Search Results (48,599)

Preserving minimally processed fruits represents a technological challenge. Therefore, non-thermal plasma (NTP) is proposed as one of the preservation methods. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the application of NTP before and after packaging sliced apples in two films: One with high and another with low oxygen barrier features. Different parameters were evaluated during 14 days at 4 °C. Samples treated before packaging showed lower crunchiness and browning development, as indicated by chromatic and textural parameters. NTP reduced mesophiles, psychrotrophs, and yeasts and molds on the slices by 1–2 log units, although it had no effect on the antioxidant content of the apple slices, which were better preserved with high-barrier packaging. Samples treated with NTP, and low barrier packaging showed lower sugar content on day one. When applied after packaging, NTP contributed to better preservation of slice microstructure and tissue viability. Results showed that the combination of NTP applied after packaging and high-barrier film was the most suitable for maintaining fruit quality, mainly by better preserving slice color. In turn, tissue microstructure, texture analysis, and viability tests also supported this conclusion. Full article

Photovoltaic mounting structures operate in harsh environments, demanding high strength and elongation. However, a strength–graded product series within the same composition is lacking. Through Ti microalloying and heat treatment, we developed steels with strengths of 500–800 MPa and studied annealing effects at 640–740 °C. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) shows ferrite and cementite: with increasing temperature, ferrite changes from elongated to equiaxed via recovery and recrystallization, while cementite remains finely dispersed along grain boundaries. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) reveals TiC precipitates, which decrease in number but increase in size at higher temperatures. Grain refinement strengthening, dislocation strengthening, and precipitation strengthening are the primary strengthening mechanisms, contributing 91.2% and 94.4% to the yield strength after annealing at 640 °C and 720 °C, respectively. Within a wide annealing temperature range, the tensile strength fully covers the 550–650–750–800 MPa grades, with the corresponding elongation fluctuating between 12.4% and 25.3%, achieving a good strength–ductility balance. In summary, simply adding a single Ti element and adjusting the annealing temperature allows for the production of test steels with strengths ranging from 500 to 800 MPa and matched elongation. This approach not only reduces costs but also provides experimental evidence for the process development of a series of new steels for photovoltaic mounting brackets. Full article

The increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) raises concerns about the security of critical raw material supply and the management of hazardous waste. Efficient recycling can alleviate these issues by transforming spent batteries into high-value secondary materials for the circular economy. Industrial recycling has traditionally focused on the recovery of nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co), whereas lithium (Li) recovery has often been sidelined due to technical complexities and fluctuating economic incentives. To meet the European Union (EU) Batteries Regulation target of 80% lithium recovery by the end of 2031, technically effective and economically viable lithium recovery strategies are required. This study investigates the use of food-grade sucrose as an organic reductant for the targeted recovery of lithium from NMC622 and NCA battery materials. The process combines sucrose-assisted reductive roasting with selective water leaching. The effects of roasting temperature, holding time, sucrose dosage, and heating rate were systematically evaluated and optimised. Under the best conditions of 600 °C, 15 min, 15 wt% sucrose, and a heating rate of 20 °C/min, lithium leaching efficiencies of 93.2% and 87.6% were achieved for separated NMC622 cathode material and NMC622-derived black mass, respectively. The method was also applicable to NCA-based black mass, reaching 83.7% lithium recovery under the same conditions. Mechanistic analysis revealed that lithium release was strongly controlled by the extent of transition metal reduction. Cobalt was fully reduced to its metallic state under all tested conditions. However, maximum lithium recovery required nickel to be reduced to metallic Ni and manganese-containing phases to be converted to MnO. The sucrose-assisted roasting process was rapid and holding times longer than 15 min decreased lithium recovery. This decrease was caused by the formation of poorly soluble lithium-containing phases, such as LiF and Li₃PO₄. F composition analysis showed the black mass (1.06 wt%) and anode fractions (2.26 wt%) to contain significantly more F than the cathode fraction (0.46 wt%), hence leading to the 5% Li leaching efficiency difference between cathode and black mass fractions under most conditions tested. Overall, these results demonstrate that sucrose-assisted reductive roasting, followed by selective water leaching, provides a rapid and effective route for high-efficiency lithium recovery from NMC- and NCA-based battery materials. Full article

This paper proposes the Continuous Operational Feedback Loop (COFL) architecture, a fully localized, event-driven operational monitoring and response system for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) commerce. The architecture integrates the n8n workflow engine with on-premise large language model (LLM) inference via the Ollama framework, forming a containerized stack deployable on commodity CPU-only edge hardware (~USD 1640). Using a multi-source dataset of 1800 records constructed from publicly available e-commerce corpora and evaluated with a silver-standard automated labeling protocol, empirical validation demonstrates an end-to-end latency of 3.22 s and a macro-F1 sentiment classification score of 0.836—representing 98.2% of the full-precision baseline and 94.0% of cloud GPT-4o API generation quality measured by ROUGE-L—at approximately 1/200th of the per-request inference cost. A systematic quantization ablation study across six model-quantization configurations establishes LLaMA 3 8B Q4_K_M as the Pareto-optimal selection for the target hardware. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) multi-criteria framework with criterion weights derived from published literature confirms the COFL implementation achieves a higher composite score than cloud API deployment under the stated evaluation assumptions. Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is summarized to characterize system reliability under identified failure scenarios. Full article

Compared with mass spectrometry or high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a promising alternative technique for inspection of preservatives in food safety. However, conventional SERS substrates based on metallic nanoparticles commonly suffer from complicated fabrication processes, long processing times, and high costs. Therefore, we propose a high-density porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate prepared by one-step anodization process combined with pore widening to increase number of SERS hotspots on template. Through a rapid one-step anodization process conducted at 25 °C, the processing time and efficiency are greatly improved compared to conventional low temperature of 0–10 °C and two-step anodization method. By lowering the anodization voltage to 20 V, a high-density porous substrate is achieved, effectively enhancing the SERS signal intensity. Furthermore, we demonstrated that SERS signal intensities are affected by multiple correlated structural factors and significantly improved by lower anodization voltage with pore widening. The analytical enhancement factor is calculated as 1.18 × 10⁵ to 1.44 × 10⁷ on an AAO substrate prepared at 20 V with pore-widening process for 1000 and 0.1 ppm p-hydroxybenzoic acid, respectively. For the preservative detection of p-hydroxybenzoic acid, a detection limit of 100 ppb is achieved by a high-density AAO substrate prepared at 20 V, which is far below the regulatory limit of 600 ppm. Full article

In this study, double-pass hot compression tests were conducted to systematically investigate the effects of hot deformation parameters on the static recrystallization (SRX) behavior of SA-508M Gr.3 steel used for nuclear reactor pressure vessels. The deformation temperatures were set to 950, 1050, and 1150 °C, with strain rates of 0.01, 0.1, and 1 s⁻¹. The first-pass strains were 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15; the inter-pass time was fixed at 60 s; and the second-pass strain was maintained at 0.05. Based on the experimental data, a kinetic model describing SRX softening behavior was established. The activation energy for SRX was determined to be 81.45 kJ·mol⁻¹, and the Avrami exponent was 0.5742. The characteristic time for 50% recrystallization (t_0.5) was quantified under different deformation conditions. In addition, the microstructural evolution of SRX after double-pass hot compression was characterized using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The results show that increasing the deformation temperature and strain rate leads to opposite trends in the flow stress during double-pass deformation, with the flow stress decreasing with temperature and increasing with strain rate. Meanwhile, inter-pass static softening is enhanced, resulting in a pronounced stress drop during the second pass. An increase in the first-pass strain further intensifies the stress drop and enhances the extent of SRX. EBSD analysis reveals consistent microstructural evolution: with increasing deformation temperature, strain rate, and the first-pass strain, the misorientation distribution shifts from low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) to high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs), indicating an increased degree of SRX. These findings provide a theoretical basis and experimental support for process parameter optimization and engineering applications of SA-508M Gr.3 steel. Full article

Real-time, non-contact velocity measurement of hot-rolled bars is critical for metallurgical process control, but conventional laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) systems often fail in these environments. The intense broadband thermal radiation from targets up to 1000 °C, coupled with severe surface depolarization, overwhelms weak scattered signals in high-speed (up to 40 m/s) rolling zones. To address this issue, we developed a fully integrated, thermal-radiation-resistant LDV sensing system. Hardware optimization was achieved by eliminating polarized-light transmission and adopting a parallel-beam design, which significantly enlarges the laser overlap area and increases detection depth. Furthermore, a 1550 nm laser (100 mW) was coaxially combined with a 10 nm narrow-band filter to isolate the thermal background and boost signal strength. A customized workflow utilizing continuous Fourier transform (CFT) spectral refinement and energy centroid estimation was implemented to precisely extract the true Doppler shift. Performance evaluations show the system achieves an excellent signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 29,532. Allan variance analysis confirms a stable detection sensitivity of 0.003 m/s (0.1 s integration time), a local short-to-medium-term optimal limit of 1.6 × 10⁻⁴ m/s, and a statistical accuracy of 0.005 m/s. Finally, the system was successfully deployed on an industrial rolling mill production line. It provided reliable velocity feedback for mill speed adjustment, achieving a near-zero-tension rolling process and fundamentally resolving workpiece dragging, squeezing, and steel pile-up. Full article

This paper investigates the valorization of peanut shell powder (PSP), an abundant agro-industrial residue, as a biofiller for the development of sustainable 3D printable PLA-based composites for food packaging applications. A low-filled biocomposite containing 2.5 wt.% PSP was successfully processed into filament with dimensional tolerances suitable for fused deposition modeling printing. Thermal and melt flow analyses demonstrated that PSP marginally reduced the thermal stability of PLA while preserving its thermal transition temperatures and increasing the melt flow rate up to 51%. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed a slight increase in crystallinity in biocomposite filament compared to neat PLA pellets, mainly associated with thermo-mechanical processing of the extrusion, while the lower crystallinity degree relative to PLA extrudate suggested a negligible nucleating effect of PSP. To optimize print quality, different extrusion temperatures and infill flow rates were evaluated. The best mechanical performance was achieved at 200 °C and 130% flow rate, where reduced inter-filament porosity (5.2%) resulted in improved tensile strength and stiffness compared with the other printing conditions. Although mechanical properties remained lower than neat PLA, the material proved suitable for non-structural packaging applications. Prototype packaging boxes were fabricated and tested for the storage of fresh-cut melon. Compared with neat PLA packaging, the PLA-PSP system better preserved fruit firmness over 10 days, inhibited fungal growth, and delayed visible deterioration, highlighting the potential active role of PSP in food preservation. Anaerobic biodegradation tests conducted under mesophilic conditions confirmed that the addition of PSP did not hinder PLA biodegradability and slightly enhanced methane production. Overall, the results demonstrate that peanut shell waste can be effectively upcycled into functional 3D-printable biocomposites for sustainable packaging solutions. Full article

Thermally responsive shape memory polymer materials are the most widely used type of intelligent materials and have found applications in numerous fields. However, their practical utility is often limited by poor heat conduction. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), renowned for their exceptional thermo-conductive and photothermal properties, provide a promising solution. In this study, CNTs were integrated into polyurethane prepared by stepwise polymerization method, using hydroxyl terminated polycaprolactone (PCL-diOH), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). The resulting polyurethane composite material exhibits remarkable mechanical strength, enhanced thermal conductivity, and superior shape memory performance. Notably, it demonstrates a form of training enhancement phenomenon, which shows higher mechanical properties. And the composite could achieve stress-free two-way shape memory behavior after cyclic stretching process. Additionally, this composite material can exhibit “vitrimer” material properties at higher temperatures (110 °C), allowing for shape reprogramming. The carbon nanotube-reinforced composite material can achieve remote and precise manipulation under light stimulation. By combining the composite material with a metal thermally conductive layer, a multi-layer structure with shape memory properties can be prepared, which can achieve two-way shape memory behavior under electrical and light stimulation, further expanding the application potential of the composite material in the real world. Full article

Methane (CH₄) was employed as a carbon source for the reduction and carburization of TiO₂ via a gas-phase infiltration process to synthesize titanium carbide (TiC). The highly reactive and diffusible carbon species derived from CH₄ decomposition enable a significant reduction in both reaction time and temperature compared with conventional carbothermal reduction methods. The phase evolution during the CH₄-driven reduction–carburization of TiO₂ was analyzed, and the effects of CH₄ volume fraction, reaction temperature, and reaction time on the carburization efficiency were systematically investigated, with the phase composition and microstructure of the products also characterized. The optimal conditions in a CH₄-Ar system were found to be 10%CH₄–90%Ar at 1270 °C for 8 h, yielding a carburization efficiency of 79.1% for TiO₂ pellets. Increasing the CH₄ proportion led to more severe carbon deposition, with deposited carbon adhering to the pellet surface and clogging the internal pores. Raising the temperature promoted the reduction–carburization reaction, but excessive acceleration of CH₄ cracking above 1270 °C caused carbon accumulation on the TiO₂ surface, forming a carbon shell that lowered the carburization efficiency. Prolonging the reaction time was beneficial for achieving a higher degree of carburization. Full article

In therapeutic applications, ultrasound is widely used in physiotherapy, tissue repair, and cancer treatment. Regarding cancer treatment, as an emerging field for technology, significant research efforts have been devoted to the area of ultrasound therapy. The derived energy from beams can be deposited in tissues not only through heating but also through non-thermal mechanisms, whereby cancer cells are subject to cell death. Ultrasound-induced heating can generate localized temperature elevations within biological tissues, making it a subject of interest for thermal therapeutic applications. Nevertheless, excessive temperature elevations outside the primary exposure region may result in undesirable thermal effects within the surrounding tissue. In this study, we used continuous 3 MHz ultrasound waves at the powers of 0.4 to 1.4 W on ex vivo chicken breast tissue in a water bath to prevent fluctuations in temperature. The process was also numerically modeled with a maximum error of 0.4% from the measured data. Temperature measurements revealed a significant difference between the region of maximum acoustic pressure along the beam axis and deeper tissue locations (in some cases, above 3.5 °C). These findings indicate that temperature gradients can develop within homogeneous tissue during ultrasound exposure, emphasizing the importance of controlling acoustic power and exposure conditions. Moreover, increasing the temperature was significant during the first moments of treatment, which highlights the importance of precise controls for rate and precision in therapy. The numerical simulations also showed that increasing acoustic power elevates tissue temperature while simultaneously producing a less uniform temperature distribution. These observations may be useful for the optimization of future ultrasound-based thermal treatment strategies; however, direct clinical extrapolation requires further investigation using physiologically representative tissue models. Full article

The glycine-aspartic acid-serine-leucine (GDSL) esterase/lipase family is a functionally diverse group of hydrolytic enzymes involved in multiple plant biological processes, including stress adaptation and development. However, its evolutionary patterns, functional conservation, and stress-responsive mechanisms in grasses remain not fully elucidated. In this study, a comprehensive comparative genomic analysis was performed on the GDSL gene family across nine representative grass species and Arabidopsis thaliana. Genome-wide identification, phylogenetic analysis, duplication pattern detection, synteny analysis, cis-regulatory element prediction, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network construction, and RNA-seq-based expression profiling were employed. A total of 1707 GDSL genes were identified, with substantial expansion in grasses, especially hexaploid wheat. Whole-genome and segmental duplications were the major drivers of family expansion, with most duplicated genes under strong purifying selection. A grass-specific clade (C3-2) was identified, and extensive syntenic conservation was observed among closely related grasses. Promoter analysis revealed enrichment of stress- and hormone-responsive cis-elements, and RNA-seq showed dynamic GDSL expression under low-temperature stress in rice and wheat. These findings demonstrate that the expansion of the GDSL gene family in grasses is driven by polyploidization and lineage-specific duplication, accompanied by the emergence of a grass-specific clade (C3-2) and regulatory diversification, collectively shaping stress-responsive evolutionary innovation in Poaceae. Full article

Natural lacquer, a bio-based polymer derived from Toxicodendron vernicifluum, has attracted renewed scientific interest as a sustainable coating material with exceptional mechanical durability, chemical resistance, and aesthetic qualities. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the chemical composition, enzymatic curing mechanisms, and structure–property relationships of lacquer-based polymer systems, with particular focus on recent advances in functional modification and processing technology. Key findings indicate that laccase-catalyzed oxidative polymerization, operating optimally at pH 6.0–7.5 and 20–30 °C, governs the formation of a highly cross-linked urushiol network whose properties are fundamentally determined by side-chain unsaturation and emulsion stability. Mechanistic analysis reveals that polyurethane hybridization improves weathering resistance by introducing flexible aliphatic segments and additional hydrogen-bonding cross-links, while graphene oxide incorporation enhances anticorrosion performance through a physical barrier mechanism that prolongs ionic diffusion pathways. UV-curable LPEA derivatives achieve an 83% reduction in curing time relative to ambient-cured lacquer, enabling integration with industrial spray-coating lines. Despite these advances, several critical limitations remain inadequately resolved. Allergen reduction strategies have not yet achieved sufficient quantitative efficiency for large-scale commercial deployment, and the long-term stability of nanocomposite lacquer films under sustained UV exposure and hydrothermal conditions is not well established. Furthermore, most high-performance modification systems reported in the literature are demonstrated only on laboratory scale, with scalability, substrate compatibility, and lifecycle performance remaining largely unvalidated. The review identifies the absence of standardized performance evaluation protocols and the fragmentation of structure–property data across studies as key barriers to systematic progress, and proposes that future work prioritize the development of integrated processing–modification–performance frameworks to guide the rational design of next-generation lacquer-based functional materials. Full article

The present study investigates the possibility of selective iron reduction from the Keregetas iron–manganese ore deposit (Kazakhstan) using hydrogen, followed by the separation of iron- and manganese-containing phases. The relevance of the research is associated with the need to develop environmentally sustainable processing technologies for low-grade iron–manganese ores under the conditions of metallurgical industry decarbonization. Experimental studies were carried out at temperatures of 800–900 °C in a high-purity hydrogen atmosphere, followed by magnetic separation and liquid-phase separation of the reduction products. The phase and chemical compositions of the samples were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). It was established that during the reduction process, iron oxides were predominantly transformed into the metallic state with the formation of α-Fe, whereas manganese oxides were mainly reduced to MnO and Mn₃O₄. Magnetic separation demonstrated limited selectivity due to the simultaneous transfer of iron-containing and manganese-containing phases into the magnetic fraction. At the same time, liquid-phase separation of the pre-reduced material at 1650 °C ensured effective separation of metallic and slag phases, with manganese concentrated in the slag and minimal losses in the metallic product. A technological flowsheet for the processing of iron–manganese ores is proposed, including hydrogen reduction, magnetic separation, and subsequent high-temperature phase separation. The obtained results demonstrate the prospects of hydrogen metallurgy for the development of low-carbon technologies for the integrated processing of iron–manganese raw materials. Full article

During hydraulic fracturing, the extensive use of slickwater and post-fracturing shut-in (soaking) processes take advantage of spontaneous imbibition to displace crude oil. While nano-flooding agents are known to reduce interfacial tension (IFT) and alter wettability, a critical challenge lies in distinguishing between deep but inefficient displacement and shallow but highly efficient sweep. This study investigates the pore-scale mobilization and penetration depth of a nano-flooding agent in tight conglomerate reservoirs and focuses on the recovery per unit imbibition depth as a novel metric for evaluating the displacement efficiency. The nano-agent demonstrated excellent performance, reducing oil–water IFT to 0.141 mN/m and reversing wettability from oil-wet (148.7°) to water-wet (39.5°). Experiments revealed that the diffusion rate of the nano-agent decreases with pore size, suggesting a limited transport in confined space. Under reservoir conditions (80 °C), spontaneous imbibition in tight cores was highly permeability-dependent. High-permeability cores achieved a recovery rate of up to 44.6%, whereas low-permeability cores reached only about 12%. This work highlights that penetration depth alone does not necessarily indicate high recovery. The medium-permeability core exhibited a lower final penetration depth than the low-permeability core but achieved a much higher total recovery due to superior efficiency per unit depth, suggesting that in tight reservoirs, a shallow but highly efficient displacement mechanism can outperform a deep but inefficient one. Full article