Search Results (16)

Reducing total waste generation, increasing the rate of separate collection, and ensuring efficient material recovery are three key objectives recognized at the UN, EU, and national levels for achieving a sustainable waste management system. The policy and scientific debate has traditionally been polarized around two main collection systems: door-to-door and street collection, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. However, in recent years, hybrid waste collection models, which aim to integrate the advantages of both systems, have gained increasing attention. The impact of these models on sustainability, as well as the social mechanisms underlying their success or failure, remain underexplored. This paper analyzes a case study of a hybrid waste collection innovation implemented in eight small and medium-sized municipalities in Piedmont, Italy. The study has a twofold objective: (1) assessing the economic and environmental impacts of the system and (2) hypothesizing the social mechanisms that generate these effects. To address these research gaps, we develop a theoretical framework that combines the socio-technical system approach with analytical sociology. The framework is then operationalized through a quasi-experimental research design, which allows us to measure the effects of the hybrid innovation on a set of 17 indicators. The analysis is conducted by comparing the treated municipalities with a control group selected for its similarity. Empirical evidence reveals an unexpected and partially contradictory outcome: while the total amount of waste decreases, this reduction is not offset by a proportional increase in separate collection rates. Moreover, the quality of waste separation worsens. To explain this emerging pattern, we formulate a set of hypotheses—grounded in our theoretical framework—on the key factors influencing individual behavioral responses. Our provisional conclusion, which requires further qualitative validation, suggests that the interplay between economic incentives and social control in a context of imperfect awareness leads to ambiguous effects of hybridization in waste collection systems. Full article

The spectral and dynamic properties of 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) in a series of 1-alkanols ranging from methanol to 1-decanol over a temperature range 100–300 K were investigated by electron spin resonance (ESR). The main characteristic ESR temperatures connected with slow to fast motion regime transition; T_50G ‘s and T_X1^fast ‘s are situated above the corresponding glass temperatures, T_g, and for the shorter members, the T_50G ‘s lie above or close to melting point, T_m, while the longer ones the T_50G < T_m relationship indicates that the TEMPO molecules are in the local disordered regions of the crystalline media. The T_50G ‘s and especially T_X1^fast ‘s are compared with the dynamic crossover temperatures, T_X^VISC = 8.72M^0.66, as obtained by fitting the viscosity data in the liquid n-alkanols with the empirical power law. In particular, for N_C > 6, the T_X1^fast ‘s lie rather close to the T_X^VISC resembling apolar n-alkanes [PCCP 2018,20,11145-11151], while for N_C < 6, they are situated in the vicinity of T_m. The absence of a coincidence for lower1-alkanols indicates that the T_50G is significantly influenced by the mutual interaction between the polar TEMPO and the protic polar medium due to the increased polarity and proticity destroyed by the larger-scale melting transition. Full article

With the development of the division of labor in product value chains and the specialization of urban functions, the network link structure model among cities is being reshaped. Studying the structure of urban networks and its related theories in the context of scale, place and policy is still an open area. This study constructs a research framework to study the urban network formed by the synergy of scale, place and policy. It mainly takes enterprises in different industries in different provinces as the empirical scale and object, and uses methods such as a social network and Geo Detector to analyze the characteristics and influencing factors of the provincial network relationship mode of enterprises among cities. The main findings are as follows. (1) Firstly, the urban network linkage in general shows strong coastal centrality and small-world network characteristics. The urban network linkages reflected by different types of enterprises all have obvious spatial directionality and polarization effects. (2) Coastal cities have strong centrality, and the specialized division of urban functions emerges, with large cities becoming a concentration area for different types of corporate headquarters, while small- and medium-sized cities carry a large number of processing and assembly enterprises. (3) The networks of different types of enterprises have different sensitivity to each influencing factor. For example, emerging industries have the strongest correlation with the economic scale and social services; manufacturing industries are most influenced by the public services, administrative level and development zone level; and service industries are most influenced by science and technology expenditure and the same metropolitan area. In conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of network heterogeneity at the provincial scale and provides policy support for the local governance scale, as well as promotes the expansion of the urban network theory to network governance applications in the “flow space”. Full article

Today we see an increasing demand for new fluorescent materials exhibiting various sensory abilities due to their broad applicability ranging from the construction of flexible devices to bioimaging. In this paper, we report on the new fluorescent pigments AntTCNE, PyrTCNE, and PerTCNE which consist of 3–5 fused aromatic rings substituted with tricyanoethylene fragments forming D-π-A diad. Our studies reveal that all three compounds exhibit pronounced rigidochromic properties, i.e., strong sensitivity of their fluorescence to the viscosity of the local environment. We also demonstrate that our new pigments belong to a very rare type of organic fluorophores which do not obey the well-known empirical Kasha’rule stating that photoluminescence transition always occurs from the lowest excited state of an emitting molecule. This rare spectral feature of our pigments is accompanied by an even rarer capability of spectrally and temporally well-resolved anti-Kasha dual emission (DE) from both higher and lowest electronic states in non-polar solvents. We show that among three new pigments, PerTCNE has significant potential as the medium-bandgap non-fullerene electron acceptor. Such materials are now highly demanded for indoor low-power electronics and portable devices for the Internet-of-Things. Additionally, we demonstrate that PyrTCNE has been successfully used as a structural unit in template assembling of the new cyanoarylporphyrazine framework with 4 D-π-A dyads framing this macrocycle (Pyr₄CN₄Pz). Similarly to its structural unit, Pyr₄CN₄Pz is also the anti-Kasha fluorophore, exhibiting intensive DE in viscous non-polar medium and polymer films, which strongly depends on the polarity of the local environment. Moreover, our studies showed high photodynamic activity of this new tetrapyrrole macrocycle which is combined with its unique sensory capacities (strong sensitivity of its fluorescent properties to the local environmental stimuli such as viscosity and polarity. Thus, Pyr₄CN₄Pz can be considered the first unique photosensitizer that potentially enables the real-time combination of photodynamic therapy and double-sensory approaches which is very important for modern biomedicine. Full article

The permeability of the fluid-bearing rock is an important parameter for reservoir prediction. The Kozeny-Carman (K-C) formulation based on electrical measurements effectively characterizes the permeability-resistivity relationship of rocks with a single mineral composition or high porosity. The complex pore structure and mineral composition of compacted reservoirs affect induced polarization (IP) characteristics, indirectly limiting the applicability of conventional electrical K-C models. The permeability of fluid-bearing rocks is an important parameter for reservoir prediction. The theoretical chargeability of the modified generalized effective medium theory of induced polarization (MGEMTIP) model includes the effects of various conductive minerals. Due to the disconnection assumption of the disturbed medium in the MGEMTIP, there is a significant difference between the theoretical chargeability and the measured chargeability, and the difference is a sensitive parameter of rock permeability. A semi-empirical reservoir permeability prediction model is proposed based on the MGEMTIP. Theoretically and experimentally, the prediction model based on MGEMTIP is compared with the two electrical K-C models. Under the condition that the rock does not contain low-resistivity minerals, the prediction model based on MGEMTIP is theoretically equivalent to the K-C model. The experimental results show that this prediction model is more suitable for low-porosity and low-permeability rocks containing low-resistivity minerals, and the prediction results can be effectively restricted to the same order of magnitude. From the perspective of differences between model assumptions and natural rocks, the prediction model provides a semi-empirical relationship between complex mineral IP characteristics and permeability. Combined with the geological information of the survey area, the permeability prediction model can provide a theoretical basis for reservoir permeability prediction based on electromagnetic exploration. Full article

This paper used the Gini coefficient, standard deviation ellipse, and spatial autocorrelation model to analyze the overall changes, regional differences, spatio-temporal evolution pattern, and clustering characteristics of carbon emissions in 87 counties in Gansu Province from 1997 to 2017, based on which driving factors of carbon emissions were detected using the geographic detector model, so as to provide a reference for promoting low-carbon green development and ecological civilization construction in Gansu Province. The empirical research results found that county carbon emissions in Gansu Province showed a “first urgent and then slow” upward trend, and the difference in carbon emissions level has a slightly decreasing trend, and there are significant regional differences. Compared with other regions, the difference in county carbon emissions level in the Longzhong region has a smaller decline. Meanwhile, the county carbon emissions show spatial differentiation characteristics “medium-high and low-outside,” among which the carbon emissions in areas with better economic foundations are much higher than those in other areas, and the spatial polarization effect is obvious. In addition, there is a significant spatial positive correlation between county carbon emissions. The counties with high-high clusters are relatively stable, mainly concentrated in the Longzhong region, while counties with low-low clusters are slightly reduced, mainly concentrated in the southern ethnic region and the Longdongnan region, and the county carbon emission clusters type has a spatial locking effect. This is mainly due to the large differences in economic scale, industrial structure, and population size in Gansu Province, and the interaction between economic scale and other factors has a more significant impact on the spatial differentiation of carbon emissions. Moreover, the leading influencing factors of county carbon emission differences also have regional differences. Therefore, differentiated and targeted carbon emission reduction strategies need to be implemented urgently. Due to the lack of real county energy consumption statistics, the research results need to be further tested for robustness. Full article

Successive cancellation flip decoding requires a large number of extra successive cancellation decoding attempts at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), resulting in high decoding complexity. In addition, it has a long decoding latency. Although modifications have been proposed in successive cancellation flip decoding, these still have high computational complexity at low SNRs due to a huge number of additional successive cancellation decoding attempts. It is desirable to detect the unsuccessful successive cancellation decoding process at an early stage in the additional successive cancellation flip attempts and stop it that can reduce the decoding complexity. This paper combines the parity-check-CRC concatenated polar codes with the low-latency simplified successive cancellation decoding and proposes a parity-check-CRC concatenated polar codes simplified successive cancellation flip (PC-CRC-SSCFlip) decoder. It further employs the parity-check vector to identify the unsuccessful simplified successive cancellation flip decoding at an early stage and terminates so that it can minimize the decoding complexity on average. Additionally, this work proposes an error-prone flipping list by incorporating the empirically observed indices based on channel-induced error distribution along with the first bit of each Rate-1 node. The proposed technique can identify more than one error-prone bit through a flipping list and correct them. In addition, the parity-check vector further narrows down the search space for the identification of erroneous decisions. Simulation results show that 60% of unsuccessful additional successive cancellation decoding attempts terminate early rather than decode the whole codeword. The proposed PC-CRC-SSCFlip decoder has approximately 0.7 dB and 0.3 dB gains over successive cancellation and successive cancellation flip decoders, respectively, at a fixed block error rate (BLER) = ${10}^{-3}$. Additionally, it reduces the average computational complexity and decoding latency of the successive cancellation flip decoder at low-to-medium SNRs while approaching successive cancellation decoding complexity at medium-to-high SNRs. Full article

This work reports on a complex in silico assessment of the ADME properties of Salubrinal (S1) and 54 of its structural analogues containing a cinnamic acid residue (S2–S40) or a quinoline ring (S41–S55). In the work for (Q)SAR forecast, the online servers SwissADME, ADMETlab, admetSAR 2.0, Molinspiration, ALOGPS 2.1, pkCSM, SuperCYPsPred, and Vienna LiverTox were used. In addition, using AutoDock Vina, molecular docking studies were performed with transporter proteins and metabolic enzymes, which were intended to interact with the test compounds. In silico assessment of the ability of the S1–S55 compounds to be absorbed in the intestine was carried out using the SAR classification models implemented in these servers, as well as on the basis of two empirical rules—Lipinski’s and Veber’s. Most of the studied compounds had moderate lipophilicity (MLogP ˂ 4.15) and a polar surface area of less than 140 Ų. They complied with Lipinski’s and Veber’s rules, and are predicted to have good intestinal absorption. In silico analysis of the distribution of the S1–S55 compounds throughout the body, the volume of distribution at steady-state (V_dss), the ability to bind to blood plasma proteins and cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) were taken into account. Most compounds are predicted to have low or medium V_dss and the ability to cross the BBB. Molecular docking studies were carried out with the structures most important for drug binding of blood plasma proteins, human serum albumin (HSA), and alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP). The studies showed that these substances can effectively bind to blood plasma proteins. When assessing metabolism, the prediction of inhibitory and substrate activity to cytochromes P450 (CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4) was carried out. For most of these enzymes, the analyzed compounds are likely to be potential inhibitors, as indicated by the molecular docking data. For all studied compounds, a low total clearance (CL_tot. ˂ 5 mL/min/kg) and a half-life time (T_1/2 ˂ 3 h) are predicted. Full article

The electrochemical stability windows (ESW) of selected ionic liquids have been calculated by comparing different computational approaches previously suggested in the literature. The molecular systems under study are based on di-alkyl imidazolium and tetra-alkyl ammonium cations coupled with two different imide anions (namely, bis-fluorosulfonyl imide and bis-trifluoromethyl sulfonyl imide), for which an experimental investigation of the ESW is available. Thermodynamic oxidation and reduction potentials have here been estimated by different models based on calculations either on single ions or on ionic couples. Various Density Functional Theory (DFT) functionals (MP2, B3LYP, B3LYP including a polarizable medium and empirical dispersion forces) were exploited. Both vertical and adiabatic transitions between the starting states and the oxidized or reduced states were considered. The approach based on calculations on ionic couples is not able to reproduce the experimental data, whatever the used DFT functional. The best quantitative agreement is obtained by calculations on single ions when the MP2 functional in vacuum is considered and the transitions between differently charged states are vertical (purely electronic without the relaxation of the structure). The B3LYP functional underestimates the ESW. The inclusion of a polar medium excessively widens the ESW, while a large shrinkage of the ESW is obtained by adopting an adiabatic transition scheme instead of a vertical transition one. Full article

This paper discusses the potential of L-band Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2) and C-band Sentinel-1 radar data for retrieving soil parameters over cereal fields. For this purpose, multi-incidence, multi-polarization and dual-frequency satellite data were acquired simultaneously with in situ measurements collected over a semiarid area, the Merguellil Plain (central Tunisia). The L- and C-band signal sensitivity to soil roughness, moisture and vegetation was investigated. High correlation coefficients were observed between the radar signals and soil roughness values for all processed multi-configurations of ALOS-2 and Sentinel-1 data. The sensitivity of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data to soil moisture was investigated for three classes of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (low vegetation cover, medium cover and dense cover), illustrating a decreasing sensitivity with increasing NDVI values. The highest sensitivity to soil moisture under the dense cover class is observed in L-band data. For various vegetation properties (leaf area index (LAI), height of vegetation cover (H) and vegetation water content (VWC)), a strong correlation is observed with the ALOS-2 radar signals (in HH(Horizontal-Horizontal) and HV(Horizontal-Vertical) polarizations). Different empirical models that link radar signals (in the L- and C-bands) to soil moisture and roughness parameters, as well as the semi-empirical Dubois modified model (Dubois-B) and the modified integral equation model (IEM-B), over bare soils are proposed for all polarizations. The results reveal that IEM-B performed a better accuracy comparing to Dubois-B. This analysis is also proposed for covered surfaces using different options provided by the water cloud model (WCM) (with and without the soil–vegetation interaction scattering term) coupled with the best accuracy bare soil backscattering models: IEM-B for co-polarization and empirical models for the entire dataset. Based on the validated backscattering models, different options of coupled models are tested for soil moisture inversion. The integration of a soil–vegetation interaction component in the WCM illustrates a considerable contribution to soil moisture precision in the HV polarization mode in the L-band frequency and a neglected effect on C-band data inversion. Full article

We studied the dissolution of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) in binary mixtures of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and the ionic liquids: allylbenzyldimethylammonium acetate; 1-(2-methoxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium acetate; 1,8-diazabicyclo [5.4.0]undec-7-ene-8-ium acetate; tetramethylguanidinium acetate. Using chemometrics, we determined the dependence of the mass fraction (in %) of dissolved cellulose (MCC-m%) on the temperature, T = 40, 60, and 80 °C, and the mole fraction of DMSO, χ_DMSO = 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8. We derived equations that quantified the dependence of MCC-m% on T and χ_DMSO. Cellulose dissolution increased as a function of increasing both variables; the contribution of χ_DMSO was larger than that of T in some cases. Solvent empirical polarity was qualitatively employed to rationalize the cellulose dissolution efficiency of the solvent. Using the solvatochromic probe 2,6-dichloro-4-(2,4,6-triphenylpyridinium-1-yl)phenolate (WB), we calculated the empirical polarity E_T(WB) of cellobiose (a model for MCC) in ionic liquid (IL)–DMSO mixtures. The E_T(WB) correlated perfectly with T (fixed χ_DMSO) and with χ_DMSO (fixed T). These results show that there is ground for using medium empirical polarity to assess cellulose dissolution efficiency. We calculated values of MCC-m% under conditions other than those employed to generate the statistical model and determined the corresponding MCC-m% experimentally. The excellent agreement between both values shows the robustness of the statistical model and the usefulness of our approach to predict cellulose dissolution, thus saving time, labor, and material. Full article

This paper reports the calibration of a theoretical multifractal model based on empirical data on the urea release from a series of soil conditioner systems. To do this, a series of formulations was prepared by in situ hydrogelation of chitosan with salicylaldehyde in the presence of different urea amounts. The formulations were morphologically characterized by scanning electron microscopy and polarized light microscopy. The in vitro urea release was investigated in an environmentally simulated medium. The release data were fitted on five different mathematical models, Korsmeyer–Peppas, Zero order, First order, Higuchi and Hixson–Crowell, which allowed the establishment of a mechanism of urea release. Furthermore, a multifractal model, used for the fertilizer release for the first time, was calibrated using these empirical data. The resulting fit was in good agreement with the experimental data, validating the multifractal theoretical model. Full article

In this study, an empirical algorithm is proposed to retrieve significant wave height (SWH) from dual-polarization Sentinel-1 (S-1) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery collected under cyclonic conditions. The retrieval scheme is based on the well-known CWAVE empirical function that is here updated to deal with multi-polarization S-1 SAR measurements collected using the interferometric wide (IW) and the Extra Wide-Swath (EW) imaging modes, under cyclonic conditions. First, a training dataset that consists of six S-1 SAR images collected under cyclonic conditions is exploited to both tune the retrieval function and to check the soundness of the retrievals against the co-located WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) numerical simulations. The comparison of simulation from the WW3 model and measurements from altimeter Jason-2 shows a 0.29m root mean square error (RMSE) of significant wave height (SWH). Then, a testing data-set that consists of two S-1 SAR images is exploited to provide a preliminary validation. The results, verified against both WW3 and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) data, show the soundness of the herein approach. Full article

The motivation of this work is to explore the possibility of typhoon wave retrieval (the main parameter is significant wave height (SWH)) for C-band Gaofen (GF-3) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with a wide swath coverage (>400 km). We aim to establish an analysis of a typhoon wave in the subresolution-scale (approximately 20 × 20 km²) on GF-3 SAR through SAR-measured parameters, including a normalized radar cross section (NRCS) and variance of the normalized SAR image (herein called cvar), which are the basic variables in an empirical wave retrieval algorithm and are independent of visible wave streaks. Several typhoons around the China Seas were captured by Chinese GF-3 SAR in 2017; e.g., Noru, Doksuri, Talim and Hato. The wave fields simulated from the third-generation numerical wave model WAVEWATCH-III (WW3) are collocated with these images. In general, the distribution patterns of the typhoon waves from the WW3 model are consistent with wave fields from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) at 0.125° grids, indicating that the simulation results from the WW3 model are suitable for our study. In addition to winds retrieved from GF-3 SAR images in vertical-horizontal (VH) polarization, the characteristics of the typhoon wave on vertical-vertical (VV) polarization GF-3 SAR images are studied. It is found that SWH has a linear relationship with NRCS and cvar, however, SWH fluctuates with wind speed at all incidence angles. Based on the analyzed results, we simply tune two empirical wave retrieval algorithms for GF-3 SAR in typhoons. Although the correlation (COR) reaches 0.5 taking account into the NRCS term, a more accurate retrieval algorithm, including more related terms, is anticipated for further development for GF-3 SAR and validated through more typhoon images. Full article

The Chinese Gaofen-3 (GF-3) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) launched by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) has operated at C-band since September 2016. To date, we have collected 16/42 images in vertical-vertical (VV)/horizontal-horizontal (HH) polarization, covering the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy measurements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) around U.S. western coastal waters. Wind speeds from NDBC in situ buoys are up to 15 m/s and buoy-measured significant wave height (SWH) has ranged from 0.5 m to 3 m. In this study, winds were retrieved using the geophysical model function (GMF) together with the polarization ratio (PR) model and waves were retrieved using a new empirical algorithm based on SAR cutoff wavelength in satellite flight direction, herein called CSAR_WAVE. Validation against buoy measurements shows a 1.4/1.9 m/s root mean square error (RMSE) of wind speed and a 24/23% scatter index (SI) of SWH for VV/HH polarization. In addition, wind and wave retrieval results from 166 GF-3 images were compared with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) re-analysis winds, as well as the SWH from the WaveWatch-III model, respectively. Comparisons show a 2.0 m/s RMSE for wind speed with a 36% SI of SWH for VV-polarization and a 2.2 m/s RMSE for wind speed with a 37% SI of SWH for HH-polarization. Our work gives a preliminary assessment of the wind and wave retrieval results from GF-3 SAR images for the first time and will provide guidance for marine applications of GF-3 SAR. Full article