• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• 7. Clean energy close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 1. No poverty close
• University of North Texas close

Vanadium-containing glasses have aroused interest in several fields such as electrodes for energy storage, semiconducting glasses, and nuclear waste disposal. The addition of V2O5, even in small amounts, can greatly alter the physical properties and chemical durability of glasses; however, the structural role of vanadium in these multicomponent glasses and the structural origins of these property changes are still poorly understood. We present a comprehensive study that integrates advanced characterizations and atomistic simulations to understand the composition-structure-property relationships of a series of vanadium-containing aluminoborosilicate glasses. UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) have been used to investigate the complex distribution of vanadium oxidation states as a function of composition in a series of six-component aluminoborosilicate glasses. High-energy X-ray diffraction and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to extract the detailed short- and medium-range atomistic structural information such as bond distance, coordination number, bond angle, and network connectivity, based on recently developed vanadium potential parameters. It was found that vanadium mainly exists in two oxidation states: V5+ and V4+, with the former being dominant (∼80% from XANES) in most compositions. V5+ ions were found to exist in 4-, 5-, and 6-fold coordination, while V4+ ions were mainly in 4-fold coordination. The percentage of 4-fold-coordinated boron and network connectivity initially increased with increasing V2O5 up to around 5 mol % but then decreased with higher V2O5 contents. The structural role of vanadium and the effect on glass structure and properties are discussed, providing insights into future studies of sophisticated structural descriptors to predict glass properties from composition and/or structure and aiding the formulation of borosilicate glasses for nuclear waste disposal and other applications.

In the last decade, many malaria-endemic countries, like Zambia, have achieved significant reductions in malaria incidence among children <5 years old but face ongoing challenges in achieving similar progress against malaria in older age groups. In parts of Zambia, changing climatic and environmental factors are among those suspectedly behind high malaria incidence. Changes and variations in these factors potentially interfere with intervention program effectiveness and alter the distribution and incidence patterns of malaria differentially between young children and the rest of the population. We used parametric and non-parametric statistics to model the effects of climatic and socio-demographic variables on age-specific malaria incidence vis-à-vis control interventions. Linear regressions, mixed models, and Mann-Kendall tests were implemented to explore trends, changes in trends, and regress malaria incidence against environmental and intervention variables. Our study shows that while climate parameters affect the whole population, their impacts are felt most by people aged ≥5 years. Climate variables influenced malaria substantially more than mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying interventions. We establish that climate parameters negatively impact malaria control efforts by exacerbating the transmission conditions via more conducive temperature and rainfall environments, which are augmented by cultural and socioeconomic exposure mechanisms. We argue that an intensified communications and education intervention strategy for behavioural change specifically targeted at ≥5 aged population where incidence rates are increasing, is urgently required and call for further malaria stratification among the ≥5 age groups in the routine collection, analysis and reporting of malaria mortality and incidence data.

Quantification of the trade-offs among greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yield, and farmers’ incomes is essential for proposing economic and environmental nitrogen (N) management strategies for optimizing agricultural production. A four-year (2017–2020) field experiment (including four treatments: basic N fertilizer treatment (BF), suitable utilization of fertilization (SU), emission reduction treatment (ER), and high fertilization (HF)) was conducted on maize (Zea mays L.) in the North China Plain. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was used in this study to quantify the GHG emissions and farmers’ incomes during the whole maize production process. The total GHG emissions of BF, SU, ER, and HF treatments in the process of maize production are 10,755.2, 12,908.7, 11,950.1, and 14,274.5 kg CO2-eq ha−1, respectively, of which the direct emissions account for 84.8%, 76.8%, 74.9%, and 71.0%, respectively. Adding inhibitors significantly reduced direct GHG emissions, and the N2O and CO2 emissions from the maize fields in the ER treatment decreased by 30.0% and 7.9% compared to those in the SU treatment. Insignificant differences in yield were found between the SU and ER treatments, indicating that adding fertilizer inhibitors did not affect farmers’ incomes while reducing GHG emissions. The yield for SU, ER, and HF treatments all significantly increased by 12.9–24.0%, 10.0–20.7%, and 2.1–17.4% compared to BF, respectively. In comparison with BF, both SU and ER significantly promoted agricultural net profit (ANP) by 16.6% and 12.2%, with mean ANP values of 3101.0 USD ha−1 and 2980.0 USD ha−1, respectively. Due to the high agricultural inputs, the ANP values in the HF treatment were 11.2%, 16.6%, and 12.4% lower than those in the SU treatment in 2018–2020. In conclusion, the combination of N fertilizer and inhibitors proved to be an environmentally friendly, high-profit, and low-emissions production technology while sustaining or even increasing maize yields in the North China Plain, which was conducive to achieving agricultural sustainability.

Digitalization and artificial intelligence increasingly affect the world of work. Rising risk of massive job losses have sparked technological fears. Limited income and productivity gains concentrated among a few tech companies are fueling inequalities. In addition, the increasing ecological footprint of digital technologies has become the focus of much discussion. This creates a trilemma of rising inequality, low productivity growth and high ecological costs brought by technological progress. How can this trilemma be resolved? Which digital applications should be promoted specifically? And what should policymakers do to address this trilemma? This contribution shows that policymakers should create suitable conditions to fully exploit the potential in the area of network applications (transport, information exchange, supply, provisioning) in order to reap maximum societal benefits that can be widely shared. This requires shifting incentives away from current uses toward those that can, at least partially, address the trilemma. The contribution analyses the scope and limits of current policy instruments in this regard and discusses alternative approaches that are more aligned with the properties of the emerging technological paradigm underlying the digital economy. In particular, it discusses the possibility of institutional innovations required to address the socio-economic challenges resulting from the technological innovations brought about by artificial intelligence.

The complex interaction between social, economic, and environmental processes coupled with transformations of the landscape primarily driven by urbanization have impacts on the access, availability, and distribution, of food. This has resulted in a global micronutrient deficiency and hunger. Given rapid urbanization and population growth, a more sustainable food system is necessary to feed more urban populations and provide adequate nutrition, especially in developing countries. Existing frameworks for modelling urban-environment interactions contain components related to food security, however, lack the specificity needed to evaluate the effects of land use decisions and agricultural production strategies on the health of local populations measured through metrics such as nutritional output. The research presented here proposes an urban nutrition (UN) extension to the previously published urban ecological economic system by developing a focused component that simulates scenarios of different degrees of urbanization and agricultural production techniques to improve the nutritional output of agricultural land, while considering the conservation of soil. This simulation approach was subsequently applied to the Toluca Metropolitan Zone, Mexico. Results showed that nutritional output would greatly increase when adding a variety of crops, even in scenarios where agricultural land is limited. The proposed extension can be used by decision makers worldwide to evaluate how landscape configurations and agricultural production systems affect the nutritional needs of the local population while fostering sustainable practices.

Abstract Refractory high entropy alloys have recently attracted widespread attention due to their outstanding mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, making them appealing for concentrating solar power and nuclear energy applications. However, their molten salt corrosion behavior has not been reported, which is critical in evaluating their application merit. Here, the corrosion behavior of two recently developed refractory high entropy alloys, namely TaTiVWZr and HfTaTiVZr, was studied in molten 33NaCl–22KCl–45MgCl2 (wt. %) eutectic salt at 450 °C and 650 °C, using potentiodynamic polarization technique. The results were compared with benchmark alloys, namely 304 stainless steel (SS304) and Inconel 718 (IN718). TaTiVWZr refractory high entropy alloy exhibited an order of magnitude lower corrosion current density (Icorr = 0.7× 10-3 A cm-2) compared to SS304 (Icorr = 9.2 × 10-3 A cm-2) at the higher temperature of 650 °C. The corrosion rate of all the alloys increased with increase in temperature from 450 °C to 650 °C with the exception of TaTiVWZr. The TaTiVWZr alloy showed a corrosion rate of ~ 5 mm/year at 650 °C compared to ~ 110 mm/year for SS304. HfTaTiVZr and IN718 showed comparable corrosion rates in the range of ~ 40 mm/year at 650 °C. The high corrosion resistance of the two refractory high entropy alloys was attributed to a combination of three factors: (i) slower chlorination rate of refractory elements in the molten chloride salt environment driven by thermodynamics, (ii) formation of stable Ta–V and Ta–V–W based complex oxides on their surface, and (iii) Ti/TiCl2 and Zr/ZrCl2 redox couple formation which retarded the depletion of refractory elements. In contrast, the Cr-, Fe-, and Ni-based surface passivation oxides for SS304 and IN718 were less protective in the molten salt environment, particularly at the higher temperature of 650 °C.

AbstractThe role of climate change on global malaria is often highlighted in World Health Organisation reports. We modelled a Zambian socio-environmental dataset from 2000 to 2016, against malaria trends and investigated the relationship of near-term environmental change with malaria incidence using Bayesian spatio-temporal, and negative binomial mixed regression models. We introduced the diurnal temperature range (DTR) as an alternative environmental measure to the widely used mean temperature. We found substantial sub-national near-term variations and significant associations with malaria incidence-trends. Significant spatio-temporal shifts in DTR/environmental predictors influenced malaria incidence-rates, even in areas with declining trends. We highlight the impact of seasonally sensitive DTR, especially in the first two quarters of the year and demonstrate how substantial investment in intervention programmes is negatively impacted by near-term climate change, most notably since 2010. We argue for targeted seasonally-sensitive malaria chemoprevention programmes.

Abstract MEPCMs have drawn tremendous attention in TES fields. In this study, eutectic of CA and PA was encapsulated by PVC, and the novel MEPCM for TES applications was developed. Microcapsules were prepared by solvent evaporation method and examined using DSC, SEM, LPSA, FTIR, thermal cycling test and TGA. DSC results demonstrated that the phase change temperature of CA-PA eutectic decreased after microencapsulation. The most satisfied sample was the MEPCM with a shell-core ratio of 1:2, which melted at 17.1 °C with the latent heat of 92.1 J/g, the encapsulation ratio was 57.7%. SEM images and LPSA results showed that the prepared MEPCMs were consisted with micro-sized spheres. FTIR results confirmed that the PCM core was successfully encapsulated by the PVC shell, and no chemical reaction was found among the components. The prepared MEPCM showed an excellent thermal reliability after 500 times of thermal cycling. Microencapsulation enhanced the starting temperature of CA-PA eutectic thermal decomposition, and the novel MEPCM exhibited an excellent thermal stability at working temperature from TGA results. Consequently, MEPCM (1:2) was the optimal composition and had great potential for TES applications.