Bioenergy is the largest contributor of global renewables, simultaneously providing energy security to billions and stimulates rural development. The growing industrial demand of wood pellets for ...bioenergy coupled with sustainability issue have encouraged many to produce fuel pellets from non-woody biomass. The production and utilization of fuel pellets from varied feedstocks have therefore opened up opportunities and challenges for the existing technologies. The paper presents a state-of-the-art review on production and utilization of fuel pellets from biomass. This includes different aspects of pellet making process including pre-possessing of biomass for pelletization, influence of process parameters on pellet quality and various ways to utilize pellets. Finally the review ends with a discussion on the economic feasibility of fuel pellets for energy utilization.
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•Review of biomass fuel pellets production has been presented comprehensively.•Main emphasis is on review of technical parameters of pelletization.•Fuel pellets applications in different areas have been discussed.•Techno-economic feasibility of pellets and recent patents has been reviewed.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to experience poorer health outcomes than other population groups. While data specific to Indigenous Australians are scarce, a known social ...health literacy gradient exists linking low health literacy and poor health outcomes within many minority populations. Improving health literacy among Indigenous Australians is an important way to support self-determination and autonomy in both individuals and communities, by enhancing knowledge and improving health outcomes. This review aims to rigorously examine the effectiveness of health literacy interventions targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
A systematic review across six databases (The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, SCOPUS, ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis and Web of Science) was performed for publications evaluating interventions to improve health literacy among Indigenous Australian adults using search terms identifying a range of related outcomes.
Of 824 articles retrieved, a total of five studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. The included studies evaluated the implementation of workshops, structured exercise classes and the provision of discounted fruit and vegetables to improve nutrition, modify risk factors for chronic diseases, and improve oral health literacy. All interventions reported statistically significant improvement in at least one measured outcome. However, there was limited involvement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members in the research process and participant retention rates were sub-optimal.
There is limited evidence on interventions to improve health literacy in Indigenous Australian adults. Participation in interventions was often suboptimal and loss to follow-up was high. Future studies co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members are needed to improve health literacy in this population.
Purpose
This paper aims to examines the moderating effect of small vs large supply base size on the relationship between strategic sustainable purchasing (SSP) and organizational sustainability ...performance (OSP). SSP is conceptualized as a dynamic capability consisting of strategic purchasing and environmental purchasing. Environmental collaboration is conceptualized as a mediator between SSP and OSP. Extant research has not examined the effect of the size of the supply base on the relationship between SSP and OSP.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypothesized relationships are tested using a two-step multi-group analysis in partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
A small supply base size positively moderates the relationship between SSP and environmental collaboration, thus achieving OSP. In contrast, when the supply base is large, strategic purchasing is positively associated with environmental collaboration, while environmental purchasing is negatively related to environmental collaboration. A large supply base has a positive relationship to environmental collaboration and economic sustainability, while the relationship between environmental collaboration and environmental and social performance is not significant.
Practical implications
This research argues that despite the nuances in the moderating effects of small versus large supply base size, managers need to invest in both dynamic and relational capabilities to achieve organizational sustainability.
Originality/value
Scant research is available in supply chain management research that has examined the important effect of the supply base size on the relationship between SSP and OSP. This research aims to fill this gap. The study helps practitioners understand the effects of supply base sizes for their organizations, increase interrelationships among suppliers, reduce the level of differentiation among them, and, thereby, reduce costs and increase revenues.
In the ever-increasing demand of construction and construction materials worldwide, concrete is the most extensively used material for construction purposes almost next to the water. Therefore, there ...is a dire need of clean, green and durable concrete. Recently, an environmentally friendly strategy has been employed to manufacture bio-concrete by the usage of microorganisms in the traditional concrete to enhance its durability and compressive strength. In this review, we discuss the role of microbes in influencing the various properties of concrete such as compressive strength, flexural strength and tensile strength by reducing the concrete porosity and diminishing water absorption. The mechanism of microbial-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) in the traditional concrete by the action of microbes which resulted in the formation of bio-concrete as an improved building material has also been discussed. Additionally, an in-depth comparative analysis of the performance of bio-concrete with the traditional concrete synthesized from various industrial wastes such as silica fume, rice husk ash and metakaolin in terms of different properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength and percentage water absorption has been presented. This review highlights the impact of usage of microbes in the conventional concrete to produce novel and eco-friendly bio-concrete in construction technology.
Environmental costs associated with meat production have necessitated researchers and food manufacturers to explore alternative sources of high-quality protein, especially from plant origin. Proteins ...from peanuts and peanut-by products are high-quality, matching industrial standards and nutritional requirements. This review contributes to recent developments in the production of proteins from peanut and peanut meal. Conventional processing techniques such as hot-pressing kernels, use of solvents in oil removal, and employing harsh acids and alkalis denature the protein and damage its functional properties, limiting its use in food formulations. Controlled hydrolysis (degree of hydrolysis between 1 and 10%) using neutral and alkaline proteases can extract proteins and improve peanut proteins’ functional properties, including solubility, emulsification, and foaming activity. Peanut proteins can potentially be incorporated into meat analogues, bread, soups, confectionery, frozen desserts, and cakes. Recently, pretreatment techniques (microwave, ultrasound, high pressure, and atmospheric cold plasma) have been explored to enhance protein extraction and improve protein functionalities. However, most of the literature on physicochemical pretreatment techniques has been limited to the lab scale and has not been analysed at the pilot scale. Peanut-derived peptides also exhibit antioxidant, anti-hypertensive, and anti-thrombotic properties. There exists a potential to incorporate these peptides into high-fat foods to retard oxidation. These peptides can also be consumed as dietary supplements for regulating blood pressure. Further research is required to analyse the sensory attributes and shelf lives of these novel products. In addition, animal models or clinical trials need to be conducted to validate these results on a larger scale.
•Fruit processing waste as a sustainable feedstock for recovery of bioactives is investigated.•The quantum, current utilization and composition is discussed to define the potential application ...areas.•Novel integrated future biorefineries are proposed and potential challenges are discussed with possible solutions.
Fruit processing industries contribute more than 0.5billion tonnes of waste worldwide. The global availability of this feedstock and its untapped potential has encouraged researchers to perform detailed studies on value-addition potential of fruit processing waste (FPW). Compared to general food or other biomass derived waste, FPW are found to be selective and concentrated in nature. The peels, pomace and seed fractions of FPW could potentially be a good feedstock for recovery of bioactive compounds such as pectin, lipids, flavonoids, dietary fibres etc. A novel bio-refinery approach would aim to produce a wider range of valuable chemicals from FPW. The wastes from majority of the extraction processes may further be used as renewable sources for production of biofuels. The literature on value addition to fruit derived waste is diverse. This paper presents a review of fruit waste derived bioactives. The financial challenges encountered in existing methods are also discussed.
The incorporation of converter-based generating sources in utility-scale microgrids causes frequency instability and low-frequency oscillations (LFOs), which is also a reason for degeneration in ...system stability. Damping frequency control is an essential part of alternating current (AC) microgrid system operation and control. Sudden changes in load, variations in renewable power outputs due to changes in solar insolation or wind speed, and so on factors cause the system frequency to deviate from the nominal value. Therefore, the role of a frequency controller is to maintain the dynamic stability in an AC microgrid by retaining the system frequency at the nominal value. Again, AC microgrids with high renewable power penetration face even more difficulty in maintaining frequency stability because of their poor inertial response. The research presented here proposes a novel approach for grid-connected AC microgrid oscillation damping and frequency control that simultaneously takes into consideration time delay and noise. To improve the frequency response and dampen LFOs by providing the voltage and frequency within the specified range, a coordinated technique-based control approach is adopted. In the developed hybrid control, the frequency controller relies on active power modulation, while the power oscillation damping controller is dependent on reactive power modulation. To improve stability and reduce communication consequences such as noise and signal latency (time delay), the developed power oscillation damping controller and frequency controller are coordinated along with the robust linear quadratic Gaussian controller. The comparative investigation of the effectiveness of the coordinated control technique is employed in the software of MATLAB/Simulink for grid-connected AC microgrid. The outcome of the simulation illustrates the superior effectiveness of the suggested controller over the traditional droop controller for huge power flows under disturbance with various operating conditions, under/overfrequency events, time delay, and noise. This grid encouragement capability for AC microgrids is anticipated to lead to novel possibilities for generating revenue.
Cancer chemotherapy has been one of the major medical advances in the last few decades. However, the drugs used for this therapy have a narrow therapeutic index, and often the responses produced are ...only just palliative as well as unpredictable. In contrast, targeted therapy that has been introduced in recent years is directed against cancer-specific molecules and signaling pathways and thus has more limited nonspecific toxicities. Tyrosine kinases are an especially important target because they play an important role in the modulation of growth factor signaling. This review focuses on small molecule inhibitors of tyrosine kinase. They compete with the ATP binding site of the catalytic domain of several oncogenic tyrosine kinases. They are orally active, small molecules that have a favorable safety profile and can be easily combined with other forms of chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Several tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been found to have effective antitumor activity and have been approved or are in clinical trials. The inhibitors discussed in this manuscript are imatinib mesylate (STI571; Gleevec), gefitinib (Iressa), erlotinib (OSI-1774; Tarceva), lapatinib (GW-572016), canertinib (CI-1033), semaxinib (SU5416), vatalanib (PTK787/ZK222584), sorafenib (BAY 43-9006), sutent (SU11248), and leflunomide (SU101). TKIs are thus an important new class of targeted therapy that interfere with specific cell signaling pathways and thus allow target-specific therapy for selected malignancies. The pharmacological properties and anticancer activities of these inhibitors are discussed in this review. Use of these targeted therapies is not without limitations such as the development of resistance and the lack of tumor response in the general population. The availability of newer inhibitors and improved patient selection will help overcome these problems in the future.
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