Hasil untuk "Environmental engineering"

Chaoji Chen, Yudi Kuang, Liangbing Hu

Solar evaporation is an ancient technology that has regained tremendous attention because of the abundance of solar energy, widely available water sources, and facile facilities in combination with substantial improvements of conversion efficiency enabled by improved photothermal materials, thermal management, and interfacial heating system designs in recent years. In this review, we discuss recent developments in photothermal materials, with a focus on their photothermal conversion mechanisms as light absorbers. We also explore the diverse structural design and engineering strategies that are being used to improve evaporation performance, including the design principles for high-efficiency light-to-heat conversion, optimization of thermal management, water transport, interface wettability, and anti-salt-blocking structures. We describe the potential applications of this attractive technology in a variety of energy and environmental fields. The current challenges and future research opportunities are also discussed, providing a roadmap for the future development of solar evaporation technology.

V. Tam, M. Soomro, A. Evangelista

William P. Lustig, S. Mukherjee, Nathan D. Rudd et al.

S. Al-Salem, A. Antelava, A. Constantinou et al.

Plastic plays an important role in our daily lives due to its versatility, light weight and low production cost. Plastics became essential in many sectors such as construction, medical, engineering applications, automotive, aerospace, etc. In addition, economic growth and development also increased our demand and dependency on plastics which leads to its accumulation in landfills imposing risk on human health, animals and cause environmental pollution problems such as ground water contamination, sanitary related issues, etc. Hence, a sustainable and an efficient plastic waste treatment is essential to avoid such issues. Pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical plastic waste treatment technique which can solve such pollution problems, as well as, recover valuable energy and products such as oil and gas. Pyrolysis of plastic solid waste (PSW) has gained importance due to having better advantages towards environmental pollution and reduction of carbon footprint of plastic products by minimizing the emissions of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide compared to combustion and gasification. This paper presents the existing techniques of pyrolysis, the parameters which affect the products yield and selectivity and identify major research gaps in this technology. The influence of different catalysts on the process as well as review and comparative assessment of pyrolysis with other thermal and catalytic plastic treatment methods, is also presented.

W. Lv, Zhonghang Wang, Hongbin Cao et al.

H. Akil, M. Omar, A. Mazuki et al.

F. Licausi, M. Ohme-Takagi, P. Perata

Shamshad Khan, M. Naushad, M. Govarthanan et al.

Wastewater is contaminated water that must be treated before it may be transferred into other rivers and lakes in order to prevent further groundwater pollution. Over the last decade, research has been conducted on a wide variety of contaminants, but the emerging contaminants are those caused primarily by micropollutants, endocrine disruptors (EDs), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, hormones, and toxins, as well as industrially-related synthetic dyes and dye-containing hazardous pollutants. Most emerging pollutants did not have established guidelines, but even at low concentrations they could have harmful effects on humans and aquatic organisms. In order to combat the above ecological threats, huge efforts have been done with a view to boosting the effectiveness of remediation procedures or developing new techniques for the detection, quantification and efficiency of the samples. The increase of interest in biotechnology and environmental engineering gives an opportunity for the development of more innovative ways to water treatment remediation. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of emerging sources of contaminants, detection technologies, and treatment strategies. The goal of this review is to evaluate adsorption as a method for treating emerging pollutants, as well as sophisticated and cost-effective approaches for treating emerging contaminants.

E. Pilon-Smits

Phytoremediation, the use of plants and their associated microbes for environmental cleanup, has gained acceptance in the past 10 years as a cost-effective, noninvasive alternative or complementary technology for engineering-based remediation methods. Plants can be used for pollutant stabilization, extraction, degradation, or volatilization. These different phytoremediation technologies are reviewed here, including their applicability for various organic and inorganic pollutants, and most suitable plant species. To further enhance the efficiency of phytoremediation, there is a need for better knowledge of the processes that affect pollutant availability, rhizosphere processes, pollutant uptake, translocation, chelation, degradation, and volatilization. For each of these processes I review what is known so far for inorganic and organic pollutants, the remaining gaps in our knowledge, and the practical implications for designing phytoremediation strategies. Transgenic approaches to enhance these processes are also reviewed and discussed.

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D. Ting

Hanjun Sun, Ya Zhou, Jinsong Ren et al.

H. Adeli

M. Troell, A. Joyce, T. Chopin et al.

Gang Wu, Hubiao Kang, Xiaoyang Zhang et al.

R. Dipippo

Diego Firmenich, Leandro Antonelli, Bruno Pazos et al.

User stories are one of the most widely used artifacts in the software industry to define functional requirements. In parallel, the use of high-fidelity mockups facilitates end-user participation in defining their needs. In this work, we explore how combining these techniques with large language models (LLMs) enables agile and automated generation of user stories from mockups. To this end, we present a case study that analyzes the ability of LLMs to extract user stories from high-fidelity mockups, both with and without the inclusion of a glossary of the Language Extended Lexicon (LEL) in the prompts. Our results demonstrate that incorporating the LEL significantly enhances the accuracy and suitability of the generated user stories. This approach represents a step forward in the integration of AI into requirements engineering, with the potential to improve communication between users and developers.

Sarah-Patricia Breen, Robyn Peel, Lauren Rethoret

Childcare is a ubiquitous issue for economic development across Canada, a challenge exacerbated by rural characteristics like low population density, workforce shortages (e.g., early childcare educators), and limited data. New early learning and childcare regulation has and continues to change the policy environment with the goal of increasing the accessibility and affordability of high-quality childcare. These changes have resulted in successes; however, policy changes have also had unintentional consequences for the viability of rural childcare facilities. This article presents the results of a rural case study in the province of British Columbia that aimed to understand the business needs and challenges of rural childcare providers and to use these findings to contribute to the creation of constructive business solutions. Results also identified that the changing policy environment is presenting unanticipated challenges to childcare viability, resulting in a largely unrecognized risk of increasing sector precarity and potential loss of existing rural childcare providers. We identify interventions, both at the regional and provincial scale, that may help in the short term to improve business operations and alleviate unintentional sector vulnerabilities related to changing policy. Interventions include proactive outreach to childcare providers to build relationships and increase knowledge of available support programs, offering in-person one-on-one support, enhancing short-term stability and predictability by providing timelines for policy change, and the creation of on-call or casual workforce services that can easily serve multiple small childcare providers. Keywords: Childcare, rural economic development, policy change _________________________________________________________________  Précarité rurale face à l'évolution des politiques : Garde d’enfants en Colombie-Britannique rurale Résumé Les services de garde d’enfants constituent un enjeu omniprésent pour le développement économique du Canada. Ce défi est exacerbé par les caractéristiques du milieu rural, telles que la faible densité de population, la pénurie de main-d'oeuvre (par exemple, d'éducateurs à la petite enfance) et le manque de données. La nouvelle réglementation en matière d'apprentissage et de garde des jeunes enfants a modifié et continue de modifier le contexte politique afin d'accroître l'accessibilité et l'abordabilité de services de garde de qualité. Ces changements ont donné lieu à des succès; toutefois, ils ont également eu des conséquences imprévues sur la viabilité des services de garde en milieu rural. Cet article présente les résultats d'une étude de cas menée dans une région rurale de la province de la Colombie-Britannique. Cette étude visait à comprendre les besoins et les défis des fournisseurs de services de garde d’enfants en milieu rural et à utiliser ces résultats pour contribuer à l'élaboration de solutions commerciales constructives. Les résultats ont également révélé que l'évolution du contexte politique pose des défis imprévus à la viabilité des services de garde d’enfants, ce qui entraîne un risque largement méconnu d'accroissement de la précarité du secteur et de disparition potentielle des prestataires de services de garde d’enfants existants en milieu rural. Nous avons recensé des interventions, tant à l'échelle régionale que provinciale, susceptibles d'améliorer à court terme les activités commerciales et d'atténuer les vulnérabilités involontaires du secteur liées aux changements de politiques. Ces interventions comprennent des démarches proactives auprès des prestataires de services de garde d’enfants afin d'établir des relations et d'accroître leur connaissance des programmes de soutien disponibles, l’offre d’un soutien individualisé en personne, une meilleure stabilité et prévisibilité à court terme grâce à la mise en place d'échéanciers pour les changements de politiques, et la création de services de main-d'oeuvre occasionnelle ou sur appel pouvant facilement desservir plusieurs petits prestataires de services de garde d’enfants. Mots-clés : garde d'enfants, développement économique rural, changement de politiques

R. Singh, M. Tiwari, Ranjitha Singh et al.

Enzymes found in nature have been exploited in industry due to their inherent catalytic properties in complex chemical processes under mild experimental and environmental conditions. The desired industrial goal is often difficult to achieve using the native form of the enzyme. Recent developments in protein engineering have revolutionized the development of commercially available enzymes into better industrial catalysts. Protein engineering aims at modifying the sequence of a protein, and hence its structure, to create enzymes with improved functional properties such as stability, specific activity, inhibition by reaction products, and selectivity towards non-natural substrates. Soluble enzymes are often immobilized onto solid insoluble supports to be reused in continuous processes and to facilitate the economical recovery of the enzyme after the reaction without any significant loss to its biochemical properties. Immobilization confers considerable stability towards temperature variations and organic solvents. Multipoint and multisubunit covalent attachments of enzymes on appropriately functionalized supports via linkers provide rigidity to the immobilized enzyme structure, ultimately resulting in improved enzyme stability. Protein engineering and immobilization techniques are sequential and compatible approaches for the improvement of enzyme properties. The present review highlights and summarizes various studies that have aimed to improve the biochemical properties of industrially significant enzymes.

Bianca Trinkenreich, Fabio Calefato, Geir Hanssen et al.

The adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) is not only transforming software engineering (SE) practice but is also poised to fundamentally disrupt how research is conducted in the field. While perspectives on this transformation range from viewing LLMs as mere productivity tools to considering them revolutionary forces, we argue that the SE research community must proactively engage with and shape the integration of LLMs into research practices, emphasizing human agency in this transformation. As LLMs rapidly become integral to SE research - both as tools that support investigations and as subjects of study - a human-centric perspective is essential. Ensuring human oversight and interpretability is necessary for upholding scientific rigor, fostering ethical responsibility, and driving advancements in the field. Drawing from discussions at the 2nd Copenhagen Symposium on Human-Centered AI in SE, this position paper employs McLuhan's Tetrad of Media Laws to analyze the impact of LLMs on SE research. Through this theoretical lens, we examine how LLMs enhance research capabilities through accelerated ideation and automated processes, make some traditional research practices obsolete, retrieve valuable aspects of historical research approaches, and risk reversal effects when taken to extremes. Our analysis reveals opportunities for innovation and potential pitfalls that require careful consideration. We conclude with a call to action for the SE research community to proactively harness the benefits of LLMs while developing frameworks and guidelines to mitigate their risks, to ensure continued rigor and impact of research in an AI-augmented future.