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In recent times, chemical looping offered a sustainable alternative for upgrading light hydrocarbons into olefins. Olefins are valuable platform chemicals that are utilized for diverse applications. To close the wide shortfall in their global supply, intensified efforts are ongoing to develop on-purpose production technologies. Herein, we provide discussions on the emerging olefin production routes and chemical looping as a frontier concept in catalytic production of chemicals, especially light olefins. Moreover, we discuss the various rational strategies for designing and tuning of oxygen carriers with high catalytic activity and tailored selectivity to desired products. These strategies include creation of oxygen vacancies, controlled doping, synergistic metal-support interactions, regulating oxygen mobility, modulation of crystal structure, functionalization and controlled treatment. The insights presented aim to inspire the development of robust, stable, and efficient oxygen carriers, ensuring catalytic activity, selectivity, and prolonged operational stability., (© 2024 The Chemical Society of Japan and Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The increasing development in smart and mobile technologies transforms a learning environment into a smart learning environment that can support diverse learning styles and skills development. An online learner needs to be supported for an engaging and active learning experience. Previously, this progressive research developed and implemented a self-regulated smart learning environment (mobile app) among final-year undergraduate students to support online learning experiences. To understand students' experiences, there is a need to evaluate the mobile app. However, there is a lack of a well-documented study investigating students' experiences in terms of usability, challenges, and factors influencing satisfaction to inform a decision regarding future implementation. This study attempts to fill these gaps by exploring these experiences for sustainable future implementation. The study used cyclical mixed-method evaluations to explore the experiences of 85 final-year undergraduate students. The quantitative data were collected using a survey on the constructs of the research model previously developed to evaluate factors influencing students' satisfaction, and the qualitative used focus group discussions to explore usability experiences and challenges of implementations. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 25 to confirm the structural equation model's relationship. The qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic process to understand students' experiences. The findings from the first mixed-method evaluation show that students were able to follow the learning process, and the application supported their online learning experiences. However, a student expressed the need to improve user functionalities to motivate and engage them in the learning process. The suggestions were incorporated into the mobile app development for the second evaluation. The findings from the second evaluation revealed similar support. However, students suggested a web-based version to support different operating systems and improve interactions. Furthermore, the information system qualities and moderating factors investigated supported students' satisfaction. Future research could explore facilitators' experiences in the mobile app for sustainable development and implementation for engaging online learning experiences and skills development., Competing Interests: The authors have no Competing interests to disclose.Conflict of interest statementNone, (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Water and wastewater treatment applications stand to benefit immensely from the design and development of new materials based on silica nanoparticles and their derivatives. Nanosilica possesses unique properties, including low toxicity, chemical inertness, and excellent biocompatibility, and can be developed from a variety of sustainable precursor materials. Herein, we provide an account of the recent advances in the synthesis and utilization of nanosilica for wastewater treatment. This review covers key physicochemical aspects of several nanosilica materials and a variety of nanotechnology-enabled wastewater treatment techniques such as adsorption, separation membranes, and antimicrobial applications. It also discusses the prospective design and tuning options for nanosilica production, such as size control, morphological tuning, and surface functionalization. Informative discussions on nanosilica production from agricultural wastes have been offered, with a focus on the synthesis methodologies and pretreatment requirements for biomass precursors. The characterization of the different physicochemical features of nanosilica materials using critical surface analysis methods is discussed. Bio-hybrid nanosilica materials have also been highlighted to emphasize the critical relevance of environmental sustainability in wastewater treatment. To guarantee the thoroughness of the review, insights into nanosilica regeneration and reuse are provided. Overall, it is envisaged that this work's insights and views will inspire unique and efficient nanosilica material design and development with robust properties for water and wastewater treatment applications., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Triiodothyronine (T3) enhanced the expression of adipogenic and lipogenic genes with elevation of the intracellular lipids through thyroid hormone receptor (TR) α in mouse 3T3-L1 cells. However, the transcription of the SREBP-1c and HSL genes was decreased by T3. Such T3-mediated alterations were negated by TRα siRNA. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay showed that the binding of TRα to the TR-responsive element (TRE) of the FAS promoter was elevated by T3. In contrast, the ability of TRα to bind to the TRE of the SREBP-1c promoter was decreased by T3. In addition, the binding of SREBP-1c to the SRE of the HSL promoter was lowered by T3. These results indicate that T3 increased the accumulation of intracellular lipids by enhancing the expression of the FAS gene through direct binding of TRα to the FAS promoter and simultaneously lowered the amount of lipolysis via reduced binding of T3-decreased SREBP-1c to the HSL promoter., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)