Hasil untuk "Environmental engineering"

Xin Li, Jiaguo Yu, Jingxiang Low et al.

A. Tiwana, B. Konsynski, Ashley A. Bush

Y. Adewuyi

M. Loke

X. Kang, Sihang Liu, Z. Dai et al.

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanomaterials have garnered extensive scientific interest since 1972 and have been widely used in many areas, such as sustainable energy generation and the removal of environmental pollutants. Although TiO2 possesses the desired performance in utilizing ultraviolet light, its overall solar activity is still very limited because of a wide bandgap (3.0–3.2 eV) that cannot make use of visible light or light of longer wavelength. This phenomenon is a deficiency for TiO2 with respect to its potential application in visible light photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical devices, as well as photovoltaics and sensors. The high overpotential, sluggish migration, and rapid recombination of photogenerated electron/hole pairs are crucial factors that restrict further application of TiO2. Recently, a broad range of research efforts has been devoted to enhancing the optical and electrical properties of TiO2, resulting in improved photocatalytic activity. This review mainly outlines state-of-the-art modification strategies in optimizing the photocatalytic performance of TiO2, including the introduction of intrinsic defects and foreign species into the TiO2 lattice, morphology and crystal facet control, and the development of unique mesocrystal structures. The band structures, electronic properties, and chemical features of the modified TiO2 nanomaterials are clarified in detail along with details regarding their photocatalytic performance and various applications.

Mi Zhou, Wei Lu, Jianwei Song et al.

Abstract Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) is a type of cement-based composite, which is the most innovative product in concrete technology during the last 30 years. The advantages of UHPC compared with the common concrete, such as superior mechanical performance, excellent anti-seismic property and resistance against environmental degradation are introduced in the paper. The paper begins by briefly introducing its history of development and technical performance. Then, the research and application situation of UHPC in bridge engineering are discussed and many practical applications in bridge bearing component, bridge deck pavement and bridge joints are summarized. Moreover, the paper analyzes advantages and shortcomings of UHPC and the constraints for the application of UHPC in bridge engineering. In addition, the performance of UHPC in seismic resistance and anti-explosion is briefly summarized. Based on these works, prediction of UHPC further research in the future is prospected.

Yoo-Sung Ko, J. Kim, Jong An Lee et al.

Sustainable production of chemicals from renewable non-food biomass has become a promising alternative to overcome environmental issues caused by our heavy dependence on fossil resources. Systems metabolic engineering, which integrates traditional metabolic engineering with systems biology, synthetic biology, and evolutionary engineering, is enabling the development of microbial cell factories capable of efficiently producing a myriad of chemicals and materials including biofuels, bulk and fine chemicals, polymers, amino acids, natural products and drugs. In this paper, many tools and strategies of systems metabolic engineering, including in silico genome-scale metabolic simulation, sophisticated enzyme engineering, optimal gene expression modulation, in vivo biosensors, de novo pathway design, and genomic engineering, employed for developing microbial cell factories are reviewed. Also, detailed procedures of systems metabolic engineering used to develop microbial strains producing chemicals and materials are showcased. Finally, future challenges and perspectives in further advancing systems metabolic engineering and establishing biorefineries are discussed.

Minmin Zhao, Zhi-bin He, Jun Du et al.

Abstract Ecological engineering has become an essential tool in efforts to address environmental crises, improve human well-being, and achieve sustainability. However, efficient assessment of changes resulting from ecological engineering remains a challenge. In this study, we evaluated the effects of ecological engineering on carbon storage in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin in semi-arid northwestern China by linking the CA-Markov and InVEST models. Firstly, the CA-Markov model was used to simulate land use/cover change (LUCC) following the implementation of ecological engineering programs. Then, the InVEST model was adopted to assess changes in carbon storage due to LUCC. The results showed that ecological engineering could increase carbon storage by 10.27 Tg from 2015 to 2029 by increasing the proportion of land cover types with higher carbon storage capacity. The relative error of the linked model was 0.22%, indicating that the linked model was highly applicable in assessments of the effects of ecological engineering on carbon storage in the study area. This study will provide a reference for guiding ecological engineering efforts.

Mattia Sponchioni, Umberto Capasso Palmiero, D. Moscatelli

Synthetic polymers are attracting great attention in the last decades for their use in the biomedical field as nanovectors for controlled drug delivery, hydrogels and scaffolds enabling cell growth. Among them, polymers able to respond to environmental stimuli have been recently under growing consideration to impart a "smart" behavior to the final product, which is highly desirable to provide it with a specific dynamic and an advanced function. In particular, thermo-responsive polymers, materials able to undergo a discontinuous phase transition or morphological change in response to a temperature variation, are among the most studied. The development of the so-called controlled radical polymerization techniques has paved the way to a high degree of engineering for the polymer architecture and properties, which in turn brought to a plethora of sophisticated behaviors for these polymers by simply switching the external temperature. These can be exploited in many different fields, from separation to advanced optics and biosensors. The aim of this review is to critically discuss the latest advances in the development of thermo-responsive materials for biomedical applications, including a highly controlled drug delivery, mediation of cell growth and bioseparation. The focus is on the structural and design aspects that are required to exploit such materials for cutting-edge applications in the biomedical field.

Vardaan Chauhan, T. Kärki, J. Varis

Interest in natural fiber-reinforced polymer (NFRP) composites is growing rapidly in the transportation sector, especially as a replacement material for metals and synthetic fiber composites. The heightened interest is directly related to a need to produce lightweight and fuel efficient vehicles. Further, stringent legislation and greater environmental awareness is forcing transportation industries to select materials with a smaller carbon footprint. In such a context, NFRP composite materials are a good choice due to their low cost, low environmental impact, and relatively equivalent properties to metals and other composites. Most prior studies have examined commodity plastics such as polypropylene, polyethylene, and epoxy as the primary polymer matrix in NFRP composites and little work has addressed engineering plastics. Engineering plastics, which includes polycarbonate, polyamides, and polystyrene, are high performance thermoplastics with superior properties but relatively higher cost than commodity plastics. It has been claimed that even after recycling, engineering plastics properties are superior to those of commodity plastics, and thus, utilization of recycled engineering plastic in NFRP composites can help reduce waste and lower composite material costs. The aim of this review article is to explore the current status of engineering plastics reinforced with natural fibers such as flax, hemp, jute, and sisal and to examine their use in automotive, aerospace, and maritime applications. Properties and processing techniques of engineering plastics reinforced with natural fibers are also studied.

H. Joe, Huitaek Yun, Seunghwan Jo et al.

Gozde S. Demirer, Tallyta N. Silva, Christopher T. Jackson et al.

G. Boca, Sinan Saraçlı

Environmental education and education for the environment today play an important role toward sustainability. Environmental education provided by higher education institutions has an important impact on training and preparing the future generation for a green society. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among perception, attitude, and environmental behavior of the university students enrolled in different specialization fields (engineering electrical, mechanical, and economic). A total of 358 students participated in this survey conducted at the North Center University of Baia Mare. To collect data to measure students’ environmental education, perception, students’ attitudes, and behavior a Likert scale was used. In this study, it was revealed that students receiving academic education are involved in activities regarding environmental protection (volunteer, warning, participation, recycling of materials) using the new product and “greener” alternative energy. As a result of the t-test performed, it was put forward that there was no difference in their level of perception regarding the importance of environmental education. As a result of the correlation analysis, a positive relation was identified between the perception, attitude, and behavior variables.

Xianrui Li, Jin Li, Jiayu Wang et al.

Nidhal Selmi, Jean-michel Bruel, Sébastien Mosser et al.

Decision-making is a core engineering design activity that conveys the engineer's knowledge and translates it into courses of action. Capturing this form of knowledge can reap potential benefits for the engineering teams and enhance development efficiency. Despite its clear value, traditional decision capture often requires a significant amount of effort and still falls short of capturing the necessary context for reuse. Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) can be a promising solution to address these challenges by embedding decisions directly within system models, which can reduce the capture workload while maintaining explicit links to requirements, behaviors, and architectural elements. This article discusses a lightweight framework for integrating decision capture into MBSE workflows by representing decision alternatives as system model slices. Using a simplified industry example from aircraft architecture, we discuss the main challenges associated with decision capture and propose preliminary solutions to address these challenges.

Ashley E Sproles, Francis J. Fields, Tressa Smalley et al.

Abstract The development of more sustainable food, feed, and bio-products is critical to mitigating the environmental stresses facing our world today. Algae, which includes seaweeds, eukaryotic microalgae, and cyanobacteria, are a promising platform to achieving this, as they have low energy and space requirements, are safe for human and animal consumption, and can be manipulated to produce a diversity of valuable bioproducts. This review focuses on microalgae, both eukaryotic and cyanobacteria. In the past, addressing the major challenges of bringing microalgal production systems to an economically viable scale only had a relatively small genetic toolset to work with, in comparison to other microbial systems such as bacteria and yeast. Expanding the molecular tools available for genetic engineering of microalgae will lead to higher product yields, and accelerate the development of new microalgal bioproducts for commercial applications, thereby supporting the shift towards more environmentally friendly products. In this review, we highlight significant advances from recent years on the design of microalgal expression vectors, discovery of genetic regulatory elements (promoters and transcription factors), optimization of transformation methods, and development of new strain improvement techniques, all aimed at advancing microalgae to become a more efficient biomanufacturing platform. We then discuss how these tools have been applied to improving recombinant protein production, and to enhance metabolic pathway engineering.

Roham Koohestani, Philippe de Bekker, Begüm Koç et al.

Benchmarks are essential for unified evaluation and reproducibility. The rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering (AI4SE) has produced numerous benchmarks for tasks such as code generation and bug repair. However, this proliferation has led to major challenges: (1) fragmented knowledge across tasks, (2) difficulty in selecting contextually relevant benchmarks, (3) lack of standardization in benchmark creation, and (4) flaws that limit utility. Addressing these requires a dual approach: systematically mapping existing benchmarks for informed selection and defining unified guidelines for robust, adaptable benchmark development. We conduct a review of 247 studies, identifying 273 AI4SE benchmarks since 2014. We categorize them, analyze limitations, and expose gaps in current practices. Building on these insights, we introduce BenchScout, an extensible semantic search tool for locating suitable benchmarks. BenchScout employs automated clustering with contextual embeddings of benchmark-related studies, followed by dimensionality reduction. In a user study with 22 participants, BenchScout achieved usability, effectiveness, and intuitiveness scores of 4.5, 4.0, and 4.1 out of 5. To improve benchmarking standards, we propose BenchFrame, a unified framework for enhancing benchmark quality. Applying BenchFrame to HumanEval yielded HumanEvalNext, featuring corrected errors, improved language conversion, higher test coverage, and greater difficulty. Evaluating 10 state-of-the-art code models on HumanEval, HumanEvalPlus, and HumanEvalNext revealed average pass-at-1 drops of 31.22% and 19.94%, respectively, underscoring the need for continuous benchmark refinement. We further examine BenchFrame's scalability through an agentic pipeline and confirm its generalizability on the MBPP dataset. All review data, user study materials, and enhanced benchmarks are publicly released.

Paloma Guenes, Rafael Tomaz, Bianca Trinkenreich et al.

Research shows that more than half of software professionals experience the Impostor Phenomenon (IP), with a notably higher prevalence among women compared to men. IP can lead to mental health consequences, such as depression and burnout, which can significantly impact personal well-being and software professionals' productivity. This study investigates how IP manifests among software professionals across intersections of gender with race/ethnicity, marital status, number of children, age, and professional experience. Additionally, it examines the well-being of software professionals experiencing IP, providing insights into the interplay between these factors. We analyzed data collected through a theory-driven survey (n = 624) that used validated psychometric instruments to measure IP and well-being in software engineering professionals. We explored the prevalence of IP in the intersections of interest. Additionally, we applied bootstrapping to characterize well-being within our field and statistically tested whether professionals of different genders suffering from IP have lower well-being. The results show that IP occurs more frequently in women and that the prevalence is particularly high among black women as well as among single and childless women. Furthermore, regardless of gender, software engineering professionals suffering from IP have significantly lower well-being. Our findings indicate that effective IP mitigation strategies are needed to improve the well-being of software professionals. Mitigating IP would have particularly positive effects on the well-being of women, who are more frequently affected by IP.

Kibebework Getachew, Wuletawu Abera, Tefera Belay et al.

Land degradation in Ethiopia is a pressing issue that demands immediate attention. Although various sustainable land management options have been introduced through top-down approaches, farmers have shown low adoption rates. The objective of this research was to assess the community prioritization of landscape restoration technologies and the appropriation of ecosystem services in the Basona-Worena and Doyo-Gena woredas of Ethiopia. The evaluation of land management option tool was used to survey farmers' preferences and compare different land management options based on input, cost, perceived advantages, and potential drawbacks.Data from 64 participants revealed that farmers were interested in a wide range of benefits. However, their top three preferences were increased food supply, enhanced soil fertility, and improved water supply. The study emphasized the need for site-specific land management measures. Farmers in Basona-Worena favored terrace and bund practices, while farmers in Doyo-Gena preferred exclosure and agroforestry practices. Conversely, the propensity of terracing to attract rodents and pests, the lengthy time takes to see results from bunding, and the cost of gabions were among the shortcomings that farmers identify in conservation techniques. Terracing was the first option for supplying fundamental ecosystem services in both locations, followed by biological measures, water percolation pits, and bunds. All farmers ranked the business-as-usual option as their least preferred option because they perceived it to have limited potential for yielding desired benefits. These findings provide a robust model for informed decision-making on suitable restoration technologies, holding promise for landscape restoration initiatives in Ethiopia and similar locations worldwide.

Muhammad Waqas, Habibullah Nadeem, Ayshah Aysh Alrashidi et al.

Abstract Potassium (K+) is an essential nutrient for plants. It contributes to most physiological and biochemical pathways for plant metabolism, growth, and development. It is the most available plant nutrient, comprising 10–15% of plant weight. Plants have a sophisticated system of K+ transporters and channels for distribution in plant body. Apple is one of the most consumed fruits in the world. Its fruit quality and yield are positively affected by K+. However, limited information is available about K+ transport systems in Apple. In this study, 47 candidate genes (26 K+ transporters and 21 K+ channels) have been identified in Apple (Malus domestica) genome. The phylogenetic comparisons with other plants (Glycine max, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Oryza sativa) indicated that the K+ transport system is much conserved among different plants. The analysis of Gene structure showed the presence of specific introns and exon patterns for these gene families. Transcriptomic data analysis and RT-qPCR demonstrated significant variations in the transcript abundance of these genes in response to abiotic stresses. The current project represents the first report about the K+ transport system in Apple. Therefore, it may act as a starting point for further functional characterizations.