Found 565 results
Open Access
Article
20 January 2026Can Global Contract Research Organisations Contribute to Decarbonisation? The Impact of Environmentally Sustainable Business Practice on Scope 1 and 2 Emissions
Carbon emissions of clinical trials have been one of the contributors to global emissions. However, the clinical research industry, particularly contract research organisations (CROs) engaged in trials, has received little attention in the existing literature regarding their carbon footprint. This research examines the sustainable practices implemented by leading global CROs and how these practices influence scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions. The findings show that increasing the number of sustainability initiatives is insufficient to achieve a measurable reduction in emissions. At the same time, whilst some sustainable practices, such as building upgrades and real estate improvements, lead to a reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions, others, such as equipment upgrades, are associated with higher emissions. The study, therefore, uncovers a counterintuitive finding—that renewable energy practices showed a positive correlation with emissions. This may be viewed as a paradox, although it serves as a critical warning against measuring sustainability by the quantity of initiatives, rather than their quality or ultimate effect. By assessing the impact of organisational environmental practices on emissions, the study contributes to knowledge by providing a more nuanced understanding of the effectiveness of environmentally sustainable business strategies adopted by CROs.
Open Access
Review
20 January 2026Porous Carbon-Based Adsorbents for CO2 Sequestration from Flue Gases: Tuning Porosity, Surface Chemistry, and Metal Impregnation for Sustainable Capture
Escalating atmospheric CO2 levels and the consequent climate crisis have become urgent imperatives for advancing efficient carbon capture technologies. Porous carbon adsorbents stand out as a leading candidate in this field, owing to their inherently high specific surface areas, tailorable pore architectures, and cost advantages over conventional solid adsorbents. This review focuses on recent progress in the rational engineering of porous carbons for boosted CO2 capture performance, with a particular emphasis on three complementary modification pathways: pore structure refinement, surface functional group regulation, and metal oxide incorporation. We begin by clarifying the distinct mechanisms of CO2 physisorption and chemisorption on carbonaceous surfaces, while also elucidating how key operating parameters (temperature, pressure) and real-world flue gas components (e.g., water vapor, SO2) modulate adsorption behavior. Critical evaluation is then given to strategies for enhancing three core performance metrics—CO2 uptake capacity, selectivity over N2, and cyclic stability—including the construction of sub-nanometer micropores (<0.8 nm) for efficient low-pressure CO2 capture, the introduction of nitrogen- and oxygen-containing moieties to strengthen dipole–quadrupole interactions with CO2 molecules, and the loading of alkaline metal oxides (e.g., MgO, CaO) to enable reversible chemisorption, which is especially beneficial under humid conditions. Finally, we outline the key challenges that hinder the practical application of porous carbon adsorbents, such as the design of hierarchical pores for both high uptake and fast mass transfer, the precise control of heteroatom doping sites and concentrations, and the mitigation of competitive adsorption in complex multicomponent flue gases. Corresponding future research priorities are also proposed, with a focus on scalable and sustainable synthesis routes using biomass or waste precursors. Ultimately, this review seeks to provide targeted insights for the rational design of high-performance porous carbon adsorbents, thereby accelerating their deployment in sustainable CO2 capture systems.
Open Access
Article
19 January 2026Advancing Youth Engagement in Agriculture: A Cross-National Comparative Policy Analysis and Framework for Sustainable Rural Development
Youth engagement in agriculture has emerged as a critical issue for sustainable agri-food systems, yet policies remain fragmented and uneven across countries. This paper presents a comparative case study of four national contexts to assess how governments address or neglect the challenges young people face in the agricultural sector. Using a desk-based review of policy documents, reports, and secondary literature, this study critically compares the policy environments of Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Italy. It explores the role of youth in agriculture and rural development by identifying gaps in institutional support, policy coherence and access to resources, while also highlighting areas of innovation and promising practices. This paper develops a conceptual framework to capture the key aspects necessary to increase youth participation in agriculture and rural development. The framework emphasises the importance of integrated strategies combining structural access, system-level integration, youth agency, and institutional capacity. Overall, this cross-country analysis aims to enhance the understanding of youth-in-agriculture policy environments, providing a roadmap for future policy-making and the development of sustainable rural communities.
Open Access
Article
15 January 2026The Role of Empathy in Resource Control Strategy Selection and Social Dominance in Early Childhood
This cross-sectional study examined the associations between affective and cognitive empathy, resource control strategies (RCS), resource control success, and social dominance in preschool children, within the framework of resource control theory. Ninety-two children (ages 4–5) completed assessments of empathy, while teachers rated their prosocial and aggressive behaviors, prosocial and coercive RCS, resource control success, and social dominance. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that prosocial resource control strategies uniquely predicted children’s resource control success, whereas social dominance, examined as a distinct social status outcome, was explained by a combination of prosocial and coercive strategies, general prosocial behavior, and resource control success. Affective empathy was positively related to both types of RCS, while cognitive empathy moderated the link between affective empathy and coercive RCS. These findings highlight the dual potential of empathy in early peer relations, suggesting that empathy may facilitate both cooperative and coercive tactics in the pursuit of social influence. The findings also underscore the need to distinguish between behavioral strategies, their effectiveness, and broader social status outcomes when examining early social dominance. Implications for interventions that cultivate constructive applications of empathy are discussed.
Open Access
Article
15 January 2026Does the Implementation of Rights of Nature Enhance Nature Conservation in Practice?
The debate surrounding Rights of Nature has been ongoing for some time, with many different concepts being put forward. Some consider them to be extremely effective, others useless or even counterproductive. The paper begins by summarising the complex debate and presents different approaches to categorising the debate. Based on those approaches, simplified categories for the various concepts for Rights of Nature are proposed: animal rights, rights for nature as a whole, and rights for non-animal natural entities, with a possible further distinction between rights for ecosystems and other natural entities. Subsequently, the paper goes on to study the effect of legally recognising Rights of Nature and finds that in South America, nations that recognise Rights of Nature perform slightly better in terms of Ecosystem Vitality and public awareness of environmental risks. While further research is needed, those results indicate that Rights of Nature may be a modest catalyst for conservation efforts.
Open Access
Article
14 January 2026Large-Scale Language Model Assisted Construction of Multi-Source Heterogeneous Knowledge Graphs for Marine Renewable Energy
Marine renewable energy systems, particularly offshore wind and photovoltaic (PV) installations, generate large volumes of heterogeneous maintenance texts. However, the resulting knowledge remains fragmented due to dispersed sources, diverse formats, and domain-specific terminology. To address these challenges, this study proposes a large-scale language model assisted methodology for constructing a multi-source heterogeneous knowledge graph for intelligent operation and maintenance (O&M). The method integrates unified document preprocessing, domain-oriented prompt engineering, large-scale language model–based entity and relation extraction, and multi-level entity normalization. It systematically transforms unstructured documents (e.g., standards, procedures, manuals, inspection records, and environmental reports) into structured triples, enabling the construction of a dynamically evolving O&M knowledge graph. A rigorous ablation study on real-world offshore wind and PV datasets demonstrates that the proposed workflow exhibits exceptional robustness against OCR noise (e.g., scanned artifacts, stamps, and signatures) and substantially improves extraction volume, accuracy, and coverage compared with traditional methods. In particular, combining high-quality preprocessing and optimized prompts yields the most reliable and semantically coherent results. The study provides a practical technical pathway for automated knowledge management in marine renewable energy and offers a foundation for future applications in intelligent diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and digital-twin systems.
Open Access
Article
09 January 2026Corrosion Behaviors of Aluminate Coatings on Mg Alloy AE44
Chromate-based corrosion protection, such as that on aluminum (Al), magnesium (Mg), titanium (Ti), and other alloys, has often been used with some success. Considering the pollution problem associated with chrome, it is necessary to search for an alternative process to conventional chromate coating technology. Plasma electrolytic oxidation processing (PEO) is an emerging, environmentally friendly surface engineering technique. The study in this article was to utilize the PEO technology to deposit aluminate coatings on magnesium alloy AE44 for corrosion protection. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements and electrochemical impedance tests were performed to investigate corrosion behaviors of coated and uncoated AE44 alloy samples immersed in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. The surfaces of coated and uncoated samples before and after corrosion tests were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) were used to study the effect of PEO coatings on the surface morphology change of the alloy in association to their corrosion behaviors. The differences in corrosion behaviors under different electrical parameters of aluminate-based coatings on Mg alloy AE44 were elucidated through potentiodynamic polarization measurements, complemented by SEM and EDS analysis.
Open Access
Review
09 January 2026Recent Progress in Organically Modified Silica and Self-Matting Polymers for Coating Applications
The conventional way of reducing the gloss of coating is to use matting agents such as silica, wax, and fillers. The demerits of these matting agents are sedimentation, poor compatibility, and deterioration of mechanical properties over time. Recent advances in organically modified matting agents and self-matting polymers have addressed these limitations by enabling uniform matte finishes without compromising film integrity. Organically modified silica, functionalized with silane or acrylate moieties, has been shown to deliver lower gloss values in the range of 5–14 gloss units at 60°, in contrast to the typically observed >70 gloss units for conventional high-gloss coatings. Similarly, self-matting polymers, particularly waterborne polyurethane (WBPU) and acrylate dispersions, achieve matte effects through intrinsic micro-roughness during film formation. The gloss value achieved with self-matting acrylic resin synthesized using hydrolyzable silane functionality is 6.3 units at 60°. This review emphasizes distinct techniques for organic modifications of matting agents, synthetic approaches for self-matting polymeric architectures, and their applications in the fields of decorative coatings, industrial coatings, and wood coatings.
Open Access
Review
08 January 2026Synthetic Biology-Inspired Biocontainment Strategies of Therapeutic Genetically Engineered Bacteria
With the rapid expansion of synthetic gene technologies and engineered bacteria for disease diagnosis or therapy, biosafety concerns have intensified. Substantial efforts have therefore been directed toward developing biocontainment systems that prevent the unintended release of engineered microorganisms and the horizontal transfer of synthetic genetic elements into natural ecosystems. Recent advances in synthetic biology have yielded a diverse suite of biocontainment strategies, including engineered biosafety genetic circuits, genetic isolation approaches, targeted degradation of genetic material, and physical encapsulation of microbial chassis. Furthermore, the incorporation of unnatural nucleic acids and noncanonical amino acid-based orthogonal replication, transcription, and translation systems has markedly improved the robustness and orthogonality of these containment platforms. In this review, we summarize the latest developments in biocontainment strategies for genetically engineered bacteria and discuss how these innovations may address current and emerging biosafety challenges.
Open Access
Article
04 January 2026Relationship between Pushing Force and Improvement in Total Active Motion in Training with Finger Extensor Facilitation Training Device “iPARKO-2”
The recovery of hand function in chronic stroke survivors is challenging because of finger complexity and post-stroke spasticity. This study developed iPARKO-2, a novel device that simulates the manual finger extensor facilitation technique while overcoming the limitations of the original device. iPARKO-2 enables the simultaneous fixation of the index through the little fingers and applies resistance from the proximal phalanges, allowing training in patients with strong fingertip spasticity. This study is a pilot study aimed at technical validation and feasibility. Five participants underwent training at three distinct target-pushing force levels. Concurrently, their active range of motion and extensor muscle activity were measured. The results show a direct correlation between the increased pushing force and the improvement in total active motion. Furthermore, the level of muscle activity exhibited a positive correlation with the extent of the observed improvement. iPARKO-2 also reduced the fixation time and enhanced usability. These findings suggest that iPARKO-2 effectively enhances voluntary hand movements and that pushing force is a key factor in determining training efficacy.
