Large Language Models (LLMs) and Evolutionary Computation (EC) are increasingly being combined to support automated optimization, algorithm design, and adaptive decision-making. This survey reviews the bidirectional interaction between these two paradigms and examines how their complementary strengths can be leveraged in hybrid intelligent systems. First, we analyze how EC can enhance LLM-based systems through prompt optimization, hyperparameter tuning, and architecture search. Second, we review how LLMs can improve EC by supporting metaheuristic design, surrogate reasoning, adaptive operator control, and heuristic generation. We further discuss emerging co-adaptive frameworks in which LLMs and EC interact through iterative feedback loops. Beyond summarizing recent developments, the survey provides a structured perspective on interaction mechanisms, application patterns, and methodological challenges, including computational cost, reproducibility, interpretability, benchmarking, and generalization. The paper concludes by outlining open research questions and future directions for developing more robust, transparent, and scalable LLM-EC systems.
Abstract The evolving dynamics of the construction industry have sharpened the need for quantity surveyors (QSs) to reinterpret their role, expanding beyond traditional commercial management practices to encompass broader strategic functions such as value optimization and interdisciplinary collaboration. At the same time, professional overlaps and cross-boundary practices have become an increasing challenge to the quantity surveying profession, leading to potential conflicts and quality compromises in construction projects. However, there is markedly less research on the negative effects of cross-boundary practices for the quantity surveying profession, particularly regarding professional identity and long-term industry implications. Therefore, this study aims to recognize the challenges posed to the quantity surveying profession by cross-boundary practices and to examine the underlying reasons for these challenges. A comprehensive literature review and 25 semistructured interviews were conducted with two samples: QS professionals and non-QS professionals, to collect data. The content analysis method was used to analyze the gathered data. The core quantity surveying functions, such as taking off quantities, preparing bills of quantities, and contract administration, are increasingly performed by non-QS professionals in the construction industry. Even if there are positive effects, including knowledge transfer and reducing the scarcity of QSs through cross-boundary practices, the negative consequences, such as lowering project quality and harming the professional image of QSs, were found to be more significant. By empirically investigating the causes and effects of cross-boundary practices in quantity surveying, this study addresses an overlooked vulnerability in the construction industry and fills a critical gap in the literature on professional role integrity and industry standards.
Electro-Fenton (EF) oxidation efficiency has been constrained by the difficulty of balancing in-situ H(2)O(2)generation with subsequent catalytic activation on a structurally ill-defined interface. In this work, we designed dual-atom catalysts (DACs) to decouple these two steps through adjacent, functionally differentiated active centres operating synergistically. A precisely engineered Co-Cu-N(2)O(4)coordination was obtained via a polymerisation-pyrolysis directed molecular-transformation route. During EF catalysis, the Co-Cu-N(2)O(4)motif drives bidirectional electronic redistribution between the Co and Cu sites, enabling an efficient oxygen-reduction cascade. Specifically, the Co site selectively mediates H(2)O(2)electrosynthesis via two-electron reduction, which is subsequently activated at the adjacent Cu site through OOH* dissociation to form high-valent Cu(III)-OH species and hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH). Operando ATR-FTIR captures a previously unresolved potential-gated redistribution of OOH* adsorption: at 0.20 V, OOH* preferentially adopts a Cu-associated adsorption configuration favourable for Cu(III)-OH and center dot OH formation, whereas more negative potentials favour a Co-associated OOH* configuration, triggering the unproductive H2O-formation pathway. When integrated into an electrified flow-through membrane reactor, the system achieves > 90% single-pass removal of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and maintains stable operation for over 100 h. This work provides design principles for dual-atom interfaces and reveals the molecular-level cooperation that enables efficient cascade environmental electrocatalysis.
High temperature heat pumps are a promising option for decarbonising industrial process heat, but conventional reversed Rankine systems become difficult to extend to very high delivery temperatures because of working fluid critical temperature limits, high pressure ratios, excessive compressor discharge temperatures, and fluid stability constraints. This study evaluates a cascaded heat pump cycle in which a water-based reversed Rankine lower stage is coupled with a reversed Brayton top stage to extend the useful heat delivery envelope of a reversed Rankine cycle. The cascaded reversed Rankine–reversed Brayton cycle is compared with a simple reversed Brayton cycle under identical external boundary conditions. Both systems are designed to deliver 1 MW of heat to a sink with inlet temperatures between 250°C and 400°C and glide temperatures between 50°C and 200°C. For each operating condition, the intermediate coupling temperature, defined by the reversed Rankine condensation temperature, is optimised to maximise the overall COP. The results show that the optimum intermediate coupling temperature increases with sink inlet temperature and decreases with glide temperature. The cascaded cycle improves COP mainly at high sink inlet temperatures and low-to-moderate glide, reaching about 15% improvement at 400°C and 50°C glide under the baseline design. However, this beneficial region also coincides with increasingly severe water-vapour compression conditions in the reversed Rankine stage. The results show that a reversed Brayton top stage can extend the heat delivery range of a reversed Rankine cycle, but the advantage over a simple reversed Brayton cycle is conditional.
PET circularity is often evaluated by recovery volumes, although performance ultimately depends on whether recovered material can be converted into quality-assured outputs and absorbed by viable end markets. Yet the mechanisms connecting policy, markets, technology, and stakeholder behavior remain dispersed across heterogeneous evidence. We developed a source-attributed, time-stamped causal-network approach using 750 Australian government, industry and NGO, corporate, and media documents published during 2010-2025. Causal extraction, semantic normalization, sentiment assignment, and graph construction yielded 2794 factor nodes and 1588 unique causal edges. The network was strongly externalized: policy, market, and social factors were more numerous and highly connected than internal technical and operational factors. Persistent barriers combined cost and price volatility, inconsistent recyclate quality, infrastructure gaps, and weak policy implementation. Positive mechanisms clustered around standards and measurement, design for recyclability, operational capacity, and end-market development; their circular value depended on retained material quality and the end use reached. Source attribution revealed systematic framing differences, with media coverage concentrating negative implementation narratives. Temporal and regional analyses indicated a shift from limited attention to rapid expansion and subsequent consolidation, alongside national structural hubs and differentiated state pathways. A full-text academic shadow corpus preserved the broad problem domains but changed their hierarchy: academic evidence foregrounded material and processing mechanisms, whereas the primary corpus foregrounded institutional coordination and market implementation. The contribution is therefore not a universal ranking of Australian interventions, but an auditable framework for identifying how technical feasibility becomes, or fails to become, operational circularity under different institutional conditions.
