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The modern world requires a chemical industry that can run at low production costs while producing high-quality products with minimal environmental impact. The development of environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and efficient wastewater treatment materials remains a major problem for the sustainable approach. We prepared nanoscale cadmium sulfide (CdS)-enwrapped polypyrrole (PPy) polymer composites for degradation of organic pollutants. The prepared CdS@PPy nanocomposites were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope (SEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and ultraviolet-visible (UV) absorption spectroscopy, indicating proper intercalation between CdS and PPy. Consequently, the catalytic efficiency of the synthesized hybrid nanocomposites was analyzed through the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (Rh B) under visible light irradiation. The measured degradation efficiency of the dye solutions under the photolysis process is about 18% and 23% for MB and Rh B dye, respectively. Furthermore, the recycle test result concludes that the CdS@PPy composite exhibits 91% and 89% of MB and Rh B dye degradation efficiency even at the 4th cycle, respectively. The positive synergistic impact of CdS and PPy may be the result of effective photocatalytic degradation of MB and RhB., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Ocular pain has multifactorial etiologies that affect activities of daily life, psychological well-being, and health-related quality of life (QoL). Chronic ocular surface pain (COSP) is a persistent eye pain symptom lasting for a period longer than 3 months., Objective: The objective of this social media listening study was to better understand COSP and related symptoms and identify its perceived causes, comorbidities, and impact on QoL from social media posts., Methods: A search from February 2020 to February 2021 was performed on social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and forums) for English-language content posted on the web. Social media platforms that did not provide public access to information or posts were excluded. Social media posts from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States were retrieved using the Social Studio platform-a web-based aggregator tool., Results: Of the 25,590 posts identified initially, 464 posts about COSP were considered relevant; the majority of conversations (98.3%, n=456) were posted by adults (aged >18 years). Work status was mentioned in 52 conversations. Patients' or caregivers' discussions across social media platforms were centered around the symptoms (61.9%, n=287) and causes (58%, n=269) of ocular pain. Patients mentioned having symptoms associated with COSP, including headache or head pressure, dry or gritty eyes, light sensitivity, etc. Patients posted that their COSP impacts day-to-day activities such as reading, driving, sleeping, and their social, mental, and functional well-being., Conclusions: Insights from this study reported patients' experiences, concerns, and the adverse impact on overall QoL. COSP imposes a significant burden on patients, which spans multiple aspects of daily life., (©Brigitte Sloesen, Paul O'Brien, Himanshu Verma, Sathyaraj Asaithambi, Nikita Parashar, Raj Kumar Mothe, Javed Shaikh, Annie Syntosi. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 15.02.2024.)

Background: Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is the major cause of short- and long-term morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Treatment options beyond corticosteroid therapy remain limited, and prolonged treatment often leads to impaired quality of life (QoL). A better understanding of the needs and experiences of patients with GVHD is required to improve patient care., Objective: The aim of this study is to explore different social media (SM) channels for gathering and analyzing the needs and experiences of patients and other stakeholders across 14 European countries., Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of SM data from the public domain. The Talkwalker social analytics tool collected data from open-access forums, blogs, and various social networking sites using predefined search strings. The raw data set derived from the aggregator tool was automatically screened for the relevancy of posts, generating the curated data set that was manually reviewed to identify posts that fell within the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. This final data set was then used for the deep-dive analysis., Results: A total of 9016 posts relating to GVHD were identified between April 2019 and April 2021. Deduplication and relevancy checks resulted in 325 insightful posts, with Twitter contributing 250 (77%) posts; blogs, 49 (15%) posts; forums, 13 (4%) posts; Facebook, 7 (2%) posts; and Instagram and YouTube, 4 (1%) posts. Patients with GVHD were the primary stakeholders, contributing 63% of all SM posts. In 234 posts, treatment was the most discussed stage of the patient journey (68%), followed by symptoms (33%), and diagnosis and tests (21%). Among treatment-related posts (n=159), steroid therapy was most frequently reported (54/159, 34%). Posts relating to treatment features (n=110) identified efficacy (45/110, 41%), side effects (38/110, 35%), and frequency and dosage (32/110, 29%), as the most frequently discussed features. Symptoms associated with GVHD were described in 24% (77/325) of posts, including skin-related conditions (49/77, 64%), dry eyes or vision change (13/77, 17%), pain and cramps (16/77, 21%), and fatigue or muscle weakness (12/77, 16%). The impacts of GVHD on QoL were discussed in 51% (165/325) of all posts, with the emotional, physical and functional, social, and financial impacts mentioned in 69% (114/165), 50% (82/165), 5% (8/165), and 2% (3/165) of these posts, respectively. Unmet needs were reported by patients or caregivers in 24% (77/325) of analyzed conversations, with treatment-related side effects being the most common (35/77, 45%) among these posts., Conclusions: SM listening is a useful tool to identify medical needs. Treatment of GVHD, including treatment-related side effects, as well as its emotional and physical impact on QoL, are the major topics that GVHD stakeholders mention on SM. We encourage a structured discussion of these topics in interactions between health care providers and patients with GVHD., Trial Registration: Not applicable., (©Zinaida Perić, Grzegorz Basak, Christian Koenecke, Ivan Moiseev, Jyoti Chauhan, Sathyaraj Asaithambi, Alexandros Sagkriotis, Sibel Gunes, Olaf Penack. Originally published in JMIR Cancer (https://cancer.jmir.org), 10.11.2023.)

The number of unsecured and portable Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the smart industry is growing exponentially. A diversity of centralized and distributed platforms have been implemented to defend against security attacks; however, these platforms are insecure because of their low storage capacities, high power utilization, single node failure, underutilized resources, and high end-to-end delay. Blockchain and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) are growing technologies to create a secure system and to ensure safe network connectivity. Blockchain technology offers a strong and trustworthy foundation to deal with threats and problems, including safety, privacy, adaptability, scalability, and security. However, the integration of blockchain with SDN is still in the implementation phase, which provides an efficient resource allocation and reduced latency that can overcome the issues of industrial IoT networks. We propose an energy-efficient blockchain-integrated software-defined networking architecture for Industrial IoT (IIoT) to overcome these challenges. We present a framework for implementing decentralized blockchain integrated with SDN for IIoT applications to achieve efficient energy utilization and cluster-head selection. Additionally, the blockchain-enabled distributed ledger ensures data consistency throughout the SDN controller network and keeps a record of the nodes enforced in the controller. The simulation result shows that the proposed model provides the best energy consumption, end-to-end latency, and overall throughput compared to the existing works.

With the increase in the importance of using green energy sources to meet the world's energy demands, attempts have been made to push perovskite solar cell technology toward industrialization all around the world. Improving the properties of perovskite materials as the heart of PSCs is one of the methods to fabricate favorable photovoltaic (PV) solar cells based on perovskites. Here, cadmium chloride (CdCl 2 ) was used as an additive source for the perovskite precursor to improve its PV properties. Results indicated CdCl 2 improves the perovskite growth and tailors its crystalline properties, suggesting boosted charge transport processes in the bulk and interfaces of the perovskite layer with electron-hole transport layers. Overall, by incorporation of 1.0% into the MAPbI 3 layer, a maximum power conversion efficiency of 15.28% was recorded for perovskite-based solar cells, higher than the 12.17% for the control devices. The developed method not only improved the PV performance of devices but also boosted the stability behavior of solar cells due to the passivated domain boundaries and enhanced hydrophobicity in the CdCl 2 -based devices., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In this article, Nickel doped rutile structure tin oxide (SnO₂) nanoparticles have been prepared by simple chemical co-precipitation method and prepared samples were characterized by Powder X-ray Diffraction, Fourier transform infrared Spectroscopy, Microraman analysis, Photoluminescene Spectroscopy, UV-Visible Spectroscopy, Energy dispersive analysis and Field emission scanning electron microscope. XRD studies revealed the single phase tetragonal rutile structure with space group of P42/mnm. The average crystallite size of the particles was decreased from 27 to 22 nm with increasing Ni doping concentration. FTIR spectra confirmed the presence of various bands such as O-H, C-H, Sn-O-Sn. Raman modes E g , A 1g and B 2g were assigned at 478, 630 and 740 cm -1 which confirmed the single phase of pure and Ni doped SnO₂ nanoparticles. The photoluminescence spectra confirmed that the defect related emissions increased with increasing of Ni concentration. The UV absorption spectra showed that the absorption of the particles decreased with increasing Ni concentration and the band gap values decreased from 3.7 to 3.4 eV. EDX spectra confirmed the presence of Sn, Ni, O in pure and doped samples. The photocatalytic activity of the pure and Ni doped SnO₂ nanoparticles were analyzed by using methylene blue dye under visible light irradiation. It is concluded Ni (7%) doped SnO₂ nanoparticles have higher degradation efficiency compared to pure SnO₂ nanoparticles.

In this paper, an automatic design method based on a swarm intelligence approach for CMOS analog integrated circuit (IC) design is presented. The hybrid meta-heuristics optimization technique, namely, the salp swarm algorithm (SSA), is applied to the optimal sizing of a CMOS differential amplifier and the comparator circuit. SSA is a nature-inspired optimization algorithm which mimics the navigating and hunting behavior of salp. The hybrid SSA is applied to optimize the circuit design parameters and to minimize the MOS transistor sizes. The proposed swarm intelligence approach was successfully implemented for an automatic design and optimization of CMOS analog ICs using Generic Process Design Kit (GPDK) 180 nm technology. The circuit design parameters and design specifications are validated through a simulation program for integrated circuit emphasis simulator. To investigate the efficiency of the proposed approach, comparisons have been carried out with other simulation-based circuit design methods. The performances of hybrid SSA based CMOS analog IC designs are better than the previously reported studies.