Microplastics (MPs) or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution has received increasing concern due to their ubiquitous distribution and potential risks in soils. However, nothing is known about the influences of PAHs-MPs combined pollution on soil ecosystems. To address the knowledge gap, a 1-year soil microcosm experiment was conducted to systematically investigate the single and combined effect of polyethylene (PE) /phenanthrene (PHE) on soil chemical properties, enzymatic activities and bacterial communities (i.e., diversity, composition and function). Results showed that PE and PHE-PE significantly decreased soil pH. The available phosphorus (AP) and neutral phosphatase activity were not considerably changed by PHE, PE and PHE-PE. Significant enhancement of dehydrogenase activity in a PHE-PE amended system might be due to the degradation of PHE by indigenous bacteria (i.e., Sphingomonas, Sphingobium), and PE could enhance this stimulative effect. PHE and PHE-PE led to a s... [more]

Solid oxide fuel cells are an emerging energy conversion technology suitable for high-temperature power generation with proper auxiliary heat. Combining SOFCs and polygeneration has produced practical applications for modern energy system designs. Even though many researchers have reviewed these systems’ technologies, opportunities and challenges, reviews regarding the optimal strategy for designing and operating the systems are limited. Polygeneration is more complicated than any other energy generation type due to its ability to generate many types of energy from various prime movers. Moreover, integration with other applications, such as vehicle charging and fueling stations, increases the complication in making the system optimally serve the loads. This study elaborates on the energy planning and guidelines for designing a polygeneration system, especially for residential applications. The review of polygeneration technologies also aligns with the current research trend of developi... [more]

The effect of amino esters of boric acid (AEBA) on the conditions of vapor−liquid equilibrium in binary mixtures of acetonitrile−water, ethanol−acetonitrile and a three-component mixture of ethanol-acetonitrile-water was investigated. Residual curves and vapor−liquid phase equilibrium conditions (TPXY data) were experimentally measured at atmospheric pressure for a binary mixture of acetonitrile-AEBA and a triple mixture of acetonitrile-water-AEBA. Previously unknown energy binary parameters of groups B, CH2N with group CH3CN were determined for the UNIFAC model. The correction of the value of the binary parameter water—acetonitrile was carried out. On the basis of thermodynamic modeling, the degree of influence of AEBA on the relative volatility of acetonitrile in binary and ternary mixtures was analyzed. It is shown that the use of AEBA removes all azeotropic points in the studied mixtures. In this case, acetonitrile turns out to be a volatile component, and water is a non-volatile c... [more]

The influence of anode voltage ripple on injection locking of a magnetron with frequency pushing effect has been studied systematically. Theoretical analysis shows that, when power supply ripple and injection ratio are constant, frequency pushing effect will increase the magnetron’s locking bandwidth. Meanwhile, the locking bandwidth decreases with the increase of power supply ripple. Thus, to achieve injection locking, both power supply ripple and frequency pushing effect must be considered. The experiment results show that at injection ratio μ of 0.003, frequency pushing effect at 0.5, and power supply ripple increases from 0% to 1% and 2.5%, the locking bandwidth of magnetron decreases by 0.32 MHz, 2.12 MHz. With the amplitude of ripple increasing, the spectrum after injection locking deteriorates, and output amplitude reduces, which verifies the theoretical analysis. Considering anode voltage ripple and frequency pushing effect, the research results contribute to the realization of... [more]

In this study, a diarrhea model was established by exposing rats to appropriate antibiotics and Salmonella. After an in vitro screening of prebiotics, fructo-oligosaccharide and galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS) were selected; their synbiotic potential and ability to ameliorate diarrhea symptoms and intestinal inflammation with Bacillus coagulans BACO-17 were evaluated in vivo. After a 27-day feeding experiment including antibiotic intervention and Salmonella infection, it was found that using B. coagulans BACO-17 alone and in combination with GOS as a synbiotic could render a better recovery by lowering diarrhea indexes by 26.9% and 18.7%, respectively. Compared with the negative control, the administration of this synbiotic mixture resulted in the most significant increase in fecal concentrations of total short-chain fatty acids (about 2-fold higher), with a promising improvement in disrupted gut microbial balance. It was worth noting that the administration of B. coagulans BACO-17 alone... [more]

Residual sludge is a significant waste resource, and the preparation of biochar achieves sludge disposal. Biochar has a high uptake capacity for phosphate. To prepare a sludge biochar adsorbent for phosphate, sludge was chemically and anaerobically treated in the presence of iron salts and pyrolyzed. We investigated the effects of the pyrolysis temperature and iron salt on the phosphate uptake capacity, finding that the pretreatment of the sludge with iron salts removed intrinsic phosphate, thus improving the uptake ability. The optimal adsorbent, denoted SB-B-Fe, was prepared by pyrolysis at 700 °C and subsequently modified with a 20 g/L iron-containing solution, yielding a phosphate uptake capacity of 0.5 mg/g. Further, the performance of SB-B-Fe remains high at pH 5−9 and is less affected by interfering anions. The sorption kinetics are consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, suggesting uptake by chemisorption, and the Langmuir model has a saturation capacity of 0.85... [more]

In order to study temperature distributions under different influencing factors and evaluate the cooling performance of the turbocharger bearing casing, water-cooling system experiments regarding the turbocharger bearing casing are carried out, and an improved fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) evaluation method for evaluating its design performance is proposed firstly. Then, the effects of various factors such as cooling-water inlet flow velocity, cooling-water inlet temperature, cooling-water pressure and exhaust temperature on the cooling performance of the bearing casing are investigated according to the experimental results. Finally, the design performance of the water-cooling system in the turbocharger bearing casing is evaluated based on the FAHP evaluation method. The results show that the turbocharger bearing casing temperature and the temperature drop rate show a decreasing trend with the increase of inlet cooling-water velocity, but that the temperature and temperature... [more]

We have developed a 17-channel (150 GHz-spacing) athermal arrayed waveguide grating (AAWG), which has a wider operation range than that of the existing AWGs, by designing a metal structure assembly that reduces the temperature dependence of the wavelength. For an operation temperature range from −40 °C to 85 °C, the center wavelengths of all channels had a wavelength stability of ±0.04 nm and the insertion loss variation was less than ±0.78 dB. The accelerated life test showed that the predicted service life was expected to be more than 41.7 years.

The calculation equations of pressure drop and solid flow rate are given in an intermittent countercurrent moving bed with multiple optimized structures. The flow fields are investigated by experimental methods under different conditions, e.g., ratio of position of the gas distributor to the bed width (rp = 0.5~1.5), gas superficial velocity (ug = 0~0.1591 m/s), solid outlet diameter (Do = 5~25 mm) and cone angle (α = 0~60°). It is found that when rp ≥ 1.0, the flow field in the bed is little affected by rp. Flow patterns are divided into three modes: continuous discharging, intermittent discharging (synchronous, asynchronous) and particle bridging. During continuous discharging, the calculation formula of the solid flow rate, which is closely related to Do and gas−solid slip velocity vslip, is established by referring to the modified De Jong and Beverloo formulas, and its error ≤ ±12.5%. The pressure drop of the total bed consists of the pressure drops of the granular bed and the soli... [more]

L. (custard apple or sugar apple), belonging to the Annonaceae family, is a small tree or shrub that grows natively in subtropical and tropical regions. Seeds of the custard apple have been employed in folk medicines because of the presence of bioactive chemicals/compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolic compounds and acetogenins and cyclopeptides that are responsible for various biological activities. The seeds also show the presence of tannins, vitamin C, vitamin E and a higher content of amino acids. From investigations, it has been shown that the seeds of A. squamosa have considerable potential to be used as an antibacterial, hepatoprotective, antioxidant and antitumor/anticancer agent. Cyclosquamosin B, extracted from the custard apple seed, possesses vasorelaxant properties. Tocopherols and fatty acids, notably oleic acid and linoleic acid, are also found in the seed oil. A. squamosa seeds contain a high amount of annonaceous acetogenins compounds, which are potent mit... [more]

A systematic process analysis was conducted to study the effect of the main variables in an industrial electrostatic desalter, such as electric field intensity, wash water content, droplet size, and oil viscosity, on the efficiency of the separation of water from oil. The analysis was assessed through an already published and validated CFD multiphase numerical model that considers the expression of the frequency of collisions as a function of the mentioned process variables. Additionally, the study allowed the formal optimization exercise of the operation to maximize the separation efficiency. The most significant variables were the initial water content and the electric field intensity, while the temperature (oil viscosity) had an effect to a lower extent. An increase in the electric field and temperature and a decrease in the water content improved the water separation from oil. Optimum values suggested from the factorial experimental design and the optimization implemented in this w... [more]

Clean air is necessary for leading a healthy life. Many respiratory illnesses have their root in the poor quality of air across regions. Due to the tremendous impact of air quality on people’s lives, it is essential to devise a mechanism through which air pollutants (PM2.5, NOx, COx, SOx) can be forecasted. However, forecasting air quality and its pollutants is complicated as air quality depends on several factors such as weather, vehicular, and power plant emissions. This aim of this research was to find the impact of weather on PM2.5 concentrations and to forecast the daily and hourly PM2.5 concentration for the next 30 days and 72 h in Pakistan. This forecasting was done through state-of-the-art deep learning and machine learning models such as FbProphet, LSTM, and LSTM encoder−decoder. This research also successfully forecasted the proposed daily and hourly PM2.5 concentration. The LSTM encoder−decoder had the best performance and successfully forecasted PM2.5 concentration with a... [more]

The soil mulching device plays an important role in the sowing stage of crops. Compared with the traditional narrow film planting mode, under the ultra-wide film planting mode adopted by crops in arid areas, the soil transportation distance inside the soil mulching device increases, resulting in the problem of uneven soil coverage thickness between sowing rows, which seriously affects the crop emergence rate. There are many methods available to solve the problems of ultra-wide film planting, such as theoretical analysis and discrete element method (DEM) simulation. In this paper, we design a covering device consisting primarily of the soil disc and the cylindrical sealer. By constructing and analyzing a mechanical model of the soil mulching device, the parameters related to the working performance are determined. In order to further optimize the parameters, the simulation model of the device and soil operation process is established by using DEM software. We design a single-factor simu... [more]

This paper presents the methodology for the preparation of hydrochar obtained from waste materials of natural origin and investigates its applicability for removing mercury ions from aqueous systems. The sorption properties of the obtained hydrochar were investigated in a batch and in a flow-through column system. The hydrochar material was obtained from apple pomace, which was hydrothermally carbonized in 230 °C for 5 h in a hydrothermal reactor. The hydrochar formed in the process was thermally activated with an inert gas flow—CO2. Obtained materials were characterised with XRD, FTIR-ATR, SEM-EDS and nitrogen sorption (BET) analyses, which confirmed the obtaining of a highly porous carbon material with a specific surface area of 145.72 m2/g and an average pore diameter of 1.93 nm. The obtained hydrochar was analysed for sorption of mercury ions from aqueous solutions. Equilibrium isotherms (Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin−Radushkevich, Temkin, Hill, Redlich-Peterson, Sips and Toth) and... [more]

Rotated clinching is a novel cold plastic deformation joining process, which is suitable for the multi-point simultaneous joining of sheet metals. However, the effect of various parameters on the mechanical properties of joints using rotated clinching remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to analyse the important parameters that affect the joint’s shearing strength and relationship between them. The relational expression between the four process parameters (die depth, rotation angle, small fillet radius and large fillet radius) and joint shearing strength was established using the response surface method. Additionally, the quantitative relationship between them was expressed by this relational expression, and the significance of process parameters were evaluated using the analysis of variance. The results revealed that the most significant parameter regarding the shearing strength was die depth h, with the contribution of 47.1%, followed by rotation angle α and small fillet rad... [more]

With the development of economy and the improvement of architectural aesthetics, civil structure buildings show a trend of diversification and complexity, which brings great challenges to the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of civil structure buildings. In order to optimise the structural health monitoring effect of civil structures, reduce monitoring costs, and improve the ability of civil structures to deal with risks, a civil structure health monitoring method combining Variational Modal Decomposition (VMD) and the Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) is proposed. The gated neural network algorithm of modal decomposition is used, and then a wireless sensor network (WSN) civil structure health monitoring model is constructed on this basis. Finally, the application effect of the model is tested and analysed. The results show that the network energy consumption of this model can reach a minimum of 0.05 J, which is 0.05 J less than that of the Gate Recurrent Unit (GRU) model. The minimum loss... [more]

It has become increasingly popular to replace chemically synthesized compounds with natural counterparts mostly found in natural sources, such as natural pigments. The conventional extraction processes for these compounds are limited by the toxicity and flammability of the solvents. To obtain pure extracts, it is always a longer process that requires several steps. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a cutting-edge green technology that is continuously increasing and expanding its fields of application, with benefits such as no waste produced, shorter extraction time, automation, and lower solvent consumption. The SFE of natural pigments has high potential in food, textiles, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals; there are a number of other applications that can benefit from the SFE technique of natural pigments. The pigments that are extracted via SFE have a high potential for application and sustainability because of their biological and antimicrobial properties as well as low environme... [more]

As consumer trends shift towards more natural and ecological consumption patterns, industrialists are actively working towards substituting synthetic chemicals with natural and vegan products that contain bioactive properties. Thus, considering the shifts in customer demand and the growing concern around vegetable sourced productions, this work aims to contribute to the valorization of aromatic and medicinal Moroccan plants. By focusing on the Marrubium vulgare L. species, our objective is to carry out a physicochemical characterization to determine its chemical composition and biological activities. The volatile fraction collected by hydrodistillation (0.61%) and analyzed by GC-MS (gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry) contains five main compounds: 3-Thujanone, Eugenol, Topanol, Menthone and Piperitone. The antioxidant activity has been estimated by applying the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging test and the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP... [more]

Many different biopolymers are used to stabilize emulsions, of which starch is of particular concern. To improve the characteristics and technical utility of native starch, various types of changes can be made. This article is a report describing the molecular dynamics of water by the low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF NMR) of chemically (E 1412 and E 1420) and physically modified starch (LU 1432) gels and the effect of their use on the stability of oil/water emulsions obtained using bovine and porcine fats. The analysis of changes in spin−spin and spin−lattice relaxation times over time showed that the presence of the type of starch modification significantly affects the values of T1 and T2 relaxation times, as well as the correlation times. Research on time-related changes in water binding in oil-in-water emulsions showed that potato starch modified by chemical methods can be used as an emulsifier. Compared to physically modified starch, chemically modified starches have a much... [more]

In this paper, a characterization method for a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pouch cell is presented and evaluated, using a method that applies to hybrid current pulses called hybrid power pulse characterization (HPPC). The purpose of the study is to validate the developed mathematical model capable of offering good results for virtualization of the cell with extrapolation capability for the entire battery. This type of characterization was tested before but on cells with low capacity where relatively small currents were applied. Here, the model is intended to be used for the development of electrical mobility applications, such as electric vehicles (EV) and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), where high capacity and currents are required through the cell. The comparison between the real and simulated cell was made with two sets of results obtained from HPPC and using the FTP-72 speed profile by emulating real current conditions, where both show that the method is reliable under t... [more]

Understanding the physics of flow instabilities is important for processes in a wide range of engineering applications. Flow instabilities occur at the interfaces between moving fluids. Potential fluctuations are generated at the interfaces between two moving fluids based on the relationship of continuity. Theoretical analysis demonstrated that, in flow instabilities, potential fluctuation exhibits a potential oscillatory wave surface concurrently in the temporal and spatial dimensions. Potential fluctuations already internally exist in flow before flow instabilities begin to develop; these potential fluctuations greatly affect the formation of interpenetrating structures after forces act on the interfaces. Experimental studies supported the theoretical study: Experiments visualizing condensation flows using refrigerant in one smooth tube and one three-dimensional enhanced tube were conducted to show the development of potential fluctuation in spatial dimensions, and an experiment with... [more]

With the intensification of global environmental pollution and the energy crisis, the new energy EV industry is developing rapidly, and FWID-EV is a popular direction for future vehicle development. For the sake of improving the swing regulate steadiness and safety of EV, the study uses a particle swarm algorithm to optimize and improve the BP neural network PID, and designs an EV steering regulator to regulate the transverse swing torque and slip rate of EV to improve the safety and steadiness of EV steering. The research results display that the maximum value of the transverse swing angular velocity of the regulation algorithm is 0.156 rad/s, that the car slip rate is controlled within 0.046, and the steadiness is high, and that the maximum values of the car torque under the double shift line and snake conditions are 100 N-m and 179.4 N-m, respectively, which can effectively avoid the danger caused by steering. This demonstrates that the improved neural network PID regulator can effe... [more]

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has captured the scientific community’s attention in recent years owing to its ability to directly transform organic waste into electricity through electrochemical processes. Currently, MFC systems faces a number of barriers, with one of the most significant being the lack of organic substrate to provide enough energy for bacterial growth and activity. In the current work, rotten rice was utilized as an organic substrate to boost bacterial activity to produce more energy and break down the organic pollutant hydroquinone in an effort to improve the performance of MFCs. There are only a few studies that considered the waste as an organic substrate and simultaneously degraded the organic pollutant vis-à-vis MFCs. The oxidation of glucose derived from rotten rice generated electrons that were transported to the anode surface and subsequently flowed through an external circuit to the cathode, where they were used to degrade the organic pollutant hydroqui... [more]

The inhibition of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538 (S. aureus), Salmonella Enteritidis ATCC 13076 (S. Enteritidis), and Listeria monocytogenes DSM12464 (L. monocytogenes) is one of the main aims of the food industry. This study was the first in which the use of ultrasound and microwave power were applied to optimize the values of the bioactive components, amino acids, and mineral compositions of tangerine juice and to inhibit Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Listeria monocytogenes. The response surface methodology (RSM) was used to describe the inactivation kinetics, and the effects of ultrasound treatment time (X1: 12−20 min), ultrasound amplitude (X2:60−100%), microwave treatment time (X3: 30−40 s), and microwave power (X4:200−700 W). The optimum parameters applied to a 5-log reduction in E. coli were determined as ultrasound (12 min, 60%) and microwave (34 s, 700 W). The optimum condition ultrasound−microwave t... [more]

It is an urgent scientific issue to explore the spatial and temporal differentiation and impact indicators of the agricultural water footprint in major grain-producing areas. Therefore, this study tries to use the water footprint theory to implement top-down calculation of the agricultural water footprint in major grain-producing regions from 2000 to 2019 and investigate the various impacts on the agricultural water footprint under the influence of spatial-temporal effects using spatial autocorrelation and the spatial Dubin model. The results indicate that from 2000 to 2019, the overall agricultural water footprint of China showed a fluctuating downward trend in an inverted N shape and demonstrated high−high and low−low spatial aggregation characteristics. There are notable characteristics, including high spatial dependence, spatial barriers, and path locking of the agricultural water footprint in most provinces and regions of the main grain-producing areas. Policy factors, water-savin... [more]