Entropy: Thermodynamics – Energy – Environment – Economy

Entropie - ISSN 2634-1476 - © ISTE Ltd

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This study is based on an in-depth SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesse, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to examine the developpement of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy in Tunisia. It explores specific economic challenges, such as currency volatility and inflation, which increase costs and hinder capital investment. Additionally, environmental conditions, including dust and sandstorms, are identified as factors that reduce the efficicency of solar panels. To overcome these obstacles, the paper propose several mitigation strategies : large-scale awareness campaigns to strengthen public engagement, the creation of mini-grids to improve energy distribution, practical trainig programs tailored to develop local expertise in photovoltaic technology and the use of micro-grids as experimental platforms to test regulatory and policy frameworks. By combining these elements, this research offers a comprehensive view of the conditions necessary for the successful deployment of photovoltaics in Tunisia. It highlights the significant potentiel of solar energy to contribute to the country’s sustainable development and promote energy independance, provided the strenghts and opportunities identified are fully leveraged. These include the average global horizontal irradiance (GHI), direct normal irradiance (DNI), levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and the possibility of mobilizing a grant of over $7.88 million from the African Development Bank (ADB) vian the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa.

This research project proposes an innovative approach to the co-design of green façades as drivers of urban sustainability and socio-ecological regeneration. Rooted in a participatory design framework, it explores how residents, in collaboration with designers and public stakeholders, can take an active role in transforming their living environments through vegetated interfaces. Here, the façade is reimagined as a thermodynamic system with multiple functions: climate regulation, air quality improvement, and the strengthening of the connection between city and nature. The project draws on the principles of regenerative urbanity — ecological restoration, positive life cycle, social inclusion, urban resilience, and co-evolution — to embed interventions within a systemic logic. It relies on transdisciplinary methodological tools (participatory workshops, sensory mapping, interactive devices) that foster the collective appropriation of greenery and the activation of a sustainable sense of togetherness. At the intersection of urban ecology, biophilic design, and spatial justice, this work redefines the façade not merely as an architectural element, but as a living, social, and environmental interface.

This present work reports the effect of nanoparticle concentration on the electroluminescence decay from exciton dissociation in organic-inorganic layers. The theoretical method for electroluminescence decay is based on the exciton dynamics of both the Frenkel exciton and Wannier exciton density. The results show that the electroluminescence intensity has been significantly influenced by the Förster transfer mechanism. In particular, we have found good agreement with experimental results observed in organic MEH-PPV and inorganic CdSe nanoparticles. These findings suggest that this hybrid material could be a promising candidate for optoelectronic devices.

A 2-D numerical investigation was carried out to study the nanofluid flow and heat transfer inside a horizontal ribbed micro-channel. The alumina oxide nanoparticles were suspended in water as based fluid at different volume fraction 0, 2 and 4%. The finite volume method was used to solve the continuity, momentum and energy equations. The effects of different parameters such as nanoparticles volume fraction, Reynolds number, and the larger of ribs has been reported. It was found that the heat transfer and the Poiseuille number increases with increasing nanoparticles volume fraction and Reynolds number. Using a small rib improves the heat transfer. Increasing ribs number enhances the heat transfer rate.

As part of the development of high-resolution studies on past vegetation changes, palynological data allowed the reconstruction of vegetation evolution in Holocene sediments collected around the Sidi Ali el Mekki lagoon (N-E Tunisia). Our results show that over the last two millennia, vegetation changes in northern Tunisia reflect a complex relationship involving both natural forcings and human activity. The study of lagoon sediments highlighted that the maquis with olive and pistachio trees, which constituted the dominant vegetation around the Sidi Ali el Mekki lagoon during the first millennium of our era, have significantly declined in favor of grass and sagebrush steppes over the last 1000 years, indicating an increasing anthropogenic impact in the study area.

Since 1857, the second law of thermodynamics has faced the challenge of Maxwell’s imagined demon. The widely accepted response to this challenge suggests that the demon requires a bit of information to work, and according to Landauer’s principle, the erasure of this bit must offset the entropy reduction achieved by the demon. Recent experiments involving two-state physical systems subject to thermal fluctuations at the nanoscale have aimed to either prove Landauer’s principle or to demonstrate Szilard engines or Maxwell’s demons in practice. We wrote the equations and developed a numerical model to simulate the evolution of these systems. The results highlight the distinction between thermodynamic entropy and information entropy. They demonstrate that Landauer’s principle has a limited range of applicability and that, using a two-state memory, it is possible to eliminate a small amount of entropy without expending energy—challenging the second law of thermodynamics at the nanoscale.