel linings, and the review highlights that combined exposures may be more harmful than any single pollutant alone.
Microplastics in the environment: An urgent need for coordinated waste management policies and strategies
This review highlights that microplastic pollution affects marine ecosystems, farmland, and human health, but current waste management policies are fragmented and insufficient. The authors evaluate existing strategies and propose practical solutions including better recycling programs, product redesign to reduce plastic use, and coordinated international policy. Addressing the microplastic problem requires not just cleanup technology but systemic changes in how we produce, use, and dispose of plastics.
Applications of mathematical modelling for assessing microplastic transport and fate in water environments: a comparative review
This systematic review evaluates mathematical models used to predict how microplastics move through and accumulate in water systems. Better models help scientists understand where microplastics end up in the environment and, ultimately, how they might reach drinking water sources and affect human exposure.
Sustainable Solutions for Plastic Waste Mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Future Perspectives Review
This review examines plastic waste management challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, where rapid production and poor disposal have led to widespread contamination of air, water, and soil. The authors highlight bioremediation, using bacteria, fungi, and engineered microbes to break down plastics, as a promising solution for the region. The work matters because plastic waste in developing countries breaks down into microplastics that can enter drinking water and food, affecting the health of millions of people.
Microplastic pollution in the glaciers, lakes, and rivers of the Hindu Kush Himalayas: Knowledge gaps and future perspectives
This review summarizes existing research on microplastic contamination in the glaciers, lakes, and rivers of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, which supplies water to billions of people across Asia. Microplastics have been detected throughout these once-pristine water systems, carried by wind, tourism, and meltwater. The contamination of these critical freshwater sources is concerning because they feed into the drinking water and irrigation systems that millions of people depend on.
Plastic biodegradation: Frontline microbes and their enzymes
Researchers reviewed microbial biodegradation of synthetic plastics — including PE, PP, PS, and PET — cataloguing the insects, bacteria, and fungi capable of breaking down these polymers along with the enzymatic mechanisms involved, and outlining paths forward including metabolic pathway engineering and molecular cloning to improve degradation rates.
Biofilm formation on microplastics in wastewater: insights into factors, diversity and inactivation strategies
This study investigated how bacteria form biofilms on different types of microplastics in wastewater, finding that polyethylene supported the most biofilm growth, especially in dark, warm, oxygen-rich conditions. The biofilms contained bacteria from groups that include potential human pathogens, and different plastic types supported different microbial communities. This matters because microplastics coated in bacterial biofilms could transport harmful microorganisms through water systems and into the environment.
Environmental Impacts of Microplastics and Nanoplastics: A Current Overview
This review examined the environmental impacts of microplastics and nanoplastics across ecosystems, highlighting that these tiny particles behave differently from larger plastic debris and can absorb and transport toxic chemicals. Researchers found evidence that these particles transfer through food chains from lower organisms to higher animals, including humans. The study also explored natural biodegradation processes and current efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the environment.
A Review of Plant Disease Detection Systems for Farming Applications
This review surveys automated plant disease detection systems using technologies like image processing and machine learning for agricultural applications. While not directly about microplastics, improving crop health monitoring is relevant because microplastic contamination in agricultural soils can stress plants and reduce yields. Better disease detection tools could help farmers identify when environmental factors like soil pollution are contributing to crop problems.
Comprehensive profiling and risk assessment of antibiotic resistomes in surface water and plastisphere by integrated shotgun metagenomics
Researchers used shotgun metagenomics to compare antibiotic resistance genes in surface water versus the biofilms that form on microplastic surfaces, known as the plastisphere. They found that microplastics harbored distinct microbial communities with different antibiotic resistance profiles compared to surrounding water. The study raises concerns that microplastics may serve as vehicles for spreading antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments.
Electrochemical approaches for detecting micro and nano-plastics in different environmental matrices
This review evaluates electrochemical sensor technologies as alternatives to conventional spectroscopy methods for detecting micro- and nanoplastics in environmental samples. Researchers found that electrochemical approaches offer advantages in cost, portability, and speed, making them better suited for widespread field monitoring. The study identifies key technical challenges that need to be resolved before these sensors can be broadly adopted for routine environmental surveillance.
The Effect of Larval Exposure to Plastic Pollution on the Gut Microbiota of the Major Malaria Vector <scp> <i>Anopheles arabiensis</i> </scp> Patton (Diptera: Culicidae)
Researchers exposed larvae of the malaria-carrying mosquito Anopheles arabiensis to degraded plastic, plastic additives, and latex beads, then examined how these exposures changed the gut bacteria of adult mosquitoes. While overall bacterial diversity was minimally affected, each type of plastic stressor altered the specific composition of the gut microbial community. The findings are significant because gut bacteria influence mosquito immunity and insecticide resistance, meaning plastic pollution could indirectly affect malaria control efforts.
Impact of aquatic microplastics and nanoplastics pollution on ecological systems and sustainable remediation strategies of biodegradation and photodegradation
This review covers the impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on aquatic ecosystems and evaluates emerging remediation strategies. Researchers examined how these particles enter food chains and pose health risks when ingested by aquatic organisms or humans. The study highlights promising biodegradation and photodegradation approaches, including microbial, enzymatic, and metal oxide-assisted methods, as eco-friendly ways to break down microplastic contamination.
Writing a Scientific Review Article: Comprehensive Insights for Beginners
This paper provides a step-by-step guide for postgraduate students on how to write and publish scientific review articles. It covers the entire process from selecting a topic and searching the literature to analyzing, synthesizing, and structuring the findings into a publishable manuscript.
Review and Design Overview of Plastic Waste-to-Pyrolysis Oil Conversion with Implications on the Energy Transition
This review analyzes the process of converting plastic waste into usable oil through pyrolysis, a thermal breakdown process conducted without oxygen. Researchers found that plastic waste has energy content comparable to conventional fuel oil, making pyrolysis an attractive waste-management and energy-recovery option. The study discusses the technical design considerations and suggests that scaling up this technology could contribute to both reducing plastic pollution and supporting the energy transition.
Recent advances in mechanistic insights into microplastics mitigation strategies via emerging advanced oxidation processes: Legislation, challenges, and future direction
This review examines advanced oxidation processes as a promising approach for breaking down microplastics in water, covering techniques like photocatalysis, electrochemical oxidation, and ozonation. Researchers analyzed how these methods break apart plastic polymer chains at the molecular level and identified key limitations that must be overcome. The study also discusses current plastic pollution legislation and emphasizes the need for stronger regulatory frameworks alongside technological solutions.
Nanomaterials for Microplastic Removal from Wastewater: Current State of the Art Nanomaterials and Future Prospects
This review surveys recent advances in using nanomaterials to remove microplastics and nanoplastics from wastewater, since conventional treatment plants struggle to capture these tiny particles. Researchers evaluate different nanomaterial approaches including magnetic nanoparticles, photocatalysts, and membrane technologies. The study identifies promising strategies but notes that challenges around scalability, cost, and potential environmental risks of the nanomaterials themselves still need to be addressed.
Current research trends on cosmetic microplastic pollution and its impacts on the ecosystem: A review
This review examines the presence of microplastics in personal care, cosmetics, and cleaning products and their environmental impact. Researchers assessed the fate, degradation mechanisms, and routes through which cosmetic microplastics enter the environment. The study also discusses emerging technologies for removing cosmetic microplastics and highlights the need for sustainable alternatives to reduce this domestic source of pollution.
Deciphering the source contribution of microplastics in the glaciers of the North-Western Himalayas
Researchers investigated microplastic and nanoplastic contamination across glaciers in the northwestern Himalayas, finding concentrations ranging from 1,000 to 151,000 particles per cubic meter depending on the glacier. Air mass trajectory modeling revealed that 75% of the particles originated from global atmospheric sources rather than local pollution. Pollution load indices indicated moderate to excessive contamination, and the presence of light-absorbing plastic particles may be accelerating glacier melting.
Preventing Secondary Sources of Microplastics in the Environment
This chapter examines strategies for preventing secondary sources of microplastic pollution, including satellite monitoring, remote sensing, and numerical modeling to track plastic waste distribution. Researchers emphasize the need for a circular economy approach that combines upstream solutions like biodegradable alternatives with downstream measures such as improved waste management. The study also presents a tiered regulatory framework for managing microplastics in drinking water sources.
Grasping the supremacy of microplastic in the environment to understand its implications and eradication: a review
This review comprehensively examines microplastic sources, fate, and ecological impacts on living organisms, including an analysis of microplastics in Indian rivers, and evaluates current eradication strategies while recommending green innovative technologies for a microplastic-free environment.
The plastisphere ecology: Assessing the impact of different pollution sources on microbial community composition, function and assembly in aquatic ecosystems
Researchers studied the microbial communities living on microplastic surfaces (called the plastisphere) across four different aquatic sites and found that plastics host a distinctly different mix of microbes than the surrounding water, shaped by local pollution sources. These plastic-surface microbes also carry more antibiotic resistance genes and show greater potential for breaking down plastics, making the plastisphere both a health concern and a potential bioremediation resource.
Wastewater treatment plant performance assessment using time-function-based effluent quality index and multiple regression models: the case of Bahir Dar textile factory
Researchers evaluated the performance of a textile factory's wastewater treatment plant in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, finding that effluent levels for multiple parameters exceeded acceptable discharge limits. They developed multiple regression models to assess pollution loads, estimating the plant discharged between 493 and 655 kilograms of pollutants per day into a nearby river. The study highlights the need for improved operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment systems in the textile industry.
Microplastics in the environment: Interactions with microbes and chemical contaminants
This review covers what is known about microplastic interactions with microbes and co-occurring chemical contaminants in the environment, examining how biofilms on microplastics alter pollutant transport and the ecological consequences for soil, water, and atmospheric systems.