Background and Objectives: Blockchain technology as a distributed and tamper-proof data ledger is attracting more and more attention from various fields around the world. Due to the continuously growing of the blockchain in both transaction data and the number of nodes joining the network, scalability emerges as a challenging issue. Methods: In this survey, the existing scalability solutions in the blockchain are discussed under five categories including on-chain scalability, off-chain scalability, scalable consensus mechanisms, DAG-based scalability, and horizontal scalability through sharding. Meanwhile, the novelties they have created on the fundamental layers of the blockchain architecture are investigated.Results: As a result, the advantages and disadvantages of the discussed mechanisms are pointed out, and a comparison between them in terms of different scalability metrics such as throughput, latency, bandwidth, and storage usage is presented. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the various aspects of blockchain scalability and the available scalability solutions. Finally, the research directions and open issues in each category are argued to motivate further improvement efforts for blockchain scalability in the future.Conclusion: Scalability allows blockchain system to sustain its performance as it grows up. Lack of scalability has a negative effect on the mass adoption of the blockchain in practical environments. This paper presents a profound analysis of the existing scalability solutions, the issues and challenges they address, and the ones that are not resolved yet. Consequently, it inspires novel ideas for more scalable and efficient blockchains in the future.

Since their invention, microwaves have found significant use in different fields, including medicines and food processing, as well as sterilization of microorganisms for use in biomedical treatment and research. Various scientific studies have demonstrated microwave application’, s capability as clean technology and a veritable solution for producing a pure and desirable drug candidate in bionutraceuticals processing....

Growth is a prerequisite for startup survival and scalability is a tool to facilitate growth and ensure startup survival. Startup scalability is influenced by many factors such as entrepreneurial teams. Despite the significant role of entrepreneurial teams in the growth and scalability of startups, in previous research, this factor has not received much attention. Accordingly, the present study examines the impact of entrepreneurial teams based on variables of diversity and team trends. Variables related to team diversity include demographic factors that include age, gender, and performance background, and variables include team process, team-level cognition, team commitment, team size, and team integrity. This research is applied from the perspective of purpose and the data collection method is descriptive-correlation. Data collection tool is a questionnaire that was distributed and tested among managers of 90 startups by random sampling method. The data obtained from this study were analyzed using path analysis and SmartPLS software. Cronbach’, s α,for all variables was higher than 0. 7 and the mean value of variance extracted was higher than 0. 5 and the validity and reliability of the structures were confirmed. The results of our study suggests that both diversity and team process variables are important for scalability of a startup. Also, it suggests that demographic characteristics and cognitive comprehensiveness have the greatest impact on startup scalability and team integrity, respectively.

Phosphorus eutrophication threatens freshwater ecosystems and food security in semiarid agricultural regions. The potential of low-temperature (<400 °C) lanthanum modification of steel slag to achieve high adsorption capacity, environmental safety, and regenerability for phosphate removal is uncertain. We synthesized lanthanum-modified steel slag at 400 °C and conducted structural characterization. We performed batch and fixed-bed column adsorption tests, supplemented by the USEPA Method 1312 leaching assessment across pH 2–9, five-cycle regeneration studies, Visual MINTEQ geochemical modeling, and ISO 14044-compliant life-cycle cost analysis. The material showed a phosphate adsorption capacity of 3.21 ± 0.08 mg P/g at pH 7, a 90% improvement over pristine slag, maintained ≥80% performance across pH 5–9, and demonstrated lanthanum release of 0.0181 ± 0.0009 mg/L at pH 2—90.5% below regulatory guidelines and the lowest for rare-earth adsorbents. The five-cycle regeneration process retained 82 ± 2.1% of its capacity. Geochemical modeling revealed a dual-pathway mechanism: 60% reversible inner-sphere complexation and 40% irreversible lanthanum phosphate precipitation, accounting for superior performance. The manufacturing cost was USD 1.19 ± 0.12/kg, 60–70% lower than conventional rare-earth synthesis, yielding a net present value of USD 0.47 million and a 23.6% internal rate of return over ten years. This study established quantified design principles for low-temperature rare-earth adsorbents, facilitated decentralized phosphorus recovery in resource-limited regions, and demonstrated unprecedented lanthanum immobilization through triple-mechanism passivation combined with regenerability and economic viability in smallholder agricultural systems.

Background and Aim: When clinical decision support systems are developed, implementing solutions that enable these systems to be-used on a large scale can reduce the production costs associated with the creation, maintenance and by sharing these systems, producing multiple clinical decision support systems will be prevented. In recent years, one of the approaches used for this purpose in combination with clinical decision support systems is the service-oriented architecture approach. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role and importance of service-oriented architecture in delivering scalable architectures of clinical decision support systems focusing on different approaches to this architecture. Materials and Methods: This article is a simple review article. Bibliographic databases of IEEE Explore, Science Direct, Springer, Web of Science, and Scopus were reviewed. The keywords "Service Oriented Architecture" and "clinical decision support systems" were used as keywords along with related terms for searching these databases. Results: The clinical decision support systems based on service-oriented architecture brings benefits such as Facilitate knowledge maintenance, reducing costs and improving agility. Point-to-point communication, enterprise service bus, service registry, clinical and engine guiding engine, and service choreography and orchestration are general architectural designs that are evident in the use of web-based clinical decision support systems based on a service-oriented architecture approach. Conclusion: Service-oriented architecture is a potential solution for delivering scalable platforms for clinical decision systems.