Aqueous chemoenzymatic one-pot enantioselective synthesis of tertiary α-aryl cycloketonesviaPd-catalyzed C-C formation and enzymatic C=C asymmetric hydrogenation

An aqueous chemoenzymatic cascade reaction combining Pd-catalyzed C-C formation and enzymatic C=C asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) was developed for enantioselective synthesis of tertiary α-aryl cycloketones in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities. The stereopreference of the enzyme in AH of α-aryl cyclohexenones was studied. An...

New innovations in pavement materials and engineering: A review on pavement engineering research 2021

Sustainable and resilient pavement infrastructure is critical for current economic and environmental challenges. In the past 10 years, the pavement infrastructure strongly supports the rapid development of the global social economy. New theories, new methods, new technologies and new materials related to pavement engineering are emerging....

A computational framework for coating fatigue analysis of wind turbine blades due to rain erosion

The rain-induced fatigue damage in the wind turbine blade coating has attracted increasing attention owing to significant repair and maintenance costs. The present paper develops an improved computational framework for analyzing the wind turbine blade coating fatigue induced by rain erosion. The paper first presents an extended stochastic...

Spatial-temporal potential exposure risk analytics and urban sustainability impacts related to COVID-19 mitigation: A perspective from car mobility behaviour

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) poses a significant threat to the population and urban sustainability worldwide. The surge mitigation is complicated and associates many factors, including the pandemic status, policy, socioeconomics and resident behaviours. Modelling and analytics with spatial-temporal big urban data are required to assist...

A novel method about the representation and discrimination of traffic state

The representation and discrimination of various traffic states play an essential role in solving traffic accidents and congestion as the foundation of traffic state prediction. However, the existing representation of the traffic state usually only considers the road congestion layer and divides the traffic state into congested and unblocked....

Impact of high temperature H₂ pre-treatment on Pt-AlGaN/GaN HEMT sensor for H₂S detection

In this paper, a method to extend the detection range of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) gas sensor is demonstrated. The sensor is based on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with Pt gate. It is observed that the as-fabricated devices exhibited sensing signal saturation at 30 ppm H₂S exposure in dry air. A pre...

Boron doping induced thermal conductivity enhancement of water-based 3C-Si(B)C nanofluids

In this paper, the fabrication and thermal conductivity (TC) of water-based nanofluids using boron (B)-doped SiC as dispersions are reported. Doping B into the <i>β</i>-SiC phase leads to the shrinkage of the SiC lattice due to the substitution of Si atoms (0.134 nm radius) by smaller B atoms (0.095 nm radius). The presence of B in the SiC...

AlGaN/GaN HEMT micro-sensor technology for gas sensing applications

Wide bandgap gallium nitride material has highly favorable electronic properties for next generation power and high frequency electronic devices. A less widely studied application is highly miniaturized chemical and gas sensors capable of operating in harsh environment conditions. In this work we present our recent developments on design,...

Crack monitoring method for an FRP-strengthened steel structure based on an antenna sensor

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) has been increasingly applied to steel structures for structural strengthening or crack repair, given its high strength-to-weight ratio and high stiffness-to-weight ratio. Cracks in steel structures are the dominant hidden threats to structural safety. However, it is difficult to monitor structural cracks under...

Sustainable Application of a Novel Water Cycle Using Seawater for Toilet Flushing

Global water security is a severe issue that threatens human health and well-being. Finding sustainable alternative water resources has become a matter of great urgency. For coastal urban areas, desalinated seawater could serve as a freshwater supply. However, since 20%–30% of the water supply is used for flushing waste from the city,...

First-principles study of the effect of functional groups on polyaniline backbone

We present a first-principles density functional theory study focused on how the chemical and electronic properties of polyaniline are adjusted by introducing suitable substituents on a polymer backbone. Analyses of the obtained energy barriers, reaction energies and minimum energy paths indicate that the chemical reactivity of the polyaniline...

Refining Green Plants to Protein Cakes and other useful products in the African country Zambia

Basis of Design for a process to refine green plants