Aluminum Oxynitride (AlON) transparent ceramics are recognized as one of the most promising transparent ceramic materials in the 21st century, combining high optical transmittance with excellent mechanical properties. However, producing high-transmittance AlON ceramics via pressureless sintering (also known as conventional sintering, CS) has consistently faced the challenge of excessively long dwell durations at high temperatures (6-30 h). Prolonged sintering not only leads to high risks, high energy consumption, low efficiency, and elevated costs, but also results in excessive grain growth, degrading mechanical performance. In this study, based on the CS route and incorporating the emerging technique of ultra-fast high-temperature sintering (UHS), we propose a novel strategy-UHS combined with CS (UHS+CS)-for efficiently fabricating highly transparent AlON ceramics. This approach achieves remarkable technical outcomes, and the underlying mechanisms are clarified.

The proliferation of rooftop solar panels and distributed batteries in residential neighborhoods has created new challenges for power grid operators. Blockchain technology is emerging as a promising solution for enabling secure energy trading among these networked communities. However, designing a blockchain system that can handle the real-time operational requirements and cybersecurity concerns of actual power systems remains a critical challenge. To address this issue, researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology developed and tested a permissioned blockchain system on networked microgrids connecting the IllinoisTech campus with the Bronzeville community in Chicago, demonstrating significant cost savings and revenue increases for participating neighborhoods.

Researchers at Northwestern University have reviewed emerging strategies for recovering ammonia from wastewater using redox-active materials. These “redox reservoirs” enable selective, membrane-free ammonia capture powered by renewable electricity or even spontaneously via organic oxidation, paving the way toward a circular nitrogen economy.

Onboard model, capable of providing estimated measurable values and unmeasurable performance parameters of interest with the maximal fidelity, serves as the cornerstone for aircraft engine control and fault diagnosis. As aircraft engine configurations grow increasingly complex to meet the performance specifications of next-generation propulsion systems, significant challenges is proposed to the accuracy and real-time performance of onboard models. Consequently, the development of onboard modeling techniques has become increasingly crucial.

A new study published in Life Metabolism reports that a single post-meal blood biomarker, 1-hour postprandial SPARC (SPARC-1H), can predict who will benefit most from adopting a Mediterranean diet. The discovery provides one of the clearest examples to date of how precision nutrition can identify individualized dietary responses using a simple blood test rather than complex multi-omics models.

Conventional photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collectors have coupled electrical and thermal outputs, limiting the temperature of the delivered thermal energy typically to < 60 °C. Concentrating PV-T (CPV-T) collector designs can reach higher temperatures, but cell overheating from similar coupling limitations reduces their electrical efficiency. Spectral splitting—dividing the solar spectrum so that only useful wavelengths reach the PV cells—promises to break this compromise, yet to go beyond previous studies and propose advanced spectral-splitting CPV-T designs capable of breakthrough performance, it is necessary to develop fully coupled optical, electrical and thermal-fluid models validated at the collector scale.