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To overcome the environmental side effects of over-utilizing fossil fuels and road traffic emissions, Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) are alternative power engines. However, as AFVs have not yet penetrated the automotive market in Iran, using the choice experiment model, this study considers the heterogeneous preference for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in four megacities of Iran. Therefore, 1000 respondents are interviewed and are asked to choose their preferred vehicle between hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and internal combustion engine vehicles. Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature by employing the Policoric correlation matrix, not Pearson, to investigate the influence of psychological factors besides the macro, micro, and product factors in adopting Evs. The latent class and mixed logit model reveal the monetary factors negatively affected consumers' willingness to pay for HEVs and BEVs. In contrast, the charging availability and non-monetary policies are positively connected to the acceptance rate of BEVs, While risk-aversion and normative-face perspectives reduce it. Furthermore, the class membership variable shows that the younger tend to purchase HEVs, and high-income groups are the most significant potential buyers of HEVs and BEVs. Therefore, the younger and high-income groups could be considered the target group in Iran's early penetrating EVs.

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) at ∼40 Ma is a significant global warming event associated with pronounced changes in the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The Kohat Formation in the Kohat Basin (eastern Tethys, Pakistan) is studied for identifying the response of larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) to MECO. The LBF assemblages in the Kohat Formation, covering from the Shallow Benthic Zones (SBZ) 15 to 17, suggest middle Lutetian to early Bartonian in age. Microfacies analyses indicate a lagoonal (inner carbonate ramp facies belt) to open marine (middle carbonate ramp facies belt) paleodepositional environment of the Kohat Formation. A distinct positive δ13C shift marks the stratigraphic position of the MECO in this formation. At the Peak-MECO event that is marked by the onset of the positive carbon isotope excursion (CIE), no evident compositional variation in the LBF assemblages is observed. However, significant changes in the LBF assemblages with the local first and last occurrences of some LBF genera can be observed in the Post-MECO and CIE recovery phase. These changes are verified by the sudden disappearance of Alveolina and orthophragminids and initial dominance of larger shell-size Nummulites fabianii, Heterostegina, and Linderina species accompanied by an increase in the species diversity. Here, we argue that the change in the observed LBF assemblages in the uppermost part of the Kohat Formation might be related to a larger foraminiferal turnover occurring during the Post-MECO event and corresponds to the CIE recovery phase.

Different films comprising pure chitosan (CS) and chitosan coated sodium zeolites composites films designated as CSZ1, CSZ2, CSZ3 and CSZ4 respectively are presented here for the sequestration of MO dye. The as-synthesized films were characterized by using FSESM, XPS XRD, and TGA analysis. The sequestration of methyl orange dye (MO) was studied under various adsorption parameters i.e. pH effect, reaction temperature, catalytic dosage, interaction period, and original dye concentration in batch experiments. The adsorption power of MO dye sequestration in the presence of CSZ3 was 287 mg g−1 higher than the fine CS (201 mg g−1), and lowest for CSZ4 (173 mg g−1). The experimental data is fitted in the pseudo-second order of chemical kinetics. The Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption models were used on behalf of the analysis of experimental data that revealed multilayered adsorption of MO dye. Kinetics, equilibrium and thermodynamic process were discussed in detailed, suggesting the endothermic and spontaneous process of the adsorption of MO dye on the exterior of films. The present work is general for the MO adsorption, however, it can be applied on large scale applications and can be easily adjustable in the water purification assemblies.

Silicon (Si), a major contributing constituent for plant resistance against abiotic stresses. In spite of this, the detailed mechanisms underlying the potential of Si in mitigating salt toxicity in maize (Zea mays L.) are still poorly understood. The present study deals with the response of Si application on growth, gaseous exchange, ion homeostasis and antioxidant enzyme activities in two maize cultivars (P1574 and Hycorn 11) grown under saline conditions. Salt stress remarkably reduced the plant tissue (roots and shoots) biomass, relative water contents (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI), gaseous exchange characteristics, and antioxidant enzymatic activities i.e., superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT). However, salt-induced phytotoxicity increased the plant tissue concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), Na+/K+ ionic ratio, Na+ translocation (root to shoot), and its uptake. The detrimental effects were more prominent in Hycorn 11 cultivar than the P1574 cultivar at higher salinity level (S2; 160 mM NaCl). The addition of Si alleviated salt toxicity, which was more obvious in P1574 relative to Hycorn 11 as demonstrated by an increasing trend in RWC, MSI, and activities of SOD, POD, APX and CAT. Besides, Si-induced mitigation of salt stress was due to the depreciation in Na+/K+ ratio, Na+ ion uptake at the surface of maize roots, translocation in plant tissues and thereby significantly reduced Na+ ion accumulation. The findings showed a new dimension regarding the beneficial role of Si in maize plants grown under salt toxicity.

Solar photovoltaic technology has been adopted by various global PV markets with 227 GW cumulative globally installed PV capacity in 2015 replacing the conventional fossil fuel energy resources. However, efficiency is still a big challenge for researchers and PV industry. This paper proposes a solar tracker and modified Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm for the standalone solar photo-voltaic system. Proposed algorithm confines the search space of the power curve to 10% area that contains Maximum Power Point (MPP) and starts perturbation and observation within that limited search space. The proposed P&O algorithm was simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. Solar tracker makes sure the availability of uniform and maximum irradiance to the solar module throughout the course of the sun during the day. Confinement of the algorithm’s search space lessened the response time to the changing weather conditions that in return decreases the steady-state oscillations at the MPP. Integration of the solar tracker and improved P&O MPPT algorithm provided the better quality and conditioned electricity to the load. The proposed system was experimentally steered whose results verified the effectiveness of the proposed P&O algorithm.