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This study introduces novel phenothiazine-based organic dyes, 2-LBH-100, 2-LBH-44, and 2-Ryu-4, specifically designed for quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (QsDSSCs). Employing a donor-π-acceptor architecture, these dyes incorporate varying electron-donating moieties, including bis(3-(hexyloxy)phenyl)amine and diphenylamino, coupled with a cyanoacrylic acid acceptor. Alkoxy substitutions in 2-LBH-100 and 2-LBH-44 enhanced solubility and dye loading on TiO2, leading to improved performance in QsDSSCs. 2-LBH-100 exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) exceeding 5% with excellent stability, while 2-LBH-44 demonstrated a PCE of over 3%, increasing to 4% over time. 2-Ryu-4, with its diphenylamino donor, achieved an initial PCE of over 6%. This research highlights the crucial role of donor–acceptor interactions in optimizing organic dye design for high-performance QsDSSCs, paving the way for efficient and stable next-generation solar energy technologies.

Improving efficiency, reducing expenses, and ensuring sustainability in today’s competitive market is made possible by optimising the performance of the food supply chain (FSC). A strong decision-making framework is required to overcome obstacles including high transportation and production costs, uneven quality, and the impact on the environment. To solve these problems, this paper presents an all-inclusive multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) framework that uses enhanced relative utility and nonlinear standardisation (ERUNS) to rank alternatives, Logarithmic percentage change-driven objective weighing (LOPCOW) to determine objective weights, and subjective weight assignment by ratio analysis (SWARA) to determine subjective criterion weights. LOPCOW offers objective weights grounded in facts and indifference thresholds, whereas SWARA records decision-makers (DMs) preferences in weighing factors like sustainability and cost efficiency. The ERUNS methodology then uses utility degree assessments and matrix standardization to rank and evaluate alternatives. An improved method of assessment is to make use of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS), which deal with ambiguity by adding membership, non-membership, and hesitation levels. By merging subjective and objective data, this integrated method maximizes FSC performance, provides useful insights for enhancing overall efficiency and sustainability, and offers a viable answer to contemporary difficulties. It also offers helpful insights for improving overall efficiency and sustainability, and it provides a practical response to the challenges that are now being faced.

Construction involves the use of significant quantities of raw materials and entails high-energy consumption. For the sake of choosing the most appropriate solution that considers environmental and sustainable concepts, tools such as the integrated value model for sustainable assessment (Modelo Integrado de Valor para una Evaluación Sostenible, MIVES) used in Spain, plays a key role in obtaining the best solution. MIVES is a multi-criteria decision-making method based on the value function concept and the seminars delivered by experts. Such tools, in order to show how they may work, require application to case studies. In this paper, two concrete slabs manufactured with differing reinforcements during the construction of the La Canda Tunnels are compared by means of MIVES. The two concrete slabs were reinforced with a conventional steel-mesh and with polyolefin fibres. This research was focussed on the main aspects affecting the construction. That is to say, the environmental, economic, and social factors were assessed by the method, being of special impact the issues related with maintenance of the structure. The results showed that from the point of view of sustainability, the use of polyolefin fibres provided a significant advantage, mainly due to the lower maintenance required.

The ethanolic fermentation of liquid fractions (hydrolysates) issued from dilute acid pre-treatment of olive tree biomass by Pichia stipitis is reported for the first time. On the one side, P. stipitis has been reported as the most promising naturally occurring C5 fermenting microorganism; on the other side, olive tree biomass is a renewable, low cost, and lacking of alternatives agricultural residue especially abundant in Mediterranean countries. The study was performed in two steps. First, the fermentation performance of P. stipitis was evaluated on a fermentation medium also containing the main inhibitors found in these hydrolysates (acetic acid, formic acid, and furfural), as well as glucose and xylose as carbon sources. The effect of inhibitors, individually or in a mixture, on kinetic and yield parameters was calculated. In a second step, hydrolysates obtained from 1% (w/w) sulfuric acid pre-treatment of olive tree biomass at 190ºC for 10 min were used as a real fermentation medium with the same microorganism. Due to inhibition, effective fermentation required dilution of the hydrolysate and either overliming or activated charcoal treatment. Results show that ethanol yields obtained from hydrolysates, ranging from 0.35 to 0.42 g/g, are similar to those from synthetic medium, although the process proceeds at lower rates. Inhibiting compounds affect the fermentation performance in a synergistic way. Furfural is rapidly assimilated by the yeast; acetic acid and formic acid concentrations decrease slowly during the process. Activated charcoal or overliming detoxification improve the fermentability of diluted hydrolysates.

The battery power state (SOP) is the basic indicator for the Battery management system (BMS) of the battery energy storage system (BESS) to formulate control strategies. Although there have been many studies on state estimation of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), aging and temperature variation are seldom considered in peak power prediction during the whole life of the battery. To fill this gap, this paper aims to propose an adaptive peak power prediction method for power lithium-ion batteries considering temperature and aging is proposed. First, the Thevenin equivalent circuit model is used to jointly estimate the state of charge (SOC) and SOP of the lithium-ion power battery, and the variable forgetting factor recursive least squares (VFF-RLS) algorithm and extended Kalman filter (EKF) are utilized to identify the battery parameters online. Then, multiple constraint parameters including current, voltage, and SOC were derived, considering the dependence of the polarization resistance of the battery on the battery current. Finally, the verification experiment was carried out with LiFePO4 battery. The experimental results under FUDS operating conditions show that the maximum SOC estimation error is 1.94%. And the power prediction errors at 20%, 50%, and 70% SOC were 5.0%, 8.1% and 4.5%, respectively. Our further work will focus on the joint estimation of battery state to further improve the accuracy.

ABSTRACTPlant heme oxygenases (HOs) regulate biosynthesis of phytochrome which accounts for photo‐acceptance and ‐morphogenesis. Recent studies have demonstrated that plant HOs also regulate many other physiological processes including response to environmental stimuli. To elucidate the mechanism by which HOs regulate plant adaptation to heavy metal exposure, three novel HOs genes were isolated from rapeseed (Brassica napus) and their expression patterns were analysed. Alignment of deduced protein sequences revealed that the three BnHOs share high identity with their corresponding orthologos (AtHO1‐3) from Arabidopsis. To investigate whether the BnHO regulates plant tolerance to Hg toxicity, we constructed B. napus transgenic plants overexpressing BnHO‐1. Under Hg stress, the transgenic plants had 1.41–1.59 folds higher biomass than the untransformants. However, overexpression of BnHO‐1 resulted in less accumulation of Hg in some lines of transformants than in untransformants. The transgenic plants show lower abundance of reactive oxygen species and attenuated oxidative injury compared with the untransgenic plants. We cloned the promoter sequences of BnHO‐1 from B. napus. Analysis revealed that the 1119 bp fragment contains a conserved Cd responsive element (CdRE) and others responding to multiple environmental stimuli. Transient expression in tobacco leaves showed differential responses to heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Hg and Cd).

AbstractVentilation door are commonly found in tunnels and other underground engineering ventilation structures, disaster periods using its explosion isolation, explosion relief, wind regulation characteristics for disaster prevention and mitigation is of great significance. This paper numerically simulates the propagation characteristics of the gas explosion shock wave in the nearby tunnel when the ventilation door are opened at different degrees, and analyzes the influence mechanism of the opening degree on the change law of the shock wave overpressure distribution in the nearby tunnel. The results show that the shock wave forms a strong turbulence area (high pressure area) on both sides in front of the ventilation door, and the area range and the overpressure value decrease with the increase of the opening degree; the ventilation door reduce the intensity of the shock wave, so that the overpressure behind the ventilation door decreases, and the smaller the opening degree, the lower the overpressure behind the ventilation door. The secondary explosion formed shock wave and the ventilation door reflected shock wave meet to form a stronger shock wave, which leads to different opening degrees of ventilation door, its before, after the roadway and after the bifurcation of the main roadway in the measured points of the overpressure change curve is different, the main difference is that the peak overpressure for the first wave or the second wave peak. The peak overpressure in the tunnel before and after the ventilation door decreases and increases respectively with the increase of the opening length, and the overall decay of the peak overpressure at 5 m and 10 m before the ventilation door is 49.56% and 4.04% respectively and only has an effect on the peak overpressure in main tunnel within 20 m from the bifurcation.