While fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) fueled by hydrogen produced using low-carbon processes could considerably reduce carbon emissions from transportation, FCEVs are produced at low volume, are ...expensive to manufacture, and lack widespread refueling infrastructure. To inform advancement pathways for FCEVs, we conducted an expert elicitation on vehicle costs and performance at anticipated production volumes, governmental actions to advance FCEVs, anticipated sales of FCEVs equipped with an automated driving system (ADS), and anticipated infrastructure deployments. Between 2020 and 2035, experts assessed a three-fold decline in fuel cell system costs to $60/kW and over an order of magnitude increase in production volume to 225,000 systems/year. Levelized costs of driving were assesed at $0.25–$0.90/mile and $0.17–$0.65/mile in 2035 and 2050, respectively. FCEVs could constitute a considerable share of ADS-equipped vehicle sales depending on cost and performance trajectories of automated driving technology and electric vehicles. Experts identified regulatory and incentive-based policies as important governmental actions to advance FCEVs and recommended hydrogen, fuel cells, and technology deployment activities each receive at least 20% of government research and development funding. Medians of experts' U.S. refueling station deployment assessments were 500 and 2,000 stations cumulative in 2030 and 2040, respectively. The middle 50% of respondents anticipated 2030 cumulative FCEV deployments in China of 100,000–1 million.
•Experts assessed fuel cell electric vehicle costs, deployments, and policies.•Expected costs declined three-fold and production grew twenty-fold from 2025 to 2035.•Fuel cells were expected to power most new automation-equipped vehicles by 2050.•Regulatory and incentive-based policies were identified as important actions.•Cumulative deployments in China will likely reach 100,000 vehicles by 2030.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Square millimeters of free-standing graphene do not exist per se because of thermal fluctuations in two-dimensional crystals and their tendency to collapse during the detachment from the substrate. ...Here we form millimeter-scale freely suspended graphene by injecting an air bubble underneath a graphene monolayer floating at the water-air interface, which allowed us to measure the contact angle on fully free-standing non-contaminated graphene. A captive bubble measurement shows that free-standing clean graphene is hydrophilic with a contact angle of 42° ± 3°. The proposed design provides a simple tool to probe and explore the wettability of two-dimensional materials in free-standing geometries and will expand our perception of two-dimensional materials technologies from microscopic to now millimeter scales.
A cost-effective and compact hydrogen storage system could advance fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Today's commercial FCEVs incorporate storage that is projected to be heavier, larger, and ...costlier than targets set by the U.S. Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability Partnership (U.S. DRIVE). To inform research and development (R&D), we elicited 31 experts' assessments of expected future costs and capacities of storage systems. Experts suggested that systems would approach U.S. DRIVE's ultimate capacity targets but fall short of cost targets at a high production volume. The 2035 and 2050 median costs anticipated by experts were $13.5 and $10.53/kWh
, gravimetric capacities of 5.2 and 5.6 wt %, and volumetric capacities of 0.93 and 1.33 kWh
/L, respectively. To meet U.S. DRIVE's targets, experts recommended allocating the majority of government hydrogen storage R&D funding to materials development. Furthermore, we incorporated experts' cost assessments into a levelized cost of driving model. Given technical and fuel price uncertainty, FCEV costs ranged from $0.38 to $0.45/mile ($0.24-$0.28/km) in 2020, $0.30 to $0.33/mile ($0.19-$0.21/km) in 2035-2050, and $0.27 to $0.31/mile ($0.17-$0.19/km) in 2050. Depending on fuel, electricity, and battery prices, our findings suggest that FCEVs could compete with conventional and alternative fuel vehicles by 2035.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Multifunctional wearable electronic textiles based on interfacial polymerization of polypyrrole on carbon nanotubes/cotton fibers offer advantages of simple and low-cost materials that incorporate ...bactericidal, good electrochemical performance, and electrical heating properties. The high conductivity of doped polypyrrole/CNT composite provides textiles that reaches temperature on order of 70 °C with field of 5 V/cm, superior electrochemical performance applied as electrodes of supercapacitor prototypes, reaching capacitance in order of 30 F g–1 and strong bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The combination of these properties can be explored in smart devices for heat and microbial treatment on different parts of body, with incorporated storage of energy on textiles.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Inflammation resolution is an active process that functions to restore tissue homeostasis. Clearance of apoptotic leukocytes by efferocytosis at inflammatory sites plays an important role in ...inflammation resolution and induces remarkable macrophage phenotypic and functional changes. Here, we investigated the effects of deletion of either plasminogen (Plg) or the Plg receptor, Plg-R
KT
, on the resolution of inflammation. In a murine model of pleurisy, the numbers of total mononuclear cells recruited to the pleural cavity were significantly decreased in both Plg
−/−
and Plg-R
KT
−/−
mice, a response associated with decreased levels of the chemokine CCL2 in pleural exudates. Increased percentages of M1-like macrophages were determined in pleural lavages of Plg
−/−
and Plg-R
KT
−/−
mice without significant changes in M2-like macrophage percentages.
In vitro
, Plg and plasmin (Pla) increased CD206/Arginase-1 expression and the levels of IL-10/TGF-β (M2 markers) while decreasing IFN/LPS-induced M1 markers in murine bone-marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) and human macrophages. Furthermore, IL4-induced M2-like polarization was defective in BMDMs from both Plg
−/−
and Plg-R
KT
−/−
mice. Mechanistically, Plg and Pla induced transient STAT3 phosphorylation, which was decreased in Plg
−/−
and Plg-R
KT
−/−
BMDMs after IL-4 or IL-10 stimulation. The extents of expression of CD206 and Annexin A1 (important for clearance of apoptotic cells) were reduced in Plg
−/−
and Plg-R
KT
−/−
macrophage populations, which exhibited decreased phagocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils (efferocytosis)
in vivo
and
in vitro
. Taken together, these results suggest that Plg and its receptor, Plg-R
KT
, regulate macrophage polarization and efferocytosis, as key contributors to the resolution of inflammation.
Deep Learning has been successfully applied to image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing in recent years. Therefore, there has been an incentive to apply it in other ...fields as well. The field of agriculture is one of the most important fields in which the application of deep learning still needs to be explored, as it has a direct impact on human well-being. In particular, there is a need to explore how deep learning models can be used as a tool for optimal planting, land use, yield improvement, production/disease/pest control, and other activities. The vast amount of data received from sensors in smart farms makes it possible to use deep learning as a model for decision-making in this field. In agriculture, no two environments are exactly alike, which makes testing, validating, and successfully implementing such technologies much more complex than in most other industries. This paper reviews some recent scientific developments in the field of deep learning that have been applied to agriculture, and highlights some challenges and potential solutions using deep learning algorithms in agriculture. The results in this paper indicate that by employing new methods from deep learning, higher performance in terms of accuracy and lower inference time can be achieved, and the models can be made useful in real-world applications. Finally, some opportunities for future research in this area are suggested.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
When direct flow velocity measurements are not feasible, the use of tracers can be a valuable tool. In the present study, both laboratory and field experiments were conducted to evaluate the ...applicability of quinine as a fluorescent tracer for estimating mean sheet flow velocities in different ambient light and surface morphology conditions. Quinine excels in low-light conditions when exposed to UVA light. This tracer was compared with dye and thermal tracers, all in liquid form. In these tracing techniques the tracers were injected into the flow, after which surface velocity was estimated by tracking the leading edge of the tracer plumes and applying a correction factor to calculate the mean velocity (in a water column). The visibility of the tracers was evaluated by measuring the relative luminance and contrast ratio of the quinine and dye tracer plumes. Results show that the quinine tracer can be used to estimate sheet flow velocities over a wide variety of soil and urban surfaces; it has better visibility in comparison to the dye tracer but, in some conditions, lower visibility than the thermal tracer. Although quinine is invisible under bright ambient light conditions, this tracer technique requires low-cost experimental setup and is useful in low-light conditions (e.g., night; twilight; shielded environments).
The current lack of an accurate, cost-effective and non-invasive test that would allow for screening and diagnosis of gynaecological carcinomas, such as endometrial and ovarian cancer, signals the ...necessity for alternative approaches. The potential of spectroscopic techniques in disease investigation and diagnosis has been previously demonstrated. Here, we used attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy to analyse urine samples from women with endometrial (n = 10) and ovarian cancer (n = 10), as well as from healthy individuals (n = 10). After applying multivariate analysis and classification algorithms, biomarkers of disease were pointed out and high levels of accuracy were achieved for both endometrial (95% sensitivity, 100% specificity; accuracy: 95%) and ovarian cancer (100% sensitivity, 96.3% specificity; accuracy 100%). The efficacy of this approach, in combination with the non-invasive method for urine collection, suggest a potential diagnostic tool for endometrial and ovarian cancers.
Application of crop residues (mulch) over the soil surface is a
common practice to control soil erosion and promote infiltration. This
laboratory study aimed at investigating the effect of different ...rice straw
mulch sizes on runoff and sediment transport. The experimental runs were
conducted using a soil flume of adjustable slope and a rainfall simulator,
considering bare soil and three different soil covers: 1, 2 and 5 t ha−1
application rates, for three sizes of rice straw mulch (10, 30
and 200 mm). The experimental results showed that for the same mulch
application rate (by weight), the smaller mulch sizes (i.e. high surface
coverage percentage) presented less soil loss. For example, 90 % soil loss
reduction was achieved for smaller sizes of rice straw mulch and 80 % for
the bigger size. The results of this study are an important contribution to
the understanding of the soil loss process in small basins and to the
definition of relevant soil conservation measures, at the plot/field scale.
With the growing volume of research involving Thysanoptera in Brazil, studies were carried out to improve our understanding of the diversity of thrips in areas where the fauna has historically been ...neglected. Accordingly, we recorded the diversity of thrips (Insecta: Thysanoptera) associated with a restinga fragment located on the campus of the State University of Ceará (UECE), Fortaleza, Ceará state, and computed the estimated richness and diversity indices. Samples were collected from 2011 through 2013 from flowers of 86 plant species. The material was taken to the Laboratory of Insect-Plant Interaction, where thrips were screened under stereomicroscope. We collected 456 adults and 58 immatures, representing 14 species, in addition to one unidentified species of Treherniella. Microcephalothrips abdominalis was found on a large number of host plants, and Frankliniella insularis was the most common species. About two-thirds of the total richness of thrips species was associated with three plant families (Amaranthaceae, Caesalpiniaceae and Poaceae); six thrips species were each associated with only one plant species. The richness of the species collected was close to that estimated by Bootstrap and Jackknife 1 analysis. The Shannon-Wiener (H') and Simpson (D) diversity indexes were 1,7607 and 0.7769, respectively. Although the species are common, 46 new associations between plant species and thrips were established, 13 of which are true host associations, which demonstrates the importance of coastal vegetation in maintaining populations of thrips.
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