bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ag‐Based Bimetallic Nanoparticles for the Catalytic Reduction of Nitrophenol and Organic Dyes: An Overview
Authors: Bhatu Minakshi N. , Mavlankar Guruprasad R. , Baviskar Rahul , Patil Anirudhha B. , Patil Shubhangi P. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractBimetallic nanoparticles with synergistic effects revealed much higher catalytic activity than respective monometallic materials. This review describes bimetallic nanoparticles, especially silver nanoparticles, combined with the other transition elements, such as Ag−Fe, Ag−Co, Ag−Ni, and Ag−Cu, as an enhanced catalytically active material. The coverage is given to the various methods of preparation, in which factors responsible for different structures of bimetallic nanoparticles are thoroughly discussed. Lastly, we explore the use of bimetallic nanoparticles as a catalyst for the degradation of numerous organic pollutants that contribute to water pollution.
Performance of CuP2 Negative Electrode for Na‐Ion Batteries with CNTs As Stabilizer
Authors: Zhang En , Saha Arka , Jiang Guangshen , Xu Xiaosa , Yarmolenko Alina , Aziz Tarik , Julia Grothe , Nessim Gilbert Daniel , Kaskel Stefan 
Published: May 2024

AbstractTransition metal phosphides (TMPs) are promising anode materials for sodium ion battery, thanks to their high theoretical specific capacities. Nevertheless, they suffer from large volume change and from poor conductivity during prolonged cycling. Here we systematically investigate the role of different kinds of single/multi‐wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs/MWCNTs) as additives in order to stabilize copper phosphide particles (CuP2) as anode materials in sodium ion batteries (SIBs). All composites show enhancement in the overall capacity and cycling stability compared to the pristine CuP2 due to the well‐connected CNTs on and between the CuP2 particles. At a high currency density of 1 A g−1, CuP2@SWCNTs composite with 13 wt.% SWCNTs can deliver a specific capacity over 400 mAh g−1 for more than 60 cycles, much better than conventional hard carbon materials. The CNTs enhance the conductivity and reduce capacity loss caused by the volume variation of CuP2 based electrode materials. Post‐mortem analysis by scanning electron microscopy depicts a possible battery failure mechanism, whereby the solid electrolyte interface exists in the form of nanospheres distributing at the surface of the electrode. During the repeated cycling (volume change), more fractures and cracks occur resulting in continuous interfacial reactions and consumption of sodium and electrolyte.
Micropatterned Polymer Nanoarrays with Distinct Superwettability for a Highly Efficient Sweat Collection and Sensing Patch
Authors: Jin Minghui , Su Peipei , Huang Xiaocheng , Zhang Ruhao , Xu He , Wang Zhenbo , Su Cuicui , Katona Jaroslav M. , Ye Yumin 
Published: May 2024

AbstractWearable sweat sensor offers a promising means for noninvasive real‐time health monitoring, but the efficient collection and accurate analysis of sweat remains challenging. One of the obstacles is to precisely modulate the surface wettability of the microfluidics to achieve efficient sweat collection. Here a facile initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) method is presented to grow and pattern polymer nanocone arrays with distinct superwettability on polydimethylsiloxane microfluidics, which facilitate highly efficient sweat transportation and collection. The nanoarray is synthesized by manipulating monomer supersaturation during iCVD to induce controlled nucleation and preferential vertical growth of fluorinated polymer. Subsequent selective vapor deposition of a conformal hydrogel nanolayer results in superhydrophilic nanoarray floor and walls within the microchannel that provide a large capillary force and a superhydrophobic ceiling that drastically reduces flow friction, enabling rapid sweat transport along varied flow directions. A carbon/hydrogel/enzyme nanocomposite electrode is then fabricated by sequential deposition of highly porous carbon nanoparticles and hydrogel nanocoating to achieve sensitive and stable sweat detection. Further encapsulation of the assembled sweatsensing patch with superhydrophobic nanoarray imparts self‐cleaning and water‐proof capability. Finally, the sweat sensing patch demonstrates selective and sensitive glucose and lactate detection during the on‐body test.
One Stone Two Birds: Anomalously Enhancing the Cross‐Plane and In‐Plane Heat Transfer in 2D/3D Heterostructures by Defects Engineering
Authors: Wang Quanjie , Xiong Yucheng , Shao Cheng , Li Shouhang , Zhang Jie , Zhang Gang , Liu Xiangjun 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThis study addresses a crucial challenge in two‐dimensional (2D) material‐based electronic devices—inefficient heat dissipation across the van der Waals (vdW) interface connecting the 2D material to its three‐dimensional (3D) substrate. The objective is to enhance the interfacial thermal conductance (ITC) of 2D/3D heterostructures without compromising the intrinsic thermal conductivities (κ) of 2D materials. Using 2D‐MoS2/3D‐GaN as an example, a novel strategy to enhance both the ITC across 2D/3D interface and κ of 2D material is proposed by introducing a controlled concentration (ρ) of vacancy defects to substrate's bottom surface. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate a notable 2.1‐fold higher ITC of MoS2/GaN at ρ = 4% compared to the no‐defective counterpart, along with an impressive 56% enhancement in κ of MoS2 compared to the conventional upper surface modification approaches. Phonon dynamics analysis attributes the ITC enhancement to increased phonon coupling between MoS2 and GaN, resulting from polarization conversion and hybridization of phonons at the defective surface. Spectral energy density analysis affirms that the improved κ of MoS2 directly results from the proposed strategy, effectively reducing phonon scattering at the interface. This work provides an effective approach for enhancing heat transfer in 2D/3D vdW heterostructures, promisingly advancing electronics’ heat dissipation.
Perioperative epidural catheter analgesia as a component of a multimodal analgesic approach in a dog with thoracic hemivertebrae and kyphosis undergoing thoracic vertebral stabilisation
Authors: Piper Melissa , West Natalie , Capello Rodolfo , Medina‐Serra Roger 
Published: May 2024

AbstractA 4‐year‐old, male, neutered French bulldog weighing 13.5 kg presented with urinary and faecal incontinence, progressive, non‐painful paraparesis and pelvic limb proprioceptive ataxia. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a T12 constrictive myelopathy in association with multiple thoracic vertebral malformations, and mildly impinging thoracic intervertebral disc protrusions. Additionally, there was a sacral axial defect and degenerative lumbosacral stenosis. Surgical treatment comprised bilateral dorsal vertebral stabilisation of T9–T13. This case report summarises the peri‐anaesthetic management, which included an ‘in‐plane’ ultrasound‐guided placement of an epidural catheter at the level of L3–L4 and advancement cranially to T12 as a component of a multimodal analgesic regimen. Following the cessation of postoperative epidural bupivacaine administration, the patient remained comfortable without requiring rescue analgesia, and was discharged within 24 hours of surgery. At the latest recheck 5 months after surgery, the dog's neurological status remained static. This technique and application remain unexplored in existing veterinary literature.
Benzimidazole‐associated pancytopenia in a dog with presumed Heterobilharzia americana infection
Authors: Granger Kyle L. , Talbot Charles T. , Wakamatsu Cory N. , Harris McAllister , Dowers Kristy L. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractAdverse drug events are classified into type A (dose‐dependent and common) or type B (idiosyncratic and uncommon) reactions. Benzimidazole toxicosis in veterinary medicine typically induces nonspecific signs such as gastrointestinal distress and infrequent myelosuppression. Pancytopenia from benzimidazoles is exceptionally rare, with only one reported case. We present a 12‐year‐old, female, spayed, mixed‐breed dog with acute lethargy, anorexia, pyrexia and severe leukopenia after high‐dose benzimidazole therapy for suspected liver fluke infection. Despite hospitalisation, the dog remained unresponsive to antimicrobial therapies, developed neutropenic sepsis and was euthanized. Bone marrow analysis indicated marked haematopoietic hypoplasia suggestive of a type A adverse drug event secondary to an incidental, high‐dose fenbendazole administration.
Energy Efficiency in the Higher Education Institutions: A Review of Actions and Their Contribution to Sustainable Development
Authors: Munaro Mayara R. , John Vanderley M. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractUniversities are among the largest public sectors and energy consumers in many countries worldwide. They are considered crucial places to learn about opportunities to adopt sustainable and renewable energy to meet global greenhouse gas emission targets and incentivize economic growth. In this study, different energy efficiency strategies on university campuses were analyzed to investigate the level of engagement in practical actions at universities and the reduction of the environmental impacts of this sector. The results show that energy actions on university campuses are fewer and focused on plans for renewing energy systems and reducing energy consumption in buildings. Only a small portion of universities’ energy consumption comes from renewable sources. There is a need for more empirical studies on the description of actions and their impacts on the sustainability of campuses, in addition to the need to better understand and study the connections between energy use and energy efficiency in university campuses. An integrated approach to different energy strategies, in parallel with the knowledge of available technologies and the commitment of university stakeholders, in partnership with government support and energy concessionaires, is essential to improve energy performance and reduce the energy footprint of the universities.
Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Urban System Transformation: Addressing Circularity in Building System Recovery
Authors: Pineda-Martos Rocío , Andreucci Maria-Beatrice , Calheiros Cristina S. C. , Puma Camila Cervantes , Salles Adriana , Askar Rand , Bragança Luís 
Published: May 2024

AbstractUrban system transformation in view of sustainability is fundamental for efficient adaptation and mitigation of challenges faced by cities. Sustainable urban transitions, under the umbrella of circular economy, are key to effectively addressing future challenging scenarios and their impacts. The adoption of nature-based solutions (NBS) for circular resource management can provide beneficial ecosystem services to the urban built environment while promoting the conservation and reuse of resources within the urban cycle. The Circular City framework outlined the use of NBS to tackle challenges related to urban circularity. One such challenge is ‘Building system recovery’, which involves the regeneration of the built environment. By implementing NBS, the lifespan of building systems, construction materials, buildings, as well as open spaces can be extended. This is achieved by reducing exposure to weathering from external agents, thereby reducing the rate of infrastructure renovations, retrofitting and replacements. Moreover, strategies that prioritize resource savings, greener environments, and water-sensitive systems can increase resilience by providing critical ecosystem functions such as stormwater management, greywater treatment and mitigation of the urban heat island effect. Building upon the Circular City framework, this contribution presents NBS units and interventions at different urban scales – materials, components, systems – aiming at addressing the circularity challenge of ‘Building system recovery’. This is followed by a comprehensive analysis of input and output resource streams for strengthening circularity solutions in cities. This contribution describes state-of-the-art circularity frameworks aiming at supporting decision-makers and practitioners, while providing guidance tools for involving all relevant stakeholders, thereby supporting multifunctional implementation of NBS for inclusive and resilient circular cities.
Alternative Growing Medium for Indoor Living Walls to Foster the Removal Efficiency of Volatile Organic Compounds
Authors: Dominici Laura , Comino Elena , Pérez-Urrestarazu Luis , Pineda-Martos Rocío 
Published: May 2024

AbstractIncreasing urbanization trends led to growing concerns regarding human health risks linked to long-time exposure to poor indoor air quality. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), e.g., formaldehyde and benzene, are the most significant pollutants in indoor environments due to the high number of sources contributing to increase their concentration. Vertical Greening Systems (VGSs) have been proven as space-efficient nature-based solutions (NBS) using the ability of ornamental plants in removing VOCs. Growing media and rhizosphere community often play a pivotal role in removing indoor VOCs, especially in active biofilters. Although horticultural substrates are often overlooked in VGSs’ applications, an increasing number of studies focus on: (i) investigating sustainable opportunities provided by organic materials to produce alternative growing media; and, (ii) exploring compositions of substrates to maximize VGSs phytoremediation efficiency. This work presents preliminary results on the influence of almond shells as an alternative growing medium for VGSs on the removal efficiency of formaldehyde. For that, a VGS module with almond shells as substrate and a single species of ornamental plant was placed in a sealed chamber – specially designed to recirculate the air contaminated by formaldehyde through the module acting as an active biofilter. The system produced a clear reduction of the formaldehyde concentration, and the plants developed correctly with the substrate. Green building-integrated systems are multifunctional NBS which address challenges such as human wellbeing and circularity at local scale. Using organic growing media to improve the biofiltration capability of these systems is a promising alternative towards successful implementation in the built environment.
Exploring the Potential of Circular Economy Strategies in Urban Planning: A Comparative Analysis of Successful Case Studies
Authors: Cervantes Puma Genesis Camila , Salles Adriana , Bragança Luís 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe circular economy has emerged as a powerful solution to address environmental and socio-economic challenges in urban areas. As cities continue to grow and face increasing resource demands, adopting sustainable practices becomes critical to promote resource efficiency and improve the well-being of urban communities. This study aims to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of circular economy strategies at the urban scale, focusing on urban design and resource management. By examining successful case studies from four cities, valuable insights will gained into implementing circular economy practices in urban planning, such as waste management, renewable energy, and sustainable architecture. The comparative analysis of these cases will allow an assessment of the different approaches taken by each city and their impact on the sustainability and resilience of urban environments. This study aims to inspire and guide future urban development and promote sustainability and resilience in European cities by highlighting successful examples of circular economy implementation. Ultimately, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of circular economy principles in urban environments, highlighting their potential to promote sustainability and resilience. Through four study cases, this study will illustrate The tangible outcomes and real-world implications of adopting circular economy practices in urban landscapes.
Circular Economy as a New Concept for Sustainable Building Development in Serbia
Authors: Milović Tiana , Laban Mirjana , Bulatović Vesna , Starčev-Ćurčin Anka , Draganić Suzana , Bukvić Olivera 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe concept of circular economy has become an important topic nowadays. This paper provides a brief literature review that introduces sustainability and the circular economy by presenting their origins and their conceptual definitions. In accordance with the above-mentioned, the standards applied in Serbia are enumerated. In April 2020, the Roadmap for Circular Economy in Serbia, the first document that initiated a dialogue between decisionmakers, industry representatives, academia and civil society in order to define the goals, future steps and a time frame for the transition from a traditional linear model to the circular economy, was adopted. In November 2020, Serbia accepted the conditions of the European Union for linking the European Green Deal with the strategic development of the region by signing the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans. Furthermore, Serbia has a Digital Platform for the Circular Economy that provides support to companies through business models, examples of good practice and tools, in order to more easily apply the circular business model, and reduce the carbon footprint in production processes and products. Although the implementation of the circular economy is at the very beginning, there are already several examples of good practice in Serbia, in terms of sustainable building materials.
Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Characteristics of Built Environment Systems
Authors: Alkhawaldeh Ayah , Betoush Nour , Sawalha Ansam , Alhassan Mohammad , Abdalla Khairedin 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe sustainable built environment concept has recently gained enormous attention from academic and industrial organizations. The growth in climate-related disasters and pandemics, continuing difficulties in the energy sector, and consumer awareness regarding resources’ conservation and sustainability are considered the driving factors influencing participants toward supporting sustainable engineering applications. Furthermore, numerous professional standards and requirements for implementing and rating sustainable practices have been generated, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), cost analysis, project development (i.e., from planning through construction up to demolition), recycling, material preservation, and utilizing reusable materials. The LCA is a great method for examining and integrating a wide variety of environmental elements to provide a comprehensive picture of system sustainability. The research presented in this study covered significant environmental elements that are essential to deciding between two or more choices and improving the system. This research compared the OPC and AABC based on CO2 emissions. The results showed that the AABC produces positive sustainability outcomes in terms of CO2 emissions. The AABC emits substantially less CO2 than the OPC, indicating that it is preferable for greenhouse buildings.
Waste Generation Factors and Waste Minimisation in Construction
Authors: Alotaibi Saud , Martinez-Vazquez Pedro , Baniotopoulos Charalampos 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe consistent growth of the construction sector during the last decades has generated massive waste that severely impacts the environment. Globally, construction activities generate around 30% of the overall waste annually, and the numbers are expected to increase due to population growth projections and the need for infrastructure developments. As a matter of fact, the causes of waste can be grouped into seven categories namely, design-related, procurement-related, human-related, handling and storage, site conditions, management-related, and due to other external factors, such as the effect of weather and accidents. In addition, construction waste types are influenced by project type, size, and construction method. To mitigate the impacts of construction waste, a plethora of practices have been recommended, including innovations for procurement, design, and construction. The present study scrutinises potential opportunities for minimising construction waste and proposes future sustainability enhancement related to construction activities. A pivotal contribution of this study is the creation of a matrix that links the identified causes of construction waste with sustainability practices, offering a comprehensive insight for effectively reducing waste and enhancing the sustainability of construction activities.
Environmental Impact of Cold-Formed Z-shaped Steel Purlins
Authors: Gîrbacea Ioan Andrei , de Paula Filho José Humberto , Ungureanu Viorel 
Published: May 2024

AbstractIn an effort to mitigate climate change, the construction industry is moving toward a more responsible approach regarding production and design methods. The environmental impact of a structure must be reduced from the design phase by using reliable design approaches and choosing the production and construction processes that minimise as much as possible the carbon footprint. The purlins are components of the roof structure and their scope is to transfer the roof loads to the rafters. An efficient design of purlins is generally achieved by using cold-formed steel Z-shaped profiles. Z purlins span continuously over the rafters to reduce material use through a more favourable bending moment distribution. To ensure continuity of the bending moment along the length of the structure, the purlins form overlapped connections on the supports. The focus of this research paper is to assess through the Life Cycle Assessment methodology how the design influences the environmental impact of overlapped purlins. The paper assesses the impact of higher-grade steels versus more traditionally used steel grades. Furthermore, the adoption of steel manufactured using a high content of scrap steel and energy obtained from renewable sources facilitate the reduction of the carbon footprint of the element. Using advanced finite element models, previously validated against experimental results, the purlin systems were designed to support both gravity and pressure loads.
Framework for a Multi-level Approach for Testing the Construction Demolition Waste Hierarchy
Authors: Burmester Inês , Tavares Vanessa , Martins João Poças 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe Waste Framework Directive (WFD) proposes a Waste Hierarchy (WH), a list of waste management strategies ordered from the most to the least preferable and often illustrated as an inverted pyramid. Waste prevention is at the top of this pyramid, followed by preparing for reuse, recycling, and then other recovery activities such as waste to energy. At the bottom of this hierarchy, the waste management strategy to be avoided is waste disposal at landfills.Although this hierarchy establishes a logical framework for waste management policies, case-by-case assessment shows many exceptions to the rules implicit in this structure. Indeed, depending on the materials and constructive solutions, the order proposed by the WFD can be modified by considering a detailed LCA. On the other hand, when performed on an element level, the results of LCA may not be viable to inform policymakers on the best course of action towards a more sustainable built environment. This paper proposes a multi-level approach – at a material, element and building level – combining the waste hierarchy with the 9R framework. Assessments of building refurbishment at the building or element level can yield vastly different results, which may be relevant when addressing questions posed by each type of stakeholder according to their scope of action.