Currently, tremendous efforts have been made to explore efficient glucose oxidation electrocatalysts for enzymeless glucose sensors to meet the urgent demands for accurate and fast detection of glucose in the fields of health care and environmental monitoring. In this work, an advanced nanostructured material based on the well-aligned CuO/Cu2S heteronanorods incorporated with P atoms is successfully synthesized on a copper substrate. The as-synthesized material shows high catalytic behavior accompanied by outstanding electrical conductivity. This, combined with the unique morphology of unstacked nanorod arrays, which endow the entire material with a greater number of exposed active sites, make the proposed material act as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for the glucose oxidation reaction. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that P doping endows P-doped CuO/Cu2S with excellent electrical conductivity and glucose adsorption capability, significantly improving its catalytic performance. As a result, a non-enzymatic glucose sensor fabricated based on our proposed material exhibits a broad linear detection range (0.02-8.2 mM) and a low detection limit (0.95 μM) with a high sensitivity of 2.68 mA mM-1 cm-2 and excellent selectivity.

Stone wool materials have gained considerable attention due to their effectiveness as thermal and acoustic insulation solutions. The comprehension of crystal structure properties is pivotal in determining the overall performance of these materials, as it enables us to optimize their composition for enhanced insulating capabilities. Crucial factors such as structural, mechanical, and thermodynamic characteristics of crystalline phases within stone wool are vital for evaluating its thermal and acoustic insulation properties. This study investigates the properties of calcium aluminum silicate crystal phases commonly present in stone wool, including anorthite, svyatoslavite, scolecite, and dehydrated scolecite using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In comparison to previous works, this study provides a more comprehensive analysis using advanced DFT calculations. Our analysis reveals the complex interplay between the crystal structures and mechanical behavior of these phases. The calculated bulk modulus of the phases varies significantly, ranging from 38 to 83 GPa. We have compared the calculated elastic properties with available experimental data and found excellent agreement, confirming the accuracy of the computational approach. Moreover, we find that polymorphism has a significant impact on the mechanical strength, with anorthite exhibiting higher strength compared to svyatoslavite. Furthermore, dehydration is found to cause a reduction in unit volume and mechanical strength. The thermodynamic properties of dehydrated scolecite, including entropy and heat capacity, are significantly lower due to the absence of water molecules. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the structural and mechanical characteristics of calcium aluminum silicate phases in stone wool materials. Additionally, our findings have broader implications in various industries requiring effective insulation solutions such as to develop new materials or to enhance the energy efficiency of existing insulating products.

Cordyceps militaris has been long known for valuable health benefits by folk experience and was recently reported with diabetes-tackling evidences, thus deserving extending efforts on screening for component-activity relationship. In this study, experiments were carried out to find the evidence, justification, and input for computations on the potential against diabetes-related protein structures: PDB-4W93, PDB-3W37, and PDB-4A3A. Liquid chromatography identified 14 bioactive compounds in the ethyl acetate extract (1–14) and quantified the contents of cordycepin (0.11%) and adenosine (0.01%). Bioassays revealed the overall potential of the extract against α-amylase (IC50 = 6.443 ± 0.364 mg.mL−1) and α-glucosidase (IC50 = 2.580 ± 0.194 mg.mL−1). A combination of different computational platforms was used to select the most promising candidates for applications as anti-diabetic bio-inhibitors, i.e. 1 (ground state: −888.49715 a.u.; dipole moment 3.779 Debye; −12.3 kcal.mol−1; polarizability 34.7 Å3; logP − 1.30), 10 (ground state: −688.52406 a.u.; dipole moment 5.487 Debye; −12.6 kcal.mol−1; polarizability 24.9 Å3; logP − 3.39), and 12 (ground state: −1460.07276 a.u.; dipole moment 3.976 Debye; −12.5 kcal.mol−1; polarizability 52.4 Å3; logP − 4.39). The results encourage further experimental tests on cordycepin (1), mannitol (10), and adenosylribose (12) to validate their in-practice diabetes-related activities, thus conducive to hypoglycemic applications. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Thin-amorphous Al2O3 (AO) insulating layers inserted into the SrRuO3-top-electrode/Pb0.9La0.1Zr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PL)/SrRuO3-bottom-electrode/Si structures have been developed for enhancing the energy-storage performance of dielectric thin-film capacitors. It is found that the relaxor-paraelectric transition is observed by the insertion of the AO layer, and the paraelectric behavior of the films becomes stronger with the movement of the AO layer into the PL layer. Herein, a marked enhancement in breakdown strength from 2.5 to 5.8 MV/cm has been achieved in the PL single-film and PL/AO multilayer-film, which is the result of the simultaneous contributions of amorphous AO and pyrochlore-phase PL layers. As a result, an ultrahigh-recoverable energy-storage density of 90.7 J/cm3 and excellent energy-efficiency of 75.2% are simultaneously achieved in the PL/AO multilayer-film via the structure modulation. The findings provide an effective way to enhance the energy-storage density and breakdown strength of dielectric films via a combination of relaxor PL and amorphous AO layers. Data will be made available on request.

Design standards in the field of construction that have been decided by the Ministry of Construction are prepared based on European standards adapted to the conditions in Vietnam. The application of the new standards is following a specified roadmap. The process of drafting and gathering comments is currently undertaken to complete the final versions. In this article, the authors present some remaining challenges related to structural and geotechnical design standards developed by the Institute of Building Science and Technology, along with proposed solutions to enhance the application process.

Performance based design is an approach that being supported in several countries for constructions design in general, and design of fire safety for buildings in particular. However, in the aspect of authority, to pursue this design approach it is needed to provide relevant regulations that replace to current prescriptives onces. By reviewing major features of performance based standards that are applied in some countries, this paper would like to figure out and suggest the parameters should be considered and clearified for establishing the regulations on performance based design for fire safety of building that correspond to the specific features of Viet Nam.

As a typical developing country, Indonesia is the only Southeast Asian country in the G20 nations. The country is undergoing rapid urbanization, and cities must be expanded vertically to accommodate this urbanization rate within constrained horizontal spaces. Although this helped address the housing shortage issue, it caused significant environmental impacts. Owing to structural requirements, high-rise buildings often need more building materials than low-rise and medium-rise buildings. In other words, tall apartment buildings consume more energy and emit more CO2. This study applies the qualitative and quantitative methods to classify the standard design of high-rise apartments, then assessing environmental impacts of building materials in major cities in Indonesia. Findings of the study may be applied to develop low-carbon apartments and achieve sustainable development in developing countries, specially Vietnam.

Performance based design is an approach that being supported in several countries for constructions design in general, and design of fire safety for buildings in particular. However, in the aspect of authority, to pursue this design approach it is needed to provide relevant regulations that replace to current prescriptives onces. By reviewing major features of performance based standards that are applied in some countries, this paper would like to figure out and suggest the parameters should be considered and clearified for establishing the regulations on performance based design for fire safety of building that correspond to the specific features of Viet Nam.

Tl2HgGeSe4 crystal was successfully, for the first time, synthesized by the Bridgman-Stockbarger technology, and its electronic structure and peculiarities of optical constants were investigated using both experimental and theoretical techniques. The present X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that the Tl2HgGeSe4 crystal reveals small moisture sensitivity at ambient conditions and that the essential covalent constituent of the chemical bonding characterizes it. The latter suggestion was supported theoretically by ab initio calculations. The present experiments feature that the Tl2HgGeSe4 crystal is a high-resistance semiconductor with a specific electrical conductivity of σ ∼ 10-8 Ω-1 cm-1 (at 300 K). The crystal is characterized by p-type electroconductivity with an indirect energy band gap of 1.28 eV at room temperature. It was established that a good agreement with the experiments could be obtained when performing first-principles calculations using the modified Becke-Johnson functional as refined by Tran-Blaha with additional involvement in the calculating procedure of the Hubbard amendment parameter U and the impact of spin-orbit coupling (TB-mBJ + U + SO model). Under such a theoretical model, we have determined that the energy band gap of the Tl2HgGeSe4 crystal is equal to 1.114 eV, and this band gap is indirect in nature. The optical constants of Tl2HgGeSe4 are calculated based on the TB-mBJ + U + SO model.