The detection of urban expansion through digital processing of satellite images provides valuable information for understanding the dynamics of land use change and its spatial relationship with environmental factors. In order to apply or generate effective land-use planning policies, it is essential to have a historical record of the regional distribution of human settlements, an element that is practically non-existent in our country. For this reason, this text aims to determine the urban growth rate during the period 2000–2014 in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, and to identify potential expansion zones from Landsat images. Six Landsat scenes were used for the spatial analysis of the state urban coverage and their relationship with the road influence area was evaluated. Two maps were obtained as cartographic products: one of urban coverage distribution and another of the municipalities with the greatest expansion, whose areas are located in the Valle del Mezquital region. However, Mineral de la Reforma, Tetepango, Tizayuca and Pachuca de Soto stand out for their growth rates during the study period: 183.44%, 102%, 94% and 68.5%, respectively. In total, the state urban area in-creased 72.3 km² from 2000 to 2014 with an average growth rate of 1.8% per year. Such growth was associated with the areas of influence of important road infrastructure, such as the Libramiento Arco Norte in Hidalgo. Therefore, the Mezquital Valley and the Mexico Basin are considered as potential regions for urban expansion in the state.

The CO₂  heat pump air conditioning system of new energy vehicle is designed, and the vehicle model of CO₂  heat pump module and heat management system is established based on KULI simulation. The effects of refrigerant charge, running time and compressor speed on the heat pump air conditioning system is studied, and the energy consumption is compared with the PTC heating system and the CO₂ heat pump air conditioning system without waste heat recovery. The results show that the optimal charge for full-service operation is 750 g; increasing the compressor speed can increase the cooling capacity, so that the refrigerant temperature in the passenger compartment and battery inlet can quickly reach the appropriate temperature, but the COP_h, COP_c are reduced by 2.5% and 1.8% respectively. By comparing it with PTC heating and CO₂ heat pump air conditioning systems without waste heat recovery, it is found that the energy consumption of this system is only for the PTC heating systems 42.5%, without waste heat recovery carbon dioxide heat pump air conditioning system of 86.6%. It greatly saves energy, but also increased the waste heat recovery function, so that the system supply air temperature increased by 26%, improve passenger cabin comfort. This  provides a reference for the future experimental research of CO₂ heat pump air conditioning and heat management system. 

In this study, the influence of sewage sludge ash (SSA) waste particle contents on the mechanical properties and interlaminar fracture toughness for mode I and mode II delamination of S-glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites was investigated. Composite laminate specimens for tensile, flexural double-cantilever beam (DCB), and end-notched fracture (ENF) tests were prepared and tested according to ASTM standards with 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt% SSA-filled S-glass/epoxy composites. Property improvement reasons were explained based on optical and scanning electron microscopy. The highest improvement in tensile and flexural strength was obtained with a 10 wt% content of SSA. The highest mode I and mode II interlaminar fracture toughness’s were obtained with 15 wt% content of SSA. The mode I and mode II interlaminar fracture toughness improved by 33% and 63.6%, respectively, compared to the composite without SSA.

We analyzed the relationship between nutrient (N and K) parceling and population density on the severity of onion downy mildew under no-tillage fertigation cultivation in the conditions of Alto Vale do Itajaí (Barzil). For this purpose, field trials were conducted in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, in Ituporanga (Barzil). The treatments corresponded to four population densities (300, 400, 500 and 600 mil plants ha^-1) subjected to applications of nitrogen (150 kg N ha^-1) and potassium (127.5 kg K₂O ha^-1) distributed throughout the vegetative cycle of the crop via fertigation on a weekly, biweekly and monthly basis, based on the absorption curve of these nutrients for the cultivar Empasc 352-Bola Precoce. In fertigated no-tillage systems, nutrient (N and K) tranches do not influence the severity of downy mildew. The severity of downy mildew increases linearly with increasing population density, especially from 500 mil plants per ha^-1.

Using matricant method elastic moduli of occasionally heterogeneous isotropic and anisotropic elastic media were received. Anisotropic behaviour and conditions for change in anisotropy of media associated with averaging of one-dimensional periodic structures was determined.

The ultimate objective of the study was to investigate the effects of being landlocked on the living standards in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1991 to 2019. Adopting the two-step estimation technique of System GMM (generalized method of moments), the study found that being landlocked has a negative and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries when using GDP per capita as the living standard measure. Moreover, the historical living standard experiences of SSA countries have a positive and significant influence on the current living standard level. In addition, the population growth rate has a positive and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries. On the other hand, the official exchange rate, broad money as a percentage of GDP, and inflation have a negative and significant effect on the living standards in SSA countries. Generally, the estimated result reveals the existence of a significant variation in the living standards in landlocked and coastal SSA countries. This study suggests that regional integration between landlocked and transit countries should be improved to minimize entry costs and increase access to global markets for landlocked countries. We argue that this study is of interest to landlocked and coastal countries to increase trade integration and promote the development of both groups, and it will contribute to the scarce empirical evidence.