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Improving energy efficiency of dishwasher products is not only critical for their market competitiveness, but also vital for reducing global carbon emission. To enhance their energy performance, previous studies developed models to simulate dishwashers' operating processes, but most investigations focused on simulating only a partial operating cycle, which was not sufficient for fully understanding the whole-cycle energy distribution. Besides, many simulations assumed constant heat transfer coefficient between tableware and washing fluid, leading to simulation inaccuracies. This research studied the heat transfer and energy distribution inside dishwasher by developing a conjugate 3D-1D simulation strategy, which modeled energy consumption based on dynamic HTC values and was validated by measured data. The simulated temperature and energy consumption results deviated from measurement by less than 0.5 °C and 35.7%, respectively, during a 300s heating process. Results also showed that 35.7% of consumed energy was absorbed by tableware as heat. This study not only established a novel simulation strategy that could calculate whole-cycle energy consumption and energy distributions in dishwashers with good accuracy, but also demonstrated dishwashers’ energy consumption could be reduced via design optimizations. By increasing insulation thickness from 20 mm to 40 mm alone, the total energy consumption was reduced by 8.4%.

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important food crops in the world. Drought is currently the most important abiotic factor affecting maize yield. L-arginine has emerged as a nontoxic plant growth regulator that enhances the tolerance of plants to drought. An experiment was conducted to examine the role of L-arginine in alleviating the inhibitory effects of drought on the photosynthetic capacity and activities of antioxidant enzymes when the plants were subjected to drought stress. The results showed that the biomass of maize seedlings decreased significantly under a 20% polyethylene glycol-simulated water deficit compared with the control treatment. However, the exogenous application of L-arginine alleviated the inhibition of maize growth induced by drought stress. Further analysis of the photosynthetic parameters showed that L-arginine partially restored the chloroplasts’ structure under drought stress and increased the contents of chlorophyll, the performance index on an adsorption basis, and Fv/Fm by 151.3%, 105.5%, and 37.1%, respectively. Supplementation with L-arginine also reduced the oxidative damage caused by hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde, and superoxide ions by 27.2%, 10.0%, and 31.9%, respectively. Accordingly, the activities of ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, glutathione S-transferase, glutathione reductase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase increased by 11.6%, 108.5%, 104.4%, 181.1%, 18.3%, and 46.1%, respectively, under drought. Thus, these findings suggest that L-arginine can improve the drought resistance of maize seedlings by upregulating their rate of photosynthesis and their antioxidant capacity.