In recent years, cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and digital twin (DT), have revolutionized the healthcare sector by enhancing public health and treatment quality through precise diagnosis, preventive measures, and real-time care capabilities. Despite these advancements, the massive amount of generated biomedical data puts substantial challenges associated with information security, privacy, and scalability. Applying blockchain in healthcare-based digital twins ensures data integrity, immutability, consistency, and security, making it a critical component in addressing these challenges. Federated learning (FL) has also emerged as a promising AI technique to enhance privacy and enable decentralized data processing. This paper investigates the integration of digital twin concepts with blockchain and FL in the healthcare domain, focusing on their architecture and applications. It also explores platforms and solutions that leverage these technologies for secure and scalable medical implementations. A case study on federated learning for electroencephalogram (EEG) signal classification is presented, demonstrating its potential as a diagnostic tool for brain activity analysis and neurological disorder detection. Finally, we highlight the key challenges, emerging opportunities, and future directions in advancing healthcare digital twins with blockchain and federated learning, paving the way for a more intelligent, secure, and privacy-preserving medical ecosystem.
Noorhan Firdaus Pambudi, S.M. Samindi M. K. Samarakoon, Togar Mangihut Simatupang
et al.
Abstract Plastic waste management is a pressing issue, particularly in Indonesia, where plastic constitutes a significant portion of waste. This study investigates the development of a sustainable circular business model for plastic waste management while emphasizing the need for effective recycling and reduction strategies. Unlike previous studies that incorporated risk management into a five-dimensional approach to sustainability—economic, social, environmental, institutional, and technical factors—primarily focused on pre-consumption industries and risk prioritization based on criticality alone, this research focuses on post-consumption industries related to plastic waste and considers risk interaction for the prioritization. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory were utilized to identify and prioritize risks based on how critical they were and how they interacted with each other. Video interviews and pilot surveys from related individuals in Indonesian plastic waste management were conducted to gather data on related risks. Higher risk influence score and risk priority number (i.e., 147 and 72), indicating the risks are influential and critical, were found for lack of regulation to distinguish the government's role in waste management, insufficient policy to maintain product price from reprocessing plastic waste to remain competitive, unaffordable product/service price from circular plastic waste management, and unavailable technology and infrastructure to support plastic waste recycling. The findings highlighted the necessity of stakeholder collaboration, improved infrastructure, and supportive government policies for successful circular plastic waste management. Enhancing community engagement in waste segregation, establishing clear operational procedures, and fostering partnerships between the public and private sectors are recommended. The study underscored the importance of addressing both environmental and socio-economic dimensions to create a sustainable and effective plastic waste management system, ultimately contributing to a circular economy. Future research should expand on these findings to validate relationships among identified risks and explore additional waste management strategies.
Aqueous rechargeable zinc–iodine batteries (ARZIBs) have been highlighted as a favorable solution for energy storage, in view of their sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and safety. Nonetheless, the practical implementation of ARZIBs is challenged by the sluggish iodine-reduction-reaction kinetics as well as the shuttling behavior of the soluble polyiodide substances. Herein, Fe3O4 nanoparticles embedded in porous carbon nanosheets (Fe3O4 NPs@PCNs) with a large specific surface area (1407.8 m2 g−1) are proposed as an iodine host for ARZIBs. This structure not only enhances iodine adsorption but also supports the electrocatalytic reversible conversion of iodine. Both experimental evidence and theoretical analyses highlight that the presence of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles can effectively accelerate the iodine-reduction-reaction reversibly, while mitigating the shuttling effect of polyiodide ions. The resultant ARZIBs exhibit a specific capacity of 269.8 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1, with 85% of this capacity being contributed by the discharge platform. Additionally, they demonstrate high rate capabilities, delivering 211.1 mAh g−1 at 20 A g−1, minimal self-discharge, and cycling stability for 15,000 cycles. This performance is attributed to the synergistic effect of the catalytic activity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles and physical confinement provided by the carbon framework. The findings of this study illuminate the critical effect of Fe3O4 in transforming a nonpolar carbon material into an efficient iodine host, paving the way for the realization of reversible ARZIBs.
Abstract The ternary Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst is widely used in the industry for renewable methanol synthesis. The tenuous trade‐off between the strong metal–support interaction (SMSI)‐induced Cu–ZnOx interface and the accessible Cu surface strongly affects the activity of the final catalyst. Successes in the control of oxide migration on adsorbate‐induced SMSI catalysts have motivated this to develop a supercritical CO2 activation strategy to synchronously perfect the Cu0–O–Znδ+ interface and Cu0–Cu+ surface sites through the manipulation of the adsorbate diffusion kinetics, which involves *OC2H5 and “side‐on” fixed CO2 species. This findings illustrate that the adsorbate on ZnOx can facilitate its secondary uniform nucleation and induce a ZnxAl2Oy spinel phase and that CO2 adsorption on metallic Cu0 produces an activated CuxO amorphous shell. Such a structural evolution unlocks a dual‐response pathway in methanol synthesis, thus enabling Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 with a twofold increase in catalytic activity. This atomic‐level design of active sites and understanding of supercritical CO2‐induced structural evolution will guide the future development of high‐performance supported metal catalysts.
Making computers automatically extract latent scientific knowledge from literature is highly desired for future materials and chemical research in the artificial intelligence era. Herein, the natural language processing (NLP)‐based machine learning technique to build language models and automatically extract hidden information regarding perovskite solar cell (PSC) materials from 29 060 publications is employed. The concept that there are light‐absorbing materials, electron‐transporting materials, and hole‐transporting materials in PSCs is successfully learned by the NLP‐based machine learning model without a time‐consuming human expert training process. The NLP model highlights a hole‐transporting material that receives insufficient attention in the literature, which is then elaborated via density functional theory calculations to provide an atomistic view of the perovskite/hole‐transporting layer heterostructures and their optoelectronic properties. Finally, the above results are confirmed by device experiments. The present study demonstrates the viability of NLP as a universal machine learning tool to extract useful information from existing publications.
Computer engineering. Computer hardware, Control engineering systems. Automatic machinery (General)
Abstract High Entropy Alloys (HEAs) are a versatile material with unique properties, tailored for various applications. They enable pH‐sensitive electrocatalytic transformations like hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrogen oxidation reactions (HOR) in alkaline media. Mesoporous nanostructures with high surface area are preferred for these electrochemical reactions, but designing mesoporous HEA sis challenging. To overcome this challenge, a low‐temperature triblock copolymer‐assisted wet‐chemical approach is developed to produce mesoporous HEA nanospheres composed of PtPdRuMoNi systems with sufficient entropic mixing. Owing to active sites with inherent entropic effect, mesoporous features, and increased accessibility, optimized HEA nanospheres promote strong HER/HOR performance in alkaline medium. At 30 mV nominal overpotential, it exhibits a mass activity of ≈167 (HER) and 151 A gPt−1 (HOR), far exceeding commercial Pt‐C electrocatalysts (34 and 48 A gPt−1) and many recently reported various alloys. The Mott‐Schottky analysis reveals HEA nanospheres inherit high charge carrier density, positive flat band potential, and smaller charge transfer barrier, resulting in better activity and faster kinetics. This micelle‐assisted synthetic enable the exploration of the compositional and configurational spaces of HEAs at relatively low temperature, while simultaneously facilitating the introduction of mesoporous nanostructures for a wide range of catalytic applications.
We have developed a gold recovery method utilizing the thiosulfate leaching and cementation onto silicon (Si) powder. In this process, copper (oxidizing agent for gold dissolution) was also recovered after gold recovery. In this work, we tried to monitor the recovery behavior in order to improve selectivity of metals. For experimentation, an ammonium thiosulfate solution containing 1 mM (M: mol dm−3) sodium gold(I) sulfite and 5 mM copper(II) sulfate was prepared (pH 13). We immersed a gold wire in the solution and measured the rest potential during the recovery process using Si powder. The potential of gold wire shifted to negative direction at the start and end of gold and copper recovery. We discussed the potential shift by measuring polarization curves of gold wire in the ammonium thiosulfate solution under various conditions. The efficient recovery of high-purity gold would be achieved by monitoring the potential of gold.
【Objective】The effects of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon and iron nutrients on the growth of Oocystis borgei were explored, and the optimal nutrient formula was selected to provide references for its efficient and large-scale cultivation.【Method】Single factor test was used to analyze the effects of different nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon and iron nutrients on the growth of O. borgei, to obtain the best nutrients and their respective concentrations. Orthogonal tests were conducted to optimize the factors that had a great impact on the the growth of O. borgei. Finally, the optimal nutrient formula was obtained.【Result】The results of the single factor test showed that the optimal sources and concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon and iron sources for O. borgei were CO(NH2)2 160 mg/L, C3H7Na2O6P 8 mg/L, NaHCO3 1 g/L, and FeCl3 0.2 mg/L, respectively. The results of the orthogonal tests showed that the effect of each nutrient on the growth of O. borgei ranked as: phosphorus source > nitrogen source > carbon source, and phosphorus source had the most significant effect on the growth of O. borgei (P < 0.05). The optimal formula was: CO(NH2)2 120 mg/L, C3H7Na2O6P 12 mg/L and NaHCO3 2.5 g/L. Under the optimal condition, the algal cell density reached 22.07×106 cells/mL, which was 12 times higher than that before optimization (1.74×106 cells/mL).【Conclusion】The optimal nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and iron sources and concentrations for O. borgei were determined and the optimal nutrient formula was obtained by optimizing the conditions, which significantly increased the algal cell density.
In this study, the first-principles method is adapted to establish key data for β-Mo<sub>2</sub>C with various point defects. A particular focus is comparatively studying the effects of point vacancies and different substitutional doping elements on the structures and electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties of β-Mo<sub>2</sub>C. The calculation results show that vacancy defects and substitutional doping have different impacts on the magnetism and bulk modulus of Mo<sub>2</sub>C. Data for the effect of different substitutional doping elements (V, Cr, Co, Fe, Ni and W) on the physical and mechanical properties/behaviours are established and analysed. The changes in key magnetic properties (local and total magnetic moments) associated with different point substitutional doping elements are comparatively analysed with reference to the data of Mulliken atomic charge, bond population, density of states (DOS) and band structures. The correlation between doping elements and changes in magnetic moment and bulk modulus is discussed. The influence of doping elements on the magnetic moment of 3D Mo<sub>2</sub>C is also compared to their effects on a two-dimensional Mo<sub>2</sub>C monolayer. The potential applications of DFT modeling and data for future research and development related to materials and processing are discussed.
Abstract Passivation of defects in halide perovskite using phosphine oxide or alkyl‐phosphonate has recently obtained a few remarkable achievements. However, effective application of phosphine oxide or alky‐phosphonate in passivating perovskite quantum dots (QDs) are seldom reported due to solubility issue or difficulty of amount control. In this work, two bifunctional organic molecules containing phosphine oxide groups, 2,4,6‐Tris[3‐(diphenylphosphinyl)phenyl]‐1,3,5‐triazine (PO‐T2T) and 2,7‐bis(diphenylphosphoryl)‐9,9′‐spirobifluorene (SPPO13), are deposited on QDs films by thermal evaporation. The molecules, both as passivation agents as well as electron transporting materials, exhibit stark contrast in passivating QDs and in light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) performance. A competition between charge transfer and defect passivation between the QDs and the molecules is proposed. In film, electron transfer from the QDs to PO‐T2T dominates and quench the QDs, while the passivation effect of PO‐T2T on the QDs dominates in driving device and enhances luminance of the LEDs. In contrast, passivation effect of SPPO13 on the QDs dominates both in films and in LEDs. A maximum EQE of 2.67% is obtained for the pure‐blue LED based on SPPO13‐passivated QDs films. This work provides a guide on the selection of passivation agents based on phosphine oxide and a promising passivation method for high‐efficient perovskite QD LEDs.
Additive manufacturing enables the development of high-performance materials by in-situ alloying of multiple components. In this study, Inconel 718-based composite, reinforced with tungsten carbide (WC), was synthesized on a 316L stainless steel substrate using laser directed energy deposition (DED). The microstructural evolution, distribution density of WC particles, and strengthening mechanisms of the DED-processed metal matrix composite (MMC) with different WC particle sizes and ratios are systematically investigated. It illustrated that increasing laser power enables the microstructure transforming from equiaxed to dendritic, which is attributed to the different cooling rates and temperature gradients. In addition, the morphology of the 60% WC ratio of the particle composite shows macrocracks. The incorporation of different sized WC affects retained WC distribution density and tailors a gradient layer around the edge of the WC particle. The in-situ WC-W2C phases precipitated in the deposited layer and the evenly distributed high level of ex-situ retained WC particles induce solid solution strengthening and dispersion strengthening, respectively. As a result, the optimal size of the 90 μm WC/Inconel 718 shows the highest wear resistance. The underlying strengthening mechanisms are elucidated. Consequently, the wear mechanism of Inconel 718-based composite reveals the typical abrasive wear characteristics in the presence of WC particles.
In this work, high chromium cast irons (HCCIs) reinforced by TiC particles are designed and fabricated to improve the erosion–corrosion and wear resistances of materials for the pumping and handling applications. The TiC particles are formed by the in situ solidification method. The experimental results show that the hardness of as-cast HCCIs is improved significantly with TiC volume fraction. It can be as high as 63 HRC when the TiC volume fraction is 9.8%. The introduction of TiC increases the abrasive wear resistance of the HCCIs in both as-cast and heat-treated states. However, it is unexpected to find that the presence of TiC significantly reduces the erosion–corrosion performance. It suggests that corrosion-enhanced erosion is the dominant mechanism that controls the mass loss of the TiC-strengthened HCCIs.
Vy Anh Tran, Nguyen Hai Tai Tran, Long Giang Bach
et al.
Propranolol is one of the first medications of the beta-blocker used for antihypertensive drugs. This study reports the facile route for the synthesis of propranolol and its novel derivatives. Herein, propranolol synthesis proceeded from 1-naphthol and isopropylamine under mild and less toxic conditions. Novel propranolol derivatives were designed by reactions of propranolol with benzoyl chloride, pyridinium chlorochromate, and n-butyl bromide through esterification, oxidation reduction, and alkylation, respectively. The isolation and purity of compounds were conducted using column chromatography and thin-layer chromatography. Mass spectrometry and 1H-NMR spectroscopy were applied to identify new compounds structure. Propranolol derivatives from 2-chlorobenzoyl chloride (compound 3), 2-fluorobenzoyl chloride (compound 5), and especially acetic anhydride (compound 6) manifested high yields and significantly increased water solubility. Six semisynthetic propranolol derivatives promise to improve antioxidative and biological activities.
Abstract We experimentally investigated the spectral dependence of the third-order susceptibility $$\chi^{\left( 3 \right)}$$ χ 3 of Au triangular nanoplates in a broad wavelength region (400–1,000 nm). Complex shaped plasmonic nanoparticles provide a promising route to achieve control of their optical properties at the nanoscale. However, little is known about the effects of geometrical parameters to the optical nonlinearities and underlying mechanisms of the plasmon modes. Here, we obtained the $$\chi^{\left( 3 \right)}$$ χ 3 of Au triangular nanoplates featuring a narrow plasmon resonance that is tunable in the visible and near-IR regions. This work demonstrates that the plasmonic triangular nanoplates simultaneously shows self-focusing and -defocusing, and saturable and reverse-saturable absorption properties at specific wavelength regions. Maximum amplitudes of real and imaginary components are − 6.8 × 10−18 m2/V2 at 668 nm and − 6.7 × 10−18 m2/V2 at 646 nm, respectively. Spectral dependence of the quantity $$\chi^{\left( 3 \right)}$$ χ 3 enables comparison between different shaped plasmonic NPs to boost active plasmonic applications performance.
In modern chemical engineering processes, the involvement of solid/fluid interface is the most important component of process intensification techniques, such as confined membrane separation and catalysis. In the review, we summarized the research progress of the latest theoretical and experimental works to elucidate the contribution of interface to the fluid properties and structures at nano- and micro-scale. We mainly focused on water, alcohol aqueous solution, and ionic liquids, because they are classical systems in interfacial science and/or widely involved in the industrialization process. Surface-induced fluids were observed in all reviewed systems and played a critical role in physicochemical properties and structures of outside fluid. It can even be regarded as a new interface, when the adsorption layer has a strong interaction with the solid surface. Finally, we proposed a perspective on scientific challenges in the modern chemical engineering processes and outlined future prospects.