Search Results (724)

The transition to a hydrogen-based economy requires efficient and sustainable technologies to convert waste into clean energy carriers. This study investigates the production of hydrogen-rich gas through the integrated pyrolysis steam reforming (PSR) and integrated pyrolysis (PYR) and catalytic steam reforming (PCSR) of real municipal solid waste (MSW). PCSR experiments were conducted in a two-stage series reactor system: an initial pyrolysis stage at 500 °C followed by a catalytic steam reforming stage at 900 °C over a commercial Ni/Al₂O₃ catalyst (9.8 wt.% Ni). Three real MSW samples from the Serra Gaúcha region (Brazil) were evaluated: organic-rich (A), polymeric-rich (B), and a mixed real collection fraction (C). Gas yields from PYR to PCSR increased from 0.44 to 1.18 Nm³·kgMSW⁻¹, from 0.66 to 1.54 Nm³·kgMSW⁻¹, and from 0.35 to 1.50 Nm³·kgMSW⁻¹ for (A), (B), and (C) samples, respectively. Hydrogen concentrations of PCSR were between 32% and 39% volume for all samples, with a marked reduction in CH₄ and CO levels due to the promotion of water–gas shift and methane reforming reactions over the nickel active sites. The PCSR process using a Ni/Al₂O₃ catalyst proves to be a highly effective route for maximizing hydrogen production from real MSW, offering a robust technological solution for energy valorization and carbon footprint reduction. Full article

This study presents a comprehensive thermodynamic evaluation of several CO₂ conversion pathways, both non-catalytic and catalyst-assisted, using density functional theory (DFT) calculations in Gaussian 16 (B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p)). In the non-catalyzed section, three key routes are examined: hydrogenation (CO₂ + H₂ → CO + H₂O), dry methane reforming, and the reverse water–gas shift (RWGS). For the hydrogenation reaction, the Gibbs free energy change (ΔG) decreases from +0.018 to +0.005 Hartree as the temperature increases from 298.15 K to 1173.15 K, indicating a slight improvement in feasibility but still a high activation barrier of 0.326 Hartree, underscoring the need for catalysis. Dry methane reforming is both exothermic and spontaneous, with ΔG ≈ = −0.049 Hartree at 298.15 K and −0.030 Hartree at 593.15 K; however, operating under harsh conditions may accelerate degradation of reactor materials. In the catalyst-assisted section, copper surfaces and Cu₃M clusters (M = Sc, V, Ni, Cu, Co and Fe) are evaluated alongside two bimetallic catalysts, Fe₂ and Ni₂, under electrochemical CO₂ reduction (eCO₂RR) conditions. Scandium- and vanadium-doped clusters exhibit significant CO₂ adsorption, as evidenced by shifted vibrational frequencies between 800 and 1800 cm⁻¹ that signal C=O bond weakening. Under the evaluated thermobarometric conditions, Ni₂-containing systems displayed lower Gibbs energy values within their own optimized intermediate set and higher entropy values than the corresponding Fe₂-containing set, suggesting greater configurational flexibility and favorable stabilization trends. However, because Fe₂ and Ni₂ systems are chemically different, absolute total energies were not used as a standalone criterion for intrinsic catalytic superiority. Overall, while some non-catalytic routes become thermodynamically more favorable only at high temperature, the explicit inclusion of catalytic models, particularly doped Cu₃M clusters and Ni-containing systems, indicates enhanced CO₂ activation through stronger catalyst–adsorbate interactions, vibrational weakening of C=O bonds, and favorable electronic descriptors. These results suggest that catalytic systems may enable CO₂ conversion under milder conditions, although full kinetic confirmation requires comparative transition state calculations for each elementary catalytic step. Full article

Modern power systems increasingly depend on energy storage devices to manage fluctuations in renewable generation and load demand. Coordinating multiple heterogeneous storage units in a grid-level system while enforcing individual state-of-charge (SoC) limits constitutes a complex, high-dimensional control problem that cannot be resolved by conventional proportional-sharing schemes. This work formulates the Distributed Optimal Energy Management (DOEM) problem for a grid comprising n parallel storage units with power-dependent efficiency and heterogeneous capacities. Optimality conditions are derived using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle (PMP) and a smooth penalty function is introduced to handle hard SoC constraints without state-space discretisation. For the practically important class of lossless storage devices, an explicit closed-form control law is obtained, in which each unit is dispatched proportionally to its storage capacity. Numerical validation is performed on the Israeli power grid, modelling three pumped-hydro systems with a combined capacity of 8.0 GWh, using MATLAB/Simulink R2018b. Across the base net-load scenario and four additional load profiles, the cost achieved by the proposed method matches the dynamic programming (DP) benchmark within 1.1%, while the maximum state-of-charge violation is limited to 0.64% of total capacity at the default penalty setting. Computationally, the proposed update requires only 2.21 s for nine storage units compared to 59.30 s for DP, a 26.8-fold speedup, and scales with $O\left(n\right)$ arithmetic operations per time step. The results confirm a clear pathway to optimal, safe, and scalable real-time control of large-scale heterogeneous energy storage ensembles. Full article

A light-promoted C–H/C–H coupling of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines with 5-(hetero)aryl-1,2,5-oxadiazolo[3,4-b]pyrazines was developed using a heterogeneous oxidative photocatalytic system based on molecular oxygen, nanosized TiO₂, and light irradiation. The method provides direct access to C3-heteroarylated imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines under metal-free conditions and expands the synthetic utility of electron-deficient oxadiazolopyrazine partners in the construction of biheteroaryl scaffolds. The synthesized compounds were evaluated computationally using a fully connected convolutional correlation neural network based on multiple-docking energy spectra, which prioritized the series as potential COX-1 and COX-2 ligands. To test this prioritization experimentally, all 18 compounds were screened in fluorometric COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitor assays at 1 µM. Compound 3f emerged as a strong preliminary COX-1 hit at 1 µM (86.64 ± 5.18% inhibition), whereas 3h and 3l showed weaker COX-1 inhibition. No compound showed high or moderate COX-2 inhibition at the screening concentration; only weak COX-2 inhibitory signals were observed for several derivatives. Thus, the combined synthetic, computational, and enzymatic data identify compound 3f as the main COX-1-skewed hit in this series and provide a basis for further dose–response, selectivity, and cell-based anti-inflammatory studies. It should also be noted that the COX-1 inhibition assay used ovine COX-1, whereas the computational models were built on human COX-1 and COX-2 structures; this species difference is an additional reason to treat the in silico–experimental comparison as approximate. Full article

The development of lightweight multifunctional materials integrating electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, Joule heating and flame retardancy is highly demanded for advanced electronics and aerospace systems. Herein, we fabricate graphene/Fe₃O₄@hollow glass microsphere (G/Fe₃O₄@HGM) composite foam with an ultralow density of 0.36 g/cm⁻³. The porous structure synergizes graphene’s conductivity, Fe₃O₄’s magnetism and HGM’s low thermal conductivity to optimize impedance matching. The foam delivers absorption-dominated EMI shielding with a maximum X-band shielding effectiveness (SE) of 60.1 dB and an average absorption coefficient of 0.56, which effectively suppresses secondary electromagnetic reflection pollution. The composite exhibits stable voltage-controllable Joule heating: the 25 wt% Fe₃O₄@HGM sample reaches 91.3 °C at 16 V, enabling rapid de-icing within 200 s and stable thermal maintenance at −20 °C. Flame tests confirm no combustion or structural collapse under open flame. This work provides a simple fabrication strategy for lightweight multifunctional materials applicable to aerospace stealth, electronic thermal management and anti-icing systems. Full article

Conventional microsphere drug carriers for ulcerative colitis (UC) face challenges such as limited residence time, variable drug release, and an increased risk of systemic exposure and side effects. In this study, pH-sensitive, core–shell hydrogel microcapsules were designed and fabricated using a BUCHI B-390 microsphere preparation device via electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds. Olsalazine sodium was encapsulated in the microcapsules, allowing for pH-responsive drug release in colon tissue for UC treatment in mice. XRD studies demonstrated the amorphous state of the drug in the formulation. The preparation of SCO microcapsules was optimized based on the drug encapsulation efficiency and the drug loading capacity, with the S₂C₁O microcapsule having the highest drug encapsulation efficiency (59.2%) and drug loading capacity (21.3%), and the production yield was approximately 62.5%. The degradation experiment results indicated that the alginate/CMCS hydrogel shell has anti-resistant and colon-targeted properties, with minimal drug leakage under acidic conditions (0.1% release at 2 h, pH 1.2) and rapid, controlled release at colonic pH (7.4) (cumulative release of 68.7% at 12 h), protecting the drug from gastric degradation. An in vivo experiment suggested that treatment with these microcapsules in UC mice significantly reduced inflammatory markers (NF-κB p65 was reduced by 18.8% relative to the free drug group) and histological damage in UC models relative to free drug administration. The improved therapeutic efficacy is linked to precise localization in inflamed tissue, reducing systemic exposure and off-target effects. Overall, in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated that this microcapsule system provides a promising alternative to existing UC drug delivery systems. Full article

Osteoarthritis is an irreversible degenerative joint disease driven by sustained NF-κB-mediated inflammatory responses, and conventional intra-articular hyaluronic acid or small-molecule NF-κB inhibitors cannot achieve targeted on-demand treatment due to poor solubility, rapid clearance and lack of lesion microenvironment responsiveness. OA with inherent anti-chondrolytic activity can self-assemble into nanocarriers in water, yet it lacks stimuli-responsive capacity. Herein, we rationally designed and synthesized an OA-Der by covalently conjugating o-phenylenediamine fragments to the OA backbone. ¹H NMR and HRESI-MS spectra fully verified the accurate chemical structures of intermediate and final OA-Der. Blank OA-Der micelles exhibited uniform spherical core–shell nanostructures (50–150 nm) under TEM and AFM, while pathological high NO triggered complete disassembly of micellar assemblies. We further co-assembled OA-Der with NF-κB inhibitor BAY 11-7082 to construct NO-responsive BAY@OA-Der supramolecular micelles. In vitro experiments using human C28/I2 chondrocytes with LPS-induced inflammatory injury demonstrated that BAY@OA-Der significantly improved cell viability and reduced apoptotic chondrocyte proportion. At mRNA and protein levels, the supramolecular micelle formulation remarkably suppressed NF-κB p65 phosphorylation, downregulated cartilage-degrading ADAMTS5, and upregulated ACAN compared with free BAY or blank OA-Der. Collectively, this natural bioactive self-assembled NO-responsive delivery platform achieves synergistic anti-inflammatory and matrix-protective effects by precisely releasing drugs at NO-overexpressed osteoarthritis inflammatory sites and offers an in vitro design strategy for osteoarthritis responsive delivery systems. Full article

This paper proposes a sensorless current estimation method for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) systems using a first-order Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy system. Unlike invasive current sensing, the proposed estimator uses only non-invasive measurements: output voltage $V_O$, its derivative ${\dot{V}}_O$, and load resistance $R_L$. The fuzzy rules are initialized directly from the physical equivalent circuit parameters and trained via the ANFIS on a large-scale dataset (78 million samples). The proposed model achieves a mean coefficient of determination $R^2=0.9999$ (95% CI: [0.99989, 0.99991]), root mean square error $\mathrm{RMSE}=3.12\times {10}^{-8}$ A, mean absolute percentage error MAPE = 2.51% (95% CI: [1.98, 3.04]%), and fitness FIT = 98.98%—outperforming multiple linear regression $(R^2=0.9738$ and MAPE = 116.25%) and a shallow neural network with 211 parameters $(R^2=0.9991$ and MAPE = 13.85%) despite having only 170 trainable parameters. Unlike black-box neural networks, the fuzzy model provides interpretable rules whose consequent parameters map directly to physical quantities (effective capacitance $C_p^{\left(\mathrm{eff}\right)}$ and leakage conductance $1/R_p^{\left(\mathrm{eff}\right)}$). The low computational footprint (170 parameters, <5 μs inference, and ≈1.4 kB of memory) makes it suitable for real-time deployment on low-power microcontrollers. These results demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach under controlled laboratory conditions for the single, series, and parallel PEH configurations considered. This work establishes that physically informed fuzzy modeling is a viable, interpretable, and efficient alternative to deep learning for sensorless monitoring in low-power energy harvesting systems. Full article

A comparative compositional screening of combustion behavior and phase formation during self-propagating high-temperature synthesis in B₂O₃–Al–C and B₂O₃–Mg–C mixtures was performed under the same open-air laboratory conditions. Twelve strongly carbon-rich formulations were examined. These formulations were not intended to reproduce the target stoichiometric reactions and are interpreted as an empirical screening matrix rather than as optimized stoichiometric compositions. In the individual SHS runs, the Mg-containing formulations produced higher recorded maximum apparent local combustion front temperatures and estimated apparent average front propagation velocities than the Al-containing formulations. Because each formulation was tested only once, these observations do not establish reproducible differences between the two systems. Qualitative X-ray diffraction analysis identified Al₂O₃, Al₂₀B₄O₃₆, Al₄B₂O₉, and residual Al in the aluminothermic products. MgO, Mg₂B₂O₅, and Mg₃B₂O₆ were identified in the magnesiothermic products. Weak reflections attributable to B₄C were observed in selected compositions, whereas oxides and metal borates were the principal crystalline phases identified in both systems. This result indicates that the carbide-forming pathway was competitively disadvantaged under the investigated open-air SHS conditions. Thermodynamic calculations for the idealized reactions showed that the relative standard driving force depended on temperature and the phase states of the reactants and products. The final phase assemblages indicate competition between carbide formation and the formation of stable oxide and borate phases. Atmospheric oxidation may also have contributed to the oxide-rich products. The results provide a descriptive comparison of the two investigated formulation sets and identify compositional patterns associated with limited B₄C formation under open-air SHS conditions. Full article

This paper presents an energy-management and state-of-charge (SoC) balancing scheme, denoted OEMSS, for a DC microgrid comprising photovoltaic generation, a fuel-cell source, two energy storage systems (ESSs), and six household loads. A demand-driven power-allocation layer first determines whether generation is sufficient, ESS support is required, or priority-based load scheduling must be activated. A supervisory balancing layer then allocates the fleet charging or discharging request by using a capacity-weighted average SoC and separate mode-dependent correction laws. The balancing command is dimensionally expressed as an energy-capacity deviation divided by the control interval and is projected onto the SoC and power limits. A Python simulation driven by recorded generation profiles is used to evaluate four seasonal operating conditions. In the tested equal-capacity case, the maximum inter-ESS SoC deviation is reduced from 18% to 4.8%, synchronization is reached within approximately 2 to 4 h, and simulated over-discharge events are avoided. The reported increase from 45% to approximately 70% is interpreted as a 25-percentage-point increase in the ESS storage contribution rate, rather than an increase in conversion efficiency. During shortage intervals, the retained priority demand is supplied, whereas satisfaction of the original uncurtailed demand is not claimed. A discrete-time Lyapunov analysis gives the nominal convergence condition $0<{\gamma }_b<2$, and the online implementation has $\mathcal{O}(J+K+H)$ time complexity. The study provides simulation evidence for a simple coordinated allocation rule; hardware performance, battery-life extension, converter-level stability, and global optimality remain to be established. Full article

This study develops and experimentally validates a battery-coupled wind–photovoltaic power model for auxiliary electrical supply in small-vessel systems. The prototype integrates a 395 W CS6R-395MS monocrystalline photovoltaic module (CSI Solar Co., Ltd., Suzhou, Jiangsu, China), a 200 W FA200W horizontal-axis wind turbine (VEVOR, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA), maximum power point tracking (MPPT) power-conditioning stages, a 24 V/28 Ah AGM VRLA battery bank composed of four BAT212120086 batteries (Victron Energy B.V., Almere, The Netherlands), a 24 V DC bus, and a Phoenix 24/500 pure sine-wave inverter (Victron Energy B.V., Almere, The Netherlands), targeting non-propulsion navigation, communication, and lighting loads on a 5.7 m length overall (LOA) vessel. Field-acquired irradiance, cell temperature, incidence angle, PV voltage, wind speed, and rotor-speed data were used as time-dependent model inputs and compared with synchronized active-power measurements. Across the full 15–24 September 2025 experimental campaign, the maximum absolute relative error remained below 2.69%, while the aggregate statistical validation indices were ME = −0.1041 W, MAE = 0.3988 W, RMSE = 0.4931 W, and MAPE = 0.5946%. For the representative cloud-adverse case study conducted on 21 September 2025, the measured hybrid generation reached $E_{\mathrm{h}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{b}}=611.3 \mathrm{W}\mathrm{h}$ over 8.28 h, corresponding to $C_{\mathrm{R}\mathrm{E}\mathrm{S}}=102.1\%$ of the selected $E_{\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{d}}=599 \mathrm{W}\mathrm{h}/\mathrm{d}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y}$ auxiliary-load profile and to $C_{\mathrm{h}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{b}+\mathrm{b}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{t}}=158.1\%$ when the usable battery reserve at 50% depth of discharge (DOD) was included. Full article

This study investigates the high-temperature pyrolysis pathways and product distribution of the battery immersion coolant HFE-7300 (C₇H₃F₁₃O) within a simulated thermal runaway environment. Using a tube furnace system combined with GC-MS analysis across a temperature range of 300–800 °C (residence time of 3 s), the thermal stability and cracking evolution were evaluated. Experimentally, HFE-7300 exhibits low initial decomposition at 400 °C with a pyrolysis rate of 5.84%, which rapidly scales up to 48.72% at 500 °C, and reaches a near-complete degradation of 98.46% at 800 °C. Qualitative product characterization identified C₂H₄, C₂F₄, C₃F₆ C₄F₈, and C₅H₃F₉O as the primary species evolved. To map the micro-scale degradation trajectories, a reaction network comprising 12 elementary pathways was constructed via density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level. Using the TST method, we calculated the reaction rate constants for the main decomposition pathways. Analysis reveals that the C4–C5 bond scission pathway (R6) serves as the predominant initial decomposition channel, yielding C₅H₃F₉O and CF₂=CF₂ as the definitive primary products. These findings provide baseline thermodynamic data and critical safety insights for the engineering design of immersion-cooled battery thermal management systems. Full article

We study the positive, radial ground-state profile of the stationary Schrödinger–Newton system in the fixed-energy normalization $\mu =1$ with $V(\infty )=0$. Using regularity and radial symmetry of solutions, we derive convergent even Taylor expansions for the wave function and Newtonian potential near the origin, with explicit recurrence relations expressing all the coefficients in terms of the initial data $(a_0,b_0)=(y\left(0\right),V\left(0\right))$ with $a_0>0$ and $b_0>1$. Global existence and uniqueness of the positive radial ground state are taken from the known Schrödinger–Newton/Choquard theory, while the present work focuses on the local coefficient structure and the far-field expansion. In the far field, the Poisson equation yields the Coulomb tail $V\left(r\right)=\widehat{M}/r+O\left(e^{-2r}{r}^{\widehat{M}-2}\right)$ with no algebraic corrections at any order, where $\widehat{M}={\int }_0^{\infty }{r}^2{y}^{2}dr$ is the determined reduced mass. The decaying wave profile admits the Coulomb-corrected asymptotic expansion $y\left(r\right)=C{e}^{-r}{r}^{\widehat{M}/2-1}{\sum }_{m\ge 0}{c}_m{r}^{-m}$, obtained by reducing the radial equation to a Whittaker equation with an exponentially small perturbation controlled by asymptotic integration. The inverse-power series is divergent and interpreted in the Poincaré sense. The mass, energy and virial identities serve as compatibility conditions for the globally selected profile. Full article

Diabetes mellitus (DM) induces significant endocrine disruption and oxidative stress (OS) within the testes, resulting in impaired spermatogenesis, increased sperm abnormalities, and compromised reproductive function. This study aimed to evaluate the combined protective effects of Semaglutide (SEM) combined with Carica papaya (papaya) juice against type 2 diabetes-induced testicular damage in rats. Forty adult male albino rats were divided into four experimental groups: a control group, a Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic group, a diabetic group treated with SEM (0.3 mg/kg), and a diabetic group treated with SEM (0.3 mg/kg) in combination with 10% papaya juice, administered for eight weeks. Statistically significant superiority over SEM alone was observed for selected endpoints; the findings primarily support the potential of papaya as a dose-sparing adjunct rather than demonstrating uniformly enhanced efficacy. They significantly improved systemic metabolic parameters, as evidenced by reduced fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) levels and restoration of the lipid profile. Importantly, it also attenuated diabetes-induced testicular injury, as demonstrated by improved reproductive hormone levels, enhanced sperm parameters, restoration of antioxidant defenses, modulation of inflammatory and apoptotic signaling, and marked histopathological recovery of seminiferous tubular architecture. Antioxidant markers revealed a notable reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1), along with significant increases in reduced glutathione, catalase (CAT), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Furthermore, a marked modulation of key pro-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic mediators was observed, including forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1), microRNA-155 (miR-155), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), nuclear factor kappa B cell subunit 1 (NF-κB1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), caspase-3 (CASP3), and BCL2-Associated X Apoptosis Regulator (Bax), while a significant upregulation of sirtuin-1 (SIRT1), microRNA-34c (miR-34c), and B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) was also detected. Histopathological assessments confirmed the restoration of normal testicular architecture in the treated groups. These findings indicate that the combination strategy may have the potential to achieve dose savings while maintaining efficacy comparable to the standard-dose SEM, through the enhancement of the antioxidant defenses, modulation of inflammation, and apoptosis, specifically via the modulation of the miR-34c/miR-155 and SIRT1/FOXO1 signaling. Full article

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is increasingly recognized as a central regulator of immune homeostasis, integrating neural, metabolic, and immune signaling to maintain physiological equilibrium. This Perspective examines the “therapeutic paradox” of endocannabinoid immunomodulation, whereby anti-inflammatory and tissue-protective effects are mechanistically linked to transient immunosuppression. Although cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) is the primary mediator of immune regulation, growing evidence indicates that cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) also contributes to inflammatory control in both the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. Activation of CB2 suppresses inflammatory signaling through Gi/o-mediated inhibition of adenylate cyclase, reduced cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling, and repression of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB)-dependent transcription. While these mechanisms limit pathological inflammation and promote tissue protection, they simultaneously attenuate innate and adaptive immune functions required for effective pathogen clearance. Across neuroinflammatory disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, hepatic injury, sepsis, cancer, and systemic inflammatory syndromes, the ECS shifts immune responses toward resolution at the cost of reduced antimicrobial readiness. We synthesize the molecular mechanisms underlying this therapeutic paradox, including macrophage polarization, lymphocyte reprogramming, and tissue-specific immune adaptations, and discuss strategies for developing endocannabinoid-based therapeutics that preserve anti-inflammatory efficacy while minimizing immunosuppressive liabilities. Full article