Confinement Conditions Research Articles

Light-induced edge-excitation of two-dimensional surface polaritons in atomically thin crystals

We theoretically investigate the light-induced excitation of two-dimensional surface polaritons (2DSPs) at the edge of atomically thin crystals. Through our analytic model based on the coupled mode theory, we achieve a precise and quantitative description of light interaction with the crystal's edge. Our model unveils three notable properties associated with the edge-excitation of 2DSPs. Firstly, under strong confinement conditions (i.e., polariton momentum significantly surpassing free-space photon momentum), the amplitude of edge-excited 2DSPs exhibits a cosine dependency on the incident angle. Secondly, the amplitude reaches a saturation point at a specific value as polariton momentum increases, depending on the incident angle. Lastly, we demonstrate that the edge-excitation of 2DSPs entails the generation of induced unbounded waves near the edge, leading to peak oscillations due to the interference between the 2DSPs and the unbounded waves.

Prestação de cuidados em terapia ocupacional durante a COVID-19 via telessaúde para crianças de famílias que vivem em condições de vulnerabilidade e confinamento

Abstract Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on health and education, parents and children living in non-urban areas were severely affected. Objective To design and implement a telehealth based occupational therapy intervention aimed at improving the well-being of children under nine years of age living in vulnerability and confinement conditions, the latter due to the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, through the provision of context-based occupational counseling to their parent/caregivers. Methods Before-and-after study conducted in families from rural and peri-urban areas living in conditions of vulnerability and in which children were attending online school. Descriptive and a bivariate analysis of the baseline conditions of the sample were performed, as well as before-after comparisons of the objectives achieved and their differences. Results 13 families completed the assessment and intervention processes (12 sessions, 94% attendance); the average age of children was 7.3 years, and in 92.3% of the families the head of the household was a woman. The before-after goals evaluation showed there were gains in all proposed goals, with the highest gains observed in the family social participation category. Conclusions Occupational therapy, telehealth and a context-based approach provide a broad array of benefits to families and children living in vulnerability and confinement conditions.

Energy efficiency of grazing Hereford heifers classified by paternal residual feed intake

Abstract Residual feed intake (RFI) has become a widely spread index of feed efficiency. Although most of beef cattle systems in the world are pasture based, RFI evaluation and research is usually performed in confinement conditions. In this context, residual heat production (RHP) estimated as the difference between actual and expected heat production (HP), could allow to identify efficient animals. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the relationship between paternal estimated breeding values (EBV) for RFI and beef heifer efficiency, measured as RHP, as well as its association with heifers’ productive and reproductive performance on grazing conditions. Seventy-one 25 ± 0.8-mo-old and seventy-four 24 ± 0.7-mo-old Hereford heifers were managed as contemporary groups in spring 2019 and 2020, respectively. Heifers were sired by 10 RFI-evaluated bulls and classified into three groups according to the paternal EBV for RFI: five bulls of low RFI (high efficiency, pHE), two bulls of medium RFI (medium efficiency), and three bulls of high RFI (low efficiency, pLE). The experimental period lasted 70 d prior to their first insemination where HP was determined by the heart rate-O2 pulse technique. In addition, reproductive performances during the first and second breeding and calving seasons were recorded. Heifers’ RHPs expressed as MJ/d and kJ/kg of body weight (BW)0.75/d were positively correlated with paternal RFI EBVs (P < 0.05; r > 0.60). Moreover, BW and average daily gain (ADG) were greater (P < 0.01) for pHE than pLE heifers while expressed as units of BW0.75/d, neither total HP nor metabolizable energy (ME) intake differed between groups, but pHE heifers had greater retained energy (RE; P < 0.01) and lower RHP (P < 0.05) than pLE ones. Gross energy efficiency (RE/ME intake) was greater (P < 0.001) for pHE than pLE heifers while the HP/ADG and RHP/ADG were reduced (P < 0.05) and feed-to-gain ratio (ADG/DM intake) tended to be greater (P = 0.07) for pHE than pLE heifers. In addition, during the first breeding and calving seasons, small but significant (P < 0.01) differences in reproductive responses between groups suggested an earlier pregnancy in pHE heifers than the pLE group, differences that disappeared during the second breeding and calving seasons. Thus, heifers sired by high-efficiency bulls measured as RFI were more efficient measured as RHP in grazing conditions, without significant differences in reproductive performance.

A statistical theory of the photoluminescence determination of the band gap energy in nano-crystals and layered materials.

Semiconductor nano-crystals as well as two-dimensional nanostructures manifest an abnormal dependence of the optical band gap energy on the temperature. In contrast to bulk systems, in the present case the optical band gap energy increases with temperature or may show a non-monotonic blueshift-redshift behavior. It was suggested that this abnormal temperature behavior is associated with the recombination of excitons and free electron-hole pairs under conditions of quantum confinement. Here, we show that the presence of nanometer lengths and anharmonic interactions makes it necessary to rescale the energy and thermal energy of the material according to the invariance of statistical mechanics on the energy/thermal-energy ratio. In addition, considering the effects of the thermal expansion of the material, we managed to derive a formula for the optical band gap energy. Using this formula, the photoluminescence spectra are accounted for by emphasizing that the exciton and free electron-hole pair recombination is a non-thermal statistical process following a Poisson distribution in which the average value of the energy and the full width at half maximum are both directly related to the optical band gap energy. Our results account remarkably well for several experimental data reported in recent literature.

Teacher Education and Gender Equality in Greece: A case study

In the sociology of education, a great debate on the issue of gender has been created. Nowadays, educating teachers about gender equality (GE) is a matter of sustainable development especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. The special living conditions of the global social confinement as a measure to eradicate the virus disclosed a worrying outbreakof domestic and gender-based violence in all social categories. After the pandemic, the educational community has been engaged in GE and gender issues with the development of schools’ action plans as reflected in relevant studies in Greece and all over the world. The present study attempts to examine the teachers’ self-efficacy and needs concerning their training for a sustainable GE practice. The importance of the study originates from the necessity to highlight the teachers’ attitudes towards the issues of GE as Greece ranks last in the European Union on the GE Index. For this research, the tool, a validated questionnaire of teacher efficacy for GE practice is administered to secondary education teachers in Greece. Teachers are asked to assess their confidence in gender knowledge, skills, and awareness. The findings of the research showed that the majority of the teachers express their moderate perceptions, great concern, and need for training in developing practices on GE issues at school. However, there are findings that show that patriarchal values are firm in pedagogical practices. This study will create awareness of the necessity of integrating practices of GE in teacher training and education and give the initiative for further studies on the local or national level concerning the attitudes towards GE in education. Integrating GE in the national curricula through suitable teacher interventions could bridge gender inequalities and lead to a more balanced living for future generations.

Numerical modeling of open-ended piles

Deep foundations are generally used when significant loads are applied, and the site conditions do not allow for the implementation of soil reinforcement processes. This research focuses on studying the behavior of piles in a frictional environment, used as foundations for offshore structures in dense sands, involving anchor depths and overloads significantly higher than those encountered in onshore applications. The bearing capacity of open-ended driven piles plays a crucial role in this study. Therefore, a series of tests were conducted in the literature on model piles in a calibration chamber, which is considered a tool for physical modeling, allowing for significant penetration of instrumented model piles under confinement conditions similar to those experienced by real piles. Emphasis is placed on predicting the ultimate load capacity of open-ended piles using numerical methods. Calculations were performed using the finite element code PLAXIS to numerically reproduce the same shear stresses as those measured on the model during various phases of the experiment. The approach aims to validate the documented experiments in the literature and compare the ultimate load capacity of an open-ended pile to that of a closed-ended pile. Our study is limited to the case of a single pile, subject to static and axial force. The results show that it is possible to achieve a good agreement between the experiment and the numerical modeling with a relatively simple model, provided that the soil parameters are chosen correctly and the interface stiffness is adequately simulated.

Observation of Sub-10 nm Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanocrystals in Rapidly Heated van der Waals Heterostructures.

Two-dimensional materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), have the potential to revolutionize the field of electronics and photonics due to their unique physical and structural properties. This research presents a novel method for synthesizing crystalline TMDCs crystals with <10 nm size using ultrafast migration of vacancies at elevated temperatures. Through in situ and ex situ processing and using atomic-level characterization techniques, we analyzed the shape, size, crystallinity, composition, and strain distribution of these nanocrystals. These nanocrystals exhibit electronic structure signatures that differ from the 2D bulk: i.e., uniform mono- and multilayers. Further, our in situ, vacuum-based synthesis technique allows observation and comparison of defect and phase evolution in these crystals formed under van der Waals heterostructure confinement versus unconfined conditions. Overall, this research demonstrates a solid-state route to synthesizing uniform nanocrystals of TMDCs and lays the foundation for materials science in confined 2D spaces under extreme conditions.

Non-perturbative Lee-Wick gauge theory: Towards Confinement & RGE with strong couplings

We consider a non-Abelian Lee–Wick gauge theory and discuss Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin invariance. It contains fourth-order derivative as extensions of the kinetic term, leading to massive ghosts in the theory upon quantization. We particularly provide essential clues towards confinement conditions in strongly-coupled regimes, using the Kugo–Ojima approach, and obtain the functions in the non-perturbative regimes. This is achieved using a set of exact solutions of the corresponding local theory in terms of Jacobi elliptical functions. We obtain a similar function just as for the ordinary Yang-Mills theory but the main differences are that now, the cut-off arises naturally from the Lee–Wick heavy mass scales (M). We show that the fate of the ghosts are fixed in these regimes: they are no more the propagating degrees of freedom in the infrared-limit. As it also happens for the ordinary case, confinement is due to the non-Abelian nature of the theory. In the limit , one recovers the standard results for the local non-Abelian Yang-Mills theory.

Energy efficiency, reproductive performance, and metabolic parameters of grazing Hereford heifers

Feed and energy efficiency have been topics of extensive research in recent years, with residual feed intake (RFI) being the preferred index to determine feed efficiency in beef cattle. Nevertheless, the biggest downside of RFI is that its measurement requires accurately determining individual feed intake, which leads to the need to carry out RFI trials in confinement conditions. In this context, residual heat production (RHP), defined as the difference between observed and predicted heat production, presents an alternative to determine efficiency in grazing conditions as it is independent of feed intake. This work aimed to evaluate the repeatability of RHP and study its relationship with metabolic, endocrine, and reproductive variables. Seventy-four Hereford heifers were used, and at the beginning of the experimental period, heifers were 18 ± 0.7-month-old and weighed on average 278 ± 26 kg. Heat production (HP) was determined at the beginning (March to May; fall) and at the end (September to November; spring) of the experiment using the heart rate-O2 pulse technique to classify heifers according with the residual heat production (RHP). Efficient heifers showed lower HP (P < 0.01), ME (P < 0.01), and DM intake (P < 0.01) without differences in retained energy (RE; only in spring). During fall, average daily gain (ADG) was not included in the estimated HP model; therefore, although, as in RFI, RHP should be independent of BW and ADG, a trend for greater ADG and RE was found for efficient when compared with inefficient heifers. Decreased maintenance requirements (NEm and MEm) as well as higher partial efficiency of use of consumed ME (k) were estimated for more efficient heifers (low RHP; HH), while efficient heifers showed an earlier luteal phase and a shorter service-conception interval and calved earlier in the season, probably associated to an earlier development of fat tissue. Excluding glucose, no major differences were found in the plasma metabolites between groups. However, high-efficiency animals showed positive correlations with cholesterol and negative ones with NEFA plasma concentrations during fall.

Energy States of an Exciton in Truncated Paraboloid in the Intermediate Confinement Conditions

Energy States of an Exciton in Truncated Paraboloid in the Intermediate Confinement Conditions

Capturing Doublet Intermediate Emitters by Chemically Crosslinking Confinement towards Spatiotemporal Encryption

AbstractPhotoluminescence is one of the most meticulous ways to manipulate light energy. Typical photoluminescent emitters are mostly stable substances with a pure photophysical process of spontaneous photon‐emission from their excited states. Intermediate emitters are elusive attributing to their synchronous energy transfer process including photophysical and incomplete photochemical pathways. An intermediate emitter containing radicals is more difficult to be observed due to its inherent chemical reactivity. Here, these challenges are overcome by spontaneously formed space limitations in polymer crosslinking networks meanwhile chemically active intermediates are captured. These doublet intermediates exhibit unique long‐wavelength emissions under chemically crosslinking confinement conditions, and their luminous mechanism provides a novel perspective for designing intermediate emitters with liquid‐crystal character and photoresponsive features towards spatiotemporal encryption, promising for the detection of photochemical reactions and the development of fascinating luminescent systems.

Capturing Doublet Intermediate Emitters by Chemically Crosslinking Confinement towards Spatiotemporal Encryption.

Photoluminescence is one of the most meticulous ways to manipulate light energy. Typical photoluminescent emitters are mostly stable substances with a pure photophysical process of spontaneous photon-emission from their excited states. Intermediate emitters are elusive attributing to their synchronous energy transfer process including photophysical and incomplete photochemical pathways. An intermediate emitter containing radicals is more difficult to be observed due to its inherent chemical reactivity. Here, these challenges are overcome by spontaneously formed space limitations in polymer crosslinking networks meanwhile chemically active intermediates are captured. These doublet intermediates exhibit unique long-wavelength emissions under chemically crosslinking confinement conditions, and their luminous mechanism provides a novel perspective for designing intermediate emitters with liquid-crystal character and photoresponsive features towards spatiotemporal encryption, promising for the detection of photochemical reactions and the development of fascinating luminescent systems.

A Laboratory-Scale Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Confinement Conditions on the Mechanical Responses of Coal under Various Saturation Conditions

Deep coal seams are generally preferred for CO2 sequestration, during which the saturation fluids and high-stress condition involved can significantly alter the mechanical attributes of coal. To understand the effect of stress conditions on the mechanical properties of coal during CO2 sequestration, a finite element model was developed and subsequently validated using experimental data. The results indicate that coal strength increases from 10.35% for a 5 MPa CO2-saturated sample to 114.54% for an 8 MPa CO2 + water-saturated sample as the confining pressure rises from 0 to 30 MPa, due to reduced porosity. However, this effect diminishes with higher confining pressures as dilation decreases. The critical confining pressure determined in this study is approximately 20 MPa, at which all samples exhibit similar failure strength (around 48.50 MPa). Moreover, the strengthening effect caused by applied stress is especially pronounced in CO2-saturated samples, particularly in those saturated with super-critical CO2 and CO2 + water. This suggests that the reduction in coal strength resulting from the adsorption of saturation fluids can be counterbalanced by the strength gain resulting from applied stress. The aforementioned results highlight the effectiveness of injecting high-pressure super-critical CO2 into deep coal seams for carbon sequestration purposes.

The Contextual Environment as a Catalyst for Change in the Learning Process and Learning Styles of Students

This study aims to assess whether students’ learning styles have changed due to the environmental context changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. This analysis is important because learning styles, in addition to predicting vocational outcomes, must inform the design of pedagogical practices and supports used in the teaching environment. To achieve this objective, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted on three cohorts of students who enrolled in an engineering course. Students in group 2 have been under confinement conditions during the previous year, while students in group 3 have been under confinement conditions for the previous two years. Group 1 consists of students who did not experience any confinement. The obtained results lead to the following conclusions: (i) The pandemic outbreak has led to environmental changes, pedagogical practices, and changes in the personality profiles of students, which can significantly impact the learning styles of students entering an engineering degree. (ii) While some learning styles are more susceptible to change, others remain resilient. (iii) The duration of exposure to the environmental changes caused by the pandemic outbreak has a greater impact on the changes in these learning styles.

82 Critical Comparison of Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) and Cattle on Growth Performance and Carcass Traits: a Review

Abstract The multipurpose water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) has been exploited mostly for dairy purposes while being poorly utilized for meat production. However, in the marketplace, a prejudice exists against Buffalo carcasses due to most of the carcasses coming from animals at the end of their productive life on the dairy farm. Unfortunately, scarce literature establishes comparative biological endpoints between water buffaloes and cattle (Bos indicus or Bos taurus) as meat producers. Furthermore, the literature has not considered the effects of gender (i.e., male castration) for any interspecific comparison. Many unknown answers remain regarding Buffalo growth performance, carcass traits and composition with respect to cattle. Therefore, this review will discuss the pros and cons of water buffalo meat production with respect to cattle, particularly research carried out in tropical conditions, regarding the production traits indicated previously. In a few studies, water buffaloes have proven to be adaptable to tropical grazing conditions and have shown consistently faster body weight gains; but, under confinement conditions, water buffalo have shown a slower growth rate performance than cattle, requiring more days than cattle to reach a comparable body weight. Water buffaloes present heavier carcasses but ldecreased dressing percentages than cattle at different ages which are explained by their significantly greater body proportions of the head, hide and internal organs at the post-weaning ages than cattle. Additionally, under similar grazing or confinement conditions, water buffalo had abundant fat cover distribution and back fat thickness than cattle. Consequently, their carcasses yielded greater percentages of trimmed fat, with a reduced proportion of total cuts. Based on the observed growth and carcass traits, water buffalo offers a promising alternative for meat production, a specialty under tropical grazing conditions.

The impact of COVID-19 and the confinement on the secondary level students of the Eastern region of Morocco.

In March 2020, Morocco announced the first COVID-19 case and implemented preventive measures, including home confinement. Monitoring the psychological effects and prevalence among high- and middle-school students. This study is cross-sectional, carried online. The survey was conducted by publishing an online questionnaire between May 14, 2020 and June 14, 2020, which included inquiries about socio-demographic data, the conditions of home confinement, activities carried out during confinement, and medical history and sleep patterns. To assess depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and stress, the survey employed the "DSRS-c," "SCARED," and "PSS10" scales, respectively. Data were received on Google forms coded by Excel 2010 and analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics 22. Out of the 689 participants, 73.7% were females; the mean age was 16.08 years (standard deviation 1.48). 94.8% of subjects reported changes in sleep habits, and 41.4% of adolescents had high levels of depressive symptoms, while 50.7% had high levels of anxiety symptoms. Several factors were significantly associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, including being a girl (P = 0.000), being a high-school student (P = 0.011), economic struggles during the pandemic (P = 0.003), doubting the necessity of home confinement (P = 0.000), spending over 3 hours a day on social networks and video games (P = 0.000), dropping out of remote learning (P = 0.000), having a psychiatric history (P = 0.000), having chronic illnesses in the family (P = 0.002), and changes in sleep habits (P = 0.000). The study found high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms among students during the pandemic, emphasizing the need for mental health awareness and support.

A Wall Effects and Means of Controlling the Evolution of Swirling Flows with Vortex Breakdown

This paper investigates numerically the bubble-type vortex breakdown apparition in the case of closed rotating flows of a viscous, axisymmetric, and incompressible fluid. First, a truncated conical/cylindrical cavity of spherical end disks is used to simulate and analyze the vortex structure under rigid surface conditions. The geometric effects of the enclosure are also studied. Vortex breakdown is demonstrated beyond the lower disk rotation rate threshold by introducing the no-slip condition imposed on the upper wall. The objective is to explore ways of controlling the evolution of this physical event by modifying the confinement conditions upstream of the vortex rupture. Particular attention is also paid to the effective kinematic viscosity, thermal diffusivity and geometric control of recirculation zones on the axis of rotation (axial bubble type). The second geometry consists of a spherical annulus formed by two concentric hemispheres in differential rotation under plat-free surface conditions. The results show that rotation of the inner hemisphere induces a vortex bubble on the polar axis. In contrast, the outer hemisphere rotation induces a toroidal vortex on the equator.

An improved constitutive model for steel tube-confined ultra-high-strength concrete

This study aims to accurately simulate the compressive behavior of ultra-high-strength concrete (UHSC) under various confinement conditions through conventional triaxial and equi-biaxial compressive tests. The triaxial compressive tests revealed that the stress and dilation angle of the concrete varies with changes in axial plastic strain and confining pressure, which is not well-considered in existing mechanical models for UHSC material. To address this limitation, an improved constitutive model based on the concrete plastic damage (CDP) model is proposed in this paper. The improved model incorporates the confining pressure in the flow rule and the hardening/softening rule, in addition to the axial plastic strain. The tensile and compressive meridians of the yield surface are calibrated based on the triaxial and biaxial compressive test results. Furthermore, the study proposes formulas for expressing the stress–strain relation and the lateral-to-axial plastic strain relation of UHSC under different confining pressures. These formulas help generate the hardening/softening rule and the dilation angle evolution of the flow rule, respectively. To verify the proposed constitutive model, the study simulated tests on UHSC-filled steel tube (UHSCFST) stub columns under compression using the finite element method. The simulated results of the peak bearing capacity of the tested UHSCFST stub column specimens are satisfactory, and the interaction between the steel tube and the concrete is reasonably predicted. The proposed improved constitutive model has the potential to accurately simulate the compressive behavior of UHSC under different confinement conditions, which can aid in the design of composite columns made with UHSC materials.

On the interface of enzyme and spatial confinement: The impacts of confinement rigidity, shape, and surface properties on the interplay of enzyme structure, dynamics, and function

Confining proteins in synthetic nanoscale spatial compartments has offered a cell-free avenue to understand enzyme structure–function relationships and complex cellular processes near the physiological conditions, an important branch of fundamental protein biophysics studies. Enzyme confinement has also provided advancement in biocatalysis by offering enhanced enzyme reusability, cost-efficiency, and substrate selectivity in certain cases for research and industrial applications. However, the primary research efforts in this area have been focused on the development of novel confinement materials and investigating protein adsorption/interaction with various surfaces, leaving a fundamental knowledge gap, namely, the lack of understanding of the confined enzymes (note that enzyme adsorption to or interactions with surfaces differs from enzyme confinement as the latter offers an enhanced extent of restriction to enzyme movement and/or conformational flexibility). In particular, there is limited understanding of enzymes' structure, dynamics, translocation (into biological pores), folding, and aggregation in extreme cases upon confinement, and how confinement properties such as the size, shape, and rigidity affect these details. The first barrier to bridge this gap is the difficulty in “penetrating” the “shielding” of the confinement walls experimentally; confinement could also lead to high heterogeneity and dynamics in the entrapped enzymes, challenging most protein-probing experimental techniques. The complexity is raised by the variety in the possible confinement environments that enzymes may encounter in nature or on lab benches, which can be categorized to rigid confinement with regular shapes, rigid restriction without regular shapes, and flexible/dynamic confinement which also introduces crowding effects. Thus, to bridge such a knowledge gap, it is critical to combine advanced materials and cutting-edge techniques to re-create the various confinement conditions and understand enzymes therein. We have spearheaded in this challenging area by creating various confinement conditions to restrict enzymes while exploring experimental techniques to understand enzyme behaviors upon confinement at the molecular/residue level. This review is to summarize our key findings on the molecular level details of enzymes confined in (i) rigid compartments with regular shapes based on pre-formed, mesoporous nanoparticles and Metal–Organic Frameworks/Covalent-Organic Frameworks (MOFs/COFs), (ii) rigid confinement with irregular crystal defects with shapes close to the outline of the confined enzymes via co-crystallization of enzymes with certain metal ions and ligands in the aqueous phase (biomineralization), and (iii) flexible, dynamic confinement created by protein-friendly polymeric materials and assemblies. Under each case, we will focus our discussion on (a) the way to load enzymes into the confined spaces, (b) the structural basis of the function and behavior of enzymes within each compartment environments, and (c) technical advances of our methodology to probe the needed structural information. The purposes are to depict the chemical physics details of enzymes at the challenging interface of natural molecules and synthetic compartment materials, guide the selection of enzyme confinement platforms for various applications, and generate excitement in the community on combining cutting-edge technologies and synthetic materials to better understand enzyme performance in biophysics, biocatalysis, and biomedical applications.

Magnetocaloric effect of nanostructured La0.6Sr0.4CoO3

In this study, we investigate the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of nanostructured La0.6Sr0.4CoO3 (LSC) samples synthesized under confinement conditions within porous templates. Using this method, we obtained de-agglomerated nanoparticles, which provide us with the feasibility of applying them in nanoparticle films that can be tailored to intricate geometries. We specifically explored the impact of pore size of the template on key parameters including saturation magnetization (MS), Curie temperature (TC), maximum entropy change (ΔS), and relative cooling power (RCP). Our findings reveal enhancements in those quantities, that are likely to be related with the nanostructure of the samples, indicating the potential of nanostructured LSC as an active material for magnetic refrigeration devices. Our alternative approach of synthesizing magnetocaloric materials under confinement conditions presents an exciting prospect for future research and development in the field.