Silicon (Si): Review and future prospects on the action mechanisms in alleviating biotic and abiotic stresses in plants

Etesami, Hassan,Jeong, Byoung Ryong Elsevier 2018 Ecotoxicology and environmental safety Vol.147 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>In the era present, due to increasing incidences of a large number of different biotic and abiotic stresses all over the world, the growth of plants (principal crops) may be restrained by these stresses. In addition to beneficial microorganisms, use of silicon (Si)-fertilizer is known as an ecologically compatible and environmentally friendly technique to stimulate plant growth, alleviate various biotic and abiotic stresses in plants, and enhance the plant resistance to multiple stresses, because Si is not harmful, corrosive, and polluting to plants when presents in excess. Here, we reviewed the action mechanisms by which Si alleviates abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. The use of Si (mostly as industrial slags and rice straw) is predicted to become a sustainable strategy and an emerging trend in agriculture to enhance crop growth and alleviate abiotic and biotic stresses in the not too distant future. In this review article, the future research needs on the use of Si under the conditions of abiotic and biotic stresses are also highlighted.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Si is an element which is able to enhance resistance to multiple stresses. </LI> <LI> Mechanisms of Si in alleviating abiotic and biotic stresses were highlighted. </LI> <LI> Future researches on the use of Si under environmental stresses were highlighted. </LI> <LI> Economic use and sequestration of Si in environment may be a research priority. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

Power-aware performance analysis of self-adaptive resource management in IaaS clouds

Ataie, Ehsan,Entezari-Maleki, Reza,Etesami, Sayed Ehsan,Egger, Bernhard,Ardagna, Danilo,Movaghar, Ali North-Holland 2018 Future generations computer systems Vol.86 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>In this paper, Stochastic Activity Networks (SANs) are used to model and evaluate the performance and power consumption of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud. The proposed SAN model is scalable and flexible, yet encompasses some details of an IaaS cloud, such as Virtual Machine (VM) provisioning, VM multiplexing, and failure/repair behavior of VMs. Using the proposed SAN, a power-aware self-adaptive resource management scheme is presented for IaaS clouds that automatically adjusts the number of powered-on Physical Machines (PMs) regarding variable workloads in different time intervals. The proposed scheme respects user-oriented metrics by avoiding Service Level Agreement (SLA) violations while taking provider-oriented metrics into consideration. The behavior of the proposed scheme is analyzed when the arriving workload changes, and then its performance is compared with two non-adaptive baselines based on diverse performance and power consumption measures defined on the system. A validation of the proposed SAN model and the resource management scheme against an adapted version of the CloudSim framework is also presented.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> An analytical model is proposed for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds taking several details of such systems into consideration. </LI> <LI> A self-adaptive power-aware and Service Level Agreement (SLA)-aware resource management scheme is presented for cloud systems. </LI> <LI> The presented scheme adjusts the number of powered-on Physical Machines (PMs) according to the input workload. </LI> <LI> A validation of the proposed model and scheme against the CloudSim framework is presented. </LI> </UL> </P>

Enhancing mechanical properties of epoxy resin using waste lignin and salicylate alumoxane nanoparticles

Jamshid Behin,Laleh Rajabi,Hamid Etesami,Saeed Nikafshar 한국화학공학회 2018 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.35 No.2

Extracted lignin from wastewater of Kraft process and lab-made salicylate alumoxane (Sal-A) nanoparticles were used as toughening agents in epoxy matrix. Epoxy/lignin composite, epoxy/Sal-A and epoxy/lignin/Sal-Al nanocomposites with various toughening agent loadings were cured with an aromatic diamine hardener. Lignin as an available cheap material and Sal-A, as multifunctional structures, both containing numerous phenolic hydroxyls on their surfaces, were incorporated into epoxy matrix with the aim of improving thermal and some mechanical properties of the resulting composites. Both particles interacted physically (directly) and chemically (indirectly) with the epoxy chains. Simplex lattice mixture design of experiment was applied for formulation development and optimization. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the extracted lignin, Sal-A nanoparticles and synthesized composites. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to interpret thermal curing process. The presence of lignin and Sal-A nanoparticles in the epoxy matrix decreased the exothermic peak temperature and total heat of curing reaction. In the presence of 2.5 wt% lignin and 1.875 wt% Sal-A nanoparticles, tensile strength of epoxy composites was 22.23% and 30.92% higher than that of reference (pure) epoxy resin, respectively. Vickers hardness of epoxy composites in the presence of 2.5 wt% lignin and 2.5 wt% Sal-A nanoparticles was increased by 17.41% and 15.39%, accordingly.

Performance enhancement through parameter optimization for a rechargeable zinc-air flow battery

Ramin Khezri,Amir Parnianifard,Shiva Rezaei Motlagh,Mohammad Etesami,Woranunt Lao-atiman,Ali Abbasi,Amornchai Arpornwichanop,Ahmad Azmin Mohamad,Sorin Olaru,Soorathep Kheawhoma 한국공업화학회 2022 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.115 No.-

Owing to their large specific energy density and eco-friendliness, zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are seen to bepotential large-scale rechargeable batteries. In recent years, numerous attempts have been made todevelop zinc-air flow batteries (ZAFBs) with the premise that a flowing electrolyte can alleviate the shortcomingsof zinc electrodes. Herein, the effects of electrolyte flow rate, current density, initial ZnO concentration,and electrolyte temperature on the performance and efficiency of a ZAFB are systematicallyexplored. In addition, the paper discusses the morphological evolution of a zinc electrode with respectto different levels of parameters as well as gravity. Optimal parameters are determined by employinga combination of orthogonal array (OA) sampling and response surface methodology. Results demonstratethat a two-factor interaction regression model can effectively predict actual results with quitean acceptable accuracy. Applying optimal conditions, the battery obtains 99.27 % charge efficiency,97.65 % discharge efficiency, 73.52 % overall round-trip efficiency, and charge and discharge overpotentialsas low as 0.36 V and 0.09 V, respectively. The optimized ZAFB is able to attain superior performancewith enhanced round-trip efficiency, making it appropriate for large-scale development.

Three-Dimensional Graphene/MnO2 Nanowalls Hybrid for High-Efficiency Electrochemical Supercapacitors

Chuanyin Xiong,Tiehu Li,Tingkai Zhao,Alei Dang,Xianglin Ji,Hao Li,Mohammad Etesami 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2018 NANO Vol.13 No.1

In this paper, a facile method is designed to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) graphene (GR)/ manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanowall electrode material. The 3D GR/MnO2 hybrid is prepared by a combination of electrochemical deposition (ELD) and electrophoresis deposition (EPD), followed by thermal reduction (TR). Firstly, the 3D graphene oxide (GO)/MnO2 hybrid is obtained by the ELD–EPD method. Secondly, the 3D GR/MnO2 hybrid is obtained through hydrogen reduction at a certain temperature. The as-fabricated hybrid has been characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The electrochemical properties have been also measured by cyclic voltammetry. The results showed that the 3D GR/MnO2 nanowalls hybrid has a high specific capacitance of 266.75 Fg -1 and a high energy density of 25.36 Whkg -1. Moreover, a high specific capacitance (240.15 Fg -1) at a high scan rate of 200 mVs -1 (90% capacity retention) has been also obtained. Additionally, the hybrid can serve directly as the electrodes of supercapacitor without adding binder. This work provides a novel road to fabricate a binder-free 3D GR-based hybrid for high performance energy storage devices.