The need for energy storage to balance intermittent and inflexible electricity supply with demand is driving interest in conversion of renewable electricity via electrolysis into a storable gas. But, ...high capital cost and uncertainty regarding future cost and performance improvements are barriers to investment in water electrolysis. Expert elicitations can support decision-making when data are sparse and their future development uncertain. Therefore, this study presents expert views on future capital cost, lifetime and efficiency for three electrolysis technologies: alkaline (AEC), proton exchange membrane (PEMEC) and solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC). Experts estimate that increased R&D funding can reduce capital costs by 0–24%, while production scale-up alone has an impact of 17–30%. System lifetimes may converge at around 60,000–90,000 h and efficiency improvements will be negligible. In addition to innovations on the cell-level, experts highlight improved production methods to automate manufacturing and produce higher quality components. Research into SOECs with lower electrode polarisation resistance or zero-gap AECs could undermine the projected dominance of PEMEC systems. This study thereby reduces barriers to investment in water electrolysis and shows how expert elicitations can help guide near-term investment, policy and research efforts to support the development of electrolysis for low-carbon energy systems.
•10 experts project cost & performance for alkaline, PEM and solid-oxide electrolysis.•6 experts believe PEM will be the dominant electrolysis technology by 2030.•Production scale-up has more impact on cost than increased R&D funding.•Specific technical, manufacturing and value-chain innovations are named.•Insights could help guide near-term investment, policy and research efforts.
Micro‐/nanorobots (m‐bots) have attracted significant interest due to their suitability for applications in biomedical engineering and environmental remediation. Particularly, their applications in ...in vivo diagnosis and intervention have been the focus of extensive research in recent years with various clinical imaging techniques being applied for localization and tracking. The successful integration of well‐designed m‐bots with surface functionalization, remote actuation systems, and imaging techniques becomes the crucial step toward biomedical applications, especially for the in vivo uses. This review thus addresses four different aspects of biomedical m‐bots: design/fabrication, functionalization, actuation, and localization. The biomedical applications of the m‐bots in diagnosis, sensing, microsurgery, targeted drug/cell delivery, thrombus ablation, and wound healing are reviewed from these viewpoints. The developed biomedical m‐bot systems are comprehensively compared and evaluated based on their characteristics. The current challenges and the directions of future research in this field are summarized.
The design and fabrication, functionalization, actuation, and tracking of individual and a swarm of micro/nanorobots are an indispensable part for achieving biomedical applications. How to combine and integrate all the four aspects together and realize a biomedical therapeutic function using the micro‐/nanorobotic strategy is discussed.
Accounting for energy use by fishes has been taking place for over 200 years. The original, and continuing gold standard for measuring energy use in terrestrial animals, is to account for the waste ...heat produced by all reactions of metabolism, a process referred to as direct calorimetry. Direct calorimetry is not easy or convenient in terrestrial animals and is extremely difficult in aquatic animals. Thus, the original and most subsequent measurements of metabolic activity in fishes have been measured via indirect calorimetry. Indirect calorimetry takes advantage of the fact that oxygen is consumed and carbon dioxide is produced during the catabolic conversion of foodstuffs or energy reserves to useful ATP energy. As measuring CO2 in water is more challenging than measuring O2, most indirect calorimetric studies on fishes have used the rate of O2 consumption. To relate measurements of O2 consumption back to actual energy usage requires knowledge of the substrate being oxidized. Many contemporary studies of O2 consumption by fishes do not attempt to relate this measurement back to actual energy usage. Thus, the rate of oxygen consumption (M˙O2) has become a measurement in its own right that is not necessarily synonymous with metabolic rate. Because all extant fishes are obligate aerobes (many fishes engage in substantial net anaerobiosis, but all require oxygen to complete their life cycle), this discrepancy does not appear to be of great concern to the fish biology community, and reports of fish oxygen consumption, without being related to energy, have proliferated. Unfortunately, under some circumstances, these measures can be quite different from one another. A review of the methodological history of the two measurements and a look towards the future are included.
refnx is a model‐based neutron and X‐ray reflectometry data analysis package written in Python. It is cross platform and has been tested on Linux, macOS and Windows. Its graphical user interface is ...browser based, through a Jupyter notebook. Model construction is modular, being composed from a series of components that each describe a subset of the interface, parameterized in terms of physically relevant parameters (volume fraction of a polymer, lipid area per molecule etc.). The model and data are used to create an objective, which is used to calculate the residuals, log‐likelihood and log‐prior probabilities of the system. Objectives are combined to perform co‐refinement of multiple data sets and mixed‐area models. Prior knowledge of parameter values is encoded as probability distribution functions or bounds on all parameters in the system. Additional prior probability terms can be defined for sets of components, over and above those available from the parameters alone. Algebraic parameter constraints are available. The software offers a choice of fitting approaches, including least‐squares (global and gradient‐based optimizers) and a Bayesian approach using a Markov‐chain Monte Carlo algorithm to investigate the posterior distribution of the model parameters. The Bayesian approach is useful for examining parameter covariances, model selection and variability in the resulting scattering length density profiles. The package is designed to facilitate reproducible research; its use in Jupyter notebooks, and subsequent distribution of those notebooks as supporting information, permits straightforward reproduction of analyses.
The refnx Python modules for neutron and X‐ray reflectometry data analysis are introduced. A sample analysis illustrates a Bayesian approach using a Markov‐chain Monte Carlo algorithm to understand the confidence in the fit parameters.
Microchimerism (Mc) refers to the harboring of a small number of cells (or DNA) that originated in a different individual. Naturally acquired Mc derives primarily from maternal cells in her progeny, ...or cells of fetal origin in women. Both maternal and fetal Mc are detected in hematopoietic cells including T and B cells, monocyte/macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells and granulocytes. Mc appears also to generate cells such as myocytes, hepatocytes, islet β cells and neurons. Here, the detrimental and beneficial potential of Mc is examined. The prevalence, diversity and durability of naturally acquired Mc, including in healthy individuals, indicates that a shift is needed from the conventional paradigm of ‘self versus other’ to a view of the normal ‘self’ as constitutively chimeric.
A review of technological solutions and advances in the framework of a Vertical Heterogeneous Network (VHetNet) integrating satellite, airborne and terrestrial networks is presented. The disruptive ...features and challenges offered by a fruitful cooperation among these segments within a ubiquitous and seamless wireless connectivity are described. The available technologies and the key research directions for achieving global wireless coverage by considering all these layers are thoroughly discussed. Emphasis is placed on the available antenna systems in satellite, airborne and ground layers by highlighting strengths and weakness and by providing some interesting trends in research. A summary of the most suitable applicative scenarios for future 6G wireless communications are finally illustrated.
To meet the food demands of an increasing world population, it is necessary to improve crop production; a task that is made more challenging by the changing climate. Several recent reports show that ...increasing the capacity of plants to assimilate carbon (source strength), or to tap into the internal carbon reservoir (sink strength), has the potential to improve plant productivity in the field under water-deficit conditions. Here, we review the effects of water deficit on the source–sink communication, as well as the respective regulatory mechanisms underpinning plant productivity. We also highlight stress-tolerant traits that can contribute to harness source and sink strengths towards producing high-yielding and drought-tolerant crops, depending on the drought scenario.
Plants have evolved intricate systems to balance carbon assimilation (source strength) and usage (sink strength), however, drought disrupts this equilibrium, causing large losses in plant productivity.Recently, our increasing understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to drought show that plants that are able to maintain source and sink strengths under stress are more resilient and productive.
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