Exploding population, industrialization, and an increase in water pollution has led to acute shrinkage in freshwater availability. Numerous countries have started exploring municipal wastewater as a new potential source of water to bring a paradigm shift from linearity to obtaining circularity in human water cycle management. This study aims to develop a decision support system for integrated water and wastewater management (DSS_IWWM), targeted towards reuse-focused selection of appropriate wastewater treatment technology, and localized planning around STPs in terms of reclaimed water demand identification, estimation, allocation, and sustainable pricing. The developed DSS_IWWM comprises of a repository of fourteen reuse purposes, reuse quality criteria, and 25 wastewater treatment technologies (WWTTs) in 360 combinations. It is sensitive to local resource scenarios and applies a socioeconomic and technology-focused methodology for addressing the interests of the community and investing agencies and viably. To validate the application of the DSS_IWWM, it is first tested with data from three cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh (India)-Lucknow, Prayagraj, and Agra-and then extended to nine more Indian cities with varying influent quality characteristics, resource inputs, existing STP technologies, and same target quality and decision criteria prioritization, to present a comparison of appropriate WWTTs and associated average prices obtained in different scenarios. It is concluded that influent quality, existing technology, and target quality criteria play significant role in selection of appropriate WWTTs. The traditional technologies such as UASB and ASP are required to be augmented and supplemented with high-performing WWTTs, such as BIOFOR-F with (C + F + RSF) and SBT + WP to obtain desired effluent quality. High-performing advanced oxidation process (AOP)-based systems such as A2O, SBR, and BIOFOR-F require WWTTs with relatively lower average costs (such as SBT and OP). The developed DSS_IWWM may prove to be very useful and beneficial for policymakers, government officials, engineers, and scientific community as it will facilitate rational decision-making for efficient investment planning in reuse focused wastewater treatment towards achieving circular economy in sustainable water resource management.

The instrumentation of a giant loop antenna dedicated to environmental measurement, on a unique scientific site and intended to be open to the scientific community is presented. An open-source, low-cost electronic system has been designed, developed, and deployed in order to meet the need for reliability and flexibility imposed respectively by the harsh environment and the scientific objectives. The system\'s architecture is based on the simultaneous association of five Arduino boards piloted together by a Raspberry Pi which also controls the measurement devices. The setup is therefore automated, pilotable, and remotely reprogrammable. Special attention was paid to its hardware and software reliability. These have been proven efficient over more than two years of operation. Several scientific conference publications have already proven the feasibility of the measurement principle (Dezord et al., 2021; Dezord et al., 2022; Dezord et al., 2022). This article gives previously unpublished details regarding the electronic setup.

Selecting an appropriate sanitation option involves multiple stakeholders with often conflicting objectives. A multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework was developed to inform decision makers on selecting appropriate sanitation options for rural communities. Criteria established from literature were evaluated and weighted on-line by stakeholders. A performance matrix was developed by assigning weights to criteria and scoring alternatives. Selection of alternatives was based on a composite appropriateness index from a rank using the simple multi-attribute ranking technique. The framework was evaluated by verification, validation and sensitivity analysis. Five alternatives were evaluated on 14 decision criteria. The first preferred alternative was the urine diverting dry toilet (72.54) then the Blair ventilated improved pit latrine (67.10). The framework was commented as reasonable and robust. A simple and transparent MCDA framework was developed considering local conditions in a participatory manner to select appropriate alternatives for rural sanitation where a single option is encouraged.

Biogas production at a small-scale level through anaerobic digestion has been promoted in Vietnam as an appropriate technology for cooking and animal waste management within rural households. Despite the large number of small-scale biogas plants being built, there is an increase in the reported cases of their dis-adoption. This study attempts to present the state of the art of biogas plants\' abandonment issue and reveal the fate of biogas plants. The primary data were collected in Thua Thien Hue province in central Vietnam among owners of small-scale biogas plants selected with the purposive sampling technique. Methods included semi-structured interviews with respondents who abandoned their biogas technology (at least 6 months before the primary data collection) (n = 37) and with respondents who continually use it (n = 62). SPSS 25 IBM was used for the binary logit model with 6 independent variables. Using a logistic regression analysis of various cross-sectional data, key forces were uncovered to determine the factors that can influence the abandonment of biogas technology. Results showed that households with more members working on the farm and those more satisfied with the biogas plant maintenance are less likely to abandon it. Respondents provided the information that their biogas plants mainly were not used for any other purpose after dis-adoption (excepting biogas plants used for further storage of human excreta because they were connected to toilets).

This article details the design of an open source emergency gentle ventilator (gentle-vent) framework that can be used in periods of scarcity. Although it is not a medical device, the system utilizes a wide range of commonly-available components that are combined using basic electronics skills to achieve the desired performance. The main function of the gentle-vent is to generate a calibrated pressure wave at the pump to provide support to the patient\'s breathing. Each gentle-vent permutation was tested using a DIY manometer as it would be utilized in the field in low-resource settings and validated with an open source VentMon. The most rudimentary implementation costs less than $40.

Human amniotic membrane (hAM) is usually stored at -80 °C. However, in many regions, cryopreservation at -80 °C is not feasible, making hAM unavailable. Therefore, the possibility of cryopreservation at -28 °C (household freezer) was investigated. hAMs (n = 8) were stored at -80 °C or -28 °C for a mean time of 8.2 months. hAM thickness, epithelial integrity and basement membrane were assessed histologically. The collagen content, concentration of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) were determined. Elastic modulus and tensile strength were measured. The mean thickness of hAM stored at -28 °C was 33.1 ± 21.6 µm (range 9.7-74.9); thickness at -80 °C was 30.8 ± 14.7 µm (range 13.1-50.7; p = 0.72). Mean collagen content, epithelial cell number and integrity score showed no significant difference between samples stored at -28 °C or -80 °C. Basement membrane proteins were well preserved in both groups. Mean tensile strength and elastic modulus were not significantly different. Concentration of bFGF at -28 °C was 1063.2 ± 680.3 pg/g (range 369.2-2534.2), and 1312.1 ± 778.2 pg/g (range 496.2-2442.7) at -80 °C (p = 0.11). HGF was 5322.0 ± 2729.3 pg/g (range 603.3-9149.8) at -28 °C, and 11338.5 ± 6121.8 pg/g (range 4143.5 to 19806.7) at -80 °C (p = 0.02). No microbiological contamination was detected in any sample. The cryopreservation of hAM at -28 °C has no overt disadvantages compared to -80 °C; the essential characteristics of hAM are preserved. This temperature could be used in an alternative storage method whenever storage at -80 °C is unavailable.

Ensuring access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for all requires a thorough understanding of the many contextual complexities that influence access to these services. Complexities spanning environmental, economic, political, and social dimensions, amongst others, can intersect and compound to hinder sustainable access to WASH for certain demographics or entire communities. This is of particular importance for challenging contexts where conventional WASH approaches are ineffective. Targeted approaches are required for these contexts to ensure that communities are not left behind in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. Review of WASH literature identified seven broad types of challenging contexts: challenging environments, transient or environmentally-dependant communities, climate vulnerable communities, remote communities, poor urban communities, refugee camps, and emergency contexts. This review explores the intersecting complexities affecting access to WASH in these challenging contexts and how failure to understand the interconnectedness of these complexities has resulted in WASH solutions that are unaffordable, not inclusive, or unsustainable. To our knowledge, this review is the first of its kind. We emphasise the need to unpack intersecting complexities affecting WASH in challenging contexts, and we believe that incorporating such an approach early in WASH programs can ensure that intersecting complexities are accounted for in the design of WASH solutions. Ultimately, this novel lens may provide critical guidance for WASH programs in challenging contexts, ensuring that WASH solutions are contextually appropriate.

Wastewater treatment technologies (WWTTs) are employed across the world, and the selection is mainly based on \'past experiences\' aimed at \'pollution prevention\' in the receiving water bodies. This paper aims to develop a methodology for the selection of an appropriate wastewater treatment chain that produces effluent suitable for the defined reuse. Adopting the least weighted cost approach, four decision criteria: Capital cost, Operation and Maintenance cost, Land requirement, and Energy requirement, have been used and the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) has been employed for obtaining weights. Quality expectations for 14 reuses have been enlisted, and 25 WWTTs have been evaluated in a total of 360 combinations. In Kanpur city, for water reuse in industrial cooling under restricted land and challenging influent quality conditions, a combination of Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) with Wuhrmann process (WP) is obtained as the most preferred suggestion. For non-potable domestic reuse, Anaerobic Anoxic Oxic (A2O) with Ultrafiltration (UF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) is the most preferred combination. In Varanasi city, for vehicular washing operations and for flow augmentation (inland surface water), under energy-constraint scenario, high-rate activated sludge-based biological filtration and oxygenated reactor (BIOFOR-F) is suggested. For technology supplementation to existing ASP-based STPs in the city to obtain effluent for inland surface water augmentation, WP in combination with microfiltration (MF) and reverse osmosis (RO) is suggested. Thus, the developed model may be used as a decision-making tool for planning a reuse-focused water reclamation program or for upgradation of existing STPs as per resource availability and target reuse objectives.

Crop plants grow, and then, they allocate resources to different structures, including seeds and fruits, which represent yield in most crops. We define the yield stability of a genotype as its ability to reduce the effects of temporal variation in resources and conditions on yield production, and we argue that yield stability can be understood in terms of two processes: (1) crop survival and growth (biomass production): the ability of the crop plants to survive and produce biomass under the range of conditions to which it is exposed and (2) the pattern of allocation of this biomass to yield across this range of conditions. Plant breeders and crop physiologists have focused on (1), but much less attention has been paid to (2). We hypothesize that (2) is primarily the result of reproductive allometry: the quantitative relationship between vegetative and reproductive biomass. Ecological theory and the allometric models we present predict a tradeoff between (a) the ability of a genotype to produce yield over a wide variety of conditions and (b) its ability to produce very high yields under optimal or near-optimal conditions. We reanalyze the data from two recent studies, and the results are consistent with this hypothesis. Yield stability in crops corresponds to bet-hedging in evolutionary ecological theory. It is the most appropriate strategy for smallholder farmers in developing countries, a group that comprises most of the farmers in the world. Researchers and crop breeders need to rethink their objectives if they want to develop optimal varieties for these farmers.

Dataset mechanical properties of an automated liquid dispenser are essential to study for proper design. Therefore, this article includes a push and pull force dataset collected via a load cell sensor on an automatic liquid dispenser self-developed. During one test, nineteen push and pull data were acquired. Measured data is transmitted and saved using internet networks on data cloud servers. The dataset is composed of three types of fluid (i.e., water, soap, and hand sanitizer), three levels of fluid volume (i.e., 50, 150, and 250 ml), and six levels of servo motor rotation angle (i.e., 30°, 60°, 90°, 120°, 150°, 180°). The raw dataset consists of 60 treatments from the 1857 test. This data also provides push and pull force testing of an empty automatic liquid dispenser. The raw data files have been provided. For researchers involved in designing automated liquid dispensers, the dataset may be used to be more reliable in its development. It is possible to prevent over and under design in deciding the energy consumption of an automated liquid dispenser by researching this push and pull force data more deeply. The dataset will be shown as Excel files.