Toward baggage-free airport terminals: a case study of London City Airport

Nowadays, the aviation industry pays more attention to emission reduction toward the net-zero carbon goals. However, the volume of global passengers and baggage is exponentially increasing, which leads to challenges for sustainable airports. A baggage-free airport terminal is considered a potential solution in solving this issue. Removing the baggage operation away from the passenger terminals will reduce workload for airport operators and promote passengers to use public transport to airport terminals. As a result, it will bring a significant impact on energy and the environment, leading to a reduction of fuel consumption and mitigation of carbon emission. This paper studies a baggage collection network design problem using vehicle routing strategies and augmented reality for baggage-free airport terminals. We use a spreadsheet solver tool, based on the integration of the modified Clark and Wright savings heuristic and density-based clustering algorithm, for optimizing the location of logistic hubs and planning the vehicle routes for baggage collection. This tool is applied for the case study at London City Airport to analyze the impacts of the strategies on carbon emission quantitatively. The result indicates that the proposed baggage collection network can significantly reduce 290.10 tonnes of carbon emissions annually

Comparative genomics and phylogenomics of the genus Glycyrrhiza (Fabaceae) based on chloroplast genomes

Glycyrrhiza (Fabaceae) species are rich in metabolites and widely used in medicine. Research on the chloroplast genome of Glycyrrhiza is important for understanding its phylogenetics, biogeography, genetic diversity, species identification, and medicinal properties. In this study, comparative genomics and phylogenomics of Glycyrrhiza were analyzed based on the chloroplast genome. The chloroplast genomes of six Glycyrrhiza species were obtained using various assembly and annotation tools. The final assembled chloroplast genome sizes for the six Glycyrrhiza species ranged from 126,380 bp to 129,115 bp, with a total of 109–110 genes annotated. Comparative genomics results showed that the chloroplast genomes of Glycyrrhiza showed typically lacking inverted repeat regions, and the genome length, structure, GC content, codon usage, and gene distribution were highly similar. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of 69–96 simple sequence repeats and 61–138 long repeats in the chloroplast genomes. Combining the results of mVISTA and nucleotide diversity, four highly variable regions were screened for species identification and relationship studies. Selection pressure analysis indicated overall purifying selection in the chloroplast genomes of Glycyrrhiza, with a few positively selected genes potentially linked to environmental adaptation. Phylogenetic analyses involving all tribes of Fabaceae with published chloroplast genomes elucidated the evolutionary relationships, and divergence time estimation estimated the chronological order of species differentiations within the Fabaceae family. The results of phylogenetic analysis indicated that species from the six subfamilies formed distinct clusters, consistent with the classification scheme of the six subfamilies. In addition, the inverted repeat-lacking clade in the subfamily Papilionoideae clustered together, and it was the last to differentiate. Co-linear analysis confirmed the conserved nature of Glycyrrhiza chloroplast genomes, and instances of gene rearrangements and inversions were observed in the subfamily Papilionoideae

In-situ growth of low-dimensional perovskite-based insular nanocrystals for highly efficient light emitting diodes

Regulation of perovskite growth plays a critical role in the development of high-performance optoelectronic devices. However, judicious control of the grain growth for perovskite light emitting diodes is elusive due to its multiple requirements in terms of morphology, composition, and defect. Herein, we demonstrate a supramolecular dynamic coordination strategy to regulate perovskite crystallization. The combined use of crown ether and sodium trifluoroacetate can coordinate with A site and B site cations in ABX(3) perovskite, respectively. The formation of supramolecular structure retard perovskite nucleation, while the transformation of supramolecular intermediate structure enables the release of components for slow perovskite growth. This judicious control enables a segmented growth, inducing the growth of insular nanocrystal consist of low-dimensional structure. Light emitting diode based on this perovskite film eventually brings a peak external quantum efficiency up to 23.9%, ranking among the highest efficiency achieved. The homogeneous nano-island structure also enables high-efficiency large area (1 cm(2)) device up to 21.6%, and a record high value of 13.6% for highly semi-transparent ones.Funding Agencies|National Natural Science Foundation of China [61935016, 92056119, 22175118, 62288102, 62274135]; National Key Research and Development Program of China [2021YFA0715502]; Double First-Class Initiative Fund of ShanghaiTech University; Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality [20XD1402500, 20JC1415800]; Bertil och Britt Svenssons Stiftelse; Swedish Energy Agency [P2022-00394]</p