Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nanostructured Two-Component Liquid-Crystalline Electrolytes for High-Temperature Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Nanostructured liquid-crystalline (LC) ion transporters have been developed and applied as new electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The new electrolytes are two-component liquid crystals consisting of a carbonate-based mesogen and an ionic liquid that self-assemble into two-dimensional (2D) nanosegregated structures forming well-defined ionic pathways suitable for the I–/I3– redox couple transportation. These electrolytes are nonvolatile and they show LC phases over wide temperature ranges. The DSSCs containing these electrolytes exhibit exceptional open-circuit voltages (Voc) and improved power conversion efficiencies with increasing temperature. Remarkably, these solar cells operate at temperatures up to 120 °C, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest working temperature reported for a DSSC. The nature of the LC electrolyte and the interactions at the TiO2 electrode/electrolyte interface lead to a partial suppression of electron recombination reactions, which is key in the ex.
Point-Based Multilevel Domain Adaptation for Point Cloud Segmentation

Although good performance has been recently achieved in point cloud semantic segmentation based on deep learning, it has not been promoted due to differences in actual scenes and the time-consuming production of labeled data sets. Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) aims to solve the problem of how to adapt the classifier from one scene (source domain) to another unlabeled scene (target domain), which can reduce the performance drop caused by the domain shift. Since spatial information is important for light detection and ranging (LiDAR) point and the causes of domain gap in image and point cloud tasks are different, projecting point cloud into image for processing is not suitable and how to apply the image-oriented domain adaptation (DA) methods to point cloud is not trivial. In this letter, we propose a 3D point-based UDA method for point cloud semantic segmentation. This model introduces point- and set-level domain adaptive modules to achieve feature alignment between the domains. We evaluate the proposed method with two experiments, including cross terrain adaptation and airborne to mobile adaptation. Compared with the results without using DA, the mean intersection over union (mIoU) increased by 10.45% and 24.69%, respectively, indicating the effectiveness of our method.
Determination of the photoluminescence quantum yield of dilute dye solutions (IUPAC Technical Report)

Procedures for the determination of photoluminescence quantum yields with optical methods are addressed, and challenges associated with these measurements are discussed. Special emphasis is dedicated to relative measurements of fluorescent (i.e., short excited-state lifetime), transparent, dilute dye solutions in conventional cuvettes in a 0°/90° measurement geometry. Recommendations on the selection of suitable quantum yield standards are presented, and requirements for the documentation of photoluminescence quantum yields are derived.
Simulation of sports movement training based on machine learning and brain-computer interface

Injuries and hidden dangers in training have a greater impact on athletes ’careers. In particular, the brain function that controls the motor function area has a greater impact on the athlete ’s competitive ability. Based on this, it is necessary to adopt scientific methods to recognize brain functions. In this paper, we study the structure of motor brain-computer and improve it based on traditional methods. Moreover, supported by machine learning and SVM technology, this study uses a DSP filter to convert the preprocessed EEG signal X into a time series, and adjusts the distance between the time series to classify the data. In order to solve the inconsistency of DSP algorithms, a multi-layer joint learning framework based on logistic regression model is proposed, and a brain-machine interface system of sports based on machine learning and SVM is constructed. In addition, this study designed a control experiment to improve the performance of the method proposed by this study. The research results show that the method in this paper has a certain practical effect and can be applied to sports.
Formation of Nano-emulsions by Low-Energy Emulsification Methods at Constant Temperature

Formation of nano-emulsions has been studied in the system water/Brij 30/decane at 25 °C by three low-energy emulsification methods: (A) stepwise addition of oil to a water−surfactant mixture, (B) stepwise addition of water to a solution of the surfactant in oil, and (C) mixing all the components in the final composition. Nano-emulsions with average droplet size of 50 nm and high kinetic stability have been obtained only at oil weight fractions, R, lower than 0.3 by emulsification method B. Independent of the oil weight fraction, R, emulsions obtained by method B have lower polydispersity than those obtained by methods A and C. Phase behavior studies have revealed that compositions giving rise to nano-emulsions consist of Wm, (O/W microemulsion), Lα (lamellar liquid crystalline), and O (oil) phases, at equilibrium. It has been shown that equilibrium properties cannot fully explain nano-emulsion formation. Low values of equilibrium interfacial tensions and phase equilibrium involving a lamellar liquid cry.
School Counselor Self-Efficacy in Advocating for Self: How Prepared Are We?

School Counselor Self-Efficacy in Advocating for Self: How Prepared Are We? Jennifer Perry Georgia Southern University, jperry@georgiasouthern.edu Sejal Parikh University of North Carolina at Charlotte, sbparikh@uncc.edu Maylee Vazquez East Carolina University, mvazque08@gmail.com Rachel Saunders University of Cincinnati, saunderh@ucmail.uc. edu Stanley Bolin University of North Carolina at Charlotte, stbolin@uncc.edu
Hetero-structured nano-photocatalysts fabricated by dynamic shadowing growth

Hetero-structured TiO2 and WO3 nanorod arrays have been fabricated by dynamic shadowing growth. The two-layer WO3/TiO2 nanorod arrays grown by consecutive deposition of two materials at oblique angle are found to greatly enhance the catalytic performance by the increased TiO2 surface area and the potential enhanced charge separation due to the WO3-TiO2 interface. Also, two important factors have been found to affect the observed photocatalytic enhancement: the crystal phase of each material, and the interfacial area between TiO2 and WO3. To further increasing the interfacial area between the TiO2 and WO3, a dynamic shadowing growth method is used to create a quazi-core-shell nanorod array. WO3 nanorods are first grown perpendicularly on a bare substrate to serve as the "core", and a TiO2 "shell" is then deposited. Such a core-shell structure maximizes the interfacial area between the two materials. The photocatalytic decay rate for these core-shell samples again shows further improvement over single layer TiO2 thin films and multi-layer c-TiO2/a-WO3 films by 13 and 3 times respectively. Our results demonstrate that heterostructured WO3/TiO2 nanorod arrays are promising photocatalyst for water decontamination and water splitting for hydrogen generation.
Tracking Equilibrium Point Under Real-Time Price-Based Residential Demand Response

This letter proposes a model for tracking the equilibrium point of the real-time locational marginal price (LMP) based residential demand response program, where elastic demand is modeled as a monotonously decreasing linear function of the LMP. The resulting bi-level model contains both primary and dual variables, making it difficult to solve. Using duality, the dual model is formulated as a convex quadratic problem which is tractable to solve and find the global optimum. Furthermore, the condition for the existence of the equilibrium point is given. Numerical results on the IEEE 30-bus system verifies the effectiveness of the demand response model.
5th-Order Continuous-Time Low-Pass Filter Achieving 56 MHz Bandwidth 30.5 dBm IIP3 With a Novel Low-Distortion Amplifier

This brief presents a highly linear and high-speed operational amplifier that consists of a double-recycling folded cascode input stage and an adaptive biasing with a flipped voltage follower to boost slew-rate and unity-gain frequency. In addition, frequency compensation is performed by an input cross-coupled phase-lead passive compensation scheme and hybrid Miller-cascode compensation. A 56 MHz −3 dB bandwidth fifth-order programmable gain continuous-time active low pass filter is fabricated in 180 nm CMOS to validate the proposed scheme. The filter achieves 30.5 dBm of third-order interception point at 38 MHz and occupies 0.215 mm2. The filter consumes 14.7 mW with 1.8 V supply and has 0.2 dB in-band ripple.
Reduction of HAuCl4 by Na2S revisited : The case for au nanoparticle aggregates and against Au2S/Au core/shell particles

The reaction of sodium sulfide with chloroauric acid has been surrounded by a controversy over the structure of the resulting product. The original report proposed a Au2S/Au core/shell structure based on strong near-IR resonance and limited transmission electron microscopy. Subsequent reports used the same model without further attempts to determine the structure of the products. With a significant body of experimental work compiled over a period of several years, we have shown that the major product of this reaction is aggregated spherical nanoparticles of gold with a minority component consisting of triangular and rod-like structures. This is in contradiction to the core/shell structures as originally proposed. Recently, there have been additional reports that again suggest a Au2S/Au core/shell structure or irregularly shaped Au nanoparticles as an explanation for the near-IR resonance. To help resolve this issue, we have carried out further experiments to determine how the reaction products may depend .
QTL analysis based on a long-grain CSSL-Z1392 and SSSLs and fine mapping of qGL6

Background: Grain shape affects not only rice yield but is also an important element in quality of appearance. However, the mechanism for inheritance of grain shape is unclear. Results: A rice chromosome segment substitution line Z1392, which harbors three substitution segments and produces grains of increased length, was identified. The three chromosome segments were located on chromosomes 1, 5, and 6, and the average length of the substitution segment was 4.29 Mb. Cytological analysis indicates that the predominant cause of increased grain length in Z1392 could be cell expansion in the glumes. 18 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for important agronomic traits were identified. The inheritance of grain length in Z1392 was controlled by two major QTLs, qGL-5 and qGL-6 . Finally, the qGL-6 was narrowed to a 1.26 Mb region on chromosome 6, and OsARF19 may be the candidate gene of qGL-6 . Based on QTL mapping, three single-segment substitution lines (S1, S2, and S3) and two double-segment substitution lines (D1 and D2) were selected, and the mapping accuracy for qGL-5 and qGL-6 was further verified using the three single-segment substitution lines. Analysis of QTL additive and epistatic effects revealed that the additive effect of alleles qGL5 and qGL6 from ‘Xihui 18’ was estimated to increase grain length of Z1392 by 0.22 and 0.15 mm, respectively. In addition, a positive epistatic interaction between qGL-5 and qGL-6 was detected, which indicates that the pyramiding of qGL-5 and qGL-6 for grain length produces a novel genotype with longer grains. Conclusions: Inheritance of grain length in the triple-segment substitution line Z1392 is controlled by two major QTLs, qGL-5 and qGL-6 , qGL-6 was narrowed to a 1.26 Mb region on chromosome 6, OsARF19 may be the candidate gene of qGL-6 . And a positive epistatic interaction between qGL-5 and qGL-6 results in longer grains. The present results could be used to facilitate cloning of the qGL-5 and qGL-6 genes and contribute to improvement in grain yield in rice.
Leadership Styles and Employee Performance in Cameroon: The Case of St. Veronica Medical Centre

This study investigated the role of leadership styles on employee performance in Cameroon. It was anchored on the premise that leaders exhibit a series of leadership behaviours with remarkable influence on the output of employees. Specifically, the study identified the leadership behaviours exhibited by managers in St. Veronica Medical Centre in enhancing employee performance and the specific behaviours that affect the performance of these employees. Methodologically, the study employed a quantitative approach which bene-fited from a descriptive survey design. Data were gleaned from the administration of questionnaires to 100 personnel in St. Veronica Medical Centre via simple random sampling. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26 statistical package. From the regression analysis, this study found that democratic, transformational and ethical leadership styles had a significant positive effect on performance at 95% confidence level. Democratic and transformational leadership styles were the most predominantly used styles and did not differ significantly with respect to sex. Authoritative leadership had the least impact on performance proven by its insignificant and negative beta coefficient. The conclusions of this study commend the management of St. Veronica Medical Centre for the use of transformational and ethical leadership styles which help build trust, inspire shared vision and encourage creativity. Hence it was recommended that leaders of this institution should pay more attention to developing efficient team work and express warm concern and trust to co-workers through transformational leadership behavior. Nevertheless, other leadership styles could be implemented occasionally for better performance.
The sluggard has no locusts: From persistent pest to irresistible icon

The twin shocks of locusts and COVID-19 are threatening the food security of millions of people and devastating economies in eastern Africa and northern India. The ongoing outbreak of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) is the largest in seven decades. These events give us cause to reflect on the natural history of locusts, our fraught relationship with them, and how they are represented in popular culture. Symbolic representations span millennia and most have roots in the natural life cycle of locusts––they transform, they swarm, they devastate specific food crops––even if we tend to exaggerate individual body sizes and the effectiveness of our control efforts. Expressions of human futility are rare except in the form of ironic humor. We conclude by suggesting that we indulge in hyperbole and humor to normalize and inure ourselves to what is psychologically unbearable, and simultaneously impel us toward creative anti-locust technologies. The social, political, and economic importance of these technologies is expected to increase with projections of increased cyclone activity in the northern Indian Ocean.
Properties of Adsorbed Water Layers and the Effect of Adsorbed Layers on Interparticle Forces by Liquid Bridging

The potential of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation for the study and prediction of particle/particle and particle/wall interaction in the wide context of technology has been explored. The present study concerns the nature of adsorbed water and its effect on the interaction between two surfaces. Computer models of two opposing (1,0,−1) crystal surfaces of α-quartz (dimensions 5.49 × 4.91 nm) were constructed and up to 1500 water molecules positioned between the surfaces. The simulations were performed in the NVT ensemble in “math mode” at a temperature of 300 K. The axial profiles of density and mobility (the latter resolved in planar and axial components) in the adsorbed layers were studied. The separation between the crystal surfaces was varied, monitoring the adsorbed layer morphology and the forces acting on the crystals. Most of the simulations shown are with 1500 molecules between the plates, giving around 3.1 adsorbed monolayers, corresponding to a relative saturation (humidity) of 67% according to.
The Effect of Cross-Linking on Gas Permeability in Cross-Linked Poly(Ethylene Glycol Diacrylate)

A series of cross-linked polymers, XLPEGDA, was prepared by photopolymerizing poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) in the presence of varying amounts of water or monofunctional poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate (PEGMEA) to vary cross-link density. All of the polymers had essentially the same chemical composition but displayed a systematic variation in cross-link density as estimated from water swelling experiments, models such as the Flory−Rehner and modified Flory−Rehner theories, and dynamic mechanical testing. Cross-link density decreased with increasing water or PEGMEA content in the prepolymer solutions. Interestingly, gas solubility, diffusivity, and permeability were essentially independent of cross-link density for the series of materials prepared from PEGDA and water. The polymer density, fractional free volume, glass transition temperature, and polymer d spacing were also constant when water was used to vary cross-link density. On the basis of this result, it appears that cross-lin.
Airborne Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers for Long-Range Detection

This paper presents an airborne piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) operated at low frequency (40–50 kHz) for long-range detection, where the acoustic absorption loss in air is relatively low (0.8–1 dB/m). The PMUTs made with single-crystal Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) enables a high piezoelectric coefficient (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${e} _{31, f} \approx ~16$ </tex-math></inline-formula>- 24 C/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{m}^{{2}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), and a low dielectric constant (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\varepsilon _{\mathrm {r}}~\approx ~308$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), achieving high PMUT transceiver efficiency. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> PMUT array achieves a very high sound pressure level (SPL) output of 109.4 dB at 26 cm distance. Different from conventional PZT PMUTs, this study utilized single-crystal PZT with a low permittivity to achieve a good acoustic reception, demonstrating the sensitivity of 2 mV/Pa. This work reports the PMUT design, modeling, fabrication, characterization, enabling a long-range detection of 4.8 meters in a pulse-echo experiment, which was conducted by a pair of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> PMUT arrays with the matched resonances. [2020-0270]
A Statistical Investigation on the Wind Energy Potential of Turkey's Geographical Regions

Abstract Wind energy is one of the most significant and rapidly developing renewable energy sources in the world, and it provides a clean energy resource, which is a promising alternative in the short term in Turkey. The wind energy potential in various parts of Turkey is becoming economical due to reductions in wind turbine costs, and in fossil fuel atmospheric pollution. Because of this, it is necessary to make use of this resource immediately and start conducting the required technical and economical feasibility research. The aim of this study is to establish the potential and the feasibility basis for the wind energy resources in geographical regions of Turkey and provide suitable data for evaluating the potential wind power. For this purpose, the wind energy potential of Turkey's geographical regions is analyzed based on measured wind data over the 30-year periods by using 119 locations. The probability density distributions for all regions are derived from cumulative distribution functions. Two probability density functions are fitted to the measured probability distributions on a monthly, seasonally, and yearly basis for all regions. Based on these wind speed distributions, this study quantifies the available wind energy potential to provide practical information for the application of wind energy in this area. In addition to this, the wind energy potential of Turkey's geographical regions is studied based on the Weibull and the Rayleigh models for various hub heights.
Compilation of temperature factors of cubic compounds

A compilation of the isotropic temperature factors of 52 diatomic cubic compounds, determined by the diffraction method using X-rays, neutrons and γ-rays, is presented. For each compound, the recommended temperature factors of the cation B+, the anion B− and the mass-weighted average of B+ and B−, \overline B, along with the Debye temperature, Θ, are given. This represents the second stage of a temperature-factor project initiated by the Commission on Neutron Diffraction of the International Union of Crystallography [Acta Cryst. (1985), B41, 374].
Enabling Wavelength-Dependent Adjoint-Based Methods for Process Variation Sensitivity Analysis in Silicon Photonics

To reach its potential as an emerging technology platform, integrated silicon photonics needs accompanying design-for-manufacturability (DFM) methods and tools to assist the design of silicon photonic devices and circuits. Here, we explore spatial sampling in adjoint-based methods for analysis of the sensitivity of photonic components against key fabrication process variations. We apply and test these spatial sampling adjoint analysis methods to examine the impact of line edge roughness (LER) on a passive Y-branch at a given operating wavelength, achieving about 3% relative error. We extend the approach to also study LER variation sensitivity across a range of wavelengths and validate our results with ensemble virtual fabrication and FDTD simulations. The adjoint sensitivity and variance estimation of Y-branch transmission imbalance is seen to be highly efficient in comparison to direct ensemble simulation, with consistent results in the 95% confidence interval.
Uniformly dispersed self-assembled growth of Sb2O3/Sb@graphene nanocomposites on a 3D carbon sheet network for high Na-storage capacity and excellent stability

Large volume changes cause a series of complicated problems in alloy-type anodes, such as pulverization, exfoliation and the capacity decay which results. Therefore, solutions for the problems caused by large volume changes in sodium ion battery (SIB) anodes are urgently needed. Herein, we report a novel route to encapsulate Sb2O3/Sb nanoparticles (Sb2O3/Sb-NPs) within a graphene shell nanostructure (Sb2O3/Sb@graphene) via microwave plasma irradiation of Sb(CH3COO)3 and a subsequent graphene growth procedure. The designed structure, Sb2O3/Sb@graphene NPs anchored on carbon sheet networks (CSNs), provides an ultra-thin, flexible graphene shell to accommodate the volume changes of Sb2O3/Sb, and thus demonstrates excellent cycling stability (92.7% of the desodiation capacity was retained after 275 cycles), a long cycle life (more than 330 cycles) and a good rate capability (220.8 mA h g−1 even at 5 A g−1). The stability could be compared to that of commercial graphite in lithium ion batteries.
Time-resolved small angle scattering : kinetic and structural data from proteins in solution

Using the high flux of a third generation synchrotron sources at ESRF and ELETTRA, structural changes of the chaperonin system GroE were analyzed by time-resolved small angle scattering. A fast mixing device were established which permits determination of the solution scattering parameters of the E.coli chaperonin system GroE in time slices of 300msec. Using this device, the r eaction pathway of the two component system, GroEL and GroES was analyzed.