Exploring the spatial-temporal variations and policy-based driving force behind groundwater contamination and remediation research in past decades

Global performance and trends of research on emerging contaminants in sewage sludge: A Bibliometric Analysis from 1990 to 2023

The pervasive occurrence of emerging contaminants (ECs) in sewage sludge (SWS) poses significant safety challenges concerning the processing, disposal, and secure application, ultimately jeopardizing both human health and the ecological environment. To comprehensively comprehend the evolutionary trajectories, present state, and research advancements in the field of ECs in SWS, a systematic was conducted, scrutinizing the annual publication quantity, disciplinary distribution, core authors, involved nations/regions, pertinent keywords, and citation status of 2082 research publications related to ECs in SWS from 1990 to 2023. The results indicate a substantial upward trajectory in the research literature pertaining to ECs in SWS. The study of ECs in SWS encompasses 78 disciplines, including Environmental Sciences, Environmental Engineering, and Water Resources. China, Spain, and the USA ranked among the top three countries in terms of both total publications and citation frequency. The majority of publications were published in reputable high-impact journals such as Science of the Total Environment, Chemosphere, and Bioresource Technology. Based on high-frequency keywords, co-occurrence networks of keywords, and keywords burst analysis, it is found that the occurrence and environment behavior of ECs in SWS (ARGs, microplastics, PPCPs, and POPs), the detection and analytical methods, the impact on SWS treatment and disposal processes, and the accumulation and ecological risks in plants and soil during SWS land utilization, are the main research directions and hot topics in this field. In the future, the study of the impact of SWS treatment technologies on ECs removal is expected to receive increased research attention.

Farmland phytoremediation in bibliometric analysis

Phytoremediation is an environmentally friendly, economical, and sustainable technique for restoring farmland. It can remove heavy metals and organic pollutants from the soil through the implementation of hyperaccumulator plants. In recent years, it has garnered significant interest from academic and industrial sectors. This article screened 368 research papers from the Web of Science core collection database related to farmland phytoremediation and conducted a bibliometric analysis of the domain based on CiteSpace. The paper intuitively demonstrates the most influential countries, the most productive institutions, the most contributing groups of authors, and the primary sources of farmland phytoremediation research domain. The findings additionally indicate that the research hotspots include: (1) mechanisms and principles of phytoremediation, (2) the improvement of restoration efficiency, (3) the economic, ecological, and sustainable development of phytoremediation. The exploration of plants with potential to accumulate heavy metals and produce large amounts of biomass is the research frontier within the field of farmland phytoremediation. Additionally, this bibliometric analysis can help scholars willing to work in this research field by concisely understanding the overall research field and frontiers. With the continuous improvement of phytoremediation and its combination with other remediation technologies, the future of farmland remediation will have a promising prospect.

A decennial study of the trend of antibiotic studies in China

Antibiotics are one of the greatest inventions in human history and are used worldwide on an enormous scale. Besides its extensive usage in medical and veterinary arenas to treat and prevent the infection, its application is very prominent in other fields, including agriculture, aquaculture, and horticulture. In recent decades, the increased consumption of antibiotics in China saw a vast increase in its production and disposal in various environments. However, in this post-antibiotic era, the abuse and misuse of these valuable compounds could lead to the unreversible consequence of drug resistance. In China, antibiotics are given a broad discussion in various fields to reveal their impact on both human/animals health and the environment. To our knowledge, we are the first paper to look back at the development trend of antibiotic-related studies in China with qualitative and quantitative bibliometric analysis from the past decades. Our study identified and analyzed 5559 papers from its inception (1991) to December 6, 2021, from the Web of Science Core Collection database. However, with few authors and institutions focusing on long-term studies, we found the quality of contributions was uneven. Studies mainly focused on areas such as food science, clinical research, and environmental studies, including molecular biology, genetics and environmental, ecotoxicology, and nutrition, which indicate possible primary future trends. Our study reports on including potentially new keywords, studies' milestones, and their contribution to antibiotic research. We offer potential topics that may be important in upcoming years that could help guide future research.

Hydrogeochemical processes in rural coastal aquifer (Haha region, Morocco)

In arid and semi-arid regions, groundwater is the principal source of urban and rural water supply. Given that groundwater is the only source of water supply in the Haha region (Moroccan Atlantic coast), the evaluation of this vital resource, using the hydrogeochemical approach, is the main objective of this study. The interpretation of these analytical data showed that the chemical composition of the groundwater is of Ca-Mg-Cl, Na-HCO₃, and Na-Cl, with the dominance of the first type. Hydrochemical characteristics using the bivariate diagrams of major (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃^-, Cl^-, NO₃^-, and SO₄^2-) and some trace elements (Br^- and F^-), mineral saturation indices, and statistical analysis show that the water-rock interaction, cation exchange processes, and marine effect are the main processes that control groundwater mineralization. Also, the majority of analyzed samples have concentrations above the thresholds for human consumption fixed by WHO, especially F^-, NO₃^-, K⁺, Cl^-, and HCO₃^- concentrations. This requires treatment of this groundwater before any consumption and domestic uses. For agricultural uses, the groundwater of the Haha region remains adequate, especially for plants, which can withstand water with electrical conductivity greater than 1000 µS/cm. However, the results obtained can be used as a basis for decision-makers for better water management in the Haha region.

Retinogenesis in a Dish: Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of Retinal Organoids From 2011 to 2022

Retinal organoid (RO) is the three-dimensional (3D) retinal culture derived from pluripotent or embryonic stem cells which recapitulates organ functions, which was a revolutionary milestone in stem cell technology. The purpose of this study is to explore the hotspots and future directions on ROs, as well as to better understand the fields of greatest research opportunities. Eligible publications related to RO from 2011 to 2022 were acquired from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. Bibliometric analysis was performed by using software including VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and ArcGIS. A total of 520 articles were included, and the number of annual publications showed a rapid increase with an average rate of 40.86%. The United States published the most articles (241/520, 46.35%) with highest total citation frequencies (5,344). University College London (UK) contributed the largest publication output (40/520, 7.69%) and received highest total citation frequencies. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science was the most productive journal with 129 articles. Majlinda Lako contributed the most research with 32 articles, while Olivier Goureau has the strongest collaboration work. Research could be subdivided into four keyword clusters: "culture and differentiation," "morphogenesis and modeling," "gene therapy," and "transplantation and visual restoration," and evolution of keywords was identified. Last decade has witnessed the huge progress in the field of RO, which is a young and promising research area with extensive and in-depth studies. More attention should be paid to RO-related models and therapies based on specific retinal diseases, especially inherited retinopathies.

Bibliometric analysis of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

As a global pandemic, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a profound effect on public mental health.

METHODS

Publications related to mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic from December 1, 2019, to November 13, 2020, were extracted from the Web of Science database. Bibliometric indicator analysis was performed using VOSviewer 1.6.15.

RESULTS

In total, 1233 documents from 2020 were retrieved, of which 680 were original articles. The United States contributed the largest publication output (285, 23.1%). Huazhong University of Science and Technology published the most articles in this field (35), while Wuhan University received the most citations (1149). The United Kingdom had the strongest collaboration network. Four keyword clusters representing hotspots in this field were identified.

CONCLUSIONS

In addition to developed countries, countries seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic also made significant contributions to mental health research during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focused on various aspects, such as mental health during isolation, mental health in healthcare workers, and public mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, countries should strengthen global cooperation and pay more attention to the mental health of vulnerable groups during pandemics.

Insights into enhanced removal of 1,2-dichloroethane by amorphous boron-enhanced Fenton system: Performances and mechanisms

In this study, amorphous boron was employed as a reductant in traditional Fenton system for the first time to accelerate the regeneration of Fe(II). The degradation of 1,2-dichloroethane (DCA) was only 40.0% in Fenton system, while in the presence of amorphous boron, it could reach to 93.0% in 60 min. HO• was demonstrated to be the major reactive oxygen species (ROSs) and responsible for DCA degradation. Further, the mechanism of amorphous boron-enhanced Fenton system was described as follows. With the addition of amorphous boron, the reduction process occurred on its surface and Fe(III) was regenerated to Fe(II) to further utilize H₂O₂ and produce more HO• for DCA removal. Meanwhile, amorphous boron was oxidized to B₂O₃ and a portion of H₃BO₃ leaching into the solution occurred. Both B₂O₃ and H₃BO₃ had no reactivity for Fe(III) reduction. Moreover, DCA could be entirely dechlorinated and mineralized to CO₂, Cl^- and H₂O. Vinyl chloride (VC) and dichloromethane (DCM) were the mainly intermediates in DCA degradation and two possible pathways were inferred. Eventually, the performance of DCA degradation in complex solution matrixes and for other contaminants removal were tested, demonstrating the broad-spectrum reactivity and superiority of amorphous boron-enhanced Fenton system in the remediation of contaminated groundwater.