Waste Of Resources Research Articles

Retrospective analysis of methods for efficient assortment building in pharmacy organizations

Introduction. One of the characteristic features for the modern pharmaceutical market in conditions of economic and political instability is a high level competition among its participants. Competition among pharmacy organizations has a dominant role, where a competent approach to managing the product assortment is important. Supervisors’ main task is to use optimal combinations of methods for analyzing the product portfolio aimed at efficient assortment building under a waste of minor resources. Objective. The aim of the research was to systematize the methods for studying the trade matrix and to select their rational combinations within the bounds of assortment policy development in a pharmacy organization. Material and methods. The study was carried through content analysis of science textbooks on a given topic. In order to assess the frequency of the methods considered and their possible integrations in publications, an electronic resource eLibrary.ru was used. The analysis of publications frequency in the frame of the pharmaceutical market was carried by filtering such keywords as “pharmacy”, “medicinal preparation/ drug”, etc. Results. Having conducted a literature review, we classified the methods for analyzing the assortment of a pharmacy organization into two groups: a market one (based on the calculation of economic evaluation) and a conceptual one (aimed at development of an assortment management strategy). Balanced combinations of methods were described (both within the same classification group and from different groups). Having assessed the methods frequency within the frame of publications, we found out that a number of integrations had a low frequency rate despite their rational use, which indicated the relevance of these combinations active implementation into the work of pharmacy organizations. Conclusion. Thus, in order to conduct a full analysis of the assortment and to adapt to the internal and external environment factors, it is rational for the administrative management of pharmacy organizations to use a set of methods while choosing complementary combinations. This allows you to include into the analysis a larger number of parameters for a more comprehensive study and a “working” assortment building

Nutritional, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Citrus Peels: A Sustainable Valorization Approach

Background: Citrus peels are often discarded as waste despite being rich in bioactive compounds with potential health benefits. Traditional extraction methods for these compounds are not always sustainable and can lead to environmental harm. Using a sustainable vaporization approach, the bioactive compounds in citrus peels can be efficiently extracted and retained for various applications. Valorization strategies have been used for various waste streams, including agro-industrial by-products and olive mill wastewater. Aims: Using a sustainable vaporization method, this study seeks to examine the antibacterial, antioxidant, and nutritional qualities of citrus peels. Methods: waste valorization remains a promising approach for sustainable waste management and resource recovery. Quantitative studies and antimicrobial activities were carried out using peels of C. aurantifolia (Key Lime), C. maxima (Pomelo), C. sinensis (orange), Citrus limetta (Sweet Lemon), and C. reticulata. Citrus aurantiifolia is believed to be a hybrid of Citrus medica, Citrus grandis, and a Micro-citrus species, with significant antibacterial activity. Result: Citrus limetta Mosambi is gaining popularity due to its delicious taste and high vitamin-C content. Citrus sinensis is a small, spherical fruit rich in vitamin C and vitamin A. Pummelo, or Citrus maxima, is known for its large, sweet fruits with abortifacient and menstrual stimulant properties. Peels of C. maxima exhibit the highest amount of antioxidant activity equivalent to ascorbic acid and display significant antimicrobial activity against Klebsiella species. Citrus reticulata, found mainly in eastern India, has a maximum amount vitamin C among citrus species and exhibits high antimicrobial activity.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Nutritional, Physicochemical, and Volatile Profiles of Selected Bovine Head Muscles

This study analyzed the nutritional composition, physicochemical properties, and volatile profiles of three major bovine head muscles—medial pterygoid, masseter, and buccinator—to reduce byproduct resource waste and increase the utilization rate of bovine head to establish a foundation for its industrial use. Compared to tenderloin, which is popular among consumers, these head muscles were found to be rich in collagen (4.90–13.1 mg/g), low in fat (0.39–1.61%), and abundant in free amino acids (143.93–223.00 mg/100 g). Their compact fiber structures, with minimal gaps between myocytes, resulted in lower cooking and press losses, making them suitable for various production processes. Notably, the medial pterygoid and masseter muscles contained high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and lower saturated fatty acids (SFAs), with a PUFA/SFA ratio exceeding 0.45. The buccinator muscle, while containing more volatile organic compounds associated with undesirable odors and bitter amino acids, was not indicative of spoilage. Overall, this study confirmed that bovine head muscles possess high collagen, low fat, and diverse nutritional qualities, making them suitable as premium raw materials for value-added meat products, and their returns will be most economically equal to the meat derived from cattle.

Integrating Temporal Dimensions in Circularity of the Built Environment Analysis of Two Flemish Industrial Parks

This manuscript explores how incorporating temporal dimensions into built environment research can promote a more circular society, adding societal improvements to efficiency-driven measures closing waste or material cycles. The current circularity approaches in industrial environments mainly focus on short-term innovations reducing resource extraction and waste, overlooking long-term circularity potentials of natural resource management such as living soils as a basis for all life. This study addresses this gap by investigating, analyzing, and drawing interplays between regenerative soil cycles and business development cycles in two Flemish industry parks, Kortrijk-Noord and Haasrode. Using diachronic mapping, a qualitative design and action research tool, the study aims to generate a space–time composite of soil and business cycles, integrating archival research, interviews, and policy document reviews. This method visually captures interplays between geology, land valuation, and economic development, demonstrating that integrating soil and business cycles can suggest new pathways for site-specific circular practices on Flemish industry parks, which can inform site-specific project frameworks for circular built environments. As such, the research advocates a paradigm shift in industry park (re)development, from product and material innovation within a ‘time is money’ framework to an integrated ‘time is life’ approach, where time’s historical and social dimensions are part of circular landscape development.

A Multi-Objective Approach for Optimizing Virtual Machine Placement Using ILP and Tabu Search

Efficient Virtual Machine (VM) placement is a critical challenge in optimizing resource utilization in cloud data centers. This paper explores both exact and approximate methods to address this problem. We begin by presenting an exact solution based on a Multi-Objective Integer Linear Programming (MOILP) model, which provides an optimal VM Placement (VMP) strategy. Given the NP-completeness of the MOILP model when handling large-scale problems, we then propose an approximate solution using a Tabu Search (TS) algorithm. The TS algorithm is designed as a practical alternative for addressing these complex scenarios. A key innovation of our approach is the simultaneous optimization of three performance metrics: the number of accepted VMs, resource wastage, and power consumption. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of a TS algorithm in the context of VMP. Furthermore, these three performance metrics are jointly optimized to ensure operational efficiency (OPEF) and minimal operational expenditure (OPEX). We rigorously evaluate the performance of the TS algorithm through extensive simulation scenarios and compare its results with those of the MOILP model, enabling us to assess the quality of the approximate solution relative to the optimal one. Additionally, we benchmark our approach against existing methods in the literature to emphasize its advantages. Our findings demonstrate that the TS algorithm strikes an effective balance between efficiency and practicality, making it a robust solution for VMP in cloud environments. The TS algorithm outperforms the other algorithms considered in the simulations, achieving a gain of 2% to 32% in OPEF, with a worst-case increase of up to 6% in OPEX.

Prevention and Control of Spontaneous Combustion of Coal in the Goaf Under Z+I Ventilation Based on 2GN00 mining Process

ABSTRACT Traditional coal pillar mining technology will cause the waste of resources, and the roadway excavation. The N00 process eliminates the need for roadway excavation and coal pillar storage. The ventilation mode under the N00 construction method differs from conventional U-shaped ventilation. It is difficult to determine the danger area of spontaneous combustion. Therefore, this paper takes 21607 goaf with Z+I ventilation under the 2GN00 construction method in a mine in Guizhou province as the engineering background and adopts experimental research and numerical simulation methods to prevent and control coal spontaneous combustion hazards. Firstly, the spontaneous combustion tendency experiment determines the grade of spontaneous combustion tendency of coal samples. Secondly, the Fluent numerical simulation method is used to screen the optimal wind speed ratio of the two air inlets. Finally, numerical simulation is used to select the optimal spraying distance. The results show that the spontaneous combustion grade of coal samples makes it easy to produce spontaneous combustion. By analyzing the numerical simulation results of 6 groups of wind speed ratios, the best wind speed ratio of the two inlets is 1:1. Currently, the risk area of spontaneous combustion in the goaf is 5440.8 m2. Then the numerical simulation of the best slurry spraying distance is carried out with the wind speed ratio 1:1. The optimum distance of 90 m was finally determined. The area of the spontaneous combustion hazards area was reduced to 2223.8 m2. The results provide theoretical guidance and technical support for engineering applications.

Natural Low-Melting Mixture Solvents for Green Recovery of Spent All-Solid-State Sodium-Ion Batteries with Superior Efficiency over Lithium-Ion Batteries.

Spent all-solid-state sodium-ion batteries (ASIBs) containing toxic and precious metal would be produced significantly and lead to resource waste and environmental pollution as the wide application of ASIBs in the near future. Therefore, it is necessary to develop green strategy for recovery of ASIBs. Here, we propose a safe, mild and green strategy to recover toxic and precious metals from cathode/solid electrolyte of ASIBs by using natural low-melting mixture solvents (LoMMSs) with high selectivity and high leaching efficiency. Natural LoMMSs are abundant, natural available, cheap, non-flammable, biodegradable and biocompatible. Results show that natural LoMMSs could leach nearly 100% Na and achieve superhigh Na/Zr selectivity of up to 58 from ASIBs at mild temperature, outperforming the recycling efficiency and selectivity of lithium-ion batteries cathode. More importantly, we find that water could be used as a green and low-cost anti-solvent to precipitate the extracted metal from the leachate with low-energy consumption at room temperature. This work provides a cost-effective, energy-saving, mild, green strategy for the recovery of cathode/solid electrolyte from spent ASIBs with high safety and high selectivity.

LCA-TOPSIS Integration for Minimizing Material Waste in the Construction Sector: A BIM-Based Decision-Making

The construction sector is one of the industries with the highest environmental impact due to resource consumption and waste generation. Material waste exacerbates these impacts by increasing carbon emissions and energy consumption. This study introduces an innovative approach by integrating Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to evaluate material waste and environmental impacts simultaneously. By analyzing scenarios of material use in the design and construction phases, this study explores their effects on material efficiency and environmental performance while addressing a notable research gap. Existing studies on the integration of LCA and TOPSIS in evaluating material waste and its environmental impacts remain limited. This research not only demonstrates the applicability of these methods but also contributes to filling this gap. Material waste and efficiency were assessed through Building Information Modeling (BIM), while BIM-LCA integration was used to evaluate environmental impacts. The findings were examined in two stages: LCA and TOPSIS. The TOPSIS analysis considered two scenarios—material waste and environmental impacts. In the first scenario, cast-in-place concrete (5000 psi) and stone and ceramic tiles emerged as priorities. In the second scenario, where carbon emissions and environmental impacts were emphasized, cast-in-place concrete (5000 psi), laminated timber, and stone tiles were identified as critical materials. The results reveal that reducing material waste significantly enhances environmental performance, lowers costs, and promotes sustainability. These findings provide practical insights for developing sustainable strategies in diverse cultural and geographical contexts, particularly for residential projects. The integration of LCA and TOPSIS offers a robust decision-making framework, enabling targeted actions to minimize environmental footprints across all life cycle stages. This study contributes to the literature by providing actionable recommendations for optimizing resource use and improving sustainability in construction practices.

An investigation into the use of Castable silica waste to produce green mortar

Cement is a crucial engineering material, and the inclusion of some other substances can alter the characteristics of concrete. Due to the growing tendency to use cement more extensively, it has become imperative to utilize waste resources in order to manufacture environmentally friendly mortar or concrete. Due to the increasing need for eco-friendlier cementitious products, it is becoming increasingly important to assess the pozzolan activity index of prospective materials that can be used as substitutes for cement. The purpose of this research is to present a study that was carried out to evaluate the impact of castable silica waste (CSW) on the development of mortar strength, as well as the optimal usage of mortar CSW and the best substitution ratio in the creation of sustainable mortar. CSW, at three different weight percentages (10%, 20%, 30%), was used as a partial replacement for cement and added superplasticizer SP. A normal mortar using Ordinary Portland cement OPC was constructed to investigate the strength activity index. Cubic mortar samples were fabricated and examined at 7days and 28days. The strength of tests generally increases as the amount of castable silica waste CSW increases up to a certain point. Beyond this point, however, the strength values start to decline with the further addition of CSW. Among the four types of CSW mortars, the most effective amount of cement substitute is around 10%. This is higher than the other green mortars since increasing the amount of CSW decreases compressive strength. The primary objective of this research is to mitigate the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the cement industry and decrease environmentally detrimental waste by utilizing it as a partial substitute for cement.

Study of spot distance on resistance spot welding quality: a 1DCNN-BiLSTM-Attention-based online inspection method

Abstract Resistance spot welding (RSW) is widely employed in the automotive and home appliance industries due to its high efficiency, low cost, and suitability for automation. However, traditional quality detection methods rely on destructive testing, leading to inefficiencies and resource wastage. This paper presents a novel quality inspection model for RSW that utilizes a one-dimensional convolutional neural network, bidirectional long short-term memory network, and attention mechanism (1DCNN-BiLSTM-Attention) to address the challenges of extracting temporal data under varying spot distances. The model integrates a residual linking mechanism and Kolmogorov–Arnold Networks (KAN) to enhance feature extraction and performance. Experimental results reveal that the model demonstrates strong predictive capabilities across different spot distances, with particularly notable performance at 10 mm spacing, achieving a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.0632, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.0603, and an R² value of 0.7513. These findings underscore the model’s ability to provide high-precision predictions, even under conditions influenced by significant shunt effects.

A Review on Leaching of Spent Lithium Battery Cathode Materials Adopting Deep Eutectic Solvents.

As a result of the swift surge in the adoption of electric vehicles, the quantity of spent lithium-ion power batteries has been growing at an exponential rate. Improper handling of these batteries can lead to the waste of strategic metal resources and pose risks to the environment and human health. Without doubt, it is essential to scientifically recover and reuse these spent power batteries, particularly by recovering positive electrode materials. Currently, there are several methods for recovering positive electrode materials, including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, bioleaching, and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) leaching. This review concetrated on the emerging technology of DESs leaching for positive electrode materials in spent lithium-ion battery. It provided an overview of the latest advancements in DESs leaching, considering factors such as acidity, reducibility, and coordination of DESs. The current technical status was analyzed and discussed, while also addressing the challenges and prospects for the development of DESs recovery in spent Li-ion power batteries. This work aims to offer practical guidance and serve as a foundation for additional studies and widespread implementation of DESs leaching for positive electrode materials.

Utilizing Agricultural Residues from Hot and Cold Climates as Sustainable SCMs for Low-Carbon Concrete

Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as fly ash, slag, and silica fume, predominantly derived from industrial waste, are widely utilized in concrete due to their proven ability to enhance both its mechanical and durability properties. Moreover, these SCMs play a crucial role in mitigating the carbon footprint of concrete by reducing its cement content, which is responsible for approximately 8% of global CO2 emissions. However, the sustainability and long-term availability of conventional SCMs are increasingly under scrutiny, particularly in light of the impending shutdown of coal-fired power plants, which threatens the future supply of fly ash. As a result, the concrete industry faces an urgent need to identify alternative SCMs to maintain and advance eco-friendly practices. This article stands out from previous reviews by employing a bibliometric analysis to comprehensively explore the use of commonly utilized agricultural ashes (rice husk, palm oil, and sugarcane bagasse), prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions as SCMs. Additionally, it provides valuable insights into the potential of cold-weather crops (e.g., barley, canola, and oat) that demonstrate promising pozzolanic reactivity. The study critically evaluates and compares the physical and chemical characteristics of agricultural ashes from both hot and cold climates, assessing their influence on the fresh, mechanical, and durability properties of concrete. It also addresses the challenges and limitations associated with their use. Furthermore, in line with the United Nations and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sustainability goals, the review evaluates the environmental benefits of using agricultural ashes, emphasizing waste reduction, resource conservation, and energy savings. This comprehensive review paper should deepen the understanding of agricultural ashes as sustainable SCMs, providing a strategic direction for the construction industry to adopt low-carbon concrete solutions across various climates while promoting advancements in production methods, performance standards, and emerging technologies such as hybrid materials and 3D printing.

Research on optimal scheduling of minor and moderate floods for cascade reservoirs in the lower reaches of the jinsha river considering power generation

The comprehensive cascade reservoir system is extensively used for flood control and power generation. Traditional reservoir scheduling often treats these tasks as competing objectives, prioritizing flood control during the flood season and neglecting power generation benefits. This approach, primarily applied to large floods, leads to hydraulic resource wastage and power generation loss during minor and moderate floods. The lower Jinsha River cascade reservoirs have significant flood control storage capacity, allowing part of the capacity to be used for maintaining higher water levels without compromising safety under minor and moderate floods within a 20-year return period. This paper proposes an optimal scheduling model that considers both flood control and power generation tasks for the lower Jinsha River cascade reservoirs. The Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) algorithm was used to find non-inferior solution sets. An evaluation index system was developed to select optimal solutions under different flood frequencies, using the Minimum Discriminant Information Principle and VIKOR model. The results indicate that the optimal scheduling scheme under 20-year, 10-year, and 5-year return period floods can enhance power generation by 1.64, 1.71, and 1.35 billion kWh, respectively, compared to conventional scheduling. This approach supports coordinated flood control and power generation scheduling, contributing to the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

International consensus statement on microbiome testing in clinical practice.

There is growing interest in the potential exploitation of the gut microbiome as a diagnostic tool in medicine, but evidence supporting its clinical usefulness is scarce. An increasing number of commercial providers offer direct-to-consumer microbiome diagnostic tests without any consensus on their regulation or any proven value in clinical practice, which could result in considerable waste of individual and health-care resources and potential drawbacks in the clinical management of patients. We convened an international multidisciplinary expert panel to standardise best practices of microbiome testing for clinical implementation, including recommendations on general principles and minimum requirements for their provision, indications, pre-testing protocols, method of analyses, reporting of results, and potential clinical value. We also evaluated current knowledge gaps and future directions in this field. We aimed to establish a framework to regulate the provision of microbiome testing and minimise the use of inappropriate tests and pave the way for the evidence-based development and use of human microbiome diagnostics in clinical medicine.

A comparative analysis of text-to-image generative AI models in scientific contexts: a case study on nuclear power

In this work, we propose and assess the potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for facilitating public engagement around potential clean energy sources. Such an application could increase energy literacy—an awareness of low-carbon energy sources among the public therefore leading to increased participation in decision-making about the future of energy systems. We explore the use of generative AI to communicate technical information about low-carbon energy sources to the general public, specifically in the realm of nuclear energy. We explored 20 AI-powered text-to-image generators and compared their individual performances on general and scientific nuclear-related prompts. Of these models, DALL-E, DreamStudio, and Craiyon demonstrated promising performance in generating relevant images from general-level text related to nuclear topics. However, these models fall short in three crucial ways: (1) they fail to accurately represent technical details of energy systems; (2) they reproduce existing biases surrounding gender and work in the energy sector; and (3) they fail to accurately represent indigenous landscapes—which have historically been sites of resource extraction and waste deposition for energy industries. This work is performed to motivate the development of specialized generative tools to improve energy literacy and effectively engage the public with low-carbon energy sources.

An Evolutionary Modular Product Development Under Circular Economy Approach

The incorporation of new technologies and materials, as well as the rapid evolution of products, makes it necessary to guide the product design and development process from bio-inspired perspectives that promote a circular economy. Among the proposals based on a bio-inspired solution is the framework called the Genomic Model of Eco-innovation and Eco-design, which integrates the Cradle-to-Cradle paradigm, material and substance flow analysis, along with all aspects present in the life cycle analysis of products. In this work, innovation is carried out through the integration of genetic algorithms as a methodological tool for optimizing the modular product design in the definition of the genotype within the aforementioned framework. Through a systematic approach, it analyzes how the modular reconfiguration of products, based on circular design principles and genetic optimization, can contribute to a significant reduction in resource use and waste generation. The proposed methodology is applied to a practical case based on the redesign of a small household appliance, demonstrating its potential to facilitate the implementation of circular economy strategies in the early stages of the product design and development process for studying product modularity, with the aims of improving its design and reducing its impact.

Ethical challenges in conducting maternal-fetal surgery trials. A systematic review.

To present the ethical challenges embedded in published maternal-fetal surgery (MFS) trials and their potential solutions. Systematic review of normative and empirical literature. We selected articles based on predefined inclusion criteria. QUAGOL methodology was used for analysis. Forty-three articles were included. We identified two main themes. First, clinical ethics issues. One of the main challenges is balancing rights of the fetus with the rights of the pregnant person. There seems to be an agreement that the pregnant person has the right to decide whether to participate regardless of fetal benefit. Second, research ethics issues. The main issues are difficulties in obtaining a sizeable sample, which lead to trials delays and cancellations, and in obtaining appropriate standardization. These difficulties have important ethical ramifications. For example, trial cancellations due the lack of proper sample size generate a waste of resources and pointlessly place participants at risk as conclusive evidence on MFS efficacy was not obtained. We need to develop creative solutions that can prevent some of these ethical concerns. We need to involve all the relevant stakeholders in the development process. Further, researchers should discuss what practical issues they encountered and how they addressed them in their publications. Understanding the ethical challenges embedded in MFS trials will help improving future trials and, consequently, clinical outcomes. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review unveiling the ethical challenges in maternal-fetal surgery trials. To offer a complete overview of the challenges, we included both normative and empirical literature. We found that the main ethical challenges are practical difficulties that have important ethical ramification. E.g., difficulties in recruitment might hinder scientific validity, which in turn might lead to suboptimal treatment.

Chemical Recycling of Used PI/PTFE Sandwich Composite Filter Bags

ABSTRACTRecycling is a major approach to addressing resource waste and environmental pollution issues, but it remains a challenge to recycling of the polyimide/polytetrafluoroethylene (PI/PTFE) sandwich composites. In this work, an efficient process for recycling PI/PTFE composite filter bags was proposed, which mainly included pretreatment, pre‐hydrolysis, separation, recovery, and reuse. First, the effect of washing pretreatment of used composite needle felt was evaluated by SEM and EDS characterization. Then the strength of the PI fibers was decreased by pre‐hydrolysis so that the PI could be easily separated with PTFE. The effect of hydrolysis time on the mass loss rate of PI, peel strength of PI with PTFE, and tensile strength of PTFE was systematically investigated. Finally, the PI was depolymerized into monomers in an alkaline solution. This method successfully realizes the recycling of used PI/PTFE composite filter bags, and the waste liquid generated can be recycled and reused. Moreover, the recycled ODA and PMA were used to prepare PI films by thermal imidization. The tensile strength and elongation at break of the PI recycled films were 107.6 MPa and 7.8%, respectively, and the films had excellent thermal stability. The recycling of used PI/PTFE composite filter bags avoids wasting resources.

Bibliometric synthesis of intelligent systems in agriculture

Abstract This study undertakes a bibliometric analysis of recent investigations centered on intelligent systems in agriculture, a combined quantitative and qualitative approach is adopted, which is based on Visualization of Similarities (VOS) method. We then map prominent areas of interest, evaluate international collaboration extents, and identify potential research gaps. Aligned with the United Nations’ vision, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place a spotlight on the interconnection of poverty eradication (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2), and fostering innovation and infrastructure development (SDG 9). The United Nations recognizes the profound challenges posed by global food insecurity, malnutrition, and the increasing vulnerability of the food system to environmental changes. As populations grow and the demand for food surges, there is an imperative to innovate and transform our agricultural and food systems. Adopting advanced technologies, like precision agriculture, remote sensing, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics, offers a promising avenue to address these challenges. Yet, despite the profound implications of these technologies in transforming agriculture, there remains a notable need for comprehensive research in this domain. Enhancing agricultural productivity, reducing resource wastage, and championing sustainability are pressing concerns. This study undertakes a bibliometric analysis of recent investigations centered on intelligent systems in agriculture, sourcing data from the Scopus database. To comprehensively analyze this vast dataset, a combined quantitative and qualitative approach is adopted, which is based on the visualization of similarities (VOS) method. We then map prominent areas of interest, evaluate international collaboration extents, and identify potential research gaps. Our findings offer pivotal insights that can shape the trajectory of future research and development in the agricultural sector. The significance of our analysis extends beyond academic interest. The insights derived hold the potential to catalyze the growth of smart systems in agriculture, addressing global food security challenges in the process. Moreover, by championing sustainable agricultural practices via intelligent systems, our study underscores its alignment with SDGs, notably those aiming at ensuring zero hunger and promoting responsible consumption and production.

Sustainable multiphase jet polishing of additively manufactured heat pipes utilizing recycled glass chips

Each year, a huge amount of waste glass chips is produced by machining, which is not recycled and has been treated as waste, resulting in the wasting of resources. However, the pristine physical properties of these micro-sized chips show great potential to be recycled as abrasives in jet polishing. In this work, machined glass chips were recycled and directly used as the abrasives in multiphase jet (MPJ) and abrasive water jet (AWJ) polishing for aluminum heat pipes of additive manufacturing with complex structures. Polishing performance of the recycled abrasives from waste glass was compared with those of commercial quartz abrasives with mesh sizes of 600, 800, 1000, 1200, and 3000. The results show that the recycled abrasives of glass chips have comparable performance to the commercial abrasives with mesh size of 1000. Computational fluid dynamic simulations were conducted on the two jet polishing to elucidate the fundamental material removal mechanisms. It is found that a higher drag force in the AWJ polishing could lead to uniform material removal and induce four times higher for material removal rate (MRR). The cost of setup, water and energy consumptions of MPJ polishing are only one tenth those of AWJ polishing. Energy dispersive spectroscopy reveals that there is no element contamination on the polished surface. This work proposes a novel approach of MPJ polishing for components produced by additive manufacturing with complicated structures. These findings provide new insights for the recycling use of waste chips generated in manufacturing, and suggest new solutions for saving energy and resources, as well as for clean and green production.