A Framework for Human-Centered AI: Bridging the Economics of the Digital Divide and Solving the Problem of Demographic Implosion

One-pot Multi-enzyme Cascade Synthesis of Bifunctional Compounds from Vegetable Oils

Green and efficient biocatalytic technology has become a complementary or alternative means of organic synthesis. Chemicals with two functional groups, such as α,ω-dicarboxylic acids, ω-amino fatty acids and ω-hydroxy fatty acids, are widely used in the synthesis of polymers such as polyesters and polyamides. In recent years, the production of biodegradable materials using renewable and abundant vegetable oils as green raw materials has attracted increasing attention, receiving an additional impetus from synthetic biology. This paper presents the recent research progress in the production of bifunctional chemicals with medium chain lengths of C8–C12 using multi-enzyme cascades. Recent studies have developed multilevel optimization strategies to improve the efficiency, economics, and sustainability of multi-enzyme cascades. Cofactor regeneration strategies were developed to avoid large additions of expensive coenzymes. Protein engineering strategies were applied to improve enzyme stability and catalytic performance. In addition, blocking the β-oxidation pathway, improving the efficiency of substrate transport across membranes and increasing cellular robustness are effective optimization strategies for whole-cell catalytic systems. In addition, we discuss the development prospects of producing high value-added fine chemicals from vegetable oils using one-pot multi-enzyme reaction systems.

Wind Influence on the Electrical Energy Production of Solar Plants

Solar energy, as a clean source of energy, plays a relevant role in this much desired (r)evolution. When talking about photovoltaics, despite the multiple studies on parameters that affect the panels operation, concrete knowledge on this matter is still in an incipient stage and precise data remains dispersed, given the mutability of outer factors beyond technology-related properties, hence the difficulties associated with exploration. Wind is one of them. Wind loads can affect the temperature of photovoltaics, whose efficiency is reduced when higher temperatures are reached. The viability of wind as natural cooling mechanism for solar plants and its influence on their electrical energy production is studied in this research work. Some appropriate results were achieved: depending on the module temperature prediction model used and on the photovoltaic technology in question, solar panels are foreseen to be up to approximately 3% more productive for average wind speeds and up to almost 7% more productive for higher speeds. Taking into consideration that wind speed values were collected in the close vicinity of the modules, these results can be proven to be even higher. That being said, this article contributes with accurate insights about wind influence on electrical energy production of solar plants.

The Sustainable Development Concept in the Polish Legal Space from a Legal-Dogmatic Perspective

The sustainable development concept is of crucial importance for the socioeconomic development processes, not only at the international community level, but also—or, perhaps, particularly—at the national or even local levels. The aim of the article is to demonstrate, from a legal-dogmatic perspective, the place, role and significance of the sustainable development concept in the Polish legal space. This perspective applies to both the state policy intended to formulate a strategy which provides a basis for law-making processes and to find normative solutions making it possible to reconcile legally protected values which sometimes compete with one another, with account taken of the needs of future generations. The sustainable development concept has been very broadly followed in Poland not only in the legal doctrine, but also in the doctrine of economic and social sciences. This term has turned out to be such an effective political catchword that it has been commonly abused and, therefore, it has lost a good deal of its social importance; this makes it substantially more difficult to apply a normative approach to the issues related to the implementation of the concept in legislative practice. In the Polish legal space, the sustainable development concept has become the leading theme of many documents and legal acts, particularly those concerned with environmental protection, but also, although to a much more modest extent, those addressing the issues of socioeconomic development.

Development and Perspective of Production of Terpenoids in Yeast

Terpenoids are a large class of secondary metabolites known for their remarkable diverse biological activities, making them widely utilized in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, biofuel and agricultural fields. However, the current production of terpenoids heavily relies on plant extraction and chemical synthesis, which brings about concerns regarding infield, environmental and ecological issues. With the advancements in metabolic engineering and emerging synthetic biology tools, it is now possible to sustainably produce these high value-added terpenoids using microbial chassis. Among them, yeast has emerged as a promising candidate for the heterologous biosynthesis of terpenoids due to its inherent advantages, including robustness, safety, and the availability of sufficient precursor. This review focuses on the diverse strategies employed to enable terpenoids production in yeasts. These strategies encompass metabolic engineering approaches to optimize the mevalonate pathway, protein engineering techniques to improve terpenoid biosynthesis, the applications of organelles compartmentalization, high throughput screening and global approaches for the development of efficient cell factories. Furthermore, this review discusses the future prospects and challenges associated with yeast-based terpenoid production, while also emphasizing guidelines for future studies in this field.

Bio-Based Production of Uroporphyrin in Escherichia coli

Uroporphyrin (UP) is a porphyrin compound with medical applications and a key precursor for heme biosynthesis. However, there is no biosynthetic strategy for UP production. In this study, we present a novel bioprocess for enhanced production of UP in engineered Escherichia coli. We first implemented the Shemin/C4 pathway heterologously in an E. coli strain with an enlarged intracellular pool of succinyl-CoA. Using a plasmid with the trc promoter regulating the expression of a synthesized gene operon, the effects of key pathway genes, including hemA, hemB, hemC, and hemD, on UP biosynthesis were characterized. By cultivating the resulting engineered E. coli strains in a batch bioreactor with 30 g/L glycerol under aerobic conditions, up to 901.9 mg/L UP was produced. Most of the synthesized UP was extracellularly secreted with a high purity more than 80 wt%, facilitating its downstream purification. The study paves the way for large-scale bio-based production of UP using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies.

A Novel High Step-up DC-DC Converter Using State Space Modelling Technique for Battery Storage Applications

This paper focuses a novel non-isolated coupled inductor based DC-DC converter with excessive VG (voltage gain) is analyzed with a state-space modeling technique. It builds up of using three diodes, three capacitors, an inductor and CI (coupled inductor). The main switch S is turn on due to body diode and voltage stress is reduced at the switch S by using diode D1 and Capacitor C1. This paper focuses on design modelling, mathematical calculations and operation principle of DC-DC converter is discussed with state-space modelling technique. The performance has been presented for two different voltages for EV applications, i.e., 12 V, 48 V as input voltages with a high step-up outputs of 66 V and 831.7 V respectively. The converter stability is studied and determined the bode plot along with simulation performance results which are carried out using MATLAB R2022B.

Determining the Identity of Corpses Using Fingerprints: Results from Practice and Analysis of Process Used in the Republic of Serbia

In today’s world, when there is a constant fight against organized crime and terrorism, when we have cases of mass accidents (plane crashes, train crashes, buses, etc.), the constant need for precise and quick identification of persons is evident in these cases. When we have situations with a large number of dead in various conditions, as well as complete or only parts of the body being on the spot, there is a need to use scientific and forensic methods in order to find out the reliable identity of these people. Furthermore, there is a need, in some cases, to identify persons who committed suicide, were killed, or died a natural death (accidental death) and who do not have documents according to which their identity can be determined. The aim of this paper will, however, be to identify a group of persons who need to be identified, known as unidentified corpses. Method. Describe and discuss the way of determining identity based on dactyloscopic data, which provides accurate and unambiguous identification, using fingerprints. Results. The identity was determined in 1271 cases of unidentified corpses by dactyloscopic comparison of fingerprints with a database containing fingerprints of about 8,000,000 indisputably identified persons. It was confirmed in 1139 cases. Conclusion. The high degree of identification in our research, as much as 89.6%, makes this method rightly represented as a standard method for confirming a person’s identity.

The “Global Change Data Base” GCDB Facilitates a Transition to Clean Energy and Sustainability

This article presents the opportunities for constructing a global data base picturing underlying trends that drive global climate change. Energy-related CO₂ emissions currently represent the key impact on climate change and thus become here the object of deep, long-term and historiographic analysis. In order to embrace all involved domains of technology, energy economy, fuel shares, economic efficacity, economic structure and population, a “Global Change Data Base” (GCDB) is suggested, based on earlier worldwide accepted data repositories. Such a GCDB works through regressions and statistical analysis of time series of data (on extensive magnitudes such as energy demand, population or Gross Domestic Product, GDP) as well as generation of derived data such as quotients of the former, yielding intensive magnitudes that describe systems and their structural properties. Moreover, the GCDB sets out to compute the first and second time derivatives of said magnitudes (and their percentual shares) which indicate new long-term developments already at very early phases. The invitation to participate in this foresight endeavour is extended to all readers. First preliminary GCDB results quantitatively portray the evolutionary structural global dynamics of economic growth, sectoral economic shifts, the shifts within energy carriers in various economic sectors, the ongoing improvements of energy intensity and energy efficiency in many economic sectors, and the structural changes within agricultural production and consumption systems.

A Lightweight Visual Navigation and Control Approach to the 2022 RoboMaster Intelligent UAV Championship

In this paper, an autonomous system is developed for drone racing. On account of their vast consumption of computing resources, the methods for visual navigation commonly employed are discarded, such as visual-inertial odometry (VIO) or simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). A series of navigation algorithms for autonomous drone racing, which can operate without the aid of the information on the external position, are proposed: one for lightweight gate detection, achieving gates detection with a frequency of 60 Hz; one for direct collision detection, seeking the maximum passability in-depth images. Besides, a velocity planner is adopted to generate velocity commands according to the results from visual navigation, which are enabled to perform a guidance role when the drone is approaching and passing through gates, assisting it in avoiding obstacles and searching for temporarily invisible gates. The approach proposed above has been demonstrated to successfully help our drone passing-through complex environments with a maximum speed of 2.5 m/s and ranked first at the 2022 RoboMaster Intelligent UAV Championship.