In this study, carbonized apricot stones and rice husk were utilized as feedstock for the synthesis of CuO-loaded carbonized sorbents for the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) from gas mixtures. The specific surface area of carbonized sorbents increased with increasing carbonization temperature, resulting in a porous structure with enhanced sorption capacity. The presence of pores and the development of porosity in the sorbents were confirmed by SEM images. CuO nanoparticles were well-dispersed on the surface of carbonized sorbents, and the particle sizes were between 60‒100 nm. Chemical interactions between acidic carbon dioxide and basic copper oxide led to improved adsorption properties. The sorption characteristics of the carbonized sorbents were studied under dynamic conditions, and the results showed that CuO-loaded carbonized apricot stones and rice husk had the maximum sorption capacity for CO2, with efficiencies of 98% and 91%, respectively. These findings indicate that carbonized apricot stones and rice husk can be utilized as low-cost and eco-friendly feedstock for the production of efficient CO2 sorbents. © 2023 The Author(s).

Soil salinization poses severe abiotic stress that adversely affects plant growth and development, ultimately threatening global food security by inducing physiological abnormalities. In response to escalating nutrient demands, with global requirements quantified at 76 % for nitrogen and 87 % for phosphorus, modern agriculture is increasingly adopting sustainable practices to enhance nutrient recycling and reduce reliance on external inputs. Emerging sources of plant phytostimulants, such as microalgal and cyanobacterial biomass, show promise in augmenting crop yields and bolstering plant resistance to various abiotic factors, including salt stress. The efficacy of these microorganisms stems from their simplistic cellular structure, superior photosynthetic efficiency, capacity for heterotrophic growth, adaptability to varying environmental conditions, potential for metabolic engineering, and the abundance of valuable biomolecules (such as soluble amino acids, micronutrients, polysaccharides, and phytohormones) within their biomass. This review provides an analysis of the current research landscape concerning microalgae- and cyanobacteria-derived phytostimulants, highlighting their promise as an innovative and sustainable alternative to synthetic fertilizers in the agricultural sector. Moreover, it identifies various adaptive responses of plants to salinity stress and assesses the potential and challenges associated with the use of microalgae and cyanobacteria-based metabolites for developing new sustainable strategies to enhance crop tolerance to salinity stress. © 2024

The paper studies the distribution of relative displacement of a composite plate with integrated fiber Bragg gratings. The analysis of the methods for manufacturing composite plates with embedded optical fibers containing FBG sensors, as well as the spectral characteristics of the gratings under various bending conditions, are performed. The effect of sensor arrangement on the accuracy of determining stresses and relative elongations of the material is experimentally studied. The features of spectral shifts that occur under non-uniform stresses are revealed, which can reduce the accuracy of measurements when using interrogators. The patterns of change in the central wavelength of Bragg gratings depending on the type and magnitude of plate bending are established. The research results confirm that the use of a network of embedded FBG sensors allows one to accurately determine the areas of maximum deformations, as well as the nature and magnitude of bending of composite structures. The data obtained can be used to develop more accurate systems for monitoring the stress–strain state of composite materials. © 2025 by the authors.

In the arid and semi-arid climate of Southern Kazakhstan, groundwater is the primary and most resilient source of water for pasture irrigation. This study provides an integrated assessment of the predicted, natural, and operational groundwater resources across five administrative regions—Almaty, Zhetysu, Zhambyl, Kyzylorda, and Turkestan—considering water quality (total dissolved solids, TDS), potential well yield, and aquifer depth. Hydrogeological maps at 1:200,000 and 1:1,000,000 scales, a regional well inventory, and GIS-based spatial analysis were combined to classify resource availability and identify surplus and deficit zones. Results show that 92.5% of predicted exploitable resources (totaling 1155.2 m3/s) have TDS ≤ 3 g/L, making them suitable for domestic and livestock use. Regional disparities are pronounced: Zhetysu, Almaty, and Zhambyl exhibit resource surpluses, Kyzylorda approaches balance, while Turkestan faces a marked deficit. The developed groundwater availability map integrates mineralization, well productivity, and recommended drilling depth, enabling the design of water intake systems without costly field exploration. This decision-support tool has practical value for optimizing water allocation, reducing operational costs, and improving the sustainability of pasture management under the constraints of limited surface water resources. © 2025 by the authors.

Climate change, uneven distribution of water resources and anthropogenic impact have led to salinization and land degradation in the southern regions of Kazakhstan. Identification of saline lands and their mapping is a laborious process associated with a complex of ground measurements. Data from remote sensing are widely used to solve this problem. In this paper, the problem of assessing the salinity of the lands of the South Kazakhstan region using remote sensing data is considered. The aim of the study is to analyze the applicability of machine learning methods to assess the salinity of agricultural lands in southern Kazakhstan based on remote sensing. The authors present a salinity dataset obtained from field studies and containing more than 200 laboratory measurements of soil salinity. Moreover, the authors describe the results of applying several regression reconstruction algorithms (XGBoost, LightGBM, random forest, Support vector machines, Elastic net, etc.), where synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from the Sentinel-1 satellite and optical data in the form of spectral salinity indices are used as input data. The obtained results show that, in general, these input data can be used to estimate salinity of the wetted arable land. XGBoost regressor ((Formula presented.) = 0.282) showed the best results. Supplementing the radar data with the values of salinity spectral index improves the result significantly ((Formula presented.) = 0.356). For the local datasets, the best result shown by the model is (Formula presented.) = 0.473 (SAR) and (Formula presented.) = 0.654 (SAR with spectral indexes), respectively. The study also revealed a number of problems that justify the need for a broader range of ground surveys and consideration of multi-year factors affecting soil salinity. Key results of the article: (i) a set of salinity data for different geographical zones of southern Kazakhstan is presented for the first time; (ii) a method is proposed for determining soil salinity on the basis of synthetic aperture radar supplemented with optical data, and this resulted in the improved prediction of the results for the region under consideration; (iii) a comparison of several types of machine learning models was made and it was found that boosted models give, on average, the best prediction result; (iv) a method for optimizing the number of model input parameters using explainable machine learning is proposed; (v) it is shown that the results obtained in this work are in better agreement with ground-based measurements of electrical conductivity than the results of the previously proposed global model. © 2023 by the authors.

The upcoming global climate change as a result of anthropogenic action is now increasingly attracting the attention of scientific communities. Over the past three decades, researchers and industries around the world have spent a lot of time and effort developing various carbon capture and storage technologies, which, despite their promise, are still economically complex, with unclear long-term consequences to the environment. As an alternative, biological carbon sequestration is considered an attractive method of atmospheric CO2 fixation with the production of biomass, which, in turn, can be used as a readily renewable feedstock for the production of biofuels and other valuable products. This review focuses on the latest data of microalgae research in terms of key carbon footprint minimization strategies, which include features of the carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM) in microalgae, the main range of biofuels and the possibility of obtaining valuable metabolites based on them, such as bioplastics, biofertilizers, and biologically active compounds. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Heavy metals (HMs) are an environmental problem that pollutes water, air, soil, etc. HMs and metalloids are environmental pollutants, particularly cadmium, lead, and arsenic. It is liberated from both the natural and anthropogenic processes. HM group accumulates in the ecosystem through anthropogenic activities, mostly by agriculture and industry processes. When they accumulate to toxic levels in soil, it adversely affects plant and crop productivity. Different plant species were assessed to remediate the soil from HMs. According to the review, the highest bioaccumulation concentration factor (BCF) for Torilis leptophylla (L.) Rchb. f. species was 51.52 for Lead (Pb), and the translocation factor (TF) was 17.18 for the Catharanthus roses (L.) G. Don species for chromium and bioaccumulation concentration (BAC) was Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don species was recorded at 83.66 for chromium. The highest levels of BCF and TF for Polygonum labrum species were 1.090 and 1.78 for arsenic. Arsenic is the most poisonous element generated by agrochemicals, burning fossil fuels, smelting metals, and pharmaceutical industries. The common effects of arsenic on plants are oxidative stress, decreasing the bioavailability of the essential elements, and morphological change. Cadmium is toxic because it can cause various diseases in plants, like chlorosis, necrosis, and shunted growth. Moreover, it affects the physiological process, reduces carbon fixation, osmotic pressure, and transpiration, and decreases chlorophyll. Pb is one of the critical HMs extensively found in nature in solid waste deposition, slag from mining, firing in shooting ranges, smelting, and automobiles. It is naturally produced from weathering, erosion of rock layers, and ore deposit phenomenon. It reduces the conduction power of the plant stomata, which ultimately affects the transpiration process and reduces the crop yield. Further studies should focus on cost-effective strategies to enhance the phytoremediation of contaminants and the unknown effects of HMs on plants. © Engineered Science Publisher LLC 2024.

The inhibitory properties of the product obtained from manganese ore sampled from Zhairem deposit were studied on low-carbon steel (St3) in an aqueous medium. Standard gravimetric method and electrochemical measurements were used. It is shown that calcium-manganese phosphate product with composition СаО:MnO:Р2О5 (1.00:0.11:1.54) and the phosphate content from phosphorus pentoxide (73.64±1.33, wt.%), reduces the corrosion rate of steel St3 in the entire studied concentration range from 1 to 100 mg/L of Р2О5. In contrast to the well-known sodium polyphosphate inhibitor, it has been established that anti-corrosion treatment of water with a calcium-manganese phosphate inhibitor reduces the rate of accumulation of salt rust deposited on the steel surface. This was obtained to be practically zero at a concentration of 50 mg/L of P2O5. The results of electrochemical tests were confirmed by noting and calculating polarization curves of gravimetric measurements. During the study of the surface morphology of steel samples after being exposed to inhibitor solutions using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive analysis, the formation of uniform coatings consisting of compounds of calcium, manganese, iron and phosphorus was established. IR spectroscopic studies confirmed the formation of a protective coating in calcium-manganese solutions consisting of calcium, iron, and possibly manganese hydrodiphosphates. © The Author(s) 2025.

The presence of various organic and inorganic contaminants in wastewater leads to serious health effects on humans and ecosystems. Industrial effluents have been considered as noticeable sources of contaminating water streams. These effluents directly liberate the pollutants such as dye molecules and heavy metal ions into the environment. In the present study, three biowaste materials (groundnut shell powder, coconut coir powder and activated corn leaf carbon) were utilized and compared for the removal of acid blue dye 113 from aqueous solutions. The characterization study of newly prepared sorbent material (H3PO4-activated corn leaf carbon) and the other utilized sorbents was carried out by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR), along with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) Analysis. The influence of experimental conditions such as pH, initial dye concentration, temperature, contact time, and sorbent dosage on the removal efficiency of the dye were appraised. The adsorption isotherm and kinetic result of acid blue dye 113 adsorption onto the sorbents best obeyed from Sips and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Overall, the outcomes confirmed that the newly synthesized sorbent material (carbonized H3PO4-activated corn leaf) has superior adsorption capacity, rapid adsorption, and higher suitability for the removal of toxic dyes from the contaminated waters. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

Beryllium-based intermetallic compounds, such as Be12Ti, are increasingly being considered as a material capable of replacing pure beryllium in structural elements of fusion reactors. Be12Ti is considered as a neutron breeder material, a structural part of the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed of the DEMO reactor. It is expected that the replacement of beryllium by Be12Ti will make it possible to reduce the capture of tritium in the blanket without a significant decrease in the neutronic characteristics. Unlike beryllium, beryllides have relatively recently begun to be considered for use in nuclear and thermonuclear facilities, so the radiation resistance of these compounds remains little studied. This paper presents the experimental results on effect of low temperature neutron irradiation to properties of titanium beryllide samples manufactured by industrial technology in the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP, Kazakhstan). The manufactured samples before and after irradiation were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), hydrostatic weighing method, dimension method and microhardness measurement by Vickers method. © 2024 The Authors