Strategy For Construction Research Articles

Current Developments and Future Directions in Energy-Efficient Buildings from the Perspective of Building Construction Materials and Enclosure Systems

The need to design buildings in compliance with the Paris Agreement goal requirements is urgent, and architects and engineers need to consider energy use and operational and embodied carbon requirements in doing so. Building envelopes will be an important element in the next generation of high-performance buildings and there have been significant advancements in recent years to develop building envelopes that help mitigate the building carbon emissions through energy-conserving low-embodied carbon or carbon-sequestering solutions. The key objective of this article is to present an overview of the state-of-the-art in the field of energy-efficient low-carbon buildings with a focus on envelope systems. This article provides a survey of the literature on energy use and carbon emissions of the United States building stock, presents recent advancements in energy-conserving building envelopes, and highlights reuse–reduce–sequester strategies that mitigate the embodied carbon of buildings. As materials are critical in reducing the energy consumption and carbon emissions of buildings, this paper also presents developments on diverse materials and building envelope solutions that have been effective in creating high-performance buildings, from insulation materials to phase-change materials and aerogels. Finally, the characteristics of a selected number of progressive net-zero-energy guidelines such as Passive House Institute (PHI) standards, Passive House Institute US (Phius) standards, the PowerHouse standard, and the BENG standard are discussed. The findings of this work highlight the increased focus on the design, construction, and engineering strategies that aim to mitigate the carbon emissions of buildings based on a holistic whole-life carbon mitigation approach.

Nitrogen-metal-oxygen moieties enriched surface reconstruction in CoFe electrocatalysts for stabilizing high-valence Co sites enable water oxidation

Despite the potential of heterostructure construction and surface reconstruction strategies to significantly enhance the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance of transition metal compounds, integrating these approaches into a single material system remains a significant challenge. In this work, we report an efficient CoFe-LDH catalyst with multi-metal nitrides on the surface through simple and tunable N2-plasma treatment (PL CoFe-LDH). Structural characterization and theoretical calculations indicate a high concentration of defective sites in PL CoFe-LDH, which facilitates the exposure of a greater number of active NFeO and NCoO centers. During the initial stage of the OER process, there is a rapid phase transition of Fe and Co, leading to the formation of metal (oxy)hydroxides. Meanwhile, Co3+ species gradually accumulate on the surfaces, which is responsible for the excellent OER catalytic activity. Then, the neighboring N atoms function as electron reservoirs, donating electrons to the Co sites to prevent overoxidation and dissolution of Co in the electrolyte, thus significantly enhancing the stability of the OER. The catalysts enable the achievement of ultralow OER overpotential, measuring 161.1 and 205.5 mV at current densities of 10 mA cm−2 and 200 mA cm−2, respectively, while exhibiting exceptional stability.

Thickly Planting Seeds of Attracting Talents and Breaking through the Difficult Soil of Retaining Talents A Study Based on 140 Natural Villages in Guandu Township, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, China

This research was carried out in the guiding background of the rural construction strategy and the important reports published in 2017, with seven categories of natural village residents of Guandu Town, Potou District, Zhanjiang City, local university students, rural construction cadres, government cadres, returning entrepreneurs, local industrial businessmen, and old and new vanguard members as the objects of the research, and was carried out through five major methods, including the interview survey method, the questionnaire survey method, the field survey method, and the case The research was carried out in five major ways, such as interview survey method, questionnaire survey method, field survey method and case study analysis method. After analyzing and summarizing the content of the research, we learned that there is a dilemma of talent construction in Guandu Town. This research aims to explore the current situation of talent in the construction of the countryside and the existing problems, through the Guandu Township as an example of its talent resources in the problem of targeted investigation and analysis, and further for the construction of the countryside to make the theoretical as well as practical impact and recommendations.

Optimization of multi-criteria decision-making for dental implant selection

The long-term biomechanical performance of dental implants is significantly influenced by material composition, anticipated loads, and the geometry of the interface between the implant and the bone. This study applies multi-criteria decision-making methods to select an optimal construction strategy. Through finite element analysis, variables such as implant geometry and stress distribution during loading are integrated into the decisionmaking process. By processing the results of alternative implants, we ranked these alternatives using an Excel implementation of the VIKOR decision support method commonly used in the literature. Results indicate that the optimal stress distribution depends on the size and shape of the implant. Selecting symmetric fixation points and optimal distances may enhance implant stability and long-term performance.

Constructing Gradient Orbital Coupling to Induce Reactive Metal-Support Interaction in Pt-Carbide Electrocatalysts for Efficient Methanol Oxidation.

Reactive metal-support interaction (RMSI) is an emerging way to regulate the catalytic performance for supported metal catalysts. However, the induction of RMSI by the thermal reduction is often accompanied by the encapsulation effect on metals, which limits the mechanism research and applications of RMSI. In this work, a gradient orbital coupling construction strategy was successfully developed to induce RMSI in Pt-carbide system without a reductant, leading to the formation of L12-PtxM-MCy (M = Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, and W) intermetallic electrocatalysts. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the gradient coupling of the d(M)-2p(C)-5d(Pt) orbital would induce the electron transfer from M to C covalent bonds to Pt NPs, which facilitates the formation of C vacancy (Cv) and the subsequent M migration (occurrence of RMSI). Moreover, the good correlation between the formation energy of Cv and the onset temperature of RMSI in Pt-MCx systems proves the key role of nonmetallic atomic vacancy formation for inducing RMSI. The developed L12-Pt3Ti-TiC catalyst exhibits excellent acidic methanol oxidation reaction activity, with mass activity of 2.36 A mgPt-1 in half-cell and a peak power density of 187.9 mW mgPt-1 in a direct methanol fuel cell, which is one of the best catalysts ever reported. DFT calculations reveal that L12-Pt3Ti-TiC favorably weakens *CO absorption compared to Pt-TiC due to the change of the absorption site from Pt to Ti, which accounts for the enhanced MOR performance.

Improving Charge Transfer Beyond Conventional Heterojunction Photoelectrodes: Fundamentals, Strategies and Applications

AbstractPhotoelectrochemical (PEC) cells are regarded as a promising approach to convert sunlight to chemical fuels, whereas the serious photo‐induced charge recombination of the semiconductor photoelectrode hinders its solar conversion efficiency. Over the past few decades, designing and constructing heterojunction photoelectrodes via thermodynamically favorable charge transfer have been proven to be effective in boosting photo‐induced charge separation. However, the conventional heterojunction construction strategy generally introduces incompatible, nonconformal, or defective interfaces, leaving considerable room to improve the thermodynamically favorable charge transfer efficiency in the heterojunction photoelectrodes. To compensate for the unsatisfied charge transfer efficiency, some novel strategies, such as grain boundary engineering, band gap engineering, field‐effected engineering, etc., are adopted to provide additional charge transfer driving force, which significantly improves the charge transfer efficiency. In this review, these novel strategies are discussed beyond the conventional heterojunction construction, and the prospects for the development and applications of heterojunction photoanodes are also proposed.

Plasma Coupled Electrolyte Additive Strategy for Construction of High-Performance Solid Electrolyte Interphase on Li Metal Anodes.

High-performance lithium metal anodes are crucial for the development of advanced Li metal batteries. Herein, this work reports a novel plasma coupled electrolyte additive strategy to prepare high-quality composite solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on Li metal to achieve enhanced performance and stability. With the guidance of calculations, this work selects diethyl dibromomalonate (DB) as an additive to optimize the solvation structure of electrolytes to modify the SEI. Meanwhile, this work groundbreakingly develops DB plasma technology coupled with DB electrolyte additive to construct a combinatorial SEI: inner plasma-induced SEI layer composed of LiBr and Li2CO3 plus additive-reduced SEI containing LiBr/Li2CO3/organic lithium compounds as an outer compatible layer. The optimized hybrid SEI has strong affinity toward Li+ and good mechanical properties, thereby inducing horizontal dispersion and uniform deposition of Li+ and keep structure stable. Accordingly, the symmetrical cells exhibit enhanced cycling stability for 1200h at an overpotential of 23.8mV with average coulombic efficiency (99.51%). Additionally, the full cells with LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode deliver a capacity retention of 81.7% after 300 cycles at 0.5 C, and the pouch cell achieves a volumetric specific energy of ≈664Wh L‒1. This work provides new enlightenment on plasma technology for fabrication of advanced metal anodes for energy storage.

Phishing behavior detection on different blockchains via adversarial domain adaptation

Despite the growing attention on blockchain, phishing activities have surged, particularly on newly established chains. Acknowledging the challenge of limited intelligence in the early stages of new chains, we propose ADA-Spear-an automatic phishing detection model utilizing adversarial domain adaptive learning which symbolizes the method’s ability to penetrate various heterogeneous blockchains for phishing detection. The model effectively identifies phishing behavior in new chains with limited reliable labels, addressing challenges such as significant distribution drift, low attribute overlap, and limited inter-chain connections. Our approach includes a subgraph construction strategy to align heterogeneous chains, a layered deep learning encoder capturing both temporal and spatial information, and integrated adversarial domain adaptive learning in end-to-end model training. Validation in Ethereum, Bitcoin, and EOSIO environments demonstrates ADA-Spear’s effectiveness, achieving an average F1 score of 77.41 on new chains after knowledge transfer, surpassing existing detection methods.

Bismuth oxychloride-sodium alginate hydrogel derived interface desalination solar evaporator for environmental remediation

In order to solve the pollution faced by traditional evaporators, an interface evaporator containing a floating unit and a bismuth oxychloride composite hydrogel unit was constructed. The innovation lies in: 1. The infiltrating behavior of the floating unit is non-wetting; 2. The water contact angle of the floating layer is 160° and the construction strategy can be extended to sponges, fabrics and felts. The obtained bismuth oxychloride composite hydrogel retained an excellent water supply and salt suppression capacity, with the water droplets expanding within 120 ms and reaching a steam production rate of 1.82 kg·m−2·h−1. From band structure calculation, the conduction and valence band are −0.928 eV and 1.502 eV, respectively. Comparative experiments and ESR analyses demonstrated the h+ degraded species. It is hoped that the construction of the above interface evaporator could bring a new solution for environmental restoration.

Light-controlled protein imprinted nanospheres with variable recognition specificity

This work develops a protein imprinted nanosphere with varied recognition specificity for bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme (Lyz) under different UV light through a gradient dual crosslinked imprinting strategy (i.e., covalent crosslinking and dynamic reversible crosslinking). The imprinting cavities are initially constructed using irreversible covalent crosslinking to specifically recognize BSA, and then the coumarin residues in the imprinting cavities are crosslinked under 365 nm UV light to further imprint Lyz, because Lyz has smaller size than BSA. Since the photo-crosslinking of coumarin is a reversible reaction, the imprinting cavities of Lyz can be de-crosslinked under 254 nm UV light and restore the imprinting cavities of BSA. Moreover, the N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM) and pyrrolidine residues copolymerized in the polymeric surface of the nanospheres are temperature- and pH-responsive respectively. Therefore, the protein rebinding and release behaviors of the nanospheres are controlled by external temperature and pH. As a result, the materials can selectively separate BSA from real bovine whole blood and Lyz from egg white under different UV light. This study may provide a new strategy for construction of protein imprinted materials with tunable specificity for different proteins.

Dredging Area Ecosystem Restoration Based on Biochar-Improved Sediment and Submerged Plant System

Ecological restoration in dredging areas has attracted increasing attention. The reconstruction of a submerged plant ecosystem is an important method for aquatic ecosystem restoration. This study has systematically investigated the effect of biochar-improved sediment on the plant growth and decontamination efficiency of a constructed ecosystem. Microbial community composition and structure in the sediment were detected. The results showed that a supplement of 20 mg/g of biochar significantly increased the biomass of the submerged plants compared with other doses (0, 10, and 40 mg/g). The biomass and chlorophyll content were significantly inhibited by supplementing 40 mg/g of biochar. In the Ceratophyllum demersum L. system, TP and NH4+-N concentrations were significantly lower after treatment with 20 mg/g of biochar compared to other doses. In Vallisneria spiralis L. and Hydrilla verticillata (L. f.) Royle systems, NH4+-N, TP, and DO concentrations were significantly different among different biochar treatments. In general, 20 mg/g of biochar improved water quality in different submerged plant systems, while 40 mg/g of biochar had adverse effects on water quality, such as higher NH4+-N and TP concentrations. The dominant microbial community included Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteriota, and Bacteroidota. The structure and function of microbial communities were different among submerged plants and biochar treatments. Our results proposed a construction strategy of submerged plants in the dredging area.

Iron-Catalyzed Asymmetric Imidation of Sulfides via Sterically Biased Nitrene Transfer.

Transition-metal-catalyzed enantioselective nitrene transfer to sulfides has emerged as one of the most powerful strategies for rapid construction of enantioenriched sulfimides. However, achieving stereocontrol over highly active earth-abundant transition-metal nitrenoid intermediates remains a formidable challenge compared with precious metals. Herein, we disclose a chiral iron(II)/N,N'-dioxide-catalyzed enantioselective imidation of dialkyl and alkyl aryl sulfides using iminoiodinanes as nitrene precursors. A series of chiral sulfimides were obtained in moderate-to-good yields with high enantioselectivities (56 examples, up to 99% yield, 98:2 e.r.). The utility of this methodology was demonstrated by late-stage modification of complex molecules and synthesis of the chiral insecticide sulfoxaflor and the intermediates of related bioactive compounds. Based on experimental studies and theoretical calculations, a water-bonded high-spin iron nitrenoid species was identified as the key intermediate. The observed stereoselectivity was original from the steric repulsion between the amide unit of the ligand in the chiral cave and the bulky substituent of sulfides. Additionally, dioxazolones proved to be suitable acylnitrene precursors in the presence of an iron(III)/N,N'-dioxide complex, resulting in the formation of enantioselectivity-reversed sulfimides (14 examples, up to 81% yield, 97:3 e.r.).

Bioinspired zwitterionic lysine glycopolymers: Enhancing wound repair through microenvironment modulation for bacterial elimination and optimal immunoregulation

Bacterial infected wounds pose a significant threat to patient survival, necessitating prompt and effective therapeutic intervention. Biomaterials that are responsive to wound microenvironments, possess well-defined structures and are facile to fabricate are favored for fulfilling their mission of efficient wound repair. Drawing inspiration from the immunoregulatory properties of natural zwitterionic capsular polysaccharides (ZPS) and glucomannan (GM) as well as the biogenesis of nitric oxide (NO), this study introduces the zwitterionic lysine glycopolymers (ZLGs), which harmoniously integrate the antibacterial, anti-fouling and immunoregulatory functions into one entity, to effectively promote the healing of infected wounds without addition of any external cytokines or molecular drugs. The ZLGs, exhibiting excellent cytocompatibility, restore sustained NO biogenesis (∼7.1 μM) in wound environment and thus to clean bacteria fast and effectively (12 h clearance rate for S. aureus: 97 %; E. coli: 92 %). Notably, the cell-membrane affinitive ZLGs induce efficient aggregation of mannose receptors and polarize the macrophages to M2 phenotype via the PI3K-Akt/STAT3 pathway, resulting in a synergistic enhanced polarization efficiency increasement of 105 %, as compare to the cumulation of individual building modules. The bioinspired ZLGs accelerate the repair of S. aureus infected wounds in vivo, highlighting the significance of this multi-in-one construction strategy for chronic wound treatment.

Ultrasensitive dynamic light scattering immunodetection of alpha-fetoprotein using heptamer-amplified nanoparticle crosslinking aggregation.

Anovel construction strategy is introducedfor an ultrasensitive dynamic light scattering (DLS) immunosensor targeting alpha fetoprotein (AFP). This approach relies on a self-assembled heptamer fusion protein (A1-C4bpα), incorporating the dual functions of multivalent recognition and crosslinking aggregation amplification due to the presence of seven AFP-specific A1 nanobodies on the A1-C4bpα heptamer. Leveraging antibody-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles for target AFP capture and DLS signal output, the proposed heptamer-assisted DLS immunosensor offers high sensitivity, strong specificity, and ease of operation. Under the optimized conditions, the designed DLS immunosensor demonstrates excellent linear detection of AFP in the concentration range 0.06 ng mL-1 to 512 ng mL-1, with a detection limit of 15 pg mL-1. The selectivity, accuracy, precision, practicability, and reliability of this newly developed method were further validated through an assay of AFP levels in spiked and actual human serum samples. Thiswork introduces a novel approach for constructing ultrasensitive DLS immunosensors, easily extendable to the sensitive determination of other targets via simply replacing the nanobody sequence, holding great promise in various applications, particularly in disease diagnosis.

Palladium Metallene‐Based Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion Applications

AbstractPalladium (Pd)‐based catalysts are considered compelling alternatives to platinum (Pt)‐based counterparts in various electrocatalytic reactions. Recently, Pd metallene‐based nanomaterials have emerged as innovative materials for electrocatalysis, demonstrating unique functional properties and exceptional catalytic activity. This review aims to discuss recent research progress on Pd metallene‐based electrocatalysts for energy conversion applications, providing an overview of their design strategies and pivotal advantages. Seven pivotal construction strategies for Pd metallene‐based electrocatalysts, including defect engineering, interface engineering, strain effect, phase engineering, alloying effect, and doping effect, are meticulously introduced and comprehensively discussed, highlighting their critical roles in modulating the electronic structure and coordination environment. Finally, the current challenges and perspectives on the future directions of Pd metallene‐based electrocatalysts are provided.

Unleashing the potential of urban jogging: Exploring the synergistic relationship of high-density environments and exercise on Residents' Health

This study investigates the influence of high-density urban environments on residents' health, focusing on jogging as a mediating activity. Based on the 5D framework (Density, Diversity, Design, Destination accessibility and Distance to Transit), this study examines GPS trajectory data from 1621 residents in Shanghai, analyses the relationship between high-density urban environments, jogging exercise, and residents' health, using jogging frequency, duration, and distance as mediators, and BMI as a health metric, alongside socio-environmental factors. Key findings include the design of the path environment has a direct positive impact on residents' health. Jogging frequency plays a negative mediating role between Density and residents' health, whereas Jogging distance has a positive masking effect between Density and health, but a negative masking effect between Distance of the path environment and health. Socio-environmental factors indirectly affect health indicators by adjusting the impact of built environment elements on jogging exercise. The Socio-environment has a regulatory effect on the mediating effect of jogging exercise. When the Socio-environment is better, the effects of the Design of the path environment on residents' health through Jogging frequency are more positive, but the effects on residents' health through Jogging distance are more negative. The duration and distance of jogging exercise have a nonlinear effect on health. These research results reveal how high-density urban environments affect residents' health by influencing jogging exercise, providing useful information for future formulation of healthy urban construction strategies.

Building Block-Centric Approach to DNA-Encoded Library Design.

DNA-encoded library technology grants access to nearly infinite opportunities to explore the chemical structure space for drug discovery. Successful navigation depends on the design and synthesis of libraries with appropriate physicochemical properties (PCPs) and structural diversity while aligning with practical considerations. To this end, we analyze combinatorial library design constraints including the number of chemistry cycles, bond construction strategies, and building block (BB) class selection in pursuit of ideal library designs. We compare two-cycle library designs (amino acid + carboxylic acid, primary amine + carboxylic acid) in the context of PCPs and chemical space coverage, given different BB selection strategies and constraints. We find that broad availability of amines and acids is essential for enabling the widest exploration of chemical space. Surprisingly, cost is not a driving factor, and virtually, the same chemical space can be explored with "budget" BBs.

An asymmetric super-wetting Janus PVDF oil-water separation membrane fabricated by a simple method on a non-woven substrate

Membrane separation technology is an important method of treating oily wastewater with great potential for development. However, preparation of membranes for efficiently separating complex oil-water mixtures continues to be challenging. In this study, a strategy for efficient construction of asymmetric wetting surfaces was designed, and successfully prepared an asymmetric super wetting Janus polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) modified separation membrane to separate complex oil-water emulsion. The composite PVDF membrane was prepared using a non-woven fabric substrate and phase conversion method. Subsequently, composite membrane was rapidly hydrophilic modified on one side using tannic acid and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane under the strong oxidizing effect of oxidant sodium periodate. Then non-woven fabric substrate was peeled off to obtain a Janus PVDF modified separation membrane. The front and back sides of the separation membrane have highly asymmetric micromorphology and wettability. The front side has hydrophilic/underwater oleophobic wettability (with a water contact angle of 31°). The separation efficiency of oil-in-water emulsion is up to 99.5%, while the back side has super lipophilic/underoil hydrophobic wettability (with a water contact angle of 131°). The separation efficiency of water-in-oil emulsion is up to 98.6%, improving the efficiency of oil in water separation and application range.

Efficient multiple unmanned aerial vehicle-assisted data collection strategy in power infrastructure construction

Efficient data collection and sharing play a crucial role in power infrastructure construction. However, in an outdoor remote area, the data collection efficiency is reduced because of the sparse distribution of base stations (BSs). Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can perform as flying BSs for mobility and line-of-sight transmission features. In this paper, we propose a multiple temporary UAV-assisted data collection system in the power infrastructure scenario, where multiple temporary UAVs are employed to perform as relay or edge computing nodes. To improve the system performance, the task processing model selection, communication resource allocation, UAV selection, and task migration are jointly optimized. We designed a QMIX-based multi-agent deep reinforcement learning algorithm to find the final optimal solutions. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better convergence and lower system costs than the current existing algorithms.

Multifunctional ultralight magnetic Fe3O4@SiO2/Ti3C2Tx/rGO aerogel with efficient electromagnetic wave absorption and thermal management properties

The rational and effective fabrication of multicomponent materials, coupled with innovative microstructure design, remains a formidable challenge in achieving efficient electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) behaviors to meet the requirement of rapid advances in electronics. Herein, a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically porous Fe3O4/SiO2/Ti3C2Tx MXene/rGO (FSMRG) aerogels were obtained via a directional freeze-drying and subsequent thermal reduction strategy. It has been found that with the filling ratio of 5 wt%, the ultralight FSMRG-2 aerogel (7.42 mg cm−3) exhibits optimal EMA performances with a minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −76.6 dB, and the corresponding maximal effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) is up to 5.36 GHz covering the frequency ranges from 12.48 GHz to 17.84 GHz. The outstanding EMA performances of FSMRG-2 aerogel can be attributed to the synergy effects from the multicomponent interfacial polarization, multiple loss pathways and favorable impedance matching as evidenced with the electromagnetic parameter analysis. In addition, the FSMRG-2 aerogel also displays excellent hydrophobicity and thermal insulation capabilities, rendering them suitable for application in complicated environments characterized by humid and high-temperature conditions. Therefore, this study presents a reliable and facile strategy for the precise construction of lightweight, efficient and multifunctional EMA materials.