Publications by authors named "Heshmatollah Nourmoradi"

Nowadays, antibiotics have been found in the effluents of many pharmaceutical industries and hospitals, sanitary sewage, surface water and groundwater. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of using Hexadecyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide modified montmorillonite (HDTMA-Mt) as an inexpensive and suitable adsorbent for the removal of from aqueous solutions. The experiments were conducted in a batch system. The effects of different variables including surfactant loading onto the clay, solution pH, contact time, adsorbate concentration and temperature were investigated on the removal of . Surface properties of the clay were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. Various isotherms (Langmuir and Freundlich) and kinetics (pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion models) of adsorption were studied for the data evaluation. The findings indicated that the sorption capacity of the modified clay was found to be 88.5 mg/g over 60 min contact time at pH 9. The pseudo-second kinetic (R = 0.999) and Freundlich isotherm (R = 0.915) models best fitted the experimental data of by the adsorbent. The negative values of ΔG at higher temperature and positive value of ΔH showed the endothermic and spontaneously sorption of the drug by the clay. It can be concluded that the modified clay can be considered as a cheap and eco-friendly sorbent for the removal of from water and wastewater.

Background: Phosphate (PO) is the main etiological factor of eutrophication in surface waters. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are novel hybrid materials with amazing structural properties that make them a prominent material for adsorption.

Methods: Zeolitic imidazolate framework 67 (ZIF-67), a water stable member of MOFs, with a truncated rhombic dodecahedron crystalline structure was synthesized in aqueous environment at room temperature and then characterized using XRD and SEM. PO adsorption from synthetic solutions using ZIF-67 in batch mode were evaluated and a polynomial model (R: 0.99, R: 0.98, LOF: 0.1433) developed using response surface methodology (RSM).

Results: The highest PO removal (99.2%) after model optimization obtained when ZIF-67 dose, pH and mixing time adjusted to 6.82, 832.4 mg/L and 39.95 min, respectively. The optimum PO concentration in which highest PO removal and lowest adsorbent utilization occurs, observed at 30 mg/L. PO removal eclipsed significantly in the presence of carbonate. The equilibrium and kinetic models showed that PO adsorbed in monolayer (q: 92.43 mg/g) and the sorption process controlled in the sorption stage. Adsorption was also more favorable at higher PO concentration, according to the separation factor (K) graph. Thermodynamic parameters (minus signs of ∆G°, ∆H° of 0.179 KJ/mol and ∆S° of 44.91 KJ/mol.K) demonstrate the spontaneous, endothermic and physisorption nature of the process.

Conclusion: High adsorption capacity and adsorption rates, make ZIF-67 a promising adsorbent for PO removal from aqueous environment.

Background: Every year many people around the world become infected with food-borne infections. Insufficient knowledge and skills related to food safety and hygiene are among the factors affecting the incidence of food-borne diseases, especially in adolescents.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and practices associated with food safety and hygiene in Ilam city male adolescents.

Material And Methods: Three hundred and eighty of male adolescents aged 13 to 19 were selected randomly and entered the cross-sectional study. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire From December 2016 to February 2017. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyse the data in SPSS software (version 19.0).

Results: The findings of the study showed a positive and significant relationship between knowledge and practices related to food safety and hygiene (r = 0.122; p = 0.018). Also, the findings showed that food safety knowledge and practice of adolescents were significantly affected by the level of their education, parental education level, parental employment status and household economic conditions, (p < 0.005). Also, the results showed that the participants generally obtained 57.74% of the knowledge score and 57.63% of practices score. The subjects had the most knowledge about food supply and storage (60%), and the highest practice was related to personal and environmental hygiene, (61.73%).

Conclusion: The inadequacy of knowledge and performance of adolescents about food safety and hygiene shows the need for implementation of health education interventions in this area.

Date Press Cake (DPC) is an inevitable by-product of date processing industries and may pose environmental problems if not managed properly. In this study, DPC was converted into activated carbon using solid NaOH under various activation conditions. The prepared activated carbon showed high specific surface area (2025.9 m g) and microporous texture (86.01%). It was successfully applied for the adsorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions with maximum monolayer adsorption capacities as high as 282.8 mg g (pH = 2) and 198.0 mg g (pH = 5). The kinetic and isotherm experimental data of Cr(VI) adsorption onto the activated carbon were best described by Elovich and Redlich-Peterson models, respectively. It was found that the Cr(VI) adsorption onto the DPC-derived activated carbon was predominantly a chemisorption process with limited desorption rates (below 50%). Overall, Date Press Cake could be considered as an abundant and renewable agro-industrial precursor for the production of high quality activated carbon.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the environmental and metrological variables and cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) transmission and its prediction in a region susceptible to this disease prevalence using a time series model. The accurate locations of 4437 CL diagnosed from 2011 to 2015 were obtained to be used in the time series model. Temperature, number of days with temperature over 30 °C, and number of earthquake were related to CL incidence using the Seasonal Auto-correlated Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model according to the Box-Jenkins method. In addition, the relationship between land use and surface soil type in 500- and 1000-m radius around the CL patients were investigated. The SARIMA models showed significant associations between environmental and meteorological variables and CL incidence adjusted for seasonality and auto-correlation. The result indicated that there are need more robust preventive programs in earthquake-prone areas with high temperature and inceptisol soil type than other areas. In addition, the region with these characteristics should be considered as high-risk areas for CL prevalence.

Background & Aims: The presence of pathogenic microorganisms in the dust storm can cause diseases such as Asthma, Pneumonia, and respiratory infections. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between air-borne particles with airborne microorganisms in normal and dusty days in Sanandaj, a city located in the west of Iran.

Materials & Methods: Air sampling was conducted during the normal and dusty days through Andersen single-stage impactor (28.3 L/min) for 2.5 min. Air particles concentration (PM10) was measured daily and microbial sampling was also conducted on every six days and on the dusty days. Finally, the data was analyzed by SPSS-16 (ANOVA and paired T-tests).

Results: The concentration of airborne microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) was increased by an increase of the airborne particles. Particles concentration in May, June and July (twice per month) was more than of the standard value. The predominant species of bacteria and fungi during the occurrence of Dust storm was Bacillus spp. (56.2% of total bacteria) and Mycosporium spp. (28.6% of total fungi), respectively.

Discussion And Conclusion: The results showed that the number of airborne microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) increased during the dust storm. Therefore, the microorganisms in the dust storm can cause biological harmful effects on human health.

Background: Dust storm is one of the most important natural sources of air pollution in the Middle East that has caused a major concern in recent years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the respiratory tract function of people living in Ilam city (Iran) during dust storm.

Methods: A sample size of 250 people was selected and the cluster sampling was randomly used from 13 health centers in Ilam city. Pulmonary function test (PFT) was determined via a standard spirometry apparatus. Vital capacity (VC), Forced Vital capacity (FVC), FVC in first second (FEV1), FEV1/VC, FEV1/FVC, peek expiratory flow (PEF), forced expiratory flow (FEF25-75%), forced expiratory flow (FEF25-75%), forced expiratory flow (FEF75-85%), forced mid flow time (FMFT) and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV) were measured.

Results: Mean values of respiratory capacities measured in all participants excluding FEV1/VC and FMFT were less than predicted mean values by ECCS reference. 21.6% of the population suffered from obstructive lesions. This value among males (24.1%) was more than females (19.6%). This could be related to more exposure (outdoor jobs) of males with dust storms.

Conclusion: The results also showed a negative significant relationship between duration of inhabitance in Ilam city and all respiratory capacities. Further studies are needed for confident confirmation of whether reduction of respiratory capacities among Ilamian people is only related to dust storms.

The integration of bioventing (BV) and soil vapor extraction (SVE) appears to be an effective combination method for soil decontamination. This paper serves two main purposes: it evaluates the effects of soil water content (SWC) and air flow rate on SVE and it investigates the transition regime between BV and SVE for toluene removal from sandy soils. 96 hours after air injection, more than 97% removal efficiency was achieved in all five experiments (carried out for SVE) including 5, 10, and 15% for SWC and 250 and 500 mL/min for air flow rate on SVE. The highest removal efficiency (>99.5%) of toluene was obtained by the combination of BV and SVE (AIBV: Air Injection Bioventing) after 96 h of air injection at a constant flow rate of 250 mL/min. It was found that AIBV has the highest efficiency for toluene removal from sandy soils and can remediate the vadose zone effectively to meet the soil guideline values for protection of groundwater.

Background: Eutrophication is one of the detrimental environmental problems in water reservoirs dye to the irregular introducing nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen). This study aimed to explore the eutrophication state of Ekbatan Reservoir, Hamadan, western Iran.

Methods: Monthly sampling was conducted during April 2010 to March 2011. Seven sampling stations were selected in the various locations of the reservoir and the samples were collected in the depth of 50 cm. The grab sampling of water for nitrogen, phosphorous and chlorophyll-a was carried out at all localities by Hatch sampler. The trophic state of the dam was determined by Carlson's Trophic State Index (TSI) and Chapra's classification.

Results: The highest concentrations of phosphorus and chlorophyll-a were measured in August and the lowest concentration for both of the parameters was determined in February. The TSI index according phosphorus concentration showed that the reservoir was in eutrophic status during May to November and was in mesotrophic status over November to May.

Conclusions: It seems that the eutrophication process in the lake was resulted from the rural wastewaters and agricultural fertilizers. Therefore, using long term management methods including prevent of uncontrolled discharge of agricultural wastewaters is recommended in order to reduce the eutrophication in the reservoir. Decrease of phosphorus concentration in the dam by 50% can convert the eutrophic state to mesotrophic state.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the removal of toluene from gaseous solution through Glycyrrhiza glabra root (GGR) as a waste material. The batch adsorption experiments were conducted at various conditions including contact time, adsorbate concentration, humidity, and temperature. The adsorption capacity was increased by raising the sorbent humidity up to 50 percent. The adsorption of toluene was also increased over contact time by 12 h when the sorbent was saturated. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich model fitted the adsorption data better than other kinetic and isotherm models, respectively. The Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherm also showed that the sorption by GGR was physical in nature. The results of the thermodynamic analysis illustrated that the adsorption process is exothermic. GGR as a novel adsorbent has not previously been used for the adsorption of pollutants.